Can You Hear The People Sing? (Hell's Rebels)

Game Master Paladin of Baha-who?

Kiri could tell this was not going to end well if she tried to rise so she felt it was best to continue to play dead and kept laying there while her companions dealt with the pissed off birdman.

Leora attempts to stab the birdman again with her rapier. "Sheesh. I would've thought he'd be glad to see the alligator killed!"

attack: 1d20 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 1 + 1 = 14
dmg: 1d6 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 + 1 = 5
Thanks GM for rolling Leora's readied action!

"Maybe it was his pet? I mean, yeah, it sounds odd, but look at us. Odd is right in our wheelhouse."

Lydia tries to hit the birdman with another burst of wracking pain. It seems to be effective, or maybe it's just in genuine pain as its feathers grow darker and matted with blood, and a pool of red begins to form on the floor.

Ignoring its injuries, it attacks Davina again, but with only one claw, as the other arm seems to have been disabled from the musket shot. It's enough to hit her, but does a lot less damage than the first time. 2 damage to Davina.

Jessibel continues her song, bolstering everyone's spirits. Jessibel can add another action if she returns before the round is over.

All PCs are up!

Kiri found herself becoming quickly irritated, she was far too close to this bird man for her comfort, and she worried about getting stepped on by him. She also had the problem of being unable to do anything to help in this position. All of this was making her a very irritable strix and if she hadn't been so badly hurt she might well try to blast this dumb bird, as it was though she didn't feel nearly that confident. Instead she decided to try and get away from it as quickly as possible, unfortunately being prone as she was made this very complicated. The best she could do would be to take this in stages, the first problem was to get up and so she adroitly curled forward and then quickly shoved back with her shoulders and leaped to her feet.

Acrobatics to stand up without AoO: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17

Making a guess that I can do this as though moving through an enemies threatened area vs the dire corby's CMD. If not let me know.

Now that several of her friends are wounded, Leora heals the entire group. Tough times don't last, but tough people do!" She keeps her place in front of the bird-man in case Davina wants to get out of his reach.

channel positive, excluding corby: 1d6 ⇒ 5
Everyone gets 5 hp

Leora's healing kept Davina from collapsing on the floor. "Ouch you thrice damned bird. That hurt." She swings her rapier at it. She takes one step away ou of the creature's reach. She's had enough being clawed today.

Rapier attack: 1d20 + 2 + 2 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 2 + 2 + 1 = 111d6 - 1 + 1 ⇒ (6) - 1 + 1 = 6

Not really, Kiri. There are some feats or class features that let you do that, but without one of those, you always provoke when standing. Your best bet to 'stand up defensively' is to take total defense as a standard action and then stand as a move action. In which case he still gets an attack of opportunity, but you get a +4 from total defense.

That's kinda dumb but oh well, let's call my action that then, the acro was just to do it with style.

Lucius takes the time to reload his gun while looking at the birdman.

attack of opportunity: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (5) + 3 = 8

Kiri hops to her feet and easily avoids the clumsy swing of the creature's remaining good arm.

"Sit down and shut up!" Domitius takes another swing at this thing, hoping to end this fight before things get out of control.

Flanking, Inspire Courage, Studied Target

Falcata attack: 1d20 + 5 + 2 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 5 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 18
Falcata damage: 1d8 + 6 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 6 + 1 + 1 = 13

I'm going to assume that Dom's latest slash dropped the corby; if not, please bot a rapier attack on it.

Jessibel, still singing, turns her head to the south, trying to see whatever threat Dom and others saw earlier.

Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 12

Domitius strikes out at the birdman's chest, and the teardrop-shaped blade bites through its ribs causing a deadly wound. Even as it falls to the floor in a pool of its dark lifeblood, it still twitches and weakly tries to strike out with its claws before the light of consciousness and life fade from its eyes.

Combat over.

Domitius feels a bit of a thrill at the victory over these two foes. Barely missing a beat, he turns, glaring menacingly into the shadows. "And what about you fellows, I hope you're not looking for trouble, too? If you're not, come out of the shadows, now." Turning back to his comrades, he asks, "Is everyone okay?"

If the tengu come forward, assuming time and opportunity permit, I'll try and size one up with Studied Target. If one seems to take any type of leadership role, I'll target him, otherwise, I'll simply target the closest one.

Kiri nodded and said, "I'm doing surprisingly well after being chewed on by the big lizard." She turned her focus to the shadowy figures and nodded abruptly in greeting before saying, "You could have helped you know?"

"You could have helped you know?"

Annoyed at Kiri's pointlessly accusatory tone, Dom points his sword at the wound his weapon made in the reptile's side. "That doesn't count as help in your book, huh? If we're gonna question choices made in that fight, you could've made sure everyone was on the same page as you before attacking that thing. The others seemed to catch that I was covering them while we headed to the other room. 'You know?'"

Davina listens carefully in case she can pick up any words not spoken in common from the shadows. "Domitius I think Kiri was speaking to our friends down the hall when she mentioned not helping. Not us." She looks at the strix, "Though your attack was a surprise." She keeps her rapier at the ready.

Perception to Hear Conversation: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13

Jessibel stops singing, stepping between Domitius and Kiri, facing and rather comically trying to stare down the much taller half-orc.

"I'm fairly certain Kiri wasn't talking to you," the bard says tersely. "I believe she was addressing...whoever or whatever in Hell is out there that apparently everyone but me can see!"

Over her shoulder to the rest of the group, she adds, "I don't think anyone here doubts or doesn't value your contributions to the group, especially in battle. Without you, one or more of us would likely be dead by now. The same can be said for Kiri."

Ninja-ed by...the investigator! GMTA!

A small burst of wind smacked Domitus in the back of his head just hard enough to get his attention as Kiri replied, "Apprentice and Davina are right, I meant the shadowy watchers there, not you." She smoothed her ruffled feathers down a moment before she said quietly, "Thanks," though who it was meant for wasn't exactly clear.

Congrats Dom, you just got Kirismacked. You should feel honored because that's even better than being Gibbssmacked.

Lucius turns to look towards where everyone else was looking. "Wait, what shadowy figures?"

"I know--tell me about it!" Jessibel says in support of Lucius's question. Under her breath she mutters, "Enough of this foolishness," before breaking into another spellsong.

"Jessibel's magic light makes the yonder darkness bright!"

After casting her light spell on a small rock, piece of rubble, (or even a copper piece out of her belt pouch), Jessibel bounces the small item along the stone floor, hoping to have it hit the stairs to the south and stay in that general vicinity.

Jessibel General Ranged Attack: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13

Those with darkvision can see the Tengu duck out of sight behind the corners of the doorway at the top of the stairs. You can hear them speaking to each other in low voices, in the same language that the bigger bird man was using, which only Davina understands.

Edit: I'll change the map to reflect the change in lighting shortly.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Map is changed. With the stone at the foot of the stairs casting light into the room, you can see more into it. The tengu are no longer visible, though, as they seem to have moved out of your line of sight. You can see a table with four chairs around it and two unlit, partially-burned candles in candlesticks.

When Jessibel's glowing projectile reveals nothing in the darkness near the south stairs, she glowers a bit at Dom and Kiri. "If you two weren't bickering, I'd think you were trying to pull something on the rest of us, but Davina seems to have seen it, too...and I just heard something talking down there. What are we facing...and should we split up to try to surround them and make sure they don't slip past us?"

"Once they realized we had seen them they are trying to hide. I don't know if it's lay in wait or not. It was a full sentence, not like this creature. Maybe they are smarter than this thing was." she pokes the dead birdman with her toe.

"Why don't we go see if they want to talk to us." she says quietly to her friends.

Davina starts to move slowly down the hallway hoping people will follow. "Hello, who's there. We don't want to hurt you." she says in what she hopes is a soothing voice. She repeats that in every language she knows.

Diplomacy with Inspiration: 1d20 + 8 + 1d6 ⇒ (2) + 8 + (6) = 16

When I say slowly I mean like half or quarter speed slowly. That way if someone wants to slip around, assuming the rooms connect they can. The d20 roller has hated me for the last few days. Any other dice and I roll max.

Lucius quickly follows slightly ahead of Davina in case anything turned hostile it would hopefully attack him first.

I won't give the results of that diplomacy check yet. Keep talking, and depending on what you say, I may add circumstance modifiers, and others may attempt to aid as well.

Lucius can see a little further into the dark room once he gets beyond the source of the light, but sees no signs of the dark figures.

Davina continues to speak calmly repeating what she says in every language she knows. "We don't want to hurt you. We didn't want to hurt the other creature, but it attacked me first. Please don't fight us. We are down here to look for a man named Nan. A friend of his asked us to look for him. He's a human brown hair and a droopy mustache. Have you seen him?"

She'll continue to slowly walk forward.

Jessibel's smart enough to realize that foes could circle behind the party or even escape up into Laria's coffeehouse but dumb enough to split the party.

"I'm circling around!" she whispers tersely to those around her and, not waiting for permission, scampers up the natural stairs. At the last instant, she grabs Lydia's hand and pulls the sorceress along. "Don't worry--if something attacks, I'll deal with it. You just hang back about 10 feet or so."

Took the liberty of dragging Lydia along so Jessi wouldn't be alone. If her player returns, of course, she can tell Jessi "Hands off!" and do her own thing.

Jessibel finds that the room on top of the stairs doesn't connect directly to the other one, but there is a narrow doorway and what looks like a small room or a hallway in the southwest corner.

When Davina mentions Nan, a voice calls out from the dark room. "We ain't thems that killed 'im! Was her, Cheogh, the big'un!" Then some squawking, sounding like multiple speakers.

"The creature's name was Cheogh? She's most definitely dead.
That tends to happens when we are attacked. Where is Nat's body? We'd like to bury it if possible."

Davina's trying to keep the fact she can understand them hidden, but wants to reassure them we aren't going to hurt them without cause.

Davina peppers them with questions,"What are you doing down here? What are your names? Did Cheogh keep you as her prisoners? Can we help you?"

Seeing that the western chamber doesn't link up with the eastern one as she'd hoped it would, Jessibel frets for just an instant. With Davina just barely still in sight, the bard sings another quick spellsong, pointing at Mrs. Eradon.

"I've got something special that you'll want to hear! Sweet nothings from my lips to your tender ear!"

"Mrs. Eradon! This is Jessibel reporting in! There's an open doorway leading further west, but I'm not sure it links up with the chamber you're approaching. Will stand watch here. Out!" This whispered rush of information sounds right next to Davina's right ear. A moment later, Jessibel's voice adds, "Oh--you can whisper back to me, by the way."

Certain that Lydia heard her spellsong's lyrics, Jessi blushes a bit and explains, "I composed the lyrics to that spell when I was seeing Phenio Vashnarstill, a cute young nobleman." Then a bit of inspiration strikes and she smiles and adds, "He has a twin brother named Angus. Sabrina was seeing him for a while but I believe Angus is now available...."

Domitiuis was on the verge of calming down after Davina and Jessibel pointed out his error, only to have Kiri's provocation set him on edge. He angrily turns to her. "Don't do that again, Kiri."

Taking a moment to compose himself, Dom then walks up to where Davina's standing, ready to intervene should things get physical. Sword still drawn, but held down, at a break in the conversation he whispers, "It's kind of convenient to blame the dead guy, isn't it? Think they're on the level?"

If it hasn't been done by the time I log in from home tonight, someone please move me next to Davina.

"Then don't earn it again Domitus." Ignoring the big man for now Kiri went to go meet the shadowy figures that the others had spoken to.

"I didn't deserve the first one, you egomaniac. Next animal that latches its jaws into you, I'm tyin' a napkin around its neck..."

Hearing the annoyance in the voice of Dom, Jessibel sends another whispered message to Davina: "Please don't let my stealth trainer and bodyguard kill one another."

Stifling a giggle at a mental image Dom's last words conjure up in her head, the girl can't resist adding, "And tell Dom the correct term is a 'bib'; napkins only work if you're already wearing a shirt of some sort...which most animals and monsters don't."

I forgot to mention in my earlier post that the spell Jessi cast was message (though it's probably self-evident).

Leora waits at the ready, behind Davina, Dom, and Kiri, but still within line of sight of Jessi. Since she can't understand what these quieter, sneakier bird-people are saying, she waits quietly, not wanting to aggravate them too.

The tengu are all speaking Tengu, right? So only Davina can understand them?

Thanks for moving my token!

Davina turns her head toward Domitius and runs her hand down her face with a sigh. She hopes the movement disguises her whispered message to Jessibel "Keep an eye on that door. Just in case. We don't want surprises." She winks at Domitius, and says "Now may not be the best time to iron out grievances. We have Nat's body to find, and our new friends to see too. Oh and it would be a bib not a napkin according to the noble, unless the creature is wearing a shirt." She turns her head to face the dark area again. "I hope we can be friends.

"Davina, I have some wine if you think it might help, as a token of friendship," Leora offers quietly, handing a bottle to her friend if she wants to use it as a peace offering to the tengu.

"I'm coming out! No trouble gets no trouble, ne?"

From behind the doorframe, into the light, steps a tall tengu wearing a chain shirt, an orange, varisian-style scarf, and a hooded robe that is tattered and dirty. Nonetheless, she carries herself with dignity and pride.

"Name's Korva, Korva Fushi. Thems as hidin' back there's m' sisters. Weren't lookin' for no trouble. Wasn't none of us as killed Nan (Not Nat), but Cheogh, well, it's a story long in th' tellin' but she ain't -- wasn't -- too smart, had a temper somethin' fierce like, an' just up an' killed him one day when he said somethin' rude to her. She wasn't bad, just quick t' anger an' didn't know her own strength, truth be told." She has a pronounced varisian accent, and you guess that she hails from Korvosa or somewhere north of there.

She continues her story. There are four tengu sisters who paid Nan to smuggle them into town, along with Cheogh, a dire Corby who they had adopted as a hatchling. Unfortunately, the corby's violent nature asserted itself and she killed Nan in a fit of temper after he got them to this refuge. He was supposed to get them a place to stay and put them in contact with folks who could give them work, but dead, he left them without a guide or contact in Kintargo.

This wasn't the first time Cheogh had killed -- it was a similar event that lead them to need to leave their previous home, Riddleport. Korva had decided that Cheogh had to face consequences for these rash acts, because she knew that she or any of her sisters could easily be the next target.

When Nan died, the threw his body into the water, whereupon they discovered the alligator that Cheogh was so inexplicably fond of. His body was the source of the rotting smell near the docks, and it's not hard to retrieve what remains of him if desired.

"We just want t' get out of here," Korva finishes. "We're nearly out of food, the water is foul, an' there's only so many games of Towers you can play, ne? Nan said there's thems as can get us work at the docks or out of the city, but we'll leave entirely if you want, we just don't want no trouble for Nan gettin' killed."

Davina's check was enough to raise them from Unfriendly to Indifferent. Davina can't make another check today, but someone else can if they want.

Davina takes the bottle from Leora. "Let's have a drink and talk some more." she puts her weapon away and moves toward the tables. She whispers to Jessibel. "It's safe to come over here, we may need you."

Anyone else want to take a stab at befriending them? Sorry about getting the name wrong. I'm terrible at that.

"Nice to meet you. My name's Leora. I'm sorry we didn't start off on the right foot. " Leora starts by apologizing, though based on the story, the tengu sisters might not be so upset.

"We came down here looking for a friend, like Davina said. If all you're looking for is work and a place to stay, I'm sure we could help you or find someone who could help you, " Leora adds, reassuringly. "We all live in the city, and there's always someone who needs workers for something. "

sense motive: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (18) + 8 = 26 to see if they are upset that we killed the corby

diplomacy: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23

Jessi and Lydia skip lightly down the stairs to join the main group. When the bard sees only one birdwoman present, however, her suspicions are reignited.

"I know I heard more than one voice earlier," she magically whispers in Davina's ear. "I'll stand watch at the top of the stairs to make sure this isn't a trick and that no one sneaks up behind us."

Jessi then repositions herself back at the top of the natural stone stairs, keeping an eye on the dark tunnel to the southwest.

Moved both Jessi's and Lydia's tokens.

Davina takes the bottle and walks up the stairs and into the room. Korva looks nervous, but as Davina passes through the archway she sees that Korva's sisters were indeed covering her, with shortbows at the ready. At a command in tengu from Korva, they lower them, but do not put them away.

"Do you, er, have anything t' eat? We've been eatin' short rations for days now... would be nice to talk without m' stomach interruptin'."

Dom's urge to help brings an idea to mind. Leaning into Davina's ear, he whispers, "Think it'd be alright if I went back upstairs and got 'em somethin' to eat?"

"It might not be the tastiest food, but I have some dried meat and biscuits. " Leora retrieves some trail rations from her bag to share with the tengus.

who knew trail rations were such an important part of the level 1 adventurers tool kit? I'll have to restock!

"Would you let one of us leave to bring you fresh food? We have rations, but they aren't the tastiest." Davina asks Korva. She nods politely to the other three, and holds up the bottle in a way that asks if they want a drink. Hopefully the inspection is done by now.

Lucius finds himself liking these bird people more and more as they continue talking, but he also knew that he was never the most diplomatic of people so he just began to clean his firearm hoping to get rid of some of the dirt and powder stains.

"We'll take the rations, come on sit down... but if someone wants t' go an' get more to eat, that'd be just dandy."

The tengu look overjoyed at the prospect of food and drink, and the sisters put aside their bows and sit down at the table with you. Rough wooden cups are brought out for the wine. The candles are lit, banishing the gloom of the ancient hideaway.

"So, you want somethin' for helping us? We got some stuff we were planning to use as bribes. And Nan's effects -- I never did ask as if he had a family or nothin'. I hope nobody ain't missin' him." Korva gestures at a crate on top of which sits a battered satchel.