Solgran laughed, "Around here, the Muffin takes a bite out of you. Haha! Well, I look forward to seeing it in action."

Snoric grins wickedly at Solgran.  "Would you like to take it on?  I doubt it's a match for you.  Don't worry if you damage it as I can easily repair it.  Just try not to destroy it!  I can rebuild it fairly quickly now it's made but would rather not have to."

While the men joked, Meridian stared at “Muffin”. Her fingertips brushed the metal slowly. Her lips curled with delight at the cool smoothness. “I like the blue accents on Muffin,” Meridian said as she stepped away.

Solgran gave Snoric a sideways glance, "Did you just offer me a Muffin for dessert?"

"No.  I offered to let you have your cake and fight it too.  But you wont get a rise out of me with these half-baked jokes."

Yana was still staring at the mechanism with wide eyes.
"How.....can you show me how it works?"

Ophelia reacted to Muffin moving by it's own by screeching in fear and flying off, perching herself as high as she could. Amalia was transfixed by the construct and slowly made her way to it, hesitantly putting her hand on the cold metal.

That is amazing Snoric! How did you bring life to it?

Only then did she understand the various puns flying around, and she smiled.

Muffin is a great name for him.

Meridian giggled when Amalia reacted to the coolness of the metal. “It feels nice, doesn’t it? Although I imagine that our enemies will not find contact so pleasing!” She smiled at the Cleric’s contact with Muffin.


Then, she addressed Snoric. “Does Muffin have all our ‘scents’ now?” Her smile widened, her airy gesture at Muffin seeming somewhat courtly in manner. “I intend to stay with your group, at least long enough to foil the Red Cloak conspiracy. It would go quite poorly for me if Muffin registered me as an enemy.”

"Yes, I guess from those notes and letters there are more Red Cloaks or their contacts about. Were looking for a Cragmaw castle though something fairly important. An employer of ours may be there under duress. You wouldn't happen to know where that is would you ?"

"I'll train him to know the group, including yourself but it won't attack anyone, even an enemy unless I tell it to.  It doesn't have independant thinking like that.  It's a work of engineering, it's not like a wizard familiar or a living animal."

"Anyway, I need a moment to teach Muffin it's name and then I'm ready to go.  Muffin will follow us and stay where I tell it too."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:11, Mon 21 Mar 2022.

Yana looked up at Snoric from where she was admiring the mechanism beast.
"Do you need any help with that?  I'd love to watch how it's done"

In reply to Allura Whitlock (msg # 57):

Meridian shook her head. “Unfortunately, I do not know the location of Cragmaw Castle.” After a pause, she addressed another piece of what Allura said. “Tell me more of your employer, Allura.”

"A jovial dwarven gentleman named Gundren. He is well known in this town."

In reply to Allura Whitlock (msg # 61):

“May we speak privately?”

Allura raises a brow shrugs and steps aside with Meridian.

"What is it you wanted to talk about ?"

When they were alone, Meridian spoke…
This message was last edited by the player at 00:11, Tue 22 Mar 2022.

PM

Meridian laughed, a light and airy sound that seemed quite at home at afternoon tea or a masquerade.

[Private to Allura Whitlock: Oh, I know Gundren quite well! Gundren helped me years ago as benefactor, employer, and eventually, as my friend. He arranged my presence here in Phandelver to spy on the beasts in the Red Cloaks. I was charged to watch for your group, too.

My assignment went smoothly, until Darwin’s thugs ambushed me and dumped me in that cell. Like you, I feel grave concerns for Gundren’s whereabouts and well-being.

Allura shrugs ever so slightly.

Meridian stole a  backward glance, then faced Allura again.

Allura's eyes narrowed to blue points of light.

Meridian pressed her fingertip against her lips. “Shh!”

Nods, "Shall we rejoin the others ?"

”Yes, and may I say I find your horns quite fetching!” Meridian walked along with Allura to rejoin the group.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:38, Tue 22 Mar 2022.

"Don't threaten me with a good time, Muffin Man." Solgran's hands were restless and twitchy as he considered a match with the new machine. He felt like much time had already been lost in hunting for Gundren, though, and pitting himself against their newly tinkered companion seemed a bit irresponsible...

"We've got important work to do today, but I tell you what. We'll go three rounds. If you can set this thing to play mode, we'll go for hits instead of damage, so we don't need to spend more time or resources on me recovering from vicious bites, and you won't have to spend more time or money replacing broken parts, since I'll pull my swings. Sound good? After we've saved Gundren, we can have a real go at it, no holding back."