Arty Fox

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 03 HP: 24 / 24 Armor Class: 15 Conditions: N/A Location: Outside the SilverSmith Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

His attention was being pulled in two directions between Lady Kathryns attempts to appease Mr.Mallard, and Kosara splashing wildly in a puddle that was dangerously close. BlackBerry watched Kosara dance through the rain and jump into the puddles like an excited child, and the giggles she let out only reinforced the idea.

Pulling his attention back to Mr.Mallard as Lady Kathryn returned from returning a ring she had accidentally stolen earlier, possibly why she had volunteered against speaking to him before, and was it the same ring he had put in his mouth earlier? Just what was it that the other two had actually done to the poor man earlier? Kosara had mentioned he had been very eager to throw them out earlier. Speaking of, Blackberry hopped forward to avoid another splash from the woman.

Questions for later, after the door had closed with Mr.Mallard and his crossbow on the other side of it.

"Apologies sir, we don’t mean to cause any trouble." He held up his hand in a hopefully placating manner praying Mr.Mallard wouldn’t pull the trigger. "We are simply accompanying the other two but thought it best to wait outside."

He threw what he hoped to be another innocent smile at Mr.Mallard, trying hard not to look too guilty of anything under the man's wary glare. The same knot of worry twisted his stomach, the townspeople so far had been wary but cautiously accepting of him so far, but even so he couldn’t say any of them would trust him or even like him and it wouldn’t do for him to cause trouble now. His eyes locked onto the arrow notched in the crossbow for a moment, taking note of how razor sharp and undoubtedly painful it looked in the light.

In the meantime he had to, again, hop to the side to avoid being splashed by Kosara as she resumed her maddened dance through the rain. BlackBerry had to admit that she was really good, twisting this way and that through the rain drops, always moving and never in one place for more than a second, even where she did stop it was only to suddenly jump into another puddle.

"Careful!" He exclaimed and danced away from the errant splashes, pulling up his robes to avoid dragging them through the sodden ground. He snapped at her. "I would rather keep what little of me is still dry, just so thank you."

Despite his efforts, Kosara managed to spin a big drop of water right at his face. He scolded at his robes as he straightened them out again as best he could. Already they were starting to feel damp and heavy in the rain. BlackBerry eyed the slim dry space under the SilverSmiths roof beside the window he had been before Mr.Mallard had spooked him, or so he assumed at least. No, best not just yet…

Instead, BlackBerry let out a huff and calmed himself. It had been a nice dance Kosara had been doing, and he could tell (or hoped at least) that she hadn't actually meant to hit him or cause any trouble.

"Oh well. I suppose I can dry off again back at the open house." He spluttered at Kosara, and wiped away the water from his eye, and cast a sour look at the grey sky. “I assume there is not much rain where you are from?”

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 03 HP: 24 / 24 Armor Class: 15 Conditions: N/A Location: Outside the SilverSmith Action: Perception (20) Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

BlackBerry couldn't blame Mr Mallard for wanting to hole himself up and hide away from it all. The weather itself was ghastly enough for him to want to do the same. His hand fell down to the sword sort sheathed at his hip, the sheathe had long since lost its original colour and was now a very scuffed and dirty brown. The sword it contained was in a similar state but BlackBerry was thankful to have it anyway for the reassurance its weight on his hip gave him, and the silent warning it sent to any would-be-assailants.

BlackBerry watched Marita deposit her weapons on the cobbles and thought for a moment to pick them up and put them in the pigs little wagon for safety away from the dangers of the cold and damp. But, a quick glance confirmed that it didn't have its wagon, so the idea was washed away.

"This is one very well trained pig." BlackBerry marvelled at the swine standing diligently to attention. "I do wish the animals back home were half as well behaved."

Oddly the pig was incredibly well trained and barely seemed to move at all or even pay BlackBerry even the slightest bit of attention. Then there were the wrappings covering the animal from head to hoof. He frowned at the animal now feeling more unnerved by it than impressed, wondering if he should ask about it.

As Marita made their presence known something changed suddenly and BlackBerry cocked his head to the side trying to figure what it was. Then a voice came from inside, not loud enough to know if or what was said. He couldn't hear anything, but instead it was the sudden lack of noise that had caught his attention; the steady sound of metal being struck that had been hiding quietly beneath the whispering of rain and the party's general movement, that only its sudden disappearance had alerted him it had even been there and his mind scrambled through his memory to piece it all together again.

Why had it been so quiet?

BlackBerry held up a finger signalling for quiet as he tried to listen further. With bated breath he leaned further towards the crack between the boards, not even daring to look in case fate decided someone inside to look out. He opened his mouth to-

THUMP. BlackBerry jumped, choking and sputtering on whatever he had been about to say.

Stepping away from the building and towards Kosara and Kathryn, and back into the drizzle, he didn't have to try to hear the agitated rumblings. Orange light and a gruff, harassed voice broke the darkness, assumedly belonging to Mr. Mallard, who then beckoned Victoria and Marita into the building. For a moment it looked like everything was going to plan. But the threat Mr.Mallard carried and proving that he was armed caused BlackBerry to worry for them especially with how impenetrable the building looked at first glance. He wondered, if something were to go wrong, how he and the others could even get in?

“Do you suppose they will be safe?” He asked the other two.

The moment ended when Mr.Mallard shouted in his, and others, direction. Struck dumb by surprise for the second time, BlackBerry frantically tried to kick his brain into gear and think of something to say, something to do. For an instant there was panic on his face before he wiped it clean with a more calm and collected look, or as much as he could with rain dripping off his nose.

“Yes?”

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 03 HP: 24 / 24 Armor Class: 15 Conditions: N/A Location: Neil & Bobs Public House -> The Street Action: Perception (3) Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

BlackBerry nodded to Maritas answer to his question. It was fair enough really if it was going to take them out of their way. He grabbed his bag as the others too gathered their things.

"Thank you kindly for the wonderful meal. Take care!"

BlackBerry followed the others out of the Open house, and cast a glance left and right but saw nothing, not even the occasional figure drenched or otherwise hiding from the rain. It was a shocking contrast to the crowds that had filled the streets yesterday and made BlackBerry pull his shoulders up around himself.

"I would recommend getting something made of hide, or the like." He added to the party's talk on cloaks and hats. "Simple wool or cotton is enough for the most part, but as a defense against the rain they leave much to be desired, unfortunately."

Pulling the fabric of his scarf back over his head, BlackBerry immediately turned to his right trying to hide away from the remaining drizzle, as much as he could. Despite his best attempts, the rain found him and left damp patches on his shoulders and head, almost as if trying to confirm his advice.

"I think I shall buy a rugged cloak also, when the chance arises." BlackBerry muttered to himself, and not for the first time making that same.mental note.

"How long should they take to gather their belongings, do you think?" He asked Kosara.

He expected to see the others wander down the street and off to their camp. But instead he turned to see Lady Kathryn and Marita enter a building on the street opposite them. BlackBerry frowned in confusion for a moment before remembering Marita had mentioned herself and the group were staying in a Hayloft.

Evidently, Lady Kathryn had lied about the camp and a scowl flickered across his face. Then he remembered Marita had mentioned she and the others were staying in a Hayloft.

"'Not very far' indeed." He muttered, scuttling over to join the rest.

BlackBerry followed the others towards a vaguely familiar street, thinking he may have passed through it once or twice during his stay. A feeling of restlessness nagged at him. While the warmth and food had settled his nerves for the most part, the knowledge of a nearby were-rat horde (Nest? Troop?) had him looking over his shoulder and shooting glances at shadows.

"Ah is this the one?." He commented upon spotting the silversmith sign, and then saw the state it was in.

He walked up smoothly to the building to investigate the meager signs of life and light coming through between the boards that had been put up. The thought to put his eyes to the boards and peer in cropped up, but heeding Robert's advice BlackBerry resisted; for one, it was rude to look through someone else's window, and two he didn't want to scare the poor silversmith if he was spotted. Instead he simply put his hand on the nearest board, just to confirm it was there, and felt the sturdy material now slick with water. Everything about the building said only two words to BlackBerry: "GO AWAY"

"I must say it doesn't look terribly inviting. Is it even open?" He motioned his head towards the door.

Between going into a boarded up building or hiding out in the rain, he couldn't quite decide what was the worst option.

"Regardless, I shall wait out here as discussed. Best not to scare the poor man." He looked here and there again trying to find even a shred of dry land to hide in.

BlackBerry couldn't help also turning his own gaze vaguely northwards. The curtain of rain and the squat buildings all around hid the Municipal Building from sight, not that he knew what to look for or what it looked like, but he wanted to know where it was at the very least. Even he could feel anxiety pouring out of every closed door and empty window staring blindly at him, a feeling that had pervaded just under the surface of everything during his time in Avonshire, and now he knew the reason for it. The idea of scuttling off to investigate tempted him and left a gleam in his eye.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 03 HP: 24 / 24 Armor Class: 15 Conditions: N/A Location: Neil & Bobs Public House Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

BlackBerry frowned a little as the others made several very good points against splitting up; everyone knew the trope and its often very real, and just as often very gorey, end.

“Well, it was an idea to put to the table.” He mumbled, good naturedly, watching the option sink beneath the proverbial tide.

Maritas offer to escort him away from the township touched a still raw nerve from his embarrassment earlier in the day. He stared at her for a moment, finding himself caught between betrayed and insulted. BlackBerry wasn't about to let this, the first lead in months that might actually lead to something useful, be taken away from him out of some misplaced concern. By the Gods! Fighting for his life wasn't entirely unfamiliar territory to him.

"Ha!" His laugh was like a bark, and only a little bit forced. "And miss out on such a wild adventure? Surely you jest!"

A few more chuckles were forced out before he regained his composure.

"While I appreciate the concern, it is unwarranted." He flashed a confident, toothy grin. "I've handled a few ruffians and unsavory types before. Admittedly, not Were-Rats though. That, that is new. But as they say, ‘There is a first time for everything’. So for now I shall accompany you to meet this Mr. Mallard, as originally planned, and I'll stay outside to keep watch for any trouble."

Turning round to Kosara he added in an attempt to reassure her worries. "With that, trying to regroup isn't an issue, should trouble arise."

He made a mental note to ask about any specific trouble he should look out for once he and the others were outside. Already, he had an inkling the local law enforcers weren’t the trustworthy type, if what the others had said was true, and any other were-rats would hopefully be easy to spot…

“And, it’s ‘BlackBerry’, though I do understand the confusion.” He motioned to himself. Should he explain the reason? Not, best not get side tracked any further. He waved away the issue. “Moving on; A gut feeling, however, might not be the worst thing to go on."

Shrugging at Maritas suggestion. It was better than anything he had. "Where is the municipal building?"

BlackBerry shifted restless in his seat finding all this sitting around and talking…not boring but certainly not the most interesting thing in the world. He desperately needed something to do.

"So…when would be the best time to head off then?" His eyes again zipped over to the window. “The rain looks to be lessening now.”

He said, just in time for Lady Katheryn to mention making her way to their camp.

”Good Gracious, I hope you haven’t camped out too far from here.” He said with an almost incredulous look. ”If it’s any consolation I don’t believe it was raining too hard, so hopefully your things are still in decent condition. Do you need a hand at all?”

Secretly, BlackBerry hoped she would say no. It had been bad enough trudging through the rain across the water slick cobbles and over muddy rivulettes running down the street to the Open house, so gods knew how bad it would be outside the town gates and off the beaten path. He supposed it was just as well though the party had somewhere to stay given Roberts sudden…threat? Yes it was definitely a threat. Lots of mixed signals coming from that guy just now.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 03 HP: 24 / 24 Armor Class: 15 Conditions: N/A Location: Neil & Bobs Public House Action: finishing his meal. Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

BlackBerry continued his own meal as Marita explained what the group knew and what investigation they had had the chance to do. It was a shame it wasn't much they knew, or that she decided to share with him, but it couldn't be helped.

He couldn't hide his concern for Robert when the man thanked the group for moving onto another topic. Clearly he should've had more faith in Kosara as her intuition about Robert being enchanted had been right on the money.

But then again her plan to cause as much ruckus as possible for the silversmith didn't fill BlackBerry with much confidence. He hoped the others left that idea as plan B.

"Maybe so, but it would still be useful to find out the general area where the horde is hiding, if not their actual hiding spot." He nodded in agreement with Lady Kathryn's suggestion that they should make a few preparations before tackling the were rats.

"You needn't worry, it wasn't a suggestion to tackle the horde just yet, were-rats or otherwise." Blackberry waved away the idea like a bad smell. "Simply another bit of information to gather before tackling them. If we know where they're based we can account for any obstacles, and defenses, and the like."

It certainly wouldn't do to go wandering around without any idea of what may be lurking around the corner, afterall!

He nodded as Victoria gave some clarification to the group's cover story, and the tale of Samthe and Carl was an interesting one and was a nice change of pace from the previous topic.

"Oh dear. Well I do hope the poor fellow was able to sort out his affliction." He watched Victoria tidy away the coins. Admittedly, now that he had volunteered to look for the Were-Rats he had no right to argue. "I don't know. If you're an assassin I could see that your victim might try to escape, so you may be unwilling to be pulled into a life of adventure in pursuit. A rather unsavoury reason for an adventure though." He grimaced at the thought.

Having now finished his own meal (the bowl damn near scraped clean) BlackBerry turned his focus to the window, a little signal that he was happy to head off whenever the oothers were ready. The warn food and his clothes being now almost dry, had done wonders to his overall mood; he was still less than inclined to go traipsing out into the storm but the odd grumbles from heavens didn't have quite the same effect on him anymore, now that the storm had been robbed of its lightning.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 03 HP: 24 / 24 Armor Class: 15 Conditions: N/A Location: Neil & Bobs Public House Action: History on Were-Rat rumours: 13 Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Were-Rats.

The ridges of BlackBerrys eyebrows rose to impressive heights.

Giant Rats, he had dealt with. Average sized bandits, he had dealt with. Supposedly, it had just been a matter of time before the Gods decided to slam the two together and throw the results at him. Thinking back on the scene from the market earlier the child did take on a more…ratty appearance, even the noises the child had made had sounded fairly rodent-like.

And Sheriff Alberlast had tasked these people to deal with them? Truly, it seemed the group had one hell of a task ahead of them.

After watching the others start their meals, (Lady Katheryn inhaling hers with a worrying speed) he finally faced the inevitable and looked to start digging into his own bowl of soup.

Tendrils of steam from the warm soup seductively wrapping around his nose with the smell of roasted butternut squash, with hints of the sharp smell of something having been slightly burnt, and something else that he couldn't place. It was a thick soup coloured to a cozy yellow-orange bespeckled by dots of brown pepper and small tufts of something green sitting below the surface. It looked wonderfully smooth and inviting.

Blackberry picked up the small bread roll he had been given and broke it into large chunks by digging his thumb in and prising it apart. To his delight the bread was soft and fresh with large, even holes throughout. He dunked a piece into the soup and idly stirred with it.

The action was something to focus on as he was lost within Robert's double speak, leading in several different directions only to end up almost exactly where he had started, and BlackBerrys eyes flicked in just as many directions as he thought it all through.

Marita mentioned Were-rats. Not were-wolves." BlackBerry corrected Robert, as politely as he could. "I suppose that would make them…Rodent-thropes?"

His eyes shot upwards as he hunted through his mind for anything he had heard about them; werewolves were common enough in stories and cautionary tales, but were-rats not so much for one reason or another.

"Thankfully I have not had any run-ins with the beasts myself." BlackBerry perked up as the memory came back to him, one from another evening spent in an open house chatting with the locals elsewhere. "However, I have heard that a city far north of here; Argentum, had the same issue, repeatedly, even."

He pulled the chunk of bread out of the soup to let the excess drain off and drip, drip, drip back into the bowl. He took the moment to shoot a glance over to Robert, then Daisy and Lea. On the one hand, he didn't want to make them worry, this was their home after all and wouldn't do any good repeating old rumours that may do nothing more than make them worry. But on the other hand, if he had any information that might help then he must have the obligation to share it, just as Victoria had done.

He continued."They were surprisingly well organised then; keeping their numbers managed, targeting the less fortunate as their victims, all so that they can stay unnoticed as long as they can, as sad as that is to say. Luckily, however, they mostly keep to larger towns, cities, and the like." Giving the locals around him an apologetic grimace, he tried to use a more upbeat tone, adding. "But, if they are organised then that also means that could be talked to, or even reasoned with. If this is the case then there might be a way to solve this problem without any bloodshed." The last bit directed at the group of adventures.

He liked Lady Kathryn's idea to try and cure the Were-Rats rather than...exterminate them.

BlackBerry plopped the now soup-soaked chunk of bread into his mouth and was wonderfully rewarded with the warm and comforting flavour of roasted butternut with sharp undertones of pepper, and no doubt several other vegetables to bulk it out. A minty taste was also in the mix, almost sour, which he figured must be from that green herb he spotted tufts of in the mix.

Victoria volunteered to go see Mr Mallard after sharing a bit more information on their current, supposed foe. Following her lead, and nodding vigorously with her compliments to the chef as he had his mouth full at that moment, BlackBerry decided on his next task.

"Well, if that's the case I would like to volunteer to try and find the Were-Rats. I imagine word has spread of Maritia and yourself regarding your employer after this morning, and any investigations you may have been doing. Other than asking around I have no affiliation with him. Although…" With second thoughts appearing, he had a spoonful of soup before continuing and deciding he may as well ask for some details at this point. "You've been doing some investigation, have you not? With the missing who have returned, how have they been changed?"

He dreaded to think of the answer, and wondered just what befell those who didn't return.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 03 HP: 24 / 24 Armor Class: 15 Conditions: N/A Location: Neil & Bobs Public House Action: Arcana Check on Geas: 4 || Insight Check on Robert: 5 Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Blackberry made a face at Marita warning him against approaching another towns person.

"Granted, yes that time I did blunder, somewhat." He admitted with a shrug and a good natured smile. "You must admit, however, that her distress was not solely because of me."

He listened intently to the others as they spoke, each describing how they arrived here and their own reasons for travelling. It was an unfortunate common thread among them that they had all either lost something great, or were desperately searching for something. But as they spoke he couldn't see where they all connected before Sheriff Arbalest had employed them all.

"That is most kind of you Lady Katheryn. But for now I shall respectfully decline the offer." He spoke, and smiled with equal apology and gratitude. "As mentioned before, allowing me to accompany you all is more than enough."

The atmosphere changed with the subtlety of being smacked in the face with a dinner plate, and just like the plate, the light hearted conversation shattered.

Marita had suddenly leapt up from the table as if someone had lit a match beneath her seat. Beyond the usual noises of confusion ("Uh, bwah? What?") And snapping his head between her and the others, BlackBerry didn't even get a chance to ask what was wrong as he twisted around in his seat to follow Marita. Then Robert arrived with his task, wrenching BlackBerrys gaze back to the table. Blackberry leant forward in his seat to better see the word.

The word written on the table alone made no sense to BlackBerry, it may as well have been Dwarfish for all that he could read of it. Luckily Lady Katheryn and Victoria appeared familiar with the word and it's meanings. So what was Robert trying to get out of them with this whole stunt?

"If you were after a simple translation, you should have just asked. No need to be rude about it." The comment, to his own horror, slipped out.

BlackBerry then tried to cough to cover his blunder just as the food, mercifully, arrived. Clicking onto the table and sending up a lovely aroma of warm soup. Casting an eye towards the other bar staff, thanking them politely for the food as it arrived, he noticed that they too looked just as confused as he and the party. His appetite and the arriving soup were forgotten for the moment.

"A problem is always best solved with a full stomach and good company." He nodded in agreement to Victoria and Kosara.

But listening on as Kosara continued he felt it may have been a bit of a stretch to assume that the man before them, Robert's if he caught his name correctly, was under some sort of spell. Wasn't it?

But even so BlackBerry watched Robert as the suggestion was given. He couldn't tell if this whole thing was some sort of threat or a cry for help. To him, Robert was a firmly closed book.

"Has something of this nature happened recently, that you know of?"

Here, he was genuinely concerned. Being enchanted to do something against you will sounded absolutely awful and especially frightening if it could cause any pain or death as Victoria had described.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 03 HP: 24 / 24 Armor Class: 15 Conditions: N/A Location: Neil & Bobs Public House Action: Arcana Check on The Ring: 1 Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

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. "Hm? Oh yes of course. I suppose I may as well."

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.

"Well, first and foremost I am from the Hiltoszin Monastery. Over on the Celadon Coast, if any of you know of it?."

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.

"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."

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.

"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." His temper flashed and slapped his hand on the table with a small bang, and his eyes returned to hopping around the party. "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."

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.

"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…" 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."Your employer. Apparently he had been quite an adventure in his younger years and I had hoped to meet him to ask for help."

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.

"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." Motioning to Marita and Victoria he then added. "It was then that I heard Victoria mention your employer's name just after the incident. And well, now here I am."

And may the Gods please bring me some luck.

The arrival of the barmaid broke him out of his self loathing for a moment to add in his own order. "Might I also request just a bit of soup for myself please? It sounds absolutely delightful." 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.

"I'd be more than happy to lend a hand with the task as well?" 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.

"Oh" BlackBerry looked, surprised, from Katheryn to the others. "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." 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.

"Is something supposed to happen?" 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.

"Well I do hope for the best and that you find him, Victoria. Or, at least some answers." He gave her a sympathetic smile.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 03 HP: 24 / 24 Armor Class: 15 Conditions: N/A Location: Neil & Bobs Public House Action: Drying off and introductions Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Blackberry took a minute to savour the heat of the fire and work some warmth back into his hand exposed arms, savouring the bitter bitter smell which wafted up from the hearth. Casting his eyes around, he took a moment to appreciate how well put together it was inside. Despite the cold and frigid weather outside, the lashing of the rain against the windows was surprisingly quiet. The public house had clean floors and worn but sturdy furniture throughout to really cement itself as the place to be on a day such as this.

BlackBerry chewed his cheek when he spotted the price board behind the bar preaching all its wonderful and tasty sounding food that was, unfortunately, a bit out of his budget at the moment unless they had something else a bit cheaper. Maybe some nice warm soup and a slice of bread was on offer, or some cheap ale of some kind? Frankly, BlackBerry was also quite happy for anything warm and moderately fresh at this point, so long as it was edible. He cast an eye down to the small pig that had joined him by the fire and noted that it was standing very still. Rather oddly so…

Hearing Victoria talk pulled him out of the thought and he looked over just as she motioned and explained he was after their employer. He took that as his cue and stepped over and swung his bag down off of his shoulder beside another chair at the table.

"Hello there, it’s wonderful to make your acquaintance." A polite smile and a wave to the other two, with an extra nod to the Tiefling Kosara who had introduced herself outside. “My name is Blackberry. Your companions have very kindly offered to let me travel with you until you meet up with the Sheriff again."

Having now stepped up to the table, and resting an elbow upon the back of the chair, he couldn’t help but take in the rest of the conversation and wonder just what sort of mad adventure he had stumbled into this time. Looking over at the ring in Victoria's hand he couldn’t see anything particularly unusual or special about it at first glance. His eyes followed it back to the table.

“Disgusting behaviour. Especially for one of the law.” He grumbled at the mention of the Constables' behaviour. "But in any case, the rumour mill is working hard already, I see. Personally, I wouldn't go as far to say there was a monster; there was a child who changed suddenly in the middle of the street and did look rather frightful for a moment.”

He held the image in his mind for a moment; all red eyes and long teeth as the child's body writhed frantically out of his coat and then scampering away.

He looked to the woman, or so he assumed by the voice, sitting opposite him decked out in tired heavy armour. Initially he had been taken aback by her voice given her sheer height. While he didnt count himself as being tall he had gotten used to seeing over the heads of other races.

“Beg your pardon, do you require some help with your helmet?” He asked with his hand out towards her. “You appear to be having some trouble with the buckle.”

Kathryn looked over to the Dragonborn known as Blackberry. She considered his offer for help, but there was clear hesitation. She’d be vulnerable to any harm he may want to do to her, and there would be nothing to stop him if she let him. But she was stuck, and she couldn’t get the leverage to undo her near broken buckle. “That would be nice. Thank you.” She said softly trying to hide her reservations. It was nothing she had personally against Blackberry. Anyone asking she’d have a comparable reaction, she felt vulnerable easily. And the only time she let someone make physical contact with her so far was when Kosara felt her arm underneath her chainmail.

BlackBerry could hear the hesitation, possibly borderline distrust, in her voice which was completely understandable given he was a complete stranger who had introduced himself barely a minute ago. He moved around to her side of the table and Knelt down slightly to better see under her helmet so that when the woman removed her hands and tipped her head back slightly he spotted the problem immediately; the buckle's prong had bent and so was now firmly lodged in the frame leaving the poor woman trapped in her helmet.

“Ah. Worry not, I see the problem. One moment.” Using his thumb to push the strap over to the side he was able to wrap his middle finger around the prong and pull, whilst also pushing against the frame with his index and ring fingers. The Prong held defiant for a moment before popping free, letting Blackberry undo the strap.“There we are. And through the grace of the Gods, you are thusly made free!”

He moved his hand up towards the top of her helmet to grab it and pull it off for her, but then BlackBerry thought better of it before he grabbed the helmet and instead put his hand on the table to push himself back up. The ring caught his attention again as he stretched back up. Sitting there on the table's surface it looked plain as anything and without a care in the world. But it must obviously have something going on if the Silversmith really asked for it to be used for a test

“Was the test simply to place it on your tongue?” He asked, eyeing the ring and deciding to give it a closer look once Marita had done her own test. “I assume theres an enchantment of some kind upon it?”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Kathryn's response was written by @Remipa Awesome

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 03 HP: 24 / 24 Armor Class: 15 Conditions: N/A Location: Neil & Bobs Public House Action: Drying off and introductions Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

BlackBerry let out a relieved sigh as apparently his fumble wasn't so severe for the other two to take back their offer.

The woman he now knew to be Marita left no room for disagreement to meet up with the rest of their companions. So he simply gave a little nod and marched after her through the now near abandoned streets.

“A pleasure to meet you both. You may call me Blackberry."

Ah so there were more of them? BlackBerry had the distinct feeling he was missing something here; depending on how many more had been sent to Avonshire it could mean something very serious was afoot.

Could it be related to the disappearances?

He pushed the question away for now. He hadn't started off on the right foot so now was not the time to be asking such questions.

"Again, I must thank you, both of you, for allowing me to accompany you. If there is anything I can do to repay you for such kindness. Please do not hesitate to ask."

The idea of a nice, warm Hayloft and the enticing drink Victoria had suggested helped keep Blackberrys mood from plummeting, and kept the bitter chill of the wind and rain mostly at bay.

"Have you and your companions had a chance to enjoy the festival?" He asked Marita in an attempt to brush away the awkwardness of meeting someone new. "There was a rather marvellous celebration the other day, around here actually, dancing all across the fountain."

Blackberry listened and continued to try to make some idle conversation with the other two while letting them both lead him to a section of the town he hadn’t yet explored yet and then on into the nearby Public House. Warmth and the welcoming smell of a food roasting somewhere out of view enveloped him like a cosy blanket when he stepped in and he couldn’t help but let out a sigh as he pulled down his hood, grateful to escape the horrid weather.

He stood off a little to the side towards the fire to try and dry himself off at least a little bit, and so the others could talk amongst themselves for a moment to discuss their own matters in private if need be. The other two people Victoria and Marita had greeted outside looked similarly battle hardened and well travelled as they did.

Yes. He thought. Definitely a group of adventurers.

So in all, now including the heavily armoured human woman and thinly veiled tiefling woman, it looked like Sheriff Arbalest had only sent four people to town. Now, either they were all very good at their work or whatever issue they had been sent to deal with wasn’t too serious. Blackberry’s eyes darted over their equipment and made him lean more towards the former option.

Hopefully he still had some money for some food and drink…