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Saturday Night Pathfinder: Crayla meets the Party

On Saturday nights I am now playing in a Pathfinder game.  I'll be recording my adventures from the point of view of Crayla.  So let me tell you about Crayla.

Crayla is a half-elf level 1 ranger.  She grew up with 10 brothers and a father who was away a good bit of the time acting as a guard for a merchant caravan.  She learned to be tough, quick, and emotionally caustic.  Though she is good looking (fair skin, fiery red hair) her charisma is only average.  She puts people off.  She is quick to insult and quick to anger.

Crayla is a good shot with a longbow and can spin her short sword in and out of her scabbard and flip it easily across her wrist from side to side (weapon finesse).  She wears a shiny breastplate engraved with various animal markings made by one of her brothers.  It was his way of rubbing in that she had failed her druid training and relegated to just be one of those "woodsy rangers that helps find farmers lost cattle in the woods".  She can sneak around and break into things if needed -- a skill she learned getting her stuff back from her older brothers.  She also has a good eye for trouble.

As soon as she could get away with it, she left home and headed into the big city.  With no friends and no real way of making friends, she ended up in a lot of bad situations that she had to fight her way out of (favored enemy: human).  With a big chip on her shoulder, she's taken up with an organization that maintains the planes, keeping them from collapsing into oblivion.

---

I'm just back from my previous mission with a day off, so I take up shooting at the organization's training range.  A very short drunken human (or a small halfling with tiny feet?) in uniform with Kooper written across it appears and disturbs my practice.  I tell the short drunken idiot to stay out of my range and he dumps ale all over me.  I try to jump him and pin him, but I end up just pushing him a bit.  Damn munchkins are too slippery.  He eventually falls down.  I get in a few good shots before becoming annoyed with the twerp and heading over to trying my short sword at the dummies.

He, of course, follows , trying his own hand with a katana.  I get in a few hits and decent shield bashes.  A gnome practices nearby with a dagger.  The drunk eventually lobs his katana off the range.  I point the way so he can find it and head back into the local cheap bar.  One ale I'm not going to drink cost only a copper, which is a good deal -- my funds are getting short.  I sit and wait.  Not many people are around wanting to talk.

The drunken idiot is around, causing a disturbance, as usual.  I listen in and hear guards talking.  The queen dragon's eggs are being guarded for the next week or so until the hatching time.  A guard complains that there are gaps in the security watch.  I note this -- never know when such knowledge can come in handy.  Maybe a heist... maybe a way to gain favor with the elders.

I go back home -- an apartment to myself.  The quiet is nice, sometimes.  No more 10 brothers lurking around.  Not anyone around.

The next morning comes early and I am up and around when a messenger knocks.  I still always open the door with short sword in hand.  You never know.  The note tells of a briefing for my next mission.

Getting into the room is a chore -- same drunken bozo from the night before is trying to bring a big hulking bear into the briefing room.  I notice he has a fish in a glass tank tied to it.  Bozo's zoo?  A little stab with her sword and it is leaking:  maybe he'll get it out of here now.

Same little gnome from the range, drunken half-sized human, and her -- great.  Gnome is named Peelon?  I don't need to remember that.  Only a gnome would name their kid something with the word pee in it.

Apparently a town is having a festival and is about to be invaded - something to do with it is threatening the whole plane.  Blah, blah, blah.  Extended mission.  Crap.  I manage to talk the guy in charge to getting us another 1000 gold to prep.

Shopping for new stuff is good.  Anything new is good.  I grab a new bow (composite longbow str+2) that matches my strength better.  I grab a better set of lockpicking (masterwork thieves tools) tools.  10 potions of  healing (cure light wounds) are next, since I don't trust these two companions to keep me going in a fight.  And arrows -- I almost forgot to grab arrows.

Getting to the mission departure is easy enough until I see the shortest one is bringing his bear.  The dragon is going to have to carry the bear and the drunken stump is staying on him.  "100 gp if you drop him... just kidding."  The rider gets  good laugh since he doesn't like this clown either.  Hold on and the dragon and rider are away.  Big flash as we jump planes and then we set down in a woods not far from the town.  Stumpy decides the bear is going, so I am getting a head start.  I figure the town's response to the bear rider might give a clue to the towns response to an attack.

Once in town, I grab a locally-made cloak for a copper to blend in.  Festivities are underway and I slip into the crowd, keeping an eye out for the other two.

The town has a few guards, sparse, armed with swords and tower shields.  I glean information.  The Cathedral burnt down two years back with the head priest and his daughter inside.  I got their names.

Only one high bell tower and its probably locked.  I need to make sure that when the attack comes that it isn't locked.  A bow in the bell tower can take out a lot of whatever grimies (slang for monsters) this job throws at me.

Here comes the bear with some sortof banner.  Way to be subtle.  At least the guard seems to get him to stable the thing.

I get their attention as they approach.  We chat and agree to split up.

I head to the cemetery to see if there is anything to notice.  You can tell a lot about a town by its cemetery.  I get the name of the richest family (at least according to mausoleum size) -- Kaijitsu.

Chatty guys wonders by and offers to help me find a grave.  I use the old 'aunt' story and get a load of info about a noble who pushed his wife off a cliff and an artist that went mad and killed himself, right at the same time that the cathedral burnt down.  Coincidence -- I don't think so.  I don't believe in coincidences.

So I get a lead on the town jeweler to see if I can find anything on this artist.  An artist that goes crazy was probably a freak, and people keep close watch on freaks.

The jewelry store is busy on this festival day and staffed by a wife out front and a husband in the back.  I give the story about trying to match ear rings my aunt gave me made by the other artist.  This gal knows nothing, but I caught a nice tidbit, as she warned her hubby not leave the vault wide open again.  Mental note.

I find the other two.  It's about noon.  Need to get them set up to meet me at the local inn -- the Rusty Dragon -- at sundown.

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