Commodore Krux

The group's second full day in Bral began after another restful night at the Frothing Mug. Eeblock once again made his way to the Moon Dancer to work on repairs, leaving his homunculus with the party to aid and keep communications open. Harry leads the party to a tavern called the Happy Beholder where he informs the party this is the place they'll find Krux before he too makes his way to the Moon Dancer.
 
Upon entering the tavern, Jade and Thomas were quite surprised to have a large Beholder behind the bar greet them as they enter. The tavern is empty except for a single, brightly dressed Giff with a parrot on his shoulder sitting at a table. The Giff gestures Jade and Thomas to his table, Thomas ordering ale for the table from Large Luigi, the Beholder as they made their way to the table. Shortly after sitting down at the table, Luigi brought two pitchers and several tankards to the table, carrying them with his eye stalks. Luigi, kindly informed Thomas that the Happy Beholder doesn't run tabs as he waited at the table until Thomas paid for the ale. Having a small bit of privacy, Thomas began to explain to the Giff that they were told Commodore Krux could be found here. The Giff inquired as to why they were seeking Krux, so Thomas briefly relays everything that has happened since that fateful day the party met at Spirits in Low Town. As the story went on, Thomas noticed that the Giff had stopped drinking and had even pushed his drink to the side as he listened intently to Thomas' tale. It was at this point the Giff introduced himself as Commodore Krux and that he believes the Xaryxian Empire is behind the troubles their world is experiencing. Krux explained that the Xaryxian Empire does this on occasion, harvesting other planets' energy to replenish their own sun. Knowing that Bral is a gathering place for all types of nefarious peoples, Krux, fearing spies could be anywhere, inquires as to whether the party has a ship and if so, it would be better to continue the discussion there. Sensing the concern in Krux's voice, Thomas acknowledged they did indeed have a ship, taking care to not mention its name, and to follow along as Thomas prepared to take extra stealth measures for their journey to the ship once the group emerged from the tavern.
 
It turns out, Krux's concern was warranted. As the group emerged from the tavern, the once bustling street was now empty except for four figures with hoods and scarves covering their faces. The figures took up strategic positions, focused on the doorway to the Happy Beholder. One of them made the announcement that they were here to get vengeance for embarrassing the captain of their ship. Thomas was quick to point out that their captain embarrassed himself and quickly surveyed options for escape. There would be no easy escape though as the four Astral elves immediately drew bows and began launching arrows at Jade and Thomas. Now that the elves had begun the fight, Thomas was no longer concerned about any repercussions from fighting in the public streets as he encouraged Jade to enter into a barbaric rage as he drew his bow and began loosing arrows at one of the elves. Fortunately, Eeblock's homunculus had relayed the message to its master and Eeblock began using the mechanical creature to cast spells through him. Krux drew a rifle from beneath his coat, being quite intoxicated, failed to hit anything with the booming shots. Two of the elves, fearing the deadly weapon wielded by Krux, now focused their attacks on him, while Jade battled against the other two in melee as Thomas continued to loose arrows, taking advantage of newly acquired skills to know exactly when a target was distracted enough by Jade to strike a deadlier blow. After being pierced by multiple arrows, Krux stumbled back into the tavern, appealing for help from Luigi as Thomas was able to pierce the eye socket of one of Jade's assailants.
 
With the loss of Krux and Eeblock struggling to land spells effectively via his homunculus, things began to look bleak for Jade and Thomas. That is until Luigi emerged from the tavern, made his way into the middle of the street and began shooting beams from his eye stalks at the pair of elves that were not engaged with anyone. While most of the Beholder's attacks went wide, the elves proved that once again, they were cowards and fled in terror. The lone remaining elf decided to strike a blow against Jade before teleporting away in an attempt to flee. Luckily for the elf, the strike was enough to drop Jade. Thomas wasn't finished with this however. Having magically marked this elf during his previous attack, Thomas knew exactly what direction the elf fled. Hoping to catch the villain unawares, Thomas yelled for Eeblock to cure Jade as Thomas began pursuit. Being a halfling, Thomas isn't the quickest runner, but the elf wasn't expecting a successful pursuit. About the same time Eeblock and the revived Jade caught up to Thomas, the elf realized he was being followed and began to flee again. Thomas loosed two arrows, but sadly, neither hit their mark. The pursuit continued until the elf, attempting to weave his way through the crowded streets, ran head first into a merchant's cart. At that point, the elf cried out for help from the authorities just as Thomas' arrow pierced the elf's vocal chords, slaying him instantly. Just before the party had a chance to make a stealthy retreat back to the Happy Beholder, they heard a voice from the crowd call out "Stop, in the name of the law". It appears they managed to do the one thing Harry warned them not to do. They were now in trouble with whatever passes as the law on this rock.