Tales of Crimson Darkness II

[whiteflash]

Well, that limits things.

Is there only one window into the bedroom I hid the corpse in?

[Darth Ultron]

The vast majority of orc houses are one room, with light wood and hide partitions to..sort of..make areas. Houses also only have one window, or more descriptively a 'hole' and a door.

[whiteflash]

If there's anything clever I can do with that situation, I can't think what it is.

Hissra goes back to rejoin Snagazod.

Just so we're clear, do they meet more than ten feet away from the corpse? It was implied earlier, but I wanted to be absolutely sure before I decide how to handle Hissra's next actions.

[Darth Ultron]

You can meet at any distance you want. Maybe like down the street and around the next corner?

[whiteflash]

Well, how far away is Snagazod from the corpse right now? And for that matter, how far away is the corpse from the window/hole Hissra entered the house from?

[Darth Ultron]

Whatever distance you want to move?


Snagazod the Sneaky just waits.

[whiteflash]

Whatever distance you want to move?


Snagazod the Sneaky just waits.

Well, how far I want move partially depends on whether I think I can sell the sort of deception I wanted to pull off.

Is the bed Hissra just stashed Graatch's remains under within ten feet of the window Hissra snuck in through and intends to sneak back out through? And does he see or hear any sign that there's someone else in the house he's trespassing in?

[Darth Ultron]

You can pick from a couple diffrent houses. Most have the bed in the middle of the rooms back wall, but some have it by the window. You can pick either one.

The houses don't have anyone in them.

[whiteflash]

Spoiler: OOC

Show

I decided to go ahead and write out the post without specifying, because I only have one more question: are the floors dirt? If they are, Hissra uses one of the ones where the bed is right by the window, so he can stash the body without leaving footprints. If not, he uses one of the ones where the bed is farther from the window.

Hissra looks through the window of his chosen house. "Okay, I'll hide the body, then..." Hissra gestures towards the market square where he saw the orc with that basket, rather than towards Grazus's place (assuming they're in different directions.) "We'll head to the market to try to find a merchant who's interested in buying a magic whip. Maybe we'll come back for the body later, after we give Kabhsenuf Tantawi some time to give up on tracking us that way. I still wanted to ask it some questions."

Hissra goes inside to stash the corpse, making sure that if any bits fall off he stashes them with the rest of the corpse, then comes back out to Snagazod. "Before we leave we should steal some food from one of the other houses for dinner tonight. I considered stealing some food from that one, but I decided it was more important not to give them any sign their house had been broken into. I'm hoping they won't notice the body."

[Darth Ultron]

The floors are dirt, but they are covered in footprints.

Snagazod the Sneaky nods and goes along. he has no problem stealing some bits of food from a couple different homes you two pass.

[whiteflash]

I think I'll still use one of the houses where the bed is in easy reach of the window, just in case. The orcs would probably have to be either really sharp-eyed or really paranoid to catch the difference, but such orcs probably exist.

Since you said orcish furniture is light... is it possible for Hissra to lift it a bit, so that he can see under it and make sure it's not being used as a hiding place? He wouldn't use a bed that the owners are using as a hiding place, as they have reason to look under that bed, and this is the only way I can think of to look without having to enter the house personally.

[Darth Ultron]

Hissra can lift and move around a bed with little problem. Most beds have nothing under them. Orcs, in general, don't have much stuff. And the stuff they have is either left out where ever they last used it, or hanging on a wall or stand.

[whiteflash]

So eventually Hissra's going to want to move on to greener pastures if he wants to keep stealing... though Snagazod would stand out anywhere else. Anyway, that's a long-term question.

Hissra picks the bed up (so that there's less evidence it had been moved than if he'd just pushed it aside), and then verifies that there's nothing under it, and puts the corpse under it.

Skipping back to where we left off after that, Hissra smiles approvingly when he sees their dinner. "Nice. Now all we need is to offload the whip. Let's try to avoid going by the market on the way there, though. If what I tried to do with that series of lies I told earlier worked, he'll be looking for us there. Hm. Maybe it's worth quietly going to take a look at the square after we sell the whip to Grazus, to see if it looks like they were taken in?"

[Darth Ultron]

Snagazod the Sneaky eats a raw onion. "Um, so now we sells the whip? I guess the only loose end is the like two bounty hunters outside of town. But it not like they will find you out there. So me think they just give up when they find everyone else gone."

[whiteflash]

Snagazod the Sneaky eats a raw onion. "Um, so now we sells the whip? I guess the only loose end is the like two bounty hunters outside of town. But it not like they will find you out there. So me think they just give up when they find everyone else gone."

"Yeah, the bounty hunters are probably not worth dealing with. But that doesn't mean this is over."

"For one thing, there's Laaz Vando. The guy guarding a whole bunch of magical items outside town. I might be tempted to take those off his hands even if he wasn't an enemy." Hissra chuckles a bit, then sighs. "And their boss is going to want me dead now more than ever. I don't think it's entirely impossible he's going to to send someone here with no orders except to find and deal with me: possibly tonight depending on whether he has any teleport spells prepared and exactly how badly this ticked him off. And if he has any other spies he'll probably order them to prioritize killing me, if for no other reason than because I've proven I'm willing to kill them."

"But yeah: first order of business, offload the whip. Do you know a quick way to Grazus's place that doesn't go by the marketplace I suggested we'd use in front of the scrying probe?"

[Darth Ultron]

Snagazod the Sneaky "Oh, me almost forgot about guy with magic items...he sound like a good target.

Sure me knows lots of ways."

Snagazod the Sneaky takes a round about way over to Grazus's place.

[whiteflash]

"Okay. We're here."

Hissra turns in the direction of the coat rack that had the orcish skull on it last time he'd visited, so that he'll be making eye contact (for lack of a better term) with the skull as soon as the door opens. Then, he knocks on the door.

[Darth Ultron]

The house looks plain and simple enough, exactly like the other houses on the street.

When you knock the door swings open with a loud 'CREEK' and hits the wall.

An orc skull on an empty coat rack next to the door says:

orc skull "do come down"

[whiteflash]

Is the skull-on-the-coat-rack in the same spot it was last time, or has it moved?

Anyway, Hissra nods, says "Thank you" to the skull, and goes on down the same way he did last time.

[Darth Ultron]

Everything looks the same.

Eight orc skeletons wait at the bottom of the ladder standing in two groups. They don't move at all. The door to the next room is open.

[whiteflash]

Do I see anything worrisome through the door? Disturbed furniture, a pool of blood, a brutally murdered Grazus, Kabhsenuf Tantawi, et cetera?

(I feel paranoid right now, but it seems like every time I break with that habit, I regret it.)

[Darth Ultron]

The room, lit by a couple small candles. In that room is a older orc in black robes sitting at a small wooden desk.

so it looks just the same as the other day.

Grazus Darkspell "Do come in"

[whiteflash]

Hissra fights down the strange bout of paranoia that came out of nowhere and does as requested.

"I'm back. Snagazod and I managed to get Gretreo off my back. What we did should be permanent, but you can never be sure with these things. Still, the state he was in when we left him isn't easy to get someone out of, and I doubt anyone with the skill and resources to undo what we did thinks Gretreo is worth it."

"First order of business, I wanted to thank you again for making it possible. The second order of business... well, we got a whip off of him that we don't really need. It's weakly enchanted with necromancy. We'd guessed, based on the school of magic it's powered by and what Gretreo did for a living, that it's probably some sort of enchantment to non-lethally weaken an enemy in order to capture that enemy alive more easily." He takes the whip out of his robe, puts it down on the table, and steps back.

[Darth Ultron]

Grazus Darkspell listens as he nods his head and then pulls a small pair of glasses out of his robe and looks at the whip. "Yes, of course. You would expect a bounty hunter to have such a weapon. Quite often they need to bring someone back alive.

Dis you wish to sell it? How much did you want for it?"

[whiteflash]

Grazus Darkspell listens as he nods his head and then pulls a small pair of glasses out of his robe and looks at the whip. "Yes, of course. You would expect a bounty hunter to have such a weapon. Quite often they need to bring someone back alive.

Dis you wish to sell it? How much did you want for it?"

"Snagazod and I agreed to sell it, and split the price evenly. How much that price should be... well, I think I'd need to know more about the weapon I'm selling. I know basically what it does, but, how does it work? Does it fatigue, or sap the muscles? That's an important distinction."

Hissra looks the whip over for any markings that might hint at the answer, rather wishing he'd already done so.

[Darth Ultron]

Grazus Darkspell "Oh, no need to be so formal. How about 5,000 gold? So 2,500 each? Sounds like a fair price? What do you say? "

Snagazod the Sneaky's eyes go a little open wide and he tries to turn away to hide it.

[whiteflash]

Hissra smiles. "More than fair, for something that fell in our laps while we were doing something unrelated."

"I have one other item I want to try and sell before we move on to other things. A scroll we took from the man who tried to buy my head from Gretreo." Hissra takes out the scroll of Infallible Servant, unrolls it, and places it on the table.

"It's a necromancy spell, and that's a school I have no talent for. You seem to have more ability in that direction than I do," Hissra notes as he gestures toward the animate skeletons standing outside. "Maybe you have more use for this than I do?"

[Darth Ultron]

Grazus Darkspell glances at the scroll "A common enough spell. Did you just want to sell me the scroll? If so, how much? Or trade for a spell? "

[whiteflash]

"... I'd meant to sell it, but I like the thought of trading for a spell better. What are the options on the table? As hard as I've tried I simply don't have the talent for Necromancy or Abjuration..."

"Oh..." Hissra turns to Snagazod. "You don't object to me trading the scroll instead of selling it, do you? If we sell it, you get half, of course. If I get the right spell, though... that might mean you might get half of something a lot better. And of course I won't use an asset like this to buy a spell unless I can think how I'd use it to get a decent payout for us."

[Darth Ultron]

Snagazod the Sneaky "Me like the idea of getting more money. Oh, maybe get a more sneaky spell then fireball. Fireball cool, but the big boom is too noisy and flashy. "