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Kulga rushes in slamming one of the men with her shield, the blow of drops the man to the ground.
Garduk's snowball hits another thug hard, right behind that Bokkah charges in, the tengu's kukri slices the man's throat and he goes down with a thud. Kamda's throwing axe whizzes over the collapsing man for good measure.
Stonegrin's sansetsukon drops the third man returning the favor as he also hits the ground.
Oret last to arrive begins to bless the party, but it seems it's not need this time around.
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Apparently these guys were more bark than bite. Senzer impressed by your combat prowess relays to the rest of the group what he told Stonegrin moments earlier.
A tragic illness grips my poor son, Roald, and a woman named Lura Ichon claimed to have a cure. I signed away my entire operation to the heartless wench to cure my son, but the elixirs she sends every day are diluted with cheap rum to the point of being almost useless. In exchange she’s worked me sunup to sundown manufacturing drugs for her little den of vice, the Sanguine Pit.
I know she found a real cure for my boy —tiny amounts of it in those elixirs she sends keep him from getting worse— but I can’t march into that bar of hers and demand it. And as soon as she learns what happened here with her men, she’ll kill me and Roald, as sure as you’re standing here. I want to help you, really I do, but I gave the Society everything I had for three years. Now, I need you to return the favor. If you want any help supporting your excavation, I need that cure for my son, and some guarantee that Lura Ichon won’t dump us in the bay the moment you leave.
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Garduk looks a little green - or perhaps greener - at the prospect of another fight before the group can get this supplies and leave town, but he swallows his worries and nods along with Kulga. At least this time I was able to hit one of my targets.
Garduk reaches out and gently takes Stonegrin's wand from Senzer's hand. He examines it for a moment and shrugs, offering it back to the dwarf. "Is this something you'd like me to help you with?"
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Well fer one thing I gots a mighty headache... Stonegrin grunts as he pulls out another wand.
CLW
But I also gots this one from the Pathfinders. They says it protects me cause I ain't got no armor. Well I found out it doesn't work. Even though ye know I got this other one and all I need to do is think of our forge father and it make me feel better. But this blasted stick.
Stonegrin whacks it against the store counter for good measure.
Well it ain't workin fer me and well it wasn't werkin fer him either. So I think I better go get me a refund once we gets back to Absalomon...
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Garduk winces visibly when Stonegrin whacks the wand on Senzer's counter. He eases the tapered stick from Stonegrin's hand, points the wand at the dwarf and mutters a few arcane syllables, then touches him on the shoulder. A soft, pale blue glow - not the icy white glow the arcanist is used to seeing when he casts this spell himself - appears at Stonegrin's feet and quickly rises to cover his entire body, then fades.
Garduk hands the wand back to Stonegrin. "Seems to me that it works well enough, and is a very useful item to have. If my own spell fades before we're finished solving this new problem, would you be willing to let me use it on myself?"
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Senzer lowers his voice, even though no ones around, The Sanguine Pit, it's a drug den and arena for animal fights. Most nights, the Pit hosts dog- or cockfights, but sometimes she hosts more exotic bouts between strange creatures from the Mwangi. Couldn't tell you how she got it, but she has it, and I know she's got connections.
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Arriving at The Sanguine Pit, the clamour of cheers and shouted bets can be heard from outside, it sounds like a loud and rowdy crowd.
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Oret learns better to move with his clunky armor, not making too much noise.
"Honour is one thing my friend, but we must respect the laws of the land, whatever they are." Oret says naively as he knows very little about this lands. He does however keep his guard up by never letting his shield go."Although I'd find it hard to believe a drug den operates legally."
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Garduk is anxious about walking into the lion's den - possibly literally, depending on what's on the night's fight card - and is not doing a very good job of hiding it. He has done his best to avoid this kind of situation since he ran away from his apprenticeship, and here he is walking right into it.
But on the other hand, there is a mysterious disease, a more mysterious cure, a den of thieves filled with exotic beasts, and behind it all, a malevolent woman involved with dark powers -- isn't this why I became a Pathfinder in the first place, to uncover the world's secrets, by force if necessary?
Hearing Kamda and Oret's conversation, he joins in. "It doesn't seem as though there's much law here at all, Oret. Anyway, this gangster is making Senzer work for diluted elixirs - that has to be illegal, right?"
There wasn't much law where Garduk grew up, and the difference between right and wrong was usually decided by the warrior with the strongest arm. Even after spending a few months in Absalom and the more "civilized" parts of the Inner Sea Region, Garduk is not totally clear on the concept of rules that people follow even when nobody stronger is watching. Having fallen prey once or twice to con men on the road, however, he does understand the idea of fraud, and he is pretty sure most law-abiding people are against it.
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Garduk marvels again when the blue glow appears at his feet and rises over his body. Putting aside variations in strength based on experience, I assumed the effects of a particular spell would be the same regardless of who casts it. But as far as I can tell the difference in color between my casting and that of the wand has no bearing on the result of the spell. Is it the choice of the mage who crafted the wand? Or does the armor she create always start with blue, the way mine always starts with white?
He realizes that in his pondering over the wand, he has fallen a few steps behind the group, and curses himself for a scatterbrain as he jogs to catch up. He does not consciously notice that when he scolds himself, the mental voice he uses takes on the growl of his former master.
Garduk hands the wand back to Stonegrin, murmuring his thanks.
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The clamour of cheers and shouted bets drowns out any intelligible sounds in this large, crowded bar. A massive aquarium, fifteen feet on a side, dominates the room as a dogsized lobster creature and a dark green, man-sized fish with fanged jaws circle one another, occasionally trading blows. Heady, pungent smoke fills the air, and the floor is slick with spilled drinks and seawater.
Near the central tank stands a well-dressed and wellrounded woman with raven hair. Towering over her, at seven feet tall, stands her idealized, amazonian reflection. Both women bear a curious glowing rune on their foreheads. The bookies clearly defer to the smaller woman, and everyone keeps their distance from her glamorous bodyguard.
All told nearly 80 onlookers crowd the barroom of the Sanguine Pit, along with a half-dozen bookies and wait staff delivering drinks. The bookies work the crowd taking bets on the combatants in the tank. Bokkah would need to wade into the crowd to get a wager placed, but it's certainly doable.
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Kulga carefully eyes the hostess , and turns to the group.
In a bulette's den like this she can't afford to lose face, so we should try to conduct our negotiations in private. If we try to muscle her in public that's as good as a death sentence for her anyways. She won't back down unless she's weak and - Kulga pauses as a plume of blood stains the tank to a deafening roar - she doesn't seem weak
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Garduk stares at Kulga in disbelief.
"A death sentence for her if we confront her out here? For her? You do realize that in addition to her giant-sized doppelgänger with the glowing tattoo - which I promise you does not mean anything good for us - all she has to do is shout 'Free drinks for anyone who fights the interlopers!' and she'll have a few score thugs each racing to be the first ones to bash in our skulls, don't you?"
Idiot. Mope. That would have been a lot more convincing if you had actually identified the big glowing rune on their foreheads. A real wizard would know what it is, of course, but you're just a runaway who figured out how to read a spellbook and has to cheat to cast any spell more powerful than a cantrip. Now you're going to get these people killed because you can't tell them how to fight the seven-foot-tall double of this damn gang leader! And even if we somehow survive this without being torn apart by the mob or thrown into the fish tank as lobster food, if you can't manage to be useful here, what are you going to do against an army of intelligent gorillas?
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Garduk stands back, towering awkwardly over the rest of the party, and tries to look both menacing and mysterious. He frantically tries to figure out how to make the best use of his remaining spell for the day.
I've got just enough energy to conjure up one more snowball, or to summon one eagle or pony. Before we entered, I thought summoning an animal ally would be the best way to contribute, and then I could just shoot acid jets from a distance. But summoning takes time. Unless Kulga convinces this Lura Ichon to meet with us privately, I'd be overrun by drunken gamblers before I was halfway finished with the spell.
He glances around surreptitiously, looking for someplace out of the way to cast from.