Warming back up (Afina)

[Anastasia]

This takes place a little before the current arc of the Coda. It's in Afina's most recent block of free time and is meant as a warm up while the others finish the dungeon they're in.

The clang of metal on metal fills Afina's ears as she works on another suit of armor. Such is her life many days, devoted to equipping Aurora's crusade with the best equipment she can make. Glorious heat billows out from the forges, but yet it is a sadly dry heat.

As Afina puts the finishing touches on this set of armor, Simmer watches from nearby. She keeps quiet during Afina's efforts, merely keeping her company. Of course, this solitude does not last. Elena pops in briefly - dressed unremarkably for once. "Afina," she says, "Crystal's looking for you."

[Ebiris]

Afina is fully equipped and ready for trouble at a moment's notice! Her only buff at the moment is Greater Mage Armour which can be assumed to always be up unless dispelled.

With her steamy white hair and clammy skin both covered in clothes of vibrantly clashing colours, Afina's an odd looking little pixie of indeterminate gender from a casual glance, though the skirt and otherwise feminine cut of her attire helps make up for her biological shortcomings when it comes to expressing her gender. Not to mention her adorably girlish voice heard as she speaks up while moving the mithral chainmail away from Medi's forge onto a floating disc of magical force so she can drop it by the laboratory for enchanting. "Did she say what it was about?" she asks, heading towards one of Aurora's ubiquitous portals.

[Anastasia]

"Want company?" Simmer straightens and stretches. She starts to fall in step towards the portal as well.

"Yes," Elena smiles a little bit, "She's looking for a partner to make some money with. She's still deeply in debt and doesn't want to sell anything."

[Ebiris]

"Sure, it'll probably be less boring for you than watching me craft," Afina gives Simmer a little smile, knowing her own magic and alacrity focused methods of item creation, while impressive, lack the pyrotechnical flair of someone more bent on pounding hot metal over a roaring forge. "Where can we find Crystal, then?" she asks Elena, heading through the portal to one of the labs so she can leave her latest creation for later enchantment when she has free time, knowing Elena can easily keep up the conversation through any transits around the fortress.

[Anastasia]

"The cafeteria," Elena says, winking away once that's done.

As the two pass through portals, heading towards there, "It's not that it's boring," Simmer retorts, "It's that you don't use enough fire. I mean, you melt the metal, but there could be more fire."

Crystal's found in the cafeteria. The noise of it is familiar, warriors coming and going. There's a few familiar faces - Balyss and Tepen are eating and deep in discussion. Canderella's off by herself, slowly eating some grapes and staring off into space. In any case, "Afina," Crystal smiles, "Good day to you."

[Ebiris]

"It's just quicker and easier to reshape the materials with my mind rather than messing around with hammers and anvils," Afina says, flexing a slender and unassuming arm, "Don't really have the build for it either," she adds, for all that her unlikely musculature fair abounds with elemental potency. "Crystal!" she smiles at her fellow pixie, fluttering over to join her at a table. "What's this about some money-making scheme?"

[Anastasia]

Simmer chuckles but lets it go, following Afina.

"The simple truth is that I'm both destitute and in crippling debt. As of this moment, I owe over 58,000 gold." Crystal sips a pixie-sized glass of milk, "A remedy is needed immediately, especially since I can't even afford proper protections for Hope."

"I'd offer to lend you some," Simmer settles on, concentrating before a plate of something completely burnt appears before her. "But that wouldn't really help, would it?"

This gets Crystal to grimace and shake her head, "I need to escape poverty, not sink deeper into it. It's disgraceful for a high member of the court to be so indebted."

[Ebiris]

"I'd probably still be in debt if Jaela hadn't helped me out with Dana's armour," Afina admits, seeing no shame in such a situation, for all that it is certainly a pain. "I don't have much in the way of money available to loan myself either," she adds, pausing a moment before a plate of boiling hot spicy soup and some crusty buttered bread appears before her, in appropriately pixie-sized portions. Dipping the bread in the soup and taking a bite, she looks over at Crystal, "Which means of course that I'd be happy to take part in any sort of money-making scheme for my own benefit as well. Do you have any ideas for something we could do to gain some quick wealth?"

[Anastasia]

Crystal sighs and takes a long drink of her milk before replying. "Unfortunately, the best way is the most common way. As it is so crudely put, kill evil and take their things. I can't come up with anything better that would be more effective, though I'm loathe to fight evil with a purely mercantile mindset. What profit is it to do good purely to line one's own pockets, instead of for what's right and the freedom of others?"

Simmer slowly nibbles on her...whatever it is. Charcoal or close enough with how it's burnt. "There's always gambling in Brightwater. If Tymora blesses you, you can make a fortune in a single day. Or you could go fundraising, requesting money for Aurora's crusade."

"No." Crystal swiftly shakes her head, "I'll not go as a pauper purely to line my own pockets. Though, I confess I had expected an answer involving much more fire."

[Ebiris]

Crafting can make one quite wealthy, although Afina's been quite diligently putting all the profits from her efforts into the Aurora general fund - since everyone paid to get Medi's wondrous laboratories and forges rebuilt it seems only fair that everyone should profit from their fruits. Besides, it wouldn't include Crystal and she'd be insulted by charity. "Robbery really is the quickest way to wealth," she says without sugar-coating it. "It's served us well so far, though we should probably avoid going after any dragon hoards. Things have been quiet on that side lately so lets not be provocative. Didn't Ithea have some sort of dungeon in Limbo that she did quite well out of?" she finishes off her bread as she thinks, before bringing a scalding spoonful of soup to her lips, trying to think of any avenues that could work for them...

Between her craft skills at +35 (weapons, armour, and sculpting), and knowledge arcana and nature at +35/+37 respectively she'll take 10 on relevant checks that might provide quest hooks suitable for their needs.

[Anastasia]

"I know, I know." Crystal sigh as Afina thinks.

Crafting can earn good and steady money, but it's not quick and not something Crystal can do herself. Arcana and nature bring something to mind. As magical creatures, pixies are sometimes sought by spellcasters for pixie dust and other components. A pixie that's willing to do things like that can make solid money in it, let alone pixies as exception as Afina and Crystal. Dweomerheart would be the natural place to seek this.

"I might know something in Fire," Simmer pipes up, "Remember when you first met me and I had those scrolls, including that spell that restored your memories? There's a few groups there I don't really get along with. One's allied to Imix, Prince of Elemental Evil for Fire. There's always knocking a group of them around. You could also go after efreet, but they tend to be more organized and careful, like devils. They're not far removed from them."

[Ebiris]

Unfortunately Afina's wings are more apt to produce pixie condensation rather than pixie dust these days, though she doesn't doubt there's someone who'd pay for that. Given Hell's scrying tendencies she's leery of selling any body parts however. "Either one of those sounds a likely prospect," she says, liking Simmer's idea. "I suppose the two criteria are which would net the biggest reward, and which would benefit our cause most?"

[Anastasia]

A pause as Crystal frowns mightily, "Ah yes, the efreet. Slavers and monsters, one and all of them. I have heard nary a single word that exonerates them from the same sin as the baatezu."

"They are. I don't know a lot, but common fact on Fire holds that they sell captives to serve in the Blood War." Simmer finishes her meal, dismissing it with about half left. "I've met a few who have been cordial, but I learned early on that efreet respect displays of power. When I meet one, I make sure they know I can cook them as easily as anything else." A little smile comes to her face, "The one that tried something anyway burned so wonderfully."

"Be that as it may, I still don't know that much about them. Do you, Afina? If not, we should ask another who is more knowledgeable. I confess they strike me as foes worthy of smiting. Especially the slavers."

[Ebiris]

"We could ask the Three Wise Men," Afina says, using her nickname for Tepen, Vul'lath, and Muirfinn as she finishes off her soup, letting the crockery vanish the same way it appeared now that she's fed herself. "But the general concept of attacking slavers who support the devils is sound - back before we found Aurora I battled many soul traders across Gehenna." Though it took her a little while to figure out the difference between devils and demons, and even that the two hated each other so much. Eventually she managed to target her efforts a bit more. "It's a disgusting business, but also one that enriches those who participate. If we can find a group that say supplies slaves and mercenaries to Bel's armies, we'd be winning on both counts."

[Anastasia]

"Let's," Crystal says, the three going to find information. By chance, Tepen's unavoidably occupied with Balyss and Muirfinn is busy with something to do with The Father. It's Sage Vul'lath that is found in the library, looking up from a tome wider than he is and massive, floating in the air with  magic.

> roll 1d20+57 K:P Vul'lath
<Serith> Kotono roll for Serith < 70 > [d20=13]
> roll 1d20+28 academic lore Vul'lath
<Serith> Kotono roll for Serith < 35 > [d20=7]

"The efreeti," Sage Vul'lath frowns, a gesture of his hand closing the book in front of him. It flies back to Aurora's libraries, "You seek the ones who supply the Blood War? There are many, though most ultimately can be traced to the same diplomat. Efreeti are fond of order as the devils are, there are ultimately easily traceable lines of authority. Slavery for other means is far more diversified, but the political climate of The City of Brass and the Sultan's Court encourages a certain isolation in the main slaver for Baator."