Fantasy Cursed Island

[Deadwood Deer]

"Huh," Jerry wasn't the only one that used that trick of hiding things in weird places. "Alright," she fished out her kit and unrolled the bundle of thieves' tools on the table. Jerry's picks were definitely in better condition than Raine's. She fished out her secondary set of lockpicks and held it out to the kobold. "Here, these should do better than... that."

-------------------------
Nalla raised an eyebrow at the necromancer. Fey were not common in her homeland or down here, but the fairy felt drastically different from Adran, which she did not take as a good sign. "I am told that Jerry is your leader?"

"Uh," Veo looked around, "Kinda? She makes plans, but-"

"Where is she?" Veo pointed at the tent in the back.

"Anyway," Amdis pulled the cart inside and the door was closed behind her, "Thoradin, we've got your hides."

"Leave them by the really big cauldron," Thoradin replied, "I'll get to them soon as I finish this piece."

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine nodded as she took the picks. “Thanks. I had more, but I tend to break them a lot.”

—————

Erina has stopped her work to watch Nalla. Predictably, she was imagining a dress that size.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry shrugged and put her kit away, "Well, mine are purpose built and professionally made, you'd have to really suck, be really rough, or be incredibly unfortunate to break them."

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Nalla made her way to the back tent, nodding at Erina as she passed, and knocking on the tent. Of course, the thing was soundproof and the two on the inside didn't even head it. After knocking again and still getting no response, she opened the tent flap to make sure she wasn't being trolled.

Jerry, not expecting company let alone a hand bigger than her head to reach through the flap, did what Jerry did best, drew a pointy thing, turned a ring, and put the sprouting blade in the goliath's face in front of Raine. "GUYS?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine glanced away. “Er...” She didn’t get a chance to mention that she may have been all three before some giant started coming into the tent. She did what she did best and found a place to hide.

Shuffle heard Jerry’s call through the now-open flap and hurried over, poking her head in under Nalla. “Yeah?”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry glanced between an amused Nalla and Shuffle. "Why is there a giant in the forge?!"

"I am a goliath, actually," Nalla corrected, poking Jerry's sword to the side. "We are descended from giants, but are not giants."

"I don't care, why are you in the forge?"

"I came to visit the leader of Adran's tribe." Nalla shrugged, "And to see if you were in need of a shaman."

Jerry looked at Shuffle. "Why does she think I'm the boss? Only three of you listen to me."

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle nodded. “You’re the closest thing we have to a leader. You make all of our plans. The good ones, anyway.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry facepalmed, "Of course." She put her sword away, "Raine, you can come out now." Turning in her chair to face Nalla, "so, what can I do for you?"

"I would like to know if you have need of a shaman."

"We've got two supernatural experts, one's a necromancer the other demon-tamer. You're gonna have to offer something else."

"I practice nature magic."

 

[Fangs9090]

Raine peaked out from behind the table she’d hidden under. She knew she was small, but this woman made her especially feel small.

Shuffle looked up at Nalla. “What’s that do?”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Nalla smiled at Raine, trying not to be intimidating to the kobold who was a third her height. "I commune with nature and bend it to my will, so long as the old spirits permit. You saw how I commanded that tree."

"We've got that too, Emfa's a master with her axe and the elf and fairy are Fey. Can you heal, repel feeders, work enchantments, alchemy, teleport us out of the ruins?"

"If the spirits permit, I can heal, yes. Commanding animals, wildshape, herbology."

"Good, Veo still doesn't know what half her parasite does." Jerry turned back to her potions, "If you can figure out how to coax it out of her and kill it, I think that's something she's still hoping for."

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle smiled. “Strength in numbers. And more friends is always nice.”

Raine stayed where she was, for the time being.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"It is nice to have friends," Nalla smiled at Shuffle and dropped the flap. "Which one is Veo?"

----------------------
Jerry smacked her forehead into the table, making a bottle jump. "For once they see me as a boss, and it's only to stress me out even more." She glanced over at the kobold. "Yeah, you better get used to being dwarfed. We've got an arachne, a massive minotaur, Asta, and now a goliath, apparently." She wasn't even sure what she was supposed to do with the goliath, most plans were built around the fact that they simply could not heal during combat. "Can you fight?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle stepped out and looked around before pointing out Veo. “That one.”

—————

“Um...” Raine climbed into a chair herself. “I can hide and stay out of the way... So far I’ve tried to avoid fighting.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Oh, the little cow." Both minotaur's heads snapped up at 'cow'. Emfa raised an eyebrow. "I meant no offense."

"Whatever," Emfa sat down to sharpen her axehead. Chopping down every tree that looked like it could be used to make something that floated might have started to blunt the edge, and this steel was ridiculously hard to sharpen once dull, so maintenance was a timesaver.

"Need something," Veo asked, doing another count on what she had in her kit. "If you're hurt, I might not be able to help you, potions and bandages were at a premium before three more joined the crew."

----------------------------
"Well, that's not good," Jerry shook her head, "We get into fights a lot."

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle spoke up from where was lingering around Nalla’s legs. “I think she wants to help.”

—————

“Oh... But you’re all strong together. I don’t think I’d make that much difference.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Can you heal?", Veo asked.

"I practice healing magic, yes." Veo's face lit up.

"Great! Listen, I don't really have the ability to keep up with how many of these people get hurt, Emfa still won't let me look at her horn, but if someone gets hurt, don't hesitate, just get to work." She counted off the names of everyone in the room. "I don't know the goblin or the kobold, those are as new as you are."

---------------------
"Like Shuffle said, strength in numbers," Jerry shrugged, "Can you use a knife? Besides to turn a lock once you've got the tumblers in place."

 

[Fangs9090]

“The kobold is named Raine. And I think the goblin is Lyak.”

—————

“I mean, I can stab, I think.” Raine made a little thrust at the air.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Thank, you, Shuffle, Veo smiled, "Can you go take a look at Lyak? She's covered in bandages and she won't let anyone but Erina touch her."

"I can try." Nalla smiled and turned to go towards Erina and her loom. Lyak reacted to Nalla much the same as Raine. It wasn't clear how she got inside the loom without disturbing Erina's threads, but somehow she did it.

--------------
Well, that didn't inspire confidence. "Have you ever had to defend yourself against anything? Blight hound, saurian, maze minotaur, corrupted adventurers, the Crafter?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina had to stop her work as Lyak got into her loom. “Ah, now hold on, don’t get in there. Oh, dear...” She leaned down to try and figure out how to get her out without hurting her or damaging the loom.

—————

Raine shook her head. “I defend myself by running away. I’ve seen what the monsters here can do, and I wouldn’t stand a chance.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Oh, dear," Nalla knelt by the loom, somehow still eye-level with Erina despite sitting on her haunches, "I do not believe... may I?", she gestured to the loom, asking if she could work her magic to make a space for the goblin to get out, and then close it.

----------------
Yay, a liability. At least she could pick a lock, hopefully. "Alrighty then", Jerry fished out one of the locks from Shuffle's table and closed the shackle, slidin it across the table to Raine. "Pick it."

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina glanced at Nalla. “Mm... So long as it doesn’t mess up my work, by all means.”

—————

Raine looked at the lock before fishing out her old lockpick, deciding to use that one to end of its life first before using the new ones. She looked more closely at the lock before shoving the pick in, which broke almost immediately. She paused before switching to one of the new ones.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Nalla nodded, touching her staff to the side of the cavity Lyak had hidden in. Some green light flowed from the staff into the loom, bringing the wooden box to life. Going with the grain, the side of the box split and lifted like a wooden mouth, wide enough for Lyak to exit easily. Lyak of course, stuffed herself further in the corner in a futile attempt to get away from the giant.

--------------------
"WHOA!" Jerry reached out to stop Raine's hand before she could snap her picks. "Easy, you're not trying to cut it open!" So she could not actually pick locks, if she was going at it with such a low-skill attack like that. "Slow and gentle, brute force isn't gonna pop the shackle, finess is." She pulled out another lock to demonstrate. "Count the pins and tumblers, you'll be able to feel it through the pick when they're in the unlocked position and your tension rod can turn the keyway." The shackle popped open in Jerry's hand as she explained that.

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina raised her eyebrows at the Druid’s magic before leaning down to reach towards Lyak. “There, there. It’s alright.”

—————

Raine blinked as she looked at Jerry. “I...don’t know what any of that is. I just wiggle it around until it opens.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Lyak glanced between Erina and Nalla. She flinched from Erina's hand like normal, but scooted out towards her and reappeared hiding behind Erina's legs.

"There," Nalla did her thing again and closed the seam she had made, leaving no trace on the box that she'd done anything to it. "The healer, Veo asked me to see if the little one was injured."

-----------
Jerry blinked. "Oh, my gods." She took a deep breath and exhaled. "It's okay, Jerry, you can work with this." She looked up and fished some more stuff out of her roll of tools. "I'm gonna take the lock apart and show you, okay?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina looked her loom over before nodding to Nalla. “Right. She’s clearly still skittish, and it doesn’t help that we don’t understand each other. But I may be able to get her to sit still for you.” She looked down for the goblin again.

—————

Raine gave a nod. “Alright... Sorry. I’ve never had any kind of training. Everything I know, I learned it on my own.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Lyak clung to Erina's leg like her life depended on it. Between two giants, she'd rather take the spider. Whether that was a compliment or not... ? She glanced up at Erina and shook her head. "Kinse ids cala!"

-----------------
"I didn't have training either," jerry shook her head, "I learned out of necessity and just got an upgrade after I finessed a nobles pocketwatch and found a fence." She de-chambered the locking mechanism and took it apart on the tray built for the purpose of taking locks apart, keeping everything where it was supposed to go so putting it back together would be easier.

"Alright, these are the pins," she pointed to the little pegs, "When you pick the lock, you need something for tension, there's a flat piece of metal shaped like a stretched 'z' for that purpose, and you need a pick. There's a bunch of different types, it all boils down to the individual keyway and what you're comfortable with." She picked up a pick and a tension bar and positioned them in the, now hollow, keyway. "You can also do this with just wires, but it's harder."