Tabitha starts to ramble a bit, excited that there are so many people wanting to sit with her and not just look at her strangely from across the room. "It turns out you don't need to go looking for a good adventure. We all had one right here. We rescued this girl here from some drunkards who likely had some awful plans for her. You just missed them. Well, most of them. I think I knocked that one out with a mug of ale." and she points to the one at the bar. "Oh and I am Tabitha, probably should have started that, this is Lance, and joining us soon is Petal. I don't believe I have seen you around before, yet I am also a resident, you might have heard of my good friend and mentor, calls himself Bartholomew the Great. He is the reason I am not just an ordinary cat you know. Oh, Sorry, I am going on again aren't I...." and she falls silent, looking around the table hoping she hasn't annoyed too many people.

"You can call me Mud," Bahrumuhd responds when Khessa introduces herself. He looks the warrior woman over with an appraising eye, noting her weapons and obvious athletic build. With a slight snort, he idly thinks to himself that Joris, his eldest brother, would probably like this woman before him. He always had a fondness of big weapons as well. He scoots his chair over a bit, allowing room for the strangers to pull up seats to sit at the table.

The dragonborn listens to the newcomer, Jack he said his name was, with a bemused expression as he rambles on about how there was a hag out in the alley. He definitely should have followed those drunkards out then, even if it was just to see their expressions when the hag frightened them off. When introductions were starting to be made, since he already shared his nickname (which his parents tried their darndest to dissuade him to stop using), he adds, "I'm from Waterdeep originally, but I'm just passing through the area." 

The young dark-haired man has an amused smile as he listens to the chatty feline mounted on her iron bull. "It's nice with people sharing things, and it indeed sounds you just had an adventure right here then, who'd have thought." The young man says with a appreciative smile. "Good to meet you Tabitha, Lance and soon Petal. I admit I'm not a resident in the sense that I have really ever come to this particular place before, not that it lacks charm." He says, glancing around the place and not seeming thoroughly sincere with that last statement. "I don't think I know any Bartholomew, great or otherwise. A great wizard here in Neverwinter then I suppose? Well, you are clearly much more than an ordinary cat Tabitha, if there ever were such a thing as an ordinary cat. The cats I know all seem to consider themselves quite exceptional." He continues with a good-natured smile and a wink. "So what are you doing when you're not constructing mechanical wonders and knocking out drunkards with mugs?"

At the announcement that the alluring girl was in fact a hag, Khessa takes umbrage for a moment: "I didn't expect this... I hope she didn't curse those wretches or steal their souls... As stupid and degenerate as they were, they didn't deserve that much..."

The blonde arcane warrior then becomes thoughtful: "However, it doesn't seem typical of a witch to be content with simply scaring those who bothered her... Thinking about it, it seems more like a prankster's trick than a diabolical plan..." relaxing at the thought that, after all, it is unlikely that the alluring girl was an evil supernatural creature, she focuses again on the large group of new acquaintances.

The fact that the exit of the unusual girl is followed, a short time later, by the entry onto the scene of an unusual boy who, 'coincidentally', comes to make friends with all of them, leads the tall adventuress to suspect a connection... but she limits herself to observing him curiously in her blue eyes. She doesn't want to jump to hasty conclusions... it may just be a coincidence (even if she doesn't really believe it).

Anyway, hearing Tabitha talk about 'Bartholomew the Great,' Khessa, noting how the cat-girl appreciated the scratch behind the ears, proceeds to administer some of the same treatment, all the while asking: "This mentor of yours, Tabitha... does he teach magic? You know, I'm studying it too... a little... or at least I'm trying..." she seems embarrassed to admit the weakness of her foundations in the subject "It might help me to consult with an expert".

The girl, once given permission by Tabitha, starts to scratch her behind the ears. When Khessa asks for her name, she flushes, then says softly "I'm Valerie". When the warrior woman acts with her in such a jovial manner, she smiles a little. And even titters a small bit. 

The chatter at the table continues, with talk of wizardly masters and saving of girls at bars. Khessa makes some guesses about the identity of the hag in her head, but passes it off as nothing of great importance. Petal returns to the table, alighting on Tabitha's shoulder. The drunk idiot is still on the floor, and will probably lay there until the bartender finds the energy to roll him out the door,

You all are thoroughly enjoying your time, and Khessa starts to question Tabitha about her master. Valerie leans forward, since as a commoner, magic is rare and wondrous to someone like her. But, the catfolk does not get to answer, as the scream of a feminine voice rips through the night air from outside the tavern. The cry is one of anguish and despair, a keening of sorrow.

Bahrumuhd leaps to his feet when he hears the scream split through the air like an axe cutting through pine wood. It was a bit difficult to tell when he was sitting, but Bahrumuhd was quite tall. Standing at nearly six and a half feet tall, his slightly tattered clothing stained a deep shade of blue clings to his lean, fit form as an electrical charge begins to build within him. The acrid scent of ozone and static begin to fill the air, and hair of those closest to him begins to stand on end as the dragonborn suddenly became charged with electricity. His mind instinctively settles into the tense and focused mindset he needed to control and direct his magic. It was a bit hard to explain the mindset he needed, but it was like the calm that came before a storm. If you've ever stood and watched the inevitable approach of a terrible storm, you might begin to understand. The storm itself was a terrible maelstrom of winds and rains, a symphony of lightning and thunder, yet there was an odd calmness to the land about you, almost as if the land was holding its breath in anticipation. Bahrumuhd's mind adopted that sense of inevitable calm, preparing himself for the unparalleled majesty of the tempest within him. Looking to the others grimly, he says, "Looks like the fun isn't over yet."

With that, he moves to the door and throws it open, ignoring the sharp crack of electricity and shock he received when he touched the handle. Looking out into the street, he scans the area for the woman who screamed. If he doesn't spot her, he steps out and takes a peek into the alleys on either side of the Dancing Donkey, arcs of electricity dancing and snapping along his fingertips.

Barely having had the chance to sit down, the young dark-haired man immediately gets up as he hears the sorrowful feminine voice. "Depending on how you define fun, but yes, more women to be saved ot seems." The young man says and turns to briskly follow the quite tall platinum-scaled dragonborn, noting the static and taking care to not come too close to the conduit. He had hoped to get to know the others some more but hopefully he would get another chance once this poor woman in the street had been saved.


Ahead of the others into the Neverwinter night flies a tiny invisible girl, her worried eyes looking around for the source cry of anguish and despair.

Ariel perception: 10

Globules of Ketangu jump out of him in surprise at the sound of mournful scream. "Well, this night seems to be full of woman in distress. I wonder who is in trouble" with that Ketangu grabs his spear and heads out of the door into the night to see if he can tell where the scream came from. He dedcided against forming legs and quickly oozes out of the Tavern. 

Perception check

10 rolled in game log. 

Erven was ready to introduce himself to the young man who just joined them when he hears the unnatural scream, nearly jumping he puts his hand down on his sword hilt reflexively.  “What was that!  Again?”  He follows suit with the others, running to the exit of the establishment and then like a smooth fitting glove, he slips into the shadows, moving quickly but silently, looking and listening for the source of the scream.  

Perception : 6 (boy, the rolls have to get better…)

The group runs outside, and sees in the entrance of an alleyway across the street, a woman in distress. Though this time she does not need to be saved. In fact, she seems to be trying to save someone else. Her dark skinned face is stained with tears, her drab brown hair hanging in her face as she hunches over the lifeless body of a similar looking man. they look like siblings. The girl howls, her sorrow paining to even be around. The man clutches something in his limp hand.

Khessa, who on the one hand is always ready to empathize with common folk, on the other, as already clarified, is wary of coincidences. Another Damsel-In-Distress? Almost immediately after saving the first one? Sounds so suspicious...

The blonde arcane warrior, therefore, initially remains further behind than the others, possibly on the threshold of the Inn, so that she can see what happened outside... but also what happens inside. The cry could be a diversion. Maybe someone wants to harm Valerie and first incited the three idiots against her, then, having failed, is now organizing something different...

'Apparently, this time it's siblings in distress,' the tall adventuress mentally notes. 'At least it is not an exact repetition of the previous pattern... although, admittedly, after several relatively quiet evenings, it is strange that this evening turns out to be so eventful'. For the moment she remains on the threshold, ready to intervene outside, in case the new friends need it, or inside, in case Valerie needs it.

The blue eyed woman however provides her own contribution by furtively touching her focus rod and whispering a quick formula, in response to which a warm orange-amber light is created above the siblings, so that it is easier for everyone to see better what is going on.

The dark-haired young man quickly moves to kneel by the siblings' side, placing a gentle comforting arm on the girl's arm. "Please, let us help, what happened, is your brother hurt?" He says with all the calm and ressurance he can muster, looking up at the people he just met at the tavern to see if there were any healers among them.

Persuasion to calm the girl enough to explain what has happened: 9 Another roll if help action is provided: 20

"He's....he's..." The girl chokes on her sobs "Dead! They...they killed him!" she clutches the body tighter, her body once again wracked with sobs

As she clutches the body, the fingers of the dead man unfurl, and a small object falls out of his palm, rolling to a stop at Tabitha's and Mud's feet. Upon closer inspection, it reveals to be a still moving eyeball. The thing twitches, and looks around frantically. You check the body to see if it is missing an eye, but it is not. 

Erven and Ketangu, who are standing near the alley, notice something: another body is in the alley. This one is hooded, and wearing an amulet with the symbol of an eyeball upon a hand. Their eyes catch a flash of movement, and they see a figure holding something that looks like a crossbow disappear into the shadows. You look at the dead man, and through the next to the head of the sobbing girl is a crossbow bolt firmly implanted in the heart of the poor chap. It pierced his back and went all the way through.

Mud frowns as the eye rolls out from the dead man's hand. He stoops down and hesitantly picks it up, a bit unnerved that it was still twitching. Looking down at the man's corpse, he sees that he isn't missing either of his eyes, and if the man stole it from someone else for some odd reason, it should at least be covered in blood, but it seemed to be fairly clean. Maybe it was a magical item of some sort? Still frowning, he turns the eye over in his hand, inspecting it. 

Seeing that some of the others were tending to the grieving woman at their feet, Mud proffers the eye to Tabitha, shocking her only a little bit when their hands brush against each other. "I don't know a lot about magic," Bahrumuhd says in a grave tone befitting the situation they found themselves in. "Think you could figure out what this is suppose to be?"

"Look there is a body with a strange amulet and there I saw a crossbowman I think!" says Ketangu excitedly as he rushes over the body and into the alley to see if he finds any traces of the shadowy person he saw as the shadows did not impair his sight as much as some others. Well obviously, the young man is done for. At least I may find an opponent in this alley. Dashing 80ft into the alley. 

Perception check for any other clues that are deeper into the alley. 

9 rolled in game log. 

Erven says a singular word, “Follow!” and runs after the figure.  He pulls his bow out and starts to reach for an arrow as he runs.  He stays to the shadows, staying out of sight.  Erven is dashing, trying to get line of sight on the figure with the crossbow.  

"I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry. I should let you grieve in peace, but we should also bring the culprit to justice. Do you know anything about who did this to your brother?" The young dark-haired man says gently and calmly.


Meanwhile a tiny unseen figure swiftly follows the speaking glob and the scarred wood elf, hoping to see where the crossbowman the glob mentioned fled off to.

Invisible
Dashing for 80 feet of flight.
Perception: 14

Tabitha had run over ready to try heal the man before finding him dead, though she is not fussed by the eyeball. She has held worse. She used to catch mice and shrews and carry their corpses in her mouth before her transformation so an eyeball is tame. But at the mention of magic she is immediately more curious. "Lance, they might come back to try kill the woman. Stand guard" and she gets her tinkers tools out, spending 10 minutes tinkering with Petal to adjust the lens to see the aura of magic clearer (ritually casting detect magic) while Mud and Jack help calm/question the survivor. People are less Tabby's thing.

If it is magical, (she will also quickly glance around the area to see if anything else magical is within the spells range), she will tinker with Petal for a further 11 minutes to ritually cast identify

Khessa realuzes something very bad must have happened, as all her new friends start either chasing someone she can't see, or examining a small thing too far to be seen in detail.

As a murder is mentioned, the blonde arcane warrior eventually decides that there is more need of her there than near Valerie; she gives her a last parting smile, then joins the others.

The tall adventuress comes near Jack, supporting him in consoling the survivor: "Yes, tell us all, darling. It will help you to calm down... and help us getting whoever did this". [[ OOC: Help provided, I hope? ]] On the other hand, while waiting for the poor thing to speak, she keeps an eye on the item Tabitha is examining, following with attention the steps she takes to perform that sort of... mechanical ritual she is so busy with at the moment.

With Tabitha examining the strange eye and Khessu comforting the distraught Valerie, Bahrumuhd walks over to the still warm corpse of one of the attackers the others pointed out before rushing off into the alley. Dropping to a crouch, the dragonborn silently starts inspecting the corpse, trying to glean any information about who they are or why they would kill Valerie's brother. As he rummages around, he listens with half an ear to what Valeria manages to say to Khessu, hoping that she would mention something that would help in his search, but he wasn't too hopeful. 

Investigation: 4