The Scratching Post #43686

Do you know what's the worst thing? Having a crew of newbies to the secrecy industry dropped on your lap. Do you know what's a great way to give yourself a headache? Stay up all night to protect them from a shady elven lady who you know is up to some shit, and fail. So, I try to reset myself and start fresh by grabbing an infamous cat power nap. I'm in my room underground, trying desperately to drown out the sound of the conversation outside my room being held by the crew of adventurers we adopted and Cordelia. I finally start drifting to sleep, when Cordelia barges in and shakes me awake. She needs me awake, so she is going to grab a "wake the fuck up" potion from The Burning Eel, a local brewery of magical drafts not too far from our tavern. The Burning Eel is manned by no other than Acoris, who I've purchased several of the concoctions through in the past. The trip shouldn't take more than 15 minutes, so Cordelia wants me to watch the males of the group and connect with them while she takes the females and does some brief shopping.
 
Begrudgingly, I agree. Rousing myself from what brief slumber I had, I walk into the main room with all my notes on the wall. I see the girls gathering belongings and getting ready to head past the bush. I also notice the halfling male, who I can confirm is named Sam, studying my notes in rather rigid detail. No worry to me, because I have to trust him, but curious nonetheless. I am aware that Sam is a religious individual, following a god of the harvest, so what interest does he have in the goings-on of Sgand? Does he know something more than he lets on? I'll see if I can pry it from him in the future. I know the blue tiefling, who is confirmed to be named Aerilyn Faeyth (Yes, she is the daughter of the Mr. Faeyth I've been searching for on and off for several years), does have a mother in town and grew up in Sgand's ports. After several silent minutes, the gnome with too many shoes (Borris is his name, still trying to confirm it) suggested we spar upstairs. While he does seem to focus on two things at all times, shoes and combat, I will say he is relatively professional on both fronts. Wanting to gather information more than show my hand, I allow them both to spar in the main dining area while it's closed for the day.
 
Notes from the spar are brief but useful. Sam uses a mix of his god's blessing and his scythe to control things on the field, prioritizing control itself over a group and sporadic moments of combat to the true chaos battle can offer sometimes. Borris, the gnome, prefers heavy swings on one single opponent until they fall. He is deadly at close range but doesn't seem to offer much at any range beyond that. Sam has many options for any range but seems to prefer a mid and close-range.
 
After a round or three of this, I know the girls should have been back by now, so I suggest we go look for them. The other two agree, and we gather our things and head through the front door. No sooner had I locked the front door and secured the closed sign, did Cordelia shove a potion into my hand and ask us to follow her and the girls. Bewildered, I drank the potion (trusting it to be the one necessary) and we followed them. Along the walk, the girls filled us in that while Cordelia was shopping for the potion, she struck up a deal with Acoris. If she gathered several certain flowers, she would be able to get reimbursement for the potion. After a long walk, some friendly conversations, and a killer headache later, we were outside the city _______ proper and were able to go about the hunt for the dark flowers we were after.
 
Remember how I said Borris, the gnome, focuses really well on combat and shoes, and not much else? It shows. As we were searching, he rushed right into the middle of these flowers, which turn out to attack you mentally, and suffered greatly for it. Thankfully, the flowers need to touch the skin to inflict damage. So, we were able to rescue Borris and bundle the large number of untrampled flowers for Acoris. Fast forward about an hour back into town, I stop by my favorite writing shop and spend 2 Gold on 2 large bound books for overall notes, a scroll for finalized notes, and a portable jar of ink with a travel quill. We then run into a newer adventurer on his lonesome named Urthan, a half-orc. While I'm talking to him, Cordelia and the rest exchange the flowers for several potions (8 battle brew potions, 2 bath potions for myself and K, and a morning brew which I lovingly refer to as Wake the Fuck Up).
 
Urthan is on the hunt for some easy coin and has landed his eyes on a bounty sheet for an older colleague of mine. poor guy is only worth 30 Gp. As Cordelia and our adopted children are coming out of The Burning Eel, Urthan spots the target heading into an alleyway. Urthan takes after him immediately, and we all chase after him to help him out. The target seemingly traps himself in an alleyway. Now, I don't know why, but we started snapping our fingers together in a pattern as we entered the alleyway behind him. The target was taken aback by this, but still sprung the trap we walked into.
 
Combat ensues at this point, and BOY HOWDY does these folks know how to throw down. things were happening so fast that I have no good notes on any one particular person's fighting style beyond they all love the sight of viscera and blood. The combat was short, only about 30 seconds honestly. No one from the opposing side survived. Cordelia found a magical scroll with a wax insignia of a lobster on it. I found 19 Gold, and have added it to my purse.
 
I'm looking forward to that bath potion and a good night's rest.