Exchange Grate
Log Info
- Title: Exchange Grate
- Emitter: Jinks
- Characters: Jay, Jozi, Nemori, Zofija
- Place: Alexandria Sewers, Abandonned Dwarf City
- Time: Monday, November 07, 2022, 1:57 PM
- Summary: Arrangements have been made with the captured, two-faced (many-faced?) faceless brigand for the return of the kidnapped congenial kobold. Those familiar with Cesseli await contact with details for the exchange. Precautions have been taken. Still, one can't help but think something stinks. Maybe it's just the wastewater? The trek through it is long, arduous, and needlessly circuitous. The Adventurers discover a long abandonned Khazad-ur city deep beneath Alexandria, and the exchange location in one of its dormitories. The faceless continue to be two-faced and duplicitous, resulting in rash actions and combat with a floating crab. The Lockbox is taken, Cesseli is rescued and brought to the Soldier's Defense.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Appearing =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Jay 5'9" 145 Lb Eaglefolk Male A perky male Blue Jay with a discerning eye. Jozi 5'8" 148 Lb Half-Orc Female A brunette half-orcess with a sunny disposition. Nemori 4'10" 110 Lb Mul'niessa Female A tall and slender, dark skinned elf. Zofija 5'8" 225 Lb Hobgoblin Female A well-dressed Arvek-Nar with a big hammer. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= As the GM =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Jinks 3'4" 39 Lb Gnome Male A gnomish fellow in fancy garb and jewelry. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
The negotiations in the catacombs beneath the Artificer's Hall were prolonged and frustrating. It proved very difficult to build trust on a foundation of deceit and kidnapping.
The one advantage was that the captured creature was clearly driven by self-interest and more than a little worried about how it would be received, returning after being captured. Jay managed to identify that fear and appeal to the faceless stalker's desire to survive.
After catching each other in more than one lie, the pair managed to reach some tenuous form of understanding and an agreement was reached: the shapeshifter would meet back with its co-kidnappers and arrange a face-to-face exchange. It would lobby for token deliveries to be delayed and seemed fairly confident it could manage that much, too.
The part-time lawyer sensed the lie, however.
The egalrin also managed to trip up the aberration, leading it to reveal that their den lies in the deep-sewers and Khazadi ruins beneath the warehouse district.
Finally, the scoundrel offered a simple code: if contact was delivered to Jay's residence, the deal is fair, but foul if it was sent to the Explorer's Guild. If nothing went truly awry, contact would be made the next morning.
So now... now we have good news and bad news.
The brownpaper-wrapped parcel arrived at Jay's home in the hands of a dirty, urchin courier. The little human boy still had the jellied bribe smeared on his lips and cheek when he met the egalrin after pounding on his door. He handed off the box and left.
The heft of the box was unsettling.
The note attached were curt instructions; a small service shed at the edge of the western gardens has a grate behind it. The grate opens to reveal a staircase that accesses what used to be a cellar beneath an old guardhouse. A drain has been widened in the cellar to allow access to the sewers.
The directions become more obtuse and landmark-based past that. There are calls to look for freshly-painted signs. The note itself is incomplete.
It reminds Jay to bring the lockbox and suggests that a tail might grow back...
Jay holds the box, the note and the weight suggesting the contents. He doesn't want to see; it must be examined. In case it holds a head, which would invalidate the whole exchange attempt. Except it might, except it shouldn't.
In this place of darkness and contemplation, he turns to the darkest thing he knows.
"Nemori... could you look in the box?" He asks, glancing around, not at her. "What would you think is an appropriate response, allegedly?"
It might need to be refridgerated. He's not sure why, cut cooling lizard tail seems preferable to rotting lizard tail. Maybe it can be stuck back on before it has to grow back.
"Do you think their face grows back if it's cut off? They are 'faceless' stalkers." He reads the note for the seventh time, "the instructions aren't complete."
Nemori is still hung up on the fact that somehow she's been convinced to take another trek into the sewers. Or that somehow she's been convinced to involve herself in the affairs of that collection of misfits and their boss. It isn't a coincidence that one of hands floats down by her hip, fingers tapping on a hilt. Not to the rapier, which she retrieved along with the rest of her 'adventuring' paraphernalia, but the knife which she seems so much more comfortable with.
Only tapping, though. Not grasping.
"Fine," the shadow elf finally says, scowling at Jay as if this is all his fault, before taking the box to peer inside. Her nose wrinkles; an expression of disgust, not so much horror. The lid gets snapped back closed. "An appropriate response?" she echoes, then. "I can think of several. Throw this out and forget about it. I have been thinking about starting a small garden.. perhaps this would make good fertilizer? Move this on to Mama Bula and let them deal with their own mess. " She shrugs. Then offers a third option, almost begrudgingly. "I suppose if I actually cared about this creature's fate, I would be inclined to hire assassins and have them all murdered in their beds." A pause. "But we do not do that, of course."
Zofija, looking more hale and hearty than the last time she had been around, where she waited patiently off to one side in a loose fitting shirt and pants. "Talking about what you're doing is all well and good, but you need to actually tell him what's in the box." The arvek-nar grunts. "I can take a look if you don't want to be the bearer of bad news, or I can spend the time getting my armor on if there's someone needing some manner of justice."
GAME: Nemori rolls heal: (11)+4: 15
The missive found its way to Jozi as is its wont, and in time, the half-oruch made her way to the meeting place in her kit. She gave the usual folksy howdys and all, but, with the business coming into focus, her bearing became more reserved and she absorbs the details with little pronounced distress.
Nemori looks in the box. Well, at the good news is that the kobold will likely be off balance in his future negotiations with us.
"This is my fault, for talking to the artificers about what we found." Jay says, flapping around the Ilife Smithy. He noticed Nemori's hand creep towards her dagger. "Showing off that skull. Allegedly."
He slips into a full babble, "Except if they wanted it they could have made an offer to buy it. I would have sold it, I don't like the lockbox. It was only important for saving Heady. I'm not determined to uncover the secrets of lost Kulthis. Even if it contains instructions for sucking out someone's soul, I don't -know- that, I can't open it, I've tried! Tried! I shouldn't have to keep a thing I don't want because someone might mis-use it. For all I know it's got a 300 year old cigar in it and is perfectly harmless."
"They could have made an offer!" He asserts, "Instead they kidnap a colleague and cut off his... his... Is someone going to cut off my wings because someone I barely know did something? I defend these people but I didn't want to be a part of their world!"
Nemori's expression when she looks at Zofija is somewhat flat. "Integrity is not stupid. I think he already knows." Though the hobgoblin does prompt Nemori to consider that at the very least some clarification is in order. "It is not a head."
There, see? Comforting.
She does offer the box to Zofija, then, having little interest in continuing to hold the thing... offers Jozi a cursory glance and nod... then narrows her eyes as her attention slips back to Jay. "Stop!" she snaps. "Stop blaming yourself for the actions of others. You do not control what actions they take. They make their own choices. Put the blame where it is due."
Whether Zofija takes the box or it gets put aside in sand barrel or some such, Nemori, free of its burden now, approaches the egalrin, standing before him. She has to look up at him, this close, but still manages that sense of meeting him eye to eye. "Now it is time to make yours! Are you going to do what they demand? Or are you going to wipe your hands of it? You do not have to keep the box. You can throw it in the river, you can hand it over to the authorities, you can travel to a volcano and dump it inside. Or a dozen or more other options I do not care to take the time to imagine! Move forward, Integrity."
Jozi lets out a slow breath and moves toward the troubled Egalrin and her hand extends toward his shoulder as it has oft before, though this time it's more her words she tries to rely on in this case.
"Whoah, Inty...." she croons softly, trying to meet his eyes, "Easy, now, sugar...."
SHe smiles thinly to Nemori as she, too, moves in to help settle him, then, continues on in parallel, "She's right, hon. Folk are gonna do what they do, an that ain't on you."
She gives a quick look to the ladies, then back to their friend's eyes again, "I won't let no one do that to ya, sugar."
Mother give them strength and wisdom...
"We're gonna hafta do something, soon."
"The mul'niessa has a point, shit people aren't going to act sensibly when given the choice, specially when they expect people to act as badly as they are." Zofija grunts, taking a look inside the box, scowling, and setting it aside. "Careful what you're talking about now though, in case they're listening in." She adds, glancing at the fence, then at the box. "We should bring this to the temples before we go, they have spells for stopping decay. Might be possible to get it put back on. I don't know what's going on, but I don't like the idea of someone innocent suffering because of the whims of others."
GAME: Zofija rolls heal: (17)+3: 20
The bluejay flinches away from Nemori when she presses close to him. A small ball of darkness that strikes terror into his breast. He would retreat, fly away, but the sky is blocked by the awning over the smithy and the wall too close. Even less room, with Jozi near. Both women, both their efforts at distracting him, work.
"Temple. Yes. We should go by the temple." He nods vigorously. "Plan on the way, harder to eavesdrop. Also a good idea."
He skirts around an answer to Nemori. "While... gardening is a good idea I would like to table that suggestion for a further discussion. I would like to see a volcano, but not today.
Integrity glances at Zofija, then back down at Nemori. Inhale, exhale. "I don't want evil people to get their way, especially by employing evil means. I want Cesseli returned safely, as a fellow officer of the court I'm obligated to help him. Allegedly. So, let's go to the temple."
He decides, heading out. Grabbing the box and managing to close it without looking inside. Once some distance from the Smithy is achieved, and the street life has become cacophonous enough to prevent easy eavesdropping... and after he's checked the eaves for droppers, Integrity continues his thought. "I don't know these kidnappers and I don't care if they're chopped into little bits. I don't feel a thing for them; I don't want to do it, but it wouldn't bother me to hear."
He reflects carefully, "maybe I'd feel something for the one we talked to." It humanized itself, after all, had an understandable emotion of self preservation, not solely greed. "Obviously we'll be going into a trap, will have to bring the lockbox itself, and they're as likely to try and kill us as make the exchange."
"Any suggestions?"
The sun never quite managed to make an appearance today. The sky is night-black where it peeks through the agitated and roiling cloudcover. The wind is harsh and cold and gets colder-still as you move towards the river.
Pedestrians move quickly to get where they're going and most are bundled-up beneath layers of warm clothes and seasonal concessions. A few of the city's older oil lamps need topping off, wicks dead or dying after running for a prolonged period.
Nemori doesn't remain in Jay's way once he comes to his decision and begins to move. And if there's an expression of satisfaction on Nemori's face when the egalrin seems have made his choice... well, it may not be the choice she agrees with. But that's what makes it a choice. Even if the suggestion she'd prefer to offer would be to toss the tail in the trash and forget about it. But, looking from Zofija to Jozi and back to Jay... it would be highly likely her suggestion would be overruled. "The temples, then," she 'agrees', nodding to Zofija and then Jay. "And then the sewers. Into a trap. Where we will likely be murdered." A pause, memory of a.. conversation.. some few nights ago. Her face hardens a little bit, then, and she falls silent as she follows.
Once she was finished with putting together all of her armor, and making no attempt to stop the egalrin from taking the box, the arvek-nar grunts and leaves the smithy. "If they have no intention of holding up their end of the deal, then it's their funeral." The cavalier shrugs. "Make sure you're prepared in case they grab someone. Seems to be their modus operandi."
"I really hope it doesn't come to that though."
The Defense is closer to where the treasure trail starts. There, or to the temple district, both have spells to preserve body parts, Gentle Repose being a significant option. Of course, Cesseli was a Serrilite, taking parts of him there provide a certain sort of symmetry. Mortician services might be available on the way. The Temple district is out of the way and the kidnappers are clearly impatient. The parcel showing up at Jay's place means the deal is still on, all the bluster that the kobold would be in one piece, was that. Meaningless hot air like it seemed at the time. The Defense is in the Garden's District, near-ish to where the directions start. If they are watching, the kidnappers may see going to a temple as an attempt to involve officials, or the guards. The Temple District is across the river, a bit of walking away.
It isn't a great list of choices once one gets down to it. Jozi's played this sort of game, before, though not so much in Alexandria, proper. There are enough peripheral parallels, so, perhaps it may work.
The half-oruch sighs again and eases back enough to let the jay pace anew and looks between her cohorts, "Allright, well, then we wanna stock up on tactical goodies, then? Better our chances?"
"The Soldier's Defense would be better." Jay decides, after some thought on optics, "It's on the way, it won't look like 'going to the authorities'. They should have some healer there capable of the spell."
Another block later, "All of you can see in the dark, right? I can't. Is there a spell for that? That's not light? If they're going to ambush us I can try to get behind the ambush. If it doesn't look like they're being honest..."
He shrugs his wings, a couple times.
"Or should I just walk out into the open poo palace with the lockbox since they'll be expecting me?"
"I do not, Integrity. It may be best we simply walk into this with our eyes open... it could be that attempting to sneak into this could provoke the response you are attempting to avoid." The shadow elf shrugs. "As quiet as you are... I fear there is little to be done about masking the presence of your allies."
"As much as I'd like to stock up on things, I don't want them to think we're planning on double crossing them the moment we get there. Like I said, they'll assume the worst of use because that's what they expect." The arvek nar grunts. "We'll keep it simple. Tell the soldier's defence that a friend got injured in an accident, and to keep it safe till we can bring them in. Then we go and get all this sorted."
"There are goggles for that, but I'm not sure now's the time to go looking for a pair." The arvek-nar shrugs.
Nemori says, "I think we have a plan. Drop the tail off, keep it dark, and walk into the trap with our eyes open."
As always, light may be an issue in the sewers.
Jozi would probably feel attacked, if she wasn't in full harness, which admittedly, is not particularly good for the sneaky-sneaky.
She gives a nod, then toward Zofija's response and "Alright, just a thought."
Aftr a few paces, she seems to crawl inside her own head a bit, though she keeps looking around as much on the down low as she can.
<OOC> Jozi says, "i have det alignment at will, concentration up to 10 min/level, keep that running set to 'evil'" GAME: Nemori casts Light. Caster Level: 7 DC: 14 GAME: Zofija rolls knowledge/local: (19)+8: 27 GAME: Jay rolls linguistics: (10)+8: 18 GAME: Jay rolls knowledge/local+6: (15)+11+6: 32 (+6 Urban Fav Terr Mastery) <OOC> Jay says, "and after 2 or 3 'you need darkvision' plots ina row, I know what magic item I'm getting next"
The general region the captive had described as the crew's "base of operations" is the old Khazadi dwellings underneath Alexandria that stretch all the way to the mountains. They are deep enough to pass beneath the river inlet that bisects the city into west and east sides.
The interpret the directions on the note are easy enough to interpret. The two cityfolk both agree that the trip will likely be a two-hour walk.
GAME: Jay rolls perception+6: (9)+15+6: 30 GAME: Nemori rolls perception: (17)+10: 27 GAME: Jozi rolls perception: (3)+9: 12 GAME: Zofija rolls perception: (7)+4: 11
A portly, curly-haired spinster of a Lucht Hearthguard stops her sweeping and accepts the package on the threshold of the Soldier's Defense with a tut-tut'd "oh, the poor dear..." She cradles the box against her work apron and the ample (relatively speaking) bosom beneath, leaning her broom against the wall before disappearing inside. She promises to keep it safe and insists you return as quickly as possible with the person belonging to the tail even as the door latches closed behind her.
From the Defense to the shed is only a matter of blocks. A friendly wooden "war"golem that looks more like an animated scarecrow bellows a greeting and the greenwood twig of his "mouth" bends into a smile. He's unloading clippings from a wheelbarrow into a set of burlap bags and pays you no mind as you pass behind the shed of find the keening grate. Overgrown stonework describes the outer walls of the building lost to the city's always-interesting past.
The cellar is musty and dusty-dirty. Hanging vines and roots break through ceiling and standing water on the floor has conjured up clouds of buzzing, biting insects. There's some sign of vagrancy in the room, too, with a few old bedrolls and bundled belongings stored atop a fallen and half-rotted set of wooden shelves. No signs of the squatters, though.
The old servant's privy drain is roughly cut out and chiseled wider the four or five feed needed to get down into the shallowest levels of the city's sewers. There's even a handy, bundled rope anchored to a nearby wall.
The sewers, at this point of the journey, are the sewers. Every adventurer has had to cut their teeth in Alexandria's wastewater system. Gods' know why. Perhaps it's like hazing amongst the college fraternities; the first of the city's mercenaries had to do it; now they enjoy inflicting the same suffering on younger generations.
The early portions of the directions are the easiest to follow. What had seemed to Jay to be "incomplete" instructions lead him to junctions with parchment tarred to the wall and arrows painted on the paper. The guidance is intended to be temporary as the paper is already damp and the paint running after less than half a day.
All are doing their best to keep an eye out. Sloshing, slapping noises easily mistaken for the flow of offal-tainted runoff is properly identified as a pair of mating otyugh by mul'niessa and egalrin. The side tunnel is given a wide berth and extra time is taken to avoid sparking the ire of the impassioned filth-squids.
"There is city's sewers go deeper than it is tall, and that includes the Redridge Mountains, Allegedly." Jay opines. Delivering the package to the Lucht healer somewhat restored his spirits... which are going down the shitter now, figuratively and literally. "They seem inexplicable over-designed. If there was a Plane of Sewers, they'd come to Alexandria to take notes. The way the water and sewage lines are mixed, you'd swear there was a treatment facility or two buried in it. Allegedly."
It's a nightmare, trying to keep his feathers out of the muck. "I should get a plague doctor suit for this." When the mating otoyugh are discovered, he amends, "and blinders and ear plugs." At least they were not witnessed. He holds the additional directions with as little contact as possible.
GAME: Jay rolls linguistics: (20)+8: 28 <OOC> Jinks says, "Jay can give me a perception check, too, since that Linguistics was so high." GAME: Jay rolls perception+6: (9)+15+6: 30 GAME: Jay rolls survival+6: (3)+4+6: 13 GAME: Nemori rolls survival: (11)+4: 15 GAME: Zofija rolls survival: (5)+1: 6 GAME: Jozi rolls survival: (1)+9: 10 (EPIC FAIL)
Nemori isn't very happy herself to be back in the bowels of the city. Less about being underground, and more about the stink and the muck and the filth. Mostly about the effort, if she were to be pressed. But she is here to back up her friends. A small stone with a light enchantment was loaned to Jay, to pocket or bring out as he sees fit.. otherwise, she keeps pace with the others, content with whatever place in line she ends up in.
At one point she grunts to herself, then offers, "They are sending us in circles. I would guess at an attempt to confuse where this meeting place is."
The bluejay has puzzled out a rhythm to the directions.
Zofija just shrugs, pulls out a handkerchief, and rubs peppermint oil into it from a vial before tying it off around their face, and offering the vial to the others as they continue to travel deeper. "Hard to tell when the stonework is the same everywhere. At least someone is enjoying themselves in this gods forsaken place." The arvek-nar shrugs.
She never asks herself why she does these sorts of things. She knows why, it's the right thing to do, but what she does wonder is why certain venues still bother her after all this time.
Jozi slogs through the sewers with her comrades with her eyes scanning about as best she can, that same almost distant look upon her features.
Oh, Mother Most Merciful, don't let that conjugal concept crystalize in her mind....
"I'ma need ta take a bath in alchemist fire after this...." she grumbles, looking somewhat stricken.
The bluejay stares at the directions. Nemori's stone is attached to his brow, making it the perfect target. Avian intelligence recognizes a pattern. "There's a rhythm. It's not hard to follow but it's meant to make it impossible to rote memorize, one left-right-left easily confused with one right-left-right. Right?"
"It's so it's impossible to know what's coming next." He steps in something. "Like... that."
An odd aspect of the stonework gets his attention, seemingly innocent, but things don't easily get jammed that deep, and scour marks on rivets are seldom perfectly aligned. "Hmmm... Might come back to this. Well, let's keep going."
"You'd think that with all this confusion and making their tracks impossible to follow if we took our time, they didn't actually want us showing up for this." Zofija grunts. "Nothing for it though. Did you see something? it all looks like sewers to me, and I've got no clue where they actually want us to stop."
"I saw a few drains big enough to fall down forever." The bluejay says, "nothing moving. Well if we don't get lost they'll stop us if it isn't obvious."
Nemori is at least careful about choosing where to step, though in the end it probably won't matter much. And while she does pay attention to her comrades, her ear remains perked for signs of.. being watched? Their destination? Other potential concerns in a sewer system that's nearly as un predictable as the wilderness? So when Jay pauses briefly to examine the scoured rivet, she turns around to look back up and down the passage. Distinguishing shadows. Looking for movement. "I wonder if we are being followed, and the directions removed as we pass. To prevent the possibility of us having brought reinforcements. Or.." she scowls further, another thought. "Perhaps there is meddling."
"Gonna make boltin a bad gamble." Jozi notes sourly, still trying to regain her detective focus, such as it is.
She looks to Nemori and nods, "If I was a shifty sort, that's how I'd do it."
The only upside is, so far, there hasn't been any real 'evil' that's popped up in her searchings. Of course, more ambivalent souls or more mercenary impulses wouldn't show up to such a scan, but there are limits to what she can look for in that particular fashion.
"The directions aren't made to be difficult to follow. They do seem to be written to be difficult to repeat." Jay observes.
The traversal and descent continue. The cut stone, metal plates and piping, and treated woodwork of the city's sewers giving way to a far more slapdash assortment of raw stone or exotic constructions. One can't help but be given the impression that the bowels of modern Alexandria are tunneling down and pushing into the past of forgotten peoples, empires, and worlds; assimilating and erasing.
A strange little city of stilt buildings sits lost and out of time in waters quickly moving from west to east, crashing thunderous in the distance out into the Tornmawr. The occupants stay well out of sight but you're certain you can feel their eyes upon you. The salvage-and-driftwood construction conjures the image of troglodytes or backwoods swamp people.
A rusted metal gate with a sliding metal door blocks a tunnel at the far end of the small cave system and then you're back into worked tunnels with construction obviously meant for the directing and draining of the city's waste. The decline grows steeper and you can feel the vibration-- hear it, too-- of water all around you. In places the floor is forged metal with tiny, diamond-shaped holes that allow mist to spray up and the thunder to roar more loudly.
A few more turns and the sound recedes again. There's a shaft with a post at its center and a wooden panel waiting for you. Ropes, an obvious lever and pulley system, and a sturdy locking lever. The action on the manual elevator is surprisingly smooth given its age and lack of maintenance. The trip down takes some time but Jozi and Zofija have no problem making it a smooth ride.
The next opening door is a four-way intersection with the post-and-platform at its center. Jay's directions have ended but the correct choice is made for you: the eastern tunnel is lit with a crackling torch leaning out from a wall sconce. A sagging leather bookbag sits beneath it.
The construction here is obviously dwarven and obviously ancient. Dark stone fitted so perfectly that the walls seem to be a single piece. The cieling too low for high-jumping. Runes are carved into the wall and the path stretches ahead, well beyond the bag and torchlight.
The sight of a city under the city halts Jay in his tracks. His beak drops open, his head pans from side to side, taking in the river, the ramshackle towers, the vista of it all.
"I'd feel reassured by the mist, but I'm not sure what's in the droplets." He observes, continuing on to the obvious elevator, riding it down, heading through the door.
"Well, that looks like the place. That looks like the bag." The bluejay looks at his companions, "No room to fly. Put the thing in the thing?"
Nemori gives Jay a small shrug of her shoulders. "If that is what you feel the next step should be. Are you ready to hand over the box to them?"
"Same sorta thang ya prbly don't wanna drink, sugar." Jozi returns to Jay's observation about the water, then she looks to the indicated bag.
Hmm.
Her hand reaches for a feathered shoulder again, "Lrt's give things a lookover first, so we know what we're about ta bare our backs to." she says softly in what she hopes is her msot soothing tone, "Stay calm, but pay attention, hon, alright?"
"I'd like a little more reassurance, that he's here, and okay." Integrity says, answering Nemori, then snapping his head around to look at Jozi, "Oh right! Check for traps."
He takes a step, glances back, "Well, they know we're coming and this isn't a surprise, should we yell? I think we should yell."
"HEY CESSELI! ARE YOU HERE? I'M HERE! HERE!"
GAME: Jay rolls perception+6: (2)+15+6: 23 (Check for Traps)
"Didn't know there were villages down here, you'd think that would be mentioned a bit more often." The arvek-nar grunts as they pass through the various, bizarre areas and reach the crossroads. "That their bag? well-"
Zofija winces when the egalrin is shouting out their presence, and sighs. "Well, if we're close, they know we're here. Should check out that bag, if it's not trapped."
The hall stretches on east with a smooth, flat floor and straight, square walls. The elevator locks into place with a pull of a crank set into the floor and a brake applying to the post below the platform with a metallic *thunk*.
It's a short walk to the torch and the bag. The tracks in the loose dust on the floor are obvious under the light of the enchanted stone gifted to Jay. The egalrin inspects the bag for traps...
The walls have runes set deep into them, as clean and flawless as the day they were carved. Rigid columns descend at the center of long, fifteen-foot slabs. Larger runes in smaller number mark the edge of the corridors where they meet the elevator shaft.
Jay's voice echoes through the corridors for some time, splitting the silence and bouncing in four directions.
It dies away, finally even the faintest repetition in the distance smothered by the air between the walls.
Then, a half-minute after that, a closer voice responds calmly. "Well, in your own time, then..." It comes from further down the eastern hall.
Nemori's glance at Jay is sharp, but short lived. For one... he is probably right. And for another, it is done. So her voice, when she speaks, is in support of the egalrin. "We are not trading for a dead kobold," she declares, slowly scanning about for the source of the voice.
"... and I'd prefer not to shout. Down the hall, please." The gruff, masculine voice answers Nemori.
The bluejay is a bit distracted, but he nods as he approaches the bag. "Well, dwarves live underground so I guess they have cities. I imagined them more as... well endless dormitories made from repurposed mines. Not someplace you could fly an airship in."
He picks up the bag. It jingles loudly, redundantly announcing their presence. The bird-man looks around, "Lots of Runes. Big runes that mark the halls near the elevators. That one, the way we came, says "RESIDENTIAL EAST". There's some propaganda stuff on the walls too, kind of a back and forth conversation. Something about talk of TRUE DWARVES allying with ELVES-BELOW and serving the MOUNTAIN VOID." He indicates one with a wing, "That says, 'rejoice, workers'."
He peers at something, "Access to Flood Control Dam #3, allegedly. There's three flood control dams? There needs to be more than one? Maybe that's part of the treatment facility."
An actual answer arrives, and Nemori responds, and more instructions follow. "Oh. Okay. We're coming." Jay shakes the bag for good measure then advances into the corridor, jingling all the way.
There's a slow shake of her head, then Jozi replies, "Sometimes folks keep things ta themselves. Fer their reasons, or someone else's." to Zofi, "If they're staying outta underfoot with the guard an the like."
Or the demons, those are a valid social concern.
She girds herself as Jay moves in to things, and her hand drapes itself about the head of the warhammer on her belt.
At the callback from the halls beyond, she remarks, "Guess we got us the welcome mat, then."
GAME: Jay rolls knowledge/geography+6: (11)+4+6: 21 GAME: Jozi rolls knowledge/religion: (9)+4: 13 GAME: Nemori rolls knowledge/religion: (2)+10: 12
The voice is gruff but local. No obvious accent.
The hall is ten feet wide.
"Well, then that's more weird, more disturbing if no one knows they're around." Zofija shrugs. She listens to the explanations of the runes, and shakes her head. "Nice to know we've learned nothing from the past really, always a good sign. When's Alexandria going to be the ruins the new city is built on after they tear themselves apart in a civil war?"
She does stop to listen to the replies, and sigh. "Well, they're going to be real unhelpful as always. Guess we just continue down there then."
There's some jostling to get in front, ending with Jay and Zofija in front, and Jozi and Nemori behind.
The hall stretches ahead, your footfalls echoing and scratching through the loose, windblown dust as you walk towards the first intersection. The bag Jay's collected continues to *tink* and jingle as he walks, the bells inside jostled and shifting whenever he moves it. Every sound echoes through the abandoned Khazadi city.
You pass an alcove on your left as you go, blocked by metal bars and a chained door. Heavy, stone double-doors sit behind the bars, ajar to reveal yet-deeper darkness beyond. More tall runes are cut into the stone on a side wall of the alcove. Jay might share that it reads "DINING."
A sharp whistle draws your gaze to the left as you reach the intersection. Down a short set of stairs, a heavily-muscled oruch with black skin leans against a massive metal crate on wheels with his arms crossed. His narrowed eyes glow red in the darkness, turning to an unremarkable brown as he squints against the light spell. "CONVEYANCE" marks the entrance to this hall and the lowered floor has tracks.
Further east are additional, more closely-spaced alcoves. Likely residences, these show signs of their age. One alcove is completely blocked by a collapse of the cieling. The hall to the south is marked "ABLUTIONS/STORAGE."
"You have it?" grunts the orc.
The orc doesn't look like one of the three kidnappers. The kidnappers appeared 'human', but they are shapeshifters. It's fair to assume it's one of the three, ut he looks absolutely nothing like the three that did the kidnapping. Different race, dress, etc.
Jozi's eyes harden some after a moment of sifting through Jay's translations.
She relaxes her mind from holding the latest detection with a bit of a headshake, then reaches back into the metaphysicals to seize those strands once more and pull them tight.
She whispers, "Some folk are swearin themselves ta the Tyrant." as if they weren't already dealing with upstanding citizens.
In time, as they finally draw close enough to lay eyes upon an agent of their opposing number as it were, she turns her attention that way, visual and metaphysical, but doesn't defrog the hammer yet.
"The only thing people learn from the past is how to better themselves at the expense of others," Nemori says, her voice dropping as she falls into step to delve deeper into the ancient city. "The Tyrant once had influence here, I agree. Perhaps still does. Keep that in your thoughts." When they come to the intersection, she frowns further.. her hand has strayed to her pocket by now to pull out her Ceinaran coin, pressing it deep into her palm when the Orc makes his preference known.
The place is awash with evil. It must be the kobolds and lawyers.
"I brought it." Jay says, nodding once, gesturing with his wing. "I brought an Orc too."
"Well, half-orc, and an Arvek Nar and a Mul'niessa, allegedly." He continues in an even tone, "if you'd like to practice some other appearances. Or has the triad become a quartruplet?"
He rather pointedly noses his beak towards the iron crate, "is that Cesseli?" His formal, court-room stance breaks, he clacks his beak, "actually how will we tell it's not one of your friends? The other two, or three, or one are hiding... where?"
GAME: Jay rolls bluff: (4)+8: 12 GAME: Jay rolls perception+6: (16)+15+6: 37 GAME: Jinks rolls 1d20+15: (6)+15: 21 GAME: Zofija rolls perception: (15)+4: 19 GAME: Jozi rolls perception: (3)+9: 12 GAME: Nemori rolls perception: (9)+10: 19
The arvek-nar stops and looks to the 'orc', narrowing their eyes some as the look around the area. "Yeah we have it, but that's not important until we know your captive is safe and able to be handed over. You did a real shite job with removing the tail, and I want to make sure they didn't die from blood loss due to hacking their tail off with a wood chopping axe."
"... because this job has already ran on well past when I wanted to be done with it and my contract-holder is getting antsy." The oruch man sighs and shakes his head at Jay. He hooks a massive, overly-veined hand on his harness and starts walking ahead slowly with his other hand open and slightly out to one side.
"A kobold is worth little to me, generally, and one missing pieces even less-so. He's only worth something to you-- maybe Bula, too." He stops at the bottom of the stairs, looking past the arvek nar to consider the egalrin as he holds out his empty hand. "You have to assume I have contingencies in place to protect myself," he sighs. "But I wouldn't go through all this trouble of talking to you if I'd just planned to kill you and take the artifact."
Zofija's challenge draws another sigh from him and he squints his eyes for a moment. "I can get you another piece-- still warm-- if you insist on belaboring this point further," he growls.
He curls his finger twice in a hand-it-over gesture at Jay.
With the party in the intersection and the cart on the track, it would seem like the orc is trapped without moving either.
There is a second person hiding behind the cage. There is movement in the thin seam between the cart and the wall.
The 'orc' is being sincere. He just wants to be done and get paid.
'Thock'. The bluejay bumps his head on the ceiling. His wings keep partly opening then closing again. His hands drop to his belt, then stray away from it. Shifting in place, he's looking around. Around.
His hand fumbles, shaking as he reaches into his vest and pulls the lockbox out. It's long, cylindrical, about the size of a large church candle. Feathers make for some great concealment.
His other hand drops to the hilt of his rapier and an odd demeanor comes over him. The shaking vanishes, he seems calm, and his voice is even with the hint of a slightly higher pitch. "Cut another piece off him and I'll stab my rapier through your eye and bend it around inside your skull so it comes out the other one."
He's being sincere also. He wants to be done.
His weapon is released and the hesitation returns, he uses both hands to hold out the lockbox. "One of you is behind the box. Not sure where the other one is. Now take this accursed item and give me my friend."
Jay moves to the stairs to for the exchange.
"Here is the issue," Nemori says, her voice taking on a little more sharpness.. and as Jay moves, she inches forward. She doesn't shoulder by Jozi, but does put a hand on her arm to gesture her to sidestep so she can have a clear view of the orc. "This whole meeting, presented under the guise of a trade, or an exchange... but this is false. You have taken something and then presume to assume it is yours to trade back. You threaten to end the kobold if we do not give you the box.. and yet, if you do end the kobold, you will still not have the box. And you will in a poor position to continue negotiating."
"Oh, more threats now? Well isn't that just real reassuring when you refuse to show us your end of the deal." Zofija grunts, keeping her eyes narrowed. "Especially if you have your folks skulking about."
"How about this then? If you don't show us why we should trust you, given the fact that you sent a severed tail to our doorstep after one of your people said they'd stop them from being harmed, Then I'll take this hammer and smash up that box you care so much about?"
GAME: Nemori rolls intimidate: (7)+6: 13 <OOC> Nemori will use her luck domain reroll GAME: Nemori rolls intimidate: (2)+6: 8 <OOC> Jinks says, "Jay, do you have appraise?" GAME: Jay rolls appraise: (2)+3: 5 <OOC> Jay says, "and the Keystone Kops effort continues" GAME: Jozi rolls intimidate: (3)+11: 14 [RPFive] Jozi says, "fuck these dice" [RPFive] Jay says, "Honestly this is around when I start being willing to die because of them"
He's offering Jay an old-looking key and a scroll in exchange for the case. He's also keeping eye contact with the bluejay and ignoring the threats from the others.
Definitely pings on the sense her Matron has bestowed upon her, that's for sure. Something subtle is missing from her voice as Jozi speaks, "Alright. So, now we know where we stand on things."
She turns her head slightly to the side of Nemori's touch, but she doesn't take her eyes from the fullblood orc or the crate and what it may conceal. She pivots slightly and her elbow dips slightly on the side where her hammer lay at Nemori's silent suggestion.
"Proof of possession isn't proof of life. We can keep walkin down this road, hoss, but ya won't like how it ends."
"You know what? Fuck this and Fuck you." The normally composed lawyer says suddenly. The negotiate seems to be going well, but counter arguments were raised. Good ones, and while he has been negotiating in good faith, they certainly haven't.
"I said UNHARMED and you decided that wasn't good enough. How about I just smash this shit and you try selling the remains?" He turns and tosses the Lockbox to Jozi. "Take it from her if you want to die. That's what this negotiation has just turned into, how YOU make it out alive."
He brushes past the orc, leaving himself open, "I don't need your damn key. Attack me, you die. The coward behind the box stabs Cesseli, you die. He's not in there. You die."
"He's in there, alive, MAYBE we honour the deal." The bluejay wings over to the box, "You can do the trusting you dishonourable fucks."
<OOC> Jay says, "there is a reflex save involved to intercept it, Jinks said" GAME: Jinks rolls 1d20+8: (18)+8: 26
The orc's annoyed expression distorts into a mask of rage as Jay pulls back on what seemed like a smooth exchange. The egalrin flicks the lockbox and the brigand reacts with preternatural speed and inhuman reach, snatching it out of the air before Jozi can catch it.
His satisfied grunt and smirk is the only response he offers Integrity.
GAME: Jay rolls disable device+2: (6)+12+2: 20
There's an angry squawk as his impulsive action is intercepted. He makes it to the box, whipping out a set of tools and immediately getting to work on the lock. It's big, it's not too difficult.
>click<
It's open, he pulls open the crate door.
<OOC> Jinks says, "Akk has a 30' move, also has Compression, so can fit between the cart and the cavern wall. <OOC> Jinks says, "He double moves out of sight and says stuff."
"Nothing like pissing into the wind," the oruch growls as Jay manipulates the latch on the large crate and the heavy, whole-side "door" swings open on its hinges.
Inside the crate, a creature stirs. Crablike but far too large, it has a dark brown, spiked carapace, three claws, and a set of large, barbed mandibles. The inside of the crate is caked with pink-purple slime and numerous little white orbs nest and glisten amongst the goo.
The old key and paper scroll the brigand was holding is dropped to the ground even as the alien thing in the box begins to float. "Third dorm to the east. North door. If you survive," he barks the last bit with a cruel laugh.
He moves between the crate and tunnel wall, his body compressing down impossibly thin to fit between without the 'oruch' having to break his stride. Another set of footsteps join his in retreat.
"Contingencies," a different voice taunts.
<OOC> Nemori will cast spiritual weapon on the crab, then move down the hall towards the indicated dorm. GAME: Nemori casts Spiritual Weapon. Caster Level: 7 DC: 16 GAME: Nemori rolls spiritual weapon: aliased to BAB+Wisdom: (20)+5+4: 29 (THREAT) GAME: Nemori rolls spiritual weapon: aliased to BAB+Wisdom: (11)+5+4: 20 GAME: Nemori rolls 1d8+2+1d8+2: (1)+2+(2)+2: 7 GAME: Nemori rolls perception: (20)+10: 30
"Get the key!" Nemori snaps just before summoning her disembodied blade in a brief, sing song chant that should be at odds with her demeanour.. yet somehow fits, instead. And then she's moving swiftly to the east.
<OOC> Jozi says, "i am.... going to draw my hammer and move up to get between mrs pinchy and jay"
The handoff doesn't quite go as expected.
The box moving in her direction as Jay decides, perhaps rightly, that enough was enough certainly wasn't part of the plan, nor was the orc so.... unconventionally thwarting such an exchange.
With a scathing yrch curse hissing through gnashed teeth, Jozi is moving forward, yanking the hammer from the frogs while everything goes to hell in a cart. She rushes in as best she can in her burdensome equipment, taking a warding position between the cranky crustacean and Integrity.
GAME: Zofija rolls knowledge/dungeoneering: (2)+4: 6 <OOC> Jinks says, "That is insufficient to identify the monster, sorry." <OOC> Zofija says, "I'll move up and attack it, 30' move, challenge it" GAME: Zofija rolls 1d20+9+1+1-2: (1)+9+1+1+-2: 10 (EPIC FAIL)
The arvek-nar curses under their breath as the orc runs off with the box. And now there was a crate open with a large crablike creature in front of them. The arvek nar pulls their hammer free and charges the beast, but the weapon bounces harmlessly off of the cage.
<OOC> Jay says, "okay, move away from the thing, acrobatics to avoid the AOO, +4 from tumbling belt." <OOC> Jay says, "Get the key, move after Nemori, say stuff" GAME: Jay rolls acrobatics+4: (13)+12+4: 29 GAME: Jay rolls perception+6: (9)+15+6: 30
Integrity's frustration comes out in another loud >SQUAWK< as the 'Orc' escapes, followed by a 'Chirp!' when the crustacean clicks into view. "Help!"
Nemori's spiritual weapons appears, swiftly followed by Jozi and then Zofija. The space has gotten significantly tighter.
The bluejay does not have a supernatural ability to squeeze through impossible spaces, but he is a bird, and they do fly through branches and trees all the time. Even the large ones can manage it, allegedly. He does so, flapping and weaving between the women and weapons, "Thanks! Thanks Jozi! Thanks Zofi"
He alights on the steps, grabbing the key and the note for good measure, "We don't need to fight it, we can escape, but you probably should!"
He flies after the Mul'niessa, he lands close, gazing at the third alcove. It's blocked. He peers, "The boulder in the third alcove was placed. There are two places where the earthquake damage has created sizable seams in the walls. One over there, one there!"
He points at the west wall in the corridor to south, and another on the south wall of the corridor to the east.
GAME: Jinks rolls 1d2: (2): 2, "1 Jozi, 2 Zofi" GAME: Jinks rolls 1d20+9: (5)+9: 14 GAME: Jinks rolls 1d20+9: (13)+9: 22 GAME: Jinks rolls 1d20+9: (15)+9: 24 GAME: Jinks rolls 1d20+10: (18)+10: 28 GAME: Jinks rolls 1d8+3: (5)+3: 8 GAME: Jinks rolls 1d8+3: (8)+3: 11 GAME: Jinks rolls 1d6+3: (4)+3: 7
The creature inside the crate is assaulted even as it rises from its caged slumber. The mandibles twitch, quickly growing more animated as the three claws jolt up high. Little tendrils of the goo dangle beneath it, glistening.
Zofija suffers the first series of attacks. All three claws snap, two pinching hard to rip and tear. Then the mandibles snap, biting and expelling a thick, unpleasant jelly.
<OOC> Jinks says, "Nemori. Your spiritual weapon returns to your side and hovers." <OOC> Nemori says, "Double move to 18,14. Unsure which ones count as dorms and which ones don't." <OOC> Jinks says, "A single move gets you there. The four alcoves are relatively identical." <OOC> Jinks says, "The first and fourth are barred shut (like the dining hall), the second has a collapsed roof." <OOC> Jinks says, "The third has the placed boulder." GAME: Nemori rolls perception: (4)+10: 14 <OOC> Nemori says, "Okay. So we have to go over the boulder to go through the door." <OOC> Jinks says, "If you would like to crawl on top of the boulder and attempt to open the door, you may." <OOC> Nemori better leave that to Jay, since I think my healing is going to be needed.
Nemori continues moving down the hall, putting space between herself and the sounds of combat as she counts off the passageways she must assume are the dorms the creature spoke of.. and comes face to face with the boulder. And the door just past it. She shrugs, then shimmies up on to the boulder, reaching over to see if the door opens... it does not. "It is locked," she declares, looking back over her shoulder towards Jay.
<OOC> Jinks says, "I'll let you 5' and ready to close the door." <OOC> Jinks says, "Zofija will need to move, too, unless you want to trap her in there." <OOC> Jozi says, "absolutely, she can tell zofi's badly hurt, tell her to back off then shut the door behind her" <OOC> Jinks says, "Zofi. Jozi is going to ask for you to step back so she can close the door. Compliance?" <OOC> Jinks says, "So you will 5'. This triggers Jozi's readied action. CMB, Jozi." GAME: Jinks rolls 1d20+9: (16)+9: 25 GAME: Jinks rolls 1d8+3: (3)+3: 6 GAME: Jozi rolls cmb: (20)+8: 2 <OOC> Jinks says, "You slam the door shut even as it beats against the interior to try and force its way out." <OOC> Jinks says, "Zofi can re-latch it for you after."
Wait, what's...?
"Zofi!" she cries as the cavalier draws up alongside and pays for it while Jay follows Nemori's pursuit.
It doesn't take more than the cursory glance at Zofija's wounds to realize they're pretty serious. She edges some to that side as she tells the Arvek, "Pull back, I'ma slam the door on Momma here!"
Her empty hand hooks at the fingers and edges upward in readiness for her to hop back and slam the door shut once they're clear.
Zofija wasn't expecting the crab to be nearly so dangerous, and the earn more than a few bloody slashes and bites for their trouble. They remain there for a moment, warding off the creature in the cage before suddenly ducking back for Jozi to slam it shut, leaving the arvek-nar to lunge for the locking latches in case it attempted to shove itself free.
There's little more than some wet chittering coming from the crab. It doesn't talk, apparently. The whole crate rattles and the runners clatter when the heavy thing bucks on the track. The old Khazadi storage wagon seems built of stuff sturdy enough to endure the assault, however, leaving Jozi and Zofija time to retreat and lick their wounds.
GAME: Jay rolls strength: (4)+1: 5 (Try to move the Boulder) <OOC> Jay says, "wiggle by it is!" GAME: Jay rolls disable device+2: (15)+12+2: 29 (Success!) GAME: Jay rolls perception+6: (15)+15+6: 36
Integrity approaches the door that's blocked. He caws to Nemori, "Do you see anything in those cracks? I don't think we can squeeze through them. They might have."
He squats, bracing himself for a feat of impressive strength and tries to pull the boulder free. This is followed by perching on the wall, then the other wall, the ceiling of the short corridor, somehow, all different places to push from.
Boulder beats bird.
He settles for crawling over it. He does have the key, but his professional pride is stung. His boast being true would help.
A few moments of fiddling, and he jimmys the lock. He didn't need the damn key, afterall.
He pushes the door open.
GAME: Jozi casts Cure Light Wounds. Caster Level: 3 DC: 13 GAME: Jozi rolls 1d8+3: (1)+3: 4
Jozi frowns and sighs, feeling the crab beating against the door under her hand after Zofija's locked it. It's probably not an evil crab, despite it's physical abberations, best to get a druid to see to it at some point.
Instead, she turns toward the cavalier and shifts her hammer to the other hand and reaches out with the empty one for her wounded comrade, "Merciful Mother, please tend your child's wounds." <yrch-speak>
Then, "You alright, sugar? Them's some bad hits ya took."
The door opens to reveal what would've been a modest Khazadi domicile some centuries ago. In the years since, countless tremors and quakes have put even the sturdiest dwarven construction to the test without the stout demihumans there to perform maintenance and repairs.
The room is empty save for rubble. The walls on either side are cracked. The western has a thin break, no wider than the egalrin's delicate hand while the eastern wall has crumbled away completely enough for Zofija in her armor to squeeze through.
The rooms have seen use in the past. The center of the floors have been cleared and the worst of the rubble push against the walls and into corners. More footprints are here, too.
After some scanning, Jay catches movement and subdued sounds through the western crack. A small figure is bound at the wrist and blindfolded, stripped down to his scales. His blunt snout is forced agape by a tightly-tied gag. He hunches forward on his knees and rocks in silent prayer.
GAME: Nemori casts Stone Shape. Caster Level: 7 DC: 17
Nemori climbs over the boulder and through the door after Jay after a moment of making sure Jozi and Zophia weren't in immediate danger... she has little wish to leave Jay on his own after the shapeshifters have capably displayed how easy it is for them to use these cracks to outmaneuver them. So she's near him when the Kobold is discovered. At least he's a live. With her coin in hand, the priestess reaches towards the crack in the wall, another sing song chant, summoning magic to reshape the crack into a passage more manageable.
"I found him. Found him!" The bluejay caws, flapping across the room and up to the narrow crack. "Nemori. Nemori! I see him."
"How'd they get him in there?" He attempts to squeeze through, getting only so far as to get his hand stuck. Frantic flapping follows, and he carefully extricates himself.
"There's a whole lot of rubble. We might have to break through. Zofija! Jozi! Can you bring your hammers!" He calls widely. "We're coming buddy, if you can hear us. We're coming. We're here."
"Oh! Or magic, that's even better."
With all the latches in place, the cavalier grunts and props herself up on her hammer before stepping back and away. They nod in thanks for the healing, with any further bleeding having ceased. "Thanks Jozi, it's alright, I'll be fine. Save any more healing for the prisoner, if they're okay."
Which, seems to be found, at least. The cavalier steadies herself and hefts their hammer, jogging over to where the boulder was.
Jozi nods with a wan smile, "Sure thing, sugar." she replies, then, hearing Jay calling for their assistance, "C'mon, let's go!"
The half orc rushes over to where the cative has been quartered and tries to see to their condition.
Cesseli blinks, looking up from kneeling to peer through the darkness at the crack. He tries to talk past the gag but it just comes out as smothered grunts.
The peach-colored kobold struggles up to his feet and takes a step towards the wall before falling hard onto one knee. A pause is taken to wince and pant through his tiny nostrils as his narrow, naked little shoulders rise and fall.
The clerk stands again, barefeet slapping on the stone as Nemori reshapes the wall. He makes it two steps this time before he loses his balance again. A few scales come away when he cracks his chin on the ground. It takes him longer to rise this time, his truncated half-tail flopping behind him.
Integrity swoops in, to try and catch him and if not prevent Cesseli stumbling a third time. Effeminate arms and soft wings surround the small lizard as he embraces him. "It's Ok. Ok. I got you."
He works to remove the gag, then the other bindings. Frantic glances at Nemori and Jozi indicate his concern. "Do you have heals? I've got a wand. I can use my wand if you've run out."
"We're here. You're rescued." He repeats.
<OOC> Nemori will channel energy once to heal GAME: Nemori rolls 4d6: (19): 19
Nemori frowns, nimble fingers rotating the coin in her hand a few times before she nods and opens herself up as a conduit for healing energyies.. which then disperse into everyone close by, including the Kobold. "We are not done yet. Let us get him out of here, and rejoin with..." She stops, seeing Jozi, then looking past the Orc towards the boulder. Catching sight of Zofija there, she nods. "Out of here," she repeats. "Before they come back."
"Way's already open, that works." Zofija grunts when she reaches the makeshift prison cell. She doesn't say much, not really knowing the person they rescued in the first place. "Yeah, it's safe for now, but we need to get moving. No telling how long the crate that crab is in will last now that it's awake."
A sigh at the state of the kobold and Jozi's hammer is slipped back into place on her belt as she starts into the room, drawing up as Nemori's healing wave engulfs them.
She glances back the way they'd come, "I doubt it's gonna go very far. Figger them are her eggs in there with her."
She looks to the captive and takes a knee, "I can carry ya outta here, sugar."
The kobold coughs when the gag is out. Off-kilter and short, he pushes as hard as he can against the egalrin just repeating "friend Integrity" over and over between plaintive sounds. The wrist bindings are difficult to get off because he's pawing and once they are he's locked Jay around the wrist in a vice-like grip.
"I knew... I knew my Guiding Star wouldn't leave me. She could have my tail but I didn't want to-- to go. I told her I was so sorry for whatever I did... I didn't mean to. She heard me, friend Integrity..."
The blunt-faced kobold buries his face against the bluejay's vest.
The bruises, blood, and patches of shed scales repair with the boon of Nemori's healing magics. The tail still twitches, unsure and with a life of its own, but the raw meat at the end blunts with a layer of pastel-colored skin.
He looks over at Jozi and Zofija, plastered up against Jay. "I'm... I'm just a clerk. I don't know what I did wrong," he pleads.
"You didn't do anything wrong Friend Cesseli. Nothing wrong." Jay says, holding the kobold tight, letting him grip where he wants, a soft feathered hand cradling his hed. "Wrong place, wrong time, evil people. You did nothing wrong."
He asserts. "We'll make it right."
"Right, let's get out of here." Jay feels the warmth of Nemori's aid washing over him, sees an improvement in Cesseli's condition. His eyes widen when he gets a good look at Jozi, even wider when he sees Zofija.
"Muscles! I... I didn't think ... " He stares as her, then at Jozi, "Eggs?"
His mind double-clutches, eggs! Do they want to eat them? Are they good eating, worth anything. It would explain the creature's viciousness, "Maybe spin the cage around and open the door and let it take over down here. Or kill it if it's dangerous."
"I might need some help, but let's go."
Nemori's expression flattens a bit at Jay, but then shrugs as she pockets her coin again. "As you wish. Either way, let us move." To lend emphasis to her desire to leave, she heads back to the boulder to shimmy back over it.
"Thanks Nemori, you did a great job." Jay says across Cesseli's back, supporting him. All the way to the boulder. "Oh."
"I'm fine, really. What's a bit of suffering as long as the job gets done?" The arvek-nar shrugs with a weak chuckle. "It's, sorry, Cesseli, it's not your fault. Those people were just wrong in the head,but they're gone now. We should be gone now, too.
She turns back where she came from, and shakes her head. "It's, cruel, but I don't think I have it in me to slay it, and by extension, if it got out, someone else could get seriously injured or killed by it."
Jozi gives the little one a sad smile, "Ya ain't at fault, sugar... c'mon, let's get ya home."
The half orc follows back about the boulder obstruction, doing what she can to help folks back into the hallway proper, "I don't conjure the critter's evil, but them sorta things are a dang sight more.... crunchy than I got experience with. Could be just fine with some water. Be my preference ta get a druid on the case, but that'd involve knowing how we get back here."
<OOC> Jinks says, "Well, I'll let Jay drop some time off thee trip back by cutting off the loop arounds and such. He'll get lost once or twice but still find a more direct route. Since he puzzled out the puzzle."
"I'm trying to think of a shorter way out." Jay says, practically carrying Cesseli, unwilling to let him go. "There's a few loops we can cut."
"As for the crab, if it's what I think it is, they're really nasty. It might make for good soup and meat if we can get it out safely, but I don't think it's too safe to release."
He ponders, "I wonder if there's a way through the dam to some mines in the mountain, then out that way."
"No... no... better stick with a route we at least left tracks in."
The half orc shakes her head a bit, "Alright, we'll see if we can get it away from these folk, anyway. There's probably innocents down here that could end up runnin into that thing if it gets loose."
She readies her claws, then, "I'll take point if ya can point the way. Let's go."
Even after the brief encounter with the crated creature, it was very clear that the flying, crab-like thing was dangerous. Where it came from or how, exactly, the faceless stalkers came to possess such a pet is a mystery for another day. With no real safe way to transport the deadly aberration it was best put down.
Jay keeps Cesseli back and out of sight to spare the traumatized kobold any more excitement. Even after attempts to soothe and mollify the Serrielite, he insists on apologizing repeatedly and at length. He occasionally breaks pace to ask what he did; he'd know what he did wrong so he didn't do it again.
The latch is thrown and the monster met. Nemori sending spells and conjured allies into the crate even as Jozi and Zofija climb back in. Even cornered-- or perhaps because of it-- the floating fiend fights with a ferocious fervor. The opening attack is a geyser of acid that burns the arvek nar and yrchblood, spraying with enough pressure to meet the mul'niessa down at the intersection.
The brackish bile burns, smoldering and bubbling long enough that the cleric is forced to abandon her offensive and heal the trio. Brawler and cavalier are left to continue their assault, crack the creatures craggy shell, and harry it into submission. When it bounces, broken to the ground, the halls still once more.
The passage back up is shorter but not as short as some hoped. Jay susses out a more direct path but is forced to backtrack more than once in the process of doing so. Even with the trial and error, cutting out the circuitous route Nemori had observed on the way down shaves an hour, easily, off the trek.
Cesseli's little lizard legs fail him less than half of the way up. It takes some convincing but Jay's assurances, Jozi's kind words, and Zofija's stalwart presence are enough to convince the kobold to be carried. Arvek nar and half-oruch can take turns. Nemori is kind enough not to make observations about weakness and failures of character.
A trio of startled makari press into the corner of the abandoned, root-strewn cellar when you emerge from the sewers. Their scales are vibrant and they're obviously young. The three are thin and curled around each other in a ratted nest with their meager belongings scattered on the floor around them. They eye you dubiously, holding onto each other as you pass by and back up into the warm air of the western gardens.
The gardener is nowhere to be found; perhaps he's climbed a post for the night to hang and scare away birds.
The trip to the Defense is uneventful. The old, matronly Lucht woman is waiting. She looks like she might've been waiting for hours.
OOC & Combatty
===================== Current Initiative Order - Round 1 =====================
---Init--Name------------AOO-Notes--------------------------------------------
23 Jay 1
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22 Pet 1
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>> 21 Akktlak 1 <<
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15 Nemori 1 Flat-footed (0 rnds remaining)
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13 Jozi 4 Flat-footed (0 rnds remaining)
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13 Zofija 1 Flat-footed (0 rnds remaining)
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==============================================================================
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Name | CHP (T) | HP |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| Jay...........| 42 | 42 |
| Jozi..........| 37 | 37 |
| Nemori........| 49 | 49 |
| Zofija........| 19 | 45 |
| (C) Screech...| 37 | 37 |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Map
https://www.mipui.net/app/index.html?mid=m7qs1kw5pxj
Pre-Game
<OOC> Jinks says, "Alright. To wrap up past negotiations from the previous scene, I'd like a Sense Motive from Jay and Zofi. And then some kind of active social skill roll from Jay (Bluff, Intimidate, Diplomacy, whatever)."
GAME: Zofija rolls sense motive: (8)+1: 9
GAME: Jay rolls sense motive: (12)+11: 23
GAME: Jay rolls bluff: (8)+8: 16
GAME: Jinks rolls 1d20+2: (17)+2: 19
GAME: Jinks rolls 1d20+10: (10)+10: 20
Fuck these Dice
[RPFive] Jay says, "like just fuck this it's auto fail unless I've got a +35"
[RPFive] Jinks says, "I mean the dice suck, yes, but you guys are doing a fantastic job and I, for one, am loving how everyone is reacting to the scenario here."
[RPFive] Nemori says, "I get it, but this has always been a weakness of d20 systems. The range of outcomes has always been that they allow for someone attempting to tie their shoes botch it so bad that they trip themselves and fall down a flight of stairs to break their neck."
Duplicitous
[RPFive] Jinks says, "You guys are frustrated he didn't truck out the prisoner for you to see him after the last guy made a deal with Jay and Rocky promptly smashed his face in. You've shown them that you're just as duplicitous."
[RPFive] Zofija shrug. "They really didn't prove trustworthy in the first place"
<OOC> Jinks says, "OK. He does not take an AoO, you can roll your disable."
<OOC> Jay says, "i"m annoyed the dice just hand the success to the mobs, but whatever"
Do People want to quit
[RPFive] Jinks says, "If this becomes too frustrating for people, let me know. If one or two people need to step away, I will finish with whoever remains and submit so you still get rewards. If the majority of people want to stop, I can call the PRP, write a wrap, and submit for rewards. I have no desire to hold anyone here at gunpoint to play a scene they're not enjoying."
[RPFive] Jozi hugs, "you're good"
[RPFive] Jay says, "I'm fine, some other thing is causing me massive anxiety but it's not this."
[RPFive] Zofija says, "It's alright, I'm just annoyed with the faceless stalkers, which like Nemori said, it makes sense"
<OOC> Jinks says, "Alright, I'm sorry."
The Crab
[RPFive] Jinks says, "'Efficient in its digestion and reproduction, a single critter can depopulate a village in a few days, spawning dozens of offspring that scatter in search of more prey. Fortunately, an adult critter lives no longer than a year. During this time, it seeks to eat and find living prey in which to lay its eggs.'"
[RPFive] Jinks says, "'Implant Eggs (Ex) As a full-round action, a critter can lay 2d6 eggs in a helpless creature. The eggs hatch after 24 hours and each deals 1 point of Con damage per hour as they feed on the host. After 1d2 days of eating, the larvae crawl out and find a safe place to mature into adults. A remove disease spell rids a creature of all implanted eggs or larvae, or they can be removed one at a time by using the Heal skill to treat deadly wounds.'"
After-Plans
[RPFive] Jozi says, "Think jozi's gonna talk to the other pardoners about these guys"
<OOC> Jozi says, "jozi would be interested in seeing to the three sith'makar. she's althean, and her domain is community. but i don't think i can be around tomorrow, and i'm finding with most of my characters I can't get in followup type stuff like i used to"
<OOC> Jozi says, "will talk to the inquisitors about these shapeshiftey bastards"
<OOC> Nemori says, "Though I'm not sure about Nemori's ability to keep comments of weakness and failure to herself."
<OOC> Jinks says, "I'm glad you guys had fun in spite of the crummy dice."
<OOC> Jinks says, "Also, Zofi, I like to sprinkle a lot of little details through my scenes just to make it feel like you're not walking from a combat room to a combat room. If something like the makari youth ever jumps out at you, I probably don't have concrete plans to do anything with it."
<OOC> Jinks says, "Start some RP tomorrow with her having stayed behind. Or come back after seeing Cess to the Defense. It's your character, I was just trying to get a pose to close this up."
<OOC> Jinks says, "They are my gift to you. I have no plans for them. I'm just sprinkling in more troubled youths because that's at the core of this arc."
<OOC> Jinks says, "So, a couplei post-log notes for Jay."
<OOC> Jinks says, "After Cess gets some rest, he'll observe that there was someone in the room with him right before you arrived. He seemed agitated but said something about "honey" before squeezing out one of the north cracks while all the noise was going on outside."
<OOC> Jinks says, "Also, the halls are Khazad-ur in origin. They allied with the mul'niessa ~500-years ago and turned against the other two races of dwarves."
<OOC> Jinks says, "Nemori also knows a shopkeeper that trucks in kulthian artifice."
<OOC> Jay says, "I'll try to get his tail re-attached, and like I said, about making a partnership law office kind of thing"
Kim's Convenience is Great
<OOC> Jay says, "Random aside, if you have Netflix and you can find 'Kim's Convenience', it's a comedy series about a Korean Convenience store family. It's relevant because it's Toronto around the same time as Scott Pilgrim (Movie and Graphic Novels) and Turning Red. Also, also, they show the Ontario College of Art (and now) and Design, OCAD. It was 'The OCA' when I was going there, a joint UoT design class. Mostly, if you want to know what school and growing up looked like for me, that show captures a lot."
<OOC> Jinks says, "OK, seeyou."
<OOC> Jinks found it when they added the first season and gobbled up everything that followed.
<OOC> Jay is pretty sure she has been in the actual convenience store too
<OOC> Jinks says, "It's a poor Canadian's version of King of the Hill. Father is earnest and hardworing but stubborn and ignorant in a lot of ways. The older sibling is dumb but pretty and trying to make up for past mistakes. The younger one is clever but weird and awkward with people and gets into all kinds of weird situations. The mom is the real powerhouse of the family."
<OOC> Jinks says, "Sang-il/Apa even has his Bill/Dale/Boomhauer with Mr. Chin, Mr. Meta, and the repair guy whose name eludes me."
<OOC> Jinks says, "Frank."
<OOC> Jay nods, "The dynamic is great. Oh, Frank, I think, yes. For me it's the locations, it is so nostalgic, and the comedy is great."
<OOC> Jinks says, "It's a very sweet and earnest show and it was some fantastic brain candy during the darkness of lockdown."
<OOC> Jinks says, "The mom and pastor both had sizable parts in the Expanse. Chung's actor (who obviously was Shang-Chi in the Marvel film) even had a cameo as a martian marine at one point."
<OOC> Jay says, "oh neat!"
<OOC> Jay says, "oh that's why he looks familiar!"
<OOC> Jinks says, "Yup. He disappears during the third season to 'go to college in LA' and only appears as a brief Skype cameo a couple times because he was filming."
<OOC> Jay says, "ah, interesting. heh"