Akiki lets her bow arm relax a bit, but then turns and fires it at a harmless wall, angry. She throws her bow back over her shoulder.
"How do we go down?" Seems she is thinking still though, and will wait for the others.
Seeing the rogue relax, Raijinn sheaths his sword and takes some rope from his bag. He begins to tie up the gnome, trusting the others to keep a fix on him in case anything goes wrong.
Raijinn steps back and looks down at the tangled mess of ropes hanging off the gnome, wondering how he used it all up without managing to secure even a single limb.
"Uh.. Maybe somebody should give me a hand with this first."
kukri on the ground, the gnome looks from his "bonds" to his captors, and says "If this is how yurr gonna leave me, I got no complaints. You can go around the back, and down the ship out back, to get to the underpier. Gaedren lives in a room under the fishery. Either that or you c'n swim, I spose..."
The children seem swayed by Goffred's words, but one of them strikes Hookshanks on the back of the head anyway. He cries out in anger, and glowers at the children. He knows he can't do anything at this point, though.
Thaven un-nocks his arrow, swings his bow over his back and steps forward to help Raijinn.
"For reference, I would be okay with making a noose for this one."
Akiki is certainly getting annoyed at the would be rope tiers. So she swiftly approaches the gnome in an economy of movement.
"You'll just go back to your child-napping toady bullshit anyway." Akiki is incensed anyone would feed her sister to a crocodile, or allow it. She draws her knife, and without appearing to debate, just stabs him.
Hookshanks sneers as the elf approaches him, seemingly safe in his "hostage" status. When the knife pierces his flesh, he's in shock for a moment. He looks down at the wound, quickly pooling and dripping onto the floor. His eyes roll back into his head, and he collapses to the ground.
The Lamms cheer, and drop their pitchforks. Kester approaches Akiki and asks, "What now?"
Akiki nods grimly, and starts towards the back pier. She doesn't know what to tell the children, and she feels weak and stranger than she cares to look to the others at the moment, so she says nothing, trying to hide the tears, and slight shake to her hands. Her knife hand still grips the dagger, bloody and white knuckled, and she seems to have almost forgotten she still carries it. Semelle just has to be alive. She just has to. Akiki doesn't seem to notice or care who follows her.
"Yes, we shall," says Fredo to Nostrum, beckoning the others up to the catwalk again. There should be a door that leads from inside directly onto the decrepit old docking; if they can find it their attempt to get to the underpier will go more quickly and safely. "We can search the rest of the Fishery while we do. There may be more information we can use against Lamm. I for one would like to get a chance to look at the books for this outfit."
While waiting for the others, Fredo crouches by the bodies of the human and half-orc. He clips his crossbow onto his belt, draws his dagger, and uses it to push aside layers and folds of clothing to see if either has anything on him worth having or knowing about.
When he's done, and the others are ready to go, Fredo rises and addresses the Lambs. His voice is heavy and serious. "What happened just now was not justice," he pronounces, slowly and meticulously enunciating every word to make sure he is understood. He is not condemning, like he did Hookshanks himself earlier, but simply making a statement. "It was injustice that favored the poor and the weak. Do not confuse the two. However, between injustice that favors the poor and the weak, and the much more common injustice that favors the rich and the mighty, I know which one I would choose. Given the choice between the Arbiters and a true tribune of the people, like Akiki has proved herself to by by heeding your wishes, I know which one I would trust more with a noose.
"Oh, before I forget," he adds, never one to leave anything to run itself, "Cat's still in charge til we get back. Kester's second in command."
Raijinn hopes the children understood what Goffred explained to them. There has been too much damage done already for him to be okay with the idea that they caused more.
"One last thing," he begins, eyeing the children, "Stay quiet. I expect we'll be making quite a ruckus, but you still don't want to attract anyone's attention. And pack up anything you want to bring with you, because when we come back, you're all getting out of here."
Raijinn follows Akiki outside, wanting to say something, but unsure of what. Surely the world would be a better place with people like Hookshanks dead. Surely cold-blooded murder of a defenseless captive was justified. Wasn't it? Raijinn wasn't sure anymore. He walked on.
The boards of the fishery's deck creak under Akiki's angry footsteps as she walks, shoulders heavyset, eyes ahead. Raijinn follows tentatively behind her, wings twitching in the wind. The pair exit the deck, go around the front of the building, and begin walking on the walkway that wraps around the building.
The boards of the walkway are slippery, and are about ten feet above the surface of the water. Coming around to the back of the building, you can see through the boards that there is another walkway below the aft side of the building. This walkway leads to a decrepit ship at the end of the dock. There's no way that this ship is seaworthy, and it's likely been here for years. Both the above and below walkway are connected to this ship.
If you run (and fail this check):
Thaven moves quickly across the pier, his bow out and an arrow nocked.
"It seems," says Fredo, looking dubiously at the walkway, "that we will have to make our way through the ship, or jump, in order to get down to Lamm." When the walkway is clear ahead of him, he takes a first, tentative step. It creaks threateningly under his weight. "I'd favor the ship, if only to avoid swimming in the Jeggare estuary." The water below them is turbid and brown with waste and runoff.
Raijinn nods.
Hearing nothing, he begins moving quickly in the direction of the ship, keeping his sword sheathed, but his hand ready to draw it at the slightest provocation.
Akiki goes pattering along the slippery walkway without much impeding, her long ears peeled. She hears the sounds, and narrows her over-large almond-shaped eyes. She peeks over the edge, considering jumping, but looking at the water, agrees with Goff. He's a smart guy, and somewhere in the back of her rage-hazed brain, the elf is glad he's here.
She goes pattering onto the ship, keeping her ears and eyes open for more signs of trouble.
In order of Akiki, Raijinn, Thaven, Fredo, and Nostrum, the quintet proceeds along the walkway. Fredo slips once, but quickly regains his footing and continues along. The walkway wraps around not only the building, but also the back of a relatively large, but decrepit and rotting ship behind the fishery. On the side of the ship is painted, in flaking blue paint, "K aken's F l ". The rotten deck of the the ancient barge seems to be barely intact, its hull worn and thick with seaweed and barnacles. The barge is held together primarily by the layers of old rope that lash it securely to the pilings that support the fishery and the nearby boardwalk. A single wooden door leading into the aft cabin bears a crude painting of a red fish on its surface.
As Akiki pads onto the top deck of the ship, the floor creaks dangerously below her.
The deck of the ship shatters under Akiki's feet, and she falls.
Akiki almost yells a curse before she stops herself, scrambling to leap back onto the deck with the others.
It ends up looking quite graceful. Taking a couple running steps, the elf dives off of the ship as it collapses under her, and makes it to the dock, tucking herself into a roll and coming back up with a little huff of startled breath.
"We need a better way down." She decides.
"Well," considers Fredo, "Hookshanks and the kids mentioned a hole in the floor. We could try and find that, but we'd have to backtrack, which will take time we don't have. Lamm is packing. What's more, we'd still have to face a long drop unless someone brought rope."
He takes a deep breath, steeling himself. "It will be quicker, and no less dangerous, to drop through the hole you just made, Akiki. Again, particularly so if someone brought rope." Fredo wants to jump himself now, to get it over with, but the others are mostly in front of him and any jostling might send any one of them over the edge.
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Given his larger weight, nostrum had been struggling to both keep up with the group and find firm footing on the weathered flooring. Even though his efforts had paid off so far, Akiki's acrobatic display confirms his fears.
"I'm with Fredo: it is unsafe up here, and we know from the gnome's information that we have to get low eventually. May as well be now."
He pulls his pack open and takes out some rope. He offers to hand it to Fredo, having seen his other allies' inability to tie knots.
"I agree. Let's head down into the ship. The sooner we gut Lamm, the better."
Raijinn pulls out the rope, still a bit splotched with the gnome's blood. He ties the rope around his own waist, passing the other end to Nostrum and Goffred. "I'll go down first to make sure it's clear. Then lower the rogue down."
Raijinn waits for the others to grab the robe, which is tied shoddily around his waist and he goes over the edge, relying on the strength of the others and his own wings to slow his descent.
Raijinn manages to stick the landing and looks around.
Akiki helps hold the rope, peering down into the hole cautiously.
Raijinn ties the rope around his waist, but too quickly. Handing the other end to his compatriots, he dives into the hole. When Nostrum and Goffred tighten their grips to slow his fall, the knot comes undone and Raijinn falls, rolling harmlessly onto the floor of the hold of the rotten ship.
The hold of the ship is dark and dank, and smells strongly of mildew. Several crates, barrels, and other assorted containers lie about the room. The hold extends 25 feet to the north and 15 feet to the west (towards the fishery). Directly to your left, Raijinn, is a door.
From behind several of the crates comes a soft stratching noise.
Many spiderwebs hang about this room, webs that are much thicker than most webs you've seen.
Raijinn whips around the room making sure the coast is clear. Deciding to wait for backup before exploring any of the rooms, he picks up the end of the rope and hisses up to his comrades. "It looks clear. Send Akiki down."
The scratching noise behind the crates perks Raijinn's interest, and he tries to see if he can hear anything more specific. He sees the thick webs and sure hopes that there isn't a large spider lurking in the depths of the ship.
He really hopes Akiki will hurry up.
Fredo isn't sure what to do with the rope, not seeing anything sturdy enough to secure it to and not at all confident in his knots. He's a bit relieved when Raijin takes an end from him. The tiefling knots a quick flying bowline around his waist (), then pushes it down on his body so he can sit in it like a seat as the others lower him down. They do, Fredo bracing himself against Nostrum's much more solid form. Once he feels the rope slack, he waits for Raijin to untie himself so they can lower the next person down. While they wait, Fredo gives Nostrum a sympathetic glance. It seems he will have to jump, being the last one.
Akiki observes what she can of Raijinn in the hole, and shrugs, diving in after him.
She rolls into another neat flip, landing cat-like.
Akiki leaps the ten feet down the hole, and lands softly on the deck ten feet below, just beside Raijinn.
She too hears the soft scratching noises, and just in time for a quartet of large spiders to peek their heads over the containers near the far northern wall. They observe the pair intruding on their nest for just a moment before skittering forward, mandibles gnashing.
EDIT:
THaven nocks an arrow and aims at a spider.
Akiki had tucked her knife away during her scamper to the ship. Now she slings her bow around again, and looses and arrow at a spider.
Fredo lets go of the rope with one hand and shifts his weight to let his satchel swing in front of him. With his free hand he undoes the flap and fishes out a flask of the blonde human's acid. He's not confident in his aim, and while he takes the time to get the arc just right in his head the spiders scurry forward towards Raijin and Akiki, their segmented legs clacking against the floor of the barge. Finally, he lobs the flask over Thaven's head and down into the hole, hoping it hits.
Standard to throw splash weapon at a grid intersection that will let me hit as many spiders as possible while avoiding, again if possible, Raijin and Akiki. subtract 4 for every 10 feet between my position on the horizontal plane and the spiders'.
Damage is one per each creature in the squares adjacent to the grid intersection I targeted. Speaking of which, would it be possible to get a map?
Raijinn swings as the spider's approach, hoping to slice one in two.
Akiki-16
Thaven Jack-15
Spiders-13
Nostrum-12
Raijinn-8
Goffred-4
Quick to react, the nimble elf unslings her bow and launches an arrow right past one of the spiders. Thaven, however, spears one directly into the floor from his vantage point above them.
The spiders quickly skitter forward, converging on the pair. Raijinn slices one in twain as it gets too close, but takes a little bite around his ankles from another that he wasn't watching, and feels ichor slowly fill his blood. He shakes off the weak spider's poison before continuing the attack. Akiki gets her foot caught in the spider's sharp jaws before wrenching it out and launching an arrow that goes just by its torso. Nostrum fires to defend Raijinn, but misses as well, if only barely. In return for his bite, Raijinn cuts a chunk of spidery flesh off of the one that attacked him, killing it. Seeing his friends endangered and only one spider remaining, Goffred lobs a vial of acid. It lands just in front of her, splashing all over the spider and burning the surface of its flesh. Pieces of spider lump to the ground.
Raijinn AoO vs spider:
Raijinn damage:
spider 2 attack vs Akiki:
Akiki fort save vs. poison
spider 3 attack vs Raijinn:
Raijinn fort save vs poison
STR damage
Goffred acid damage
Akiki doesn't even pause to look around the ship. Instead, she heads for the door, listening for the telltale creak of floorboards about to give way. She rustles in her sleeves for the old thieves' tools as she goes.
Raijinn lowers himself to the floor, almost falling, and sits to catch his breath while waiting for the others to come down into the ship. His shoulder is aching from the half-orc's flail and his ankle is starting to go numb. 'I should have known better than to think it would be easy' he chastises himself.
Revenge feels as far away as ever, and Raijinn wonders if he perhaps pushed himself too hard, and tried to take on too much too fast. The ratfolk had done wonders with healing his body, but he still rushed in, without waiting to train, without waiting to get his strength back.
'I couldn't have waited,' he reminded himself. There were too many lives on the line. Even now, those wide-eyed children were waiting for them to return. He forced himself to get up, feeling his legs shake a little as he stood.
There was no time to waste, and there could be no room for mistakes.
The door opens easily to the south, into an open room. The room is small, being only about 15-by-10 feet, and parts of the southernmost hull of the ship have fallen out, revealing tepid water and the corner of a dock, mere feet above the water's edge.
A staircase to the right of the door leads upward, apparently towards the upper deck of the ship.
Akiki heads towards the lower dock, bow on her shoulder again, but ready to swing into her hand if need be.