Elspeth enters the inn slightly behind Jalt, staggered just enough to make it seem as if they're not part of the same group. She buys a drink from the bar, making a show of counting out the coppers when paying, sighing and trying to make it obvious she's rather down on her luck at the moment. She picks a seat among the more sober occupants of the taverns, shaking her head and muttering about the expensive prices of everything in Baldur's Gate, hinting generally that she's in a position where she'd pounce on any and all job offers.
Nate, Frellin stares at you for a long moment as though he's forgotten who you are. Then he says, very slowly, Guarding. Then he bursts into laughter. Just... you know, guarding. Keeping watch for... wolves. So. Many. Wolves. Stupid wolves. Stupid, stupid, stupid wolves. And bandits. Sometimes. Not many bandits. Stab em and they go away. He keeps drinking, but becomes less coherent as the night grows late, and you don't get anything else useful from him.
Elspeth, you do get an offer from a trader whose caravan is leaving tomorrow morning, bound for Luskan. Can always use an extra paid of hands, eh? Good to have extra guards. I'll pay five gold for a tenday's work, there and back to Baldur's Gate - should take a couple of months. What do you say?
Soar does get some basic information about the caravans; there are a few taverns nearby, this one included, that tend to be the focus of hiring guards and forming caravans. There are a few people around who assist and act as brokers for folks unfamiliar with how this all works - a rookie mistake is to rely on these people rather than just finding employment yourself. You hear that a good recommendation helps with the more experienced merchants, as they're looking to hire reliable people - the main thing is to be willing to pitch in on whatever's needed, whether it's gathering food, repairing broken wheels, or whatever, not people who only care about fighting.
If Soar wants to tell stories to try to impress folks and get hired on, make a Performance check.
Jalt makes his way to Enda Toral. It seems this place is always busy whenever I come through. Jalt says to her Safe to assume that business is well?He smiles as he extends his hand to her. I seek a warm meal, a warm bed and some information about getting latched onto a caravan. What say you?
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Hoard of the Dragon Queen - Jalt Rhogar - Dragonborn Cleric (9)
Soar, your stories are moderately impressive, and you meet a trader due to depart tomorrow who is willing to sign you on as a guard, if you wish. Her name is Gatha, a gnome from Baldur's Gate with some textiles bound for Neverwinter.
Jalt, Enda recognises you and is amiable as you chat. You learn much the same as the others have - that you can sign on as a guard with traders looking to hire, that there is a caravan headed north tomorrow, that caravans depart every half tenday or more, and that the standard rate for a guard is 5 gold per tenday, with more if you take a position of responsibility - typically a merchant would have one sergeant and one or two regular guards, and some richer merchants might hire a personal bodyguard for a higher price.
The night advances; you can pay for rooms at this tavern or another, the price is the same (5 silver per person per room, plus 3 silver for a meal).
The following morning you wake and can meet up in Ackyn's shop if you wish.
The next several days should pass swiftly. You can't sign up for a caravan yet, as it might leave before the cultists arrive and you would fail your mission. As per Ackyn's guidance, you need to keep a watch on the gate and taverns in the local area, meaning that each day at least one, preferably two of you will hang around observing, while the others head off to do something in the city. We don't need to take it day by day; just tell me what you want to do and who will go with you. If you don't have anything in particular that you want to do, let me know. Eventually, time will run out as the cultists arrive and at that point you will need to join the same caravan as them, in some form or another. Each day will have a cost (5 silver for a bed, 3 for a meal), though you might find an activity that earns you money if you wish - let me know if you want to try.
Otherwise, does anyone have anything you want to accomplish on the first day or so? You've already mentioned a few things - selling items, buying magical items, improving your disguises, and so on. There's also lots to see and do in the big city - I can help if you need it, but I'm keen to see what you come up with. :)
What do you want to do, and who do you want to join you?
Soar would like to help Nate find a good shop that might have magical items, looking for things helpful in combat and also things helpful in subterfuge and social situations. (Is there a list to peruse?)
She will also take a look at a secondhand instrument shop early on the first day and buy a very cheap horn or flute or something. She’s dressed as a bard underneath her armor and the conceit is she’s a failed musician turned to caravan guarding. So Soar, with absolutely zero training in music apart from the rather dour songs she sang from the hymnals at Kelemvor’s chapterhouse for most of her life, and the drinking songs she has sang over and over in pubs, is going to give one last shot at Boar’s fading music career and busk in the streets of Baldur’s Gate. She will find a spot to busk with a small bag open in front of her with one copper piece inside, playing her horn (I’m thinking like a recorder?) badly, and singing a bit better but still really not great, near the gate they’re supposed to be watching for cult members. She will not seek the best place to be seen, and heard, as a good bard would (she also doesn’t want to anger anyone who plays there regularly by taking a good spot). She’s looking for a slightly out of the way place, out of easy view for newcomers, from which it is easy to watch the gates while playing and singing. She will aim for producing sounds not annoying or loud enough to prompt reprisal from others, and not even trying for anything skillful enough that the almost certain failure at which would make people scratch their heads as to why this person was even bothering. But she definitely doesn’t have the chops to make anyone say anything other than, “that is adorable and I hope you didn’t quit your day job.” She keeps her sullen and pessimistic affect, completing the picture of failed bard making one last go of it. Black hair hanging across her face, hiding in shame.
She will explain her goal to the group and try to coordinate coverage with someone else interested in watching for cult members arriving (perhaps the druids in wild shape as typical city-dwelling animals?), so they have a reasonable chance to see their arrival.
Also when Soar gets the job offer to leave the next day, she will tell Gatha that she is going to give performing one last chance, laying even more groundwork for any gossip for her cover story.
Closer to the expected arrival she will ask Ackyn if he can start to recommend her, Jalt, Elspeth, and Nate to traders who might be joining their targeted caravan, since she has learned having a recommendation is helpful to find a place. She will explain her backstory to him, and invite the others to do the same.
If Elspeth would like to help Jalt, he'll try to ask and see if Enda has any short term work or task that she needs help with. Or if she knows anyone that does. Trying to set up the cover of him and Elspeth being people that get stuff done.. no nonsense. Try to build up some street cred before the need arises to join up with a caravan that has cultists involved with it. Almost being a bad boy, if you will, to garner the good word of people looking to hire a bodyguard.
Nate will continue his conversation with Frellin, all the while making a mental note... the likelihood of him being hired on with a merchant in a caravan for anything OTHER than a guard will be unlikely. He's almost happy to hear about the wolves though, and will look to use that knowledge when servicing himself out as a hired guard as he will have lots of experience with wolves. Killed lots of them. Heck even wildshaped into a few.He will relay all of this info to the others once they are alone together again, weather that be later in the evening, or the next morning. (removed 8sp for meal and lodging, night #1).
The next day, Nate will gladly and most happily take Soar/Boar's help in finding a nice magic shop of interest or item shop. "Guys perhaps Soar and I can take the later caravan watch today... I know we don't want to miss the cultists pass through, but I'd love to do some shopping this morning! I think I'd have time... yes?" If Soar comes, Nate is going to act as much as he can to support Boar's character as well... perhaps giving her a few coppers as she plays.
Elspeth's eyes narrow when the merchant offers her a job. "Luskan, tomorrow. That's north, right?"She's happy to find it's fairly easy to find jobs here in Baldur's Gate, even if she has no intention of accepting this one. She does her best to show her interest without actually agreeing to the trip, per se, haggling her wages half-heartedly before taking her leave for the night.
She'd be glad to accompany Jalt to help out with small tasks around the city, mostly to ensure she becomes a familiar face around where most of the hiring occurs before they find the cultist, she'll let Jalt take the lead on what jobs to accept, but she'd make a point in suggesting jobs that would take them around the city a little.
Elspeth is fairly enthusiastic about being in such a large city - or, at least, that's her excuse for wanting to wander all around the city. She'll try to hit all the important landmarks between the days, which she assumed most who visit would want to see - but she would the longest, most meandering path between them to visit mundane marketplaces, traveler's haunts, places where merchants would hang out besides the outer city, even returning to the docks, examining wares as if a prospecting merchant, all for the singular purpose of familiarizing herself with the layout of Baldur's gate without making it obvious.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Great. So let's take two days early in your stay. The first day, Soar and Nate go shopping for musical instruments while Jalt and Elspeth keep watch.
Soar, it's easy to find an instrument shop and buy a cheap wooden flute for 15 silver, or a slightly nicer one with some engravings for two gold. I'm also imagining a recorder, and I think we all know that if Soar's never played the recorder before, then not even a nat 20 on a performance check is going to make this sound good, so don't even roll. People walking past look at you with pity, but they walk quicker to get away from you. You earn 4 pity coppers.
Nate and Soar, together you track down a shop that sells magical items: Sorcerous Sundries, in the east of the city. The half-elf shopkeeper is friendly and shows you what she has for sale. When you ask for items to help with subterfuge or social interactions, she suggests the following, and you realise that magical items are really really expensive. Nevertheless, this is what she has in that area:
On the second day, Soar and Nate stay behind to watch, and Elspeth and Jalt head out to explore.
Elspeth and Jalt, you can see that there's always a need for porters to carry goods through the city. There are reputable ones wearing uniforms, but there are cheaper alternatives and those people are always hiring. You have a travel in a group so that an overseer can make sure you don't abscond with the goods, but you can earn five silver a day, and get to know the city and its layout much better.
If you want to find something more interesting or profitable, make an Investigation check, with advantage as I assume one of you is helping the other. Enda, alas, doesn't really have any work that she can offer you.
OOC: This is still making me laugh. Love it. Removed 23 silver (8 food/lodging + 15 cheap flute) and added 4 pity coppers to purse. Also, these one-use magical items are still very expensive!
Soar thanks the shopkeep at Sorcerous Sundries for pointing her to the items, and she takes a look at the cloak of many fashions, thinking it could be useful for the different identities she'll likely be adopting in the next few weeks.
"I may be interested in this, but it's a bit expensive for what it does. While I think it over, can I take a look at any of your items that might help me in a scrap, should I find myself in one? Also do you have anything that would protect my health or help heal myself or others?"
Soar will stay on watch for the evening of the first day and much of the second day, really wanting to become part of the background near the city gate. Her flute playing is... very bad. She begins to get a better sense of how it works by the second day and can actually make some sounds that, if you squint really hard, sort of resemble a song. But it's really like a child first learning how the instrument makes noises, only without any instruction.
She will take breaks from the flute, though, and alternating every 15 minutes with some regular, normal, singing. Her voice is actually not bad. She's not trained as a singer by any means, but it comes out clear and she knows how to project from her time singing hymns in the choir at the chapterhouse. (She was always the peppy one, trying to get the others to kick things up a notch, but failing every time, like the outtakes in Sister Act.) She sticks to drinking songs that most people know, avoiding singing anything too close to Kelemvor's musical oeuvre, which are mostly dirges. But the singing itself wouldn't be an automatic fail at getting others to like it (should she roll a performance check?).
Most of her attention, however, is watching through her newly-black hair for people to enter the city that she recognizes from the cult's raids or their time infiltrating the camp before they rescued Nate, Leosin, and the others. She has her cap low as well. She'll also look for people who enter suspiciously, with decent amounts of cargo that she assumes would be the loot stolen from Greenest. Any of the cult robes of course would be a dead giveaway but they might be hiding those as well.
Soar, the shop can only sell a regular Potion of Healing, though it has quite a number in stock, for the standard 50 gold each.They don't really sell magical armour or weapons, though the shopkeeper tells you there are enchanters in the city who can enchant a high-quality weapon, but it costs a great deal (over a thousand gold at least).
It's hard to focus on practising your instrument while also keeping a proper watch for the cultists, but possible if Nate accompanies you and pays more attention. You can roll a Performance check for the singing if you wish.
Spending time watching the city gate, you all get to see a few regulars who also appear to be looking for work, and taking short-term day jobs until the next caravan leaves. The first day, as a large caravan gets underway, what's left over is definitely not the most impressive of potential hires and you feel confident that you all look good in comparison. Over the next few days, a few more seasoned mercenaries and fighters join you, and you realise there will still be some element of competition, at least for the good jobs.
At some point in the next few days, Elspeth (accompanied by Jalt?) will head to the Hall of Wonders. It is truly magnificent, a large stone building, not ancient but still aged, housing a wealth of books and knowledge and great numbers of strange and weird magical and scientific devices. Some of the more memorable items are a beautiful water clock, a row of eight linked mechanical scribes engaged in simultaneously duplicating a single book places before the first of them, and a pair of statues, a king and queen, located at either end of the museum but which magically swap places every hour on the hour. You pay four copper pieces to enter, and enjoy every moment.
"Hmmmm... these things all look very interesting indeed, Ma'am!" Nate says to the shopkeeper. He doesn't intend on buying any of this stuff... he was also more looking for potential trinkets which might enhance his abilities or like Soar mentioned assist a bit in combat. But nevertheless he will be super kind to the half-elf and actually with buy 2 of the healing potions (-100gp).
After Soar and Nate leave, Nate will definitely spend the rest of his time on lookout for the caravans, therefore allowing Soar to focus more on her performance.
When on lookout, Nate sees the more meaner looking guards and mercs start to come through, and he still feels confident he can get hired on as a guard-hand over these punks given his experience with wolves, and the fact that he KNOWS that they will need that specific help. He will reiterate that again to Soar as well to make sure she is aware. "The guy I met in the bar last night said the guards job was basically to fend off Wolves... might give us an advantage if we know that going in."
Nate's going to continue his watch, looking very closely for any new activity that might indicate some cultists have surfaced in the caravan mix based on what he knows they look like from his time in the camp. Perception if needed 25
Soar will also try to stop by any of the hospitals she notices in town on the way from the gaye to the inn (asking around if necessary) to offer the power of Kelemvor to heal anyone who is wounded. She doesn’t give her name and she defers questions, but she uses 15 of her 20 lay on hands hp at the end of each day. She can’t stand the idea of anyone being hurt and power left unused that could help them.
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Elspeth enters the inn slightly behind Jalt, staggered just enough to make it seem as if they're not part of the same group. She buys a drink from the bar, making a show of counting out the coppers when paying, sighing and trying to make it obvious she's rather down on her luck at the moment. She picks a seat among the more sober occupants of the taverns, shaking her head and muttering about the expensive prices of everything in Baldur's Gate, hinting generally that she's in a position where she'd pounce on any and all job offers.
Nate, Frellin stares at you for a long moment as though he's forgotten who you are. Then he says, very slowly, Guarding. Then he bursts into laughter. Just... you know, guarding. Keeping watch for... wolves. So. Many. Wolves. Stupid wolves. Stupid, stupid, stupid wolves. And bandits. Sometimes. Not many bandits. Stab em and they go away. He keeps drinking, but becomes less coherent as the night grows late, and you don't get anything else useful from him.
Elspeth, you do get an offer from a trader whose caravan is leaving tomorrow morning, bound for Luskan. Can always use an extra paid of hands, eh? Good to have extra guards. I'll pay five gold for a tenday's work, there and back to Baldur's Gate - should take a couple of months. What do you say?
Has Soar gathered anything?
Soar does get some basic information about the caravans; there are a few taverns nearby, this one included, that tend to be the focus of hiring guards and forming caravans. There are a few people around who assist and act as brokers for folks unfamiliar with how this all works - a rookie mistake is to rely on these people rather than just finding employment yourself. You hear that a good recommendation helps with the more experienced merchants, as they're looking to hire reliable people - the main thing is to be willing to pitch in on whatever's needed, whether it's gathering food, repairing broken wheels, or whatever, not people who only care about fighting.
If Soar wants to tell stories to try to impress folks and get hired on, make a Performance check.
Jalt makes his way to Enda Toral. It seems this place is always busy whenever I come through. Jalt says to her Safe to assume that business is well? He smiles as he extends his hand to her. I seek a warm meal, a warm bed and some information about getting latched onto a caravan. What say you?
Hoard of the Dragon Queen - Jalt Rhogar - Dragonborn Cleric (9)
"Ive heard it both ways."
Soar performance: 20
Soar, your stories are moderately impressive, and you meet a trader due to depart tomorrow who is willing to sign you on as a guard, if you wish. Her name is Gatha, a gnome from Baldur's Gate with some textiles bound for Neverwinter.
Jalt, Enda recognises you and is amiable as you chat. You learn much the same as the others have - that you can sign on as a guard with traders looking to hire, that there is a caravan headed north tomorrow, that caravans depart every half tenday or more, and that the standard rate for a guard is 5 gold per tenday, with more if you take a position of responsibility - typically a merchant would have one sergeant and one or two regular guards, and some richer merchants might hire a personal bodyguard for a higher price.
The night advances; you can pay for rooms at this tavern or another, the price is the same (5 silver per person per room, plus 3 silver for a meal).
The following morning you wake and can meet up in Ackyn's shop if you wish.
The next several days should pass swiftly. You can't sign up for a caravan yet, as it might leave before the cultists arrive and you would fail your mission. As per Ackyn's guidance, you need to keep a watch on the gate and taverns in the local area, meaning that each day at least one, preferably two of you will hang around observing, while the others head off to do something in the city. We don't need to take it day by day; just tell me what you want to do and who will go with you. If you don't have anything in particular that you want to do, let me know. Eventually, time will run out as the cultists arrive and at that point you will need to join the same caravan as them, in some form or another. Each day will have a cost (5 silver for a bed, 3 for a meal), though you might find an activity that earns you money if you wish - let me know if you want to try.
Otherwise, does anyone have anything you want to accomplish on the first day or so? You've already mentioned a few things - selling items, buying magical items, improving your disguises, and so on. There's also lots to see and do in the big city - I can help if you need it, but I'm keen to see what you come up with. :)
What do you want to do, and who do you want to join you?
Soar would like to help Nate find a good shop that might have magical items, looking for things helpful in combat and also things helpful in subterfuge and social situations. (Is there a list to peruse?)
She will also take a look at a secondhand instrument shop early on the first day and buy a very cheap horn or flute or something. She’s dressed as a bard underneath her armor and the conceit is she’s a failed musician turned to caravan guarding. So Soar, with absolutely zero training in music apart from the rather dour songs she sang from the hymnals at Kelemvor’s chapterhouse for most of her life, and the drinking songs she has sang over and over in pubs, is going to give one last shot at Boar’s fading music career and busk in the streets of Baldur’s Gate. She will find a spot to busk with a small bag open in front of her with one copper piece inside, playing her horn (I’m thinking like a recorder?) badly, and singing a bit better but still really not great, near the gate they’re supposed to be watching for cult members. She will not seek the best place to be seen, and heard, as a good bard would (she also doesn’t want to anger anyone who plays there regularly by taking a good spot). She’s looking for a slightly out of the way place, out of easy view for newcomers, from which it is easy to watch the gates while playing and singing. She will aim for producing sounds not annoying or loud enough to prompt reprisal from others, and not even trying for anything skillful enough that the almost certain failure at which would make people scratch their heads as to why this person was even bothering. But she definitely doesn’t have the chops to make anyone say anything other than, “that is adorable and I hope you didn’t quit your day job.” She keeps her sullen and pessimistic affect, completing the picture of failed bard making one last go of it. Black hair hanging across her face, hiding in shame.
She will explain her goal to the group and try to coordinate coverage with someone else interested in watching for cult members arriving (perhaps the druids in wild shape as typical city-dwelling animals?), so they have a reasonable chance to see their arrival.
Also when Soar gets the job offer to leave the next day, she will tell Gatha that she is going to give performing one last chance, laying even more groundwork for any gossip for her cover story.
Closer to the expected arrival she will ask Ackyn if he can start to recommend her, Jalt, Elspeth, and Nate to traders who might be joining their targeted caravan, since she has learned having a recommendation is helpful to find a place. She will explain her backstory to him, and invite the others to do the same.
If Elspeth would like to help Jalt, he'll try to ask and see if Enda has any short term work or task that she needs help with. Or if she knows anyone that does. Trying to set up the cover of him and Elspeth being people that get stuff done.. no nonsense. Try to build up some street cred before the need arises to join up with a caravan that has cultists involved with it. Almost being a bad boy, if you will, to garner the good word of people looking to hire a bodyguard.
Hoard of the Dragon Queen - Jalt Rhogar - Dragonborn Cleric (9)
"Ive heard it both ways."
Nate will continue his conversation with Frellin, all the while making a mental note... the likelihood of him being hired on with a merchant in a caravan for anything OTHER than a guard will be unlikely. He's almost happy to hear about the wolves though, and will look to use that knowledge when servicing himself out as a hired guard as he will have lots of experience with wolves. Killed lots of them. Heck even wildshaped into a few.He will relay all of this info to the others once they are alone together again, weather that be later in the evening, or the next morning. (removed 8sp for meal and lodging, night #1).
The next day, Nate will gladly and most happily take Soar/Boar's help in finding a nice magic shop of interest or item shop. "Guys perhaps Soar and I can take the later caravan watch today... I know we don't want to miss the cultists pass through, but I'd love to do some shopping this morning! I think I'd have time... yes?" If Soar comes, Nate is going to act as much as he can to support Boar's character as well... perhaps giving her a few coppers as she plays.
Nate's Perception check to find a magic shop and/or a cool and interesting item shop, with advantage if Soar helps: 15
Elspeth's eyes narrow when the merchant offers her a job. "Luskan, tomorrow. That's north, right?" She's happy to find it's fairly easy to find jobs here in Baldur's Gate, even if she has no intention of accepting this one. She does her best to show her interest without actually agreeing to the trip, per se, haggling her wages half-heartedly before taking her leave for the night.
She'd be glad to accompany Jalt to help out with small tasks around the city, mostly to ensure she becomes a familiar face around where most of the hiring occurs before they find the cultist, she'll let Jalt take the lead on what jobs to accept, but she'd make a point in suggesting jobs that would take them around the city a little.
Elspeth is fairly enthusiastic about being in such a large city - or, at least, that's her excuse for wanting to wander all around the city. She'll try to hit all the important landmarks between the days, which she assumed most who visit would want to see - but she would the longest, most meandering path between them to visit mundane marketplaces, traveler's haunts, places where merchants would hang out besides the outer city, even returning to the docks, examining wares as if a prospecting merchant, all for the singular purpose of familiarizing herself with the layout of Baldur's gate without making it obvious.
Great. So let's take two days early in your stay. The first day, Soar and Nate go shopping for musical instruments while Jalt and Elspeth keep watch.
Soar, it's easy to find an instrument shop and buy a cheap wooden flute for 15 silver, or a slightly nicer one with some engravings for two gold. I'm also imagining a recorder, and I think we all know that if Soar's never played the recorder before, then not even a nat 20 on a performance check is going to make this sound good, so don't even roll. People walking past look at you with pity, but they walk quicker to get away from you. You earn 4 pity coppers.
Nate and Soar, together you track down a shop that sells magical items: Sorcerous Sundries, in the east of the city. The half-elf shopkeeper is friendly and shows you what she has for sale. When you ask for items to help with subterfuge or social interactions, she suggests the following, and you realise that magical items are really really expensive. Nevertheless, this is what she has in that area:
Amulet of Proof against Detection and Location 300 gold
Dust of Disappearance 150 gold
Cloak of Many Fashions 100 gold
Instrument of Illusions 50 gold (comes in flute or lyre varieties)
Perfume of Bewitching 75 gold
On the second day, Soar and Nate stay behind to watch, and Elspeth and Jalt head out to explore.
Elspeth and Jalt, you can see that there's always a need for porters to carry goods through the city. There are reputable ones wearing uniforms, but there are cheaper alternatives and those people are always hiring. You have a travel in a group so that an overseer can make sure you don't abscond with the goods, but you can earn five silver a day, and get to know the city and its layout much better.
If you want to find something more interesting or profitable, make an Investigation check, with advantage as I assume one of you is helping the other. Enda, alas, doesn't really have any work that she can offer you.
OOC: This is still making me laugh. Love it. Removed 23 silver (8 food/lodging + 15 cheap flute) and added 4 pity coppers to purse. Also, these one-use magical items are still very expensive!
Soar thanks the shopkeep at Sorcerous Sundries for pointing her to the items, and she takes a look at the cloak of many fashions, thinking it could be useful for the different identities she'll likely be adopting in the next few weeks.
"I may be interested in this, but it's a bit expensive for what it does. While I think it over, can I take a look at any of your items that might help me in a scrap, should I find myself in one? Also do you have anything that would protect my health or help heal myself or others?"
Soar will stay on watch for the evening of the first day and much of the second day, really wanting to become part of the background near the city gate. Her flute playing is... very bad. She begins to get a better sense of how it works by the second day and can actually make some sounds that, if you squint really hard, sort of resemble a song. But it's really like a child first learning how the instrument makes noises, only without any instruction.
She will take breaks from the flute, though, and alternating every 15 minutes with some regular, normal, singing. Her voice is actually not bad. She's not trained as a singer by any means, but it comes out clear and she knows how to project from her time singing hymns in the choir at the chapterhouse. (She was always the peppy one, trying to get the others to kick things up a notch, but failing every time, like the outtakes in Sister Act.) She sticks to drinking songs that most people know, avoiding singing anything too close to Kelemvor's musical oeuvre, which are mostly dirges. But the singing itself wouldn't be an automatic fail at getting others to like it (should she roll a performance check?).
Most of her attention, however, is watching through her newly-black hair for people to enter the city that she recognizes from the cult's raids or their time infiltrating the camp before they rescued Nate, Leosin, and the others. She has her cap low as well. She'll also look for people who enter suspiciously, with decent amounts of cargo that she assumes would be the loot stolen from Greenest. Any of the cult robes of course would be a dead giveaway but they might be hiding those as well.
Soar, the shop can only sell a regular Potion of Healing, though it has quite a number in stock, for the standard 50 gold each.They don't really sell magical armour or weapons, though the shopkeeper tells you there are enchanters in the city who can enchant a high-quality weapon, but it costs a great deal (over a thousand gold at least).
It's hard to focus on practising your instrument while also keeping a proper watch for the cultists, but possible if Nate accompanies you and pays more attention. You can roll a Performance check for the singing if you wish.
Spending time watching the city gate, you all get to see a few regulars who also appear to be looking for work, and taking short-term day jobs until the next caravan leaves. The first day, as a large caravan gets underway, what's left over is definitely not the most impressive of potential hires and you feel confident that you all look good in comparison. Over the next few days, a few more seasoned mercenaries and fighters join you, and you realise there will still be some element of competition, at least for the good jobs.
At some point in the next few days, Elspeth (accompanied by Jalt?) will head to the Hall of Wonders. It is truly magnificent, a large stone building, not ancient but still aged, housing a wealth of books and knowledge and great numbers of strange and weird magical and scientific devices. Some of the more memorable items are a beautiful water clock, a row of eight linked mechanical scribes engaged in simultaneously duplicating a single book places before the first of them, and a pair of statues, a king and queen, located at either end of the museum but which magically swap places every hour on the hour. You pay four copper pieces to enter, and enjoy every moment.
"Hmmmm... these things all look very interesting indeed, Ma'am!" Nate says to the shopkeeper. He doesn't intend on buying any of this stuff... he was also more looking for potential trinkets which might enhance his abilities or like Soar mentioned assist a bit in combat. But nevertheless he will be super kind to the half-elf and actually with buy 2 of the healing potions (-100gp).
After Soar and Nate leave, Nate will definitely spend the rest of his time on lookout for the caravans, therefore allowing Soar to focus more on her performance.
When on lookout, Nate sees the more meaner looking guards and mercs start to come through, and he still feels confident he can get hired on as a guard-hand over these punks given his experience with wolves, and the fact that he KNOWS that they will need that specific help. He will reiterate that again to Soar as well to make sure she is aware. "The guy I met in the bar last night said the guards job was basically to fend off Wolves... might give us an advantage if we know that going in."
Nate's going to continue his watch, looking very closely for any new activity that might indicate some cultists have surfaced in the caravan mix based on what he knows they look like from his time in the camp. Perception if needed 25
Investigation: 18
Jalt with Elspeth's help would try to find a more profitable arrangement and continue looking for one to pop up that fits that bill.
Hoard of the Dragon Queen - Jalt Rhogar - Dragonborn Cleric (9)
"Ive heard it both ways."
Soar performance: 18
Edit: DAMMIT
Soar will also try to stop by any of the hospitals she notices in town on the way from the gaye to the inn (asking around if necessary) to offer the power of Kelemvor to heal anyone who is wounded. She doesn’t give her name and she defers questions, but she uses 15 of her 20 lay on hands hp at the end of each day. She can’t stand the idea of anyone being hurt and power left unused that could help them.