One Way or the Other

[Lia Starweaver]

Diplomacy to help the customer see the light!

Rolled 1d20-2 : 9 - 2, total 7

[Linwelin]

The man had seemed so prepared to answer, confident he would prevail in the verbal debate, with the momentum in his favor. But nothing could have prepared him for the impassioned rant of the seemingly-unknowledgeable Lia. There was no stopping the flood-like prose of fiery praise that poured from her mouth.

It...

IT WAS...

The man gritted his teeth, "UTTER NONSENSE!!!" The roar bellowed from the depths of his being. "Worth in the toils of its creator? Complexity from its simplicity? That's only if the quality is decent! The only gain from such a thing goes to the creator them self, not the buyers." He pocketed his piece. "I commend your speech, it was spoken like a true merchant; like an artist and jeweler. But your praise is misplaced, your eyes blinded by trickery."

He notes off to the side, "And you were both wrong, the worth of the silver lily is 25 gold. It seems your master truly knows better after all, though I am left disappointed either way."

"My point this entire time is that this merchant is taking advantage of the unwary and unknowledgeable, and charging far too much for his work! He has skill, but not enough for these prices. And the worst part is, he knows it! And so, I want him to answer for these misdeeds and change his ways." The man whirls back toward the merchant, "This con artist must- huh?"

The merchant was gone, along with his goods. At least from the stall. A couple seconds more of searching, and you can see him making his way through the crowd is a secretive manner.

"Halt! Stop that man!"

You still have a chance to subdue him, or you can choose to let him go, or even aid in the escape. The choice is yours!

For subdue, roll for a combat maneuver (CMB check) to pin or trip (unless you wish to use magic).

[Neko]

Sophie listened in awe as her "apprentice", gave it her all in describing the clasp. It was quite the improvement, compared to her act during the beginning of their encounter. Sophie gave a small, excited clap as Lei's speech came to an end. However, before she could even utter a bravo, the man let out a yell that sent chills down the maid's spine.

Once the stranger had finished explaining his side of things, Sophie began to feel a small hint of guilt. Maybe she had been on the wrong side the whole time?

"Halt! Stop that man!"

The shop keeper was well on his way out of the market, clasps in hand. Sophie had no intention of following, though, finding herself unable to handle the stress of being something she wasn't. "Uwah! I can't do this!" Sophie exclaimed, covering her face in shame. "I'm not from the clasp society! I don't know anything about clasps or jewelry! Please forgive me, I just didn't want anyone to get hurt!"

As her speech finished, Sophie felt a light tap on her shoulder. She quickly turned to find the shop keeper from a couple stands over, her hand held out, the other on her hip. "I'm sooo sorry!!!" Sophie quickly removed the sun hat from her head, returning it to its rightful owner.  The shop keeper simply mumbled as she shuffled away. "Great, now I'm a liar and a thief. " Sophie thought with a sigh.

[Lia Starweaver]

She didn't quite understand why the shopkeeper wanted to run. But she at least called out to him.

"The clasp society would have bought your trinket!" She called out, but shortly after hushed down as she grabbed Sophie's arm as she realized Sophie was confessing.

"Master!" She turned towards the merchant who actually knew his stuff.

"I think my master is just tired from the... hmm.. hot sun today!" She grinned as she gave the merchant a thumbs up. She then placed her mouth near Sophie's ear and began to whisper fiercely.

"We're sooo caught! Let's just walk away?" She suggested, but before Sophie could respond, in a louder voice for the merchant to hear, Lia followed up.

"I must take my master to rest! Yes!" She began to laugh nervously.

Bluff:

Rolled 1d20+4 : 4 + 4, total 8

[Linwelin]

The man stopped momentarily, sneering and making a 'tch' sound. He did not even spare a word, between the confessing Sophie, and the continued attempts at bluffing from Lia. To struggle to understand the situation would prevent him from chasing after the merchant before him.

Without a moment more of hesitation, the man dashed into the crowd, chasing after his mark. And so you are left in the aftermath of a stripped stall and a very confused crowd. Lia's attempted bluffing fell on deaf and non-believing ears, and Sophie's confession to the whole thing being an act dispelled the ruse altogether. However, you could see many that were glad it had not come to bloodshed. In fact, most of the surrounding crowd was grateful for your actions. The one exception was the hatter/haberdasher from whom you'd 'borrowed' the hat. Of course, he'd suspected thievery almost immediately, but seeing that it was just an act, along with how apologetic Sophie was, made amends. With a little more time to dwell on it, he felt it was almost like advertising for his shop.

With the event dispersed, and the duo of merchants off somewhere in the distance, you both were now left to the rest of your day in the market, to do whatever task you'd wandered there to accomplish.

Mission complete!

Base experience: 200
Creativity multiplier: 150%

Total Experience gained per person: 300 experience

[Lia Starweaver]

The day had soon ended with both Lia and Sophie finishing their shopping. For the most part Lia enjoyed the outing with the maid. Sophie was the guild maid for many years now. Even before Lia went off on her journey that last three years, Sophie was one who cleaned up the entire hall and took care of many of the chores around the guild. When the day ended with both the elven archer and maid going their separate ways, Lia had quickly scampered off to retrieve one last particular thing.

That was just about a couple hours ago and Lia found herself in front of Sophie's room in the guild's dormitories. It was already turning to be late evening, but likely the maid was just getting ready to turn in for the night. She knocked first, but ever one to be careless and impatient she pushed the door wide open anyways.

"Sophie!" Lia exclaimed.

"Look what I got you!" She pulled out what looked to be a sun-hat, the very same one Sophie had stolen and worn earlier that day. She pulled out a second one as well that looked just like the first.

"Do you know what this means?" Lia asked playfully as she plopped on Sophie's bed handing her one of the hats, and wearing the other at the same time.

"The Lia & Sophie Adventures, Part Two: Revenge of the Clasp Society!" The archer couldn't help but grin.

[Neko]

As expected, Sophie had been setting herself up for bed. Having already gotten into her pajamas, she was surprised to hear a knock at the door. Before the maid could even respond, a familiar face popped in. Sophie placed her hands on her hips, giving the elf a disapproving look. However, she cracked a smile soon after. "Lia! Don't you know what the point of knocking is?" She joked.

Sophie watched curiously as her elven friend dug through a bag, before pulling out what looked to be the sun hat from earlier. Lia then proceeded to pull out another, nearly identical hat. Sophie smiled brightly, doing the same as Lia and placing the hat she'd been given on her own head.

"Part two?" Sophie laughed. "I could hardly handle part one!"

The friends chatted for a small time after that, the two making up stories of their clasp society, and other encounters related to it. Eventually Sophie sent Lia on her way, needing to sleep before work started the next morning.