The skies opened and rain poured down on them all. In the dim light of Ramona’s glowing symbol and Joth’s dancing light Isa could see splashes of rain hitting the elf’s small bowl of water. After a moment the elf stood, picked up the bowl, held it over his hand and then poured the contents over his head.

“Druids.” Ramona shook her head. “They’re an odd bunch, but Golure is one of the better ones.” She held out her arms. “And he gets results. The fire is already almost done.”

“In the meantime, we’re getting drenched.” But as Isa spoke Joth came toward them with one hand out like he was balancing a tray. No rain hit him. “Here we are,” he said. “Floating disk. It’s not exactly an umbrella, but it will do.”

“Tight fit,” said Ramona, but she shifted to get under the disk. “This should pass fairly quickly. If I’ve seen him do this once, it’s a hundred times.”

“So this is your job?” Isa asked her. “You get to help people every day like this?”

“Mostly. Clerics like me, we’re in demand. People are always getting dinged up. Druids, wizards, not so much. Take Golure over there, he’s got 3 jobs, but I think he likes the variety.”

“I’m a Ready Wizard myself,” Joth volunteered.

“Well that’s nice. Good hours?”

“Seasonal, really.” Joth looked at his feet. “But, you know, it’s steady. I’ve been with them since practically the beginning, so I get lots of work.”

“And you don’t mind?” Ramona said to Isa.

“Why would I-- Oh, no we’re not…. He’s not my type.”

“We’re just friends,” said Joth. “Isa,” he gave her a sideways glance, “has a bard.”

“Bards,” Ramona sighed.

“Yeah,” said Joth.

“She’s not my bard, and she’s more of a rogue these days anyway.”

Just then Golure, the elf druid, walked up. He was holding Isa’s scimitar. Without a word, he handed it to her.

Isa reached out her hand and took the blade from him. As it passed through the light from Ramona’s holy symbol, the gold and silver flashed. “Fancy.” Ramona’s voice held surprise. “That’s quite a blade. People might think….” Her voice trailed off.

“Might think what?” Isa sheathed the sword and looked at Ramona.

The cleric still stood under Joth’s floating disk even though the rain had all but stopped. She shook her head. “What I was going to say, it sounded mean, and that’s not what I meant.”

“I want to hear it. I’m new here, and I need to know, need help with navigating this world. We have people like you - sort of like you - in my world. They’re called nuns, and you expect a nun to give you the hard truth. They’re kind of known for that, actually.” As far as Isa knew, anyway - based off years of nuns in movies and TV.

“None. Funny name. Seems a little harsh, a little withholding.” Ramona frowned. “But what I was going to say is that, a blade like that, people might think you’re for hire. A mercenary. That, or worse.”

“I disagree.” Golure spoke for the first time, and his voice was deep and slow. “The blade is not the wearer.” He glanced at the night sky. “It is a tool to be used as required.” He focused on Ramona. “You are done?”

“Yep.” She clapped her hands together. “These two healed up. Had to use a double on this one.” She gestured at Isa. “So I’m probably good for another call and that’s all.”

“Hmm, and the night is still an infant.”

“The night is young, that’s the saying, and you know it.” Ramona glanced at Joth. “He’s playing like he doesn’t speak Common as good as me.”

“Thank you so much,” Isa said. “I don’t know--”

“Happy to help. Right, Golure?”

The elf didn’t answer. He was examining a tall tree by the road.

Ramona went on. “It’s a pleasure helping folks. Golure thinks so, too. Just not much of a talker. Now, you two stay out of trouble.” She gave them a grin and then joined Golure at the tree.

The elf had one hand flat on the tree trunk, and the other hand moved gracefully in the air. To Isa it looked as if Golure was talking to the tree and the hand gestures were simply part of the conversation, like when you give directions to someone and you want to illustrate that you go straight (chopping motion) down the road and then take a left (hand flap to the left).

Golure stopped talking, paused and then took a step back from the tree with his hand still palm-out as if still touching the tree. Ramona gave Isa and Joth one more wave and a grin and then stepped between Golure and the tree and disappeared. The elf nodded gravely at them, and then pivoted toward the tree. He also disappeared from view.

“OK,” Isa said. “Obviously magic, but what the hell was that?”

“I’m not a walking magic encyclopedia, you know.”

“Sorry,” Isa said, and she meant it. She’d learned more about Joth in the last few hours than she’d expected to, and it gave her a different window on his life.

“It’s OK. Druids - I don’t know much about them. No one does. Fedru’s told me a little. He grew up in the tradition, left as a young man.” He shrugged. “It’s not for everyone.”

“I guess it makes sense that you can change your mind about what you do. People do it all the time - in our world, I mean. So Mery can grow up a bard - or thinking she’s gonna be a bard, but then as an adult she’s like, No, I want this other thing.”

“Yes, and no.” Joth dusted off his hands and cast dancing lights again. “Take Fedru. He didn’t want to be a druid; he wanted to be a wizard, but he’ll never be able to cast the highest wizard spells because he’s got some levels of druid.”

“So changing your mind is a bad thing.”

“Again, yes and no. Some people don’t care. They like the variety, or they want to bonuses that two classes can give. Like Mery - bard and rogue go really well together. Sure she’ll never be a world class bard, or rogue I guess, but she’ll be this versitile fighter, spellcaster, charmer.”

“Do you want to - or maybe you already have?” Isa felt suddenly like she was prying.

“I have focused on wizard-only so that I can get the class 9 spells.” He shook his head. “Slow going, gaining levels, but I figure either I get to go home under my own spell power, or if I’m stuck here, I’m going to be a powerful wizard.”

“And the Ready Wizard gig?”

“That helps. Not always, but sometimes I get experience from it. I think it depends on the situation, the danger, the difficulty. It’s hard to gauge.”

“You need to get out more.” Isa couldn’t help but grin.

“Yeah,” Joth held out his arms, “because we need more forest fires.”

“Our luck’s changing,” said Isa. “I can feel it.”

Spoiler: Isa's Character Sheet

Name: Isa Chamberlin

Race: Human

Height & Weight: 5ft 6inches / 120 lbs

Class: Fighter Level: 4

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Background: Stranger in a Strange Land

Hit Points: 26 AC: 15

Current Hit Points: 26

Combat: +5 to Hit

Weapons: Rapier (left hand) 1d8 +3 / Quarterstaff (right hand) 1d6 +2 (bludgeoning)

STR

11

0

DEX

16

+3

CON

11

0

INT

13

+1

WIS

13

+1

CHA

12

+1

Saving Throws: Str and Con +2

5

Acrobatics* (Dex)

1

Medicine (Wis)

1

Animal Handling (Wis)

1

Nature (Int)

1

Arcana (Int)

3

Perception* (Wis)

0

Athletics (Str)

1

Performance (Cha)

1

Deception (Cha)

1

Persuasion (Cha)

3

History* (Int)

1

Religion (Int)

3

Insight* (Wis)

3

Sleight of Hand (Dex)

1

Intimidation (Cha)

3

Stealth (Dex)

1

Investigation (Int)

1

Survival (Wis)

Special Attack: Two weapon fighting. When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.

Class Features:

Second Wind - On your turn, you can use a Bonus Action to regain hit points equal to 5 + your fighter level. Short or Long Rest before you can use it again.

Action Surge - On your turn, you can take one additional action on top of your regular action and a possible Bonus Action. You must finish a short or Long Rest before using it again.

Martial Archetype: Surgical Fighter

3rd level - Clinical Eye: Spend 1 combat turn studying your enemy and learn one of the following: if the enemy is equal to or stronger than you in strength, dexterity, or constitution. Can spend up to 3 turns to discern all 3. Can be used outside of combat as a free action - spend 1 minute to learn all three.