Saersha watched as the man operated the machine and found the whole process rather fascinating. She'd heard of these kinds of devices before but never actually seen one. When the drinks came out she paid the bartender and accepted the drinks. Saersha handed one to Embyr and then took a drink before humming in appreciation, "Mmm, this is quite good."
Saersha looked back to the bartender and replied to him, "You are quite correct sire, we are passing through with some friends and got rooms at the inn for our stay." Saersha reached out one hand to rest on Embyr's opposite hip and pulled her closer gently as she continued, "We were bathing when Embyr," she nodded towards her maid, "started to act strangely. It seems she may have been possessed by an entity of some kind against her will and we are trying to figure out what the entity was." Saersha took a drink of her iced drink and licked the foam from her lip with her tongue once she had finished, "From what I could find out you are the one to talk to if I want to find out who might be able to assist us." Saersh gave the bartender a lascivious grin and said, "Perhaps we could persuade you to point us in the right direction?"
Embyr leans into you as you pull her close, still sipping her drink. You notice that she's starting to blush and vibrate a little.
"A case of possession, eh?" Sullivan tilts his head at the cat-eared Embyr. "That's a bit strange--haven't had to deal with a case of possession for at least a few months now."
"Well, for all such cases, I'll need to identify just what sort of entity is responsible for this." His tone turns business-like.
Saersha noticed Embyr's blushing and vibrating as she held her close and felt slightly concerned that it was happening again. Having thought that Saersha did not notice the other indicators she saw before so she thought it was not the issue for now. Saersha leaned in closer and said, "Alright then, let us describe what happened..."
Saersha began to give the man the details she noticed quietly so they could keep others from overhearing them, they were a bit blurred, and she may have missed something given what they had been doing at the time. She started with the indicators when they first arrived that she found must be connected and then had Embyr repeat what she knew. She did ask Embyr when she first started to feel something and suspected that it might have been while they were still on the road.
Sullivan listens as you and Embyr speak, with Embyr's words coming out in a rapid-but-stumbling flow. Embyr actually provides more lurid details than you do, with the addition that her symptoms started after she received her cat ears and tail.
When you two finish, Sullivan gives Embyr a half-smile. "Well, first... is this the first time you've had an espresso, little lady?"
Embyr nods. Quite a few times. "Yep. Yep yep yep yep yep."
"Figures. Well, if you had a honey-do list for today, it'll be quicker to complete." He chuckles before his face turns serious.
"But on a more serious note, it sounds like your problem stems from some sort of outsider--not an undead creature, considering they can't really feel lust. At least, not most of them."
Saersha nodded in agreement with what the man had said about it likely being an outsider and not an undead, "Yes, I had already come to that conclusion as well and considering the effects the being had I would suspect some kind of being based on passion or lust of some kind." Saersha sighed and then added, "The only other thing I can thing of is that maybe it has to do with what gave her the cat features. I know the object was meant for short term use but since I have failed to inactivate it properly it has been in place far past it's normal timeframe...." Saersha paused thoughtfully and then had a mischievous grin as she said, "or maybe you went into heat like a cat My Pet."
Saersha quickly became more serious, given what was happening jokes were not really that appropriate. Saersha's gaze went back to the bartender and she asked, "Do you have any recommendation on who might be able to help?"
Embyr blushes and her ears fold when you mention her possibly going into heat. She turns back to her espresso.
"If it's that sort of help you're looking for, you've come to the right man." Sullivan nods. "I'll need to determine the exact type of outsider that's causing your girlfriend's problem..."
He ducks beneath the bar and returns with a clear glass vial and a sharpened, clean knife. "...and to do so, I'll need a sample of her blood."
Embyr winces.
But, she doesn't wince for long. The sound of a loud explosion comes from downstairs!
--------------------
Not long after the trio finishes purchasing their sleeves of many garments, the sound of a loud explosion rocks the showroom floor. The general chatter of mercantilism abruptly turns to screams of surprise and panic--and the heavy, rhythmic sounds of stomping and clinking echo above them all.
The source of the disturbance becomes clear. A large, rickety construction of glass tubing, metal and wood is standing over a destroyed merchant's kiosk--and over the singed bodies of several shoppers. Multiple round glass vials of sparking, sizzling and roiling liquids are attached to its limbs, and a preserved brain and eyeballs can be seen inside the glass skull it has for a head. Dozens of spiderweb cracks can be seen in the automaton's glass frame.
Its head turns--and it focuses on the three!
The glass... thing turns and unsteadily stomps its way towards the group!
Ulfr instinctively rolls his club off of his shoulders and into his waiting hands. He has zero idea what this thing is, but he knows that saving a shop or its keeper teens to lead to nice discounts. So with a battle roar that tingles along the nerves he charges into the thing before it can do any more damage!
Ulfr's club connects with a mighty CRASH! Glass shatters and flies everywhere from the impact--the creature's arm is mangled!
"Now that's a dramatic entrance!" shouts Azura over the crashing glass.
Azura steps back to let Ryn and Ulfr handle this one as she raises her voice in a celestial melody... but she doesn't go for the high C.
Feeling the rage of Ulfr's song fill her body, as she slips her shield onto her arm, Ryn explodes forward, throwing herself shield first, into the golem with reckless abandon.
Ryn crashes into the golem, breaking a few bits of glass on its other leg but not otherwise pushing it. That being said, she connected with the construct's knee joint and it's wobbling!
The golem swings its massive arms. One comes at Ulfr...
...and a glass sphere containing some supercooled chemical smashes across him!
The other comes down on Ryn!
Another frosted glass sphere crashes into Ryn, shattering and driving the wind from her chest!
Sullivan practically leaps over the bar. "Something's going on downstairs. Gonna check it out. You with me?"
The seal hide of her armor protecting her body from the alchemical cold, Ryn grunts from the force of the blow, shifting her weight and stepping around to deliver a devastating series of attacks, her shield smashing into the other leg, before she kicks off the golem's ankle to launch herself at the already damaged knee, her body flipping into a somersault to smash her heel into the construct's torso before her momentum takes her back to the ground amid a shower of falling glass.
The thing's attack hits like thrown furniture, with zero give or bend. He feels something give in his ribcage, but the magic of his song wards off the pain... For now.
Ulfr tries to step around to flank with Ryn as she goes into overdrive and rains blow after blow. Ulfr takes the opposite tack and plants his feet to deliver a single, mighty strike!
Azura keeps her song flowing in a rhythm that intertwines with Ulfr's percussive war-tune as she uses Ryn as cover from the alchemical constructs.
Saersha nodded swiftly and said, "Yes, we will help you." With that decided Saersha quickly followed teh man to see what was going on.
Ryn races in and delivers a series of punishing blows to the construct’s glass-clad leg joints, causing the alchemical behemoth to fall to its knees. Ulfr winds up—and with a mighty swing, shatters the golem’s glass head into a thousand powdered shards!
Moments later, a dark-haired half-elven man clad in black and gold robes hurries onto the scene with Saersha and Embyr at his heels.
”What happened here?!” He demands, his eyes looking from the party to the crumpled heap of glass, wood and sizzling alchemy.
Urfr takes a couple deep breaths to recover as his songs lingering effects still tingle in his limbs. Some aggressive marketing, I'd say. Very exciting! This is the best time I've had in a store since... Ever! And animating an entire selling counter! Oh man! This will make a great tale!
Ryn can't help but chuckle at Ulfr's response. "It looks like one of your alchemical...displays decided to animate and try killing your clientele. Not sure how good that is for business." she says looking at the man pointedly while shaking glass shards out of her hair.
Azura quickly moves to soothe Ryn and Ulfr's injuries.
Sullivan's eyes narrow. "Alchemical display--?"
Then his fists clench and he stamps his foot. "BLASTED SODDING ARDOCS!" He storms over to the destroyed golem and gives it a good kick. "The ONE THING The Wheel Unbroken ever commissions them for, and they KILL INNOCENT PEOPLE!"
He screams, his hands flying to his temples. A steady torrent of curses upon the Ardoc family's name, lineage and sexual potency flies in a tirade from his mouth, flowing from Common to Infernal to Ignan, Terran, Abyssal and even into Celestial (a language not commonly known for its invectives).
He takes a deep breath after his ranting, looking exhausted and forlorn. He turns to the party again. "Come upstairs, I owe the lot of you drinks."
Breathing a sigh of relief as the healing fixes most of the surface cuts from the glass creature, Ryn leads the way upstairs after the dark-haired half-elf.
Azura follows Ryn closely up the stairs, perhaps alarmed at the possibility of another random attack.
The second floor of the Wheel Unbroken contrasts sharply with the showroom and shops that make up the ground floor—here, the atmosphere is more of a particularly posh coffeehouse. What appears to be a circular bar carved of some glossy wood sits in the centre of the room, with a large machine made of brass pipes sitting behind it. Stools are arrayed around the bar, with tables and cushioned chairs scattered around the periphery. The staff and patrons go about dressed in decidedly skimpier attire than one would see in Magnimar—the staff dressed in short-sleeved gold and black tunics and breeches, with the other patrons (most of whom are evidently students of the arcane) dressing in even more daring fashions. Evidently, the Sarenith heat is making quite a nuisance of itself.
The half-elven gentleman settles in behind the bar and begins manipulating dials and valves on the brass-piped machine. "Bloody Ardocs have been making themselves more trouble than they've ever been worth around here." He grumbles. "Coming around here to complain about merchandise, acting up during lectures, going around whining about how women 'shouldn't dress so provocatively'--" He makes a gagging sound after saying that. "--and not even making proper golems anymore. Someone ought to teach those uppity pricks a lesson."
He places several glass cups beneath spigots on the brass machine--and steaming black liquid starts to pour from them. "Anyways, I owe the lot of you a debt. My name is Sullivan Gyre, and I'm the head of the Arcanist's Circle of Kaer Maga." He says with a half-smile. "Now, how do the lot of you like your espressos?"
Can't say. I don't know what that is. Ulfr says evenly. It was time for the silvered tongues here to do the talking, but this seemed like a fairly important man to have on their side of things.
"A dash of sweet cream for mine, please," says Azura. She points a thumb to Ulfr and says, "He'll have his black, with a dash of chocolatl and chile powder, if you have it."
Looking at the drink, she considers Azura's suggestions, considering the likely combination of flavors. "I think I'll try a combination of those two. The chocolatl and chile powder, but with a dash of sweet cream as well, please."
Sullivan makes the drinks according to the offered preferences and slides them before the party. "You'll not regret trying them--they're good for that extra boost of energy to get ya through the day."
"Now, I reckon I didn't catch your names." His gaze shifts from Azura to Ryn and Ulfr. "I've met your two friends already."
Azura delicately accepts the small espresso mug and says, "I'm Azura, and this is my partner Ryn, and our companion warsinger Ulfr. If you've already met Saersha and Embyr then you have some notion that we're a bunch of oddballs, but in this city, that's not saying much."
"Is, uh, this sort of construct attack a regular happening, or... ?"
Ulfr sips the drink and tries to hide a sudden internal conflict. It's hot dirt with sugar and spice. Bitter and sweet in one. It lies to itself.
It's vile.
He does his best not to show his displeasure and focuses on the conversation at hand.
...because if it is I might come more often. he jokes.
Azura winces ever so slightly as she realizes that she did Ulfr no favors.
Ryn takes a sip of the hot drink, getting a slightly surprised expression as she looks down at it, then smiling as she takes another sip.
Saersha looked at the destruction downstairs, then to her friends who were involved, than to the Sullivan, and tried to decide if she should know these people or not. When she heard him start ranting and cursing the name of the family that built the construct that went rogue she relaxed a little, she covered her mouth and giggled when she started cursing in celestial, that was always amusing to hear happen.
When he invited tehm all to ahve a drink she followed, her hand around Embyr's waist again and took a seat as he made them all something. She nodded in agreement with Azura's comment about them all being a bit odd and added, "And proud of it."
Embyr happily leans into Saersha's embrace.
"Unfortunately, I wish I could say this was not a regular occurrence." Sullivan grumbles. "Nowadays, it seems that it's more noteworthy when an Ardoc construct doesn't have something wrong with it."
"And the worst part is, people don't seem to care. Or, at least, they're resigned to the Ardocs being the only ones building constructs in Kaer Maga--any competition they get is 'mysteriously'--" He makes quotation marks with his fingers. "--found dead or otherwise no longer in town."
"That's... how is that allowed?" asks Azura before she sips at her espresso. "I guess the Ardocs are influential enough that nobody will move against them? When did this start happening?"
"Has any of this gotten the attention of the City Watch?" Ryn asks.
Sullivan arches an eyebrow. "...you are new here in Kaer Maga, aren't you?"
"The Asylum Stone's not got a 'City Watch'." The arcanist makes quotation marks with his fingers. "Each district of the city is kept orderly by whichever organization's claimed it for its own--the Augurs have Downmarket, my own Arcanist's Circle claims domain over Tarheel, the Commerce League operates out of Ankar-Te..."
His expression turns to a sneer. "...the bloody Ardocs keep hold of Bis... and don't even get me started on f$%~ing Widdershins..."
He clears his throat. "The Ardocs, as I recall, have been here for a few generations now. They're entrenched--and they've stopped giving a rat's bloody arse."
"Ah, so they make the rules, and are free to break them whenever they want." Ryn says with a touch of disgust.
”So long as they don’t break any of the other factions’ rules on their turf, yes.”
Bigger stick diplomacy and deceit. That's usually how these groups run. This entire city is one big gang war waiting to happen. Ulfr grumbles. He's suddenly very much aware of the metaphorical knife they're all balancing on. And if one group looks weak for even a moment, people die.
"Wait," says Azura, lowering her espresso back onto its tiny saucer. "How many factions are there? Who controls what here?"
"Sorry to give away our ignorance, but... yeah. We're a little new. Of course we can handle alchemical constructs, so hopefully that will dissuade folks from trying to take advantage of us on the assumption that we are easily misled." She gives the mage a wink.
Sullivan puts a hand on his chin. "There's about eleven factions here in Kaer Maga."
"I reckon you've already met the Duskwardens--they're responsible for keeping the underground travel routes safe for trade and such."
"I'm the head of the Arcanist's Circle here in Tarheel Promenade."
"The Ardocs keep the Bis district under their control." His brow furrows into a sneer for a moment.
"If it's prophecies or divinations you're interested in, the Augurs have staked a claim in Downmarket. They're a professional lot--so long as you don't mind them disembowling themselves for their auguries."
"You can find Bloatmages in Tarheel, but otherwise they're mostly a solitary bunch."
"There's the Brothers of the Seal--an order of monks based in the Oriat district, who're supposed to protect some magical seal deep under the city. They've..." He winces. "...split in two because they can't remember why they're supposed to protect their seal anymore."
"The Commerce League is..." He sighs. "...well, have you heard of the Council of Thieves? Well, they're like that, but smaller-scale and a lot more trade-based in-fighting. They mainly operate in the Core, but I've got a few people who say they're based out of Ankar-Te."
"The Freemen are probably the most conventionally welcoming towards newcomers--they're a band of slaves who slaughtered the orc tribe who intended to sell them. Now, they make the Bottoms their stomping ground, helping escaped slaves adjust to their new freedom and freeing more where they can."
"Then there's the Iridian Fold." Sullivan scratches his head. "Nobody knows much about them--they go two-by-two, one man in veils and the other in chains. They fight as paired warriors, and they're damn good."
"Up next are the Sweettalkers." He snickers. "They're more or less Kaer Maga's official tour guides and bankers. You want to find one, look for the gentlemen with the topknots and stitched-closed mouths."
"Finally, there's the Tallow Boys." Sullivan scratches his head again. "If you see a young joyboy trying to earn your custom, odds are he's a Tallow Boy. You pay for his time, just be prepared for all of your secrets to be pried out of you--they're damn fine information brokers."
"If it's prophecies or divinations you're interested in, the Augurs have staked a claim in Downmarket. They're a professional lot--so long as you don't mind them disembowling themselves for their auguries."
"That...can't be sustainable...unless they have a large number of healers among them I guess." Ryn says shaking her head."[/b]
”Well, it certainly helps that they’re all trolls.”
"Okay, that makes sense...if you don't think about it too much." the gladiatrix replies, shaking her head.
"Hmm, that's a lot to remember," says Azura. "Thanks for the breakdown, though."
"Anyway... you had something in mind regarding all of this? You didn't invite us up for espresso just to gripe about the Ardocs."
Saersha continued to hold Embyr as they talked with Sullivan about the city's problems and made mental notes of what he told them. There were a number of interesting groups in the city but the mention of the bloat mages and a seal below the city caught her immediate attention. That sounded suspiciously like it might be connected to a Runelord and likely was where they were ultimately going to have to go.
None of what he had to say helped with the reason she and Embyr came here but it was good information to have. Azura, when she finally spoke, got right to the heart of the matter and began directing the conversation towards what he wanted from them. Saersha approved.
"...aye, that I do." Sullivan's eyes flash with a wicked grin.
"See, the thing about the Ardocs is they're not in as lock-step as they'd like the rest of Kaer Maga to believe. They're currently in something of a blood feud with the Augurs--or, rather, one of their sons is." Sullivan paces back and forth behind his bar.
"Berkanin's his name--Berkanin Ardoc. He's made a name for himself as a blend of construct-crafting prodigy and reckless t+*$-about-town. Word on the street is he's managed to kidnap an Augur right off the steps of their own temple and spirited him away to his laboratory in Bis. If you can free their kidnapped brother, I reckon they'll be happy to lend you their aid in whatever you're doing here."
The mage's grin turns upside-down. "After that, you'd be well-advised to keep out of Kaer Maga's politics--they chew gawks up and spit 'em out."
"So... find Berkanin Ardoc, find where he's keeping his captive, and free them, returning him to his family in exchange for their aid." Ryn summarizes, checking of the tasks before them on her fingers.