Racknar was making his way to a magic item shop when he saw the sign for “Da Vinci’s workshop. Racknar stopped in his tracks. He was aware of the fact this was here but had yet to actually look into it. He couldn't help but be curious. Was this the real deal, or some pretender? Racknar walked to the door and knocked. After a long pause he knocked a second time. Again after a long pause knocked for a third.

Racknar was about to turn around and leave when the door was opened, by a young and beautiful woman, about five years older than Racknar. “Who in the nine hells-” she stopped mid sentence. “My brother isn't here, so if you want a commission or are hired by the Duke, you'll have to come back later.” Racknar stared at the woman, she looked familiar but he couldn't quite nail it down. “Well I'm not here for a commission and the Duke is dead. Could I perhaps get a tour?”

The woman opened the door. “Sure, just make it quick. By the way, I'm Lisa Da Vinci, Leonardo’s twin sister.” Racknar perked up. “Oh, Lisa! Like the painting.” Lisa stopped and looked at him. “Y-yeah. I'm surprised a warrior like yourself is familiar with my brother’s work.” Lisa then guides him to a large room with a bunch of projects in various states of completion. Racknar recognized a few as being mechanisms that Da Vinci was known for in the history of his origin world.

Racknar stopped in his tracks when he saw the famous Da Vinci glider, and started grumbling angrily while looking at it. Lisa stopped and tilted her head at this reaction. “Is… something wrong?” Racknar couldn't help himself, his blunt honesty coming out clearly. “It's just… so close and yet so far. A simple oversight makes it unviable. It'll never glide because it's fundamentally flawed.” Lisa stepped closer and looked at the glider. “You're saying that there's a simple design flaw, something that could be easily fixed, and that simple problem is pissing you off? What would you have done differently?”

Racknar grumbled as his hand became animated with his speech. “He based it on a sparrow or bat, small, elegant. But they fly through rapid wing beats. If he really wants it to glide, he would have used a predatory bird. A falcon or an eagle.” Lisa’s eyes widened as this statement hit her. She gripped her head in frustration. “Cazzo!” She exclaimed. “How did I miss that?!” Racknar looked at her, the gears turning. “Wait… are you Leonardo Da Vinci?”

Lisa looked at him. “No, but actually yes. It'll be easier to explain over a café. Do you prefer it straight or with latte?” Racknar followed her to a lounge. “Latte and sugar please.” He sits and waits for Lisa to bring them out coffee and sits across from him. “So to start off, I am a Reborn. In my past life I was Leonardo Da Vinci. In this life I was born under a different name along with my twin brother who although good with people isn't creative like I am. However this world sees women like my old one. So myself and my brother changed our names and moved, taking on my old life in two parts. My brother is the face, while I am the hands.”

Racknar nodded. “There was a writer that did something similar in the history of my world, after your time. I'm also a Reborn. Familiar with your work.” Lisa nodded. “I thought as much, considering the anger you had at the glider. How long ago was my death in your time?” Racknar coldly stated “Several hundred years. I'm still not fully sure how that works.” Lisa nodded. Racknar sipped the coffee and sighed. “Since I now know your secret, I guess I should tell you mine.”

Racknar grabbed his ring of illusion, and slowly slipped it off, dispelling it completely. Lisa jumped back into her seat and nearly spilled her drink. “Cazzo!” She exclaimed. Then she steadied herself. “Sorry. I've seen non-human races before, including beast-kin, but nothing like you.” Racknar nodded. “As far as I know, I'm unique. One of a kind.” He eyed the floor. Lisa sat in silence for a bit. After the two finished their drinks Lisa set down her cup.

Racknar started getting up but Lisa put her hand up. “Wait, I… would like to examine you a bit. For the sake of scientific curiosity.” Racknar pauses. “Uhh… sure? Nothing weird though okay. Although you hid it well in your time, everyone in mine is aware you went both ways.” He laughed, clearly meaning it as a joke. Lisa walked over and started feeling at Racknar's arms. “So you have a chitin carapace over muscles like a spider, so this is your skeleton?”

Racknar watched the woman grope his arms. “This is more like my skin, I have an internal skeleton. Those little barbed hairs are how I feel things. I can also crawl on walls and make webs.” Lisa then looks at Racknar's legs. “So you have two full sets of humanoid arms and hands, but two of your legs are more spider-like while the other two are more humanoid. Interesting. Also your thorax is small compared to your body, almost like a bulbous tail. You have a spinnerette in your thorax like a spider but also smaller ones in your four wrists.” She grabs at the lags and even gives the thorax a light slap. Racknar stutters. “H-hey. That's technically my ass you just slapped.”

“Right, sorry.” She looked at his face. “You have mandibles in place of lips, but you also seem to have teeth behind those. A normal looking human mouth on the inside. The fangs coming off your cheeks don't seem to have an internal skeleton like the rest of you. I'm guessing because that part has no human part to mix with. Look at all those eyes.” She feels up Racknar's head a bit. Then does a second hover over his body. “Wait…”

Racknar observed the woman observing him. “What is it?” The woman looked right at Racknar's crotch. “If the exoskeleton is more like a skin, that means you're basically naked, right? So where are your genitals? This just looks like a codpiece.” Racknar would blush if he could. He looked away in embarrassment. “I- inside. That opens up and my member is behind that with my gonads being strictly internal.” Lisa's face got closer to the codpiece. “May I see it?”

Racknar took a big and quick step back. “Whoa there lady, I just met you and although the age of consent was different in your time and is likely similar in this world, in mine it's eighteen. I'm fifteen and you're twenty so this is in some sort of gray area if you don't include our ages from our previous life. In that case although both adults you'd definitely be considerably older to a point it would be odd.” Lisa tilted her head. “I'm not offering to give you a hand-job, this is purely scientific.”

Racknar bluntly responded “Try telling that to my dick once an extremely attractive lady has her hands on it.” Lisa backed off and put her hands up. “I see your point. Maybe when you're older? You're free to come back. I definitely want to study you farther. Nothing invasive, I'm not going to cut you open.” Racknar chuckled. “I could give you my arm, it would grow back.” Lisa gave a shocked “Cazzo! Really? I was aware some arachnids could restore arms during a molt but I didn't expect a hybrid creature like yourself to have that benefit. I'd love to be able to observe that.”

Racknar curled his fangs in a smile. “Get me a list of magic items and I'll pay you with my limb. After all, if I'm going to donate myself to science I might as well get paid. Since I'd use the coin on magic items anyways and you can easily get them.” Lisa was intrigued by this offer. “Okay, what's your wishlist?” Racknar grunted, clearing his throat before speaking. “Ring of protection. Cloak of protection. Bracers of defense. I could use new swords but I haven't settled on anything yet. I'd love a legendary item and could definitely make use of an animated shield or something. But those three items are where we'll start.”

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Lisa wrote down the list and started doing the math for how much it would cost for the first three items. “That's over ten thousand silver. I could buy a small house for that!” Racknar nodded. “We are talking about amputating my arm, without antistatics most likely. Unless you happen to have some.” Lisa nodded “I have some. If you know my work you know I understand human anatomy and have medical knowledge.” Racknar bluntly responded “Not human, but yeah.”

Lisa then prepared everything she needed including the magic items since she had sets on hand for study. “Now before I start, just to get an idea, what kind of magic item would I have to give you in order for you to let me…” she paused and looked Racknar in the eyes. “Hold the goods?” She wiggled her eyebrows, clearly teasing Racknar. He scoffed. “I'm not a prostitute.” He then chuckled, playing into the joke.

Cut till after the… well the cut. Racknar is one arm short and now three magic items richer without spending a single coin. Still having enough to buy said items if he wanted. “I'll see you next time Lisa. I think I'm going to check in with the guild and look for another quest.” Lisa nodded. “I'll save some questions I have till then. For now I'll be dissecting this arm of yours. I'd like you to return before you molt so I can observe that.”

Racknar nodded and waved goodbye before heading out and making his way to the guild hall. Once there he handed over a certificate of completion and payment for his previous quest and started looking at the board. “Not much for good solo quests, even at my rank.” He grumbled. Then a familiar face popped up at his side. Marionette Abstergo. “If you want to join a party, I've got one that's perfect for you. Come join me.”

Racknar gave her a nod. “Sounds great. Partnering with you again is easier than squadding up with randos.” Marionette was a bit confused at his wording. “Right…” She then led him to a table. Other than her there was one human mage, the demonblood cleric from the rat killing quest, and a shatterkin with a bow and arrows. Racknar sits at the table. “An interesting looking party you have here. I already know Mari and Charity, so only the fresh faces have to introduce themselves.”

The mage started. “My name is Davy Jones, I'm a illithid sorlock of the great of one.” Racknar nodded. “Sorcerer and warlock is a classic combo. The psionic subclasses blend well too. Are you a cross class or hybrid though?” Davy thought about it for a bit. “Hybrid class, I think. You're not bothered by my race.” Racknar shook his head. Then the shatterkin spoke. “I'm Krys’tal, I'm a ranger. I have no idea what you mean by subclass or hybrid class.”

Racknar put his hand on his chin. “Well considering you don't have a pet with you and aren't growing fungus out of your body that narrows it down a bit. If I were to pick a subclass based on your race using a ranger I'd go either psionic or arcane. Arcane Archer is solid, has a number of useful spells.” Krys then said “I don't use magic, at least not in any way close to casting a spell.” Racknar nodded with his hand on his chin. “I see. Interesting.”

Marionette then put her hand on the table. “Everyone in this party is a Reborn, and not one of us is human.” Krys then blerted out “We also all died virgins and in different time periods that don't line up with our arrival.” Racknar hummed. “Okay, lay down the time table. Age and year of death, age and years of life here.” Everyone openly shared the information. Racknar then finished with “I was twenty eight, I died in twenty twenty. I was born here fifteen years ago. I… also died a virgin.”

Davy whooped “Yeah, whole squad!” Mari glared at him. Racknar chuckled. “A well rounded party. Just so you all know, I'm an Infernal Wrath Berserker.” Davy whistled, somehow, despite his strange squid-faced mouth. “A high melee damage tank that draws power from the nine hells. Nice. We could definitely use a front liner considering most of us are ranged combatants the only other front liner is the sneaky ambush striker.”

Racknar nodded. “I noticed that. Shadow-walker rogue?” Mari shrugged “No idea what that even means.” Racknar sighed “That's fine, I'll figure it out later. Consider this party fully formed. Let's find a group quest.” The group started looking over different quests. Racknar then looked to Mari and said “Not sure if you heard, but Duke Floren is dead.” She looked stunned. “Oh. Nice. One less problem for my dad and I.”

After a while of looking, the group settled on a quest. Investigate livestock deaths of a village near a swamp down south in a different region of Ran. Having explored a lot of the country, Racknar had access to a Yggdrasil gate at a town about a week away by carriage ride. The party walked to the gate outside Flowers and fast traveled to the closest gate available to the group before paying for a carriage to take them to the village near the swamp.

Once there Racknar got to work, talking to a farmer. “We accepted the quest to find and illuminate whatever is running off with the livestock.” Davy looked at Mari “Five silver it's giant alligators.” Mari chuckled “Ten it's something above our pay grade.” The farmer ignored the exchange. “Yeah, every farmer here has lost at least one animal.” Racknar grunted. “I want types and numbers.” The farmer thought about it for a moment. “At least six cows, a dozen sheep and goats, three oxen, and two horses. One of them a clidesdale.”

Racknar put his hand on his chin. “No chickens have been taken?” The farmer shook his head. “It went for the bigger animals first. Whatever it was busted right through the fence, splintered it.” Racknar looked over to the broken fence and walked closer. He kneeled down and picked up the broken end and looked at it. He then sniffed were it was broken. “Well I already suspected as much, but this wasn't gators or crocs.” Racknar looked at the scuff marks by the gate. “This wasn't a group of animals but one big animal. It destroyed the fence with its teeth. Teeth lined with acid. My best guess… is an obese young black dragon with stubby legs.”

Davy handed over ten silver to Marionette. Racknar sighed. “I could be wrong, maybe it's a giant komodo dragon or something. Since I've yet to see or even hear of dragons much from adventurers.” Davy let out an exasperated sigh. “A young dragon, can we even handle that?” Racknar chuckled “We are talking a challenge rank of seven when we are a party of at best level fives. If we went strictly based on my experience and the numbers of Creatures and Catacombs it would be extremely difficult even with a good team composition. That said, not impossible. But that would be under the assumption we are doing things by the book in a way that you'd be expected to handle the encounter.”

Marionette crossed her arms. “I didn't understand half of that, but what I did understand is you basically saying if we get creative we can… how was it Davy puts it? Game the system?” Davy nodded. “Racknar here seems to be suggesting we use prep time to ruin this encounter. We just need to know how often it attacks, what time it attacks, and how long its been since the last attack.” Racknar nods. “Exactly. We are going to set traps and absolutely demolish what should be an extremely difficult enemy. This monster doesn't stand a chance.”

Ariagoria clapped loudly. “Well looks like you're the leader here, time to delegate Mr. Knight.” Racknar huffed. “Yeah, let's see what we have to work with.” Racknar started gathering old tools and bits of wood that were set up to repair the fences. There was more than needed to fix the fence so Racknar used the extra stuff to start setting up. He had the villagers start digging a moat around the village. He then started building what looked like ballistas. Ariagoria stopped what she was doing and looked at Racknar. “So how are you going to actually fire these? I didn't see any rope. The fifty feet of rope most adventurers carry might not do it. It's not exactly the best quality rope.”

Racknar chuckled nervously. “I uhhh… I've got that covered. Don't worry about it.” Ariagoria squinted at Racknar “Alright man, if you say so. I'll get back to my own thing. I'll check in on you again later.” As soon as she was no longer in site, Racknar started spinning web and threading it into extremely durable spider-silk rope and fixed it to the ballista. He then turned around to see Mari watching him and nearly jumped. “God damn it Mari! Don't do that.”

Marionette just looked at him. “I already know what you are, so why are you hiding it from the others?” Racknar looked her in the eyes. “Do they know what you are?” She nodded. “Yes, they do.” Racknar sighed. “Oh. Well I guess I'll show them later then. Anyway, these are all set so now it's time to cut down trees to make log spikes for a choke point.” Mari nodded. “Since you seem to know what we are dealing with, what does a black dragon look like and how is it different from other kinds?”

Racknar grunted before talking. “In the game of Creatures and Catacombs there were three kinds of “true dragon” in the older editions. Chromatic, metallic, and prismatic. Each of these types have different subtypes with each having a different damage type. However, physically speaking, besides the color, all looked basically the same in the art of older editions.” Mari had a blank expression on her illusion face. “Okay so… different flavors of the same popsicle kinda deal. Since dragons normally breathe fire I'm guessing the other types breathe other things.”

Racknar nodded. “Ice, lightning, acid, poison, whatever. It's kinda silly honestly. They did mix it up at one point with a new set of dragons based on biomes with them each looking physically distinct. But they still kept reprinting the old stuff too because otherwise old school fans would have been upset.” Marionette nodded. “Right, so black dragon is acid I'm guessing. Luckily I don't think any of us use acid so we don't have to worry about resistance.” Racknar nodded. “We're basically just going to hit it till it dies.”

Marionette sighed “Right, nice. Well from what the farmer told Davy we have three days. So let's use them wisely to set up our defenses as much as possible to completely destroy a creature we have no real business trying to fight under normal circumstances.” The group continued to work over the next several days, setting up traps and weapons to do as much damage as possible to the young black dragon before it even reached the party.