Gaer Longbow Attack: 7 Damage: 8 (piercing)

Cracked Horn sneers as Gaer's arrow passes low under his belly, but he winces when Roxana's arrow lands right between his shoulder blades! And the arrow hits a vulnerable spot, which begins to bleed!

The monster seems to struggle to keep flying, flying another 120' with the strength of fear and desperation. He gets closer and closer to the edge of the forest, inside which he might be able to disappear...

Last chance for those who want to take down the fleeing monster! The target is now no less than 240' away. (Those who could have attacked him while he was still at 120' and didn't have time to do so, can still roll now if they want.)

"Trust us, Rash.," Spira says grimly.  "We have personal experience with what it takes for a fiend to repent of its evil.  Or at least familial.  That creature doesn't show any signs of even being willing to take the first step.  And now his master's dead, so he's loose in the material plane with no restraint whatever."   Before the creature has gotten a hundred feet from the companions, she hurls a guiding boltSehanine's burning glance at it.  The searing mote of moonlight clings and burns upon any part of the fleeing fiend's foul hide it may strike, marking its position for all further shots taken at it.  It has long since outstripped the range of her spiritual weaponSpear of Angharradh, so the Sergeant of Arvandor lets that weapon drop and shoulders her crossbow instead.

=========

120': guiding bolt

240': light crossbow

"Trust us, Rash.," Spira says grimly.  "We have personal experience with what it takes for a fiend to repent of its evil.  Or at least familial.  That creature doesn't show any signs of even being willing to take the first step.  And now his master's dead, so he's loose in the material plane with no restraint whatever."   Before the creature has gotten a hundred feet from the companions, she hurls a Sehanine's burning glance at it.  The searing mote of moonlight clings and burns upon any part of the fleeing fiend's foul hide it may strike, marking its position for the next shot taken at it.  It has long since outstripped the range of her Spear of Angharradh, so the Sergeant of Arvandor lets that weapon drop and shoulders her crossbow instead to try and land that shot.

=========

120': Sehanine's burning glance 6, damage if hits 18 radiant + advantage to next attack

240': light crossbow 21, (or 5 if burning glance did not hit), damage if hits 5 piercing

Roxana again keeps still and tries to hit the fleeing creature again.

(Shortbow Attack: 8 - nat. 1)

Since most of the party members are determined to eradicate the threat - and it seems that it will take very little to succeed in this undertaking, Gaer, Dawnborn and Anita also attempt a final salvo of shots, hoping to take down the monster before it finds refuge in the vegetation.

Gaer's Longbow Attack: 24 Damage: 9 (piercing)
Dawnborn's Crossbow Attack: 9 Damage: 8 (piercing)
Anita's Crossbow Attack: 5 Damage: 3 (piercing)

Almost all of the shots, rendered inaccurate by the distance, miss the target. Almost. This time, it is the Gaer arrow that lands with surprising accuracy, hitting the monster under the left armpit.

The mighty Longbow has put enough force into the arrow to pierce the stony skin of the exhausted target and, with a final shrill cry, it loses control of its own wings and falls to the ground with a crash like a boulder - ironically, landing just barely an arm's length away from the forest that could have been its salvation.

Congratulations! Fight won! You all can act out of rounds.

Rash sighs.

"So... um... did we just commit second-degree murderer by taking out this idiot?" Rash asks uncertainly, poking the dead merchant gently with his staff. "Death seems like kind of excessive punishment for selling fake potions..."

He pauses, then sighs.

"Though I suppose he did have his goons attack us first."

Rash is going to go ahead and examine the body for anything interesting.

Investigation: 10 (passive 12)

"Yes, Rash, you are right..." Anita approaches the Wrestling Wizard "But even if he may have only tried to trick us first and escape later, his 'secuirty' did their best to try to kill us..."

"You have the kind heart that I have learned to love, Rash," she lowers her voice a little - she is speaking only for him, after all... "but this virtue of yours is not too widely spread among others."

Meanwhile, the half-orc examines the corpse, but finds nothing of interest, apart from the merchandise with which the 'Good Dealer' had tried to escape: wrapped in the elegant carpet decorated with patterns that reproduce in detail different leaves of different tree species there are a pair of engraved bone dice, an embroidered silk handkerchief, a painting with the portrait of a man in armor (the glass of which now has a noticeable crack, after having fallen into the ruins), 2 ancient scrolls of written parchment, partially ruined by water. There were also 8 vials, but they broke in the fall, spilling their liquid everywhere - those are lost.

"Death would be excessive punishment for trying to sell fake potions. But he attacked us by sending those devil-like creature at us."  Roxana nods at Anita's assessment. "They certainly did their best to try to kill us."  

She then steps over first to where Rash is, investigating Fonkin's body. "He certainly does not appear to be a gnome any longer," she muses. "Is he a changeling or doppelganger then?"  She tries to recall what she might know about such creatures.  (Arcana Check: 15 - not sure if that's right but it would be about the same for any INT based check) 

Yes, Roxana is aware of a few creatures, like Dopplegangers, able to change their appearence. Those revert to their true form whrn slain - and Fonkin's current form reminds the Shadow Archer of a description she once heared of them.

"Anyway, something tells me he was not using such wondrous capabilities just to cheat customers..." Gaer ponders, coming to her side to take a look as well "He must have been up to something".

"I think you're right Gaer," Roxana says. "We just don't know what he was up to. Just spying on folks coming here? He didn't seem to discourage us from investigating the place. He just got jumpy when Spira questioned the honesty of his wares." 

Rash sighs and puts a hand on Anita's shoulder.

"Alright, fair enough, I suppose," Rash says. "I guess we should probably search his 'shop' for anything that's actually useful now."

Investigation (for the stall): 9... Rash remembers yet again that he kind of sucks at doing things Wizards are good at.

"Not discourage, no.  But if we fell for his trick and, say, thought we had an extra healing potion when we didn't ... might be rather convenient for any monsters waiting for us in that ruin."  Spira points in the direction of the Keep.  "Lead us to overconfidence, thinking we had more of a margin between us and death than we actually did ...  Anyhow, do you know the spell to identify dweomers precisely?  I can tell what sphere of magic a thing may be, but that's about it.  If you do, I can take a closer look around this little camp and make sure we aren't missing anything in the way of clues."  Old instincts have obviously been roused, as she bustles about peering under pebbles and lifting stones in the vicinity of Fonkin's flea market.

=========

Investigation 8

Held action (in case Rash does not have identify): detect magic, cast as a ritual to save the spell slot and give enough time to get school/sphere for each item

Fonkin had all his goods on the carpet - so when he rolled up the carpet to escape, he took them all with him. Nothing of his is left, in the place he had chosen as his 'shop'.

"Good point, dear!" Darvin meanwhile compliments Spira "Indeed, selling fake magic items could have contributed to the defeat of any adventurers. Maybe that was his game. Or part of it, at least. You are and always will be a kick-4ss investigator!"

For the rest, the art objects do seem valuable... while of the two scrolls, one is too ruined to be of any use, the other, examined by Dawnborn, causes the redeemed tiefling to exclaim in surprise: "A Spell Scroll of Purify Food and Drink! It could be useful, perhaps".

Roxana surveys the area as others check out various things.  "Good idea to check for magic things. Shall Gaer and I go check on that last devil-thing that feel near the edge of the forest? Someone looking at the other one?"

If nobody objects she'll head over with Gaer.

Rash does not have Identify, unfortunately, so Spira can go ahead and cast Detect Magic.

"Yeah, sorry, Spira," Rash says sheepishly. "I... kinda don't have that one in my book."

(OOC: Rash kind of sucks at Wizard stuff... his whole character is basically 'the Barbarian decided to be a Wizard instead')

"Yes, let's go..." Gaer gladly accompanies Roxana "I didn't see any equipment on that creature, but I'm still curious to examine its anatomy better - more than anything to identify its weak points, in case we have to face other similar monsters!"

Once they reach the fallen body, it is confirmed that the devil was not carrying anything - its skin was used as armor, its teeth and claws as weapons, it had nothing else with it. The tiefling ranger curiously tests the consistency and resistance of the rock-like skin and evaluates the position of the vital organs - helped in this by the fact that several arrows of the Shadow Archer have hit in correspondence with them.

Spira's spell detects as magical only the scroll that Dawnborn has recognized. The art objects do not exhibit a magical aura - nor, now that he is dead, the body of Fonkin.

"Yea, nothing really he was carrying," Roxana says. She spends some time examining the creature. "Is it really a devil? Why would that person have devils as his security? Anyhow, see anything that might help us in the future?" 

If there is nothing else, she will beckon Gaer to come along and heads back to the others.