CH. 7: The Viper's Nest

[Haahque]

It isn't the first time Haahqae realized he'd made plans with someone without first arranging a time and place with everyone who had agreed beforehand. It likely wasn't the last. But with some quick thinking Haahqae made up a time and place to meet that would suit himself, hopefully everyone else would find one place as good as another.

"Well I'll need some time myself as well, I've seen better days, but I'll feel better in the morning. How about we meet at my room in the Steel Tankard tomorrow morning? First Watch."

Should Ismene agree, Haahqae will give her another bow and go in search of that goblin that he came with. He said he'd be in the lobby downstairs.

[djhyland]

Arulia bows to Osred. "Thank you for taking time to meet with us, Master Osred. We don't wish to waste your time--my sisters and I are looking for work." She holds up a hand to forestall any scoff or argument, and continues quickly. "Our father is a blacksmith who works for *** (OOC: I'm unsure if his place of work has ever been named, but Arulia would certainly know it), and we've all helped him at the forge. I know that we aren't any of us armorsmiths, but we know our way around a smithy--we know how to work the bellows, stoke the fires, clean, and keep a shop in working order; you wouldn't have to teach us any of that."

After pausing to take a breath, Arulia adds, "From what we see, you're one of the few places in town that's doing good business. If you could use more people to work, to help fill orders and help your apprentices do their jobs, we only ask that you consider us."

[JadedDM]

Haahqae and Grubnick (Masked Dragon Inn, common room)
Ismene agrees, so Haahqae heads back downstairs. He spots Grubnick sitting alone at a table, nursing an ale.

Kendra Greylock (Old Keep)
Tez is more than ready for Kendra this time. He easily parries all of her attacks with his own sword as if they were nothing. Then he retaliates by slicing into her right thigh a bit, drawing blood. The crowd eats it up and starts yelling. "Get her, Tez! Show her who's boss!"

"Not tiring out already?" asks Mouna, still watching with her arms crossed.

=========

Initiative
Kendra (1d10+5): 6+5 = 11
Tez (1d10+5): 9+5 = 14

Round 2!

Kendra swings her primary long sword at Tez with great skill (+1 hit/+2 dmg) and strength (+1 dmg) [TN 15] (1d20+1): 2+1 = 3, miss. She then swings her secondary long sword at Tez with great skill (+1 hit/+2 dmg) and strength (+1 dmg) [TN 15] (1d20+1): 3+1 = 4, miss.
Tez swings his long sword at Kendra [TN 12] (1d20): 20, critical hit! for (2d8): 4 damage. Kendra is now lightly wounded (90% HP).
Kendra swings her primary long sword again at Tez with great skill (+1 hit/+2 dmg) and strength (+1 dmg) [TN 15] (1d20+1): 2+1 = 3, miss.

(OOC: Actions and Initiative for Round 3?)

Tulbas Erogund (Unknown location)
Tulbas looks around the storage room, as he has never been here before. It contains a number of barrels and sacks, a few crates and an old, green rug that is rolled up. There's an old vase, a bear skin rug, and a pile of rags. A dresser contains more brown robes. In the back of the room is a large, locked chest.

Unknown Location 02.jpg (45.49 KiB) Viewed 6556 times

Arulia Seroth (Osred's Armor shop)
Osred snorts derisively at Arulia. "Apprentices already do that kind of work. It's part of their training. You really want to rob them of that? Besides, little ladies like you would just get in the way and distract my boys from their work. Now why don't you run along and let the men handle the real work, eh?"

Felran and Ne-Chanz (High Hand Inn, Common room)
Ne-Chanz pays five silver coins and the barlad leaves to attend to the next customer.

[chese780]

"Well, I'm going to go down to the market and try and find something to help," Felran says to Ne-Chanz, "Will you be coming with, or do you have something you plan to do?"

[TristenC]

When Grubnick sees the gnome return he waits for him to approach, then asks; Any luck with this friend of yours?

By the way, how do we find that Gregeddin guy tomorrow. I want to try to ‘patch you guys up’ a little more in the morning before we get started without a lot of bystanders. He thinks about their situation for a moment.

After the gnome considers and answers his questions; Where to next? The former seeker?

[Haahque]

"Oh yes, we should have some nice help from her tomorrow. I told her that we were meeting at my place tomorrow morning."

Haahqae will give directions to where Gregeddin lives.

"But where is the former seeker? I have no idea what she's up to right now. However I think we found her near the jeweler's shop once when we were looking for her, maybe we can find her around there."

[HorizonsDream]

Kendra looks down at her thigh for a moment, and grits her teeth together. It wasn't so much that she was in pain, but she was a little frustrated that she managed to get hit. She steals a glance to Monna, and lets out what sounds like a "tch" sound before she focuses on Tez. Before he has a real chance to recover, she dives in for another attack.

Inti Roll, Hit Rolls (3, 19, 16)
DMG Roll (10, 6)

[BishGada]

Tulbas takes a green robe and wears it. He takes a few minutes to search the sacks and checks the barrels and crates contents, tries to move them and the rugs and checks the floor and walls for secret or trap doors. 'This place might precede the Belzorites invasion and they might have missed something here...' he thinks to himself. Tulbas also tries to find something that he can use to force the chest open. He looks for loose boards in the crates or abandoned iron bar. If he fails he tries to peek if anything can be seen through any crack in the chest.
Tulbas invests several minutes in this search. If he finds nothing he will stage the crate to hide portion of the back wall as if it could hide a secret door, then go to the door, put on the green hood and try to open the door. He will shout to the Histachii whether he has eye contact with them or not, "Guards. The elf attempts to run! Go after him!"


===================================
(OOC: *Whoora!* for Kendra.
Was Tulbas able to pick up on some of the Belzorites hissing language, considering his high INT? Words like "elf" "prisoner" "guard" "chase" and so on? If so he will use it to try and convince the Histachii guards he is one of the Belzorites and the "prisoner" found a different exit from the room and attempts to run away.
)

[djhyland]

"Oh, yes," Arulia scowls, "'little ladies' can't do real work, can they? It's a shame, then, that none of us are 'little ladies', and it's your loss that you won't consider us--we'd have worked harder than any of your apprentices!" She turns her back on Osred and stomps towards the door. "Come on," she tells her sisters, "this man is too blind to see us."

Once outside, Arulia's bluster quicly falls away. "Well, that went as well as I expected," she admits to her Camilla and Cassilda. "But we have to ask, I suppose. Maybe the weaponsmith will be more understanding."

(OOC: Arulia will lead her sisters to the weaponsmith that's in the market district and once again ask to speak to the master.)

[spyguy1503]

"I'll come, just wait for me to finish" he says, finishing his chicken and leaving for the market.

[JadedDM]

Haahqae and Grubnick (2527 Market Street, Greylock's Gorgeous Gems)
The two make their way to the jeweler's place in the merchant district, passing through four checkpoints along the way. They step inside a rather nice shop with a long counter made of glass that is filled with jewels and gems of lesser value on display on small pillows.

"Coming, coming!" a man's voice calls from the back. The man who steps out a moment later is in his early thirties. He has medium length black hair, stubble and brown eyes. "What can I get---oh, it's you," he says upon seeing the gnome, a sharp edge of hostility in his voice. "What are you doing in my shop? Is this about that letter you were supposed to deliver to the prefect for the trade guild?"

Kendra Greylock (Old Keep)
Tez recovers faster than Kendra anticipates. He faints to the left, then attacks from the right, managing to cut across Kendra's chest, leaving a trail of blood.

Angry and frustrated, Kendra loses self-control and attacks with all of her might. The ferocity of the blows catch Tez off guard and she manages to impale him with both blades in the flash of an eye. Before he can even rattle a death cry, his entire body turns to stone, trapping the swords inside. Tug as she like, Kendra cannot retrieve the blades from the now petrified Baaz.

The crowd of soldiers begins to boo and hiss until Mouna steps in. "Alright, that's enough! Get back to work! And someone call that acolyte over here!" She looks Kendra up and down, but whether she's pleased or disappointed doesn't show. "You weren't supposed to kill him. Tez was a good soldier and well liked. I imagine you just got put on a lot of hit lists today." She shakes her head. "I hope you show the same level of ferocity to our enemy as you do your allies. You better come with me, before we have a riot on our hands." She heads into the keep itself, gesturing for Kendra to follow.

=========

Initiative
Kendra (1d10+5): 3+5 = 8
Tez (1d10+5): 2+5 = 7

Round 3!

Tez swings his long sword at Kendra [TN 12] (1d20): 13, hit for (1d8): 8 damage. Kendra is now seriously wounded (50% HP).
Kendra swings her primary long sword at Tez with great skill (+1 hit/+2 dmg) and strength (+1 dmg) [TN 15] (1d20+1): 18+1 = 19, hit for (1d8+3): 10 damage. She then swings her secondary long sword at Tez with great skill (+1 hit/+2 dmg) and strength (+1 dmg) [TN 15] (1d20+1): 15+1 = 16, hit for (1d8+3): 3+3 = 6 damage. Tez is petrified.
----Kendra makes a DEX-3 check [TN 14] (1d20): 16, fail. Her swords are trapped in the statue.

(OOC: End combat.)

Tulbas Erogund (Unknown location)
Tulbas discards his green robes and puts on one of the brown robes from the dresser. Inside the sacks and barrels and crates he finds fairly mundane items--flour, lamp oil, paper, ink, rolled up rugs of various sizes, old vases and other pottery, and things of that nature. He finds no secret doors anywhere. He also doesn't find any loose boards or abandoned bars, but there is a slight crack in the chest he can peer through. It appears it is full of steel coins.

Trying the door, he finds it is locked.

(OOC: The robes in the dresser are brown, not green. The rolled up carpet was green and Tulbas' robe is green. I think you got them mixed up.

As for language, even if Tulbas did somehow pick up on a few words, he needs a snake-like tongue to speak them properly.)

Arulia Seroth (Querida's Weapon Store)
Reaching the weaponsmith's shop, they head inside. The master weaponsmith is a brown skinned woman with brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and hazel eyes. There are also half a dozen apprentices and a couple of overseers working the forge, banging out new swords, axes and everything in between.

"Can I help you?" she asks, raising a brow. "I'm Querida, the master of the forge. Sorry, but if you aren't with the army or the church, I can't make or sell you anything because of the new law."

Felran and Ne-Chanz (Marketsquare)
Ne-Chanz wolfs down his chicken and drinks down his water, which is probably a bit terrifying to watch for any of the other patrons in the inn. He then heads with Felran out to the marketsquare. It's even colder outside than it is in, but luckily the minotaur's fur keeps him warm enough. Felran, however, has no fur and involuntarily shivers now and again in the cold, as he's only wearing a simple tunic, shorts and sandals.

The marketsquare is bustling with people going about their business. Merchants and vendors yell out to everyone who passes by, trying to get anything sold they can. But with the new tax, people are tightening their belts, and few sales are made. There's a feeling of despair in the air.

There are also quite a few dragonarmy soldiers, mostly Baaz draconians. They patrol the area and keep an eye on things, making sure nobody is doing anything they shouldn't.

[Haahque]

"Oh right that. Umm... yeah, Gregeddin is looking into it and he'll have a solid response to that for you very soon!" Haahqae forgot about the merchant guild thing that Gregeddin had volunteered them for yesterday, but if anyone can dodge around a subject it's Haahqae.

"But we're on a slightly more urgent task right now. One of Kendra's friends is in trouble and we were drumming up some competent people to bail him out of it. Looking at the fine group of individuals, we thought Kendra ought to know, and that she'd round out our group quite nicely. Our group for a very quick and safe extraction of our friend from trouble." For some reason this guy seemed overly cautious about the safety of Kendra, so its best if we emphasize that part of the speech. "Would you happen to know where we could find her?"

[HorizonsDream]

Kendra backs away from the petrified draconian, then turns and follows after Monna. "You told me not to hold back," she points out. She looks down at her wounds, and sighs softly. "If he sees this, he'll be even more worried," she mutters.

[TristenC]

Grubnick takes a half-interest in the wares, and exmaines the man behind the counter; though not obviously. His ears perk up when the man mentions the letter to the trade-guild, as well as Haahque's confirmation that both he and Gregeddin were involved. The gears in his head begin turning again... quite the jackpot I've stumbled upon... he muses. If we all survive this I'll hopefully be in the cat-bird seat information wise...

At the gnome's emphasis of the word 'safe', Grubnick inwardly groans. Great, it'll be a miracle if this guy tells us anything now... He mentally strikes 'survival' off the list of options for tomorrow.
With allies like these...

[spyguy1503]

"Alright, first order is getting you something warmer to wear." Ne-Chanz walks up to a merchant who looks like he is doing alright and asks him about the news.