As it turns out, the village blacksmith was all too happy to make us some armor... well, make some leather armor for Nymph, and suggest a good tailor for me. All we had to do in exchange was give him the silver plates and a couple gold pieces, which we now know are referred to as Herrian. Now equipped with a not sucky set of black robes for me, and a chainmail vest for Nymph, we set out to the notice board. "Hey, Harry, look." Nymph pulls of a large scrap of paper with a picture of an ugly man with a large, black moustache, and a scar over his right eye.
"Wow, he looks... Noticeable." I proclaim, blinking twice, "It says here he lives in the Forren Hills... in an abandoned... Temple? Who takes over a temple?" I furrow my brow, looking closely at the paper, before it shoots up, and my eyes widen in turn. "Nymph, the reward is 100 Herrian! And... 350 XP for each adventurer? What?" She shrugs at me, and I glare at the paper.
"Someone needs to turn the damn roleplaying on, this is downright unrealistic." I gripe.
Roleplaying initiated.
Wha- "Holy crap!" Nymph exclaims suddenly, and I look at her. She looks at me. "We don't know where we ARE! We don't even have SHOES! And... Oh, Merlin..." She sinks to the ground, the realization hitting her hard as she begins to cry. "We... We might never get home now... We..." I crouch down and hug her, trying to rid the tears.
"It's okay, it's okay," I murmur, stroking her hair. I quickly tire of the whining, though. "Okay, Nymph. Listen. You're twice my age, I shouldn't be comforting you."
"Bu-But..." She blubbers, and I cut her off.
"But nothing, Nymph. I understand that we're lost. I get that. I understand that you got hurt. Now isn't the time, though. Sitting around and moping will do nothing but deplete funds. When we run out, we starve."
"But... But..."
"In case you've forgotten, I'm no stranger to starvation, Nymph. I didn't complain. I'm younger than you, so you have NO right to complain. Now, let's go kill this..." I glance at the paper, "This Duranti guy." She wipes at her eyes, grudgingly. "I know it hurts, Nymph. That's the thing. It always hurts. The best way to deal is to ignore it." She sniffs.
"No, the best way to deal is to talk about it." I smile.
"Well, what do you know," I pull her to her feet, "We've already done that. Now let's dispense some vigilante justice!" I yell, before remembering something. "After we find out where we are and where we're going."
-))((-
Three hours later, we find ourselves at the mouth of the chapel. "You ready?" Nymph nervously asks me, and with a shaky, unconfident grin, I nod. "Yeah... Let's... Let's do this."
I open the door, and we walk in. At first, all is well. Then we see the guards. Six Goblins and a pair of Dwarves are mingling a short distance away. New to this as I am, I blurt out, "Uh, Hi." The Goblins and Dwarves turn to look at me astoundedly. "Eh... Lad? Ye do know yer in a thieves' den, right?" I shuffle my feet awkwardly. "Uhmm... Yeah? Do we... Have to fight then...?" "I suppose so," The other Dwarf says, struggling to pull out his own weapon.
I sigh. "Well, in that case-MAGICMISSILE!" I only just now notice the hand movements that go with the spell. The ball of blue energy flies toward the eight enemies. It hits the rightmost Dwarf head on, blowing up and sending all six Goblins flying.
3+1 Damage!
Two Goblins have impacted walls for 1 Damage! They have been stunned!
One Goblin has impacted walls for 2 Damage! It has died!
Sure enough, two Goblins find themselves on Death's door, and one is already inside. I quickly yell for Nymph to attack, but she's two steps ahead of me. She rushes behind the uninjured Dwarf, and stabs it in the back.
3 * 2 Damage!
The Dwarf falls dead as the other works over his shock, and, with a cry of rage, attacks. Unfortunately for him, Nymph sidesteps at the last moment, putting him off balance. The two stunned Goblins that crashed into the walls are unable to do anything, but I can see one of the other three, the one I can actually SEE, get up and bum-rush Nymph. The three strike as one, but in their stupidity fail to realize that none of them are close enough to actually hit her.
I make the weird gestures that I'll figure out some other time, before yelling, "MAGIC MISSILE!" while aiming at the one Goblin I can see.
1+1 Damage!
It strikes true, knocking it instantly dead. Nymph lines up her own dagger strike to the Dwarf's head.
15/10
1 Damage!
Embarrassingly, she only manages to glance the stout man's neck. As it doesn't kill him, he retaliates with the last of his strength. He also misses his strike. The Goblins, however, including the stunned that have regained control of their bodies, bum-rush Nymph yet again, this time managing to close in on her.
3 Damage!
Amazingly, only one manages to hit her, but I'll bet it hurt nonetheless. The other three look at their weapons as if they had betrayed them, managing to miss so terribly each time. I take my turn yet again, and bum-rush the bum-rushers. I only manage to move just outside of melee range, but nonetheless make the hand-signs and yell, "MAGIC MISSILE!" Sending it directly in front of me exploding and sending all adjacent enemies flying.
3+1 Damage!
Fortunately, all my enemies are adjacent. They all die in a flaming... Flame... and I whoop, throwing my hands in the air as Tonks looks, disturbed, at the corpses. "This is gross, Harry..." She grumbles, looking rather green. I pat her on the back consolingly, and respond, "Well, the faster we leave, the faster we're away from this stuff. The faster we finish, the faster we leave. So, we should go on." She nods still green, as I lead her through the west door. I'm shocked to find a room filled with nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not even church benches.
I make a displeased face as we continue on through the north exit to the westernmost room, and find ourselves faced by four more Goblins. I waste no time with cheap pleasantries, immediately sending off a quick magic missile.
3+1 Damage!
Just once, I'm going to get something other than 3+1, and on that day, I'll have two girls fawning over me... with another five doing the same behind them... maybe... nah, probably not. I grouse, as the missile impacts the Goblins, sending them everywhere.
Two Goblins have impacted walls for 2 Damage! They have died!
Two Goblins have impacted walls for 1 Damage! They have NOT died! They ARE, however, stunned.
Ah... I was wondering when the DM would make another joke. The two stunned Goblins are unable to do anything, so Nymph rushes one while I prepare another spell. She doesn't get far before my spell is ready and the Goblins are getting up, so I fire off another missile, and watch the Goblin Nymph ISN'T aiming for blow up in an admittedly gross shower of gore. I feel like I had to-
POISON SAVE! 16/14! No effect!
...well okay then. Nymph continues rushing at the remaining diminutive creature, who is infuriated at the deaths of his friends... or rather allies in this case, and strikes at the tiny manlike thing.
7/10
She misses her strike, but the creature is still in little position to fight. It takes a swing and a miss at the pink-haired girl, and I finish it off with a missile.
I look around the room, not entirely sure what I expected to find, yet somehow still finding myself disappointed. "There's nothing here," I complain, "I mean, yeah, there were other ways to go, but these guys were stationed her and should have been guarding someth-" "Hey look! A switch!" *click* I hear a groaning sound as stone scrapes against stone, and I feel a wall being lifted. Somehow, I feel as though this isn't the only switch, so when we backtrack, instead of now heading north, we head east. We find another room, identical in all ways to the western one, with yet another passage north. I clearly see ahead more goblins, and send out a precursory missile.
1+1 Damage!
Oh, come on! I can tell that the distance weakened my attack, but it still exploded and still damaged them all. They charge feebly at us as I prepare another missile, stopping Nymph before she charges right back at them. "They're too far, no point in attacking with blades when I can just range them out. If anything it'll save us a few injuries." I fire off another missile as I finish.
1+1 Damage!
They barely make it to the doorway before my missile strikes them, and I feel something strange, like a rule had been employed to bend space-time. I ignore the feeling for now, as other things are more important to be focused on. Things such as killing these evil little buggers. I ready another missile and fire, yet again.
4+1 Damage!
They barely make it another three feet before the final blast kills them all swiftly. I breathe out, hard, and take another deep breath, before we both walk down the stone brick halls of the former chapel. "What do you think the Goblins are doing in a ruined chapel?" Nymph asks, and I shrug. "Well, I can't raise the dead, so we're going to have trouble just asking them, but they seem to be using it as a base for thieves. So... yeah." I step into the room and start looking for the switch, all the while Nymph does the same. *click* "Found it!" I hear the scraping of stone against stone, and we run as fast as we can to the main room, and, for good luck, I fire a missile into the now exposed room at the end of the north hall. I can tell immediately that I hit the big boss, as a shout of, "Who dares attack the mighty Duranti?! The mighty Duranti demands to know!"
2+1 Damage!
I can also tell that the explosion affected a henchman of his as well. It sounded like two, though, but I won't be too optimistic. That... that leads to bad things, too much optimism does. I shiver. They're surprised enough, though, that I am able to fire off another missile before he notices where the attacks are coming from.
4+1 Damage!
I can tell immediately that I've offed two of his Dwarven henchman, and I can clearly see his last abandon him in hope of life, rushing past us for the door, screaming like a little girl. He glares at us indignantly from the distance he faces, and I can feel him weighing his options. With a cry of rage, he throws his weapon at us, only for it to clatter to the ground twenty feet from mine. I give him a level look before making the gestures with my hands, and all ends for the Dwarf.
3+1 Damage!
The loot is rather awesome, I must say. I found two daggers that reek of magic, which I will check out later, a shortsword that reeks of magic, which I will also check out later, a regular shortsword, which is nice, a fine set of leather armor, which Nymph substitutes for her own, two fancy suits, a fancy dress, a set of plate armor, 20 Herrian, which Tonks notes is hilariously light, and five books that seem to be written in... some language I can read but looks insanely unfamiliar.
"It looks like your spellbook!" Nymph notes.
Nonetheless, we wander back to town, tell of the deeds we have done, and collect out reward.
Then the notification pops up.
You have earned 832 XP!
Nymph has earned 832 XP!
You are now Level 2!
Max HP is now 5!
You have learned Chill Touch and Identify!
Nymph is now level 3!
Max HP is now 9!
We'll deal with this tomorrow. I promis myself, walking to the tavern to turn in for the night.