Ya dont pick a fight with me if ya aint ready to get yarself smashed. But ah, just take one of tha guys blinded Eberac grunts as he closes to another bandit and hits the kneecaps
Jack reaches to his back and draws a large bouie knife and tosses it underhand in a smooth motion at the closest of the brigands. Aiming not for a killing blow but to incapacitate the brutes shooting arm.
"That will be quite enough of that!"
Tex and Eberac tag-team another of the bandits, each striking one of his kneecaps, and he howls in pain as he drops to the ground, rolling around. Jack tosses his knife at the other bandit, but it thuds into the wall of the establishment. The brigand on the floor writhes about, his gun dropped as he grabs at his shattered knees. His last standing ally, still blinded, turns and fires wildly toward where he thinks the knife came from--but he's aiming for someone roughly his own height, and the bullet flashes over Jack's head, cracking into the roof across the street. Meanwhile, the bandit who was thrown off the porch comes to with a groan, trying--and failing--to push himself to his feet.
The door to the saloon bursts open as a singularly surly and homely dwarf woman kicks her way out, a double-barreled shotgun in hand. "Just what in the hell is going on out here?"
As the Dwarf woman comes bursting out armed, Aren whips out his hand and slams power into her, without really thinking about it.
He then looks around at the group to see if no one notices.
"Whoa, whoa!" Tex says, placatingly, putting up his hand, still holding his pistol by the barrel. "I just wanted a drink and some conversation, ain't from 'round these parts. Reckon these fellas don't like dwarves or somethin'."
Eyes bulging out for a moment as he saw the attractive dwarf lady, gives a fast glancing look at the bandit before giving a fast "love" nudge with his axe to the bandit
"Ay, sorry for da... ah, mess here. Just tryign to clean trash out and well... I dont really like the way these boys tried to treat us" Eberac mutters as he lowers his axe down and glances to Tex
Startled at the appearance of what he figures is just a concerned citizen, Jack ducks down to take what modacome of cover that is afforded by the boarded walkway in front of the bar. Still keeping an eye on the thugs, he readies the words of an Acid Orb to launch at any of them that want to continue fighting.
Tex begins to raise his pistol, but Aren's reflexive assault makes the dwarf woman's brow furrow in concentration, and Eberac's swing is fairly obvious even if it doesn't connect. "Take yer conversation and go to hell!" the dwarf shouts. Jack flings a glob of acid her way as she raises the shotgun, and it splashes across her shoulder and lower face, raising a spray of acrid smoke and a shout of pain.
The shotgun blast is certainly loud, but wildly off the mark thanks to the timely acid splash--in her pain, the dwarf jerks up too far, and the lead sprays into the porch's overhang roof. The other bandit, still firing blindly, only puts another round in the floorboards as he staggers about. Off the porch, the wounded bandit finally manages to get to his feet, and stumbles forward, apparently trying to get away.
Aren will swing his pistol at the staggering bandit and say "Bang."
"Well, it was worth a shot," Tex mutters before spinning his pistol and offhandedly legging the staggering bandit.
That done, he takes another step towards the dwarf woman. "Ma'am, you're outnumbered, outgunned, and you're harboring a criminal element." He puts the hammer back on his pistol. "Put down the twelve-gauge. Last chance."
Muttering to himself how crazy womenfolk can get, Eberac just grumbles as the shot goes on wild and runs towards the dwarf woman to tackle her down
Orb to the remaining thugs who deem to keep firing.
Reflex 14
acid damage
Aren is quick to notice the bandit he'd pushed from the porch get to his feet, and he turns to put him down. He can tell that his mental assault wasn't the strongest, but the ruffian was clearly on his last legs: as he's hit with the mental thrust, his strength gives out, and collapses to the ground.
On the porch, Tex easily puts a bullet through the remaining bandit's knee, and he tumbles to the ground with a holler, where Jack's acid finishes him off. The dwarf woman looks hesitant for a moment, but she hauls back the second hammer on her shotgun... and is promptly piledrived by Eberac. The pair of dwarves tumble to the floor, the shotgun clatters away, and the woman lets out a scream. "Get off me! I'm done fightin'!"
"Y'sure?" Tex asks with a bawdy grin. "Y'all look like you're havin' fun down there." However, once the woman actually gets back up he will discretely hand her a couple of coins. "I weren't kiddin' about the drinks," he says. "Little extra for yer trouble, as it happens. Sorry 'bout the misunderstandin'."
While Tex is talking, Jack moves the the thugs and disarms them and checks if any are alive.
He also checks them for valuables.
Eberac slowly moves away from the woman as his eyes wanders to the shotgun and then back "Aya missus, ma apologies for dat but, well, its kinda nervous to be pointed by boomsticks at you. just... better be safe than sorry, ay? I hope there be no bad blood" Eberac speaks out as he moves out and wipes dust out of his clothes
The dwarf woman pushes herself to her feet, muttering curses in Dwarven and giving the posse the stink eye--or maybe just looking at them, it's hard to say. "Keep yer stinkin' money," she barks, and then spits onto one of the bodies. "You just dried up my business and marked yourselves dead men all in one go. Now get off my porch." With a final scowl, she returns inside the establishment, breaking open the shotgun as she steps through the door.
Jack checks over the ruffians, and while they don't have much in the way of valuables on them--pouches with a handful of copper pennies each, working but worn revolvers and knives--a couple are still breathing. The one that dropped from Eberac's hit to the tenders isn't likely to want to move much any time soon, nor is the man who had both kneecaps shattered by the dwarves. The other two aren't so well off, as it seems the magical assaults from Aren and Jack were too much for their already wounded bodies to bear.
"Seems we got a couple that are beyond tending to. These two though are still breathing. What do you Coasters do with yer dead. Should we build em a pyre, maybe some words?"
Jack relieves the rogues of their revolvers and coppers. Figuring to sell the weapons to pay for any clean up that may be required.
"We should make them talk." Aren nods for the others to grab the still living ones while he scoops up one of the corpses and then starts looking around for a place to interrogate them.
Aren glances around, but he doesn't see anywhere that looks ripe for an interrogation. Most of the buildings in Phandalin are either stores or homes, and very much being used. The abandoned, rundown mansion up the road looks empty, but at the same time, it's a little ways outside of town, and who knows what it's like inside.
Tex nods along with the woman's tirade. He sighs, plunking down five gold coins on her windowsill. "For what it's worth, 'm sorry," he says. "'Bout your porch." Taking a step down off and gripping the wounded bandit by the collar, he quietly adds, "And yer damn face."
Sniffing and staring off, he glances around with Aren, looking for a place to hole up with them for a minute.
"Bury 'em mostly," he says looking down to Wallaby. "Usually with their guns, if they ain't got no next of kin to claim 'em. If'n you don't mind." Looking at the wounded, he shrugs. "But we probably ain't got the time for it right now."
Shrugging, Jack pulls the deaders over to the side and lines them up side by side. Placing their pistols in the holsters and hands together over their chests. Finally placing two coppers over their eyes. "Sorry fellas, somewhere along the line you made the bad choices that put you where you are now. May yer gods look to yer souls. " With that Jack catches up to the others. "We could always try to fool this lot into thinking I'm one of them. I could use magic to make it believable. Just like in the goblin cave. "
"I just figured we could "torture" one of the dead ones out of sight to convince them to cooperate with us." says Aren.
"Ah, best way be me, ma fists and da crook alone for 5 minits. I recon dat boyo will be talking like a sweet birdy after I have handled his tender meat approp... apropro... well, tended to it"
"Put him in an alley then, I reckon," says Tex, still looking around for an appropriate place. "If nothing else, just git 'im done on the porch of the bar. Reckon the ugl--uh, that there innkeeper ain't comin' back out."
"Very well Eberac, let's do things your way."
Eberacs face flashes like a glow mushroom at night, grin appearing on his face and happy expression as he stretches his hands and the knuckles makes snapping sounds "Oh boy, a meatbag on da menu. Let us move a bit further away and I can give da guy some special love~~"
Tex smiles grimly, gesturing to the emptiest looking alley in eyesight. "Well, let's get to it," he says, dragging the captive. He clears his throat as he lets Eberac walk and smile down at the bandit. Time for a round of good dwarf, bad dwarf. "Y'know, most dwarves these days? Awful civilized folk. My kin? They mostly make guns--they're gentry back in Neverwinter. Ever heard of Powderblack revolvers? Great stuff, real quality, handmade, none of that mass production garbage." He stands over the bandit, looking down, setting one foot on the poor bastard's shoulder.
"Back before that though? Dwarves were powerful wild folk. Lived off the land, in the land, under it. Used to say dwarves would wrestle bears, fight orcs in the dark, sluff off punches from everything nature could throw at 'em." Tex spits off to one side, leaning down a little so the bandit can see his face. "Mr. Blackcoal here, he still wild. Trapper. Hardy folk no matter what race they is, since they's out there in the cold dealin' with the wild all the time. But a dwarf trapper? Hoo boy. Hooooowhee." He beckons for Eberac to come closer. "Now let me tell ya here, I'm gon' let Eberac beat the s*$@ outta you, boy. He goes too far," Tex brushes his badge with a finger. "I call on the good lord Heironeous, we bring you back up, we go at it again. Now, whoever's up there in the mansion, well, they're probably gon' die. But you tell us who they is and how many they is and we're gonna give you a black eye and send you on your way. How you wanna do it?"
Once the bandit talks, Tex lets Eberac wail on him as long as he feels like, only pulling him off if he thinks the bandit's gonna die.
The posse decides, ultimately, to drag the remaining bandits to an alley, and after a short search they find one that doesn't look occupied or too close to someone's home. Once they wake one up, Eberac and Tex launch into a bad marshal/slightly-better-marshal routine, and the bandit seems to be somewhat aquiver with fear... but just how much is he about to spill?
Jack stays out of the alley as a lookout but mostly because he doesn't have much of a taste for what's going on in the alley.
Eberac is all the happy dwarf he can be as he does final stretching and aims his fist towards the mans cheekbone
It doesn't take long for the unfortunate Redbrand to crack under dwarven pressure--a few threats, a couple cracked ribs, and pretty soon the man's only too happy to talk. Among his words are many sniffles and a good deal of sobbing and pleading, but he has a fair bit of useful information.
Firstly, the man confirms that the Redbrands are holed up in the ruins of the manor, primarily in the cellars of the place. He says there are some nine other Redbrands there, along with their leader, a mage he refers to as Glasstaff--"On account o' his magic staff is made o' glass!" That's not all there is in the cellars, though: the thug also lets on that the Redbrands have had dealings with someone called the Black Scorpion, who's paid them to cow the townsfolk and frighten "adventurous types" to stay away from the area. To assist with this goal, this Black Scorpion sent some extra muscle to reinforce the brigands: three bugbears. He also mentions a monster that lives in one of the caverns beneath the manor, "an awful beast with a big, horrid eye in its head!" Finally, he mentions that in a crypt beneath the house, the Redbrands have some captives from the town, and skeletons help to guard them from intruders.
He comes to a sniveling end and stares up at Tex and Eberac, a broken man. "So," he sniffs, "now what? You'll let me go?"
Aren is also interested in the answer to that question, but says nothing.