The Blinkdogs and the Ambush

After that adventure in the Wildflower forest, things got back to the same routine. I theory crafted during the day and work on items at night. After a few more nights I had that beautiful sword ready to go. I still hadn't set the pay plan, but hey I got collateral now. I tried to talk to the nobles about their order but I could only get their Topaz servant to see me. Strange but I don't really need to know why they are so standoff as long as they got the coin. The Topaz gave to me a small lockbox with half the payment for the work like I requested. The other half would be paid on arrival to Brentwood. Thank Castilla that I don't have to deal with some payment plan. I like being square quickly then having to keep ledgers like Maki. It also works much better for the permeant stores. Luckily, I borrowed enough from Maki to make a few entertainment items to show off to our captive audience. If no orders at least they might drum up advertising gossip.
 
By the third 6th day of Myr, 250 AD the caravan had made to out to the blinkdog fields. At this point I had recrafted most of my items into combat biased magics. I will NOT be caught out again. That also meant that I "fixed" my sleeping times again. It only took another day without sleep and enough tea that I had to find a bush to thoroughly rinse throughout the night. Nights are way to long to do nothing with, felt awful. At least I got to spend more time with Bessy since I recycled the doll that had Phantom Driver. Anyway one we stopped near the fields we pulled off the side of the road a ways to rest. We were able to see the dogs in the distance faintly glowing and blinking around. Was pretty neat to see in person. I hadn't done too much traveling outside of Naan and Lfaen before this trip. One large dog came closer to camp and the Lt. set down a bundle for it. The dog howled and howling was returned from everywhere, not just around us but seemed to pierce the very material plain. Suddenly about 30 dogs blinked into the world around us sniffing and running around before disappearing again. After all the excitement, the Lt. explained that the bundle was a simple offering to have them do a little show for travelers, a once in a lifetime type thing. Kniana left them some food too, I don't really understand why or some of her quirks with that stuff, but hey she healed me so imma just let it pass. Regardless, that night I finally had time to make a "Tink Coppertail Contact Scroll™" to try out. Used almost all my supplies after this one. It was an experimental scroll and took me a little longer and a lot more effort to make. It was a scroll of Gust of wind at 5th level, so nothing too dangerous to experiment with, or so I thought...
 
By the third 7th of Myr, Kniana made some breakfast for the group. I didn't have any but from what I heard it was quite good. Some of the wearier travelers looked a litter better after it even. That morning was at least entertaining as after some packing up shady Skrel comes huffing up dragging a deer behind him. The thing was like 2 or 3 times his size. I had no idea why he didn't just ask for help but eh, not my problem. The lizardfolk that we've been traveling with started to mess with the deer. They seemed to be knowing what they were doing so I left them alone. They strung it up to the cart as the Corpl. was dousing the area with what I would guess was a Decanter of Endless Water. Makes me wonder how or what she has done to get herself so many magic items. I will have to chat with her about them. After she was done washing the dirt, the caravan took off for the day.
 
After we had stopped for the evning, Eval came up to me with a question. Apparently the lizardfolk semi-secretly pulled out a jar of nails, claws, or something of the like while dressing the deer. He mistakenly believed that I was of some kin to them. HOW DARE HE. Kobolds are of direct descendants of our dragon gods! Made me that much more apathetic as to what happened to him that night... After setting him straight on my proud linage, I told him that it wasn't something that I had heard of from my experiences with the lizardkin. Most of my interactions had been very formal and likely would have been repulsed of such a thing. They are somewhat egotistical and very prideful so image is everything. Maybe it is a religious thing, a personal thing, or they have a strange hobby. Seeing as though they are outdoorsmen it might just be to keep track of their prizes. Knowing about Eval a bit from this ride along I suggested that he simply just ask them. Maybe they have a story behind it. I then tempted him with being part of a new story of helping me test my new scroll.
It took a bit a little bit of convincing, me telling him that the spell was non-lethal, threw out a number for safety, ect. Truthfully, I knew it should have been fairly safe, but you can't say that I outright lied. He ended up caving to my request and I called Lilly over to be on the receiving end. I had to make sure that it was just as good as a regular spell. I had her brace against a rock and instructed Eval on the casting method. I took a few steps back and used my belt of Shield and Ironskin ~just in case~ and started noting down everything in my notebook. At first it seemed to be a resounding success, up until the fire tornado... He activated the scroll just fine and the winds started to blow, but his hands started to glow purple. This was very quickly followed by the scroll bursting into a purple and black flame and the scroll falling from his hand. Just as that was dying back down It caught the wind produced on fire turning it into a fire tornado! Now I'm not normally a pyromaniac, but it was something pretty. I managed to get out of the was with just a few singes, but Eval took the brunt of it. Serves him right comparing me to lizardkin... Regardless, it seemed like I had forgotten to take the magic winds into account for the trial. Still good results for warnings and side effects. I decided to continue with my tests as I want the same conditions to see if it was JUST the winds. I cast Gust of wind on Lilly again to see if the strength was the same. As I cast most of the crystals in the area lit up purple. It confirmed to me that the scroll was the wrong medium for the mishap in the magic winds. It was destroyed and the resulting fire was fueled violently by the spell itself. I will need to try another spell after I get more supplies. Shady Skrell came by after the firenado and practically begged me to use him for the next trial, well so long as it is the big flashy fire rather than the wind. He even healed me for the bit of singe I had endured. Seems like he will be useful to me more than I thought. After the whole thing Eval was nearly droning himself with water. I guess he did get pretty crispy from that. I had to keep him in good graces to volunteer again, so I poured a glass of the heel beer they won from the tournament. It fixed him up pretty good. After all the excitement, we cozied down for the night. I had a completely free night for once so I might as well show off a bit and talk with the others. I try the food they had been having, it was not a Clan Emerald meal but it was nice. I even was sharing some plum liquor from the Tengu drinking jug I made. After this trip I think that this will help supplement my tea intake some. It is defiantly faster to use than waiting to boil and steep and all the like. More portable too. Eval asked for more warning next time and yea I need to check the winds more often before experiments. He even sparked an idea of having the scroll do something like that purposefully.... Leo came but and informed us of an approaching group. I did NOT survive a plant monster to be ambushed like a commoner. I whistled at Bessy and walked over to her to prepare for the worst.
 
~raw~
try to talk to nobles, only get topaz, after awhile he gives me a small lockbox w/12k and will be paid the rest on arrival. 18th day arrive near the blinkdog fields, i recrafted most my gear for battle after the incident and transitioned to sleeping at night again, we pulled off the side to rest. We saw blink dogs in the distance faintly glowing and blinking around. one large dog approached, LT gave it a bundle and a bunch howled from everywhere and then they all blink around us then blink away after a bit. about 30, LT explains about offer food for an interaction once in life type thing. kniana left them some food, managed to create a trial contact riffle scroll of gust of wind to use.
day 19 kniana made breakfast for some of our group, I didn't eat, skrel managed to get a deer and drag it back to camp somehow, the lizardfolk seem to know what they're doing dressing the deer. the corpl washes the dress area with a bottle of endless water,
evening, eval comes over and asked about the lizard men's bottle of finger nails claws ect, the bottle not something I've heard of, most lizard folk tend to be formal, would find repulsive, egotistical prideful creatures, say just to ask maybe has a story with it. temp him to be part of a new story helping me test the new scroll, non lethatl type, ask to cast, set back and use belt, writing in notebook, his hands started to glow purple, the cards burst into purple and black flame, catch fire, flame gets small, it erupts into a tornado of fire, eval gets singed, winds were not at our side, winds are low, i try to cast the same spell, all nearby crystals light up lilac purple, write in journal, skrel volunteers for next trial, eval downs water then takes tankard of heal beer, we all cozy down for the night and i have some food and share xome plum liquor, eval asks for more warning, and gives me my next idea to try to harness the unintended effects to next idea...
leo warned us of an approaching group, I whistled bessy to alert and walked over to her,