Andrea just sits down and faces away, not knowing what to do any more.
Orsin places a hand on Andrea's shoulder. "Thank you," he begins slowly, "For what you were about to do. This whole thing--this whole city--is a mess."
"We'll...we'll get through it though."
Andrea places her hand on Orsin's hand and lightly squeezes. Thank you for believing in me.
Grimm drags the man to his feet and outside, locating John looking like the Animated suit he is.
We're done with him. Confiscate his contract and let's give him to the dottari. That Maurice fella looked honest.
"Well, well it's the Mayor. Half the city has been looking for you. Looks like you have a few questions to answer>" The Sergeant looks at the group and nods appreciatively. "We'll take him from here."
Thank you. Please make sure he is taken to Lord Tilneros.
Andrea turns to the others once the mayor is lead off. I believe we should head back and scout the area and see if we can rescue any people who were caught near the explosion, then we should decide just how we will deal with the manor and what is inside. Is this agreeable?
After not so gently handing the mayor over to the Sergeant, Grimm is happy to return to the real work they can here for.
Sounds like a plan, plus there may be bad stuff in there waht needs killin.
Faelyn watches the group in astonishment. Best to just let them figure this out.
"Where are you heading now?
We will be heading back to see if we can find any missing people like Sascar Tilnaros and see if we can learn more about what is going on. Andrea looks at the columns of fire. We will try to be back soon but try to get word to Grumm or Talbard and tell them what we are doing, they will know who to pass the word to.
Andrea will leave when the others are ready.
"Aye, word'll reach 'em when we can. Shift'll be long today but don't worry. Good luck."
As the group approaches from one of the access roads you see a hastily erected barricade of lumber, wagons, rain barrels, and crates blocks off the street leading into the ruined plaza beyond. Numerous spears and sharpened lengths of wood protrude through the barricade to aim at the plaza, and a stack of wooden boxes and blocks on the left side allow access to the top of the wall should someone wish to drop down into the plaza on the other side.
Having rejoined the group with Lucrezia, Truk follows along through the warzone.
"What are the barricades keeping out?"
Probably any looters or creatures that might have appeared when everything blew up. Andrea will head to the barricade with the others, looking for the guards Maurice talked about.[/b]
You see several guards totally six dottari and led by a single captain stand guard at the barricade. They look restless and jumpy as you approach. They have weapons drawn,some have crossbows, other have spears and a few have their swords out. "who goes there...state your business" as you to get 30 feet away.
Your heading towards the ruined mansion compound and the surrounding area. You are approaching the inner perimeter set up by the dottari.
"Who we are isn't important", Truk answers. "Just know that we're here to get to the bottom of that blast that rocked the city a few minutes ago. What happened here? What are the barricades for?"
"No trespassing...enough riff-raff trying to loot." One of he guards responds in a distinctly terse unfriendly voice.
Faelyn attempts to stay at the back of the group as to not draw attention to himself.
Truk finds himself rapidly running out of patience.
"Listen whelp. If I were here to loot, I would have already taken whatever I wanted from your sorry ass. Westcrown is on fire and we don't have time for this. Answer my questions before I give you a lot more to worry abou than riffraff."
The big orc clenches his fists and growls as he approaches.
Andrea was about to pull out the letter Maurice gave them but Truk's impressive show seemed poised to either get them through or start a fight.
We have a letter from the Dottari sergent Maurice to let us through and search for any survivors of the explosion.
"Halt you are under arrest." The sound of two crossbolts directed at the abrasive half-orc.
;
;
The remaining squad assumes a position to withstand an onslaught.
Truk rolls his eyes as the dottari act like the fools they are.
The captain looks up at Andrea when she mentions the Sgt's name. Halt he repeats," then orders his guards to, "Hold fire." After the initial round of bolts are released.
Lucrezia hangs back and moves over towards Truk as Andrea takes the note to the captain and speaks quietly to him.
"You ok Trouble? Those guards are probably spooked enough by everything going on that they would likely shoot at their own shadows."
"Yeah, I'm okay Beautiful. The dottari are as bad of shots as they are at protecting the city", Truk whispers back. "I'm starting to wonder if this place is even worth saving."
"There are plenty of people here who aren't worth saving and who I would gladly let burn along with the city. What you have to think of though is all the ones who haven't asked to be here and who don't have the option of fleeing the city because they are either too poor or are slave and have no freedom."
The Capt looks at the note, then glances back at the group, then back at the note, mumbling to himself. "Yeah it looks official. You could've just presented this in the first place, people are on edge around here." He fold the note and hands it back to Andrea, motioning you all forward.
"Of course you're right Beautiful. Sometimes I need to be reminded is all. We put with all of this for them."
The Capt looks at the note, then glances back at the group, then back at the note, mumbling to himself. "Yeah it looks official. You could've just presented this in the first place, people are on edge around here." He fold the note and hands it back to Andrea, motioning you all forward.
Andrea turns back to the others. Let's go, thank you captain. Andrea will continue on with the others when they are ready.
Grimm gives the soldiers a nod. He couldn't begrude them for doing thier job...
The Capt nods, "Good Luck."
Truk says nothing but glares at the captain and his fool dottari as he passes with the others.
"Which door should we enter through? The front entrance or should we circle around the whole place first for a look? Once we enter, shall we clear each floor at a time or head to any certain area first?"
Here is the current map, its 1 hex = 10 feet so I only put 3 characters on the map. The barricade is the dark area directly behind the characters.
You can not see the second squad of dottari across the way from your angle but you know they are there from your conversation with Maurice.
Where once stood the eccentric reaches of the mayoral manor, a strange house known locally as Aberian’s Folly, now stand only ruins. Much of the manor has been reduced to rubble, although to the east it appears that the ground floor of the house may have survived. A vast crater, strewn with rubble and what appears to be melted rock, sits in the center of what was once the building’s grounds, ninety feet across and twenty feet deep. Surrounding the crater are five churning pillars of fire, arranged in a pentagram shape around the central crater and each rising from a point about fifteen feet off the ground directly above a scorched pit. While the roaring of the flames is nearly deafening, no apparent heat radiates from the five towering vortexes.
Well they said the manor was mostly destroyed so we will no doubt just need to look for the big hole. The entrance to the spiral was in the main hall from what we were told so we just head to where we had the feast oh way back when.
Andrea looks grimly at the devestation. We should avoid those, it looks like the ground floor of the manor is mostly intact, if that is where the big door was, then we should head that way, but we can search the rest of the grounds for survivors as well.
"Well, damn."
Lucrezia take a moment to stare out at the smoking hole.
"Anyone have an opinion on what those pillars are there for?"
Hmm..
Andrea suddenly thinks she worships Abadar.
Might be because of the pit fiend, but other than that, I don't know.
Andrea you are certain it's not an on-going spell, the spirals of flame could be religious in nature but you are not certain.
Andrea shakes her head. It appears to be no spell I have ever seen. Andrea considers. If the manor is mostly intact, we could use it as a base to check out the surrounding area. Right now we are pretty much hanging in the wind out here.
"I'm wondering if whether or not it's safe to enter the perimeter set up by the pillars? I'd really hate to set off a nasty spell or be fired to a crisp or anything. I guess maybe we should be investigate outside of that area for now."
Right, for all we know, we would get sucked into the Nine Hells if we go there.
As you look over the destruction and get your bearings you start to orient yourself with the layout. The ruins of Aberian’s Folly are, for the most part, little more than that—ruined shells of rooms and crumbled roofs. The manor’s numerous fireplaces, even when half collapsed, are in most parts of the ruins the only indication of where rooms once stood. Even the entrance to the Asmodean Knot has been destroyed. The only portion of the manor to have escaped utter destruction is the ground floor of the eastern wing ("E" on the map)
One of the guards comes up to the group when assessing the damage. "Not only has the mayor's house been damaged but he points over to another area, the Mhartis family, house was hit hard. They were loyal to the Mayor, their guardhouse looks a bit suspicious with activity but can't get the other lieutenant to check it out. We are forbidden to leave our area till we get more reinforcements." He points towards the area where the other dottari group is located.
"Then there is the Rasdovian family which is, also, loyal to the Mayor Arvanxis," He points across the way. "Nobody's answering at the Gatehouse. Someone mentioned the whole family was out of town...lucky I suppose,but doesn't square why the guards would be gone. Fear." He shivers a bit,"gonna be afraid in couple hours at night fall."
"Hmmm, either lucky or suspicious. Forewarning would explain why even their guards are absent. Though if there are all gone there might not be any reason to go investigate over there. Perhaps we should check out the Mhartis family's guardhouse? At least holler over at them and see how they are doing."
For certain, it looks like near everyplace will be open to hunting by the Shadowbeasts now that the buildings are wrecked. Looks like the manor or the Mhartis estate would be good places to set up in.
Andrea nods to Lucrezia. I agree, even if they 'somehow' got out, they seem to be something we can put off for now. Let's check the Mhartis out.