"Xavaros! Look out, lad! Tha' thing's got teeth!"
Travigan then dashes to the wizard's side and attempts to chop the monstrous creature.
HP: 15/15
AC: 13 (11 T / 12 FF)
CMD: 15
F/R/W: +4/+2/+3 (+2 vs enchant, immune sleep)
Rage Rounds used: 4/6
Harrow Points used: 0/3
-Ongoing Effects-
Travigan's swing only serves to enrage the beast further as it slashes the air in front of the hungry crocodile's head.
As Red approaches, Gaedran casts his crossbow aside, pulls a dagger from his belt and grins wickedly. "Looking for a fight little lady?"
With a quick flick of his wrist, the old man slashes the blade accross Red's face, drawing a gash from her forehead to her cheek accross the bridge of her nose and cackles, "Haw! Not so pretty now!"
Alastair
HP 9/9
Alastair continues moving toward Lamm, more slowly now. He pulls another dagger from his belt and begins to throw it, but stops suddenly, trying to draw Lamm's attention away.
Gaedran moves to duck the feinted dagger and nearly slips on the greasy floor as he does so before resuming his combat stance against Red.
Rivane
HP 10/10
The priest grips tightly his spear and moves rapidly past Alastair and Red. Once in front of the old man, he brings down his spear with force on him.
As Rivane moves past Lamm, the old man takes a swipe at him with his dagger and draws blood from the priest's shoulder before dodging his spear. "Trying to get the drop on me Shoanti? Haw! You'll have to be quicker than that!"
Pressing his back against the wall to put as much space between himself and the crocodile as he can manage, Xavaros extends his arm downward at the hungry reptile and his ring glows vibrantly as a shimmering blast of prismatic lights bursts forth from his palm.
Gobblegut seems unfazed by the spray of colors, but struggles to climb up the side of the pit to mount an attack.
Red
HP 11/13 - 1 CHA drain, giving a temp total of 10/12
Nothing as pretty as what you did to Kristen, you murdering son of a -.
Ignoring the sting and the blood dripping down her face, Red snarls wordlessly at Lamm and lunges at him, both weapons drawn.
:
Climbing down into the pit of water, Travigan brandishes his battleaxe above his head and brings it down heavily in the middle of the crocodile's skull, splitting the beast's head wide open and killing it in one fell swing.
Gritting his teeth as his crocodile falls beneath Travigan's axe, Gaedran makes another quick stab with his dagger, this time biting into Red's shoulder, "You'll pay for that you pieces of filth! Think you're tough? You're nothing!" he shouts to no one in particular in a fit of rage.
Alastair
HP 9/9
Taking advantage of the confusing he caused Lamm by his feigned throw, Alastair rushes forward, careful not to slip in the grease, and stabs at the man.
Gaedran takes a wild swing at Alastair as he passes by, but missing the lithe halfling by a wide margin. In attacking he nearly slips on the grease again and is caught unprepared for Alastair's quick stab to his kidney.
Rivane
HP 9/10
The shoanti ignores the small wound Gaedren has inflicted him and now tries for a stab, hoping to impale the criminal.
Xavaros waves away his spell and the grease beneath the combatants' feet dissolves away. His spell dismissed and his magical reserves depleted, he moves forward along the walkway to line up a clear shot through the melee.
But still, the shot misses by a wide margin and impacts the wall behind Lamm.
Red
HP 10/13 - 1 CHA drain, giving a temp total of 9/12
Red grits her teeth and slashes once more at Lamm.
"LAMM! Ye know I ain't 'bout ta be nearly as kind to you as I was to yer toothy lizard here, don't ye? Yer in fer a world o' hurt, you bloated pussbag!"
HP: 15/15
AC: 13 (11 T / 12 FF)
CMD: 15
F/R/W: +4/+2/+3 (+2 vs enchant, immune sleep)
Rage Rounds used: 6/6
Harrow Points used: 0/3
-Ongoing Effects-
rage (+4 Str)
Lamm dodges Rivane's spear-thrust and moves to parry Red's first slash, but is a moment late and she cuts a deep gash through his forearm as he dodges back away from the second blow.
In response to Travigan's threat, Gaedran stutters back, "Y-You filthy half-breed!!! I'll skin you alive!!" Despite his tough words, Lamm seems visibly distracted by the raging barbarian and darts nervous glances in his direction as he lines up his next attack.
Despite the distraction, Gaedran makes another quick stab at Red, this time landing the cut just above her left hip.
Alastair
HP 9/9
With Lamm distracted by Red, Alastair shifts over, stabbing with his dagger.
Alastair's dagger sinks deep into Lamm's back and the old man let's out a shout of pain mixed with anger and nearly collapses to one knee.
Rivane
HP 9/10
Taking the opportunity the distraction of Alastair's attack provides, the priest attempts to slash the crook's throat with his spear.
With a powerful slash of his spear, Rivane cuts a deep gash through Lamm's throat, letting loose a spray of blood and dropping the old man to the ground. As the crimson pool widens around the body of the man who caused each of you unmeasurable pain, the reality of the situation hits home:
Gaedran Lamm is dead.
" Ahaha! He'll not be hurtin' anyone ever again!"
Travigan then tosses Gobblegut's carcass up onto the platform then clambers up after, humming a tune as he does so.
When Rivane feels the spear slashing through Lamms throat, he nearly can't believe it. At last, Fane, I have avenged your murder. Although he feels they don't deserve it, the priest closes his eyes for a moment and speaks a brief prayer for the fallen thugs.
"May your ancestors guide you to the court of Pharasma, and may she pass fair judgement upon you."
He takes a look at his injury, and decides that it will fade with rest. After assessing the others, he offers healing if they need it.
"We should search around here. A man like him surely has coin and stolen property stashed somewhere."
Alastair breathes deeply when he sees Lamm finally fall.
At last. At long last...
His hands fall to his knees as he catches his breath, saying nothing. He wipes the blood from his dagger onto Lamm's coat, stores it away, and begins picking up the others that he had thrown.
Searching around the area, you find a great deal of junk, but nothing of real value. However, Gaedran carried the following items:
There is also a door leading to another room near the western wall .
Travigan stomps over to the group, breathing a bit heavily as he tries to catch his breath. He claps Rivane on the shoulder, "Well done!" He then smiles at each of the other members and claps each of them on the shoulder in turn as well. "Tha's the end of him then! A right fine job, one an' all. I'm grateful to the lot o' ye an' to that Zellara lass too. Les' see what's through that door there, head on back up to the children, and then leave this damp an' slimy dump behind us."
The battle over, Red touches her face and looks dully at the blood smeared all over her hands.
Lamm was dead. She'd avenged Kristen. She'd kept her promise to Zellara. And to the boy. But why did she still feel empty on the inside?
Wiping her kukris clean on Lamm's trousers, she pushes her thoughts aside for now and limps painfully after Travigan into the other room.
Opening the door to the small room, you find it to be a combination bedroom and study. A wooden bed with a lumpy mattress stands against the east wall while a round table heaped with dirty plates, bread crust, stained goblets, fruit rinds, and scuttling cockroaches sits nearby. At the foot of the bed sits a large strongbox, a slightly rusted lock securing its lid. A sagging dresser filled with moth-eaten clothes well past their glory days is in one corner - what appears to be a wooden hatbox surrounded by a small cloud of flies sits atop this dresser. This room is stinky.
Rivane enters the room and looks around, wrinkling his nose at the stench. He casts an orison to see magical auras and examines the room carefully.
Using one of the keys from Lamm's keyring, you're able to open the footlocker at the foot of the bed. Inside you find the following items:
Looking over the collected loot, the bejeweled brooch appears to be the most valuable item in the entire collection. It is circular in shape, made of gold, and depicts an imp and a pseudodragon coiled around each other in an almost yin-yang pattern. The pseudodragon's eye is an amethyst while the imp's eye is an emerald.
In addition, the hatbox on the dresser remains unopened and surrounded by a cloud of flies.
Upon seeing the locket, something breaks inside Red's chest. Picking it up with trembling hands, she clenches the locket within her fist - at last, confirmation of Kristen's murder at Lamm's hands - her knuckles whitening to the colour of bone. Only now, after weeks of drinking herself silly and hunting down every lead, do the tears come.
When he opens Lamm's footlocker, Rivane takes the objects with magical auras and sets them aside. He then starts taking out the rest when he sees a golden ring, the perfect match to the one on his own finger. The priest takes it, and reads the inscription he knows is there. Multicolored shimmering tears form in his eyes, but he refuses to cry here, in the abode of Fane's murderer. Rivane takes a deep breath and turns to the others.
"This ring was my husband's... He... he picked them months before our wedding ceremony. This is all the proof I need to know that our mission was righteous." The priest notices Red, crying and clutching something in her fist, and he tries to comfort her "It seems Gaedren took someone from you too. Do not despair Red, whoever it was, if they were worthy of your affection, I'm sure Pharasma will send them to their just reward."
The shoanti takes a moment to put the ring on the leather cord of his holy symbol, goes to the dresser and gingerly opens the hatbox.
As Rivane opens the hatbox, a horrible smell fills the room. Sitting in the box is a severed head belonging to Zellara, the fortune teller who sent you here. The sagging flesh is crudely decorated with unsightly makeup in a poor attempt to give it a semblance of life.
Sitting inside the box beneath the head is a wooden box containing her deck of Harrow cards.
Over by the footlocker, Travigan groans as the odor hits him. "Augh! Lad, what in the bloody blue blazes did ye find that stinks so bad? Put that lid back on if ye know what's good for ye! Oh but that's a foul odor if ever I smelled one."
The stench from the hatbox rouses Red from her weeping. Scrubbing her tears away with the back of her hand, she slips the locket around her neck for safekeeping before joining Rivane by the hatbox.
At the sight of the head, Red's eyes widen in shock. "... How can this... be? We just saw her. Alive... not an hour ago..."
Xavaros stands puzzled looking at the head in the box. "She appears to have been dead for a number of weeks."
"Dead? Who's been dead? What're ye goin' on about?" Travigan rises and approaches the group gathered around the hat box. His face blanches when he catches sight of Zellara's decaying, rotted face. "Wha- what the devil?! He... he just keeps heads in boxes? Fer fun? We should bring 'im back ta life jus' so we can kill 'im again! And how is it that that's Zellara's face? Maybe... maybe it's her sister?"
"Sister... she didn't mention having a sister, but to be honest she didn't really tell us much about her own reasons for wanting Lamm dealt with at all. Either way, this stench is making me a bit queasy; if it makes no difference to the rest of you, I'm going to step out for a bit of air." His cloak held up over his nose, Xavaros steps out of the small room back into the larger chamber.
"... We must find her. Ask her what is... going on." Red glances at the others. "But the children... Mister Rivane. If I could please trouble you..." She nods at her injuries - it wouldn't do to go back upstairs to find the children, only to scare them with all the blood.
"Ancestors mercy!" Exclaims the priest as he sketches the protective spiral over his heart. "It certainly seems Zellara... And this is her harrow deck."
When Red asks, he performs a healing prayer for her. He takes the harrow cards, and after closing the box, he takes it with him, to inter the Zellara lookalike in the Grey.
"We should take all this," He nods to the stuff that was in the footlocker "get the children and the things that we left above and get out of here."[/b]
Travigan bundles up what's left after Red and Rivane reclaim their stolen mementos. With a nod and a grunt and another sidelong glance at the morbid hatbox tucked under Rivan's arm, the burly blacksmith heads back out in to the larger chamber.
"'ey! Comeon then, Xav! Le's be done with this hole and get those kids ta safety."
Unless something happens to stop him, Travigan heads back out the way they came, obviously eager to hold Naomi again.
With their business in the bowels of the fishery complete, the party packs up their loot and heads topside. Once they reach the top deck of the barge, it is immediately apparent however that something is wrong.
Plumes of smoke rise from the horizon and the sounds of distant screams, moans, and the sounds of battle fill your ears.
"By Pharasma... what kind of madness is this?" Rivane looks around, obviously puzzled at the scenery. "We have to get the little ones out of here."
The priest thinks for a moment "Let's take them to the Grey. They'll be safe in the Cathedral of Pharasma until we know what's going on."
He hurries to the room where they left the children, eager to get going.
How will we get so many children safely anywhere if there's fighting going on?
Red silences her doubts and hurries along after Rivane. Perhaps the priest has an idea.
"Gorum's rusty black balls, what's goin' on now?!" Travigan's voice rings out as he joins the other double-timing it to the children. "If na' wit the Pharasmins, the wee ones kin hole up at me shop. I'm sure me brother or one o' his boys would come right over if I told 'em to."