Feeling very bad Unbeugsam shrugs and pushes onward.
But he misses and takes a step aside to avoid flanking
Amboy moves out from his hiding spot and attempts to sneak up on the rat going after Tural.
Meghan fires her final coin at the unengaged wererat farthest to the north . Then she closes ranks with the menfolk, preparing to cast some healing spells as needed.
for
Unbeugsam moves out of immediate danger, and tries to take a swing, though the wererat slinks out of range as the blad passes where he had just been.
Amboy catches the wererat moving after Tural by surprise and digs his shortsword into its back. However, the wererat looks back and smiles at the rogue. PUlling back, Amboy realizes his shortsword isn't penetrating the matted fur of the humanoid, the force behind it not enough to overcome the resistance.
The sound of small but certain *ting! zips through the air as a silver coin buries itself in a wererat's forhead, the silver metal bypassing any defense the wererat's unnatural nature had. The wererat falls over, dead.
The wererats reposition themselves, the two remaining who were attacking Unbeugsam now go after Taton, and the one originally going after Tural, turning to fight Amboy.
The enemy is smiling, there legs sunk in the muck as the spilled blood in the air excites them.
Seeing Unbeugsam and then Taton take savage wounds in short order, Meghan decides some healing is in order. Unable to heal Taton without being within range of the wererats' blades while doing so, the bard instead steps behind the dwarf and casts from safety.
Feeling the healing energy wash over him, Unbeugsam gives Meghan a smile before his bushy eyebrows meet again over his nose.
"You will bleed, no, you will sail on a river of blood... to Hell!"
Stepping aside to flank again he speaks axe.
Amboy backs off after being wounded and attempts to weave a impenetrable defense to keep the creature occupied.
After stalling for a moment to judge the tide of the battle, Tural commands his eagle to aid Amboy, and it does so with zeal, swooping in to savage the rat.
As he does, the arcanist mutters a spell and sends two bolts of force at the wererat, with as much energy as he can spare backing the attack up.
If the rat is still up, Tural fires off a third missile.
Taton assaults the red rat unceasingly. He lays as much hurt on it as he possibly can. Fortunately, with flank that is actually a fair amount of hurt.
Meghan gets to work patching up her stalwart dwarven ally. Her humming seems to weave reverberations as the wounds on the weary fighter start to close.
Unbeaugsam rams his weapon in the flesh of the wererat and smiles as he recognizes the wave of pain the washes over it, with thin hands it tries to pull itself free from the ax, and gasps as Unbeaugsam wrenches his weapon out himself. It seethes with rage and moves to retaliate but finds a blade expertly stuck through its chest, It turns its head to find Taton had found a gap in its tough natural armor and struck with as much force as he could muster.
Amboy backs off his target, doing his best to keep his guard up as he anticipates the blows to come.
Tural brings about his arcane power and blasts the wererat with everything he's got. The first blast leaves the wererat breathing heavy, but the second blast pierces completely through his matted fur, the dark ichor-like blood slowly mixing in with the swamps mire as the rat collapses.
The last wererat, seeing all its companions dead, begins to flee into the swamp.
Taton swings, but as this foe is not studied, he has a harder time of hitting it. Thankfully he can only use one end of his weapon to strike at this point.
Although she's reluctant to use her last spell on a stranger, the elf did try to help in the battle and is in danger of bleeding out. Meghan wades through the dark water to the elf and (if he's still alive) uses her last spell slot to cast cure light wounds on the archer.
The elf groans, his face deathly pale, but a small bit of vitality returning to him.
"I did not expect such beastly creatures to harbor such skill with the bow..."
He coughs, and struggles to sit up, looking out to the damage and dead.
"My name is Kwava, and I thank you young one for your aid. I am glad that my warning will go to such good people..."
He stops, making sure all around are there to listen.
"We have a common enemy. Saul Vancaskerkin."
Meghan actually recoils from the elf when he speaks ill of Saul. "You're wrong," she says flatly. "Old Keypaw has looked out for us. He made us junior partners in the Gold Goblin. This is probably the work of one of the crime lords."
Kwava looks at you with a curious expression.
"I feel there is much to discuss if that is what you believe, but if you'll see me to my camp, I can explain more there..."
Meghan still looks a bit distrustful of the elf...but she can't reconcile the fact that Kwava helped in the battle with the wererats to him being an enemy. She looks to her comrades for their thoughts on the matter.
"Anything to get us out of this swamp. Lead the way.
Wounded, tired, and filthy Amboy follows the elf.
Before following the elf, Meghan takes some time to loot the fallen wererats.
"It'd be nice if these creeps have a healing potion or two...," she grumbles under her breath as she works. Louder, for her battered comrades to hear, she adds, "Have we used the healing potions we bought before coming here? I'm out of spells."
The gear your find, Meghan, is in rot and disrepair, probably reflective of their owner's general lifestyle. You do find a masterwork dagger on each of the corpses, and a masterwork shortbow on each as well.
Kwava leads you for about twenty minutes into the brush, and though you may stumble in the water filled puddles and large overgrown roots, the elf has no trouble navigating these lands. Finally, you find what appears to a miraculous dry spot in the swamplike area. As you approach you get a mouthful of pungent incense smell.
"to keep beasts at bay," Kwava says as he hears some of you retch behind him. A few minutes pass before the smell moves to the background of you minds, and Kwava offers you small piles of wild fruit and nuts he's gathered.
"To the point. I was sent by my tribe, the Ekujae, to seek out what our prophets call the coming of the Second Darkness. In my years of travel pursuing clues to these visions, I met the Shin'Rakorath, an adventuring company, and joined their numbers as our goals aligned in the fight against those that dwell in darkness. Word reached us that a renegade elf had spirited away to Riddleport and may have joined up with one of the local crimelords. It is that reason why I'm here. "
He pauses, letting his story sink in.
"As most used to the wilderness, I kept a fair distance from the city, only making the occasional foray to listen to conversations and look for signs of the renegade elf. I myself have not dealt with situations like city folk, and I feared doing so would leave my quarry to escape. As a former member, Saul Vancaskerkin was one of those I looked into and through him, I learned of you all. I've heard of the attacks, the misfortunes, but as I followed Vancaskerkin last night, I knew no good could come from it. An ambush was paid for, and I followed the wererats to the ambush site. And from there....you know the rest."
Kwava looks to you all, and opens the iron pot on the campfire. The smell of cooked meats wafts into the air.
"So...what say you all?"
"Paid? By whom?"
The dwarven warrior looks deep into the fire and spits into it!
"By Ol' Keypaw...err, Saul," Meghan tells the dwarf sourly before adding, "If this elf is to be believed."
For the first time since you've met her, Meghan seems flustered, perhaps even panicked.
"I signed on with Saul for protection after running afoul of one of Boss Croat's enforcers," the bard explains, her eyes dropping to the ground as she recalls her humiliating a$$-whooping at the hands of Guerta Bloodknuckles a few weeks earlier. "It appears that we've got Zilphas's wererats after us, Clegg Zincher and his crew as well, the Overlord turning a blind eye to the various attacks against us and the Gold Goblin...and now Saul's turned on us? If that's true...I have to get the hell outta Riddleport."
Amboy looks confused as he tries to peice together what the elf is saying, "Wait. I am confused. Who do you think Saul is? A former member of what? Who did you see him talking to?"
Amboy looks confused as he tries to peice together what the elf is saying, "Wait. I am confused. Who do you think Saul is? A former member of what? Who did you see him talking to?"
"Saul was once one of the city's crime lords," Meghan tells Amboy. With a wry smile she adds, "Did you think he lost his hand to a dire rat or some cooking fire? No--it was chopped off at the wrist by someone he pissed off. Someone powerful. I never got all the details of the story, though."
Taton curses. He curses in an impressive display of vocabulary and linguistics, and is probably the most verbose anyone has seen him. When the storm subsides, the older man looks grim. "When I track him down, they will tell my story to children to keep them on the straight and narrow. Calistria will bless me and my vengeance will be sated as I wade through his innards." He pauses a moment, having been lost in the bliss of righteous anger. "IF he betrayed us, that is."
Meghan asks the elf his name again (paying attention this time) and then asks where the rest of his adventuring company might be. She slips one of the daggers into her right boot and claims one of the shortbows and some arrows (if there were any remaining, and assuming that none of her comrades complains). She offers the other weapons to her companions (probably Amboy first), saying that they look to be well-crafted.
She nods in solidarity at Taton after his tirade. At the mention of Calistria, the bard sighs and wonders aloud, "I wonder whatever became of Ryssa? We could use her healing right about now. Maybe I'll drop by the House of the Silken Veil and make sure she's alright. You don't think Saul would've harmed her, do you?"
Amboy stands wide-eyed as he listens to Taton. He had spent a lot of time around sailors and pirates while at sea but none of them even came close to the vocabulary coming out of this man. Some of it was made sense but others things were not physically possible. He was going to have to write some of it down to study later.
Amboy declines Kwava's offer of the stew, "I want to clean up before I eat. Please tell us more about what you saw last night that lead you to us."
"It is as you say, Saul's ties to the criminal world seem much darker than first appearances. He has been cast out the crime lords but I believe he is harboring the renegade elf I seek. If you truly believe him innocent, I would still approach cautiously."\
He turns to Amboy.
"I tracked Saul to the wererats leader. Coin changed hand, and he left. I remained in the shadows, until the wererats left the building. Following them, I reached this area only to lose them, their familiarity with the area letting them escape my tracking for a time. It was the sounds of your combat that led me to rediscover them attacking you all."
Ryssa was hissing like an angry snake about to strike at the fool who had crushed its tail.
"So Saul tried to kill us off simply because he got greedy and paranoid! Ooooh! I am so going to sink my fangs into that fat neck of his and let him bleed slowly bleed to death...and then heal him so I can take him to the other priests of Calistria and let them decide what to do with him."
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"That is far too simple. I prefer a good flaying. Really lets you hear the screams." Taton preaches to a fellow true believer. "And then you carefully slice him so as not to cause too much bleeding, and show him what his entrails look like." Taton smiles, reminiscing.
"So, I have some provisions my elders gave me to aid those who fight the same evil I do. If you go back and face Saul, even if it takes days to do so, I can track my quarry once more. What say you all?"
Meghan jumps rather comically when Ryssa hisses and speaks her mind. "Where'd you come from?" she asks before hugging the tiefling and adding, "Never mind. You're here now, and that's all that matters. That fight was rough; the lads could use some healing and my magic well's run dry for the day."
"Nothing a good night's rest won't fix for me. I've had worse. The rest of them may need seeing to." He grunts, and he's obviously favoring one side, but he doesn't look like he's going to fall apart at any time soon.
Ryssa is a bit surprised by Meg's hug. She smiled after recovering.
"Thank you for the warm welcome Meg. But yes darling let's see what I can do to help out."
The tiefling had to admit that Meg was quite attractive.
"I am still not sure how Saul fits into all of this. There had to be a lot of better ways that he could have gotten rid of us. Why would he send us all to our deaths when we are the only ones protecting his casino?"
Amboy is still confused by the whole situation.
Turning to Kwava he says, "We could us all the help we can get. My daggers did nothing against those wererats. If we run into any more it may not go so well."
"Do you think maybe the mistress of the House of Silken Veils would know if Saul was up to something underhanded?" Meghan asks the others (Ryssa and Taton especially). "Doesn't she have connections to Riddleport's underworld?"
"I don't know whether they would or not, but I have contacts. Could ask around." Taton thinks of who other than Zincher would be a person to ask.
Ryssa nodded in agreement.
"It's best we hurry though. It won't be long for Saul to find out that his little ambush has failed against us," she cautioned.
Kwava digs around his supplies and hands off:
Ryssa: a wand of lvl 1 cure light wounds, Robe of Infinite Twine
Amboy: a single +1 dagger, Boots of the cat,
Taton:Cloak of resistance +1, Quick Runner's Shirt,
Meghan: Sleeves of many garments, Handy Haversack
Unbeugsam: +1 Longbow, 10 Silver headed arrows.
Taton, you know no crime organization is 100% loyal. If you track down some of the lower ranks in Zincher's gang, you could probalby threaten or pay them off for some reliable information.
Unbeugsam looks at the longbow and shrugs.
Do I look like an elf? A well.
"Um, thanks!"
Amboy looks at the dagger in awe. The balance is perfect and he can see that the edge is held by magic. A nice addition to his collection.
He slips on the boots and walks around a bit to test them. He can fell the magic running thru them into his legs.
Oh these will come in handy
"Thank you Kwava. I am sure that I will be putting these to the test soon"
Meghan is surprised by Kwava's generosity. She takes the items for now but tells the elf she'll be returning them if her independent research into the matter doesn't confirm his story of Saul's duplicity and betrayal.
The troubled bard says that she's heading back to town to ask for an audience with the high priestess of Calistria in the House of the Silken Veil; she hopes that lady, reputed to be a Riddleport crime boss herself, will know the truth about Saul and the recent goings-on at the Gold Goblin.
Meg enters the temple of ill-repute...but she doesn't come back out. Eventually, one of the sacred courtesans steps outside to address anyone waiting for the bard.
"Your golden girl is having the time of her life and asked me to tell you not to wait for her," the woman purrs. "Your friend also asked about some special training; that sort of thing can take days...." The lady's smile turns decidedly salacious as she adds, "...weeks, if she's lucky!"
While being indoctrinated into the wonders of the Calistrian faith, Meghan tries to wheedle any information she can out of her instructors regarding what Saul Vancaskerkin may have been up to recently...and if the allegations of the elf, Kwava, are based in fact or fiction.
Taton hits the streets, employing his various charms threats and lies to little effect. He grumbles about how people in this town used to fear him and how he needs to start kicking more people's hindparts so he gets the respect he deserves. Without a base of operations, he keeps mostly to the streets, and avoids the area surrounding the goblin for the time being.
Tural stays silent as his more vocal friends steal most of the spotlight, instead quietly working in his lab and making more concoctions, learning more about the outer planes in his spare time, and potentially even being persuaded into learning more about Calistra from his more religious friends. Truth be told, he's not sure if he could even say for sure where he spent most of the time, be it at the Gold Goblin or in the Calistran temple, or even the scattered libraries he could find and gain access to across the city. Or perhaps none of them. It just didn't really matter to him.
As the others take to the street to gather information, Amboy decides that the one that needs to be watched is Saul. He begins by watching The Golden Goblin and following Saul when he ventures out.
Amboy changes his garb to help him blend into the crowd while following Saul.
He keeps to the shadows when he can to better keep an eye on Saul.
He watches Sauls every move to catch anything that might give him a clue.