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Arulia knocks again and waits a short while to make sure that Kendra is not at her home, but eventually leaves when no answer comes. Rather than go and look for her throughout the city, she instead heads towards the smithy. She doesn't believe that business will be any better today than it has been lately, but perhaps opening the smithy will take her mind off of the morning's failures.

(OOC: Unless she encounters trouble along the way...)

Once there, Arulia busies herself in stoking the fires and preparing her tools.

Haahqae (Grand Market)
Camilla shrugs petulantly. "I don't wanna get married. I wanna be a warrior. But my family's poor and there's too many of us, so they hafta marry me and my sisters off. It's not fair."

At his second question, she shrugs again. "Bored. Don't have any coin, just looking around, I guess. Nothing else to do."

Kendra Synclair (Prefect's Mansion)
Thoron looks at Kendra rather incredulously. "What am I supposed to tell them?" he asks, frustrated. "I can't get out and there's nothing any of them can do, either. Hopefully Arulia has taken over the forge in my absence...but it's not going to be enough. We won't make it next month. Someone needs to continue looking for suitors for the girls since I can't from here. I guess tell them that."

He adds, "So you're working for the man who has arrested your own husband? I hope he pays you well for that."

Grubnick (Grand Market)
Grubnik spends 4 silver to buy himself and his mentor a leg of mutton. The two munch on them while keeping an eye out on things. Haahqae is over by the stage, speaking with a young human woman, perhaps around 12 or so. He glances up at the sun and notes it looks to be around Seventh Watch; still a few more hours until the show.

The mutton is nice and moist, if not a bit overpriced. But it does well to settle the rumbling of his stomach and leaves him feeling satisfied.

(OOC: I don't remember saying that and can't find any reference in a forum search. I'd say the leather hood could conceal his face, although it is a bit more conspicuous than a cloth one.)

Arulia Seroth (Thoron's Blacksmithy)
By the time Arulia arrives at her father's smithy and sets things up, it's already Seventh Watch. Usually most shops, including this one, open up at around Fourth Watch. She usually makes about 4 copper an hour, and she's lost three hours, so she reasons she's probably lost a little more than a silver piece already.

Once she has the fires stoked and ready to go, the door swings open, letting in a burst of cold air. A man steps inside and closes the door behind him. At first, Arulia thought he was not a man at all, but a bear walking on two legs. He's quite burly and large and very muscular. He has black hair and a scruffy beard and is wearing a thick bear fur cloak. He sports a number of scars and tattoos and is carrying a large sack over his shoulder.

"Hail, uh..," he stops short when he takes in Arulia. "Oh, uh...sorry. Think I got the wrong place. Was told a man named Thoron ran a smithy here. For some reason, Karn's shop is shut down. Having a damned hard time finding a place to process my ore."

Felran, Ne-Chanz and Shima (North Sewers)
While Felran and Ne-Chanz discuss their options, Shima closes the north door and then checks the south door. He finds no traps on it and manages to easily pick the padlock. He then backs away to wait for them to open the door, in case it explodes or something.

(Shima attempts to find traps on the southern door [TN 20%] (1d100): 15, pass. He finds no traps.
Shima attempts to pick the lock on the southern door [TN 50%] (1d100): 2, pass. He unlocks the door.)

"I'll pass along the message," Kendra says. "And the prefect is doing me a favor by letting me work for him," she explains. "While Norris is here, I'm able to provide for my family. All of us are going through hard times," she points out.

Haahqae, still rather lost in this conversation suddenly has a thought. "I've traveled the world and seen many things, but it's actually in this very city of Haven that I met a friend who you might like to meet. She's both a warrior and happily married. She used to be in the holy guard when it existed, and when it dissolved, she joined the dragon army. Her husband is a merchant and he makes enough money to support the whole family himself, although they're newly wed so I don't think they've had any kids yet. I actually haven't seen them in a while, I got the idea that the husband didn't like me very much. Maybe he's jealous. But she's a good example of how a woman can be both warrior and wife and be happy with it."

"You know what Camilla? I'm famished and I haven't had lunch yet. Are you hungry too?" Haahqae looks over at the food merchants at the other side of the market square. "Let's go get some food, what do you like to eat?"

If Camilla accepts, Haahqae will take her over to the food vendors and buy meals for both of them.

As the pair appear rooted to the spot, Shima raises an eyebrow, "Really, guys, really?" and heads back to open the southern door himself and then stealthily scout beyond as advertised.

"Thoron does run this smithy," Arulia replies as she sizes up the alarmingly large man. "You have the right place, he's just not here at...at this time. I'm his daughter, and I run the shop with him. My name is Arulia."

(OOC: I think I need more information before Arulia can agree to work with Bear or not. Smelting iron sounds like it would require quite different skills and equipment than blacksmithing. Does the shop have the required tools to smelt iron, and does Arulia's blacksmithing proficiency grant her the knowledge to do so? I mean, since Bear came to the shop looking for Thoron, I'd guess that he's heard that Thoron would be able to do it with the equipment he has, but that doesn't mean that he's heard right. Given her training and equipment, does Arulia feel that she can help him out? And if she can, how much can she expect to earn for doing so? Are there guidelines for this in the books somewhere? I can look up the price of steel vs. the price of iron ore online (e.g. https://www.quandl.com/collections/mark ... ial-metals), but that supposes modern production techniques, and it doesn't tell me what the yield of steel is from a given amount of iron ore or what the production costs are.)

Tulbas is a little tired from the practice. He haven't seen a thing for what seemed to him as hours. Obviously that also cost him few bruises. "Hmm... Is there a possibility to control the level of the damage a spell causes at any given time. For example if there is darkness and I cast burning hands, is it possible to use the first moment with little fire so I can see the surrounding and then aim at the right place with full ferocity? Or maybe aim it up and then quickly move the hands to the right place?"

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(OOC: How does it work in the Test regarding the limit of spells a mage knows at a day? Do they tell you from ahead what to learn for specific task?)

Haahqae (Grand Market)
"Really?" asks Camilla. "I thought only dragonmen and goblins were allowed in the army. I've never seen any human soldiers before." She considers this carefully. "I wonder if they'd let me join. I heard they give you your own weapon and armor for free."

She accepts his offer of food, evidently not the least bit worried about accepting food from a stranger. Haahqae buys them each a turkey leg for 2 silver each, totaling 4 silver.

Kendra Synclair (Prefect's Mansion)
"The prefect doesn't strike me as a particularly generous person. Sooner or later, he's going to call in that favor. I hope you don't find the price too steep," Thoron points out.

Tulbas Erogund (Mageware Shop)
"A spell's power can grow with the strength of the caster, but not decrease...nor can it be suddenly increased on a whim," Magnus explains. "Spells are, for the most part, very much written in stone. A fireball cast a dozen times in one day by the same person will always look the same, act the same and have the same level of power. Only archmagi of incredible power are capable of adding variations."

Arulia Seroth (Thoron's Blacksmithy)
"Oh...uh, I see," the man responds. He seems a bit lost on how to proceed. He hefts his sack and then clears his throat. "When will he be back?"

Felran, Ne-Chanz and Shima (North Sewers)
As soon as Shima opens the door, the light of Ne-Chanz's torch spills into the corridor beyond, revealing a very large rat. Said creature is at least two feet in length with black fur and red eyes. It hisses and then sprints right toward Shima, its long, yellow teeth bared.

“Yes, her name is Kendra, despite the reputation the army seems to be getting these days, she’s very much human and pretty nice. Her husband seems to care a lot about her, perhaps a little too much for her own good.” Haahqae’s term would have been something along the lines of ‘overprotective’, but he’s a little worried that will remind Camilla about her own parents, and thus work against the argument that he’s trying to prove.

The turkey, is exactly what he needed at a time like this. Camilla isn’t the least bit worried about accepting food from a stranger, and Haahqae isn’t even aware that such a thing is considered foolish by most, so this subtlety goes unnoticed in this transaction completely.

“I’m going to be putting on a large show of juggling this evening, right here in the marketplace, but I’ve asked a bunch of soldiers to show up, and not nice ones like Kendra. Big mean dragonmen soldiers who can be rather rough. You probably wouldn’t want to be in the audience watching me, but if you’re interested in seeing more juggling you might want to find a spot father from the stage that you can watch without being seen by the soldiers.”

Tulbas eyes glitter with the mention of archmagi and great powers. The lessons given to him extended his thoughts and caused him great pleasure. The lessons given him by his Master. The one who murdered his uncle. These thoughts makes it hard for him to concentrate for a short while, but he can't expose his feeling again. He gathers himself and say, "I'm ready for impaired hearing. Wil we use wax to seal the ears or silence spell, Master?" Incredibly he succeed disguising the edge and anger in the last word as excitement.

Shima sets his spear to receive, shield at the ready, thinking, ~I was supposed to be at the back.~
The dwarf says loudly enough for her companions to hear, "Incoming giant rat. Felran, come hit this thing please."

"I didn't sign up for this blindly," Kendra says. She knew that there would be consequences, and she believed herself to be strong enough to handle those consequences no matter what they were. "I'll pass along your words to your family." She gave a bow of her head to the man before she turns and leaves.

"My father will be back around the same time that Karn comes back...whenever the Prefect decides that he's imprisoned both of them for no reason," says Arulia. "Until then, it's just me here, and my sisters if I need help." She shakes her head sadly. "But I do know what I'm doing: I can smelt your ore for you, and I'll give you fair price for doing so. I can run the smelter for seven steel pieces each day. How much ore do you need to process?"

Haahqae (Grand Market)
"I ain't afraid of the dragonmen," Camilla insists with a touch of bluster. "But I can't stay and watch. Got no money." To emphasize this, she turns her belt pouch inside out, revealing that there is nothing inside.

Kendra Synclair (Prefect's Mansion)
Kendra steps out back into the hall. The guard for the room quickly closes the door and locks up behind her, then goes back to standing guard.

Tulbas Erogund (Mageware Shop)
"Wax will do," Magnus replies. He removes the blindfold from Tulbas' eyes and then places gobs of wax in his ears to block out sound. He writes instructions down on some parchment and shows it to Tulbas, so they can communicate without him speaking.

They proceed with the lesson. Not being able to hear isn't quite as deliberating as blindness, as far as magic goes. The main obstacle is one must be careful to speak precisely when casting a spell, and if you can't hear your own words, it's possible you'll jumble them up without realizing it. Tulbas learns he must make more of an effort to enunciate properly when he can't hear.

There are some spells that are useless without hearing. Comprehend Languages, for instance, when it comes to spoken languages. But spells like Alarm work normally, the caster just can't hear the end result. Any illusions that require sound may fail since the caster can't hear to make sure the illusions sound the way they are supposed to; it's a bit of a guesswork. And unlike with blindness, one is unable to 'hear' through their familiars if they have one.

"Any questions?" Magnus asks at the end, removing the ear wax first. "If not, we'll move on to impaired speech."

Arulia Seroth (Thoron's Blacksmithy)
"Imprisoned?" repeats the man, a bit stunned by the revelation. "By the spirits...poor Karn. He's a good man. I wonder how his wife is holding up." He seems to get lost in thought a bit, but snaps back to reality. He slings the sack over his shoulder to the ground. "Just this," he answers. There are several lumps of ore in the sack, which must have been pretty heavy but he carried it as easily as if it were full of dirty laundry. Arulia reckons she could process the whole lot before closing time today. "It's all I have left," he adds. "Was hoping to process it and sell the ingots. Might make enough to survive the winter."

Felran, Ne-Chanz and Shima (North Sewers)
The rat launches itself at Shima before anyone, even the dwarf, has time to respond. He doesn't even get his spear set before it leaps at him, biting him in the arm. He shakes the rat off and stabs with his spear as a counter, running it through. It squeaks once more in protest before being claimed by death.

"Good job," Felran comments. He glances at the rat bite. "Hope that doesn't become infected."

With the rat dead, it appears the tunnel is clear now.

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Initiative
Felran (1d10+5): 5+5 = 10
Ne-Chanz (1d10+5): 7+5 = 12
Shima (1d10+6): 3+4 = 7
Giant Rat (1d10): 4

Round 1!

Giant Rat moves toward Shima and then bites at him [TN 17] (1d20): 20, critical hit! for (2d3): 3+1 = 4 damage.
Shima thrusts his spear at the giant rat [TN 11] (1d20): 14, hit for (1d6): 6 damage. Giant Rat dies.

(OOC: End melee.)

Shima grunts back, "Well, thanks, I hope so too."
He takes a few minutes to try and put whatever relevant herbs he might have (or can find) on the wound to try and help. {OOC: Fungi Recognition (15), Herbalim (12), Underground Survival (12)}
"Any time you want to take over at the front, you just tell me. Feels like I'm soaking up all the damage on out little expeditions. You lot can't even be arsed to open the doors. Oh wait, it's my turn again to scout the place. So you pair just wait here while I go and do that. Again."

{OOC: Yep, working on a guilt complex for when other players return. You're allowed to do that when your HP hit single figures.}

Having had his moan, the little dwarf continues trying to scout the place as indicated before.