Sex, Violence, and Magic: Adventures in Eberron (Penny & RestlessPanda)

Rolin and Nasree follow Crow into the building. As they do, the hobgoblin looks up from his sweeping, quickly scanning each of them before he smiles. "Just Tariic is fine. I'll be with you in a moment."

He continues sweeping. His movements are methodical, and though he rarely looks directly at them, Crow gets the feeling he is watching her companions and her in his peripheral vision. After about a minute, he rests the broom against one wall and walks over to Crow, dusting off his hands. He is perhaps a little larger than the typical hobgoblin, and while he's clearly not a young man anymore, there's a sense of restrained power in his movements. Unlike Gudruun and some other hobgoblins Crow has seen, who swagger like they have something to prove, Tariic has the less aggressive confidence of someone whose authority is assured.

"Now, what can I do for you?" he asks, stopping about ten feet in front of Crow.
 
"Yes, my name is Anastasia Crowley, and I reprisent my friend here Mr. Rolin." She said, gesturing to him. "I'm a mechanic and I've been trying to track down the origin of his prosthetic. My sources have told me that his and yours may have come from the same place, and I'm just trying to find some information."

She really hoped that his person wouldn't react as violently as the shopkeeper did. Although she felt more of a threat coming from him even though he was by himself. But who knows, maybe he'd want to divulge the information and they could be on their way.

If things DID go sour, she was sure they could get away.... assuming there wasn't more people outside waiting to jump them.
 
"So you're not interested in hiring me," Tariic says. He looks mildly disappointed, but not upset. His eyes settle on Rolin's arm for a long moment before he looks up at Crow's face, smiling again.

"There's enough time for a few questions," he says politely. He holds out his prosthetic hand, looking down at it as he speaks. It looks every bit as smooth and dexterous as Rolin's arm. "I purchased this hand from a magic shop in Callestan. I don't remember its name, but the owner was a dwarf with red hair. The people there will know him."

He opens and closes his hand a few times before clenching it into a fist, driving it into his other palm. "It's a very good prosthetic. Sometimes I forget it's not my own hand."
 
"Ah, and you haven't had any problems with it? No strange twitches or phantom movements?" She wasn't happy about it just leading back to the dwarf. She REALLY didn't want to get in a fight with him if she could help it. She took a step forward, smiling slightly and holding out her own hand.

"Would you mind terribly if I examined it? Just on the surface that is." Then she glanced him up and down appraisingly. "Although, if you don't mind me asking, what sort of work do you do? If it's hiring you want, I like to keep in mind the best person for the job."

Hoping to let her examine the hand. ANd a little flattery
 
"No problems," Tariic says. "It moves and stills as easily as the warforged themselves. I assume that's where it came from, after all. Though, I've rarely seen warforged with hands this size."

When she asks to examine it, he hesitates, giving her a cautiously analytical look before holding the hand out to her. "Don't take this personally, but if this is a trick, I don't need both hands to take care of all of you. If you truly don't know, I'm a combat trainer. I can teach you how to fight like a soldier, or if you all know that already, I can teach you to work to unison. I also provide specialized training, like unarmed combat, assassination, phalanx combat..."

The construction of Tariic's hand is seemingly identical to that of Rolin's arm, which means it's also seemingly identical to the hand of a warforged, other than its size. Even as Tariic lists off the training he offers, however, and is splitting what's left of his focus between Crow, Rolin, and Nasree, his hand is motionless. At no point does it even hint at acting on its own, and certainly does not attempt to cop a feel.
 
"I can see that you are more than capable." She said, listening to his words and she examined his hand. Not a thing looked or felt out of place. It was irritating. With a sigh she took a step back, offering him an apologetic smile.

"Sadly, or not, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the prosthetic. Which means this lead has lead to a dead end." She sighed, running a hand through her hair in frustration. "I'll just come out and ask, have you heard of anyone with prosthetics going awry? Acting weird or of their own accord?"

She had a dreading feeling that Bluewater would be a similar issue. All the hype for none of the payoff.
 
As Crow steps back, she sees Tariic relax slightly. She hadn't noticed when examining his hand before, but he was primed for a fight. As she speaks, eyes narrow and his head tilts slightly to the side, looking concerned.

"No, I've never heard of that," he says. He glances down at his hand again, wiggling his fingers. "Is that common? I've never seen anyone else with prosthetics quite like mine, until today. I've seen other, more crude prosthetics, and I would think those problems affect those prosthetics, but..."

He looks up at Rolin, or more specifically, his arm. "...I think you are asking on his behalf. His arm is surely made by whatever artisan crafted mine. If so, it concerns me, because I never imagined this hand would give me that trouble. The dwarf that sold it to me never told me that."

He lowers his hand. "If you want my advice, I would find the person who sold him the arm and demand a solution or a refund, and if they do not provide it, beat it out of them. Do not develop a reputation as someone who accepts being abused."
 
"Well, that's part of the problem." She said, crossing her arms in frustration. "We DID try to talk to him, but he was all 'Don't go sticking your nose into this' and 'I can't give away my sources'. Got real defensive and even made poorly veiled threats when we tried to push."

With a sigh Crow gave him an apologetic smile. "I'm terribly sorry for taking up your time. We have a couple other leads to look in to, but so far it's not looking good for my friend."

A thought crossed her mind as she turned to leave. Looking back at Tariic she tilted her head. "IF we did want to acquire your help for... well, protection and maybe a little intimidation, what would that involve?" Maybe going back with backup would make a difference.
 
"I don't do that work anymore," Tariic says, holding up a hand. "I'm a teacher now. But because I am a teacher, I'll tell you what I can to help you. And because I don't like being sold unreliable equipment, I'll do it for free."

He smiles slightly, then clasps his hands behind his back. "It's easy to find people in Sharn that will protect, intimidate, and fight on your behalf. It's not as easy to pay them. If you plan to rob that dwarf's shop, you could pay them that way, but that would be foolish. The dwarf surely has the local gangs' protection, who will punish you severely for it.

"However, if you only choose to intimidate - or even injure - him, without taking his merchandise, and if it is because of his bad sales, the gangs will probably not get involved. He won't want to tell them of his dishonesty. When I was there, I saw he had private security - two warforged. Warforged all know how to fight, but not all choose to. Of those that do, some become mercenaries, or criminals, or seek out adventures. The ones that choose to guard a shop like their work to be simple and predictable.

"I am saying that if you only choose to take information from the dwarf, you will only have to worry about his guards, and his guards are simpletons. Use that to your advantage, if you can."
 
Hmm.... Curious.

Crow gave the man a smile and nodded to him. "Thank you very much for the information. Hopefully we can get all this figured out and taken care of." With that she excused herself and lead the group out of the building and back onto the streets.

"Okay so... I guess we're going back to the shop then." She said, glancing back and forth between her comrades. "I think we could take on the warforged in a fight if it came to it, I'd just rather not jump to that conclusion. BUT, i think between the three of us, we can get that done. Ya'll feel like shaking down someone for information?"

She rubbed her hands as she thought. "We can do it one of two ways. Early in the morning before he starts work, or right as he's closing. No sense in causing trouble for the populace."

Start heading back to the other levels. About what time in the day is it now?
 
"Damn right I do!" Rolin says with a determined nod. "He's got it coming. I say I hold him upside down by his ankles while you ask him your questions. Nasree can take anything that falls out of his pockets."

Nasree looks less enthusiastic. "I didn't think you were hiring me to fight," she mutters before looking up at Crow, looking almost guilty. "I'm not really a fighter, okay? I get it - a lot of goblins here in Sharn are mercenaries left over from the war, but I'm not. My family's lived in Sharn longer than humans have, and they've never been mercenaries, as far as I know. I'm just...a city girl. Yeah, I'm a thief, but I'm not a soldier or anything."

"Yeah, well, Oskar didn't seem a soldier, either." Rolin turns to Crow. "That's two-on-two, then - you and me against the warforged. If what Tariic said was true, they'll know how to fight, but they're probably not anything special. That, or maybe we can trick them or get around them somehow.

"Just don't forget about Tack Bluewater. You were planning to see him tomorrow morning, too, right?"

Thanks to Crow's background, she can navigate the city faster than most. By the time she returns to her shop, it'll probably be mid-afternoon.
 
"We can, but if we can get more info out of the shopkeeper we may not have to."

She looked down to Nasree and gave a smile. "I wont make nor ask you to fight. Keep an eye out for people on the outside and warn us if things start to get heated. I think we can handle a couple goons, but I don't have the gear to handle more than that." She scratched her cheek with her gloved hand.

"That all being said, we can get him as he's closing up shop later today, or rush him in the morning. I'm feeling tonight, I"m ready to get to the bottom of this."

Crow would lead the group back towards the shop, and keep an eye out if they were being tailed. Also making sure she had her glove primed for a fight.
 
"Okay, I can do that," Nasree says, looking relieved. "Thanks."

"He won't close up for a few hours, yet," Rolin says. "You two ladies seem to know all the shortcuts in this city. Stop by my room and I can pick up something to give us an edge here."

Crow soon learns that Rolin rents a room in Gate of Gold, a destitute slum that makes Callestan look cozy by comparison. Here, crime is rampant, mostly perpetuated not by organized gangs but by desperate people with nothing to lose. Rolin is one of many, many war veterans struggling to survive in a city that has too many of him in a nation that no longer needs him, but even he is definitely better off than most of Gate of Gold's inhabitants, many of whom are crippled, disturbed, addicted, or otherwise utterly without prospects.

"I'm looking forward to the day I can say goodbye to this place," Rolin mutters as he unlocks the door to an apartment that's barely larger than a closet. He steps over a thin bedroll lying on the stone floor to a battered crate pushed up against the far wall as a makeshift desk and table. With a grunt, he pulls the crate aside, revealing a hole in the wall from which he pulls a set of leather armour and a length of wood that may have once been a table leg or small support beam.

"I wore these leathers in the war," he says as he straps the armour on. "I thought I might sell them, but no one's interested. No shortage of this kind of kit nowadays.

"And this - " he continues, hefting the length of wood. He gives it a couple heavy swings before smacking it into his palm and grinning at Crow. " - well, I just found this, and I can afford to dump it if we have to. This ought to give us one up on those warforged."

"I...don't know if that's a good idea," Nasree says. "You might attract some attention walking around with that."

"Less than you'd think," Rolin says, but appears to have second thoughts. He turns to Crow. "What do you say, Crow? Good idea or bad idea?"
 
The trip to the Gate of GOld was a humbling one. She'd been lucky, all things considered. THe apprenticeship, the small hole in the wall she was able to double as a workshop and a place to sleep. She honestly didn't know what she'd do if she hadn't gotten lucky... may have ended up as a thief, or selling herself... A shudder ran down her back. Then a thought.

When was the last time she had sex?
It'd been a while, long enough for her to let her mind wander to the prosthetic again. She was curious if it acted like what if disconnected from him... Shaking her head she leaned agasint the wall waiting for him, giving him a smile.

"Great idea." she said, clapping her hands together. "Anything we can use. Hell, I might be able to make some upgrades, once we have some money and time. And not in the middle of a mystery. ANything else we need to check on?"
 
"Sorry, that's all I've got," Rolin says, but he grins confidently. "Let's go."

With Crow's guidance, the three make it back to Callestan and Oskar's shop quickly. Rolin carries the club in his right hand, preventing him from intertwining his prosthetic arm with Crow's, but also preventing it from grabbing indiscriminately. Nonetheless, she feels the back of his hand brush against her butt a few times as they walk, immediately followed by Rolin sheepishly moving further away from her. At one point, Crow thinks she sees Nasree notice the contact, but while the goblin raises an eyebrow, she doesn't say anything.

It's late afternoon by the time they reach the neighbourhood of Oskar's shop. The streets are mostly wreathed in shadow, sunlight only reflecting off the sides of towers far above. Bystanders notice Rolin's weapon and armour, but no one seems unduly alarmed - there is enough gang activity in Callestan that it's not unusual to see armed thugs walking about. At least a few keep their eyes on them, however, curious as to what drama is about to unfold.

Nasree volunteers to scout Oskar's shop, since he would not recognize her face, and returns quickly. "He's getting everything all tidy," she says. "I think he's starting to close up."

Rolin tightens his grip on his club. "No killing, right?" he says, glancing at Crow. "I had enough of that life in the War. Just knock them around a bit."

A reminder, just in case: if you reduce a creature's HP to zero with a melee attack, you can choose to knock them out rather than kill them. This may be the wiser course of action in a city like Sharn, where murder is frowned upon. This knockout can be done even with attacks that one wouldn't typically consider non-lethal, such as a sword, spear, or magic spell. Technically, the choice as to whether to kill a target or not is made when the target is reduced to zero HP, but in practice, I will usually make it clear if an opponent is trying to kill you or just knock you out.
 
"If he folds like he should, hopefully we can get out of here with minimal bodily harm. But yes, no killing. I'd rather not have that on my consciousness..."

She smiles at Narsee and nods. "Okay, stick close enough to the door to call out if... I don't know. Back up or the guards decide to show. Give us the heads up and then get out, we'll meet at the cafe if we get seperated."

With a deep breath Crow rights herself and strides into Oskar's place, letting Rolin go first. She made a point of closing the door behind her, and flipping the "open" sign to "closed". Then, with the biggest smile, she turned and walked to the counter.

"We're back. And I'm gonna cut to the chase. We want the name and location of your supplier. We're not walking out of here without it and we're not afraid to get physical if need be. Please see reason, or a really bad mess is about to take place."

Idk if that line would constitute her trying to intimidate him or not, however she is readying her action. If either of the guards attack, she's getting Shocking Grasp set up.
 
By the time Crow catches sight of Oskar, he's already glowering over the shop's counter. The warforged watch impassively, attention alternating between Crow, Rolin, and Oskar, as Crow closes the door behind her and makes her speech.

"I already told you, you don't want this trouble," Oskar grumbles. "You want to kick up the hornest's nest so bad? Fine. Some people just always got to learn the hard way. I've got your information right here."

With that, Oskar pulls something out from under the counter: a wooden rod tipped with a brass cast of a dragon's open mouth. From the mouth comes a blast of noxious gas that makes Crow's nose run and stomach turn. Rolin swears, and even the warforged recoil from the gas, but Rolin readies his weapon as the two warforged close in, their hands coming up to fight.

Unfortunately, Oskar beat your passive Insight (even rolling with disadvantage), so he caught you by surprise. Please make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw to avoid being poisoned (disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks) for one minute. After that, please roll initiative (note that the disadvantage from being poisoned applies to this roll, too).

The current initiative order is as follows:
18: Warforged​
17: Rolin​
7: Oskar​

If you beat the warforged on initiative, you can consider yourself to be ten feet from one and fifteen feet from the other (with Rolin five feet from you on that side). If you don't beat the warforged on initiative, please let me post their actions before you do anything, so things don't get confused. Your readied action will still take effect in that case.
 
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Fuck. Why couldn't she have paid more attention? She got cocky, she got self assured. She wasn't ready for this. All of these thoughts and more swam through her head as she felt the gas enter her lungs and wrack through her body. She coughed, doubling over at the stench and almost staggering. It left her eyes watering even as the others around her began to move.

3 on Initiative, and 7 on COn Save. Not looking good T_T
 
Oskar ducks low, peeking at the fight over the countertop. As one warforged approaches Crow, it lifts its hand and its fingers close into a tight fist as solid and resilient as a cudgel. Crow is ready for it, though, and she is able to attack as it steps into arm's reach.

You can use Crow's readied action now. The warforged's AC is 15. I'm not sure if studded leather armour counts as "armour made of metal", but warforged are also partially made of metal, so I'll say that's enough to grant advantage on your attack roll with Shocking Grasp. That cancels out the disadvantage from being poisoned, so this is a straight attack roll.
 
As the Warforged entered range she turned, her hand clicking as electricity crackled from her palm. She thrust the palm into the Warforged's chest, the spark flying with a crackling boom. She attempted to duck out of the way if the damage was enough to stagger the robot. She coughed, trying to keep aware of her surroundings. She didn't want to lose track of Oskar, but she also didn't want to get her ass handed to her.

I crit, the roll should be in the roller. Sorry for the delay T-T but yeah, thats her turn
 
Crow feels leather under her palm, plus two metal studs that lead to metal rivets underneath. The warforged feels an electric shock course through the rivets and into the metal of its body. It's a solid hit, and Crow sees the warforged jerk and stumble, putting one hand out to grab the shop's counter. For a moment, it looks like the warforged may be out of the fight, but they stand back up, looking down at Crow with that impassive stare before swinging their hard, cudgel-like fist down at her.

On Crow's other side, the other warforged attacks Rolin, but the swing is clumsy and wide, the warforged also affected by Oskar's debilitating poison gas. Rolin ducks the blow, taking the opportunity to swing the wooden club hard into the warforged's side. He brings back the club to swing again, but the warforged blocks the second blow, the club bouncing off its forearm ineffectually.

"What are you doing, you motherless slaggards?!" Oskar shouts from behind the counter. His hands grip its edge and he shifts his feet nervously, giving the distinct impression he's watching for some sort of opening. "What do I even pay you for?!"

Crow's up in the initiative order! The warforged rolled a 7 on its attack, so you can describe that miss however you'd like.

The warforged Crow attacked is down to 3 HP, so if Crow attacks and does enough damage to put them down, you also have liberty to describe how that happens. The warforged Rolin attacked still has 10 HP, if for whatever reason you choose to attack them instead.
 
As the fist came down Crow barely dodged the downward blow, giving her another opening. She sent her own fist up into the Warforged's chest... and the sparks sputtered out.

"Shit." She said, reeling back and quickly cranking the glove again, causing the sparks to crawl over her palm at full power. Damn thing kept going out at the worst times. Her eyes flicked over and kept an eye on Oskar. He looked like he was up to something, but she couldn't break away to jump at him.

Swing and a miss. I need to make a gun lol
 
The warforged flinches as Crow's fist thumps into their chest. While her attack produces nothing but a brief spurt of sparks, its hesitation provides enough opportunity for her to pull back into a defensive position. By the time the warforged counterattacks, already debilitated by Oskar's careless poison attack, Crow can easily evade the clumsy blow.

The warforged attacking Rolin does better. The warforged swings one heavy fist into Rolin's midsection, the blow cushioned but not stopped by his leather armour. "Oof!" Rolin groans, doubling over momentarily, but recovers in time to swing his cudgel up at the warforged again. The unexpected blow slams the warforged under the chin, snapping its head back and causing it to stumble backward. Rolin swings the club again, pressing the attack, but he stumbles from the combination of pain and poison and the club only glances off the warforged's integrated studded leathers.

"Useless!" Oskar growls, reaching under the counter. "I've got to do everything myself around here!"

With the click of a hammer, Oskar pulls a pistol from under the counter and raises it to fire. After a moment of indecision, he levels the sights on Rolin and fires. The sound of the gunshot echoes off the walls and the smell of gunpowder cuts through Crow's beleaguered sinuses before Rolin stumbles with a cry of pain.

Funny you should mention that...

Rolin has suffered 17 damage 9 damage, sorry, my mistake. Not a good round for him! His warforged is down to 2 HP, while yours is 3 HP.
 
The gunshot caused her to seize up. But only for a moment. With a swear she spun, punching the warforged in the gut and sending sparks through its metalic body. She continued her spin, pulling her own pistol from the spot on her lower back and pointing it at Oskar's face.

"I will bury you in the sewers, so help me gods old and new." She hissed, her eyes burning as she looked at Rolan. He'd be okay. It'd be fine. Just... Needed to wrap this up.

my last roll I forgot to add the right modifier, but it wouldn't have made a difference. She's ok on health, but she's hoping the gun will be enough to disuade or distract Oskar.
 
Oskar looks up at Crow and freezes, a shocked expression painted his face. Halfway through the process of reloading his pistol, his hands freeze in place, gunpowder and a round bullet falling to the floor.

Next to Crow, the warforged swings a desperate haymaker at Rolin. Rolin ducks under the blow, swinging his cudgel into the warforged's hip. The guard falls to the floor and Rolin lifts the club to swing again, but relaxes when he sees the warforged is not getting up. Releasing a shaky breath, he leans against the counter and wipes his forehead with the back of his hand.

Combat's over, have at it!
 
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