At the voices from the smithy, Nym practically skips over.

"Hi there!" she says, brightly. "We didn't drop Ball - he's magic, he follows us around. Well, we're following him, really. If he counts as a him. But if I call him an it, it sounds kind of rude."

She edges in closer, peering in to try and see the minotaur or whatever's inside, and what they mighe be doing.

"What're you making? Can I see? I was wondering what you might be making because I don't think horseshoes or weapons would be much use here. I suppose you could be making those things just because you like making them, or maybe you're making something else..."

She stops suddenly, remembering something.

"Oh! By the way, I'm Nym. Short for Nymmerannemallar. Who're you?"

With proximity and interest in Nym's case, and low-light vision in Meri's case, it became easy to see inside the dim interior of the smithy. In many ways there was a commonality to the workshops of those who worked the more resistive metals in to some form of useful shape. A forge in the far right corner cast what light it could, both illuminating and throwing in to shadow the figures inside. [Private to Nym: You think you can see something, or some collection of things, up on one of the higher shelves along the right wall. They seem to sparkle and you feel as if they may be magical in nature.]

Working on an anvil near the right centre of the space was a hunched shape dressed in various leathers. The hair visible was expansive and expansive, and dark streaked with grey. A large beard was in evidence, but wisely tucked in to some sort of high leather strapping around the smithy's neck. The figure was about about six foot or less, it was hard to tell as he hunched over. He seemed very solid and wide, the hammer in his hand practical, solid and stained with black - the perfect fit to the owner. The hammer appeared to be thumping some flat and wide piece of iron, its function and form unclear for the moment.

Sort of imagine Hagrid but human sized and squatter for this guy. And clearly a different temperament :)

On the back wall seemed to be a set of shelves and workbenches with various tools, and maybe some twisted creations also. Moving on to the left, there seemed to be a further set of small benches, with some odd glows and vials visible. [Private to Meri: Which feels oddly similar to your own workshop.] There also appear to be some larger tools and even a small water trough to perhaps quickly quench items.

However, the left side is harder to look around not only because the forge glow does not travel fully across. Also occupying that space is the minotaur form earlier. Whilst perhaps not the tallest minotaur ever, and with a body smaller than many of its kind, that still makes it larger for a humanoid. Its fur is a mix of greys and whites, and its eyes are definitely a deep red. The gaze seems unfriendly, but that could just be a function of the bovine face. The minotair's long hairs seem oddly inadvisable for hanging around in a forge. Indeed, it can't be imagination that much of the minotaurs chest and leg hairs seem shorter and far blacker than the rest of it.

Whilst the minotaur does not advance, simply watches, the blacksmith at the anvil finally stops what he is doing. He gives a speculative look across to the two travellers, revealing a fat, reddened face with thick bushy eyebrows, black eyes, and a full mouth that is twitching as if the owner were sucking their teeth.

He turns to the two, then looks down at his apron and carefully pats it down as if to be more presentable, or just as likely looking out for rogue sparks and shavings.

He then looks back up and slowly walks forwards, his gaze going between Meri and Nym. He settled on Nym, but it is clear a lot of his comments are directed to Meri, perhaps recognising a fellow curmudgeon.

"My name's Tym, and its short for the sake of my patience, and the desperate attempt to hold onter 'em," says the rumbling voice. His gaze briefly goes to Meri before coming back to Nym. "And if yer talk is gunna end with the phrase 'and yer can buy this ball for the small price o' five gold because we're poor honest travellers' then I've got an anvil and a hammer and if yer lucky its just gunna that ball that'll be between 'em."

There was a growling mutter from the minotaur, who seemed to be looking Meri up and down, only occasionally looking at the ball near Nym's feet. It might have been the proximity or having listened to Tym, but the growling was audible common speech. The minotaur had just said something like 'told you the ball moved'.

Tym turned around briefly. "Well yes you did, and thanks for picking now to interact with the people and using more than two words." Tym turned back to the two companions. "Well my talkative friend Holder here is the one to ask about magic, apparently, though Holder should be busy helping me figure out how to make this blasted shield. The reason I'm having problems being quite ironic, really."

The was a strange coughing grunt from the minotaur - apparently called Holder - that seemed to be laughter. Tym turned quickly to the minotaur, "What's so funny about....no you idiot, I'm not making a pun on iron. I mean it's actually ironic that the person should be showing me how to do this is the person I'm making it for. You pick the darnedest time to a have a sense of... wait..."

Tym then turned around and addressed Meri then Nym, looking confused. "What do you mean the ball guided you here? What in blazes could possibly be around here?"


And on that long post, I'll leave you to react and ask questions, answer questions, roll dice if you like, and generally try to work out what on earth is going on. For the moment The Ball seems happy to just sit on the gorund letting you guys speak, and Holder seems happy to glare at The Ball :)

Meri grinned at the man, or at least the corners of her mouth kind of twitched in what appeared to be a slight upwards direction.  As Nym had probably learned, that was the closest Meri ever came to a smile.
She shifted the staff to one hand, balancing it on her shoulder and almost clonking Timur on the head with it.
"Well, I'd happily let you have it for free, if I had much of a choice in the matter" she replied.  "Trouble is, it seems to have become attached to us for some reason and I can't get rid of it.  Try as I might."
She aimed a rather nasty glare at the ball as she said the last part, before turning her attention back to Tym.

"I don't know that it wanted to guide us here specifically.  But it stopped on the other side of the river as we were following it, so, who knows?"
She glanced at the minotaur and then towards the anvil where Tym had been working.
"What sort of trouble you having with that?" she asked, gesturing with her free hand in the direction of the shield.


OOC: Talking about crafting problems is probably the best way to actually catch Meri's interest ;)

Also, I really like these two! :)
This message was last edited by the player at 21:07, Thu 04 June 2015.

On hearing Tym's name, Nym giggles slightly.

"Tym? We rhyme!" she says happily. "And Meri's little friend she's carrying around is called Timur, but sometimes I call him Timmy. Because why not?"

As Meri starts to speak, Nym's gaze wanders around the room. She goes over to a set of shelves on the right-hand wall and looks up at the topmost one.

"Oooh, sparkly..." she mutters, and starts to reach toward them. "Oh, wait..."

She pauses in her action and looks around at the others in the room.

"Suppose it... does?" says Tym of the name rhyming despite himself, and even gives the start of a confused wave to Timur before stopping himself.

Distracted by Meri's speech, he of course missed Nym's inquisitive beeline for the high shelf - and the dimly sparkling items.

'Careful' came a grunt, and the shaggy minotaur strode across the room. However, the giant simply lifted a hand gently to one of the items and picked it up between a thumb and forefinger with an oddly dainty manner. He set the item on his other arm near the wrist, and moved the arm downwards for Nym to see.

The item on his arm, still obvious despite the bottom of it getting lost in grey fur, was a twisted brass scultpure. About the size of Nym's fist, it was a delicate butterfly. The wings were outstretched, and where the actual material of the wings should be there was no brass. Instead the brass only outlined the wing. The glow came from a gosimere thin lair of what seemed to be glowing water lapping back and forth in the frame of the wings. The minotaur grunted something softly, and the wings of the butterfly flaps slowly once, twice, three times then stopped. The high shelf seemed to have three of four such scuptures, each with their own element bound - a sheet of fire glowing the brightest of them all. There also seemed to be a more solidly build statue of a dog or similar animal, sitting on its hind legs and looking off in to the distance.

"Careful," said Tym aswell, though in a far more nervoud tone of voice than the minotaur, giving a tug on his neck that pulled off the small scarf holding his beard back. He then tugged on his beard in a fidget. Meri could perhaps sympathise with the reactions of a craftsman in their workshop when confronted by Nym's curiosity.

Tym turned back to Meri, apparently fighting the urge to yell and deciding to instead concentrate on the question.

Fisher, growled Holder across to the blacksmith. Tym temporarily looked around, confused. He looked to the staff in Meri's hand as if wondering why the minotaur would think it a fishing rod.

"Ooh, artificer?" said Tym with realisation dawning, looking to the minotaur. The minotaur was concentrating on Nym and the butterfly, but still seemed to sense the look and nodded.

Tym turned back to Meri once more, as if having no idea how the minotaur made the guess. "Well, Holder should know I guess, weird bugger," he muttered then addressed Meri directly with a slightly more friendly tone. "Eh, trouble is your friend is right. Don't get much call for weapons around here. Or I never did." A little hint of wounded pride came in to his voice. "I can repair them mind, better than new I say, but..yeah, make one from nothin'? Eh, that was never me. My apprentice, now she's the one that can work metal like that, like she sees it all there as soon as she picks up the first lump of metal. Learned the fundamentals from me she did, but weaponsmithing from Holder I reckon. Anyway, give me something functional any day. I can see that, you just bash it and twist it and get it lookin' right for what yer gunna do with it. It's just there in yer mind, isn't it? Then yer go do some more stuff ter strengthen it 'cause we all know what all them buggers out there do with your beautiful new creation when they gets their hands on it. But...eh, weapons I don't want to think about what they do, thank you. And armour and shields? I mean, their function is to be smacked by dunderheads to protect the dunderheads inside. How are yer supposed to figure that one out?"

Tym gestured helplessly at the lump of flat metal. "So yeah, that's how it's goin' right now," he said sourly, throwing a look to the minotaur equal to the one Meri had thrown at The Ball.

The Ball, for its part, seemed to happily roll back and forth on Meri's leg as if her words and tone had been the kindest displays of affection. And of course, that meant the mud and dirt on The Ball was currently transferring on to her soaked boots.

Meri nodded, giving another faint hint of her ghost of a smile.
"I find it the same way myself.  Ordinary weapons and armour don't have the same...  Appeal to them" she replied, looking around at the shelf of items Nym was reaching for.

"Now those on the other hand.  That is true art" she remarked, indicating them.


OOC: ooo, definitely found one of Meri's weak points! :)  hehe.
Also, does Meri know anything about making shields that could help him?  Or do Artificers specialise more in things that make other things go Boom?
This message was last edited by the player at 07:31, Fri 05 June 2015.

I think the thing of an Artificer is that they see patterns in magic and can manipulate it and stuff and imbue items with it (you'll be able to enchant at level four, remember), rather than necessarily making the items themselves. I suppose there are plenty of Artificers who do make their own items, though, if they happen to also take up blacksmithing or carpentry or whatever :).

"Ooooh, that's pretty!" says Nym in a hushed voice, fascinated by the movements of the butterfly. "I can make that, too..."

She holds out a hand, palm up, and a copy of the butterfly appears.

"Yours is better, though." she says. "You actually made that. I mean, properly."

Nym then gives a slight flick of her fingers and the copy disappears.

"Nice that you make pretty things like that." she says, mainly addressing Holder even though the sculptures are presumably the work of Tym. "I don't like all those big swords and things that some people use. All hitty and stuff. Why use them when you have magic in your blood waiting to be called up?"

She holds out her hand again and a small flame dances up from it, then turns purple and forms itself into a twisting pattern, like a burning snake weaving through the air and around her fingers before suddenly disappearing.

"Do you have magic?" she asks Holder.

I'll have to double check, but my memory of the crafting of non-magical items was that basically its more up t othe player/DM, but that it happens during down time and your material and other costs are, who would have thought it, exactly the same as if you bought the thing in the first place :D

So unless we need to start determining a timing of how long an item would take to craft, I'm happy for you to say what items you think you could craft/not craft, have that skill, and just be aware that unless you have a feat or ritual that lets you do it you'll not likely be macguivering up anything you couldn't just buy over the same time period :D

So if you think you have bashed metal enough to have worked some shields, then you can go ahead and perhaps roll Intelligence or Wisdom to help, if you think you would have steered clear still roll, but you'll be more learning I guess :D


Tym gave a nod to Meri at the shared sentiment, then looked to the butterflies that seemed to have survived Nym's initial curiosity. "Ah, that was my apprentice what made them," said Tym, he seemed a little embarrassed as he carried on. "Linnetta. I likes butterflies, see, the ones around the area, so she occasionally makes me one. Doens't seem right having the skills to do that in the same hands that can turn a twenty pounds of scrap in to a noble's coward coat, but there you go." He said it with apparent fondness rather than bitterness, then pointed to Holder. "The ...funny stuff, the enchantment on 'em, that's all Holder though. Talented bugger when he puts his mind to it. Wish he's put his talents to help my shield bashing here!"

Holder gave a reluctant nod at both Nym's own display and Tym's more complimentary comments, and seemed to decide not to hear the others. There even seemed to be be few turned up muscles at Nym's butterfly. However, when Nym made her comment regarding weapons, Holder's shoulders seemed to droop. He put the butterfly back on the shelf, and stalked back over to the shadows of the left hand area.

Tym made a face, it almost looked like concern. "Ah, see, that's Holder's speciality is weapons. Well, magic too, and doing funny stuff, but sort of making them. I guess using them to, though that was a long time ago."

Tym seemed uncomfortable at having brought up that second part. Holder was luckily distracted from Tym's comment by Nym's question. Though still perhaps a little hurt, he shrugged regarding magic. "A little," the minotaur grunted. Holder snorted violently in the air, as if sneezing, however the air condensed and crackled with ice and there was a cold feel in the otherwise warm forge.

The Ball had spun in to the room quietly as always. Apparently intrigued by the butterflies Holder and Nym had demonstrated, it leap in the air and started spinning upon its access. All the dirt from its surface had long since gone on to Meri's clothes, and it made itself translucent, with some explosions of fire under the surface. As it spun, a rotoscope effect created an odd sense of a butterfly's wings flapping as it drifted across to Holder.

When The Ball hit the cold air, it suddenly froze, with ice on the surface, and plummeted like a large, round stone to the floor. Holder's red eyes had been following it, and with the sudden drop the minotaur acually took a step back in surprise.

The Ball then burst in to flames and flew upwards again, bobbing left and right as if amused at playing a prank. It moved brifly towards Nym then jerked back towards Holder, as if to encourage Nym to come play. The Ball hovered right beside Holder, gently bobbing left and right, still spinning like a now blue emerald butterfly.

Holder very slowly held out his hands and took The Ball between a thumb and finger, just as he'd handled the buttefly before. "Moving ball?" he grumbled to Nym, as if a question.

Tym looked to Meri. "Huh. Well, if that is a trick its a good one, I'll give yer that." He raised an eyebrow. "So how did y' come by it? You mentioned a curse? Where exactly is it leading you?"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:16, Fri 05 June 2015.

"No idea!" says Nym brightly before Meri can answer. "Ball just showed up one day and...well, does stuff. Plays around, like just then, you saw? And then one day seemed to decide we should follow him, so we did. And here we are, so far."

She turns back to face Holder and goes over to put her hand into the area of cold air made by his sneeze.

"Hey, you made magic. You sneezed cold. That must be funny. Can you do it without sneezing, though? Magic, I mean? Otherwise it must be really inconvenient for you to have to sneeze every time you want to do something...and can you only do cold stuff? What about fire, or acid, or...well, anything else? Does it feel good, when you do it? Mine does. Magic, I mean. Do you feel it in your blood? Meri doesn't seem to, at least not like I do. I like it."

She holds her hands at about shoulder width apart, palms up, and suddenly a rainbow appears, erupting from her right hand and flowing over into her left in a perfect arc. It starts to shimmer, all the colous changing into every other colour imaginable, before Nym throws her hands up and the rainbow erupts into a fountain of bright, multi-coloured sparks which shower down harmlessly onto the floor.

Nym giggles slightly and rubs her hands and forearms.

"See? I feel it and it's fun. I can do lots more stuff than that...but...well, Meri doesn't really like it. Some of her stuff got broken once, when I was showing her what I can do. That was a bit of an accident, so I'll be careful not to do that again."

She grins up at the minotaur.

Meri peered at the butterfly with a curious look.
"Hope I get to meet her some time" she remarked quietly.  "My old mentor just taught me the basics, and how to accidentally blow things up.  The rest I had to learn for myself.  Still learning too really, experimental crafting mostly, when I'm not tripping over that thing!"
She gestured towards the ball, watching with a puzzled look as it played around for Nym and Holder.

"Found it in my workshop one day.  Far as I know it used to be just a metal ball.  I forget what I wanted to use it for, seems like it got enchanted with something though.  I don't understand what it is, or what it wants from us.  It seems to be 'alive', in some way, yet it can change shape and colour, resist damage that would destroy anything else...  It seemed to want us to follow it somewhere, and we decided to go along with it just to see where we'd end up.  It stopped on the other side of the river, so we came here to see if it was something here it wanted to show us."

She shrugged lightly, her eyes following the strange object.
"Unless it wanted us to see your butterflies, I can't think why it came here.  Maybe something in there?"
She indicated the inn with her free hand as she spoke, then looked around to where the newer buildings beyond the hill were.
"Or maybe over there...?"


OOC: The fact Meri is still learning refers to the missing rituals :)
I hadn't planned on her mentor showing up in the adventure, but let me know if you want the details.  I actually just made him up on the spot while typing my first post, hehe.

"Make moving things solid, that's all. Like air and water to ice. Do it whenever," mumbled the minotaur in to his chest. He reached behind him to some of the larger assortment of gear and tools haphazardly stacked beside the smaller benches, and came back with something that looked too plain and abused to be thought of as a weapon, yet a little too pointed and hefty to be merely a forge hammer.

Holder then started gesturing slowly to a piece of metal propped up on a bench - it was oddly shaped, and perhaps had been one of the less successful attempts at a shield by Tym.

Slowly the minotaur concentrated on the head of the hammer, looking to it but making small circles with it at the shield. The room felt colder again, and slowly but surely ice crystals formed on the shield. The ice crystals sagged almost immediately despite being solid, and it was only after the effect spread over the whole of the shield in a circle pattern that it could be seen it was deliberate. It seemed like the fur on Holder's body, and the minotaur gave off an expectant air as if pleased with himself. There was a hesitation when the minotaur seemed to realise something was amiss, and he set the hammer down to go get the lump of shield-ish metal. He lifted it up and held it aloft, stepping forwards and twisting it this way and that. The Ball leapt to the air, igniting itself in royal blue flames and seeming like a burning sapphire. So doing, the full effect could be seen - Holder had formed his own face in the ice. There seemed to be a little bit more of a smile on the sculpted face than the minotaur's own shaggy and dour face, perhaps answering Nym's question about the fun of using magic.

"Bet Holder's master never taught 'im ter to that in an armoury," said Tym to Meri. "I've been bashing metal and other stuff in to less objectionable metal and stuff fer prolly fourty or more years, and I'm still learnin'. Yer get the basics down, they'll never let yer down, then yer just keep on learnin'." Tym gestured vaguely in the direction of the hill. "If yer ever get the time, yer should look up Linetta. She's got a workshop up in the Newbridge-"

"My workshop," muttered Holder interrupting.

"- great workshop that some idiot lost to her playin' cards. Dunno what the idiot was thinkin', but there y' go!" said Tym without breaking his flow.

As Meri gestured to the hill and the inn - or perhaps because Tym had mentioned the village on the hill - The Ball started waving around. However, after a few goes the deliberate motion could be seem in between the happy playful dancing. It kept jerking itself in a direction diogonally away from the smithy, passed the inn and beyond the crossroads.

Tym seemed to notice it, and muttered something to himself. He shook his head apparently to clear the thought. A different one quickly arrived.

"Umm, don't think there's any guests at the inn right now, but I do know what there is." Tym looked back over to Holder. "Holder, rather than showin' off ter yer new best friend, how's about y' go get Jorri and get us some drink out here. Maybe some food too, didn't get breakfast this mornin' cause I thought we were gunna be gettin' somewhere with all this."

Tym didn't seem too put out despite his words though. Holder stood up, putting the shield down after a moment admiring it. Despite how carefully he placed the item down, the frost broke apart and cascaded down to nothing on the ground.

"What want?" he asked, looking around.

"The usual fer me," said Tym, gesturing for the minotaur to leave with a dismissive hand.

Once the minotaur had left though, Tym's face took on a thoughtful expression and he hunched down with some effort on to the ground. "Just wanted that lump away to check summat," he said to the others at large. "Well, and drink and Jorri, but, well, just wanted to see summat..."

Tym started patting his knees, and beckoning The Ball. "Umm..come 'ere..umm..boy? Ball?" Tym seemed to become very awkward. The Ball took it in stride though, dancing in the air for a few moments then wafting across. It looking like a cannon ball once more but drifting around so easily seemed to disconcert Tym a little.

"Hmm, well its not just attracted ter magic. As Holder can tell yer, I've not got a magical bone in me body."

Tym looked up to Meri. "And as fer stuff just becomin' magic? Take it with as much saft as yer want from me, but that doens't sound usual. Not one bit, in all my years have I heard o' that. I mean Holder's no expert in things, but I've ne'er seem that happen around here, not once in his old place nor mine. The trick with magickin' stuff's always seemed to be getting the magic in, that's always seemed to be the bugger when I've been watching it. It suddenly happinin' seems...hmm. Not sure what to tell you."

However, despite that Tym's gaze seemed to go back speculatively to the middle distance where The Ball had gestured before.


I swear these updates will get shorter :D

Also, I probably won't prod you too much about making skill checks, and usually use passive insight/perception and your class to feed you info, never be afraid to make skill checks if there's something more you want to figure out or check up on.

So far it hasn't really occurred to Nym to specifically wonder about stuff like that. Maybe she will later, but for now she's alL "Attention Deficit...Ooh, Shiny!" and generally enjoying being nosy :D.

Nym stares with rapt attention and fasciantion at the ice-picture made by Holder on the shield, then looks around as Tym starts talking to him. She looks at the image as it disintegrates and briefly starts to conjure a much smaller duplicate in the air in front of her but is distracted when Tym starts talking to the Ball.

"Maybe he was just...asleep, or something." she suggests as she comes over to rejoin the others. "You know, didn't look like magic until he woke up and then he did."

She shrugs and looks around.

"So what's that shield thing you're trying to make, again? I wasn't really listening - those pretty thingys on the shelf were much more interesting at the time. I like Holder's magic. I've not really met that many minotaurs. I wonder what it's like to be one, clomping around with those big hooves everywhere. Well, maybe I'll try it later. So what's this shield thing about, again?"

True but as a player sometimes you're rolling to nudge the story how you want. So Nym might not be looking around, but you're welcome to roll perception because it would be fun if Nym stood in just the right place accidentally to spot the really cool stuff on a high shelf :D

That is true...but I'm also RPing a character who isn't really paying too much attention to stuff so I don't really think to look for it myself. Meri can do that while I piss about conjuring pretty lights and talking high-speed randomness at whomever will listen :D.

OOC: oh, so I'm doing all the work, eh?  Ok.  You can nuke any enemies we encounter while I sit back and break out the popcorn! ;)  lol.


"Do you think Linetta would know anything about this ball?" asked Meri.  "Much as I hate to admit it, it's beyond anything I know of."
She looked down at the Ball, at that point noticing the mess it made on her clothing and shooting a rather dangerous glare at it.

Shaking her head she looked in the direction the Ball had moved in.
"Well, I know enough about magic to know that it doesn't just appear.  I had thought that maybe it was her who messed around with it in some way, what with both of them always changing."
She tilted her head towards Nym to indicate who she meant.

"Well, if it wants to go somewhere, we may as well keep following it and see where we end up.  Hopefully it's not leading us to our doom for some reason known only to it, or whatever is making it bounce around like a crazed rabbit."
She glanced at Tym and then again in the direction the Ball had seemed to indicate.
"Do you know anything about what lies in that direction?" she asked.

You both can retcon if you wanted Holder to bring you any food / drink by the way. Otherwise you'll have to accept what he arrives with :)

Tym gestures to the shield while answering Nym's question. "Linetta is finally marrying Jorri's boy in a couple o' months, and she was lookin' fer a new sign for the smithy, so I figured a fancy shield might be nice an' eyecatchin'. Jorri's good with the paintin', so he can do some design or other on it once I gte it finished. Damn stupid metal."

Tym glared at the shield as if it was all its fault then lifted himself with a grunt back to a standing position. He regarded The Ball again as the sphere danced around in Holder's corner, stopping at each vial in turn. Tym winced each time as if waiting for the smash of something being knocked over. "Not sure Linetta could tell you much more'n me, its Holder that's the one who can poke and prod in to magic things. Might get more'n two words outta him about it once he's had a think, but to be honest even he jus' dabbles too. Not sure if he can help more'n anything you'd have figured out bein' around it all the time. Pity the mothers have gone now, they were always the ones that seemed to know about stuff like that. How long ago did it happen?"

I figure maybe The Ball's been around for a little over two weeks. You guys probably left home three days ago - that being leaving during the first day, traveling all of yesterday, and then having finished the walk to Stonebridge this morning.

Tym seemed distracted so both Nym's comments and Meri's over Nym's shifting nature seemed to have gone over his head. He looked once more in the direction The Ball indicated, but seemed to have an odd reluctance to comment on it. "Umm, I mean that way...well...I mean there's stuff there but...hmm, maybe better wait fer Jorri. Maybe he's heard summat from a traveller, or maybe someone's stayin' with him at the moment."

It seemed that his mind, looking for any distraction, then recalled the previous comments. "Wait, what do you mean 'with both of them always changin'?" he said with a raised eyebrow and incredulous voice.


I wonder what the grumpy smith is worried about in terms of that direction...

"About two weeks ago, give or take a day or two" Meri replied, leaning in her staff and watching the Ball with a rather nervous look, as if also waiting for it to break something.

She looked back at Tym as he spoke up.
"Well the ball keeps changing colour, like you saw it do.  And so does Nym, though not as often.  Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one stuck in the same body."

"Not that I like this body much" she added in a quieter tone.


OOC: eep!  Hope grumpy smith doesn't have a phobia of Changelings or something...

"Yep, that's right." says Nym, happily. "I can change any way I want and I can do it all the time - see?"

So saying, her body immediately swells and grows, increasing in height and in width so that it loses the more slender proportions of a half-elf and instead sprouts fur and horns. Her robes don't seem to change, and yet somehow they seem no worse a fit than they were moments ago, when she was a half-elf. For now she has become a minotaur, with slightly shaggy fur the same colour her haalf-elven hair was, a set of horns and hooves, and a slightly less bulky appearance than Holder given that she's remained a female.

"See?" says Nym again, her voice much deeper now that she's taken a larger form with a differently-shaped throat, a transformation which took a matter of seconds. "Now I'm fluffy too! And I've got horns and everything!"

She reaches up to pull at one of her horns and the movement causes her head to jerk sideways somewhat.

"Oh yeah, that'll happen." she mutters to herself.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:58, Sat 06 June 2015.

Lol, cue Nym leading herself around by her own horns for the next ten minutes for fun.

I hadn't meant to gender the minotaur, but haven't policed myself well. If you ask Tym he wouldn't even know himself :D

Tym suddenly seemed to choke on his own beard for a moment having sucked in his breath so fast at the transforming. "Whoosit...whass.." he finally said composing himself. "Moren' changing colour," he said with a glare to Meri, but perhaps Nym's general chattiness had stopped the smith being too suspicious at the queer nature of her abilities. Or perhaps owning a floating ball had prepared the smith for stranger things. "Eh, most o' us are stuck in the one body, not so good when it goes and ages on yer in th' blink o' an eye. You enjoy yer youth and don't worry about the rest o' it.," he said to Meri not unkindly. He grappled for something to say to Nym. "And I guess you enjoy...umm..changing?"

There was an odd pause as Tym clearly tried to collect his thoughts.

"Hello! Hello! Hello!" came a new voice suddenly. The voice belonged to a round man with a red round face and rounder body hidden behind a lesser apron than Tym's, stained with food and grease rather than the soot of the forge. The man's hair seemed to have departed long ago from his head, and his face and body seemed to trigger thoughts of halfling and dwarf respectively rather than the human he clearly was.

"Ah, Holder never said there was another minotaur, or I'd have brought more food, have no doubt," said the voice cheerfully, giving the impression it tended to remain cheerful and upbeat no matter what might occur.

The Ball came out from the corner, dancing around to see who the new person was - or perhaps jus tto say hello to the shining silver tray the figure carried. Who really knew with The Ball.

"Ah, and this will be the reason why," said the figure - most likely Jorri - managing to retain his compsure in the face of a floating orb of silver liquid, ripping and drifting. "Holder wasn't joking about a floating ball, then?"

"Also rolls," came the rumbling voice of Holder from outside. The minotaur was clutching four drinks precariously in his large hands, made all the more precarious by him turning around on the spot as if looking for the half-elf from before, and occasionally darting suspicious glances at the new minotaur.

"I wouldn't expect any less of it if it floats!" said Jorri good naturedly, smiling at Nym and Meri and offering around the platter that seemed to contain a variety of bread rolls with meats and spreads stuffed inside, and some fruit lining the outside perimeter in an asthetically pleasing manner. "Anyway, my name is Jorri Durrmot, owner of The Copper Penny, and I'm pleased to welcome you to Stonebridge. And offer you some complimentary food from the Copper Penny, even if it is being served in less usual surroundings." Jorri grinned.

"Complimentary? Don't you dare! This is my food I'm sharin' with my guests what you owe me for one o' yer ruffians almost burning down my forge last week. Throwing that bollte o' spirits through the window and landing in here. You curry favour with yer own food 'n' drink."

Jorri didn't lose his smile, but his voice seemed to shift to some other accustomed gear of accusation. "'My ruffian' wouldn't have been drunk nor had a bottle to throw if you hadn't given him the bottle in the first place."

"Well I was doin' you a favour tryin' to cheer him up cause he was pissin' 'n' moanin' about yer lack of water in 'is room."

"His room didn't have water because you took the pipe for it!"

"I didn't take the pipe, you gave it ter me 'cause you owed me fer fixin' yer-"

"DRINK!" yelled the minotaur, almost pushing one of the mugs in to Tym's face. Clearly Holder had seen this display many times before. The second mug Holder delivered with more care to Meri, but that didn't stop some of the contents ending up on her boots to join the mud.

Holder then walked over to the other minotaur speculatively, seeming to weigh it up Nym. Holder looked to the final two mugs, one in each hand, and while giving Nym the evil eye, transferred the contents between the two mugs until they were perfectly level with each other. Only then did the minotaur offer one, pull it back, compare the two again, then offer the other mug.

"Who this?" Holder grumbled. "Where half elf?"

"Yup, certainly do." says Nym in response to Tym's question, but has no time to say anything more before the cheerful Jorri arrives. She watches the interactions between the threesome, then looks around at Holder's query about a half-elf.

"Oh, I'm not a half-elf." she says cheerfully as she takes the proffered mug. "See? Now I'm a minotaur. I'll be something else later, when I feel like it."

She looks at the liquid inside the mug.

"So what's this?" she asks.

Hopefully if it's alcohol we can find out before Nym drinks it and we find out what could potentially happen to someone with leaky magic when they start getting drunk (or rather, what could happen to their surroundings) :D.

Meri frowned at the additional mess on her boots and accepted the mug.  Sniffing at the contents, she wrinkled her nose slightly and simply stood there holding it, as if not wanting to drink it.

At Tym's comment to her, she frowned again and sighed, looking away towards the forest.
"Enjoy...  Right!" she muttered in a low voice.
Looking back at the mug, she raised it and downed half of it, coughing slightly as if unused to drinking.


OOC: Lost in her own world, all while her player is hoping Nym isn't about to get drunk and explode half the place.  Just when we were making some new friends and all too...  :)

"Better rat's piss than yer'll find in all the area, including anywhere in Newbridge," said Tym, saluting Jorri with the mug happily, apparently the previous discussion instantly erased. He drank a generous measure.

"Ale. Brown ale," muttered Holder, though the tone and expression appeared friendly enough once he realised what had happened and who Nym was. Half the contents of the minotaur's mug was poured back in to Nym's mug to fill it to the top, and the rest of the mug was downed by the minotaur in one long messy gulp. The minotaur waved the mug around vaguely and then threw it to the floor. He looked to Meri's mug greedily when she hesitated about drinking it, but once she put it to her lips the minotaur turned and walked out of the smithy towards the inn again.

"Too sober for this," he muttered as he left.

Jorri turned around, still the smile. "I didn't notice you taking any coins with you to leave on my counter?" he called across.

"Saved village. Owe me drink," came the reply drifting back on the wind.

"I wish he wouldn't always hold that over us," said Jorri with mock resignation.

"To be fair he did," said Tym with a shrug. "And it's not like he uses it on us more than a few times a year." Tym then looked at the rapidly emptying mug speculatively. "Now, me, on the other hand, you do still owe some more-"

"Or you can finish that mug then get back on with the shield," suggested Jorri pleasantly. "I want to paint it while I'm quiet." Jorri then looked to Meri and Nym. "Unless you both would be wanting accommodation or a proper meal, in which case you have my undivided attention and the pick of my rooms!" He practically beamed.

"Oh," said Tym, "no wizards or anything passin' through? That's a shame. Anyway, they were just passin' through themsleves it seems. This is Niminasomething that sounds like my name, and this is Happy...no, I mean Merry. They had a few questions regarding their funny ball thing, and I hoped you might know someone who could help. Or might have heard something youself."

Jorri turned and gave a small bow, finding a spot to put the plate down on so he could clasp his hands together. "A pleasure to meet you. And I am just as happy to listen to your tales as I am to share the tales of anyone else if it will help?"

Don't get too worried about falling over drunk just yet. Though if you end up imbibing too much I'll start throwing some Endurance rolls at you and yes, wild magic rolls too. 5th edition has some fun tables I'd love the excuse to try out if 4th edition doesn't have them buried somewhere :D

Nym tastes a bit of the drink but then wrinkles her nose and sticks out her large bovine tongue.

"Plerrgh, doesn't taste very nice, does it?" she says. "Oh well, free food!"

She sets the mug down nearby and instead starts helping herself to some of the fruit on the tray.

"Free food, the best kind of food." she mumbles around a mouthful of something juicy, then looks across at Jorri.

"Oh by the way, hello - I'm Nym, short for Nymnairahellian."

Introductions apparently over, she turns her attention to stuffing her face.