"Stride, is there something that you forgot to tell us?" He said as he placed a reassuring hand on Eves' arm, before standing, and putting on the new garb, to the best of his ability. "Before we go out there, do I need to hide my arm? Also, you have some explaining to do when this is over." He said as he prepped his arm blade.

"Nah, y'should be fine showin' that. It's a little rare, but not unheard of." Stride answered your question about your arm before grabbing his red sword from the table he was sitting at. "And there's not too much to explain, really. I did work for Yashar ages 'n ages ago, and they were some a'the people I worked alongside." Stride stepped over to you and Eve, glancing down at the goblin that was nearby. "Wanna bring 'im with us? Might be useful if his magic can raise walls and such."

Digbie raised an eyebrow before clambering to his feet, looking at Stride and you with a tilted head. "I'd be glad to come with if you need me, a-as long as we don't fight anyone and kill them..."

"Stride, you mad bastard. Yea Digbie, just stay behind me." He says as he follows Stride. If this guy gets anyone hurt, or killed, it will not end well. As much as he would love to fight, they need to keep moving. They do have time to spare, but not on stuff like this. On the bright side, they may be able to find out more about Yashar from this, and find out what Digbie can do.

He couldn't tell why, but as he thought about the possible dangers of Yashar's thugs, he couldn't stop thinking about Eve... He then thought that he is definitely going crazy.

"Come back safe! I don't want to see you hurt by those goons when you get back!"

The walk into town was mostly normal, save for the few odd faces that intently watched you walk in with the hood over your head. Some whisperers said you were another one of those ne'er-do-well cultist types, and the goblin beside you was clear evidence of that. Those people could be wrong, though, because you knew better.

Digbie stuck to your side, his burlap trousers collecting dust along the pant leg with every step, and Stride led the fray towards the main market area, taking off his outer robe and putting on another cloak he pulled from seemingly nowhere. Could he have something like a bag of holding? You weren't sure immediately, but when he looked to the right, he hastily looked back straight.

"Over there, at the steps of the tavern."

Sure enough, looking over at the tavern steps you could see a goblinoid creature, no bigger than Digbie if anything, wearing a backpack that just emitted smoke as cloudy and dark as a night sky. Beside the goblin, you saw a massive skeleton, very likely standing over eight feet tall, bashing his club (which easily dwarfed you) into the ground while screaming about... something you could only hope that wasn't about you.

Despite having no vocal cords visible, the skeleton could really make noise.

"Grox must be inside there. Hopefully his pet is at the other side of town in those stables... b-best not to think about that."

"T-they're scary..."

"That's not the half of it, Digbie. They're the reason I wear this wormskin scarf all the time."

"Stride... You better have a plan." He said as he walked purposefully in front of Digbie. If this turned south, he wanted the goblin to be safe. He also knew that Stride can take care of himself, and will probably bolt once this gets hairy. He looked at the Goblin and Skeleton and immediately looked at every possible escape route that would lead back to the Wagon. "Digbie, stay close to me. If I tell you to run, you run. Got it?" He then walked up to be beside Stride. "Lead the way."

You guys managed to walk forward a little ways, before you hear a scratchy voice behind you. It was high pitched, and very similar to a goblin's, if not a little deeper and especially scratchy. "That's a mighty fine sword you've got there, eh elf?"

Stride turned around to face the goblin, pulling off his hood as he stared the Goblin down, drawing his sword and opening a tome beside him in the air. "What's the deal, Bob? Not a shoot-on-sight situation this time?"

"You know I'm always gonna reason with someone before I offer them the end of my blunderbuss." The goblin presented forth his large blunderbuss, comically oversized for his frame, but fitting in perfectly with his soot-covered face, no doubt from gunpowder. Behind him was the massive Skeleton, though you weren't exactly sure if he was willing to fight you or commit some friendly fire.

"We both know I can beat you in a fight, and same with the bonehead behind you." Stride commented confidently, Digbie dropping quickly to the ground in a sweaty fear, but his tattoos began to glow along with it. Something was correlating with his magic and the ground, so you might find out what that means in a little.

"Well, here's the thing. You're surrounded, and Yashar's offerin' us extra pay if we bring your head back and the kid back alive." Sure enough, Bob was right, as a hulking orc and his fearsome Owlbear, hunching slightly larger than the skeleton at full stance.

"Yer' not gettin' awae dat easl'y, Stride!"

"So he did get a new mount..." Stride commented as he looked at Bob again. "Just you four? I figured Yashar would've sent Deprave with you..."

"Yashar's busy with him. Something about Dragons, if I'm right." Bob explained before snickering to himself. "So you've got two options here, Stride. Come alive, or-."



"Not yet, Arghy. We'll let 'em choose."

You see Stride grip his scarf in his free hand, looking over at you and Digbie. Out from under his scarf, you can see a strange liquid forming and seeping out from the bottom of it.

It's you, an earthen Demiblin, and a Half Elf versus a Gunner Goblin, Orc, Owlbear, and Colossal Skeleton. How will you proceed.

"Fuck fuck fuck..." He thought to himself as he listened. He knew that Stride was either bluffing like crazy, or he could actually take these guys on, and he didn't want to gamble to find out. He needed to do something to secure the upper hand... He then had an idea. It was three against four, and one of the three was an emotional wreck, one was a cybernetic thief, and the other was Stride. Thinking about it, their chances are not great. Unless this actually works.

Deciding that he would rather not die, he decided to pull a power move. Almost like an engine, he charged up a fireball, but this time, he sent it through his entire arm. From where the skin met metal, down to his metal fingertips were now covered in fire, and his sword shot from his wrist. Even though the fire and burning metal were extremely painful against his skin, he decided to at least try to give Stride a second to formulate a half-assed plan.

"Alright, shut up. I'm tired of Yashar's half-rate goons coming after my team. You can forget taking Stride. We may not be able to take you on, but we have a caravan of people who could decimate you. Just leave." He was hoping that Eve could feel that something was wrong. He honestly doubts that if this goes down now, that they will make it out in one piece. But he had to buy Stride sometime. He just hopes that Stride actually has a plan.

"He's right, but all we need here is me." Stride said as he flung his scarf off, revealing globs of saliva dripping from a very large gash all around his neck. Looks like that's what the skeleton meant by him being headless. Magically, his scarf wrapped around his wrist and started to animate, making a slashing motion towards Bob before Stride held out his sword at the skeleton.

As if on cue, the magic of the tome floating besides Stride materialized, three chakrams made of pure water firing towards the skeleton and chopping off it's head and arms, leaving it... only a torso with legs. Of course, they were all still animated, but the skeleton was now very much less useful.

"BOB! I CANNOT SEE THE ELF!"

"Son of a bitch! Grox, snatch the boy!" Bob shouted as he and Stride dashed towards eachother, no doubt being the two to duke it out, and leaving you and Digbie with the Orc and his Owlbear. The Orc immediately hopped onto the bear's back, charging towards you with vigor and anger in his eyes. He was ready to raise absolute hell on Earth, and it was all going to start with gouging your eyes o-huh?

You noticed a thick wall of stone shoot up from the ground, smashing into the owlbear, and causing Grox to soar off the monster and skid along the ground before you. Similarly so, you saw a ring of toadstools appear around the battlefield, and as more and more sprouted up, you felt the immense pain from your fiery tricks lessen. Looking to your right, you saw Digbie back on his feet, his tattoos shining with a radiant blue hue and his eyes royal blue with strength.

"I'll keep the bear off us! You just take care of that Orc!"

Grox slowly rose back to his feet, drawing his axe to face you alone. He didn't stand as tall above you as that skeleton did, but he did easily dwarf you. "Toby, Death will meet you soon!!!" he cried, charging towards you.

You had a few seconds to react. How will you proceed from here?!

"Alright. This should be fun." He said as the Orc charged towards him. He then drew back his flaming arm and bolted towards the Orc. He was going to throw all of his force into this hit. "DIE!" He shouted as he threw his fist towards that Orcs damned face. As he swung he could vaguely see, and feel animosity envelope his target. He's honestly never felt this rage before, but he weaponized it. For the first time in a while, he genuinely wanted to kill someone.

Time to make a power move.

Grox, being very unwise in this situation, felt as if he could take your attack head on without much harm being done to himself. While he was correct, as in he could take your attack and remain standing, he was most definitely wrong in the case that he wouldn't take much damage, as your attack managed to clash right into his chest, leaving him roaring out in intense pain. He pulled away, gripping his chest, as you could see chunks of almost molten metal sticking out from it amidst the slow ooze of viscous blood. It was definitely an effective attack, though your arm was definitely totaled with its sword blade. No doubt with more practice you could perform that move and not melt your blades, but for right now you're down a sword hand.

"ARGH! You're going to pay for that!" Grox yelled as he charged once again, his axe being raised to strike you down quickly before you saw his eyes widen slightly. Just before he could smash into you with his massive axe, it was knocked right out of his hands by a spell you're very unfamiliar with. By the looks of things, it was a terrifying mixture of light, hued in blues, greens, and somehow BLACK. Grox himself even took some damage in the efforts.

As his axe slid to the side, you heard Stride shout towards your battle. "How'db ya likeb bhe Bunar Fbare, hamberhead?!" Cool, now you knew the gurgly mess of overflowing saliva that was that spell name.

Speaking of Stride, you could see his tome flipping through tons of pages, switching from many different colored covers as it did so. It also seemed like his scarf was just blocking all the bullets from Bob's blunderbuss, dropping them to the ground as the half elf simply strolled towards the Goblin. Though, certainly, the goblin was able to take the attacks with his steel umbrella protecting him, though it certainly didn't do anything to make him seem intimidating.

The skeleton was still struggling to get his bearings together. His arms seemed to be having a fight with eachother at the moment.

As for Digbie and the owlbear, you were surprised to find the Demiblin holding his own against the towering behemoth of a creature. It was definitely a dangerous match up for the Demiblin, though he was able to keep defending through most of the owlbear's attacks with various flashes of blue light appearing and shattering off him. Even so, you could tell Digbie wasn't willing to hurt the owlbear. It seemed more or less like Digbie was simply trying to outlast the owlbear's stamina. Whether he could or not was yet to be seen.

Your actions?

As he noticed that his sword hand was right busted, he cursed under his breath, then noticed that Stride caused the bastards axe to fly off. Seeing that he now had a few precious seconds, he whipped out one of his twin pistols and buried 6 shots total into Grox's chest. "Stride, that's just nasty. Also, mind hurrying this up? I have a hand to fix." At that, hopefully, while Grox is stunned from the shots, he leaps forward and attempts to hammer kick the freak in front of him, aiming to bring his heel down on Grox's collar bone, breaking it.

He also hopes that the crew in the Wagon heard those shots. He wouldn't mind the assistance.

As you pulled out your pistols, you could only manage to slip in three shots before you felt your jaw near-dislocate from the force of a heavy axe slammed into your head. For a moment you feared the worst, before you realized you were literally just slapped with an axe. You're a little bloody, and most definitely dazed at the moment. Hell, everything sounds kinda foggy as you try to recover from the axe slap you just sustained, though you can still see Grox's ugly mug stepping towards you, still carrying his axe.

You could faintly see his red(?) blood dripping from his chest, though he still seemed fine walking towards you, if a bit winded. "Yer gunna regret that..." He raised his axe overhead, preparing to swing it down onto you, but just as he tried to do so, you get the feeling someone's about to-

CLUNG!

You see the orc fall over onto the ground due to the weapon of a familiar figure. Without hesitation, she runs over you and reaches down to help you up. "To your feet, Tobias. We are not staying here."

Should you choose to stand, you'd see that Digbie's over on his side with some wounds, namely a nasty one across his chest, but he should be fine. The Owlbear on the other hand currently had a red sword sticking out of his neck, courtesy of a certain mage.

Speaking of that Mage, you can tell that the giant skeleton he had been fighting had it's torso destroyed, and the goblin tinkerer that was shooting at him with a blunderbuss was out cold. Stride, meanwhile, was a bit bloody around his head and absolutely COATED in drool, but he looked quite alright. Nothing a bit of healing magic couldn't fix. Right now, he was busy helping Digbie by offering the goblin some much-needed help, as he was having a little trouble walking at the moment.

You can hear Grox stir a little bit. If you wanted to run, now would be that time. If you really wanted to execute him in the middle of a street, though...

"Yea... Yea we need to go... But first..." He struggles to stand, and once his vision comes back, he walks to Grox. Without much hesitation, he's going to unload three more shots into the head of the Orc. Once he is assured that Grox is dead, he's going to walk to Digbie and Stride. "Cmon, we need to get out of here." With his organic arm, he's going to start directing Stride and Digbie back to the wagon. "Oh, thanks for the backup Jen. Everyone in the Wagon is safe, right?"

"Yes. We were coming to get you so we could leave, since we figured it would likely be for the best if we did not stay near a town for... well... this reason."

You left, along with Stride and Digbie behind you and with Jen leading the way. As far as you could tell, Grox and his company were dead or kaput, but you did also seem to execute someone in the middle of the street, which sucked. Oddly enough, too, you noticed that his body seemed to disappear if you looked to glance back. What laid in it's wake was a small book, beaten to shit and probably older than you are.

Strange indeed.

When you got back to the wagon, things looked pretty normal. Charlie and Jen's Horse were tied to the front, and sitting at the front of the helm was Brock, waiting to drive the wagon forward. "... well it looks like you guys had a good time."

"Cut the shit, Sinclair." Stride was curt, his scarf back around his neck and his drool not leaking anymore. "I've gotta go get my bucket out of my realm of holdin'... too much fuckin' spit..."

Digbie simply shrugged as he followed Stride inside the wagon, Jen watching him warily as she wandered in behind him. You could just tell that Jen was using every ounce of restraint in her body to keep from trying to kill the Demiblin. Might be good to go chat with her.

... and of course, Eve flew down from above and proceeded to glomp your arm. "I saw the fight from here, and got Jen to go help you guys out! Are you okay?! Where did that orc hurt you?!"

As the conversating occurred, he warmly hugged Eve, embracing her. "Yes... I'm okay. Thank you for getting Jen. I'm not hurt... much. We just need to get moving. I also need to talk to Jen. Let's get in the wagon." As he began walking, he looked at Brock. "That was fun, now let's get moving." At that, he climbed into the Wagon. He then began looking for Jen. He needed to make sure that she was okay.

He also really needed to fix his arm. He could feel the molten metal, and broken parts. At this point, it's almost unmovable. It was around now that he realized that he had a sizable burn mark around his shoulder.

He needs to stop hurting himself, but he probably won't. He has too many people to protect, and things to finish.

Damnit. Toby realized that he now is developing feelings for Eve...

As soon as you looked in the wagon, you could see Jen looking perfectly fine in the corner, if not a little tired from rushing to get you. Jen's hardy as absolute hell, and the grunts that you were just by were handled accordingly. She does look a lot more relieved, though, which could be a testament to how much she cares about you.

"We're getting ready to move soon. I'm gonna go outside to help drive and to keep watch over the roads." Eve commented before she ran over to the wagon exit and flew out of it, back into the skies that you could just barely see poking out from the cracks.

"... uh... hey..." You hardly noticed Digbie being beside you, looking up at you because of the two feet you had over his small goblin body. "Stay still?" Before you could protest, he already had his hand up towards your arm, the burns being covered in a green glow as you felt the pain lessen and lessen until it was, magically, gone. Immediately after, he smiled at you before running off to see Maggie, who was fiddling with her eyepatch a little bit.

Jen's alone. Nows the time to talk, if you were ever going to.

He calmly walks next to her and sits on the floor. "Uh... Hey, Jen? Can I ask you something?" He says as he takes off his backpack and rummages around for parts to fix his arm. He is a Glass Cannon. He also, at this point, begins taking inventory of his equipment.

"Hm?" she raises her eyebrow as she looks at you fumbling around with your gear and arm...

... actually, speaking of that, you notice that it's completely and utterly trashed. Not beyond repair, but if you tried to fix it... you might take a LONG time only to not actually make it any better. Your attack did a mighty number on Grox, but it arguably did much more to your arm.

>Metal Enhanced Arm
- Severely Damaged
- At your current level of expertise, you could attempt to repair the arm. Failing such an action will result in the arm breaking beyond repair.
- You have the materials! You can attempt to repair!

^{_{(Stealing the System idea from my GM of an amazing setting. Hopefully it helps keep you on track a little better with planning things.)}}

As for your inventory, you have what you have. Spare parts, various trinkets, and a few tools. Interestingly enough, there's also a book in your bag. You don't remember that being in there, though due to the large blue stone in it's cover one could imply that it's a magical tome. Interesting.

"Do you actually trust me? Or the team?" He asks, only loud enough for her to hear it. "Do you ever doubt your reasons for being with us?" He then pulls out the tools and parts. If he couldn't make it better, he may as well get it to function properly again... This repair may take the last of his spare parts... He may pick some up at the next town. He also needed to be careful, losing this arm would essentially render him useless. This arm is literally where over half of his abilities come from. It would cost a fortune to replace it, and due to his criminal tendencies... Let's just say that if he breaks this arm, he will probably have to go through hell, again, to get a new one. He may be able to get Stride's help for the repairs, but that will have to come later. He needed to have this conversation with Jen first.