Chapter 1: The Key and the Teardrop

[achilleus]

The morning breaks to find many patrons of the Stony Gaze Tavern and Inn taking their breakfast outside today. It is one of the last days before Fall gives way to Winter's frigid grip.

Most of the patrons dine at streetside tables, including a handful of halflings, and several humans in armor. Whatever weapons they have are of course peace-bonded according to the traditions of Devonford; bows must be unslung, blades are held in their scabbards by a leather strap, and pole weapons have thick leather wraps around their ends. All part of the cost of keeping the peace in the better parts of the city.

The Stony Gaze is right on the border of the Chatterstreet district and Eastgate, one of the rougher parts of town. Traffic is heavy enough to make this street unwanted by the highest class shops, but still safe enough to hold respectable businesses. Which makes the three scraggly, tough customers who came from the direction of Southspur a little suspicious as they help themselves into a locksmith across from the tavern.

Image: The Tavern and Inn EDIT: Just linked it instead of trying to place it here.

[Yawielas]

Vendelyn, a dark haired young woman in a woodsy outfit in greens and browns, and with an unslung bow at her side, sits alone by an outside table, eating a simple meal of bread, cheese and dried meat while staring rather disheartened down the street. Back home, the preparations for the festivities would be well under way. She can almost smell her mother's cooking. Almost. The smell of the city overwhelms anything else. She wrinkles her nose, and breaks her melancholy stare. Her gaze moves to the three ruffians entering the locksmith acoss the street, and doesn't leave them. Something just seems off. Frowning, she waits to see if ther's anything to the vibe she's getting, or if it's just all these people making her paranoid.

[Kazai]

Kazai hustles down the street to deliver the note. Glad that she switched to a thicker robe, she can start to feel the cold of winter approaching. The breeze and her quick pace are making her emerald eyes sparkle and tear. Her shoulder-length black hair is neatly trimmed and hangs loosely around her face.

She's extremely preoccupied with the note her mentor gave her. Something about the urgency of it made her desperately want to read it. After all it wasn't sealed and he hadn't said anything about it.

She was so caught up in inner debate she almost missed the group of ruffians entering the locksmith across the street. She slowed her gate and glanced over at the tavern to see if anyone was reacting to the situation. She met another young woman's eyes and paused. Realizing that she was staring across the street Kazai asked: I don't come this way often. Have you seen them before?

[Yawielas]

Vendelyn blinks as a girl in a robe steps into view, meeting her gaze. Shaking her head a little, she stands up, and looks up and down the street for any sign of the city guard. "No....I'm...just visiting."

[Maurkov]

Iosef

Iosef watches the shifters enter the shop, wishing they'd hurry up and do something to justify a thrashing. He looks around for someplace inconspicuous to wait. He chooses an alley about sixty feet away, confident that he could run them off their feet even with a sporting head start.

A few seconds later he realizes they'll probably scatter once they've done their crime. He moves closer.

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hide - (1d20+1)[13]
I'm not sure about hiding spots; maybe an alcove on the locksmith's side of the street?

[RationalGoblin]

Crimeas "Crim" Stire, a young man with slightly long, unkempt brown hair, dressed in a hooded dark red cloak, grey studded leather armor, and armed with a covered flail and covered shortsword at his side, sits alone eating cheese and dried meat, while drinking from a small clay jug.

He looks nervous, constantly fingering the (not quite holy) symbol of Wee Jas at his belt, and clearly uncomfortable in his armor, but gains a interested look in his eye at the group of ruffians.

He raises his eyebrow at the young women talking about the suspicious ruffians, and soon rises from his seat nearby, his two peacebonded weapons clanking as he stands.

Crim walks to a comfortable distance between the two women, and stands in an orderly fashion.

"I, ah, couldn't help but overhear both of your thoughts about those strange men there. I'm just visiting here as well. I, um take it you realize that they are most likely not with good intentions? I could investigate what is happening in that locksmith's shop."

A look at the young man's face shows that he is terrified of the thought of confronting the three men, but he feels obligated to, out of a sense of duty.

[Kazai]

Kazai eyes the stranger warily looking him up and down and decides that if he were going to cause trouble himself he'd be slightly more confident and also not have his weapons peacebound. She turns fully to him, causiously looking at the woman she was speaking with to see her reaction.

I wasn't planning on any trouble this morning but I can't in good concience leave what I think is the scene of a potential incident. Trying to ease the man's apprehension she says, I'm Kazai. I'll go with you as she extends her hand.

[RationalGoblin]

Crim nods, still clearly nervous, but his fear is balanced by an ally and a new look in his eye, a look of cold determination.

"My exact thoughts. I may be foolish, but I can't leave that alone. Something just doesn't seem right. I'm Crimeas Stire, and prefer to be called Crim.

He takes Kazai's hand, unsure of what to do for a moment, but a look of realization appears in his eye, and he vigorously shakes her hand. A small, shy smile opens up on Crim's young face.

"T-Thanks. I was attacked by bandits once, when I was traveling, and ever since then, I've been a bit... frightened, I guess. Ah, well. There's no sense in ignoring those men, so l-let's go, Kazai. Unless your friend wants to come with us, and know as well."

Crim's smile turns smug for a moment, then reverts back to a shy smile once more. Just because I'm a holy warrior, bound to follow certain rules and laws, doesn't mean I'm stupid. I know the effectiveness of several fighters, rather then one.

[kopout]

Scrib was lurking. It was a family trait. His old fence always used to say"No one for lurking like a Candail". That of cores had been before he got killed. He had been tracking Wolfram Javik for a few hours now and the human had not even noticed he was there. They where in a nice part of town and that bothered him, people like him and Javik didn't go to the nice part of town to be nice . their where others watching Javik, the man stood out like a sour thumb, hopefully none of them saw him too, people in the nice part of town did not take kindly to his kind .

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(d20+7)[17]

[Jokes]

Millin

The group of halfings sit at a table on the other side of Vendelyn; it caught the morning sun perfectly. Millin sits with his back to the wall, keeping an eye on the streets. He wraps a piece of cheese and dried meat in a slice of buttered bread, and somehow fits the lot in his mouth. As he slowly chews, he closes his eyes and savours it, thankful that it's not fish.

When he opens his eyes, he notices the group of humans talking. A wave of dread washes over him for a moment until he catches onto their conversation. He has no idea why he's been so paranoid lately, but the looks and the whispered words he'd been getting from his family have had him on edge.

He catches on to enough of the conversation to figure out what was up. He starts rolling his head around, wondering if it was worth it to ask, or if he should just go home...

"Excuse me," he raises his hand slightly trying to catch Crim's attention, "we, uh, that is myself and my, um, comrades, have little else to do today... If you like, we could, uh, assist you...

[RationalGoblin]

Crim

Crim's shy smile broadens as more and more people come to assist him. He gains a confident look, but as he speaks to Millin, loses it when he realizes that he's talked to few halflings in his life.

"Of course you can assist us, my good... Um, would halfling be a rude term to refer to your, um, people? Not that there's anything wrong with you, of course. And might I have your name?"

He rubs the back of his own head awkwardly with his gloved hand.

[Jokes]

Millin

"Oh, uh, no, halfling is fine." He extends his hand. "Millin Coppertoken. I, uh... shoot things." He nods at the crossbow leaning on the table. Something tells him it would be a bad idea to mention he was a fisherman.

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I'll leave the other halflings to introduce themselves.

[Yawielas]

Vendelyn's face has slowly taken on a determined look. Not good enough for the Keep, eh? She'll show those snobs. Nodding once to the young man who nervously joined them, she says. "I'll come. I'm Vendelyn." She glances to the halflings as one of them volunteers their aid as well, nodding again. Then she moves across the street carefully, bringing her unslung bow.

[Kazai]

Kazai introduces herself to the halflings and sees Vendelyn begin to slowly cross the street. She thinks for a moment about her prepared spells, not exactly optimal, but hopefully it won't matter. She follows Vendelyn closely.
Suppose now's as good a time as any.

[achilleus]

As the group starts to fill out and mobilize, another figure comes walking East along the street, from the direction of the Hill. He is a portly man with slicked back hair and a long mustache, which he curls after every few paces. He has a hat in his hands which he has a tendency to wring as well. As he gets close he can be heard muttering to himself as he starts to gather his keys from within his rather well-made vest, and he scans suspiciously around.

He stops in front of the locksmith, looking somewhat shocked at the open door, and bursts inside as quickly as his heft will allow.

[Maurkov]

Iosef

Iosef rubs his knuckles. "Thank you, Kord, for the blessing they are about to receive." He moves to stand beside a window of the shop and listens.

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listen - (1d20+6)[7]

[Yawielas]

Seeing what might be the locksmith enter the store, Vendelyn hurries up. "Excuse me, sir, I wouldn't go in there alone if I were you!" When he barges in anyway, she quickly follows.

[Kazai]

Kazai sighs audibly at the change in situation. With the group heading toward the locksmith somewhat disjointedly she hopes they can get somewhat grouped up before entering. Once she sees Vendelyn enter the shop she quickly follows and takes in her immediate surroundings.

[Edwin]

Tam, a relatively young halfing with military cut, brown hair, and slightly robust features, viciously attacking the roasted chicken on his plate, looked up from his meal when he heard the voice of Millin. "Getting us into trouble, is he now?" He thought to himself. He turned to Miranda, signaled her to follow, and got up. Running towards to locksmith with Miranda behind, a broad smile spread across his face, and while grinning, he shouted to the group of people who had gathered :"Hell yeah, if there is asskicking to be done, count me in! Oh, and my name is Tam.".

[Maurkov]

Iosef

Iosef watches the parade of little people with perfect bewilderment.

[MenhirRocksolid]

Gari snaps out of his tryptophan induced snooze, removes the hair in front of his eyes and stands up from his comfy backchair Rufus. Wake up Rufus, Millin and Tam are getting themselves into trouble again. Gary mounts Rufus in a swift movement and gets behind the other halflings while inspecting the surroundings including the humans that just woke him with all of their chattering.

[Edwin]

The smile on Tam's face widened even more as he saw Gary get up and join them: "Finally got your hairy ass up and running, did we?" he said, as he pulled himself ontop of Miranda, adjusting himself in his saddle. He then pulled out his lance, and readied himself to remove the leather straps attached to it, should the mooks inside the locksmith misbehave. Looking over his shoulder, he said with a a teasing smile "Coming?", kicked Miranda gently in the belly, and made the dog move slowly towards the door.

[kopout]

Spoiler

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spot
(1d20+6)[13]

[Kazai]

Spoiler

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Spot
(1d20)[19]+3 = 22
edit: can't spell the word spoiler....

[MenhirRocksolid]

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Spot: (1d20+8)[19]

[RationalGoblin]

Crim nods at the halflings joining them, and follows the two women in front of him. A broad grin creeps onto his features, but it is still tempered by his otherwise nervous face.

On entering the locksmith's store, he looks around quickly, taking in anything that could be of note, especially any religious symbols.

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Spot: (1d20+2)[5]

[Jokes]

Millin

As he follows close behind Crim, Millin pulls out the trigger mechanism for his crossbow from his pocket, in case things get hairy. Once inside, he looks for a good spot to hide.

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spot - (1d20)[15]
hide - (1d20+7)[17]

[achilleus]

Iosef waited outside the window, he heard from within the shop a startled shout and the sound of angry voices muffled by the window hangings. No light escaped from the shop. Scrib had managed to remain hidden down the block, and could see as things began to unfold.

Vendelyn and Kazai quickly followed the man through the door, while the two riding dogs were prepared and mounted. Millin prepared his crossbow behind Crim, completing the trio of halflings who waited in the street in case things got ugly.

Crim attempted to enter after the women, but met a logjam immediately inside the room. He remained in the threshold.

The shop is a rather cramped affair, consisting of a table, on long counter, and display shelves was assorted locks and small wooden boxes. It certainly wasn't designed to handle the half-dozen people who were trying to cram in here now.

The three thugs within were confronting the shopkeeper, who has begun retreating with his hands up in self-defense. At the arrival of two women, the thugs exchange glances and draw concealed daggers. The three advance toward the front of the shop in a crouch, feral smiles showing across their faces.

[achilleus]

As he follows close behind Crim, <snip>

OOC

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Sorry, my loooooooong typing time meant that you ninja-d me! I'll adjust you as behind Crim

[kopout]

there was a commotion at the locksmith's. Scrib dearly wished to investigate but that was not how he had lived this long, so, he went in through the back door.