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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Janick Mayweather
Listening in shock to the others Janick could hardly believe that Ulf was dead, and that no one in the constabulary thought anything of it.
"This... this is too much. Gods how could Ulf be..." I can't believe this. Janick spends a moment with his head down in his hands before looking up again to see Kayte crying. Not sure of how console her he tries anyways.
"Kayte, if this is all connected, and gods I hope that it isn't, then whoever did that to Ulf wanted to send a message. I hate to say it but if something had happened to Linn then they would have found a way to let you know. That's not much comfort but... don't give up hope untill you know for certain."
He quickly looks around the tavern then lets his aura expand to enfold everyone at the table, sharpening their senses. He drops the volume of his voice, looking grim and sad. "Arfondt's got a point, this is too troubling to talk about in the open. If his lodgings are protected from scrying then that's the best place to be right now."
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Changing aura to Senses
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Kayte Mursai
Despite his attempt, Janick's words don't help much. Kayte keeps on crying, still quiet sobs of sadness. She feels his words passing into her ears, takes in the message he is trying to let on, but as he continues to speak she simply ignores him. "Janick...you don't get it. Not yet." What was there to get? If she's dead, then you've got nothing. Just a store and a false life. Nothing is real. Nothing is real without her there.
As Janick mentions scrying and moving to Arfondt's study, Kayte quickly intervenes, though the crying doesn't help her point much. "What's the point of moving? Considering we've discussed going there so much already, whoever's after us probably already has a million of their agents waiting there to kill us or something. Considering how they killed Ulf and injured Crennick, I'm sure they have the connections to hire a trained assassin to finish us off." Her sobs flow into the words every so often.
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Arfondt
Arfondt moves a little closer to Kayte, resting a hand on her lower arm. "We are all shocked and confused at the death of Ulf. Although we barely knew him, he was a fine man and without him we might not have made it out that day. But this place as a little too public for me to talk about this. How about we all let things sink in a little, finish our drinks and go over to my place? We could ask the 'keep if he can sell us two bottles of wine so we don't have to go dry later. I'm not stocked all that well."
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
"Wine sounds good to me. I'll go get some. I hope your not picky about the vintage, because I doubt this place has much of a selection. At least it'll be more wine than vinegar, though." Crennick heads to the bar to secure a couple of bottles.
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
After Crennick returns, all sit uneasily before their drinks. One by one they finish, and Arfondt calls a waiter. Everyone pays what he owes, Arfondts gives a generous tip, but the absent look on his face casts doubt on whether he is really aware of that. Arfondt gets up and straightens his robe. "You all have everything you came here with? Nobody forget anything?" He pats down his pockets to check for his belongings, then sets out towards the guildhouse.
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
You leave the table and head outside.
Janick:
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As you push yourself away from the table, you hear the sudden screech of wood on wood, a thud, and coarse laughter, as if a drunken patron tried to rise from his feet too quickly and lost his balance. The string of cursing quickly recedes to the back of the pub.
Kayte:
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As you rise from the table, one of the conversations nearby cuts off. The sudden silence causes you to turn your head, and you see several rough-looking characters leave their mugs and head out the back way.
Arfondt:
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A vagrant on the opposite streetcorner watches you intently as you leave, ignoring others who pass by. It strikes you as odd behavior.
You begin walking toward Arfondt's guilhouse, which is several blocks away. The air is brisk today, still with a touch of heaviness from the moisture leaching from the ground.
About halfway there, you realize that Sir Kylen has disappeared. At least, he's not walking with the rest of you.
Chaim, Kayte, Arfondt:
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Crennick is persistently lagging behind, as well.
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Arfondts left hand slides into a pocket on his robe and he mumbles a few barely audible words, pointing in quick succession at Kayte, Chaim, Janick and Crennick.
After this, the four hear a soft whisper in their ears. "We can now talk without anybody listening in. If you want to say something, just mouth the words and breathe softly. Maybe I am overly careful here, but I think we are being watched. Did anybody notice the crook opposite the restaurant? Don't let your guard down." He pauses shortly, nervously massaging his left leg while walking. "Does everybody know where the guildhouse is, in case we get seperated? And where is Sir Kylen? He was with us when we left, wasn't he? did he say anything to anybody? Maybe we should keep closer together. Crennick, keep up please."
OOC: Casting message.
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Crennick mutters apologetically and takes a hop-step to catch up with you; but he slows his pace again as you approach an intersection.
"How much further? I might be healed up, but I'm still a little stiff. Thanks again for that, by the way," he adds to Chaim.
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Janick Mayweather
Janick keeps his sense aura up for the group as they walk and barely opens his mouth to send words to the others.
"I don't know where Kylen's gone to but I haven't noticed anything. I'll keep an eye on that man though."
He begins circumspectly observing the vagrant for any suspicious behaviour while making it seem like he's just idly strolling.
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Arfondt
Arfondt stops. "Well, I think we should turn around and go looking for Kylen then, don't you think? We can't just leave him behin if there really is someone out to do us harm. And Crennick, if there is anything you know and haven't told us yet, now is a good time. It you want us to protect you, you can't keep information from us. Somebody might come to harm for it." He looks sharply at Crennick, then starts to walk back the way they came from.
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Crennick's jaw falls in indignant surprise. "What? What are you impyling, sir? I never..."
He lets out his breath with a sigh and his demanor suddenly softens. "Look; I got jumped the other day. Thugs beat me purple and left me in my own piss. I'm a little jumpy, alright? Besides, they s--I just worry that it had something to do with something one of you did. That dwarf guy dead..." He stumbles slightly, and he sticks out his tongue as if he had tasted gall. "So I don't feel too confident out here on the street as it is. Now the big guy's missing. Can we just get to the guildhouse and indoors?"
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Arfondt's look softens visibly at Crennick's words. "I am sorry. I am just a little suspicious with all that's going on. Just try to keep somewhere between the rest of us and we'll make sure nothing happens. But I'm afraid going on without Sir Kylen is not an option. I don't want to leave anybody out here alone, and we'd do the same for you. Or does anybody have a different opinion on this?" He looks questioningly at the others.
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Janick Mayweather
"We haven't gone far, let's head back a bit, he may be in trouble."
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Kayte Mursai
Kayte knows something is up. A disappearing Paladin does not occur very often at all. However, there are other things worth worrying about. She hadn't stopped crying even after they left the tavern; the pain was still fresh in her mind. Whispering, Kayte says, "I don't want to go. We're walking head-first into a trap and I'm not going after him like that." Kayte hopes that it's not the complete truth only slightly. She knows what the Guild might have done to him...if he was a member. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that he had become a member of the Guild; those are the sorts of people Linn would have been attracted to, no doubt.
If what Kayte thought was true, there was, no doubt, an ambush waiting outside to silently take Kylen and slit his throat, leaving his body dead for them all to find. More likely than not, the assassins would be waiting in the shadows to leap out and slay the rest of them as they found his corpse. Kayte didn't want to take that chance after seeing those thugs leave.
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Arfondt
"I agree that there is the strong possibility of a trap. But just because there is a chance of trap doesn't mean we can ignore the very real fact that a companion of us has gone missing. I still think we have to look for him, and I am ready to do so alone if you would rather seek the safety of the guildhouse and wait there for us." He looks sadly at Kayte. The conflicting emotions show on his face. He is not trying to be a hero, and maybe his lack of experience in dealing with thugs makes it easier for him to make this foolhardy decision. "If you can look him in the eye and tell him that we abandoned him because we thought there might be a trap, go ahead to the guildhouse. I can't."
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Kayte Mursai
The tears haven't stopped. Kayte's voice changes. She's still whispering under the message, but it's clear now that she's still feeling her old emotion. "Don't you get it? It's not a 'maybe there's an ambush, we should definitely avoid looking for him', it's 'there's an ambush waiting around his dead body, and if we go there, they will kill us and we will be dead'. There's no possibility. And I don't care about him enough to get myself killed." Despite her words, the teary influence behind them makes it clear that Kayte isn't nearly as adamant about her beliefs as she seems.
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Chaim stands still a moment and looks about with a slight frown. He gives a brief glance at the others as if not understanding how this was even something to debate and head off to retrace their steps, glancing into each alley they passed.
His hand is on his sickle however.
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His profile sheet got deleted again and only have the older version so I can't remember the names of all the spells he had prepared for this, though one was like animal senses. Anyways, he's casting it so as to gain scent.
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Janick Mayweather
Janick sighs and follows after Chaim.
"Kayte, the long-short of it is that you're safer with us than without us for now. Kylen wouldn't leave any of us behind, and I'm not yet convinced that there's some plot against all of us anyways."
As he follows the farmer he keeps an eye on the fake beggar that had been watching them.
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Arfondt
Arfondt stares at Kayte, unsure what to say. "How can you be so certain? Do you know anything you haven't told us? He might just as well need our help right now, and I won't keep it from him based on some speculations."
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Kayte Mursai
"I know who it is that I annoyed, if that's the right word. And I'm fairly certain he wants us all either dead or captured." Or Hell, maybe just you. Kayte looks meaningfully at Arfondt for a moment before turning away. It's fairly clear that she hasn't stopped crying since they left the bar.
As Janick goes to leave, Kayte shoots back, "How do you know I'm any safer with you lot around?" Sighing as they go, Kayte whispers under her breath. A small bit of gooey substance rests in her hand, quickly taken from a pouch at her side. Turning to look at Arfondt as she finishes the incantation, Kayte says via the whisper, "Fine. You win. But I'm not getting killed for Kylen."
Kayte crushes the substance in her hand and her form fades slowly from view. Despite realizing the limited usefulness of hiding in this situation, at best Kayte felt she would at least be safer than before. Following the others, she reaches into her pouch again to take a little bit of powder out, though this motion is invisible to the common eye.
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Cast invisibility on herself. Check dice roll thread for "Move Silently" checks.
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Kylen
As you swaggered toward the pub's exit, you heard a clatter: one of your greaves had come loose and was flopping against your shin. You waited until you were out of the lunchtime crowd and stepped to the side of the doorway before you bent to fix it. While so occupied, stone of no inconsiderable size spanged off your pauldron. You jumped to your feet and saw a stringy youth of about eighteen laughing with some of his no-good friends and looking your direction. One of them is stooping to pick up another stone.
When they see your quick response and aggressive posture, their faces fall and they take off down the street. You figure you'd have enough time to teach these punks a lesson and still make it to the guildhouse. (You know where it is.) You probably wouldn't even break a sweat.
They duck down a side street. As you round the corner after them, you go sprawling over a tripwire. Mean laughter surrounds you.
"Divide and conquer. Didn't I tell you boys?"
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Did you lose your sheet, too, Glyphstone? If I remember correctly, you and VT had them on the same site.
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Kylen
The paladin rolls easily to his feet despite the weight of his armor, laying one hand on the hilt of his greatsword.
"Now, am I going to have to teach you boys some manners? You shouldn't leave such things out where honest folk might trip over them."
His tone is mild, as if he were serious, but the twinkle in his eyes and the twitching of his mustache are both hints that he is definitely spoiling for a fight.
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I have a mostly complete character sheet, it's just missing my equipment - I couldn't remember the WBL, and my DMG has gone missing again, so I haven't spent anything. My weapon and armor were both +1, but I'm pretty sure I bought some noncombat utility stuff as well.
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Arfondt utters a relieved sigh. "Thank you. I'm pretty sure that nobody will get killed. Maybe we all are a little bit on the edge, and nothing serious is going on." He doesn't look so sure when he speaks the last sentence. Then he turns to catch up with Chaim and Janick. "Wait up! Let's all stay together."
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Kylen
About ten street toughs stand around you in a rough circle, having moved across the alleyway entrance after your ignominious entrance. They are dressed in hodge-podge manner, with once-fine jackets mismatched to holey trousers, or a feathered cap set upon stringy, unwashed hair. None of them displays lethal weaponry beyond the ubiquitous belt-knife most folks wear, although in the right hands (perhaps yours) the bludgeons and saps that several of them are using to threaten you could deliver a killing blow.
"Easy, grandpa. Just want to talk. Take you to the boss, see?" Their mouthpiece is the rock-thrower. He's grinning at you and leaning back on his heels, with his thumbs hooked in a red sash. "You whip out that carving knife of yours, though, and we'd have to defend ourselves. Might get ugly and messy--especially since there's a dozen of us and only one o' you. That would be a shame, too. Especially since we'd have to tell the City Guard--quite honestly, of course--that you started it by attacking us."
The Others
You backtrack to the tavern, slightly more slowly than you had left because of your watchful searching. Unfortunately, you don't see any of the suspicious characters that had been tracking your movements earlier.
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Listen and Spot checks, in addition to whatever else you plan to do here
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
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[roll0]
[roll1]
Remember that everyone still gets a +1 to listen and spot from Janick's aura
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
As the five trudge back to the tavern, Arfondts face grows steadily more worried. The last street they take, he slows down noticeably. "It seems as though they, whoever they are, have managed to seperate Kylen from us. Let's just look into the tavern to make sure he didn't return there."
He opens the door, looks around, and his brow furrows in worry as he doesn't spot anyone looking like the lost paladin. He makes his way to the loo and knocks. "Kylen?"
An annoyed voice answerts from within: "Sod off, I'm no Kaylen. Jeez, can't you even finish once without someone grumblegrumble... "
Arfondt turns and shuffles back towards the waiting companions. "I'm sorry, he's not here anymore. How should we go about looking for him? He might have taken a different route and gone to the guildhouse, and I doubt they would just let him in. Maybe I should go back there to make sure he gets let in. I hope he remembers we wanted to meet there. I didn't notice anyone watching us since after Kylen disappeared, so maybe they got what they were looking for. Still, maybe we shouldn't go all alone - Kayte and Crennick, care to join me? Is that ok for everyone?"
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Listen (1d20+3)[13]
Spot (1d20+3)[19]
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Kayte Mursai
Kayte looks at Arfondt meaningfully as he tries to suggest they leave. "Can't you do one of those magical findy things? He's probably around here somewhere, if you can find him somehow then..." Realizing something, Kayte stops herself mid-sentence. Why do you care all of a sudden? Just leave and leave everything to the ones who know what they're doing.
Turning to look around, Kayte can't help but wonder about what has happened. Where did that Paladin go? How did we not notice? He's a Paladin, it's not like he's ridiculously sneaky. Thinking now would be a good time to increase their methods of movement, Kayte whispers under her breath some more arcane words, ending her phrase in quick of the draconic tongue.
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Arfondt looks a little irritated. "No, I can't do "one of these magical findy things", at least not right now. In my normal life, people don't just get lost like that. Maybe I can find someone who can or a scroll at the guildhouse." He makes a short pause and looks into the air, thinking hard. "Well, then there's Verec, and it's dark already, so maybe we could ask him for help. His bar is a few blocks away from here though."
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Shrugging, Kylen lets go of the hilt of his sword.
[color=orange]"Have it your way, then, boys. Tell you the truth, I've been meaning to get some exercise...so, who's going to be the first one to bring me to your "boss"?[/orange]
Still grinning, he cracks his knuckles audibly.
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Re: Absence of Empathy IC
Sir Kylen
The insolent boy shows no sign of being intimidated. "Right this way, then. Mutt! Jeff! You escort our 'guest.'"
The two thugs he designates fall in behind you while their leader turns on his heel and heads further down the alleyway.
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Could you send me an active link to your charsheet? The Tangled Web keeps changing things over there, and so the link I have is defunct.
Also, go ahead and
roll a Sense Motive check.
The others
Crennick clutches the bottle of wine protectively. "Trust me; I'm not letting it out of my sight. I'll need a good drink when we get there."
Kayte hears...
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...something that sounds like Sir Kylen's voice coming from down the street headed crosswise to the way you had traveled toward the wizards' guildhouse.