Chapter Seven

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Urrak, Ravaphine, and Brimeia have wandered down for breakfast. The others nowhere in sight.

Urrak heads directly for the kitchen, in search of food. She let’s out a small cheer when she sees a large pot filled with some kind of porridge on the fire and meat roasting in the back. She grabs her fill, sleepily leaving a gold piece on the counter in the back and walking back out to the others.

"I've not slept so deep in weeks. How's the mornin' treatin' the rest o' ya?"

"Mmm. Feelin' much better." Brimeia stretches.

“Weeks? We've only been here three days. What were you doing before you got here, Urrak? I don't think I ever asked." Ravaphine asks her.

"Travelin'. A man hired me t' escort him through a patch of dark woods. Humans are soft, squishy things. The poor lad wouldn't last an hour without protection"

Cyan comes in from outside, running a hand quickly back and forth through her short hair, causing small droplets of water to fly off. She spots the group all and joins you. "Bit wet out there this morning."

Urrak flushes slightly, now fully awake. "Aye, bit o' mornin' dew. Brimeia, have ye still got ol' Poni?"

"He's in here" Ravaphine says as she taps her bag and a faint muffled voice is heard.

"Ah, right. We should all get some food in us before we head out. Perhaps some equipment as well. Brimeia needs another spear."

"Cyan, do you come equipped?" Ravaphine asks.

She taps the rapier at her side, but she grins and says, "You mean my lyre's not enough for you?"

"I do love your lyre."

"Well can you sing the beasts to sleep?" Brimeia chuckles.

"I might," Cyan grins. "But I'd rather just watch you all work."

"Shall we look for an armory in the town?" Ravaphine suggests.

"I noticed a forge just on the other side of the square. Maybe there'd be something there?"

"Sounds like the place we need t' be. Shall we?" Urrak says as she starts to head out of the Cask, the others following behind her.

As they step out there’s a light drizzle and the forge is visible on the other side of the fountain, south of the square. It’s is in open air, surrounded by some tools and items, but there's also an actual building built around it in a sort of U-shape.

They make their way inside, glancing about for anyone who might run it, but they come up empty.

"Empty as can be." Urrak says.

There’s several items, farming tools, shovels hoes, a couple of pickaxes, but there are a few shortswords, javelins, and daggers.

Brimeia snags one of the javelins to replace the one she lost in the previous battle, and Ravaphine pockets the dagger. Cyan takes a peek at the equipment but doesn’t take anything, Urrak just watches them as they pick through the weapons.

"Have y' got everythin' y' need?"

“Looks good, let's head out to Poni's again."

"After you!" Cyan says.

Urrak leads the group towards the basement, warning Cyan about the state of it. "If it appears like a bomb has gone off in here, it basically has.”

Seirixori and Enna appear, quickly joining the group, Urrak however disappears mid-step on the stairs to the basement.

Ravaphine removes Poni out of her bag, his voice ringing out, annoyed, "You're quite lucky I can't breathe."

Seirixori groans, "Are we though?"

"I'd say you're quite lucky you can't, honestly." Enna says.

Brimeia snorts at both comments.

Ravaphine sighs, "Cyan, this is the mastermind behind this whole catastrophe. Meet Poni:"

"Are you finished with your nonsense and ready to get back to, I don't know... saving the world? Or at least this pointless little village?"

"The people in that village may object to your designation of them as pointless, stick-man. They are living lives there. Building a community. That's not something to balk at." Enna says to him.

"He's... everything you said he was."

"And more!" Ravaphine says.

"Poni please take us to the next destination of the component. We all need to be holding each other in some fashion so we don't get left behind..." Ravaphine says as she looks shyly over to Cyan.

"So you've said... several times." She winks at Ravaphine, teasing her.

"Pick a component, and let's go. The less you speak, the better." Seirixori says, agitated.

"I've already found one, Candy Cane. Push the button to get a peek."

Ravaphine pushes the button and the space above the base of the teleportation object sizzles to life, surrounded by wild magic. Oddly there isn’t a component, instead, the circle is focused on an odd creature, raven-like in form but with arms and hands instead of wings and the size of a small human. It's walking through a crowded street and there’s a sign of a unicorn in a cauldron over the door it enters.

"Poni...why did you show us this place?” Ravaphine asks, recognizing the creature, “That is a Kenku. They're cursed and potentially dangerous. I've read that they could be spies or thieves"

"It must have the component on it. There's no other reason for it to be in the portal."  As the continue to watch, the Kenku ducks into a back room and slips behind a false wall and is now walking down a dark corridor.

"So, are we going or just...watching?" Seirixori asks.

"Welp," Ravaphine takes a deep breath, "Shall we?"

"Well, time to get cozy, friends." Brimeia tries to throw her arms around Enna and Seirixori.

Seirixori steps out of range of Brimeia and places a hand lightly on Enna's shoulder, Brimeia’s arm still hanging out like she wants someone to take it anyway, "You only need to touch one of us."

Enna stares down Brimeia, but there’s a small smile on her face, "One of these times I'm going to have a dagger out when you do that, and you're not going to like my reflex." However, there’s a small smile on her face.

"Are you saying you mind it?" Brimeia flashes a grin and a wink.

Ravaphine reaches her hand out towards Cyan with a hopeful smile on her face "This is where it gets interesting."

Cyan shakes her head and allows Brimeia to grab her as well as taking Ravaphine's outstretched hand.

Ravaphine walks through once everyone is holding on and they go from the basement to an alleyway. There's piles of trash and rather large rodents that scurry out of their way as they appear. People are walking up and down the streets, the usual chatter happening amongst them.

"This is very interesting indeed." Cyan says as she gets a look of her surroundings.

Ravaphine puts Poni safely back in her bag. "We need to watch out for that Kenku."

"At least it's not a veritable graveyard this time." Brimeia says.

Ravaphine motions for the group to head down the alley, the others following quickly, "We need to find that component."

They head out towards the crowded street and notice they’re in a bustling city with tall buildings and winding cobblestone roads. Most people are walking swiftly, often ducking into or out of the buildings. None of them notice the sign they saw in the portal, but the buildings look to be the same kind.

"Where did that damned thing go..or more importantly, where did we end up?" Enna questions as Ravaphine approaches of the passers-by to ask for directions.

It’s a middle aged woman who barely gives them a glance, "A unicorn? Only thing I know like that is the next street over." She points in the direction across the street and continues on her way.

"I guess we're headed to that direction."

"She was more helpful than Poni." Seirixori mutters.

As they get a better look around they can see several painted signs with different symbols on them. There’s a market down the way, many of the signs showing the goods for sale.

Seirixori starts heading in the direction the woman pointed out, pushing her way through the crowd and into another busy street, the others soon follow, not wanting to get left behind. More signs above doors, clearly not what is actually offered, after a few more seconds of perusal they see the sign down the street a ways.

"There’s the unicorn!" Ravaphine points in the direction, "But we must be careful.” As they get closer they can see inside the store window, the display full of different potions.

Both Brimeia and Seirixori get wide births from the people around them. The town unaccustomed to seeing or being around tieflings.

"Well this is a familiar sight..." Seirixori mumbles.  They quickly make their way inside, Brimeia stepping in more cautiously than the others, not wanting to bump into anything. Some potions are recognizable to Ravaphine and Seirixori, being of similar color to the healing potions that they found in the mansion in Bellbury.

A balding, middle aged, human male, with a bit of a belly, is behind the counter. “Can I help you ladies?”

"Hello, we are just browsing. Say, do you happen to know this town's name?" Ravaphine asks him.

"Do I... know the name of the town I live and work in?" He looks at her oddly, but answers, “This is Serinar. Jewel of the West."

"You seem to be a city of fair many folk, ever get any strange parties through these parts? Your neighbors seemed perturbed to see us outside." Enna sats.

"Depends what you mean by strange. Not common to see red skin and horns on people walking around 'less they're dragonborn. Even then, it's not real common."

Ravaphine starts poking around the store while Enna and Brimeia engage in conversation with him.

"Can I help you find something?"

"Seen anything odd this way besides us?" Brimeia laughs.

He frowns. "What exactly are you trying to get at here? This is a place of business and if you're not here to shop, I'm going to have to ask you all to leave."

"What would you say is your standard fare, here in this shop? I doubt you're raking in the coin with mere mild healing salves." Enna replies quickly, her eyes following Ravaphine, but she makes it look like she’s browsing.

Ravaphine makes eye contact with Brimeia and tilts her head towards the back room ever so slightly.

He draws himself up, insulted. "I make quite good money, thank you, and I'm good at my craft. I'm going to have to ask you to leave since you think so little of my wares."

Seirixori, quickly muttering under her breath, steps forward, "Forgive my friends here, they don't like being in unusual places." She says, giving a big toothy grin.

Seirixori's words come out smooth as butter and the man turns and smiles at her. "It's quite alright. Can I help you with something else?"

Seirixori moves away from the group, as best she can, trying to draw the man’s attention away from her companions, "Is there possibly something worth more in the back, that perhaps you aren't showing here in your lovely store-front?"

"Oh, no, we don't keep things in the back. Everything I have is out front."  Enna looks at Seirixori, a vague sense of distaste on her face on the use of the charm, but relieved the man's hackles are down. She starts moving toward the back, taking advantage of his attention on Seirixori, Brimeia already working her way there as well. Enna slips into the back room without him noticing.

Ravaphine shares a look and a thumbs up with Cyan to make sure she's doing okay and Cyan returns the gesture.

"Actually, maybe you can explain to me what these potions over here are," Seirixori points to the potions by the window, to pull him away from the others.

A woman comes into the shop, a bit ragged and looks like she's been sleeping in the streets for the last couple days. She stops short, stammers out an apology and backs out of the store, leaving the way she came in swiftly.  Ravaphine looks at her companions and then the woman’s hasty retreat and heads after her, confident she won’t be missed for a few minutes.

The man points to one, yellow with an eye floating in it. "This is a potion of clairvoyance. It will let you see a place you know from a distance."

"Hm, interesting. Anything about locating people?"

"Locating people? Hmm.... I don't think I have anything for that currently. You might need a wand or rod for that. Khairi down at the Pixie might have something like that."

As Enna searches the back room she finds the false wall, a panel that pops open if pressed the right way. Enna heads back toward the door to the back room and pokes her head out, motioning to Brimea to come in, Brimeia gives a subtle nod.

"I will have to try them later then, anything else up here in his window? I'm sorry, I really only know healing potions." Seirixori asks the man.  Brimeia tries to catch Seirixori's eye and then tips her head toward Enna, waiting a moment before tiptoeing that way.

Enna whispers to Brimea, "Get back here." Brimeia ducks back with Enna and sees the empty room. "There's a false wall. Here."

Brimeia prods the wall curiously. "Think it's the same one?"

"Most likely." Enna presses the panel, her off hand fingering her shortsword in anticipation for what lay on the other side of the wall. The panel opens and she steps in quietly, her darkvision only letting her see so far, the hall a lot longer than she anticipated. She’s about to go farther in, but at the edge of her hearing are the click click clicks of sharp footsteps, coming in her direction.

Enna sees the light coming up the tunnel and backs up, whispering to Brimeia "There's a party headed up our way. We should go back, hide behind the crates--make sure we're prepared to ambush if need."

--

"Healing we have a lot of. They're my specialty," he adds with a wink.

Seirixori freezes momentarily and Cyan steps in and puts her hand on the man's shoulder. "Healing, you say? I can do a bit of healing myself. Why don't you tell me about how you make them?" She winks at Seirixori with a jerk of the head.

Seirixori nods and walks out of his sight, "Oh thank gods," she whispers to herself as the man goes into a deep conversation with Cyan about how he prepares his potions. She quietly makes her way to the back room to join the others.

Seirixori tries to quietly make her way back towards the others, however she catches the tail end of Enna’s comment and steps back into the room with Cyan and the shopkeeper.

Enna and Brimeia slip into the back room once more, moving to opposite crates to hide behind. The click click click sounds are getting closer. "....Fuck. Damn city, damn doors." Enna realizes she should probably close the entrance wall and jumps up to hit the panel again, then retreats to her spot behind the crate

The footsteps stop on the other side of the panel and the door swings open just enough for the kenku to squeeze through, shutting the door behind it. He turns around and spots Brimeia's tail sticking out of the side of the crates.

He draws his rapier and points it in that direction. "I can see you. Come out." His voice is odd, it sounds like three different people speaking a couple words at a time before allowing someone else to speak.

Brimeia stands up and shrugs, "Ha, yeah, ya caught me. Was just looking for the facilities and got a bit lost." Brimeia laughs nervously.

The kenku looks at her curiously. "There are no facilities here. Why were you here?" Again, his voice sounds like different people, except this time, he says facilities in Brimeia’s voice, exactly the same way she did.

Enna sneaks up behind the kenku, her shortsword drawn, and attempts to grab and disarm him from behind, but he turns before she can get close enough and opens his mouth, the sound of an alarm blaring from it.

Seirixori winces at the sound and the man in the storefront spins around. "Well, that obviously went so well," Seirixori turns to the back and steps to look inside, just as the kenku, rapier drawn, is coming into the store from the back room.

"Is there need for a weapon?" She asks slowly taking out her staff, not sure about her companions on the inside, having only heard a siren sound. Hands are out, ready to attack, but she waits.

The man at the front looks a bit alarmed. "Coin? What's happened? Why are you sounding alarm?"

Cyan also looks a bit caught off-guard, but draws her rapier, just in case, readying to defend herself.

Enna chases after the kenku, entering the main shop room with her shortsword drawn, focusing on marking the kenku in case he tries to get away, "Where does that tunnel lead?"

Brimeia follows Enna into the main room and bellows at the birdman, "Where's the magic shard?!"

The kenku looks around and sees it's surrounded. "You can't have it. It's mine. It's safe. You can't have it." The voices for the "you can't have it" are the same, but again, it sounds like it's using someone else's words, discordant and with odd inflection.

"Tell us where it is and how to get to it and we'll let you go." Seirixori steps up, hoping to intimidate him with her presence.

"You can't get it. It's safe. Only I can. You help, you get (magic shard?!) in pay." The phrase 'magic shard' is shouted as Brimeia had.

The man steps forward. "Coin, these are friends. Are you in trouble?" Cyan holds back at his question.

Enna says to the Kenku, "It's safe. Safe from what?"

"Safe from you. From thieves. From anything. It's mine now."

"You said help. Help with what?"

"Calley said she'd help to pay me. She didn't help. I took MAGIC SHARD?! for pay. You help, you have MAGIC SHARD?! instead."

"Who is Calley?" Enna asks.

~\*~\*~

Ravaphine sees the woman who ducked into the store, duck into an alleyway just down the stree and Ravaphine moves quickly to quietly follow her.

She's pressed up against a wall, trying to hide behind a bit of brickwork. As Ravaphine gets closer, the woman is clearly skittish and she flinches when she sees Ravaphine approach, "Please, I don't mean no harm."

"Hello, I don't mean any harm. I just saw you poke into the potions shop and leave. I wanted to ask if you were okay?”

"I'm sorry, ok? I didn't mean-- you're... you're not looking for me, are you?"

"No ma'am, I'm just a visitor. My name is Ravaphine," she offers her hand to shake, “are you from around here and people are following you?"

She shakes her head. "Not from here, no, and... I don't think they're looking."

"I know this will sound odd...but were you by any chance doing something one minute and suddenly you were transported to a different place?"

The woman looks up at Ravaphine, eyes wide. "Yes, yes that's exactly what happened. ...what happened?"

“I'm going to be completely transparent and say that's exactly what happened to me. I was just traveling when suddenly I turned up into a different town. Have you heard of a place called Bellbury?" Ravaphine questions the woman.

She nods, "That's where I'm from. I came here and then... this... this creature told me I needed to help him, but I couldn't. He took everything I had as "payment" for not helping him."

“I'm so sorry to hear that," Ravaphine says sincerely, "I can help you back home to your town, if you would like to accompany my group. You could help us"

"I'm not sure I'd be much help, but if I could get home, that would be great."

"What is your name? I'll introduce you to the group. By the way, did you happen to come across anything metallic and shiny?"

"My name's Calley. Calley Gazzo. And I did... I had one, but it was taken by the creature."

"It's nice to meet you Calley. I will get you back home, I promise. Let's go back to the others," Ravaphine says, as she takes in the woman, to see if she’s trustworthy, but from her haggard appearance, Ravaphine doesn’t see any reason to distrust her.

Ravaphine and Calley head back to the shop and Ravaphine takes a look inside, Cyan's talking to the shop owner at the front of the building, but it looks as if the rest of her companions are gone.  "It looks like my party is already on the move. Did you happen to get a good look at the creature?" Ravaphine asks the woman.

"It looked like a bird? A human with feathers and a bird's face? Or a really big bird with arms?"

"Does he have any magic or other strengths?"

"He talks strangely, but I don't know anything else. He took my things at knife point."

"What did he need help with?"

"He wanted to get into a tower. He's trying to find something at the top of it, but we couldn't get past the first room. It didn't have a door."

"Did you have any tools to help him? Is that why he took you?" Ravaphine continues to question Calley.

"No. I don't know why he wanted me to help."

"I see. Let's get you back home then." Ravaphine takes Poni out of her bag and reaches for Calley’s hand, once she has contact she presses the button.

"Are you going to get my things back?" Calley asks as they appear in the basement.

"What are you missing?"

"Not much, but he took my coin purse and my locket. It's the only thing I have left from my mother."

"I will try my best to retrieve your items but this man seems dangerous. Where can I meet you again to deliver if I can find them?"

"I... don't know. Where should I wait?"

"The tavern. We will be back okay? I promise.”

"Which one?"

"The tavern in town square."

"Ok. I'll wait there."

“Is there anything I should keep in mind when approaching the bird dude?"

"I don't know, other than he was really strange and he seemed good with his knives." Calley heads out as Ravaphine turns to get back to the others.

"May we meet again. Poni, please take me to the others looking for the component." The portal appears. It shows a dark room with a wall of safes across the wall.

"Is this where the others are, Poni?"

"That is where the component is. Those imbeciles you call 'friends' are somewhere nearby."

Ravaphine walks through the portal and shoves Poni in her bag once she’s through. The streets are familiar from when they were first here and Ravaphine easily makes her way back to the potion shop.

~\*~\*~

Ravaphine steps into the doorway from outside, "Calley is the woman who he harassed and kidnapped. He took all her belongings"

"Calley said she could help, but needed money."

"What do you want from us?" Ravaphine asks.

The storekeeper steps forward with his arms up. "Please, everyone put your weapons away. We are all friends here."

Brimeia sighs, getting frustrated, "We just want the broken magic thing. Let us have it and we'll be on our way."

Enna turns to him, "What is he talking about? What are you hiding down that tunnel?"

He looks away for a moment, conflicted, but says, "It's an entry to the Darkroses."

"You can't have it! Only for pay. Help me get what I want and you can have it in trade." Coin yells out.

"And what do you want?" Enna asks him.

"It is a little thing, but locked away. Only valuable to me. Master Bakar died. He had it."

Seirixori puts away her staff, "I don't see why we can't try. Any objections?"

"It must be locked away for a reason. Maybe to keep it away from you." Ravaphine says, not agreeing with Seirixori.

The shopkeeper steps forward, "Master Bakar was his... friend, I guess you could call it. He had an accident. Blew out half his tower."

"Yes, yes. He had my ring. I want it back, but tower is locked."

Enna points her sword at the kenku, getting frustrated with the many voices coming from the kenku, "Show us where we need to go then, bird-man. And keep that rapier down."

Before they can get any farther, Cyan and Ravaphine vanish and Poni falls to the ground, just as Urrak seems to appear from thin air, sword drawn.

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