CH. 12: Testing Grounds

[Chris1234]

"I'm sorry for your loss," says Shima. "I didn't really have so much opportunity to know him well."
He sighs.
"So what do you want to do? Back out? Or keep going? Burn the other sets of webs one at a time?"

[HorizonsDream]

Kendra sits down for a few moments after playing with the kids. She takes in a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "So, have you guys heard any rumors lately floating around town?" she asks the kids. She knew little kids overheard things just as much as adults did.

[djhyland]

Arulia thanks the plainswoman behind the bar for her time and backs out to the street again. Hoping that she'll have better luck at the next place, she makes her way towards the Ivy Inn.

[TristenC]

Grubnick heads for the Grinning Goat, even though Arulia was planning to go there it was on the way to the Happee Ohgr, and he wanted to check more than just inns. Once there he approaches the proprietor and inquires discreetly about the two trappers, and then about Xyleena and Yvette.

[JadedDM]

Kendra Greylock (Market Street)
"Rumors 'bout what?" asks one of the children, having not been given anything substantial to go on.

Arulia Seroth (Ivy Inn)
Arulia heads next to the Ivy Inn. Along the way, she spots a number of posters put up advertising a parade in one week's time in honor of Kendra Greylock, the 'Hero of Haven.' Once she arrives, she speaks with the innkeeper who says, "Trappers? No, we haven't had anyone like that. But we did have a pair of mages in here awhile that sound similar to what you describe. Wore black robes and smelled of rose petals. Spent a lot of coin trying to find information about some dwarf."

Grubnick (Grinning Goat Tavern)
Grubnick makes his way to the Grinning Goat. Along the way, he spots a number of posters put up advertising a parade in one week's time in honor of Kendra Greylock, the 'Hero of Haven.' Once he arrives, the bartender at the Grinning Goat, a shady looking human with an eye patch, shrugs at Grubnick's question. "Don't know any trappers and don't know anyone by those names, sorry. Why you looking for them anyway?"

[BishGada]

Tulbas Erogund (Tower of Wayreth, Guest Room)
Pressing his good ear against the crack, he listens to what he can.

"Now isn't the best time," says a woman.

"No, it is the perfect time," argues Magnus. "Our power is greatest tonight. It must be tonight."

"Their power is also greatest tonight," the woman counters.

"But they won't be prepared. They will be preoccupied," Magnus retorts. "You know I'm right."

There's a pause. The woman then asks, "What about you? What do you think?"

A third voice speaks; it sounds male, but gravelly and almost inhuman. "Would you dare defy her wishes?"

There is another long pause. "No, of course not," the woman replies. "Only a fool would oppose her."

"She's going to do it anyway, with or without us," Magnus points out. "If we are on her side, we'll be rewarded. If we do nothing or try to oppose her, we'll be crushed with the others. The choice seems clear."

"Very well, you have made your point," the woman says. "I'll tell the others. There is much to do first."

Tulbas hears a door open and then close, and then there is nothing but silence again.

Tulbas is shocked by what he had just heard. 'The sounds of conspiracy...' He thinks to himself and quickly backs away from the wall breathing quickly. 'I must warn them some how. I'm not completely sure, but I think the black robes are going to kill the others tonight... I barely have time to do something about it...' For a moment Tulbas plays with the idea he can spread clues of the danger in his own Test, the next moment he plays with the idea that he could play along with the black robes... maybe even help them actively. Killing the most powerful mages in the world wouldn't be a small thing. It will be greatly rewarded. 'What's wrong with you?' he shakes his head and holds his hand on his chest as his heart aches. 'This is the grief of losing Raetmal that crawls to my mind and leads me in this treacherous path. I must hold it back and be patient as was both Raetmal and Father.' He thinks to himself. Then he carefully memorizes the conversation between the mages to the finest detail. His practices and sharp mind makes it easy and with Cantrips he would be able to play it again to the mages, if he will have the chance to warn them. He takes few deep breaths and then fasten his ear against the door to hear if someone walks the corridor and if not he tries the door knob to see if he can get out.

============================================================================
(OOC: Sorry for not posting. I had a personal tragedy last week.
I hope I can be fast enough to catch up with the progress of the rest considering the 30 pages chapter rule.
Haaque, congrats for succeeding in the heist. That was huge, stealing that amount under a Wyrm nose!!!
Chese, sorry for Ferlan death.)

[HorizonsDream]

"The army," Kendra says, deciding to keep it simple. "Like maybe what other people are saying about them."

[spyguy1503]

Ne-Chanz sighs. He leaves the body sit for now. "I guess..." he says. "Let's press on."

[Haahque]

Today was a successful day, Haahqae’s got everything he was hoping for from today, but he’s left far too many loose ends for his tastes. And in this world of tall folk, he really can’t afford to leave that many loose ends. Besides, it’d probably be funny to see the look on the faces of the guards when he pops up very much outside the keep when they’ve been looking inside it the whole time.

His original plan had been to come back to the keep tomorrow, to inform them that he could no longer afford to put on free shows for the troops every day and that they had to increase his pay to something livable or that he’d stop putting on the shows. However, given how negatively they reacted to just his disappearance for a little bit, he’s less inclined to continue the shows for the troops regardless. Unless… maybe they’re hiding something in the keep that they really don’t want found out about. Maybe that’s why they forced him to have an escort at all times and ordered his arrest when he went missing for just a couple of minutes, despite the fact that the reason he went missing was because his escort fled the scene. It’s almost like they’re trying to keep people away from some secret that they think someone who disappears when unattended and in a room full of deadly rodents might be able to find.

He’s at a crossroads, either he can go home and revel in his successful heist, or he can go back and try to explain his absence. The former is probably the safer course of action, but something draws him towards the latter which he can’t quite explain. Maybe he just wants to revel in his victory a little longer. Maybe he's learned that he can hide short term easily enough, but to hide long term in this world of big folk he has to move cities. Whatever the reason, Haahqae decides to walk back to the keep and knock on the gate.

[TristenC]

[Ooc: I want to make sure Grubnick is giving physical descriptions as well]

Had some work they might be interested in. I don't want to spread it around that I'm looking, i'd like to make the offer on-person. Let me know if they come by, I'll stop back periodically. He discretely slips the man a silver for his 'assistance'

[If the physical description doesn't make a difference, he will move on to the Happee Ohgr]

[Chris1234]

"Press on, ok. Let's get rid of these web's, one bunch at a time," replies Shima.
He carefully picks up the dropped, but still burning, torch, then adding, "Ok, you're the guard this time, please. On the count of three: 1..2..3" and the dwarf throws the torch at the nearest set of remaining webbing (from about 10' away.)
If nothing untoward then the process is similarly repeated with a remaining set of webbing until all gone and then continue exploring.

[djhyland]

Arulia leans against the bar, unconsciously drawing closer to the innkeeper. Her curiosity piqued, she asks, "Black-robed mages? Do you know where they came from or where they went when they left?" She considers for a moment longer. "And what kind of dwarf were they looking for?"

[JadedDM]

Haahqae (Old Keep, Front Gate)
Haahqae returns to the keep, heading for the front gate. The gate is closed and guarded by a dozen baaz soldiers. "Sorry, nobody is allowed in," says one guard when he sees the gnome approaching, but evidently not recognizing him. "Complete lockdown. You'll have to come back another time."

Kendra Greylock (Market Street)
"My pa says they're no different from the Seekers or the Belzorites, just got more men and power," says one child.

"My uncle says they're gonna destroy the city when the war's over," says a little girl.

An older boy grabs her. "Hush! Mama said not to badmouth the army in front o' the soldiers. She's one of 'em, see her uniform?"

Tulbas Erogund (Tower of Wayreth, Guest Room)
Tulbas listens at the door and doesn't hear anything. However, upon trying the knob he finds the door is locked from the outside. This is odd, as he didn't recall Daxia locking it when she closed it, and his elven hearing would normally pick up on that.

(OOC: Glad to see you're back, hope everything is okay.)

Arulia Seroth (Ivy Inn)
"I didn't ask where they were from or where they were going, but they had strange accents. Sounded Nordmaarian maybe, or from somewhere up north," the innkeeper says. "It's not uncommon for mages to stop by, since this city has a mageware shop. Although you only see the black robes and sometimes the red robes these days. Anyway, they were searching for a dwarf. They said this dwarf was very shady looking, wearing leathers and dressing in black. Nobody like that is among our clientele, so they moved on. That was about a week ago."

Grubnick (Happee Ohgr Tavern)
The bartender happily takes the silver coin, but offers no more information even after having Xyleena and Yvette described to him.

He then heads to the Happee Ohgr, a goblin bar. The place is packed with goblins. Some are soldiers off duty, but others are just citizens. The bartender is a goblin herself, in fact. "Welcome stranger," she says in the goblin tongue. "Never seen you before."

(OOC: I assume you meant describe Xyleena and Yvette, since Grubnick hasn't seen the trappers and doesn't have a detailed description of them.)

Ne-Chanz and Shima (North Haven Sewers)
There is only one bunch of webbing remaining in the room, so Shima tosses the lit torch at it. The webbing quickly disintegrates in the fire and then quickly goes out, along with the torch, sinking the entire chamber into darkness.

If something untoward was going to happen, they'd both have been left blind against it. But luckily nothing happens and Shima's infravision kicks in after a few seconds. Ne-Chanz, however, remains blinded by the lack of light.

It looks like there were a few old bodies that had been cocooned in the webbing and are now freed. They consist of three humans and two dwarves. The bodies are unidentifiable after having all of the juices sucked from them and then ignited in flame to boot.

[Chris1234]

Shima pokes the dead pile with his spear just in case they are inhabited.
If nothing untoward he says, "Careful, please, don't blind me when you light your next torch. Found previous spider victims. Going to check them for stuff. Might pay for some stuff. Got to stop Gregeddin's place being reclaimed."
If nothing untoward, the dwarf checks the previous victims for anything useful, valuable or interesting.

[Haahque]

“Oh, that is disappointing.” Haahqae doesn’t need to fake his disappointment in this statement, he was really hoping to see them jump when finding him outside the gates. Oh well, he’ll have to proceed with his day. “I was hoping to talk to Mouna to tell her that I couldn’t continue performances here unless they start paying me. Also, that you need to seriously clean your latrines at least once in a blue moon. If you see her could you mention that Haahqae swung by and tell her that?”