Imoen was tasked with peeking into the Nashkel Inn this time, and reported back. "One rough looking lady watching the door like a hawk. Just like last time."
Jaheira had complaints, of course. "That's hardly any reason to suspect an assassin-"
Neera patted her on the back. "There, there. Let it go. I'm talking from experience here."
Jaheira shook off Neera's hand with a shoulder roll, but kept her peace.
"I need more intel than that. What was she equipped with?" I asked Imoen.
"Metal armour, wee widdle club. Could be a cleric, right?"
"Clubs be not wee widdle!" Jaheira protested.
Neera pointed to Jaheira. "Point taken. Jaheira uses a club too. Could be a druid with martial training like her?"
Khalid put up his hand. After I acknowledged him, he said, "If it's an enchanted club, there's reason for even a dedicated warrior to use one."
"Naw. Pretty sure it was a regular old club," Imoen said.
We settled on either cleric or druid of some persuasion.
"We will allow the woman to make the first move to be sure of her intentions," I said, conceding to the group will. "Is that fine with everyone?"
"Not ideal, but what can yer do?" Imoen concurred. Nods all around, so she continued. "Same as strategy last time with traps?"
I considered this. "We can set some traps, but I want to try something else this time as well."
Neira was actually quite a problem for even a whole party of level 1 adventurers. …ah, hold on. To clarify, this character's name is Neira. That's N-E-I-R-A with an 'I' in the middle. Not Neera, which was N-E-E-R-A with no 'I'. So not one of the pink irritations. This Neira with an 'I' was a bounty hunter who was sitting in Nashkel Inn tavern with her trusty club at her side. Got it? Good.
Like with previous assassins, it was quite likely the party would prevail, but often a few party members would be killed in the process. Neira was a cleric who cast Hold Person which paralyzed opponents and Rigid Thinking which confused. She had an AC of 1, which was very challenging for a low-level party to hit, so there was a good chance she could cast her incapacitation spells before she was interrupted. Attacks against paralyzed opponents always hit, and so paralysis was almost a death sentence at low levels.
From her point of view, Neira with an 'I' wasn't actually expecting her target to just wander in, actually. She just arrived while traveling from Amn, and was stopping by along the way. Watching the door was just a habit she picked up in her line of work. Just in case.
So she could barely believe her eyes when a short halfling with raven black hair, fitting the description of the bounty perfectly, just walked right into the inn. Neira practically leapt out of her tavern chair. She grinned, menacingly. "Just fancy my luck seeing you stroll in here, bold as day! May the Lord of Shadows guide you swiftly to your death!"
Neira almost thought she heard a woman outside, somewhere behind her target, cry out, "Are you serious?", but ignored it. Only the hunt mattered.
The target looked up at her with sad, sad eyes. "You, you don't really want to kill little old me, do you, CLERIC OF MASK? Ahem, CLERIC OF MASK, won't you reconsider?"
Why was he saying 'Cleric of Mask' louder than the rest? No, it didn't matter. Niera grinned. Such pleas for compassion were wasted on her. "To put it as succinctly as possible, no."
Neira started incanting. Hold Person should make short work of this halfling. Heh, short.
"Okay-thanks-bye," the halfling said cheekily. And he walked back out the inn, and closed the door.
Without a target, Neira's spell was fizzled harmlessly, completely wasted.
Neira choked on her rage and disbelief. Was… was that even allowed?!?
Jaheira and Khalid held the inn door back as someone pounded it from behind. Presumably with a club.
"Get back here and receive your swift death!" Neira with and 'I' screamed behind the door. "The Lord of Shadows wills it!"
Neera without an 'I' however was talking to a band of Amnish soldiers just outside. "Hear that? Bounty hunter, wants to murderise someone. Murderise, that's a word, right?"
"I don't know. I mean the whole murder thing, not the word. This is looking more like a bar fight than murder attempt so far," the lead soldier said, scratching the back of his head. An understandable conclusion, really. The sight of the man and woman holding the door back wasn't helping.
"Eeeeeeeek!" Khalid let out a tiny whine as wood near his head splintered.
"Wee widdle club isn't so wee widdle -oof- from the receiving end!" Jaheira shouted while pressing her back against the door. "Are you two done?"
"Shouting at me doesn't help," I muttered under my breath while tinkering. "Got it. Imoen?"
Imoen gave us a thumbs up.
I nodded to Khalid and Jaheira. As one, the husband-and-wife duo suddenly moved away from the door, letting Neira with an… ugh, letting the cleric of Mask through.
The cleric of Mask, on her part, fell over onto the floor from the sudden loss of resistance. When she looked up, she found herself looking up the shaft of some very sharp bolts loaded into some sort of launcher contraption. That and a whole party of adventurers with weapons drawn.
I stood over the cleric of Mask with a staff on one shoulder, the other hand pointing at her. "You thought you were the hunter," I said, then gave her a thumbs down, "but you were the prey all along."
Newbie Trap #3 (that's what we shall call her, not Neira-whatever) may have had impressive AC, but she wasn't immune to magic. Magic Missles were a good option to attempt to interrupt her spells. Ironically, even though she was a cleric, Newbie Trap #3 was again susceptible to another cleric's Command spell due to her level.
I'm going to keep saying it. I wish I was a cleric!
As described, another way to guarantee interrupting her best spells was to vamoose back through the door. This can be done repeatedly, until she only had Spiritual Hammer left. Newbie Trap #3 wasn't actually proficient with the wee widdle club, surprisingly. Without her spells, Newbie Trap #3 wasn't a real threat to the party.
As soon as we were done taking care of the bounty hunter, the guy was showing of his martial arts moves near the bridge who I had purposely ignored came right over. "Picking fights on the streets is unwise, friend," he said, sagely. "be careful when inviting danger into your life, for it comes all too willingly."
Jaheira, whom he was addressing, blinked. "Uh… do I know you?"
"Thank you for asking. I am Rasaad. I am merely demonstrating some of the ways of the Sun Soul monks reflect our spiritual light through our physical body." Rasaad said sagely, then asked, "May I tell you more about the Order of the Sun soul?"
Jaheira pointed at me. "Talk to him, he's the leader."
"What? No, no, you're in charge of the talking, Jaheira-"
Rasaad turned to me, sagely. "Of course, I will be more than happy to tell you about the Order of the Sun soul," Rasaad said sagely. "But first, allow me to signal my virtue in a show of resilience in the face of adversity."
"Hey, yer stupid monk. Ye suck!" a commoner shouted at him.
"I am above cheap provocation," Rasaad said sagely, posing with one hand upright in front of his chest and the other doing a pushing motion towards his heckler, "Base insults cannot get a rise out of me."
…Was that a personal attack? I feel attacked. I only killed people who insulted me once! …so far! "That's nice and all, but I really need to get going-"
"The order of the Sun Soul was founded during the time of…"
And on, and on, and on he went. No amount of protest or excuse mes on my part could get him to stop talking my ear off.
"…and that is why I will allow you to recruit me into your party," Rasaad finished, sagely.
"No, we're good. Thank you," I shot back immediately.
The sagely bearing Rasaad had been maintaining, cracked.
I was trying to make my way to the Nashkel Store with Newbie Trap #3's loot in tow, dragging Rasaad along the dirt road while he held on to my leg, crying.
"Bwaaaaaaaah! Don't leave me here alone! Nobody wants me to join their party!" he said, tears flowing like a river. "Weren't you impressed by all my lore and backstory?"
"For the last time, no! We're full!"
"You have only 5 members in your party! One slot is empty!" Rasaad protested.
"The last one is, uh, reserved! Get lost!"
"Whyyyyyy?"
"Cos ye're a monk! An objectively worse fighter! We don't need you on our team!" I spat out. "Nobody does!"
"Oooooh, harsh," Imoen said, laughing it off with the rest on the side.
"You want to take over?" I shot back at her.
"Nope. This is why you be the boss man!"
"I've got great personal quests! Powerful unique items!" Rasaad whimpered. "Even romance! I'm straight, though."
"So am I!" I said and pulled at my leg that was being held. A grown human was way too heavy for a halfling to drag around. "None of that outweighs the fact you're the absolute worst companion available! Get ye gone!"
I yelled to my party, "Stop laughing and get this clown of me! I mean it! For the love of all that is holy, help meeeeeeeeee!"
As I was saying, Nashkel Store just next door to sell loot. And yes, the wee widdle club was just a normal club. There we sold Newbie Trap #3's splint mail, and 2 of the plate mail from the flaming fist. We kept the medium shield as well as the helmet, which was enchanted.
"So it's true. There are in fact assassins after Gorion's ward," Jaheira mused in the shop as we looked through the merchandise. All mundane items. "I knew Gorion had reason to worry for your safety, but the reach of the bounty hunters borders on the ridiculous. We're in Amn now, not the Sword Coast."
Neera patted Jaheira on the back. "There, there. You don't have to explain yourself. Total nobodies like us don't normally have an actual bounty posted on our heads."
Jaheira shook off Neera's hand with a shoulder roll. "By the way, why aren't we resting yet, taskmaster?" Jaheira asked me, almost tentatively.
"We need to have a better idea of what we're dealing with before we prepare spells. Makes sense?"
Well, that was kind of the reason. Not the main one, but still a reason!
Jaheira considered. "Prudent. Resting and then having to rest again to reprepare spells immediately once we found out what the opposition was would be a big waste of time."
I gave Jaheira my best, least suspicious looking smile and gave her a thumbs up.
Meanwhile, in the back of the shop, Imoen was leaning against the door, examining some documents. Neera and Khalid, were next to her, also leaning against door. It was a bit of a squeeze.
"Remember all those bounty notices? The ones on Sonny's head?" Imoen explained, and held three documents. "Three assassins, three bounty notices. Friendly Arm Inn guy, his bounty offered 200gp for Sonny's head."
"Soooo what?" Neera asked.
"Listen to the end. Red Sheaf Inn dwarf? His notice was for 350 gold coins. That last one we offed? 680 gold coins. Even warns that Sonny was formidable, and his travelin' companions are armed," Imoen said. "Methinks someone's getting anxious."
Got to admit, the thought of the armored man with the scary teeth faceplate getting flustered while writing these bounty notices, now that brought a smile to my face. "But, damn. 680 gold? I gotta think of a way to collect that money myself."
Imoen and Neera groaned, even as they continued to lean against the door with Khalid. They were holding the door back, actually.
I took a tentative peep outside the window. "Rasaad is still out there. And he's still crying." I turned to the shopkeeper. "Is there a back door?"
The shopkeeper shook his head.
After kicking Rasaad into the river, we started our tour of the town.
The first significant person we met (Rasaad doesn't count) while checking the town out was a certain Berrun Ghastkill, the Mayor of Nashkel himself.
Wait, his name was really Ghast-kill all this time? I can't believe I never noticed that ALL the times I've played this game. I always read it as Ghaskel, like Nashkel. Hearing his name pronounced aloud in-person through me for a loop.
Anyway! Berrun Ghoulmurder hailed Jaheira from afar. He had been expecting adventurers under her wing to come and solve the issue in the mines for him.
"A party of adventurers led by Jaheira, you say," I said to Berrun Ghostexorcise while giving Jaheira the side eye. "That's what she told you to expect, hrmmmmm?"
"Yes, it was. I'm not sure I follow the meaning of your tone, young man," Berrun Vampirestake replied. "As I was saying, our mines are all but shut down because the workers continually go missing, and what ore we get is tainted somehow. The town guards are needed to protect our citizens from the bandits that raid our caravans."
"And that is where us adventurers come in. We'll be happy to help," Jaheira said to Berrun Zombieheadshot.
"That we will, oh authority figure," I said to her.
Jaheira gave me a little kick in the foot.
The next person down the street also hailed us, but he was calling a name the party didn't recognise. "Greywolf! Here Greywolf!"
A portly man who reminded me of Winthrop (sans the accent) was rushing towards us.
The guy's name was Oublek. Oublek came forward to shake Khalid's hand vigorously. "You must be him. Greywolf the bounty hunter! I have your money right here. Thank you so much for ridding us of that villain, Tonquin. This measly 200 gold reward is but a small token of the town's thanks for your great service!"
"I-I-I," Khalid stammered, looking at me. The whole party was looking at me.
Sighing, I tugged on Oublek's pants from the side to get his attention. "Thaaaat's not Greywolf I'm afraid-"
I was going to say something else, but had a cheeky thought. I took a step back, puffed my chest out and posed, holding my quarterstaff as if it were a flag. "Behold, mere mortal, for I am Grey- MFFFT!"
Imoen was covering my mouth. She, Neera and Jaheira tackled me to the ground, kicking and screaming.
Khalid cleared his throat. "I-I-I'm sorry, but this is a case of mistaken identity."
The +1 bonus to reputation for being honest with Oublek was worth more than a measly 200gp. Especially since he was in charge of handing out other rewards for bounties. But come on, who can reject free money being offered to you in the face?
The bounties which were still unclaimed was for the capture of Commander Brage, mentioned earlier, as well as the return of some emeralds stolen by a foolish artist named Prism. In summary, take out Brage and find emeralds with Prism.
We would soon find that the Commander Brage's killing spree was still the main talk of town.