As the morning rises, our party leaves the tavern after eating a small meal and drinking a little to Thokk's delight. "A sober Thokk is a bad Thokk," the half-orc mumbles. "I have heard something similar before and I am sure both are true," Shireling winks at Xanaphina. Temmie giggles and the elf rolls her eyes. "Let's get going. We need to get rations and weapons as well as visit the apothecary and the huntsman." As they head through town many of the townsfolk give them a large berth. It is clear they are afraid of this crazy and ominous group.
The tiefling slows from time to time and stops once they arrive at the apothecary. "What have you been doing?" remarks Xanaphina. "I am reading the thieves cant. It is the small symbols written on the shops. We should do our best to not steal anything from the apothecary. He is well-armed and has guards." "Okay. Temmie and Thokk stay out here and don't cause any trouble. We are trying to keep a low profile." Thokk hands over some gold and replies, "Only if you buy me some health potions and some fire whiskey... If they have any!" As the pair walk into the shop they see many vials of liquid around the store in all shapes and colors. A white-haired old man slowly reading aloud a massive book with his glasses down on the end of his long pointed nose looks up once the pair get close enough to notice them. It was clearly the store inventory by the sound of it. "Excuse me. Can you help me find my spectacles? Then, I would be happy to help you with whatever you need." The pair in surprise begin to look around the room and then slowly the elf steps forward and pushes the glasses up the brim of the man's nose. "Oh! Thank you! I am so forgetful. So what can I do for you?"
"We are looking for health potions. About 8 of them if you have that much in stock." "Of course I do! One second while I hop down here and grab them for you." The little old man disappears behind the counter and to their surprise it is another halfling! The man comes around the corner to a storage of blue vials and shakes them briefly and they begin to shine brighter. "Still good potency. Excellent! You said 8, correct?" "Yes but out of curiosity, what else do you have to sell?" asks Shireling. "I have lots of different potions. What might you be interested in?" "Love potions." "REALLY?" say the apothecary and Xanaphina as they look back and forth at each other in shock. The halfling shrugs and turns around to sift through his cupboards and says, "Well, I do have some love potions. There are ones that are incredibly potent that are very valuable and then there is a smaller vial I can sell that is more temporary and probably more in your price range." "Ridiculous," Xanaphina mutters aloud, "Let's get one of the smaller ones then." Shireling steps closer and whispers, "It is so Thokk can put it on darts and stun or immobilize the goblins." "That is surprisingly strategic. I think Temmie will go along with it as long as he can kill them." The apothecary locates a vial and inspects the label and continues talking as he approaches the counter, "The potion works so that once consumed or injected, the subject will fall in love with the first thing it sees but if they get hurt at all, the spell wears off immediately." "Perfect. That is everything we are looking for." Goods and money are exchanged and off the party goes again.
They just finish explaining to Thokk and Temmie their plan to inject the goblins and throw Temmie like a missile into them so he can cast thunderwave and kill them all when they arrive to hear a large commotion in the blacksmith shop. As the party ducks through the doorway into the expansive shop the loud voices echo from the near the forge, "I have already been waiting for a week and a half and the armor's quality is questionable at best! I need this done soon and done right!" "As I told you before, I am the only blacksmith in town and the lord has me outfitting the garrison. I barely have time to work on your order. It won't be done until next week." As the group rounds the corner, they feel the blast of heat from the forge and furnace and the shadow of a man that fills the doorway to the practice yard behind the house. The blacksmith is one of the biggest humans many of these adventurers have ever seen. Next to him stands a tiefling. Her aggressive stance and complaints heard all the way from the street remind Shireling of a common phrase: the stubbornness of dwarves. This is not another rogue but a soldier. "You told me that you would have it done by now. It's not done. You are either lazy or a liar. Which is it?"
As the tiefling and elf pay close attention to the confrontation with the blacksmith, Temmie and Thokk explore the shop. Drunken Monks are natural brawlers and Thokk finds himself examining a few different options but settles on a pair of gauntlets, basically metal boxing gloves with spikes. The only reason why it is even necessary to draw the analogy was as Thokk is trying to fit himself with the gloves, Temmie is shadow boxing on the table providing whatever encouragement he can muster. It is also at this moment that he spots Shireling sizing up the blacksmith. Temmie loves a good brawl so he comes over to ask the tiefling what he was thinking, "I chose to be a rogue and a mercenary not because I was strong but because I have cunning and finesse. I am curious if he could melt down my shortsword to make something else that would better play to my strengths." "How are you with throwing knives?" "I can hold my own. Why do you ask?" "In my travels, I once saw a blade that was bent so that when you threw it, it would turn in the air and will come back to you. I couldn't steal it but you have enough metal that I bet I could talk the blacksmith into making two of them from your sword..." "Give it a shot." "I get one of them of course." "Fine but you pay your portion and we will need them for tomorrow," passing him some gold.
They are about to attempt to talk to the blacksmith when the other customer gives up her attempts to get her items quickly and storms out of the shop. Thokk passes her like two ships in the night coming up to the blacksmith with hands outstretched and asks, "Do you have any fire whiskey?" "No but you have to pay to keep these," reaching for the gauntlets. Thokk recoils quickley and looks to Temmie. The halfling smiles as he is in his element. Shireling motions Xanaphina to follow the other customer while he works to calm Thokk, reminding him that he carries his own keg. For all the bravery and charisma the little halfling has, his overconfidence failed to realize the subtlety of timing. He never really had to work hard in negotiations because many things were given to him as a performer but the blacksmith was as hard of a negotiator or he was a man. After fighting with the tiefling, he didn't have time for halflings however business was business and the halfling did have gold.
Outside, Xanaphina was exhausted. She didn't deal with people well to begin with so her ability to not only empathize but care about what had just happened was a struggle. Unless she had to ask questions, she only got bits and pieces of what someone said, "Shireling! This is Urza Mulaga. She is a tiefling like you and I feel like she would make a good member of our team." "I think she will too. Temmie wants to murder the blacksmith but we got our order of weapons expedited for tomorrow by offering to pay him a little extra so we ought to hurry up and go find the huntsman before things get even more out of hand." "TOMORROW!! I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR WEEKS!" "Calm down! We will explain on the way..."
Temmie explains how he described the curved flying daggers to the blacksmith in great detail - how they worked, their design, how dangerous they were and the more he talked and acted out the flight of it with his hands, the more excited he got. Then the halfling's persona changed to pure rage as he began to describe how the blacksmith ignored the halfling's requests for using the value of the sword and it's exceeding craftsmanship to discount the work required to make the boomerangs. Honestly, the halfling was trying to have the blacksmith pay him for the new and innovative designs and the old soldier wouldn't have it. The blacksmith's rationale was this was an unproven weapon and would probably not be as effective as a traditional sword. "I wanted to thunderwave him right then and there! I couldn't though. Shireling told me that we needed him to make our boomerangs and then promised me that we could kill him tomorrow when we come back and pick them up." "I did NOT... However there is some potential profit in that idea." And then the tiefling mumbles, "We could dart him with the love potion and then use him as bait for the goblins." "Can I thunderwave him then?" "Taking damage would cancel out the spell though... How strong is your charming ability that you used before on the men in the tavern?" "I could be the new blacksmith if he was to die," Urza interjected. "I was support staff to the army back when I served in the war." Xanaphina sighs and shakes her head saying, "Not this again..." "You were right! She is a perfect addition to our party! Let's kill the blacksmith!"
A hour or two pass when they finally arrive back at the tavern with the huntsman's shop across the way. By this time, Thokk has proceeded to become more irritable with a hangover beginning to ensue. Fortunately for the rest of the party, it makes their shopping quick. They restock Xanaphina's quiver and prod the huntsman for information. They discuss the area around the stash, which is easily recognizable by caves near a large rock formation not far from town, traps in the forest, and different predators or monsters out in the forest that they need to be careful of. "Maybe we can feed him to a pack of wolves..." "He will wake up the moment he is injured so forget it." "Not if I charm him multiple times..." The elf interrupts and motions back to the tavern, "We need a plan and we should discuss it in private. Plus, we should get some food and drink in Thokk. Let's go." They all nod and head to the library inside the tavern to design a plan for the goblins and the blacksmith. As they walk in Temmie begins to inspect the health potions and love potions more. He realizes that if he shakes them, they brighten in color. This is fun and exciting so as the party discusses the plan, he jumps from one piece of furniture to the next shaking the vials like maracas dancing about.
Later that night, the party splits up to prepare to go to sleep. Temmie offers to share his room at the tavern with the elf and the tiefling which the half-demon wholeheartedly accepts with the idea of what that might mean. Unfortunately, any foreplay he attempted was quickly shutdown by the elf and he wasn't really interested in the halfling. Still, this gave him time to prepare the half-orc's darts. He slowly began meticulously adding the love potion like a poison to each dart one by one. Below their open window, Thokk and Urza have prepared their bedrolls for a long rest on either side of a large tree. Thokk has begun his nighttime ritual prayers. Sitting cross-legged behind his keg and swaying the barrel in rhythm with his body, he recites a silent prayer. As his lips and barrel moves, the sloshing of alcohol from within continues to become less turbulent. His prayers have been accepted and the keg is beginning to be filled by the power of the Drunken God. After a long day, Urza also is relaxing and has begun to play an ancient and forgotten musical instrument. Temmie can't sleep with that sound so he crawls out from where he had cuddled up next to Xanaphina to the window, stirring the rogue as well. He looks out and sees Urza and decides to curse Thokk from the window. He hopes by doing so, the half-orc will attack the tiefling not sensing the halfling was the real attacker above him. Shireling does sense what Temmie is doing and runs to stop Thokk. Still tired from the days events, he unfortunately stumbles and trips straight out the window and with a large thud falls flat on his face in front of the upset Thokk. Shocked from the unexpected surprise, both Temmie and Thokk burst out in laughter breaking the curse. Luckily, tieflings are acrobatic so though the fall was far and the landing wasn't perfect minimal damage was taken. Shireling picks himself up and dusts himself off while glaring at Temmie. He walks over to Thokk and convinces him to go inside and have a drink with him, averting another potential disruption to their plans. Soon everyone returns and goes to sleep.
With the sunrise comes the unusual sound of steel smacking into wood followed by a large bang! The Drunken Monk eager to test out his new gauntlets had awoken early, totally forgetting about Urza sleeping just on the other side and was practicing his punches on the tree. The startled tiefling reacted out of survival instinct and had attempted to deflect and counterattack the blow using one of her hand axes but had luckily missed. Once the rest of the party stopped the two from killing each other and pulled the weapons from the tree, they quickly reminded them that they were allies and that they needed to prepare for the goblins later today. They shook off the shock and went inside for food and preparations for the long hunt ahead of them.
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