Arty Fox

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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

Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 03 HP: 22 / 24 Armor Class: 15 Conditions: N/A Location: Silversmith Action: Intimidation on Guard (14) Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A Ki: 1/3

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

The fire did its job to breathe some warmth back into BlackBerry now sheltering inside from the rain, for the moment.

BlackBerry pushed away his concerns over Victoria's work for the moment, there would be time later to ask. He’d seen enough travelling adventurers to accept some strangeness. It seemed that whatever she was doing to the Hammer was nearly finished. He opened his mouth about to ask, but snapped it shut noticing her intense concentration and let her continue with her work.

The next pressing issue was the guard who had apparently now come to his senses at exactly the wrong time.

“I imagine he won’t be wanting to cooperate with us just yet, and less so if you continue making threats.” BlackBerry snapped at Kosara. “You can avenge your coat later, if you really must, once we get what we need from the ruffian.”

BlackBerry couldn’t help a surprised gasp at the knocking, followed by a voice, coming from the front door.

“This isn’t the time or place to question him.” He whispered in a hushed but hurried tone. “Let us move somewhere else and return later.”

BlackBerry quickly, and quietly, tried to make his way over towards the guard, skirting around Lady Kathryn as she.

Even if they weren’t going to move anywhere else just yet, if Mr. Mallard opened the door it would be best to not have the bound and gagged guard in view, or worse try and alert whoever was outside.

They didn't have time to debate for hours over their next move. He threw a glance at the souring air between Kosara and Kathryn

Squat down by the guard on the side opposite to Kathryn, he leant towards the guard's ear.

"Now listen here." He whispered, hushed and low, hoping to drive some sense into the man. "At least one of us would like to repay you, tenfold, for that little stunt earlier. But lucky you for most of us are of a respectable sort."

He cast a nod up towards Lady Kathryn, even though the motion was lost on the blindfolded Guard.

"But don't think any of us are fools with time to spare, so behave and be quiet. And you might just survive long enough to get your arm seen to by a proper healer. Otherwise…"

He let the threat hang in the air for a moment. Hoping to leave the man to fill in the blanks; between Kosaras fury and Lady Kathryns vow at pragmatism, he figured it would be enough. Hopefully.

Next step. Get the Guard someplace else. But that hinged on Mr. Mallards next move.

Still on his haunches he twisted around to look at the door behind him, directly opposite the one they had come in from. Turning back towards Kathryn, who he had noted had managed to carry the guard in single handedly earlier, he waved his hand to silently grab her attention.

"Let's move him out of sight at least." He whispered as he stood back up and pointed at the other door.

Whether it led outside or to another room he had no idea, but it was the best bet he had.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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

Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 03 HP: 22 / 24 Armor Class: 15 Conditions: N/A Location: Silversmith Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A Ki: 1/3

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

BlackBerry gave a pained grunt when he pulled out the arrow but was relieved to feel the effects of Kosaras magic quickly take its place, and when he looked back down at the wound it had neatly sealed itself. It was still a bit tender, as he found when running a thumb over it, but a darn sight better than before.

"Thank you kindly." He nodded to Kosara to assure her that her work was done.

He didn't know what to do with the arrow so kept hold of it for now, keeping an eye out for somewhere appropriate to put it. In the meantime he stayed in his spot, content to let his gaze continue to wander around the shop. It was nice despite the mess, and it was thankfully a lot warmer and drier in here than outside.

Mr.Malards explanation of the offer had left BlackBerry feeling pleasantly surprised, though he did wonder if the offer actually included him at this point having only met the group a few hours ago at most.

Best not for the moment He thought. Besides, there’s too much else to consider right now.

"May I ask, but did anyone else have much luck with their own battles at all?" He looked to the others in turn with an eyebrow raised.

He spun the arrow in his hand as he thought.

It would be useful to know if there was any way to fight back against the ruffians. His eyes slid down to the prone guard, tied and blindfolded on the floor, a clear sign that at least one other person had had better luck than him. Kosara, if he remembered correctly, looked to have caused some damage with her magic, but even his fiery limbs hadn’t appeared to do much other than leave them somewhat winded…some what had done the damage?

“It might be a tad ambitious to try and get everyone out of the town just yet.” He gave Lady Kathryn a sympathetic look, impressed by her concern for others but weary about the group's own situation. “Our best bet would be to tackle the issue head on. Once we find a way to hurt them, of course.”

“But then again…” The arrow paused in his hand, and then began to spin the other direction. “We do need to get the parcel back as well. Are the L’Rose’s somewhere along th-”

Movement from the otherside of the shop caught his attention, around the bulk of Marita and Lady Kathryn he spotted their guest starting to move where he had been dumped near the door (with as much care as the ruffian deserved).

“Ah, one moment everyone…” He spoke loudly to get everyone's attention. “It appears our Guest is beginning to waken. Let’s discuss our work later, shall we?.”

He stepped up to the counter, putting down the arrow and instead raising a finger up to his lips in Mr. Mallard's direction, hoping the man would get the message.

Stay quiet.

Odds were that the Guard could probably make an informed guess as to where he might be, but still it would be unwise to just give out that information freely

“Would this be a good place to start or should we find somewhere a bit more…appropriate?” He raised the question to the others.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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

Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 03 HP: 14 / 24 Armor Class: 15 Conditions: N/A Location: Silversmith Action:AN/A Bonus Action: Dismiss Arms Reaction: N/A Ki: 1/3

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

BlackBerry dismissed his fiery limbs as he passed over the threshold into the Silversmith shop. He rolled his shoulders as he did so, trying to work out the tension that was always left behind after summoning the limbs.

He took an extra moment to grimace slightly at Kosaras suggested methid to persuade their captive…or at least he hoped that was what it was and not just for revenge.

In response to Mr.Mallards comment about the guard he replied,"May I also suggest we blindfold him in the case that he does wake up?"

Upon entering, his eyes danced around the place, taking in the boarded windows and the few silver wares displayed nearby, along with the evidence of someone having lived within one room for sometime. He moved further towards the other end of the shop to make room for the others and their captive guard, stepping as gingerly as he could to prevent leaving a bloody puddle anywhere.

Making a mess of their hosts shop would NOT be a good move.

He was already looking over the other wears the Silversmith had on the counter; daggers, a spear, and a crossbow as well! All well made and in much better shape than his own weapon. He took note of the pot forge burning happily away as Mr. Mallard worked his craft. It burned with a low hiss, the noise he had heard earlier from outside; another mystery solved.

"These are some fine pieces of work, Mr. Mallard." His eyes settled upon one of the daggers for a moment. "I might look to buy one a bit later if you are still around later."

Blackberrys eyes had gone wide with surprise at Mr.Mallards offer. A silvered item was certainly a handsome reward, in BlackBerrys mind at least. But did they really have such time to waste on a frivolous reward? His look became somewhat grim as Marita predicted another attack.

"While the offer is appreciated, I'm not entirely sure if it would really be of much use right now, would it?." He turned his gaze towards the working man, and then to the rest of the party as he explained. "I landed a blow with my sword earlier, one that would have any other foe with a mortal wound. Yet, when I withdrew from the man there was not a trace of blood or even a wound to speak of."

"Kosara. Could I ask about that offer you made earlier. Please?"

He motioned with his eyes to her, to the arrow still lodged in his stomach. At her word he would try his best to pull it out and let her magic do the rest. Hopefully with very little pain and blood.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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

Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 03 HP: 14 / 24 Armor Class: 15 Conditions: N/A Location: L5 -> K15 Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A Ki: 1/3

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

BlackBerry’s frown deepened after still hearing some laughter peeling away from the unseen streets away from them. The whole group had taken a beaten both to themselves and, possibly more importantly, their pride. He managed a stronger smile at Lady Kathryn’s kind words, they weren’t much against the knot of annoyance at his own performance but it was still kind in its own way, and he appreciated it.

BlackBerry glanced over the others as he walked closer giving each a quick visual check for any substantial injuries, but thankfully couldn’t see any other than the small gash or mark where a bruise would probably arise later.

“If I may take you up on that kind offer once we’re all inside, please?” He replied to Kosaras offer of healing. Again, he felt somewhat cheeky having not been able to do much during the fight itself. “Despite how many times this happens I am not a fan of being a pin-cushion.”

He had heard Kosara’s offer but the desire to be inside somewhere dry, and at least somewhat safer than the expose street they had just been attacked in was stronger than the pain of his wounds. The Silversmiths offer of somewhere dry to hide was simply too inviting to turn down.

Lady Kathryn's cry caught his attention, his gaze snapping over to her as he dropped back into a fighting stance before he heard what had made her cry; the fallen guard was alive! BlackBerry relaxed again, relieved to see that they weren't being attacked again so soon.

“What luck!” He cried with a barking laugh, and then a quiet gasp of pain. “One of the ruffians has survived then.”

He tried to offer at least a hand to Kathryn but from the looks of things she had everything under control tying up the ruffian, and even looking to brace his injured arm.

A wise choice. BlackBerry mentally complimented her with a slight nod.

“Best tie those ropes as tight as you can. The ruffian may try the same trick as the young lad earlier and change his shape to slip away.” He explained, going to kneel down before a warning twinge from the arrow stopped him. “I could think of a few ways to get information from him, once awake.”

Shame quickly wiped away the vengeful smile from his face, his heart was still racing from the skirmish, and he hastily added, “Not that we should cause the poor fellow any more injury or distress, of course.”

“Are you sure you will be quite alright if we leave you out here?” BlackBerry asked, looking to the others quickly.“Would it not be wiser to bring him inside where more of us can keep an eye on him? And, I feel keeping the fellow out in the rain will do him more harm than good.”

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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

Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 03 HP: 14 / 24 Armor Class: 15 Conditions: N/A Location: Q5 ->L5 Action: Perception (17) Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A Ki: 1/3

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

Blackberry let the air pass gently from his lungs and out into the world. Behind him he heard Kathryn shout to him to leave things be.

He took a moment to weigh things up in his mind; the attack of his sword had done nothing, and he couldn’t be certain even his astral self had done much either. Needless to say he was feeling, BlackBerry ground his teeth, somewhat useless. Even trying to grab hold of the fleeing Guard hadn’t worked as he’d hoped as at least then they could have gotten some information out of the man.

He glared daggers at the retreating guard hoping maybe something would strike the man down, but sadly no such luck, and the man merrily ducked out of sight. That horrid twist of annoyance and shame returned in his stomach right beside the arrow. Pulling himself up and out of his stance he turned around to face Kathryn.

“Apologies.” He tried to smile, but it came as more a grimace. “This is most certain not my finest hour, If you would take my word for it.”

His eyes never quite met hers hidden beneath her helmet as he jogged briskly over to her, his arm reaching down to hold the arrow steady while his fiery limbs kept close for defence from any further surprise attacks. He kept his focus on the windows, rooftops, and shadows between buildings, his head moving slightly but eyes flying wildly over them all trying to spot where another ambush may come from. nowhere in particular struck him as hiding any more of those ruffians, in fact he was feeling fairly confident that they wasn’t even anyone else around.

“As much as I hate to admit it, you are right, Lady Kathryn. I do fear any further attacks I could make would do very little. It does appear, however, that there’s no one else about to give us any more trouble.” He then asked, already next to Kathryn. “How are you and others? Was anyone else harmed at all?”

The scene he looked on filled him with some relief and the let himself relax just a bit seeing that they weren’t being attacks anymore, a quick glance at the attic windows across the street showed them to be empty as well. While all gathered were battered and bruised, thankfully none had actually taken any sever injuries, as far as he could tell anyway.

Interestingly, one of the Guards had been brought down by one the others. If the Guard was still alive he could prove to be a good source of information.

@Dragoknighte With Guard 3 gone, it's up to you!

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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

Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 03 HP: 14 / 24 Armor Class: 15 Conditions: N/A Location: L12 -> Q5 Action: Flying Grapple on Guard 2 (Athletics 12) Bonus Action: Step of the Wind (Dash) Reaction: N/A Ki: 1/3

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

Pandamonium and music filled the air as the fight continued around him. BlackBerry saw the next arrow come into view and flash through the air, and right into Kosara and he gave her an empathetic wince when she cried out; he knew how much one of those hurt.

Water splashed upon him, as if he wasn’t wet enough already, and he shot a quick befuddle glance towards his right where it had come from. Then he felt the energy course through like ripples on water. While it didn’t do anything about the arrow sticking out of his stomach he felt more energetic than he had moments before. BlackBerry fleshed the guard a toothy grin safe in the knowledge that his luck was about to turn.

Horribly, the order to scatter went up, and the ruffians took no time in enacting it. BlackBerry gasped and nearly swore at this, frustrated that the ruffians might get away. He went to lunge out to grab the Guard in front of him, then grimaced and recoiled away half a step; watching in fascinated horror as the man's face snapped and twisted into a more rodent-like form still wearing that same scornful sneer

The ruffians looked to scatter, running in different directions; Cavendish taking off down one end of the street and the two guards sprinting down the other.

“Come back here!” Snarling. “Cowards!”

BlackBerry rocked backwards in his stance, the muscles in his legs coiled and tensed in preparation. Power swirled and then surged out again from his core, but this time shooting down into his legs. There was a moment of stillness about him. Then he rocked forwards and shattered the moment. He surged forwards at a furious pace, sprinting after the Guard (guard 2), the fiery limbs taking a fraction of a second longer to react and follow after.

His feet carried him deftly over the slippery cobbles with barely a sound as he closed in on the Guard. He saw the Guard pause to look back and then dive to the left out of sight past the building's corner. BlackBerry pursued after with determined fury while pushing away the pain in his stomach. Skidding around the corner the Guard came back into view just a bit further up the street. BlackBerry pushed further ahead, arm pumping, feet pounding against the cobbles, fiery limbs leaving a trail of light behind him. Finally he was close to the man, just a few more steps, just a little closer. He reached out his arm trying to grab hold of the back of the Guards armour, but he was still out of reach!

An idea came to BlackBerry. He just needed one more step, then he leapt up high and let inertia carry him through the air towards the fleeing Guard with his limbs spread wide hoping to land upon the hapless guard…

He hit! BlackBerry slammed into the Guard and tried to wrap his arm around him but no matter how hard he tried the Guard wiggled harder! The arrow shifted from its spot with a searing lurch, causing BlackBerry to focus on swallowing a strangled cry but it was just what the Guard needed to slip free of his grasp.

BlackBerry stumbled back into his previous stance and watched the Guard.

“Leaving so soon? And we were just starting to have fun.”

@Sigil Guard 3's turn!!

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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

Baronfjørd "Blackberry" Chedgusah Dragon Born, Monk (Astral self), Level 03 HP: 14 / 24 Armor Class: 15 Conditions: N/A Location: L13 -> L12 Action: Attack Guard 2 (9: miss) Bonus Action: Attack Guard 2 (23: 6) Reaction: N/A Ki: 2/3

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

Marita showed her full force as a Cleric as she entered the fray and brought the attackers to a standstill ,dropping their weapons, with a powerful command. For a moment there was a respitful pause. Just enough time for Lady Kathryn to regain her footing and use one of the weapons their attackers had dropped against them. BlackBerry watched the hammer strike home, it didn’t appear to cause as much as Kosara’s attacks but still a darn sight more than his own sword strike had done.

Are Rodent-thropes immune to swords?

Pain exploded from his abdomend, dragging out a ragged cry from his lips. He looked down to see the end of an arrow sticking out, having driven into him through his admittedly flimsy robes, and probably hitting something important. Hopefully, that would be a problem to solve later.

Something pinged gleefully off the building behind him, another arrow? His eyes shot upwards following where the arrow now stuck out from just below his ribs and traced it’s journey back upwards and across the street…

There! Two more Guards peeked out from the shutters with the crossbows in hand already loading up another salvo.

Oh no these are organised thugs!

“Archers. In the Attics across.” Quick, succinct, he called to the others.

The pause had left him open and vulnerable! The other Guard made his move, well practised steps and movements that BlackBerry couldn’t help but appreciate for a moment, and plucked the abandoned spear from the ground and lunged at BlackBerry. BlackBerry then took back a small step, already angled side-wards to the man, he let the attack slip by with barely a whisper. A silent ‘Thank you’ went up for Tymora after seeing how sharp the spear was glinting in the light.

In one smooth motion he sheathed his shortsword, knowing now it wouldn’t be much use, and stepped around and closer to the Guard who had just tried to attack him. His thinking being he could use the two guards between him and the crossbowmen as some sort of cover, but given how high up the attackers were it probably wouldn’t do much.

Now in place, BlackBerry dove forward to attack the Guard in front of him. A short step forward and his left fiery limb shooting out at the Guard only for the jab to stop a few inches short, he was out of range! The limb snapped back into place. Another step forward and planted hard on the cobbles, this time just a little further forward, and swung a tight circle with the right limb whilst twisting first at the hip and then up to his shoulder to really power up the motion. It struck hard against the Guards armour, the satisfying sound of it almost rivalled the searing pain from the arrow sticking out from his stomach.

He stepped back quickly and shifted uncomfortably in his stance. BlackBerry repressed a wince, but the grimace of pain was clear on his face.

His eyes flicked from the Guard to the view of the attics beyond…waiting for another volley to land.

@Sigil Guard 3 is up!

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: Attack Guard 2 (Hit: 20. Dmg: 11) Bonus Action: Summon Astral Self (arms) Reaction: N/A Ki: 2/3

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

BlackBerry blinked and the world turned sideways; Kathryn had been knocked to the ground by Cavendish and now being set upon by the other two guards. Cavendish had already strode past with frightful speed, but he wasn’t BlackBerry’s main concern right now, hopefully the other two in the silversmith could handle themselves. Right now he needed to get those two guards away from Kathryn, give her room to get back up.

The Guardshad revealed their true colours.

The shortsword scraped out of the sheethe and flashed dimly in the radiant light of Kosaras spell He held the sword aloft in his hand, keeping his left side, armed with the sword, forward in an almost fencing stance. The guard had the advantage with the pole, but BlackBerry hopefully had speed to avoid any attacks.

“Get away from her, you brutes!”

He strode closer to them hoping they would back off, they were too close. He swung viciously at the closest Guard, then drove forward. He watched its point sink deeply into the Guard with grim satisfaction. The Guard hissed and sputtered, crumpling back slightly. The blade withdrew with barely a wisp of blood upon it, quite easily, as if its physicality actively rejected the invasion of sharpened metal. The terrible wound that must have been inflicted wasn't present, however, as what damage was inflicted immediately rights itself.

BlackBerry looked aghast between the new hole in the guards armour, completely devoid of any sign of a wound or even any bloody, and the Guards wicked grin.

Oh. These weren’t just any thuggish guards.

“Fine.” He spat. Right foot slipping closer forward to his left and he sunk slightly into his knees. “Let's try something else.”

He felt the energy swirl inside him. From his core it pulsed and up through his chest where it split and poured out to his shoulders. Fire ignited at his shoulders, coiling , writhing, living columns burned into life and throwing out an otherworldly force at the offending Guards. The fiery limbs, burning without heat, sculpted themselves into the vague shape of arms and hunched around BlackBerry’s frame; a boxer's guard, right fiery hand close to his cheek and the left fiery hand held at the same at the same height but further forward, still allowing space for him to hold the short sword out and keep the Guard at bay.

@Dragoknighte - Your turn!

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

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

The door slammed shut and then followed by the dull thud of something being moved behind it. BlackBerry supposed that this was one of the better outcomes from the whole scenario, and now it was up to Victoria and Marita.

"Perhaps the item Robert's requested isn't quite done?" He commented after a few quiet moments, thankfully devoid of any screaming coming from the building.

Damn it all. He thought. If the man really objects that much to me hiding under his roof from the rain he can come out and tell me himself.

He scuttled back under the overhang, beside the ever stoic Morty, and sighed when he escaped the oppressive drizzle. A flash in the distance made him tense and he instinctively counted the seconds; one, two, three…then the thunder whispered in the distance. He relaxed at the thought that the storm had now mostly moved on. For a moment he considered trying again to listen in to the sounds inside but decided that if the other two were in trouble they would make it known one way or another.

'Once bitten, twice shy.' A memory chided him.

He mulled over Kosara and Lady Kathryns words and the idea of somewhere with hardly any rain…

"That does sound rather nice. I have always held the belief we could do with a touch less rain." He shifted the weight of his bag in an attempt to unstick the robes on his back. "I shall have to visit, if there is anywhere in particular you would recommend?"

It was rather charming actually to see Kosara finding such joy in something as mundane and inconvenient, at least in his eyes, as rain.

He also wanted to hear if it was true someone could shrivel up like a raisin in the desert's heat. On the surface it sounded a bit silly but then again they were about to deal with Were-Rats so who was he to say what was silly or impossible these days.

A shrill whistle cut through the air, heralding the arrival of three others walking over to them. The shadows of the man's gaunt face accentuated the cruel twist of his smile. Constable Cavendish looked just as mean as BlackBerry had imagined when the man had been mentioned in the earlier conversation, and the hammer he held looked just as cruel. He could easily picture the man taking money from others, just as Kathryn had said and no doubt much worse.

BlackBerry tried his best to stifle a chuckle, it came out more as a snort, at Kosaras comment. Probably not the best idea from either of them but BlackBerry couldn’t fault a snide comment or joke at some unsavoury character's expense. Quickly he wiped the smile from his face.

BlackBerry listened intently while Kosara and Cavendish traded words. He undid the button clasp as the scene unfolded before him; Kathryn building herself up as an impenetrable wall of force between the guards and the silversmith and giving the three ruffians a verbal dressing down as she did so. He then winced when Lady Kathryn fumbled her words. He knew how that felt. But, there was a glimmer of information she had managed to goad from the man.

It was worth a try but as far as BlackBerry cared there was only one way to deal with bullies like them. He took the several steps needed to be by Lady Kathryns side, casting a quick look back to make sure Morty was standing guard, and readied himself for the fight he could feel brewing in the air around them all.

Perhaps they could hold off the storm though for however much longer the others inside needed. Maybe the three of them could get a message to the others somehow? Then again Lady Kathryns voice did carry far down the street so hopefully those inside had heard.

"Might we be so lucky that they would back down?" He whispered to Lady Kathryn with no small amount of incredulity.

He kept his hand on his sword, still kept safely in its sheathe. For 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: 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?”