Imperial Sins (Evil)

[Thatguyoverther]

Loren reaches the temple without incident, passing guardsmen and night watchers heading in the opposite direction. Inside the building it is quiet and dark, but not preternaturally so. Taelas arrives shortly after, having to take back routes to avoid the worst of the crowds.

The girl looks around but doesn't answer Aztara's question. In the confusion and intensifying smoke the large Hagola woman is nowhere to be seen. The girl follows Aztara demurely. She stays quiet the entire time, still processing the nights events. The going is slow having to push through crowds and drag the girl along makes what would have been a short trip takes more than an hour. The inn is almost empty, patrons have, for the most part sequestered themselves in their rooms or are caught outside in the chaos. The innkeeper notices Aztara leading the prostitute in, he smiles and gives Astara a wink but otherwise they remain unmolested.

[Fra Lippo]

Aztara

Aztara takes the girl to the room she is staying in; she makes the sure girl understands not to leave the room until she comes back; she hitches her backpack onto her shoulders, putting inside all her money and her axe. Securing the room, she goes downstairs to the innkeeper: "my...friend, is vulnerable. Please make sure she stays in my room, and that nobody touches her", handing him a few gold coins (5gp) with a smile of her own. Finally she sets out to the temple herself.

[MCerberus]

Taelas

Noticing the now familiar animal when he arrives, Taelas gets out a piece of jerky from his pack and throws it at Loren. He takes a quick look around to see if anyone else had arrived before taking up a more elevated position. In the shadows he slips a few nuts and berries beneath his mask.

"Hope you're used to missing some sleep. Someone's got to be up and make sure we weren't tailed. Plus after this display I doubt any of our... group will trust each other's morales enough to sleep well."

[PId6]

Loren

The dog sniffed at the offered jerky, then swallowed it in one bite. A moment later, he stood on two legs again. "That's likely a good idea, yes."

[Thatguyoverther]

The innkeeper nods, and makes the coins disappear. His, smile broadens and he taps his finger to the side of his nose, "Say no more, say no more." Aztara's trip is similarly quiet, the streets devoid of life. Aztara thought she caught sight of someone's shadow, but it wasn't anymore than a stray cat. She arrives a short while after the others.

The night passes slowly, in the distance the glow of the fire they started can be seen in the far off distance. When the wind shifts the sounds of shouting and smell of burning homes and refuse wafts through the air.

Taelas from his vantage point can tell that no one managed to follow them through the chaos. During his vigil neither Elran or Therlond show up. He does however notice that the streets are quiet, quieter than they should be. For this part of town their should be at least a few wandering drunks, or homeless making their beds in the streets. Even feral dogs seem to steer clear of the area. Towards dawn, a drunk stumbles into sight only to be confronted by two thuggish types that appear quiet suddenly out of the shadows. They quickly begin escorting the man away from the area.

(Assuming you don't investigate the thugs. But feel free too, I don't want to be accused of railroading.)

The day dawns and once again the heat returns, smoke still lingers in the air but the worst of the fires seem to have been contained. Elran and Therlond still don't arrive. A little before noon, Ashvar arrives on foot leading a donkey. "Come inside, lets get out of this thrice damned heat." He leads the donkey inside before tying it up directly to the altar.

He unloads a chest from the donkey, and turns back to the group. "Where are the others?"

[PId6]

Loren

Loren sneers, "They're dead, as is Abbadi. We did your dirty work, now where's the money?"

[Thatguyoverther]

"Dead?" Ashvar's face pales noticeably. "Nononono, you have to me mistaken. Did you actually see them die?" He rushes over to the donkey and pulls out a book from it's pack, flipping through it rapidly. "The prophecy says their have to be five, err four!" Ashvar's voice takes on a hysterical note, a glint of fear enters into his eyes. "Are you sure their dead? I mean, did you see them die?"

[Fra Lippo]

Aztara

The woman moves at Ashvar, axe swinging in her hand. "I want my pay! I have no time for your madness!"
A madman? Arson? Sneaking around in the night? Killing civilians? Anarchy? The mercenary dislikes the situation even more than when she wasn't complicit. At the moment she wants her money and to resolve her promise to Yerga. She tries to get past the man and seize the chest.

[PId6]

Loren

Loren shrugged, then looked visibly annoyed by the priest's apparent idiocy. "Dead, missing, what's the difference. They're not here to split the pay, that's all that matters."

[Thatguyoverther]

Ashvar takes a deep breath, steadying himself. "We can handle this. I can handle this." He gets out of Aztara's way and points to the donkey. "The money is in the chest, six thousand minus the three hundred I advanced you." (@Fra Lippo make a dc 10 int check, if you fail theirs a nagging something you can't place a finger on.)

"If someone would fill me in on the details of last night I would appreciate it. There was fire and death, and fiery death, and Abbadi is no where to be found, but that's the limitations of my knowledge. If someone could enlighten me we could proceed from their."

[Thatguyoverther]

Seeing no volunteers to fill him in, Ashvar sighs crest fallen. "The moneys in the chest take it and go. If you come back tomorrow I'll have another task for you, I'll pay double. For now I need to see what can be salvaged of this whole situation."

He goes back to pouring over the text, reading and rereading lines looking for something, every once in a while cursing under his breath in a decidedly unpriestly manner.

[PId6]

Loren

Loren opens the chest and counts out his share of the gold, putting it into his pack. Then, ignoring the others, he transforms into the hound form again, quickly running out of the temple and into the city, looking for a nice alleyway to spend the night.

[Fra Lippo]

Aztara

(OOC: Sorry I forgot to post, even though I did in the other thread)

The mercenary waits until the others have left, almost forcing herself upon the others to see how much money they've taken. Once they've gone, she shinks to her knees; her eyes even moisten a little. She quickly kills her weakness, instead taking the rocks out of her backpack and carefully putting her gold inside. This time she makes the journey more difficult for herself by carrying her pack in her hands, just to make sure. When she gets back to her room, she asks again where she can find Yerga.

[Thatguyoverther]

Loren's trip is uneventful, no one bothers hassle a stray. ((Nothing is likely to happen until tomorrow, feel free to spend your portion of the loot.))

As Aztara leaves the temple she almost immediately realizes that she is being followed by a group of youths, the oldest of which appears to be no more than sixteen years old. Their ability to follow her is impeded by the fact that they are all in various states of intoxication. The one that appears to be leading the group drunkenly chastises his compatriots for not being more stealthy. He wears pounds upon pounds of gaudy jewelry, which makes his attempts at stealth even more laughable. Although, Aztara can't quite place him, she is sure that she has seen him somewhere before.

[Fra Lippo]

Aztara

Aztara decides to follow her hunch by approaching the youths, slowly, with the axe held by her side. She tries to remember where, if at all, she saw them: as much as that jewelry could replace her lost fortune, she could not break a basic Imperial law (and her own moral code) without good reason.

To remember:
intelligence - (1d20+2)[10]
spot - (1d20+1)[16]

For the jewelry:
appraise - (1d20+2)[20]

[PId6]

Loren

Before resting for the night, Loren finds the marketplace and transforms back into human form, then begins looking at the various wares presented.

Spoiler

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Well, nothing much to spend it on, since magic items are too expensive and very little work in animal form anyway. I'll just buy these and save the rest:

5x Potion of Enlarge Person (1000 gp)

How much EXP did we get for Abbadi anyway?

[Thatguyoverther]

Aztara can't quite place the face, but is fairly sure she saw him in the chaos following the bordello fire. She has a hunch that the gold used to by his new attire came from her pockets. It looks to be worth about 400 gold pieces all told, but it's impossible to know how much he actually spent on it. Her hunch is confirmed when the youth points at her and addresses the others. "That's her that's the foreign tart who's purse I nabbed the other day! She's loaded!" He draws a knife and his compatriots all follow suit with daggers and blunt instruments. "Now just hand everything over and we won't have to mess up your pretty face." Theirs six in total, but Aztara's practiced eye can tell that most of them are used to the threat of violence being enough.

@PId6
2100. I didn't dole it out because I figured after the next mission you'd have enough to level.

[Fra Lippo]

Aztara

She couldn't catch their words, too distorted by the alcohol for her to try and recall, but their actions immediately changes her stance toward them: now they are hostiles, and she can do anything to them. She almost wishes she had her bow, which would make it all much more convenient, but her axe allows her to release some aggression. Her first swing is a powerful downward slice at the thief's face.

Attack - (1d20+5)[9]
Damage - (1d6+1)[7]

OOC:

Spoiler

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1. 2,100 xp each?
2. How much xp would that put me on (I forgot to find out how much I started with)?

[Thatguyoverther]

Aztara's axe swings through the air in a violent arc. The blow had more anger than fineness and would have missed any half skilled opponent, but inexperience and wine cloud the youth's judgment. The axe misses it's mark but buries itself into the would be thief's shoulder, and he collapses.

The others are dumbfounded by the attack. They expected some easy extortion, and are taken aback by the sheer violence. (You get another round of surprise before they'll get to do anything.)

((OOC: It's 2100 each. Abbadi was actually a 5th level wizard, but he didn't have much of a chance to cast anything before he was mauled to death. You started out with 3000 the minimum for a third level character. Yerga was also a high level challenge, but you didn't actually have to fight to get what you wanted, so you got more for that too.))

[Fra Lippo]

Aztara

Spoiler

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Awesome! (to all of it)

The sight of blood brings memories back to Aztara of life on the steppes, far harsher than these fools could ever imagine. While the thief is on the floor and the others are standing around stupidly, she grabs his head and attempts to hack it away from himself. She feels the axehead hit the spine, wrenches it out and swings again.
(If she suceeds, the paragraph continues: The corpse falls to the ground, leaving Aztara bent over a newly acquired head. She profers it towards the rest of them, letting out an inhuman cry of pure hate.)

Edit: an inhumane cry of hate? I don't think you can be any less humane than beheading someone for robbing you...

[Thatguyoverther]

Aztara successfully severs the thief's head after two axe strokes, sending a cascade of blood into the air splattering Aztara, the masses of jewelry and the cobblestones of the street. No amount of alcohol is sufficient to give the others the courage to fight. Most of them bolt fleeing as fast as they can get their disobedient limbs to operate, a couple scream in terror as they run. One remains, completely paralyzed by fear, he soils him self an shakes but can't muster the will to move.

[Fra Lippo]

Aztara

Once they start running away the anger slips away from Aztara. Instead she becomes disgusted at the blood all over her clothes and hair, and even slightly ashamed at her outburst. Nevertheless she takes everything of value from the thief; then, letting the head roll down the street, she walks up to the remaining man. "Where does he live?", putting her face right up to his and holding her axe aloft, reminding him that he too has a head...

[Thatguyoverther]

Aztara can barely finish her question before man passes out and collapses to the ground, unable to cope with the situation at hand. The shouts continue in the distance. It occurs to Aztara that given that many witnesses the guards are likely to show up. This isn't one of the better sides of town so she has a bit of time, but covered in blood like she is they're not going to ask allot of questions before they start swinging.

[Fra Lippo]

Aztara

As soon as she hears the shouting Aztara runs away from it, and tries to remember if there is a large body of water, like a reservoir or river inside the city. If not, then she makes her way to the inn as quickly as possible.

Intelligence - (1d20+2)[12]

[Thatguyoverther]

The nearest body of water Aztara can think of is the Cattle Crossing ( a major river that bisects the city), but that's almost a mile away. The inn is about the same distance but in the opposite direction.

[Fra Lippo]

Aztara

Nevertheless she'd rather have the innkeeper be suspicious of something, than knowing it was murder. Aztara tries to get to the Cattle Crossing as stealthily as possible; once there, she cleanses herself of the blood, and hopefully its smell. Having done that, she strolls back to the inn, content enough to ignore anyone's staring. For now she forgets her worries, and the image of the decapitated thief, trying to enjoy what is left of the night.

(OOC: this is my last post. See you all in September)

[Thatguyoverther]

The next day dawn's bright and early, luckily there's a breeze coming off the sea that ends the intolerable heat of the day before.

When the group reassembles at the temple, Ashvar is already there, pacing back and forth in front of the alter. His clothes are disheveled and his skin seems more pallid than normal. At guess, it would appear that he spent the night here, not sleeping.

Taelas and Loren arrive first, but Ashvar clearly wants to wait until everyone is assembled. Aztara arrives, her armor smells strongly of fresh oil, her face is clouded with anxiety, but she hides it quickly as the eyes in the room turn to her.

Ashvar paces a bit more until it becomes apparent that no one else is going to show up. He curses quietly under his breath, before addressing the group.

"I've actually got two missions for you. If you complete them both by night fall I'll double last times reward." He snatches up a piece of paper from the alter and thrusts it at Loren. It's a crude drawing of a knight in black beheading a knight of Phos, with the caption "Aslan the Black". First off find this man, he is rumored to be in the city, and bring him here, by force if necessary but if the rumors can be trusted, he'll come willingly. Just tell him we're about Skotos' work."

Ashvar lets out a deep sigh before continuing, "The other one is simple as well, bring me back Elran's corpse, or what's left of it. It shouldn't be too difficult, just make sure that it's his and that you get it back by night fall." He gets back to pacing, before turning back to the group. "What are you waiting for? Get on with it!"

[PId6]

Loren

Loren studies the drawing for a moment. When the priest starts to batter him with commands however, he gets annoyed, "What are you offering this time that I should do your bidding again? And how do you propose I find Elran's corpse when it's likely burned to cinders? You should really learn to sleep, priest, it's good for one's sanity."

[Thatguyoverther]

A dangerous fire kindles in Ashvar's eyes, he slams the alter with a balled fist like a petulant child. "If gold isn't enough for you how about your life? I found you, one flee bitten mutt in the street, I can find you again just as easily and snuff out your life like a candle!" He pauses collecting himself.

"It was a wood fire, not nearly hot enough to turn bones to ash. If you can't find the whole thing, bring back what you can."

[PId6]

Loren

Loren narrowed his eyes and bared his teeth, "Watch your tone, priest. Do not threaten me, lest you find your throat torn out in your sleep." He twists his body for a moment, transforming back into the hound. Baring his teeth one more time to Ashvar, he turns and stalks out of the temple. Once outside, he makes his way through the city streets to the brothel.