War of the Final Whisper [IC]

[Reltzik]

Alstroemeria didn't even blink. It wasn't the first time some uppity youngster had tried to throw her off her stride. It had never worked before and it wasn't going to work now. "Locks aren't in my area of expertise," she said, "and I do not have the proper spell prepared. If you could open this desk, it would be appreciated. Be careful, there is at least one abjuration effect in place. It might be a magicked item, or it might be a defensive spell."

[Batpope Scott]

Variel arrived at the cave a little too far past the party to be fashionably late, but walked in nonetheless. He looked about the carnage with a sour expression, trying not to think about how his absence may have affected the outcome.

He tries to think of a way he could be useful here, but decides it would be best if he waited until he was called to assist.

[Baveboi]

Almost as if prepared, Anne sprang to action quickly covering the distance between her and the small place and carelessly going over the fine details as to find any trickery. As part of an elaborate or so minute, she fiddles with the lock with what could be a toothpick or a toenail, hard to guess, but suddenly brightens up with a delighted smile on her face. She pulls the drawer open with a delighted A-HA! only to almost bring the table down on top of her.

"Well... that did just happen." Embarrassed to have rushed such delicate things she goes back to work, brushing her white locks of hair away from her face and concentrating harder for a the meticulous labor. "You all might want to go do something else, now. This will be taking me a while..."

[Thrair]

After several minutes work, the lock's mechanism opens and the lock falls the the floor with a small thud. Though objects on top of the desk are somewhat scattered from when Anne tried to open the locked drawer, nothing else appears to be disturbed.

[Reltzik]

"Oh no," Alstroemeria said to Anne. "There's no need for me to be anywhere else, nor do I desire to be. Not when the objects of arcane interest are here. Besides, I admire a professional at work, and if we are to make a better union of this current disarray of a squadron I shall wish to make close note of everyone's skills, including the daftness of your two fingers with tight locks."

She managed to say it without a hint of a challenge, smirk, or innuendo.

[Batpope Scott]

Variel sighs at the exchange between the two women, standing off to the side and avoiding his tendency to watch over other's shoulders. They seem to be the kind that might not appreciate that sort of thing.

[TiaC]

Immediately after combat, Velion flies straight up for a few rounds to get a look at the surrounding area. Provided he doesn't see anything too interesting, he will land and begin searching.

[Thrair]

Summary:

While Anne attempted to bypass the Lock, Velion finished rounding up the prisoners and kindly searched them briefly for a set of Thieve's Tools.

However, he found them a little late and Anne had already unlocked the drawer. Fearing a trap, he used mage hand to clear the top of the desk from a safe distance.

That done, Anne yanked the drawer open while the others stood back, and when no trap went off, reached inside and grabbed the contents. The first was a magical ring, the second was a sheet of paper.... that promptly exploded when she glanced at it.

The desk effectively vaporized along with any further papers, the party settled down to identifying what they had managed to salvage before the mishap.

The ring was swiftly identified as a Ring of Arcane Signets. Grabbing one of 5 blank sheets of paper, Alstroemeria birefly wrapped the ring before noticing faint discolourations on the paper. Realizing that mundane methods to hide information were being used, she gathered up all the remaining papers for careful study in a safer location.





Around this time, one of the captives (in fact, the very one who alerted the camp to the intrusion and who had Anne's gun misfire when aimed at him) woke to the noise of the explosion, and after spending a small amount of time cursing aloud, he froze and demanded to know why the magister was not a captive with them.

Velion, who by this point had returned to watching the prisoners, cautiously revealed that the caster had escaped, whereupon the prisoner anxiously struck a deal: Get him to safety before magister can summon an assassin, and he would reveal whatever information he had.

Suspecting treachery, Anne's familiar went up the bandit and scratched a mark on his forehead and successfully bluffed him into believing he had been cursed, and should he betray them, it would activate with... dire consequences. He then left the cave to keep an eye out while the group finished their searching.





After a short time Anne's darted back, revealing the Magister had returned with an unidentified caster. Retreating the hidden backdoor the cave carrying what prisoners they could, including the bandit leader and one loyal bandit who attempted an escape, the party evacuated just in time for the enemy to enter the cave.

The last things the party were able to overhear before exiting the cave was the Magister ordering his fellow to "purge" the bandits, which was responded to with a weary sigh, but swiftly followed. Rapid series of gunshots were then heard, presumably into the prisoners who were left behind.

As the party began fleeing in earnest, Captain Vorn doubled back and set fire to the brush near the camp, which quickly escalated into a forest fire, covering their retreat with smoke and buying them time with a distraction. Catching up to the group grinning and declaring that the fire would slow the enemy down, Anne promptly proposed marriage. Which was responded to with a chuckle, but also some amount of (admittedly cautious) interest.

The rest of the escape went smoothly, and the party even managed a distant look at the assassin when he took flight above the camp and inferno. He was wrapped in a cloak and wielding some nature of firearm, which Anne quickly decided she wanted.





After reaching the outskirts of the town, the more competent and less suicidal prisoner began bargaining for assurances of his safety and freedom. Realizing much of the party to be less than interested, he turned his attention to Variel, who thus far had remained fairly quiet and had a gentle demeanor, and began to ask him for assurances.

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That's where we left off. So RP away, gents.

Oh, and a side note: The "curse" the bandit thinks is on him is that his **** will fall off if he betrays the group. Real classy, Reltzik.... real classy.

[Reltzik]

Spoiler

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Hey, Shozin is crude. And effective. And crude. I'm just going where the characters take me. It's not like I was the one who branded the guy with a "no-phallus" symbol.

Somewhere during their walk, Alstroemeria cast a prestidigitation to clean the prisoners. Part of that was simple mercy. Cleaned wounds were less likely to become infected. But there were olfactory benefits as well.

As they approached the gate, Alstroemeria turned to address the cooperative prisoner. "Our employer has full legal authority to punish brigands as she sees fit, and the usual sentence for brigandage is death. However, I believe that we can negotiate leniency for you in exchange for your cooperation, especially if that cooperation is thorough. A brief imprisonment while we do so is no doubt inevitable, but if a deal is struck you will most likely be released, and perhaps even given employment."

Alstroemeria found that last part distasteful, but then, the hiring of defeated mercenaries by the victors was something she had seen plenty of, and there was much to be said for turning to the stabilizing influence of social norms during tense circumstances.

"For now, tell us what name you are known by, and anything we might need to know to protect you against the arcanist who was with your band and this assassin who arrived as reinforcement. Assuming, of course, that you wish to be protected effectively."

[Thrair]

Still glancing at Variel hopefully, the mercenary relaxed somewhat at the suggestion of leniency.

"My name is Rashad, but most call me Richard. As to what I know of the wizard... little. His manner is of Cheliax, and his tone that of a noble. He's enough of an ass to be one, that much is certain. I will readily admit to being.... somewhat.... hm.... unreliable. But he is a serpent with a silver tongue, yet still forked."

Pausing for a moment to consider, Richard contined, "What he tasked us with does not profit his country, near as I can tell. And he is a slimy as they come. I think he has his own reasons, none of them out of loyalty. He never gave his proper name, but.... I have some leads I might be able to give you should I be placed into safety."

Almost instinctively, he lowered his voice, "Of the assassin's nature, I've only hints and rumour. He's almost certainly a wizard of some manner, but he also wield firearms of unusual make, so it is hard to be sure. Either way, the combination has proven deadly. I've eavesdropped here and there, and I suspect he does not work for my former employer... at least not directly. The one time I heard his voice, I'd swear he spoke with an Andoran accent. One of the more northern dialects. Perhaps you would know as much of him as I, Tiefling?"

With that, he turned to Velion, his eyes both wary and calculating.

[Batpope Scott]

Variel takes pity on the man that looks on him for it, but only in the form of a sympathetic smile.

He listens intently to what the brigand has to say for himself, but doesn't interject.

[Reltzik]

"You might wish to guard your own tongue regarding the nature of Chelish nobility, Rashad," Alstroemeria told the prisoner, with a cold tone and just a hint of a humorless smile. "You never know who might take offense, especially among the powerful, and already you have sown more offenses than you can safely reap."

[Thrair]

Paling under Alstromeria's rebuke, "Richard" quickly stammered a series of half-apologies, half-excuses.

[Reltzik]

Alstroemeria cuts him off. "I did not rebuke you to hear your excuses, Rashad, but to instruct. Focus less on justifying your past errors, and more on not repeating them in the future. You would be the better for it."

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Where are we, exactly, in our trip? In line to get into the gate? Walking through the streets towards Lady S's place? I'm ready to fastforward.

[Thrair]

Nodding silently, Richard returned his attention to the rapidly approaching city, his look of apprehension increasing still further when he noticed a large collection of guards at the gate.

As the party approached, an older man strode forward, his commanding voice booming, "Hail. What business have you in the city, and with such unusual circumstance about your company? Swiftly, now! The guard's on edge as is!"

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I can gladly move things forward, I was leaving this dangling a little to allow people a chance to toss out their own input, especially Batpope, as he wasn't present for the Roll20 session and his character's definitely the diplomatic type.

On-topic, the guardsmen all look tired and very definitely twitchy. A quick glance over them reveals they've been in the armor for a day or two, and likely not slept the whole time.

*EDIT* And this bit is plot-relevant, so bear with me. You'll have your combat session Saturday, I promise ya.

[Batpope Scott]

Variel steps forward and states, very calmly, that "We are here to deliver this man to Lady Samiya. We are taking precautions against any foul intent on his part, meaning our company has the unusual circumstance as you see it."

[Thrair]

At the mention of Lady Samiya's name, the guard leans forward and eyes the group intently, peering at the assorted prisoners with interest.

"Very good, Sir. I suspected as much, but preferred to confirm it before acting upon it. This way, if you will. I will lead you to the Lady's Manor by less-traveled streets. It would be ill-advised to march your procession along in full view if the city, given recent events."

Directing a subordinate to take command at the gate, the veteran led the way to the Manor, keeping to side streets, as he'd claimed.

"She will be anxious to see you. With you gone not a half-hour, a dignitary from Cheliax was found dead. Shortly thereafter, a Chelish general emerged from the Chelish embassy and demanded the killer be apprehended and turned over to their forces, lest he burn the Andoran embassy to the ground, himself. He was restrained by his fellows, but the incident has the whole city on edge. The guard has had to been placed on constant alert for fear of reprisals escalating into a skirmish; and a skirmish into war."

Sighing as they entered the manor grounds, he turned to the party and and inquired of them, "The information I have given you is public knowledge. I am not at liberty to provide more. That said, I wish you luck. Now... Lady Samiya wished any injured prisoners taken to the infirmary and placed under guard, but she gave orders for you to be sent to her the moment she arrived, with any information you have available. Please proceed directly to the main hall, sirs. I will send after my men and I secure these captives."

[Reltzik]

"You should know these men may have valuable information for us, and we have not had a chance to properly question them," Alstroemeria said to the guard. "I am aware that brigandage is not the sort of crime that would make its criminals popular amongst the defenders of order, and also that reason may be running second to emotion among some of your men just now. Nor do I mean to imply that members of the guard would certainly forsake their duty. But I would be remiss in my own duty not to consider that one or two individuals might do exactly that, and so I shall warn you that if these prisoners suffer any degree of mistreatment, the results could be greatly unfortunate."

She turned over the reins of her summoned mount, which was bearing several bodies. "Do not concern yourself overly with the steed's welfare. Simply find a convenient space for her for a few hours after you have relieved her of her baggage."

[Thrair]

"Very good, sir", said the guard-captain, his tone becoming instantly icy and formal.

"Your lack of faith in our discipline is understandable, but mistaken. We are all too keenly aware of the situation, I assure you. So, while appreciated, your warning is unnecessary."

Eying the brand on Alstromeria's cheek briefly, he uttered one last comment while bowing slightly, if only as a formality, before attending to his duties.

"My warmest regards to you, as servant of House Leroung, and I wish both you and your house good health. I bid you good day, for I must return to my duties. I urge you to mind my earlier statement regarding the urgency of reporting to Lady Jharee."

[Reltzik]

Alstroemeria simply nodded to him, as if totally unaware that she'd given offense. Which she was. In her experience, telling young nobles to do their job right was not only her duty, but a requirement that usually needed hourly repetition.

"Very good, captain. I had little doubt that it would be so. We shall attend to the Lady immediately, or at least as soon as she will admit us." With that, she walked off in the direction of the waiting room, or the Lady's secretary, or whatever means of announcing oneself and awaiting an audience was in vogue in this manor.

[Baveboi]

Anne have been with her head somewhere else. The little prank that blasted wizard pulled on her singed the fringes of her beautiful white hair and scorched her eyebrows and for that she has gone into the warpath of revenge. Aside from that there was the mysterious gunner as well. By the sound of it he used a weapon that sounded familiarly like those of her late foster father, Captain Cervantes, who had become a legend in his own life-time for hoarding an veritable fortune in magic items and artifacts and hiding them all prior to his mysterious death. That alone could make the girl hunt a man to the Hells and back, but the mention of wizardry involved... it was too much for her head.

Just while she resigned herself to somberly thinking of ways to track and kill the wizard and his hitman she heard the guard speaking of an assassination and again her knack for business kicked in. Giving Vorn her prisoner without much explanation she quickly vanished in the alleyways. Shrouded in darkness and her illusory magic, she make haste to the most despicable places she knows in town in search of information about the one responsible for the Cheliaxian dignitary's death. Using of coercion, cruelty, pain and subterfuge she intends to worm out anything that could connect her to this assassin's network as well as insert carefully craft rumors around that she is, in fact, placing a bounty on this man's head and hunting him relentlessly from now on.

Spoiler: OOC and Rolls

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First, my first idea here is to make a run to extort information of any shady dealers and people of ill-repute, like poison dealers, thugs and other low-life scum that hang around the slums and port of the city. Second part of the plan is letting whoever she is after know that she is after them to scare them into making a mistake (like contacting her or trying to make a run for it). She will then deliver all this information to Samiya asap.

Rolls:
(1d20+5)[11] knowledge local
(1d20+12)[27] for intimidation
(1d20+6)[24] for diplomacy (gather information) to warm in the rumors.

EDIT: YES. Note; if Anne comes across any sort of hostility she will disappear in the shadows, even if she has to use her illusory magic to disguise herself or to misdirect them.

Her Disguise Self effect gives her a 26 DC for them to notice it's a disguise. Will save DC 12 against disbelief if she interacts with them (while roughing them up, for example).

[Thrair]

As the rest of the party enters the manor, they are once more ushered into the main hall, where they are seated at the table to await Lady Samiya.

From the upper floor of the manors, the party can hear muffled voices arguing loudly for the better part of a half hour, one feminine, the other deep and carrying a thick Chelish accent. During this time, the party is served fine, though non-alcoholic, drink, the butler excusing the delay as unavoidable.

Shortly after the argument finally dies down, Lady Samiya enters the room, he face somewhat disheveled and her expression grim. She seats herself at the end of the table, and after taking a moment to collect herself, looks up at the party. It is clear she is not sleeping well.

"I apologize for the delay. It could not be helped. It would seem the slain dignitary was a very old friend of the General's. He is in a rage, and it was not easy task to calm and placate him. He is far too accomplished a warmage to be allowed to roam about the town with that level of fury."

Rubbing her eyes gingerly with her forefinger and thumb, she reached for her glass and took a generous draft before returning her attention to assembled group.

"I take it the mission was a success? Report, if you will. And what of Anne?"

[Thrair]

Summary:

At the meeting, Lady Samiya revealed the slain dignitary to be a long-time friend of the Chelish General. And that the general reacted almost violently when she suggested simply raising him. She did what she could to calm him, but it's still a powder keg scenario.

When briefed on the first mission, she identified the Ring of Arcane Signets as belonging to a treasonous Chelish noble house, that was supposedly purged when they were implicated in a plot to assassinate the queen, during the closing hours of the war.

Turning her attention to the prospect of interrogation as well as uncovering the information containing in the papers (some of which hidden with invisible ink), she was unpleasantly surprised to see Rashad, whom she knew from her days as a caravan guard. He attempted, unsuccessfully, to frame her for his thievery. He also had cheated on her best friend. Twice. Concurrently.

Stating that she would hand the papers to Isaac (A Deacon in the Church of Nethys), as he was more capable of revealing their secrets. She then tasked the party with investigating the estate of a long-retired elven merchant lord. He had sent word to Lady Samiya of knowledge regarding the attacks, only to cease communication shortly thereafter.

The first guards sent were attacking by the Manor's guardian Rope Golems, which seemed maddened and had apparently massacred the estate's staff. As the first group of guards were beaten back with losses, she ordered the building locked down until she could send the mercenary group to deal with it, promising the party a share of the magic items the merchant lord owned, should he prove treasonous.

Once inside, the party fought their way through the building, destroying numerous golems and confirming the staff had been slaughtered. Upon reaching the Lord's room, they detected a magical summoning trap, which they failed to disarm successfully.

With the trap activated, they did battle with the Air Elemental summoned by the spell, which towered over the room. Though slowed from the moment of it's appearance by Alstromeria, it still proved quite deadly, and struck down both Anne and Velion before being finished off at the last moment by an Acid Dart.

With the last of the building's defenses dealt with, the party healed themselves back onto their feet (with some aid from the guard-captain), and investigated the bedroom of the elven lord, to find him dead of a bullet to the head. Possibly explaining the rampage of the golems. Anne summarily stripped him of his magic items.

End Summary.

[Baveboi]

Now with the magic out of the way, what else can we find in this room? Anne thinks to herself, feeling worse for were because of the sour beating the elemental gave her and the tiefling. She will carefully open drawers and chests searching for papers or other explanatory clues that they can take back to Samiya (with the bills for the clerical healing).

Spoiler: OOC

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OK! Doing this right. Taking 20 on that goddamn search skill check. It sends me to a 32! Show me the gibbs!

After we are done with the wizard's room, I want to take Toothy, Meria and hictib to give the house a full detect magic scan while I search the other places for more clues like a Scooby Snack starved Scooby Doo.

[Thrair]

As Anne picks the room apart, piece by piece, she uncovers a number of letters and papers. Much of it is of little import, being trifling correspondence or logs of merchant shipping. It would also seem that the room, and specifically the papers, have already been searched through, for they are scattered somewhat; and much of the bookkeeping is out of proper order.

The room itself is actually surprisingly settled and undisturbed, given what occurred within. The blood of the elf-merchant stains both the floor and bed, and there are no signs of a struggle. The scene suggests he was shot in his sleep, then his corpse tossed roughly out of the bed and searched with little fanfare.

Near the end of the search, a small chamber is discovered, hidden in a support beam of the ceiling. Contained within is a sealed letter addressed to Lady Samiya in delicate elven script, as well as coded documents from both Cheliax and Absalom.

[Reltzik]

Alstroemeria tags along, providing detect-magic and knowledge checks as needed. She doesn't seem inclined to say much. This is made up for by Shozin, who's cursing stupid wizards who don't plan for their own death and stupider air elements who don't know the innate superiority of mephits, but he's doing it in an Outsider tongue, so most everyone doesn't have to hear the depths to which his vocabulary sinks.

[Thrair]

The magical auras in the room are few. Most are already dissipating or otherwise accounted for. It would appear as though most of the merchant's spells required regular maintenance. With him death, they quickly began to fail and fade.

Returning to the room nurturing a slight limp, the old captain observes the ongoing search briefly before clearing his throat.
"Excuse me. Ma'ams. Sir. We have secured the building and dealt with the last of the guardians. We've found no survivors among the staff. The golems were... thorough. Now, we have been tasked to allow you undergo what investigations and searches you see fit, but I should like to set my men to retrieving and burying the dead, if you do not mind."
Gazing at the corpse of the former merchant, his jaw set into a grimace.
"Damned shame", he said. "He was one of the original merchant lords of this city, before his retirement. It is a sore loss, and the city will feel it, you can be sure. But I am woolgathering, apologies. Lady Jharee will want your report as soon as you have finished gathering what information you can. She awaits you at the manor with Lord Durankin."

[Baveboi]

The half-drow has quickly disguised herself up again when she heard the authority coming close. It was an instinct from her buccaneer days when she had to hide her face from men like Old Limpy there. She will hand-wave the officer an acknowledgement while stealthily pocketing the letters, exchanging conspiratorial glances with Alstromeria. "We are done with this room. We will move to the rest of the manor now to make sure we have the whole picture. I advise you and your men to keep to themselves, Captain, or else they risk contaminating the scene with outside influence. No one would want that, right?"

Spoiler: OOC

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First, an intimidate test on that captain because I really want to drive the point home. (1d20+12)[14] And that's a nat 2. I think he saw through my bluff... well, ****.
I will hand the letters to Alstromeria when we are alone again, have her do some knowledge checks as per the usual. After we are done here, Anne will have her and Toothy go around detecting magic on the rest of the manor. Whenever they find something I will conduct another search. If you want, Thrair, you can just put us up on the chart of what we find assuming I take 20 when I can.

[Thrair]

Entirely nonplussed by Anne's comment, the guard sardonically replied, "No. I suppose not. Given we have orders to leave you to your investigations. Already mentioned to you, I think. So it is, of course, plainly obvious that we already intended such."

With a glance towards Anne's pockets, he continued, pointedly echoing Anne's tone and inflection, "I see you appear to have found some information already. I shall inform Lady Samiya to expect it. Merely so she can remind you, of course. Or else you risk forgetting to bring it forward. No one would want that, right?"

With that, he turned sharply and left the room.

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He totally saw you do it. And he's irritated and snarky.
Intimidate reply: (1d20+9)[21]
P.S. You roll like utter crap! Change fonts for your rolls, I tell you! Change fonts!

[Baveboi]

The captain was not even slightly taken back. Instead he took a higher posture and threatened Anne instead which left the girl speechless for a little while so all she could do was nod her consensus.

Spoiler: OOC

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Roll us through the rest of the house Thrair, for the love of god, unless I make a bigger fool of myself!