Blood Under Absalom -- A Multitable PbP special (GM Hmm's table) (Inactive)

Game Master Hmm

"Gray maid costumes...a woman in gray did tell me the baths were ready. Obviously she set this all up."

"Can someone wake them up? Or at least figure out how long they will be asleep?" Sheela rattles off. "This isn't my first time getting ambushed when trying to sleep. Some Houses love to hire assassins after you expose their treachery."

Mort will lift one up and give him/her a shake. "Wake up! Wake up already! Is anyone here a nurse or something? A doctor? I'm far better at taking heads off than helping them stay on..." He shrugs his shoulders at the innkeeper. "Don't blame me!"

Sophia's temper had slightly gotten the better of her.

"Oops..well, you -did- want to see why it was locked.
What's the door, to the rumor of clients being murdered, if they succeeded?"

"Yeah, like, it's obvious who did this. Look at the darts! The bathtub perverts strike again..." She kneels up to one of the sleeping maids and sees if she can do anything about the poison, or even if she can determine if the darts are poisonous at all.

Heal: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17

"Don't forget, we've still got one of them tied up upstairs," Corona points out. "Hopefully we can wake these poor people up and between them and the prisoner put the whole story together."

She gives the innkeeper a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "It's okay, New Friend. We'll get it all sorted out and cleaned up, good as new!"

"Yes, like my good friend Corona says I know we can figure out what their motives are." And if not then she can join her friends napping in the sewers now.

"Ah-ha!" The grippli holds her index finger up, and with her eyes closed, she spouts her knowledge. "They've been poisoned with Sanguinaria canadensis, commonly known as Bloodroot. Symptoms typically include erratic behaviour, loss of appetite, stupor... and coma! Let's hope it hasn't harmed them that much yet. It's definitely going to take a few days of bed rest for them to get better, even if we heal them."

"Ah...so pretty much the symptoms of people who have drank too much.
Why not call it the drunkness drug?"

"Days? Wow. Good thing we weren't poisoned." Sheela looks quizzically. "What are we waiting for? Let's heal them. And by we I mean a medical expert, which I am not."

Mort rubs his side uncomfortably "Do you know how long it takes for that poison to work? I got shot with one of those darts when that crazy woman jumped out of my tub, stung a little but nothing serious." He pulls down his towel a touch to show the now healed puncture.

"I don't feel drunk, but if the situation was different I sure wouldn't mind tying on a good one, like Hiro here."

"Er.. I, um, forgot to get a wand over at the Lodge" Tiffany says as she rifles through her pack looking for something she know she doesn't have. "I won't be able to heal them. Mort, the effects usually occur instantly, especially if that dart hit a vein! But you seem fine, so it must have barely went in." She gives Mort a thumbs up.

"Eh, I has smelling salts, yes I does..." The Proprietor goes rummaging around the shelves until he finds a jar full of stinky salt. He hands it, still capped, to all of you. "I keeps it on hand when drunks pass out to get them on their feet again. By the way, I'm Walter. I reckon we're both in this together, finding out what happened here."

Who do you wake up first?

Mort's vote is to wake up the maids first and get their side of the story.

"Hey now, that reminds me.. I found this maid's costume under my mattress after I got outta the tub. I was hoping it was a spare set of pants but this guy doesn't wear a dress."

He takes a sniff from the jar "DAMN! Cleans out your head quick! I gotta get some of this stuff." Hrm, maybe he won't notice if I end up with this after we get this figured out...

"Well, let's wake them up, then." Sheela waits. She takes a look at Mort and smile. "You look quite fitting in that dress, Mort."

Walter looks Mort over. "You're taller than I am, and skinnier too, but I can give you a night shirt while we get your clothes washed. Still... I thought you adventurer types always used prest -- er -- how do you say that, again? The thing where you wiggle your hands and your clothes get clean?"

The maids are very groggy when they wake up, and several of them grab for blankets in the supply closet to dress themselves with. "Who are you? Wha's happened?" She looks a little drunk and disoriented, but is talking now.

Sophia moves over to the brooding looking Hiro.

"コインはあなたを悩ます、そうじゃない？ 他の人の中には、どこかからそれを認識しているようです。 それらを尋ねることは、これにいくつかの光を当てるかもしれません。"

Mort looks down at Walter, deep down, and flexes his chest muscles, one then the other "Do these look like the muscles of someone who casts spells? Hrrmmm?" He eyes him up one last second then his facial expression changes drastically "Sure I'll borrow that nightshirt if your staff can clean my clothes quickly enough. They just need to be dried." He smiles and helps up the staff one at a time. "On your feet ladies!"

"We're concerned guests - and New Friend Walter, of course," Corona smiles as she helps one of the women cover up. "We uhm...found you all here in the closet. Since some of us got attacked by bathtub ninjas earlier we figured the two things might be related, so we wanted to ask some questions! It's okay, you're not gonna get in trouble," she adds, trying to be comforting.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12

Yorad keeps quiet as Mort and the ladies interrogate the maids. His eyes rove over their faces trying to determine how truthful their explanations are. That one...she can bathe me anytime!

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17

"As Corona said, we're here to help. We just want to know who stuck a dart in your neck."

Hiro turns to Sophia. "このコインは、私が会った人の一部でした。彼らは私を募集しようとした。彼らは恐ろしく無礼な名前を持っていた：「おしっこおしっこ？タルダンはとても混乱し ており、人々は最もひどいことを誇りに思っています。彼らはこれらのようなヘビで青銅のバッジを着ていた。"

The staff members are grateful for the help up. "There were these ladies... They said they wanted to rent a room with a bath. Asked me if I could show them a room before they rented it, so I showed them and then..." The maid rubs the back of her neck. "I think they jumped me."

Walter calls lends the huge night shirt to Mort, while other staff members take Mort's clothes to be washed. "What am I supposed to do with these bodies? Call the town guard?" He looks unhappily at the headless corpses. "Why'd these women come after you like this?"

Mort takes the night shirt/moo moo and drops it down over his head, then retrieves his clothes sending them to be washed. He pulls out his belt first and uses it to cinch down his new lounge dress.

"Do with them however you want I guess. Someone hired them because they're sore losers. Some people just don't know when to give up and go home you know? No sense throwing good money after bad if you know what I mean."

"Oh, you ever been to the Hanafuda? Where is that, I hear there's a play or something going on soon and a fine wealthy lady has invited me to escort her... Is there much of a dress code?" Bluff: 1d20 + 6 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 6 + 1 = 27

"Sure, call the guards, have them clean this up." Sheela isn't very keen on procedure. "You ladies will need to rest for a bit, alright?"

"Like Mort said, we won a contest. I guess the losers didn't like that, so they hired assassins. They infiltrated your wait staff to ambush us, but that's where their competence ends."

Sheela takes a sideways glance at Yorad.
Sense Motive: 1d20 ⇒ 15
Ah, Yorad. I have just the right person for him- but it will be a bit.

"If there is a dress code, I wouldn't mind dressing up. Hopefully the tailors have something nice on this short notice." A look of realization washes over Sheela. "Oh! I forgot to pick up my dress from home before departing! I'll have to buy a new one, too."

Tiffany thought she saw a sparkle in the window and remained silent for most of the discussion, then perks up when Walter asks for a motive. "Duuuuuhhh, they wanted the vase! What else could be their reason for hiding in a bathtub? Who even does that?" She scoffs.

They jumped her? Did they really? She seems uncertain.

Tiffany sizes up the maid.
Sense Motive: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (11) + 5 = 16

"Ohhh, that's right...that's tomorrow, isn't it? I hope we don't have to dress up; all I have are my travel clothes," Corona frets. "And yes, we should probably call the guards...it's probably not a good idea to dump bodies out back, right?"

"Oh, don't worry about that- I can buy you dresses. You'd look good with a Rose-tinted dress, I'd say."

Mort looks to Sheela, as it 'seems' like this could be an area she's familiar with. "Do you know any tailors that could put me something together that would be reasonable for the occasion quickly?"

"Oh, yes. There's one tailor for men. He sells chocolate on the side, and he's what I would call a 'Crisis Tailor.' Especially for big boys like you! It won't be cheap, though. And I hope you like rose motifs."

Yorad nods in agreement. "Looks like Mort and I are in the same boat here. Hope I have enough coin left for something clean."

Sophia does not seem to be around so...

Click. Whirr.

BOTTING SOPHIA

"Hiro here has been telling me something interesting about this coin..."

She translates the contents of the Tien spoiler.

Sheela can't help but giggle at Sophia's translation. "Butt Pee? That doesn't make much sense. But if they have these snake coins...anyone knows who these belong to?"

She shows the coin to Mort and Yorad. "You two see to understand the less savory gangs. What group does this represent?"

I really have to learn Tien...

Knowledge: Local: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11 Is that high enough to recognize them as Aspis symbols?

Mort takes the coin and looks over the symbols "Seems familiar doesn't it..."

Knowledge Local (untrained): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 2 = 20

Yorad looks over the coin once Mort is finished with it. "No doubt about it. I have seen this symbol before..."

"....Well for gosh sakes, don't leave us in suspense!" Corona exclaims after waiting a moment for Mort and Yorad to elaborate on what they mean. "Who does it belong to???"

Mort, I am going to allow that roll to succeed since you lot took down four Aspis in the sewers and then searched them. I am pretty sure you would have seen some snakes on their badges, and that should be enough of a circumstance bonus to make the roll.

Thank you for the bot. :)
He needs some polishing though, his acting skills are beyond rusty.

"Yes, don't leave us in suspense."

"These snakes, they're a tell tale symbol for the Aspis Organization. A somewhat secret group that fights with the Pathfinder Society. They don't play fair, or clean. I think that's pretty obvious so far." They're also not very good it seems.

"Oh!" Sheela covers her mouth and giggles. "Butt Pee, now I see." Sheela is quite entertained over the word play. "Aspis is so silly. Wasting all of this time trying to ambush us rather than beating us to the punch. Oh well."

Is it time to check on your prisoner now? Or do you want to do something else?

Yesssss, time for some gruesome interrogating. :)

Sophia will have dipped her fingers in whatever red liquid, passable as blood (or some of the actual blood) and painted her lips and some around it with it too, for the ruse of her eating the decapitated fake-ninja.

"No kidding - they should've just entered the contest properly like everyone else," Corona agrees. "That first team didn't know much about being quiet but these guys probably could've done well in those arena fights earlier."

She shrugs. "Oh well. I guess they learned the hard way, didn't they? Too bad for them." Then her expression brightens as she spots Sophia applying her face paint.

"Ooh! Is it time for a show? Please say it's time for a show! I can't wait to watch!"
____________

Yes, I'm ready to go talk to our prisoner!

Sheela messes up her hair a little, works on her innocent puppy dog eyes routine. "Okay, that will do it. Time to play the role of ingenue!"

Let's do this!

Yorad nods in reply, "Time to see what our prisoner has to say for herself!"

The team prepares to interview the assassin, with Sophia decking herself out in fake blood. Borrowing the smelling salts from Walter, you wake her up.

Her eyelids flutter slowly open. As she focuses in on you, her brows lift high before she schools her face to a more neutral expression. "So we failed. Pity. Are you waking me to kill me?"

Sheela hustles into the room. "What? No! They promised me they wouldn't kill you! They said they would turn you in to the authorities as soon as you told us who hired you and why... right guys? Right?" Sheela trembles in fear. "They told me you wouldn't end up like the other ones..." She coughs, pretending not to gag.

Bluff: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26

Well, that was easy.

Sense Motive: 1d20 ⇒ 10
I think.

*******************
OVERSEER ANNOUNCEMENT]
*******************

There is a loud banging at the door! Moments later the door flies open revealing a dozen armed tengu behind it. They quickly storm into the room, blades drawn.

At which door? MY door? The inn door? Hopefully not the privy door...

Tiffany draws a net. "Hey, no fair. We're outnumbered 2 to 1! Doesn't seem very honorable to me!"

On seeing the armed tengu Yorad raises his hands in a non threatening gesture before he motions to the bound ninja female, "Okay you can take her away now. We are finished questioning her."

It was worth a shot :P