New World IC, Group 1

[Starbuck_II]

Yeah, job doesn't feel finished till we check in I think. I do feel a mit bad about the bird. But what is done is done for now.

Tyr said as rubbed his back. He could use the sleep though.

[ZeltArruin]

"Let's see it off then," Huril said, fixing a few of his items, as they shifted during the boat ride. It was late, all he wanted to do now was sleep and drink, and not necessarily in that order.

[Bhaakon]

You walk back to the inn, looking forward to nothing more than a good meal (liquid or otherwise) and rest. The common room is mostly empty when you arrive, with a handful of staff cleaning tables, wiping glasses, and delivering breakfast to a scant handful of customers.

One of the bouncers intercepts you as you come through the door, and guides you down into the structure's cellar. He presses a series of stones and a hidden door opens in the wall, leading to a maze of passages. "In here" he grunts.

[stack]

Jon scans the mostly vacant common room, trying not to let his apprehension show as he carefully keeps the blunderbuss wrapped in scrap canvas scavenged from the ship. It was a good deed, but why should I be so worried about punishment. We freed slaves, saved them from certain death. More died than I would have liked, but...could we have done better?


He notes that the pleasant breeze that accompanies Mika has returned, easing him somewhat. He had become used to it on their long voyage, a relief on humid days.

Hearing the grunt, he steps forward cautiously. "We are here. It is done."

[Starbuck_II]

Thanks for guiding us, sir
Tyr said speaking to the grunt.

Huh, what is with the secrecy? Tyr was worried...

[Lost Demiurge]

Genevieve heads down, eyes flicking back and forth though her face is outwardly calm.

He COULD try treachery down here. Get rid of loose ends. Prevent us implicating him in an investigation. Get his gold back.

The more she thinks of it, the less she likes it. But she decides to wait and see...

[Kon Lesh]

"Alright lets go."

[Bhaakon]

You walk down a long, straight passageway, a hundred paces or more, before coming to a stairway ending in a finely carved hardwood door. There's no way you're still under the inn, but the earlier maze of corridors completely confounded your sense of direction.

The door opens on a lavishly appointed suite, with Nordham seated behind an enormous mahogany desk. He gestures you forward to a bank of seats arranged across from him. As you move to take your seats, Mika realizes that the magical breeze she surrounds herself with has ceased.

"Would you mind explaining why this..." Nordham says ominousley, sliding a small slip of paper across his desk. "I see you." Is written on the scrap in an artfully embellished cursive, beneath on arcane-looking glyph. "...was delivered to me by my own messenger pigeon."

[Lost Demiurge]

You walk down a long, straight passageway, a hundred paces or more, before coming to a stairway ending in a finely carved hardwood door. There's no way you're still under the inn, but the earlier maze of corridors completely confounded your sense of direction.

The door opens on a lavishly appointed suite, with Nordham seated behind an enormous mahogany desk. He gestures you forward to a bank of seats arranged across from him. As you move to take your seats, Mika realizes that the magical breeze she surrounds herself with has ceased.

"Would you mind explaining why this..." Nordham says ominousley, sliding a small slip of paper across his desk. "I see you." Is written on the scrap in an artfully embellished cursive, beneath on arcane-looking glyph. "...was delivered to me by my own messenger pigeon."

"Sure." Says Genevieve, remaining standing in front of the desk.

"This happened because you didn't tell us about the bird in your plan. Let me tell you why."

"So when we take out the guards, do the job, and rescue the kid who was blindsided by other guards, we did not KNOW that a cage remained by where the kid was hiding."

"The kid regains consciousness just as we reach the docks back here, and dawn is breaking. He tells us of the cage. We go back to try and retrieve it, and guards are all over the area."

Genevieve leans on the desk with both hands, looking into Nordham's eye with her own narrowed gaze.

"So. One of your foes knows of your manuver. Because you chose not to tell us of the bird. I think we will ask for our payment now. Do you wish future business of us, or are we done?"

Spoiler

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Diplomacy to try and sweeten his mood with the power of LOGIC! (1d20+8)[25]

[Bhaakon]

Nordham watches Genevieve intensely during her explanation, but his face remains unreadable. A thick silence settles over the room as he ponders her response, broken as the carved door opens once more to admit Peter.

"The Lady here says that you lost the bird when you were captured, is that true, Peter?"

"A-aye, Lord. Just as she says. Th-they completed the mission, and I-I-I lost the bird." The boy stutters.

"You were seen, yes?"

"Aye, lord"

"You know what this means. The next boat leaves with the tide this evening, I hear they'll need a new cabin boy."

"A-aye." Peter's voice breaks as he turns to leave the room.

Nordham turns his attention back you, producing a heavy sack from one of the many drawers in the great wooden monstrosity he called a desk. He drops the bag in front of you, producing the comforting thunk of tightly-packed coins.

"I take it you wore disguises, at least?"

[Lost Demiurge]

"Each and every one of us wore our disguises." Says Genevieve.

Her eyes look the boy over as he leaves, but she buries her regret. I fight for myself. If he can't do his job, better out of this man's service. "The boy will ship out without harm coming to him, I trust."

[Bhaakon]

Nordham affects mock indignation, "of course, what do you take me for?"

After a beat, he adds, "though I can't say the same of those who cross me by design."

[Starbuck_II]

Why was the boy to send the bird anyway? Also, Sir, are there any other missions you need done or should we take some R and R for a bit?
Tyr was happy to be back in a city, but those coins won't last forever, so having an idea for more jobs would be glorious.

[Bhaakon]

"It was a messenger pigeon, meant to signal me when the deed was done. Specifically, it was in case any of you were taken alive, so that I could take steps to rectify the situation as quickly as possible. You can finger me, after all." Answers Nordham.

"You may return to the inn shortly, just tell me what you saw when you went back for the bird."

[stack]

Jon shrugs. "Dozen or so guards, with some officers, getting rough with some people, asking questions rather impolitely. Woman in blue with a handkerchief looking on, seeming important. Doesn't mean anything to me."

Though I may have an idea that she was the one sending you a message.

[Kon Lesh]

As Mika walks through the portal she stops for a moment and looks around the room. An antimagic field? For this whole room? He is rich or powerful or both. And why did it have to end my breeze? Mika then gives a small sigh.

Mika seems to only be staying quiet; allowing everyone else to offer answers to Nordham. She is though concentrating her magic to discover if it is truthfully an antimagic field or maybe something else which disrupts her magic.

Spoiler

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First detect magic on the whole area. It is a cantrip so no problem.
Detect magic has rolls for both spellcraft and knowledge arcana. So rolling both of them to try to understand anything that I see or understand why detect magic would fail if it doesn't active.
knowledge arcana (1d20+8)[23]
spellcraft (1d20+9)[11]

[Bhaakon]

Nordham narrows his eyes as Mika begins to cast, but breaks out in a smirk as she completes her spell. "That's really quite rude, you know" he says as he fishes through a cup full of feather pens, styli, and similarly shaped objects. He mutters a word as he draws a slender wooden wand from the container, and Mika's eyesight returns to normal. Her spell only lasts long enough to confirm the presence of magical auras, but not their number, type, or strength.

He continues to fidget with the wand as Jon answers his question, tapping it against his cheek. "Woman in blue you say. Yes, if she is who I think, she could have cast the symbol. This will need more investigation, you may return to the inn and rest, or go spend your reward."

[stack]

Jon nods to the man and turns away. "Long day, I'm taking a break. We want to meet later to discuss dividing our...profits? Maybe we can get a private room here in the inn. Or there in the inn, as the case may be." He looks up, as lost as the rest regarding the actual location of the room they are in.

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Jon will eat, nap, bathe (not necessarily in that order) then start spending his reward fixing the blunderbuss.

[Kon Lesh]

"And it was slightly rude to end my calming breeze without any warning. But no harm done on either side. And yes, sleeping on land would be nice for once. Shall we go?" Mika gives a smile back to Nordham then asks the question to her companions. Mika then actively tries to blank out her mind.

[Bhaakon]

You exit the room and the bouncer guides you back through the maze of corridors to the inn. The waiting staff leads you to your rooms, where you find a small sack of 100 gold and a note from Peter explaining that it's for the food you brought back. With no pressing business, you have a few days to relax, shop, and tinker with your equipment as you see fit.

[stack]

After dividing their shares, Jon retires to catch up on necessities. Late that afternoon, he avails himself of the building's facilities to begin repairing the scavenged scatter gun.

His first act is to strip the old stock and polish the exterior, taking care to file or sand away any identifiable markings. Let's see, carve a new stock maybe...walnut, with a nice check for grip? Can I get walnut here? May have to investigate local woods, traditional materials may be hard to reach. Hmm, just sand and re-check this one for now. What Kind of lacquer available? Hmm...egg whites for now. Maybe I can get a stag and woods etching into the barrel. That hammer is going to need some work. Flash pan...guh, how did this ever fire? Oh, have to put together some shot loads before I take it out too.

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starting the process to fix the gun up to masterwork quality. I have deducted the 300 GP from the 450 GP share of the mission reward. Should be 1 day to restore the weapon, but he'll take a few extra to make it look nice. Another 33 GP to make 30 rounds of normal powder and bullets.

[Lost Demiurge]

Genevieve claims one of the potions from the central loot stash, and retires to her room. It takes a day and a few purchased supplies, but finally she's got the equipment to properly clean her breastplate, her sword, and her guns.

(OOC: Taking a potion of cure moderate wounds)

Adjusting her eyepatch, she looks out the window and sighs. Money in my pocket at last... Well, time to carouse away my sorrows.

She heads down the hall, knocking on the doors of her friends as she goes. "Well, I am off to taverncrawl a bit. Anyone else in?"

[stack]

Jon looks up from his work when Genevieve goes looking for drinking partners. "Thanks, but I think I will turn in early. Had enough trouble lately, a proper night's sleep will be too much to pass up." Maybe I'll see a sunrise without having to kill anyone tonight.

[Starbuck_II]

I'm in but I'll be turning in early from drinking after an 30 minutes to an hour. I got some work to do on my revolver and blunderbus. Besides powder and pellets. Ooh, maybe another Entangling shot, the possibilities... Okay, Jon you sleep tight, just remember you can't keep dwelling on battles which is why we drink. Tyr said with a slight smile.

[Kon Lesh]

"No thanks. I want a bath....a nice long bath. But have fun drinking. No idea what is going to happen next so enjoy it while you can."

Mika then heads off to bathe. "Finally....So nice. The only type of water I want to be around for a while" Mika mutters as she lays in the bath.

After an extended bath, Mika will head to bed. She is obviously happy that the room isn't swaying.

[ZeltArruin]

"You know I'm in," Huril said from his room, sharpening his sword and cleaning his armor, rolling around in the dirt laughing had a way of getting armor dirty. He slipped the chain shirt over his head and pulled his shirt on over top, strapping his scimitar to his waist, he was good to go.

[Bhaakon]

The pub crawl turns into something of a pub marathon, with so many establishments in walking distance. Drinking in the morning appears to be a popular pastime in these parts, and Genevieve and Huril are practiced veterans. More than once they hear stories of the attack at the slave pen, and how House Henderthane, who run the guano mine and owned the slaves, are putting up a 1000 gold a head reward up for the six raiders. By the time the pair staggers back to sleep off their carousing, there are already posters out advertising the bounty, each with a rather crude sketch of Peter and a very rough description of your group (height, weight, gender, nothing terribly useful).

[stack]

Jon wakes later than usual, but long before his companions who partook in the previous night's festivities. He takes breakfast at the inn, figuring that it would be wasteful to refuse their employers hospitality, musing over the days work ahead of him to finish his blunderbuss and craft additional ammunition.

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I suppose Mikka would be the only one who would have a chance to join him for breakfast, so I'll leave him here for a bit.

[Kon Lesh]

Mika rises a bit later than she usually does. Partially because of no boat and partially because of a real bed. After awaking and preparing herself for the day she goes down to have some breakfast.

"Morning Jon. Feels great to sleep on land again. So any plans for today yet? And I guess everyone else is still asleep." Mika says cheerfully as she joins Jon. If she passed any of the posters, she didn't seem to notice them.

[Starbuck_II]

Tyr awakens after a bit, but he decides to start working on some bullets before gets some breakfast.

I should get a few done first...man, I can't believe I let one alive...always means trouble. Now they have wanted posters, but at least we had disguises.