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Vicard turns sharply to Gwen as she laughs and says in a cutting, but quiet voice, "Quiet, Gwen. We are questioning someone possibly involved in a crime with valuable information! Don't interfere unless you know what you are doing." It comes across stronger then he'd like but old habits die hard and the sea voyage has wore him down.
Gandros completely ignores Vicard, pretending he's not even there.
When Gwendallyn and Urbar offend him, he snaps "You shall address me in a proper manner, or you can leave!"
He then goes back to ignoring your presence.
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Vicard inwardly sighs. Working the streets of Aasalom had given the investigator long experience with...crazies. But the average homeless bum didn't have a wayfinder. Sighing, we did what often worked but was rarely worth it. He went along with the delusion.
"My lord, we wish to help you. We need any information to help you regain your former glory. For example, could you describe this magic portal for us? Anything, my lord, would help us help you, our liege." Vicard says it earnestly, but inwardly knowing it is probably useless.
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Ery meanders to join the rest of the group from quarters that were obviously not his own. With his hair a mess and his cloths poorly straightened, he looks about at his old crew and smirks.
"So, What I miss?"
Hearing that Vic had mentioned a title to a man before them, Ery attention qucikly refocused.
"We have royalty in disguise among us? Fear not! For I have brought the Ice breaker!"
With that, the elf places his tea set upon a near by table and begins prepping the only thing that matters.
Handing a cup to the would-be prince in disguise, Ery sips on his won cup deeply.
[dice=Sense a hunch a bout the "prince"] 1d20 + 1 [/dice]
"I think we should simply take the wild assumption and go with it. This man could actually be a prince and there for, the Lord of Tea will aid him."
"Well, my prince of Princes, Whats the plan?"
Gandros nods approvingly when Vicard addresses him with several important titles. "Yes, I certainly can. The magic portal is a link between this world and the otherworld, where I've been hiding. The dark assassins followed me through the portal and are likely still out there, searching for me."
The filthy man looks excited when Eryzule mentions his own title. "My dear, the Lord of Tea has joined us! With our forces combined there's no questioning it. I will reclaim my rightful place as Emperor of Andoran in no time! The plan? Well, you just go and make everything as it should be."
He takes a cup and sips the tea. "Delicious!"
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Vicard inwardly groans. Ery was great at..tea but not so great at plans. Still, he had made the crazy man open up..a little. Vicard decides to press a bit, hoping the tea will work it's usual magic.
"My lord, we need to know where to start. Can you take me, or at least tell me how to find this 'Almsman’s Sanctuary' you mention? It will be vital to retrace your steps to provide you the means to reclaim your lineage. Even the smallest detail Your Grace may have noticed will help.". He, barely, manages to stop rolling his eyes at addressing a filthy, crazy man as 'Your Grace.' Ery seems to do it without any trouble whatsoever.
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"Prince, you can put your faith in the well dressed detective that is Ser Vicard. A knight of truth, one might say. He has helped me many times in the past."
Ery sips on his tea giving a nod to Vicard.
"Besides, if you don't co-operate with all of us, how can we help you regain your powers and assert your rule?"
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Gwen looks at Vicard following his outburst with a raised eyebrow, but she kept her tongue in check. Even more so when the "Emperor" raised his voice at her; her thoughts lingered on blackening on of his eyes to go with his tattered garb...
She takes a deep breath and thinks on how Falayna would react in this given situation. As she slowed her breathing and sought out that inner calm, she suddenly grins at the minor epiphany that had just occurred. Verbal sparring was not much different from fighting; one must always keep their calm as panic was the surest way to defeat, keep your breathing even and paced, look for any opening presented by your opponent and exploit it. She suddenly had a new appreciation for Ery and Vic's wordsmithing skills. Therefore she remained calm, allowing them to deal with the situation in their own way.
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"With that in mind, Prince of Princes, My other associates are equally as useful. Behold Urbar, Quizinart of Truth and Gwen, Maiden of Strength. We also have with us Tereze, Lady of Light and Fiona, Duchtess of Introspection. We are, together, capable of anything."
Ery places the cup to his lips once more, not to sip, but to hide his growing smile at the sudden excitement of title generation.
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"How about we display your highness on the streets. These so called assassins will be drawn to him. We catch them and be done with it."
Urbar says as he puts back one of the wands after reloading his wrist sheath. He stands and lays one of his big hands on the prince's shoulder.
"I am sure you want to do it the quick way right?"
He says with a large grin.
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Tereze listens quite interested to the questioning and smiles at the titles Ery. gives to each of them. She seems oddly quiet for some reason, and has been all voyage here.
As she observes she tries hard to read the "prince" but the story he tells seems to distract her quite a bit.
She finally reacts to Urbar's comments.
We will NOT be exposing his grace to any danger. Such an august personage as himself deserves our full support and protection.
She continues on turning to address Gandros curtsying as his eyes settle on her:
If I may make a suggestion your Lordship, if we are to restore you to your rightful place, obviously the first step is to make sure you are safe. I know dealing with such matters is far below you, but if you could answer Sir Vicards queries, it would allow you to remain safely here while we deal with any assassins zat may have followed you. After zat we can make sure your path back to your army is clear, and assist you in being restored to your rightful position. Would such service from ourselves be acceptable to you?
Gandros patiently listens to all you have to say, but looks like he's about to burst when Urbar gets a bit too amicable and suggests a dangerous plan. Luckily Tereze's words calm him down again, after which Gandros moves up to Tereze and places one hand on her shoulder. "I give you..."
A pause follows, apparently to build tension and make the next thing Gandros is going to say more impressive. "...my blessing!"
Gandros sits back down. "You can discuss the details of everything bothersome with my henchman. He's in the main hallway."
It's clearly pointless to continue talking to Gandros, thus you head back to the main hallway. Here you meet back up with Gandros's "henchman", Venture-captain Wallace himself.
"My diviners say that there is some truth to his story," Wallace tells you. "There has never been a Prince of Augustana, nor an Emperor in Andoran, but the old fellow has a surprising amount of knowledge of the pre-revolution noble families of the city. He may be the lost scion of some noble line. If so, he’s fallen far. From the filth and stink on him when we found him, we’re fairly certain he’s been living in or near a sewer. The wayfinder is also a mystery, but for now, it makes him one of ours."
"However, I’m more interested in his supposed gate to the otherworld. If it exists, I want to know about it. Implausible as it may seem, I’m certain that his injuries were caused by otherworldly beings. We must take the possibility of a portal seriously. I don’t want to dirty my hands with this, but you don’t have that choice. Retrace the old man’s path through the sewers. The Almsman, whom he repeatedly mentions, is rumored to be an eccentric priest who runs some sort of hidden beggar’s sanctuary in the sewers. He may know where our prince’s portal is, if you can find him."
"But be warned; a local gang calling themselves the Steel Wyverns claims the sewers near the Almsman’s Sanctuary as their own territory."
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Vicard looks at the Venture-captain. "Any guess what part of the city these Almsman is?"
Vicard racks his brain to think of where the Almsman could be or perhaps the headquaters of the Steel Wyverns. He'll piece together whatever information he can recall with talking with locals in bars and dives.
While he thinks, and the group walks the city streets, he says to Gwen, "Sorry for snapping back there. I'm used to working alone and I've done many interrogations...too many. Old habits." he says gruffly, his sharp face giving away nothing as he absently scans the crowds for threats or dangers.
Venture-Captain Wallace takes a map from his desk and points at a spot on the map. "This is likely the sewer outlet from which Gandros came. It's near the north end of the harbor, near where the north harbor wall hits land."
Vicard knows the Steel Wyverns were once the most powerful criminal organization in the city, but have been in decline for decades. Now they are a rag-tag gang of thugs and petty crooks. The wyverns prefer to fight with spiked chains, which they call "Wyvern stings."
Vicard also knows the Almsman has recently started providing sanctuary and assistance to the city's beggars. He is a mysterious figure who wears a mask, but most folk believe he is a priest. Most of the city's poor do not know where his sanctuary is—those who do know won't tell.
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Gwen looks at her companions when they exit the room. "What did I tell you? He's crazy." She shakes her head as they all gather back in the hallway with VC Wallace. She nods at the new mission direction. "Sir, if you knew this information from the beginning, why waste our time with the lunatic?" She sighs. "Doesn't matter now, I suppose. Let's see if can locate some info on these gang members, I'm sure one of us can make them talk."
Once out on the streets Gwen shrugs in regards to Vic's apology. "No worries, Vic. You are much better at gathering information from people than I am. Unless you count smashing them into a wall a few times." She winks.
"I didn't feel like wasting my time telling you his weird tale," the Venture-captain tells Gwendallyn. "And I figured you'd like to see the 'client' yourselves."
The pipe to the sewers extends under a breaker and is hard to see from land, but after a while Urbar spots it. You head toward it enter the Augustana's sewer system.
The first 100 feet you travel through a major passage. It has no walkway, forcing you to wade or swim through the filth. After that another major passage runs another 100 feet, but this time there is a walkway. You then reach a large chamber.
The smell of waste and rot is strong in this large chamber, where filthy water flows in a series of cascades between tiered stone tanks. A raised platform along the east wall is connected to the passage's walkways by several thick wooden planks creating a makeshift bridge. On that platform is what looks to be a makeshift alchemy lab on a rough-hewn table—beakers, glass vials, dirty bottles, and moldy buckets cover the entire surface of the table.
Two thugs sit bored on the south side of the wooden bridge, fiddling with their spike chains and quietly talking.
"I stole a diamond once, from a noblewoman," one says.
"No way! How much did you get for it?"
"I, uhhh... 3000 gold!"
"Wow!"
A third thug stands at the makeshift alchemy lab, bent over several beakers as he slowly pours two mixtures together. "He's lying."
"No, I'm not!" the awful liar replies.
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After taking time to draw out his crossbow, and make sure it is loaded, Vicard comes around the corner and loudly announces "No one move! We are from the Pathfinder Society and are passing through this sewer. If you don't move we won't be forced to kill you." Vicard's voice is loud and commanding but he doubts it'll do any good. Cheap thugs like these never know when discretion is the better part of valor.
Sadly most of his voice is lost in the rushing sludge in the sewer.
Eryzule's skill in sneaking is remarkable, but he does it in plain sight of the thugs south of the bridge. They're apparently not that distracted by their conversation that they don't notice him enter the chamber.
"Hey, elf! What are you...?"
"There are more!"
"Dude, I see that! But what are they saying?"
"I don't know. Let's just take their stuff and send them back the way they ca..."
"That one just tried some magic shit on me!"
The two thugs south of the bridge move into the water and wade to the platforms in the middle of the channel. they take out spiked chains as they do, and appear to ready attacks once they're on the platforms.
"If you surrender now, we don't have to fight!" the nearest thug yells. "Leave your gear and go back the way you came!"
The man on the platform takes a tanglefoot bag from his pocket and throws it into the water. He then facepalms.
Round 1:
Blue
Red
Green
Gwendallyn
Urbar
Vicard
Fiona
Tereze
Eryzule
Fiona uses her slumber hex on the thug that resisted her previous hex, causing him to fall asleep. She then skitters backward to a better defended position.
Round 1:
Blue (Asleep)
Red
Green
Gwendallyn
Urbar
Vicard
Fiona
Tereze
Eryzule
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Vicard sighs heavily as the thugs enter the water towards them. It was pointless to try and reason with with them, but the attempt had to be made. Now it they had to fight these men, instead of getting on with the real mission. What a distraction.
Aiming his short bow at the thug, he lets fly an arrow.
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Feeling no need to explain himself to people who are no threat to the group, Ery stands tall, lifting a hand outward toward the thug group.
A sphere of blue arcane energy pulses into his hand. His eyes narrow slightly as he focuses further. More blue arcana wraps around his arm, shoulder to the palm of his hand. The sphere grows a little brighter. Three bolts fire off from to the thug furthest away. The bolts spread outward, two fly fly on either side of the red thug whilst the third takes the high road over him. All three converge into a single bolt, slamming into Green.
Despite the power that Ery launched form his finger tips, it would seem each bolt was a little unstable.
"Damn.. But cant let you get away..."
Vicard sighs heavily due to the distraction he and the others walked into, but lets fly an arrow at one of the thugs. He misses, and the arrow ends up on the walkway north of the thug.
Tereze steps in front of Vicard and launches a stone from her sling, hitting the thug Vicard also aimed for in his face. "Ouch! She actually threw a stone at me! Can you believe that?"
A sphere of blue arcane energy pulses into Eryzule's hand. The bolts spread outward, fly by on either side of the red thug, and slam into the thug on the bridge. "Agh! what are you complaining about, man?! this one shoots magic stuff!"
Urbar double moves, but doesn't get into the reach of the thug's readies attack.
Gwendallyn follows behind Urbar, grinning as she taunts the thugs.
The red thug continues to hold his readied attack.
The thug on the bridge throw another tanglefoot bag, this one aimed in the general direction of Urbar and Gwendallyn. The bag falls short and, like the previous bag, ends up in the water.
Round 2:
Blue (Asleep)
Red -5HP
Green -4HP
Gwendallyn
Urbar
Vicard
Fiona
Tereze
Eryzule
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Vicard grunts dismissively as the thug's bags go haywire. A tanglefoot bag was nothing to laugh at, but if the arm throwing them was shaky....they were worst then useless.
Refusing to wade into the sludge water, just yet, Vicard draws anthor arrow and fires it at the thug.
The investigator curses the poor light as another shot goes wild.
"I'm a bad as shot as you, Ery." He adds a dwarven curse for good measure.
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