Dragoknighte

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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

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

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

"Aye," Marita said in agreement to Kathryn's response to the state of their plans tomorrow, in that there were none. "We didn't have the time to really sort things out, irksome as it is." In addition to some of the ideas put forth by the other party members in the earlier discussion, there were a few courses of action Marita could think of for the next day, assuming there were no radical changes of circumstance during the night, but nothing had been set in stone. She hoped that there were no such changes, but part of her felt a dire certainty that the next several hours would go very smoothly for either herself or the township of Avonshire. The seemingly inevitable alteration of the situation also made it so that even if they had come up with a plan in the Public House that it would no longer be actionable come sunrise, however she still felt as though the benefit of having tangible goals would outweigh the negatives any complications could bring about.

"Would you be able to light up my shield, Kosara?" It felt obvious that if any objects were to have magical light attached to them, it should be the shield with the big sun insignia emblazoned on it. It was also already being held in hand, so it wasn't like she would be burdened by it. Not to mention that the only light source being a couple of swords felt... wrong. There wasn't really much more to it than that. Her thoughts on this matter were more or less entirely fueled on her emotions.

"I can only pray that you're right about that, Kathryn. To me this atmosphere feels more like," the set up before an ambush. She dared not utter the words aloud, lest she unwittingly speak it into existence, regardless of whether it was true or not. For all she knew, ever since they set foot into the fog they had been watched from every available window in Avonshire. If that were the case, at the very least now they wouldn't be fighting blind when the first strike came. For all the ill it did for traveling stealthily, if the enemy is better at navigating the shadows it was a net positive for everyone to be able to see.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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

Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 18/18 Armor Class: 18 Conditions: N/A Location: Public House->Silversmith(?) Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

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

Lea's lack of response to her question was a bit concerning. No response even when Blackberry had chimed in as well. Maybe she hadn't heard? Unlikely considering how quiet it had been in the Public House otherwise. Part of her worried something had happened back in the kitchen, but if there had, there almost certainly would have been some noise that would have clued them in. She wanted to go check in on the barmaid, but the unfortunate fact of the matter was that they did not have any time to lose before nightfall. She would simply have to settle for checking in on their way back and hoping for the best.

Marita jogged outside to catch up with the others and noted the fog suffocating the town. It was probably merely the result of the weather, but she couldn't help but feel it was an omen of things to come during the night. The impediment to visibility was bad enough trying to get around town, but it would be even worse during nighttime trying to scout out potential dangers coming for them.

"I would quite appreciate having a light source, Kosara." While it was true that it might make them easier to spot for unsavory types, she would much rather take that chance than not knowing where she was going. Worst case scenario they ended up lost or split up due to the poor visibility. They didn't know the roads of the town well enough where she felt confident traversing it half-blind, so it was really helpful that Kosara offered that up. Unfortunately Marita didn't have her things so she couldn't provide the light source herself, and it would be rather embarrassing to admit that the sun god worshipper did not know a dedicated light spell, even though she had pretty firmly established that that aspect of Pholtus was not her specialty. Regardless, she would focus on following behind the least visually impaired of the group (Victoria) and hope that nothing had/would fall apart during the brief time spent traveling.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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

Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 18/18 Armor Class: 18 Conditions: N/A Location: Public House->Silversmith(?) Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

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

"I didn't take that into account," Marita replied to Kathryn, scratching her chin. "I'd assumed that at least for the time being that Cavendish would be busy preparing for whatever it is they're doing tonight, but it's entirely possible that he could still be gunning for us. It would probably be better to stick together and try to get all our business done quickly, even if splitting up would be more time efficient. The Bed and Breakfast is relatively close by, yes? Whichever's closer we should go to first, then the other." Marita got out of the chair and had a quick stretch.

"Either way, there isn't much time before sun down. If everyone is ready to depart, we should do so posthaste." It would be easy to lose track of time discussing and planning, but the truth of the matter was they didn't have the luxury of trivialities anymore. As such she didn't pay heed to things like Kosara's late realization that Cavendish was a warlock or alternate plans for assaulting the municipal building. They needed to get a move on. Although, there was one thing that needed to be checked before they left, but it wasn't with the party.

"Lea," the cleric called out. "We're about to leave, although we'll likely be back in the area before heading to camp. Would you like to come with us? I can't imagine sitting alone in this pub would do anything but compound on your nerves." Honestly, at this point she wasn't entirely sure what the barmaid's answer would be, but she hoped Lea would accept. Right now it felt like the only way to be sure of someone's safety is if you had them in your sight.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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

Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 18/18 Armor Class: 18 Conditions: N/A Location: Public House Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

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

Marita stepped away and sat herself at the table with the others. If nothing else, the hug seemed to work well enough. It also made finding the right words a lot easier, counterintuitively enough. Briefly she considered potentially adding it to her social toolbox for use in the future, but quickly discarded the idea. Doing it the one time in this dire a situation required her to muster up a lot of energy and swallow her pride enough to lower her guard, it would be almost unthinkable to do such a thing in a more casual situation. The fact that she even considered it in the first was somewhat suspect. Perhaps like a mindflayer's psychic attacks, Kosara emitted an aura that altered the subconscious of those around her. Terrifying. Still, it felt... nice. Unfortunately, that was all the time she could spare on sentimentality; it was time to get back to business.

"Hmm? You mean when I made him drop his hammer? It's more or less the same as any of the other miracles I perform. I thought I explained this before, but maybe it wasn't detailed enough. My training and faith allow me to channel divine authority through my voice. Usually I use keyed phrases, gestures, material components or some combination thereof to guide it into the form similar to what others call spells, but I can also do it 'raw' so to speak. Essentially I can speak with the power of Order itself behind my words, which makes it much harder to disobey. Simply put, all I did was tell him to stop and he had to listen." Even if she had explained before, Blackberry wasn't there at the time, so it wouldn't hurt for him to know what he was dealing with. She just hoped that her explanation would be adequate. The mechanics of the arcane and divine were often lost on those not already in the know and it could be an ordeal and a half to get them to understand.

"As for planning our course of actions. After our break, I'd like to get my mace back from Mallard. His store is an already defensible place, but I doubt he'd be willing to have us plus guests holed up for the night. I think we could probably leave him where he is and he'll be fine. I would like at least one other person with me for this so that there's nobody traveling alone." She thought for a bit before leaning forward, resting her elbows on the table.

"I think it would be best to spend the night at camp. I don't think it's a known location, so if we're lucky, we might be able to spend the entire night undetected. We're short on manpower so I don't think we'd be capable of reasonably taking any meaningful action tonight without putting ourselves at risk. Trying to accomplish two tasks simultaneously often leads to failing at both when you could have succeeded at one. To that end, I'd like to perhaps get ahead of myself and propose what we should be focusing on tomorrow." The cleric held up three fingers.

"Assuming none of these questions are answered for us ahead of time: first, who's really been pulling the strings of this whole fiasco. Second, what is it that they want out of this. And lastly, what are the resources at their disposal. Right now we're working with too many unknown variables to come up with a reasonable strategy for offense. If we can discover the answer for even two-thirds of these questions, we'll be in much better shape to do something about this situation."

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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

Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 18/18 Armor Class: 18 Conditions: N/A Location: Public House Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

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

"You may 'look like a delight' now," Marita shot back, "but let's not forget that's not the face you wore last night outside this public house." Outside of their bout with Cavendish just now, Victoria's little stunt with the drunks is what brought on more negative attention to their group than maybe anything else. Hells, it certainly seemed to put them on the constable's map of problems to be dealt with, although she hadn't told anyone about the conversation she had overheard what felt like eons ago.

"It does not matter what personal code or ethics he might hold," Marita responded flatly to Victoria's prodding. "Nor do I care if there are terms and restrictions he must abide by after selling his soul for power. There is a path of things that are good and that are impermissible. How one justifies to himself how he is right when he has strayed from the path does not change the fact that he is no longer on the path." She could go on, but she felt her point was illustrated. Pholtus does not care about all laws, he cares about The Law and that they are maintained and abided. She doubted that Victoria would truly understand, but most people did not. Having a personal connection to Authority itself changed a lot of how you viewed rules and leadership and how things weren't nearly as flexible as some may prefer.

"As far as what we learned from Mallard? He mostly provided confirmation that there is indeed a wererat infestation, although even mundane rodents could be considered untrustworthy now. Also that tonight is the first of three Harvest Moons. There wasn't time to talk about much more than that and the purchase of silvered weapons before the constable barged in. And as far as holy water goes, I'm no expert in lycanthropy, but holy water tends to be most effective against the likes of the undead and demonic. I can't say for certain if it'd have much of an effect here." Marita made a concerted effort to not pay any attention to the renewed debate over what constitutes a sandwich, or even acknowledge it existed. It was irksome at breakfast two days ago, let alone when they needed to be making preparations for the worst night in this town's history. As far as that went, the best she could do now is try to relax enough to recover her Voice. The thought of a meal did tempt her, although the last thing she wanted to do was end up feeling nauseous in the middle of a battle. No, she would fast until sunrise and let hunger sharpen her thoughts.

"After everyone's patched up, we should take care of any business we may have before nightfall. I have to pick up my mace and we should try to locate the L'Roses. Perhaps we should split up into separate groups if there's not enough time before dusk. As for what we do during the night, I think we should focus on survival. We still don't know exactly who and where the true threats really are, and trying to lash out blindly is liable to get us all killed. I'd rather focus on making it through the night and protecting the friends we've made in this town." Marita cast a glance over at Lea, who was looking at the paper. Like Victoria, she was curious about what the paper said, but that was more of a passing feeling compared to the much bigger issue in front of them. The barmaid was an obvious wreck, barely even present in her current circumstance. Although she still hadn't the slightest clue what she could say to help things out, she couldn't bare to sit back and watch any longer as well.

Marita stood up and swallowed, her jaw clenched in anticipation. This was likely the most difficult thing she had to do for this job up to this point. Nervously, she strode over to Lea and stood in front of her for a second before reaching out and giving her a hug. It only lasted for a second before she pulled away.

"We need to stand strong like iron," she said, almost as much for herself as the barmaid. "We're going to make it through tonight. In the morning, it might be best to try to get out of Avonshire, at least for awhile, but we just need to make it through one night. You've helped us so much, now I'll repay you for that tip you gave me last night." In the back of her mind, she dearly prayed that she would be able to deliver on the promise and confidence her voice carried.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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

Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 18/18 Armor Class: 18 Conditions: N/A Location: Public House Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

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

"We've been targets since the moment we set foot in this town," Marita replied in response to Robert's assessment. "The only difference between now and this morning is that he no longer needs to look for a reason to justify attacking us. But it's been clear from the moment we ran into him at the front gate is that he didn't want us in Avonshire at all and only barely tolerated our presence here." The cleric paused for a moment, looking at each individual party member before continuing. "I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, most of us do look like trouble and in the short time we've been here there have been several incidents, not necessarily related to the investigation at that. At this point, Cavendish's actions have placed him well outside the realm of upholding the law and I can't ignore it anymore." The final sentence was uttered more as a threat than a resigned realization.

Whereas Kathryn thought about other places to hole up in during the night, Marita's mind turned to friends, particularly the L'Roses. Mallard seemed like he could handle himself for the night. Or at least he would refuse to budge from where he was at the moment. It was probably too late to try to evacuate anyone outside of the township, but they could try to at least keep everyone where they could see them. Even if they were staying with a friend of theirs, the situation was far too sticky to trust them in an unverified situation like that. After everyone took a short break she would see about having the party split into two teams to try getting all the rest of their business taken care of before nightfall. Although she didn't have wounds to tend to, resting her voice would allow her access to her Order's Command once again. She wasn't sure how effective it would be against the upcoming threat.

"I don't believe any of us have anything more we need of you, Robert." Of course any of the others would speak up if they wanted to like Kathryn, but as far as she could tell, they were done for the night. He had helped as much as he could and given them valuable information. Speaking of which, the cleric felt she was getting the hang of reading between the lines of the pub owner's Geas-speech. Cavendish was a warlock, likely to some sort of devil. That last bit was purely speculation on her part, it seemed like the most likely scenario. As far as the ones they need to worry about, Cavendish and his men were obvious, but there was a feeling Marita had. There wasn't enough concrete detail to say this for sure, but what seemed to be the case for the infestation was whoever was the instigator for this plague started by infecting the major figures in town. Then, once they were in on the plan or geased into silence they could start picking off people one by one, usually those that would be most likely to be overlooked. Ones like the orphan boy from earlier weren't likely to be who Robert was referring to, so it was likely the other big players in Avonshire: whoever was at the Municipal building and Madam Marcie. If there was anyone else, the party likely hadn't met them yet, but probably would before the night was through. As stressful as the notion was, at least finally having the situation laid out bare would make things a lot less complicated.

Marita noticed both the look on Kathryn's face and Lea's trembling but didn't have the slightest clue on what to say to them. Being an emotional support was never part of her training, nor did it come naturally to her as it seemed to for others. Not to mention she wasn't doing the best job of keeping things together herself. How envious she was of Kosara at the moment, nothing seemed to get at her for very long.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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

Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 18/18 Armor Class: 18 Conditions: N/A Location: Public House Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

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

Truly, Marita could have done without everything that had occurred in between the time the Constable barged into the shop up until the time they had managed to set foot back into the Public House. All of it was a mess, and were it not for all these problems compounding on each other simultaneously, she would have stepped in to fix all, or at least most of those problems. For instance she would have placed the crates back where they were, and she most certainly would have confiscated the spear rather than leave it where idiots could get themselves hurt. But she didn't have the time to deal with these things. At this point the stress from all the encroaching dangers and all the little things going wrong in such stupid ways that it made her want to cry, but she just had to put up with it for the time being.

"We got it." Marita set the package on the counter before stepping back to allow Robert free access to it. "Mallard also filled Victoria and I in on what he knew. At least what he could given the limited amount of time we had there. After we drove off Cavendish and his men, we had a flock of busybodies start pestering us and had to leave before they brought even more problems with them. Speaking of which, should any troublemakers try to snoop around here would it be best we leave, or will it be fine if we manage to stick around for a bit? A few of us took some nasty blows and we haven't had a chance to recuperate."

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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

Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 18/18 Armor Class: 18 Conditions: N/A Location: Silversmith->Outside->Hopefully the Public House Action: N/A Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

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

"I'll return your blade. You have my word." Marita placed her fist over her heart as she made the vow. She grabbed the box and the dagger, tucking the latter into her belt. She didn't really trust any of the others to make the delivery to be honest. Kathryn and BB were both sore thumbs, liable to attract attention and trouble just from their size, let alone the rest of their appearances. Victoria probably would make the delivery, but there was always the chance that the bard would get a bit too curious and peek inside the packaging, and in the worst case scenario attempt to pilfer it for herself. It wasn't a huge chance, but why play those odds when there was no reason to. And lastly, Kosara was Kosara. She combined the worst traits of the others by being a sore thumb and fickle simultaneously. She'd never steal the contents of their delivery, but the chances of her getting distracted were much more real of an issue. No, the cleric was the one to hold onto the box.

"She's... different. She hails from another land, but I don't think that truly explains her uniqueness. As far as I can tell, her heart is in the right place, but she is naïve and has and odd way of seeing the world. At the very least I doubt any of her more extreme proclivities are due to hellfire running through her veins." At least if it were, it was hellfire she was acutely unaware of. This was about as positive an appraisal she could give of the warlock. At times she felt like dealing with Kosara was more akin to looking after a child, a task she felt quite ill-suited towards. But the group already had enough rumors spreading about them, there was no need to add more fuel to that fire.

Marita made her way out the back door and made a quick evaluation of the different routes that they had available to them. Going through the window never even crossed her mind. Even if it had, that would be breaking and entering, and they had no reason to want to get into that particular building anyways. If she had been a bit more criminally minded, it might have occurred to her that this random building might be a good place to dump the guard's unconscious body, but as it were the routing seemed obvious to her.

"We should go through the South. It's our best chance to slip by unnoticed." She whispered to the rest of the group.

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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

Marita Bärbel Human, Cleric, Level 3 HP: 18/18 Armor Class: 18 Conditions: N/A Location: Silversmith Action: Attack, Spare the Dying Bonus Action: N/A Reaction: N/A

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

Well this situation was rapidly becoming untenable. Exactly what she had feared had come to pass, and there wasn't anything that she could think to do in the situation that would smooth things over. Had she not had to use her Voice of Law a few minutes prior, she was fairly confident in her ability to at least prevent a potential riot, now things were much more dicey. However, putting everything on the table, one thing was clear: they couldn't let the guard continue on as he was. There and then she made a snap decision that would likely make them look worse than they already did, but this was a no-win situation.

A displeased sneer on her face, the cleric reached over and grabbed her mace from the counter before taking a few strides over to the guard. Wordlessly, she lifted the mace before bringing it down on his head, swiftly knocking him out. She hadn't swung it as hard as she could, or even with a particularly notable amount of force, but she felt from the moment of impact that she happened to hit just the right spot to do a lot more damage than she was anticipating. Chances were that he'd need some kind of medical attention soon or risk death. Well, it didn't matter too much to her right now. If she didn't have quite the skillset she had, perhaps she would have said something or been worried by it, but as it stood, her face twisted in displeasure just a bit more as she turned around and gently set the not-quite-finished-yet weapon back on the counter.

"If I had a better option I wouldn't have interrupted your work," she said to Mallard. "I hope you understand." The cleric swiftly made her way back to the unconscious guard and knelt down, touching his forehead coincidentally around the point of impact.

"Spare the Dying."

Nothing happened outwardly, unlike most of her spells which came with a significant amount of flash, but if her feeling was right and he was indeed in near-critical situation, he would be stable now. And if he wasn't, she didn't have to expend any resources to do this and there was nothing to worry about as far as accidental deaths went. With that cantrip cast, that was all she needed to do as far as that problem was immediately concerned. If she had the time, she would gag him to avoid further issue, but that seemed to be out of the question. Also unfortunate that she probably wouldn't have access to her primary weapon for some time, but she had to choose which losses to take now. She looked up towards Blackberry who made the most sensible suggestion she had heard all day.

"Agreed, we should leave now. Mallard, is Robert's package ready to take back to him? I would hate to have to face him empty-handed after everything that's happened here."

Avonshire - D&D Based Adventure

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

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

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

Maritaa considered Mallard's offer. Everything he said went up against the assumptions she had going in, and although she was loathe to be proven wrong, on the subject of metallurgy she knew essentially nothing and the man in front of her was easily, demonstrably her superior. Although to her mere moments before, it did not actually matter which of her weapons were silvered, this contradiction between ego and logic caused her to pause for several seconds before gingerly reclaiming her dagger and setting down the mace on his counter. A passing thought in the back of her head said that a silvered dagger could still be more versatile, if not in combat, in other situations. But she disregarded it. They needed all the firepower they could get.

As far as the guard was concerned, she continued to keep herself out of it. If he went to do something untoward, she would be able to step in, but as it were she hadn't a dog in this race. Even being the semi-literal judge of every situation she found herself in, she could go either way here. She didn't want the man dead and he could be a useful source of information, but he was also dangerous, a liability and dead weight. When Kathryn vehemently protested that they would not resort to torture, Marita casually looked away. Of course, she would never do harm unto someone without adequate justification however, the two of them were well acquainted, and it was miraculous how well a bit of force made people reevaluate their position and what they were willing to divulge. Hells, even the mere threat of it and perhaps a demonstration that you were willing to do it was often more than enough to do the trick. But the utility of violence during inquisition was not a topic she was going to bring up at a time and situation like this. Perhaps if she somehow ended up alone with the restrained guard in the meantime.

Information about the hammer was novel, but also not something Marita was interested in. It might be moontouched, but as a worshipper of a Solar deity, that didn't do enough to change her disposition on the subject. Even if Pholtus' light was silver as a full moon.

Marita's body tensed up when she heard the knocks at the door. There was no way that Mallard would simply let anyone in based on how he had been acting up until this point. This felt like an obvious trap. She wanted to tell everyone to be quiet until whoever was at the door left on their own, but the aggravating part of the situation was that she couldn't. If she spoke too loudly it would undo the entire point of speaking up in the first place, and it would also give Kathryn's new charge a route to causing trouble for them at little effort or risk to himself. Unfortunately, Kosara unprompted did almost the worst thing she could other than opening up the door to let the guest have unrestricted access to the inside of the shop. The cleric's voice stopped midway up her throat and she reached out to stop what was happening before her eyes before she let her head drop into the palms of her hands. This is yet another trial from the gods, she told herself. You shall overcome it as you have before.