Echo cheers as Khessa take out the food and go to help lay it out. While the others conversed, she's busy disassembling a rib.

Halfway through, she calls out, mouth still full, "wait, wait!" She swallows, expression a little uneasy after hearing that they were apparently going to kill all the orcs, "you guys mean the bad ones? We are only going to kill the bad orcs, right?" She quickly looks to Rel and Jasper to see if they are agreeing and if she's just missed something. To reassure Tookrashk, she quickly adds: "just the bad guys are plenty for you to eat! And plus, the big dragon is the big bad guy, we all want it gone so Tookrashk you can go home, right? Can't do that if we spend all our time hunting orcs."

(ooc: can we get another chance at a persuasion check haha)

"Oh, yes Echo, my dear" approves Khessa. "Of course we will kill only the bad ones! The ones who chose to ally with the evil dragon Cryovain (remember what the orc at the temple said?). Should we find a good orc, we will definitely spare him. On the other hand, the bad ones must be dealt with; we can not let them make the dragon even stronger than it already is".

(OOC: I could roll another Persuasion... but maybe this time Echo should roll, since she spoke. The rolls are usually requested to Khessa because she is the most chatty, but she is definitely NOT the most charismatic... I think Echo can do better than her when social skills are required)

((Echo can roll for persuasion!))

Adabra smiles at Jasper. "Making healing potions is sort of my specialty. It's what I do!" she says proudly. "I can make a few other potions but nothing too fancy. I'm not a master herbalist. I just know enough to keep the village stocked. You could say I'm the town's only healer really; people come to me when they get sick or they need to birth their children."

Adabra's eyes light up as if she just had a thought. "If you're a fellow herbalist, I'd be willing to sell you some of my ingredients, and if you want to make potions you are welcome to come here and use my equipment too. I could always use the company!"

Meanwhile, Tookrashk was growing impatient. He didn't seem convinced by Khessa's words. "Orc food hard," he complains. "Nasty orcs have swords, axes. Hurt Tookrashk! Have food here." He lazily makes his way over to the latest pile of meat provided by Adabra, flops onto the ground, and begins to eat very noisily and very messily.

Persuasion: 15

Jasper looks in his coin pouch and realizes he is very low. “Thank you Adabra! I’m a bit low on coin right now but I will definitely keep this in mind the next time we pass through. I can use some ingredients for some salves and definitely healing potions.” Graciously bows to Adabra. “We are heading to Gnomengarde tomorrow. Maybe I can find some things for you on the way?”

Jasper looks at Echo eating the raw meat and didn’t think this is what Khessa meant saying eating with Tookrashk. Jasper takes a small piece of meat, looks at the others for a moment then puts it in his mouth. He tries to chew it up fast but it’s difficult. He swallows the whole piece roughly. Forcing it down.  

Khessa puts her arm over the elf's shoulders, smiling at him: "Jasper... we are here to eat together to help Tookrashk feel part of our 'pack', but this does not mean that you are forced to eat in a way that is not suitable for you! We can very well light a fire" two words now pronounced with skill heightened by habit, accompanied by a gesture that has become fluid like carrying a thrust with the blade, and a mote of fire sets fire to the pile of wood that she had just finished preparing "like this," she prepares a skewer with a stick and puts a piece of meat to cook "so that those who prefer cooked meat, such as you and me, can be satisfied!"

When the meat seems cooked to her, she offers the spit to the elf: "Do you want to taste it? Do you like it more cooked or is it okay? Or maybe you want to add some spice you know? Of course I would add some cabbage, if I had them here, but it didn't occur to me to bring them".

After the meal is finished, reagrdless of the result of Echo's efforts to convince the manticore to join the hunt, Khessa wishes to reassure her monstrous friend: "Tookrashk, friend of mine, you don't need to be afraid of the orc's swords and axes. Believe me, they will not be able to hit you. Friends care of each other. May I show you what we can do to take them down without any risk? It will not take long".

Jasper thankfully accepts the skewer and takes a bite a lot easier. “Much better! I guess I got a little ahead of myself. Thank you so much.”

”Tookrashk, we do what we can to stay out of harms way but there are moments we can’t control. And there are things we can control.”  Jasper takes the wrap from his left arm covering his wound showing the manticore. Jasper’s eyes glow as he utters some words not in elvish, but in a divine language. Jasper casts Healing Word on his arm at 2nd level.  8 Watching his the wound close up to nearly no sign of injury.

"You're welcome, Jasper" smiles brightly Khessa "I'm glad I can do something for you. You said a wonderful thing, today... How it was? Oh, yes, 'We help each other'. That's really the spirit of a group. Thinking about it, maybe I can help you a little more?" and she carefully takes with her fingers a soft piece of cooked meat from the spit and slowly brings it to his mouth, as if to feed it... "If you like this, that is..."

Jasper slowly takes the meat from Khessa’s fingers and smiles. “I like it very much.” Eyes are heavily focused on hers. 

"Very good Jasper," smiles back Khessa "for I also like it!"

So she goes on playfully with this game, then, after the meal is finished, she asks Tookrashk if he'd like to try the demonstration she spoke of.

(OOC: While we wait to ascertain if Tookrashk is convinced by Echo to join the Orc hunt and if he wants to see Khessa's demonstration, maybe we can role-play the part where Khessa and Jasper study together, during part of the night ... because they are events that happen anyway, regardless of whether Tookrashk joins the hunt or not)

After Tookrashk gives his final answer and the party prepares to camp for the night, Khessa isn't thinking about sleep at all.

The blonde arcane warrior eagerly prepares a crude table, bringing (or pushing) three large, irregularly shaped stones next to each other and placing a fourth one on top, a large and fairly flat one. She leans a pine cone on one end of the table, making it emit a brilliant white light with a simple formula, then smiles brightly at Jasper, inviting him: "Are you ready? Let's get started? I got a feeling that tonight's gonna be a good night"

And she is already unfolding her spellbook on the table, an inkwell with a bit of ink, the scattered sheets on which, until today, she had kept the spells written...

“Yes, let’s get started!” Jasper answers Khessa.

Jasper brings out his book and prepares the pen and parchment. And just as he is about to take out a candle, Khessa takes a pine cone and lights it up. He pays close attention when she casts her magic. Thinking ‘she really is something else.’

Jasper takes the book and begins reading out loud. He slides closer into Khessa so she can follow along.

Jasper is looking for any passage in the book that might mention the channeling of magical energy into objects. He writes down anything that may help.

Investigation Check:   7

After thirty or so minutes of reading, Jasper turns his eyes to Khessa and asks, “Would you and Anator like some berries? I brought some from Phandalin.” Jasper pulls a folded cloth out from his pack and opens it up to see some blueberries, raspberries and a few blackberries.

Khessa is delighted to feel the elf slide closer. She is quite aware of the warmth of his body and the light scent of his skin... but she tries to focus on the magic of the book, instead on the (not lesser) magic of her sensations. She reflects aloud every time there is a pass that seems misteryous, or of special interest, or open to many interpretations, so that they can share ideas and confront point of views.

(OOC: Definitely helping Jasper with his investigation! He can roll with advantage)

The tall warrior-mage also, after writing a first introductory note on her spellbook, diligently takes note of whatever they discover.

After half an hour, she happily accepts a few berries for Anator and thanks the elf smiling brightly, but she is quite eager to resume the arcane studies.

Hours of interesting investigations pass whitout the blonde arcane warrior even noticing, but as she finally realizes how much time they have spent in their first task, she remembers: "You also wished to practice with writing! And, you know? I still have to copy my spells from the sheets into the spellbook! If you like, I can write slowly (I must write these sort of things with care anyway!) and you at my side can practice writing the same things. My mother, Eshta,  Eshta Finegarten," her voice gets a little sweeter and sadder, at the memory of her still unrescued family  "as she insisted to teach me to write, always complimented me about my calligraphy... You should be able to mimic the movements of my hand and fingers in no time! Just a matter of a few practice. So loving what we are doing together..."

One more try…

Investigation:   9

Jasper watches as Khessa so delicately scribes her spells pages into her book. He’s a bit distracted how her hands move. He tries to follow the motions and thinks back, wishing he had worked harder with such things.

After a few pages, Jasper thinks of the spell he used on the orcs. He begins writing the incantations of Faerie Fire. Symbols of evoking Fey magiks. Anything he can remember. Asking Selune for guidance and memory. 

The first thing Khessa decides to write in her spellbook is an introduction (probably inspired from one of her younger sisters, Yassa, which Khessa one day discovered while writing some sort of secret diary, with a piece of chalk, on a rock face inside one of the woods near the village):

Introduction

Dear spellbook,
I am very happy to start writing to you! You don't know how much I desired you... I wanted you like a nice steaming plate of cabbage! Yes, really, that much! However, I am Khessa, Khessa Cabbagefield, a cabbage farmer forced by circumstances to become an arcane warrior. You bear patience, then, if I can't write all things pretty and clear right away. Maybe some things I still have to finish understanding them well! Consider that I've never had a real teacher. I had to learn everything almost by myself. I don't even know exactly how a spellbook should be written. Yes, all right, it must contain my spells. And I'll copy them, rest assured, rune by rune, just as soon as I finish writing this intrductory entry. And it must also reflect the arcane research I conduct on my own. To be honest, my arcane research for now is usually done in company... with my fellow adventurers - who are very special companions. It counts the same, doesn't it? Always arcane research it is... And it should also contain intellectual breakthroughs I have had about the nature of the multiverse. But for now, as I'm starting to write, I don't even know what this 'multiverse' is! If it is a single word, which designates it, it must be one. But then, why 'multi' in its name? Is it one and many together? Is it something composite, like a flower meadow with many flowers? Or a flower with many petals? (And if so, why not call it 'flowerverse', which would have been more endearing?). Do you have any ideas, spellbook? No, huh? Well, patience, as we go on we will find out together; apparently the two of us will be together for a long time...

After that, the blonde arcane warrior carefully and without haste begins to write down her spells. Rune after rune, detailed instructions are added to the spellbook to cast Absorb Elements, Feather Fall, Find Familiar, Magic Missile, Protection from Evil and Good, and Shield.

At each glyph she is writing, she explains the gesture she is making to draw it, while she is doing it ("See Jasper? To draw Uruz, the rune to draw strength from the Weave's magic, I usually do this: first I drow a long vertical line, then I lift the pen from the paper and I draw a similar one alongside, but shorter, as if it were a younger sister... then I join their upper ends with a last stroke, as if to symbolize their family bond") and she checks every time how the elf manages to imitate the gesture... and the result.

Then, when Jasper begins experimenting on his own, trying to write the incantations of Faerie Fire, it is Khessa who follows closely, very intrigued by this form of magic. A magic mediated by the gods. Khessa knows that, from a certain point of view, it is a form of magic that wizards like her (well, even the many many wizards that are better than her) are barred from. But the charm of her mystery equally intrigues her very much...

"You know, Jasper?" can't help but think aloud the tall warrior-wizard "I know I will probably never be able to directly invoke this kind of magic. But it's still so fascinating... All right, it's divine magic rather than arcane... but it's still magic, isn't it? What if there were common bases that I could one day discover and exploit?" the blonde arcane warrior bursts out laughing heartily, laughing at herself "But what am I going to think! Who do I think I am... the female version of Elminster? I just learned to stammer two magic formulas! But one thing is certain" and her eyes blue are lost in those of the elf "with you it all seems magical, Jasper. I never felt like this with anyone else, you know?"

((Sorry for the delay guys!))

Adabra smiles at Jasper. "That would be very kind of you, thank you!"

Meanwhile, Tookrashk seems to pay more attention to Echo. "Want dragon gone!" the manticore agrees. "Hunt, eat orcs make dragon leave?" he asks.

As Khessa speaks, he turns his attention back to the blonde woman expectantly. "What you show Tookrashk?" he asks, curiosity in his yellow eyes.

Quote from Goddess_Nyx >>

As Khessa speaks, he turns his attention back to the blonde woman expectantly. "What you show Tookrashk?" he asks, curiosity in his yellow eyes.

Khessa smiles: "I'll show you a way to fight orcs without need to worry for their big axes! Now," she quickly puts together a dummy-orc made from fallen branches and sticks a red glowing pebble in its 'face' like a menacious red eye "Since we don't have a real orc for the demonstration, imagine this is an orc... And this..." she takes a long branch, opens the top in half, sticks a flat stone into it, then sticks the rudimentary greataxe into the dummy-orc, as if this were his weapon "imagine this is his mighty greataxe! Terrible, isn't it? A long reach... a heavy blade... You are very wise, Tookrashk, to wish to avoid the risk of taking a blow from such a weapon. And should you simply charge orc after orc, lke that..." she charges, stopping as she comes in greataxe's reach "you, might, sooner or later, get hit by a lucky blow. But you are very smart, Tookrashk, so you can use a more clever tactic!"

The blonde arcane warrior comes near Tookrash and asks him: "You are very big and very strong, compared to me. If I take place here, over your shoulders," she pats him in that place "I will not disturb your mighty wings and you could carry me while flying! Now, let's fly together! Carry me while flying, over that damned dragon-serving orc! Let's say 50' over him! From that distance, he won't be able to strike us with that terrible, but now completly useless, weapon of his! Carry me" there is a feverish enthusiasm in the tall warrior-wizard's blue eyes "and watch how the orc will fall! Are you ready Tookrash? Are we taking off?"