(Adventure) A Tidy Profit... [Judge: Uriel]

[Verbatim]

ooc: Rog...but I will still keep Merlis feeling a bit paranoid, as he is a stranger with a pair of men who in his eyes have seen alot more than he has..

 

[Scorpio]

D'Artagnon looks at the two others, closes and locks the door. He eyes the stranger.
"Well, welcome aboard...is it Merlin? Hmmm...that name sounds familiar...at any rate, what you hear in here stays here. Got it?"

He spreads the contents of the knapsack on the bed.
"Charts, notes, some equipment, and...." He picks up one of the cylindrical items....

 

[Verbatim]

D'Artagnon looks at the two others, closes and locks the door. He eyes the stranger.
"Well, welcome aboard...is it Merlin? Hmmm...that name sounds familiar...at any rate, what you hear in here stays here. Got it?"

He spreads the contents of the knapsack on the bed.
"Charts, notes, some equipment, and...." He picks up one of the cylindrical items....

"Mer..Merlis actually sir. I was named after my grandfather, a skilled brewer and carpenter. Perhaps you have had a bottle of gnomish stout and saw the name on the label? Have no fear sir, as I would never speak out of turn, especially after all that you two have seen and forced to go through."

As the items are dumped out on the bed across from him, Merlis can't help but stand up and take a step closer to get a better look at everything.

~The spoils and mysteries of battle...what will I find if I travel with them?~

 

[The Goblin King]

He spreads the contents of the knapsack on the bed.
"Charts, notes, some equipment, and...." He picks up one of the cylindrical items....

"I do not suppose you know how to use that thing?" Zhang rummages through the canvas sack setting a small pouch of leaden sling stones aside.

He hands Merlis a lidded jar filled with a pungent-smelling ointment. "Can you identify this?"

Zhang opens up something that looks like a rather small waterskin, smelling the contents. He picks up the leather bound notebook and opens it, "Hello. I wonder what this is." He says to himself.

 

[Verbatim]

Holding the jar in front of him, Merlis knew he could cast the spell of identification, but it would take a little time, and most of his savings. However, not wanting to let his companions know of a potential hardship on his part, Merlis simply smiled and set the ointment off to his side.

"I will need a little bit of time to prepare the spell, but it should not be a problem to discover what it is."

As the goblin started opening and leafing through a small book, Merlis closes his eyes and quickly casts detect magic to see if the ointment beside him was indeed magical.

 

[Pbartender]

Zhang opens up something that looks like a rather small waterskin, smelling the contents.

It seems to be filled with a quantity of granular black powder. It smells faintly sulfurous.

He picks up the leather bound notebook and opens it, "Hello. I wonder what this is." He says to himself.

It looks vaguely similar in format to the other logbooks that had been found in the ship's cabin, only this one seems to be written in some form of code.

Merlis closes his eyes and quickly casts detect magic to see if the ointment beside him was indeed magical.

The ointment indeed radiates a magical field. With a bit more concentrate and deliberation, Merlis concludes that the ointment contains some sort of faint conjuration magic.

 

[Scorpio]

D'Artagnon watches Merlis carefully.
"Yes Zhang, I know how to use these.They kill from a distance, like a powerful sling. But what's in the jar? It smells....like an orc...."

 

[Verbatim]

Resealing the ointment, Merlis shrugged his shoulders slightly when asked to know what was in the jar.

"I know that it radiates faint tracings of conjuration magic, but beyond that, I can not tell you at the moment. In the morning after studying my spells, I will purchase the necessary components to cast the spell."

~It would seem that I am already trying their patience with my meager skills, I hope they do not think I am unworthy of traveling with them now...~

 

[The Goblin King]

Zhangsun closes the notebook and sighs. "I can not read this. It is in code. I am afraid I was never good at deciphering such things. My first thought is that we should find a scholar. But I doubt such speciality is cheap. Not to mention, who to trust? I don't know anyone in this city."

 

[Pbartender]

Zhangsun closes the notebook and sighs. "I can not read this. It is in code. I am afraid I was never good at deciphering such things. My first thought is that we should find a scholar. But I doubt such speciality is cheap. Not to mention, who to trust? I don't know anyone in this city."

The far off voice of Zhangsun's tutor from the old temple back in Lanrick drifts through his mind. He can hear it admonishing him in with that particular bit of advice that was oft repeated whenever Zhang became too dogged and weary in his studies...

"You think too hard," his master would scold him, "and you work too hard. Attend to your meditations and then get some rest. We must all, on occasion, take time to restore both our minds and our bodies. Perhaps in the morning you will better comprehend the languages of the ancients. The holy texts have waited for you a thousand years, they will wait another night for you, surely."