Dragoknighte

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 18/18 Armor Class: 18 Conditions: N/A Location: The Infamous Pear->Avonshire (region) Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

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How foolish Marita had been, thinking she would be able to get to be able to talk to the rest of the party. As soon as she had returned, most of the party was gone. Everyone save Kosara(who was busy writing) and Naivara. Marita didn't have anything against the girl, helpless thing as she appeared to be in every conversation up to this point, but she hadn't the slightest clue how she'd start an actual conversation that wouldn't immediately hit some dead end when the woodling would inevitably say something off-kilter. Thinking about it more seriouesly, she found that she didn't have anything to say at all.

The only topics she felt confident in discussing at the moment were related to the mission, but as far as the mission went, there wasn't really anything worth discussing that hadn't already been discussed before this point. So she sat quietly, watching everyone else talk and go about their business. It was nice that Kosara now had some real clothes and would be slightly less of a sore thumb in addition to the obvious insulative benefits of her new outfit. The ensuing bonding scene was at once rather wholesome and an irritant, but that heralded the end of everyone's last minute shopping trips and the beginning of travel proper. Marita sat in the back of the wagon alongside Kathryn. Both because she had no business at the reins of this vehicle and to have as much distance between her and the odorous beasts of burden as possible.

Marita looked out over the scenery with much less appreciation than Kosara. She had been around areas like this for quite awhile now, not to mention having just walked 10 days through the land so it had all become quite mundane. She saw the shadows in the faces of passersby and felt additional dread and responsibility added onto the omens that had already been revealed to her. She wished to not have to be in this early frost. It made her hands ache. But at least some of them seemed happy with the traveling experience.

"I miss my home," She said absently in response to the half-giant's remarks. "I haven't been anywhere quite like it since I left. We never had to deal with the winter frosts or summer heat the way they do up here." There was a lot more she could say, but her conscious brain decided not to let anymore slip without reason. There was too much potential shame to be had from recklessly reminiscing on the past.

I've Been Waiting For You

You can start. If you'd rather do DMs than an actual thread that's cool. It doesn't matter to me either way.

I've Been Waiting For You

Nah I'm good

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 18/18 Armor Class: 12->18 Conditions: N/A Location: The Infamous Pear Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

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Marita watched everyone ask questions and Lynette's reactions accordingly. Nothing they asked had any questions of her own come to mind, and she couldn't help but feel pity for this poor woman. Although her expulsion had very few positives, one of those was that she was no longer beholden to the stresses of organizational short staffing. That weary sigh and involuntary urge to snap was something she'd had plenty of experience with. Although it wasn't like she had all the time in the world these days, it still was much different when one worked as a volunteer or temporary worker than somebody firmly entrenched in the hierarchy dealing with these sorts of problems day in and day out.

With her breakfast finished and the green light given to take leftovers, Marita made sure to snag a few sausages for down the line. It was about as much as she would let herself take. Taking too much food in situations like this made one look desperate and prone to gluttony and hoarding; it would be embarrassing if nothing else.

"Thank you for your service, Ms. Lynette. Light guide you." The cleric addressed the rest of the party, "I have nothing I wish to purchase right now. If any of you need to find me, I'll be here at the table waiting. Well after I do one last thing." Now that it was obvious that they were likely going to be spending the whole day on the road, there wasn't much need to stay in more civilian clothing. After she excused herself from the table, the cleric went back upstairs for a bit of privacy and quickly donned her mail armor. It took but a mere couple of minutes and ahe act of doing so didn't require her to eschew modesty, but it would just be impolite and not proper to equip armor in the middle of an inn's common area, empty or no. When she returned she would take her seat back at the table. Perhaps if anybody else stayed she could chat to pass the time, or if nothing else and she was alone with Lynette she could see if she could learn anything from her.

I've Been Waiting For You

Nah I am 100% fine with being big demon man and I have things in mind for geography and such. Anything you want to ask before starting?

I've Been Waiting For You

After having some time to think over it, I'm definitely leaning towards Rightful Prize over the others now. I've also been doing some thinking over setting details and the like and was curious if you had anything in mind already.

I've Been Waiting For You

Yeah I'm interested in some of these. At the moment specifically In the Presence of Royalty, Goof Troop and Rightful Prize.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 18/18 Armor Class: 12 Conditions: N/A Location: The Infamous Pear Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

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Marita was both kind of happy that Victoria had noticed her make-up and rather annoyed at the way she complimented her. She couldn't help but feel she was getting a sarcastic jab in at her even when the words were spoken with what sounded like utmost sincerity. There was just something about how she carried herself that made Marita question how much of what she said she actually meant. At least she didn't have to worry about that with Kosara. She wondered if the tiefling was even capable of sarcasm. In response to their compliments she tried to smile politely, her mouth filled with food as it was but mostly failed.

Botched attempts at pleasantries aside, the cleric couldn't help but notice the... creation Kosara was assembling. She had become reaccustomed to the ways commoners ate, removed from the etiquette expected of fine dining, but this was beyond that. This sort of stunt was something that an unruly child would concoct before discovering after a correction from mother and a nasty stomach ache hours later that there was indeed a reason people ate things the way they did. Marita shook her head and tried not to look that way again.

So she glanced over towards Hugh. He sat as far from her as possible, which was understandable if a bit petty. Still, he wouldn't be able to do this forever and she was a bit curious how long he would manage to keep it up before some circumstance forced him to not avoid her. It would be very easy to play the same game back at him, but when she said she would forgive him, she meant it Zone of Truth or no. And while she had no desire to befriend him, she did want to make him see the error of his words. She would prove that her calls for group unity were not hollow in the slightest and make him acknowledge her, even if he'd never admit it. Ah, speaking of which.

"Quite, interrogating every random passerby is about the least productive manner by which we could conduct this inqu- investigation." Marita corrected her slip of tongue. It was common practice in the temple to refer to any sort of investigation as an inquisition and that bit of slang hadn't left her. She shifted her body position and began to speak more officially, addressing the entire party. "Knowing what little we know now the best lead would be to talk to the friends and family of the known disappearances. If we had more time we could have tried to look into the letters, but I believe the closest traceable messengers is Father Restoff who is 10 days away. Everyone else is either of unknown location or identity. If you really want to get to the bottom of the letters, then trying to dig up something quick while we're still in town would be the best time, but I think that at worst we'd be wasting precious time better spent elsewhere. There's also that potential lead that Hugh discovered before the meeting day. I don't recall if he ever said outright what it was, but seeing as how he hasn't brought it up now, it's probably irrelevant. Finally,"

"Finally, we could look into the client ourselves. I don't want to doubt the man who hired us in the first place, but he has acted rather suspiciously up to this point. That said, I'm still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I'm not ruling out the possibility that that is a potential road we might have to go down."

When the lavatory door flung open Marita looked over to spot Alastor? They made eye contact for a fraction of a second before he ran out. If she wasn't so confused about the entire situation, she perhaps would have tried chasing him down, but she lacked the presence of mind to even think about such things. The appearance of the stout guardswoman only served to bring her back from that odd experience and begin focusing again. Based on the pins she wore, she likely worshipped Lathander and Chauntea, two locally respected gods with whom she bore no issue. The greeting further confirmed her suspicions. Regardless of who she worshipped, it was nice to see someone pious who wasn't explicitly part of a church's internal hierarchy. Before her exile, Marita hadn't truly known the extent to which service to the gods was merely lip service paid when in a temple or when they were in need of something.

Marita accepted the paper and took a look inside. Aha, at least he had remembered to give her the form she had requested. After confirming it was what she had expected, she folded the slip again and returned her attention to the guard. She could read it over in detail later. She listened to the stated instructions and was not sure how to feel about it. She was fairly sure that this wagon had not been brought up before, nor if they actually had need of it. And mules were rather odorous. But it could be helpful. That aside, she couldn't think of a question she would give this subordinate rather than Gregory himself, but maybe someone else did, so she remained silent for the time being and waited to see if anyone else spoke up.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 18/18 Armor Class: 12 Conditions: N/A Location: The Infamous Pear Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

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Marita woke up early, before the sun had risen as was customary for her. She was sharing a room so she set about her morning ritual as quietly as possible to avoid rousing her sleeping roommate(s). The cot was about as luxurious and comfortable as she had anticipated, and while she would vastly prefer a proper mattress she managed to sleep through the night which was about as good as she could ask for. Her first course of action upon properly waking up was her morning prayer. Nothing of note came to mind that she had not already discussed the night before, so she kept it short and to the point, mostly the standard rituals and prayers she gave every morning.

With her predawn worship out of the way, Marita went into her things and got dressed. For the morning, instead of the armor she had worn in the tavern and on the road, she opted to instead dress purely in her clerical vestments. Chainmail was rather quick to don if she needed to, and if she needed to talk to townsfolk and such, the lack of armor would make her less threatening. Truth be told, had she managed to arrive in Darenby earlier, she doubted that she would have worn the mail to the initial tavern meeting. Although the others were indeed adventuring types it still didn't do well for first impressions to walk around everywhere like one expected a fight.

Now clothed, Marita produced a small bronze mirror from her pack as well as her cosmetics and began the long process of carefully painting her face in a near dark environment. She did this every day, so she was quite accustomed to the working conditions, suboptimal as they were. It would be nice to work with proper lighting, but if she did, there would be significant time loss on all her other duties of the day, sacrifices had to be made somewhere. Today more than most days, Marita worked carefully. After seeing Victoria she couldn't help but feel a competitive streak flare up in her to try to do better.

By the time she finished, the sun had started to peek above the horizon, bringing in enough light for the last step in her civilized morning ritual: studying her holy book. Contrasting most things she owned, the text was a small, ratty thing. It was well worn and looked to be close to falling apart. She would need to get it rebound soon, but she couldn't bring herself to do it just yet. She had read through it many dozen times already, but the thing about a well written divine text was that the more you read it, the more you came to understand new meanings beneath the words. She found that to be the true distinction between a cult and a religion. In a cult, there was merely the surface wisdom; spiritual platitudes that sounded convincing yet ended up hollow once separated from the silver tongue that spat them. Even the most minor god worth their salt was able to provide more wisdom than man would be able to understand in a lifetime. So despite having had already memorized the text cover to cover, she didn't find her study time boring or dull in the slightest.

After about an hour had passed, Marita couldn't help but notice a smell coming from downstairs. The smell of food. Food that she hadn't eaten in nearly a day's time. She suddenly became aware of how empty her stomach felt and how bitter the inside of her mouth tasted. Carefully, the cleric closed her book, gathered her things and made her way out of the room, still trying to avoid waking any who had yet to rouse from slumber or were not woken by the clamor from below.

Unsurprisingly she was the first one in the common room. The sight of the exorbitant portions would have a lesser woman in Marita's position dive in and start gorging, but she had the self control to set her base needs to the side. For now. She gave Guido a cordial nod and Good Morning to his greeting, but then he produced a note, neatly folded.

Oh no.

Marita has to stop herself from groaning loudly and sat at the table rubbing her temples. Could a single thing in this mission go right? Perhaps instead of an omen of doom, Victoria was actually an omen of misfortune, making anything that could go wrong do. Well, there was nothing she could do about it right now, so she might as well eat in peace while she could. Everything at the table looked delicious, and it would be very easy to bite off more than she could chew, so she chose to start off relatively light: scrambled eggs and some bacon. Sausages, bread and baked apples threatened to be too heavy and the last thing she wanted was to feel bogged down by her gut for the next four hours.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 18/18 Armor Class: 18->12 Conditions: N/A Location: The Infamous Pear Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

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Marita was no stranger to watching performers do their work for crowds. She had seen quite a range of them in fact, from humble street acts to renowned entertainers known at even the highest levels of society. Even in her growing days her community had their showmen, and it wasn't so different to what others in so-called civilized society were accustomed to. She had seen men juggle flaming swords with one hand, listened to bawdy comedians bring entire bars of sailors to tears, attended the concerts of master composers and been witness to lavish theaters where actors played out tales of great sorrow and fortune.

And yet, Victoria was among one of the best performers she had seen. She wasn't the best; it wasn't mere envy and pride that kept her out of that position, Marita had seen some performances whose effect on the crowd could be considered a near divine revelation, but she was up there. In the top 10 at the lowest. When one watched high level instrumental play, it was evident how much physical effort went into the performance, and to see this woman play as well as she did as well as dance along with it was a sight to behold. When the crowd erupted in applause, she joined along with them, for the first time that night looking genuinely impressed. Unlike the rowdier elements in the tavern she didn't holler or hoot, but she clapped as well as she could with gauntlets on.

When Kosara went on, Marita watched with a fair degree of interest. She could tell that the tiefling was indeed fairly skilled but something seemed off. Maybe she wasn't feeling it mentally after the night's events, or she had misjudged something. The cleric wasn't overly familiar with these sorts of practices on the technical level, but especially after the display that Victoria had put on, she couldn't help but feel as if it were something of an anti-climax. Still, after the performance was through she politely clapped so as to respect her teammates as professionals, but at this point her expression had shifted back to its more usual expression of vague irritation and judgment.

With the performances over, Marita returned to the table to collect her things, making sure to put the leftovers somewhere in her bag where they would not get crushed.

"I'll also turn in for the night as well. I shall see you come tomorrow morning." Offering everyone a brief wave farewell, the cleric made her way up to the second floor behind Kathryn. She noted that the massive woman opted to take the room with fewer beds, making them roommates. The cleric did her best to ignore Kathryn's nightly ritual, if one could call it that. She had her own to worry about after all. Even still, she couldn't help but notice the near-excess of armaments and how she had to roll up into a ball to even fit on the bed properly. Another drawback of being taller than ninety-nine per cent of the population.

Marita began her own nighttime ritual by removing her armor, folding the mail neatly and setting it next to the cot and placing her belongings on top. Then she changed to her pajamas: fine linen robes that were sturdy and inexpensive enough that she did not mind wearing them in less ideal environments. Doing so required her to strip bare for a minute, but she didn't mind. The only ones here were girls, and the half-giant likely wasn't in a situation to ogle even if she were the sort to do something so untoward. Next, she brought out a soft cloth and a small bottle of cleansing oil, which she used to scrub off all the make up on her face. It was much faster than putting it on, but she still took her time, making sure to be as thorough as possible, lest some remain to clog up her pores and create unsightly acne in the morning.

Fourth, she made sure to thoroughly stretch to get as relaxed as she could get before finally coming to her nightly prayer. Marita knelt before the window and did her best to face the moon in the night sky. Pholtus was as much a lunar god as he was solar. With Kathryn in the room trying to sleep, Marita opted to worship silently, so as not to disturb.

There was a set of standard prayers to pay tribute that she performed as a matter of ritual, but she also prayed for more specific and personal matters. Guidance on the mission. To give her the proper judgment in handling the rest of her party members, such that she would be able to act in such a way for everyone to work as a true unified unit. Hoping that she had made the right call in trusting Victoria, massive omen that the bard presented and finally that all those who had been spirited away would be able to return to their homes intact and of sound mind. With everything taken care of, she got in the very fine garrison cot and did her best to get comfortable and sleep before the big day ahead.