Rutter stands and attacks Verik.
Growing frustrated with the length of the battle and that two of Verik's men have gotten away, Copper launches yet another folley at the scoundrel, in hopes of finishing the fight.
Sorry Jericho, I'll be right there. But first things first...
Neva steps up behind Senjin and heals him once again.
Neva sees the meek transfer of healing energy and shakes the wand in frustration.
Seeing the halfling drop his defenses as he rises, Verik takes advantage of the opportunity to drive his spear deep into Rutter's side.
Staggering under Senjin's blow, he is dismayed to see Rutter still on his feet. He sees Senjin grow stronger under Neva's ministrations, with Jericho surely to follow soon. When another bolt of magical energy slams into his right arm, it finally breaks his resolve. He throws down his spear and surrenders "No more! Surely whatever the Guard has planned for me is better than dying in this god-forsaken place!"
Thank the Gods! Senjin thinks to himself as he kicks away the spear and removes any other visible weapons.
"Don't feel too bad. You put up a good fight. Even knocked out your friend. But as I said, we are not here to kill you. Our superiors have some questions for you about your operation here."
To the others, while still keeping his eyes and axe trained on Verik. "Look for something we can tie him up with."
Feeling the adrenaline slowly seep from her body, Neva moves to Jericho and then to Rutter, healing each slightly. She kept a wary eye on Verik the entire time.
Rutter grits his teeth as the spear hurts him a second time. He knows he won't be able to do much more in this fight, but he tries not to let it show. He's relieved when Verik finally concedes, but tries not to let that show, either.
He nods his thanks to Neva as she makes her rounds. He remains on guard at the door leading to the front, expecting Copper to find the rope to restrain their prisoner.
Copper begins looking around for something to tie Verik up with.
While searching, he thinks to himself We are gonna need to figure out some better tactics if we keep getting into these kinds of situations. That fight was brutal, and we would have been in very bad shape, if not for Neva.
Sitting up, massaging his shoulder, Jericho scowls at Verik. "Next time try for my heart."
Using the stairs as a brace, Jericho stands up. Smiling at the group, "At least no one wound up in the temple."
Walking over to retrieve his dagger, he gives Verik one final glance before walking outside.
Copper finds some rope that was used for lead lines on the livestock that were led to the slaughter. You bind Verik tightly, he remains stolidly silent, not responding to Jericho’s taunt. Rutter notices that there is a bit of a crowd of curious townsfolk gathered out front, drawn by the sounds of battle, but they are jumpy and give a fair bit of space, especially if they see anyone leaving the shop.
With Verik secure, Senjin will retrieve his bardiche and secure it on his back. He will also take Verik's dropped bow and removes the quiver from Verik.
He will also check on the two fallen 'butchers' (although I suspect Neva would be interested in seeing these men off to her Goddess), and subsequently take one of their shields.
"Rutter, I think we ought to search the place before taking Rutter back. Care to give me a hand?" Copper offers once Verik is tied up and disarmed.
Neva slightly re-positioned the bodies of the fallen, giving each a position of repose. There would be more ritual later, and a slow cart-ride to the Gray, but she worried that more danger lurked in the shop or nearby.
Neva also checked to see if any of the fallen still lived. For those that did, she made sure they did not die.
"I will quickly check this room off the hallway, if you two check the upstairs." Leaving Neva and Jericho to watch the prisoner, Senjin ducks into the room for a search.
Rutter returns to the slaughter room to recover the dagger he threw at the first "butcher" and then returns to the hallway.
"Yeah. We need to get that guy that went back upstairs, though."
Rutter looks up the stairs and calls out: "Baldrago! Verik surrendered! Come down unarmed before I count to 3 or we come up after you! If we have to come get you, I'm going to grind up your corpse and tell the poor families it's ground pork!"
Copper moves up the stairs fully believes that Rutter might be telling the truth about grinding the other man's body up. As the pair move up the stairs slowly, he slides the wand of Magic Missile back up his sleeve, but keeps the other in-hand, in case the man puts up a fight.
The two fallen men have indeed expired on the floor while the fight raged about them. After no response is received from up the stairs, the group cautiously climbs the stairs. There they find two rooms, one that is evidently the sleeping quarters for the men and the other is a simple office bedroom that doubles as an office. The window in the office is open and apparently Beldrago escaped through it over the rooftops.
In the office, you find an unfinished letter, it has no addressee, and the reason for that quickly becomes apparent. The letter details the various forces that Verik has apparently been organizing in Northgate, there are close to a hundred men that he counts as reliable and trained. The intentions for such a force are unclear, but ominous thoughts run through your heads as you read the letter.
With Rutter’s keen eyes and instincts alongside Copper’s magical ability, searching the shop turns up the following items:
40 gp from the two men’s pockets
a set of masterwork chainmail from Verik
a masterwork spear from Verik
15 magical arrows from Verik
a masterwork composite longbow (+2 str) from Verik
a magical potion from Verik
a magical silver dagger found in the office
a stash of various coinage and jewelry:
400 gp
740 sp
800 gp of various gems and jewelry
After casting a spell to allow him to detect magical auras in close proximity, Copper mentions to the others, "The arrows here are magical, as is the dagger. And then there is this." Copper picks up the potion bottle and looks it over, even going so far as to sniff the contents.
Spellcraft
"Im not really sure what this is, though Im confident it is magical. Neva, care to give it a look?"
Verik watches the group thoroughly loot the shop, sighing a bit when Rutter discovers the stash under the water trough where most of the gold and jewels are stored. As he waits in his bonds, he mutters sarcastically to whoever is guarding him "I see that you're quite concerned with getting me off to questioning promptly. Sometimes I wonder whether the Guard or the criminals they chase are the bigger thieves."
"Well, by the looks of this list, you have been raising an army. Can't leave the payroll here for someone to finish your work now could we? Tell me, why would a butcher shop need an army?
Neva apologized to Copper that she couldn't help with identifying those items until she'd had some rest. "I'll need to ask Pharasma's blessing for that ability", she explained.
Next, she stood over Senjin's shoulder as he began to interrogate Verik, interested in how the young Shoanti would handle the situation. She also listened carefully to Verik, searching for any lies or half-truths.
"Perhaps we should work out this stuff later. Sitting around, waiting for reinforcements to show up is not a good idea in my book." Copper mentions as he opens up his pack to start stowing as much of the looted possessions as possible.
Neva turned to Copper, nodding. "Agreed". She thought of Zellara's small home, and while she considered the wisdom of taking Verik there for some questioning before turning him over to the law, her hand went unconsciously to the Harrow Deck.
In response to Senjin’s probing about his “army”, Verik laughs ”What does anyone need an army for these days? To protect themselves against that usurper to the throne, Ileosa! But I suppose King Eodred’s death doesn’t bother you too much, since you’ll be well in her good graces after bringing me in.”
As the group leaves the shop, there’s a substantial crowd gathered, but they appear to be regular townsfolk, not the rough men that Verik has been gathering and they keep a respectful distance. You hear whispers and murmurs as you lead Verik out, ”... look at that, they took down the Cow Hammer boys...” being the most common sort of thing overheard.
You march Verik back to the Citadel, where Verik is promptly taken away to a cell. Cressida greets you and is very pleased that you’ve brought Verik back alive. ”Well done! I see that your letter of recommendation from the Queen was well deserved. You’ve earned your reward and a few days of leave. Report back here in two days time and we’ll discuss your next assignment.” She presents you with an elaborate note, with the seal of the Royal Guard that entitles the bearer to draw one thousand gold from the Bank of Abadar.
"Would you mind if we sat in on his interrogation?" Copper asks courteously while Verik is being dragged away, looking over to the man again before the guards take him out of sight.
Jericho watches Verik taken off to the same dungeons he just languished in. He approaches his friend, offering his old comrade a gold chain with their family crests intertwined. "Find me when you get out."
He then steps back to the party, keeping his distance from Cressida.
Neva watched Jericho hand the small gold chain to Verik. She was touched by the sentiment, and nodded appreciatively at the pair.
"Let's go swing by the bank." He turns to Jericho. "You took your licks like one of us, so you'll get your share."
Cressida raises an eyebrow at Copper's request. "Well then, if you feel that you have the stomach for it, I suppose that it can be arranged. A questioner is being brought from the royal palace tomorrow, come back in the morning if you want to witness it."
She once more thanks the group and dismisses them unless anyone has any further questions. You have a few days to put things in order, sell loot and buy any supplies before you are to report for duty again.
Once you arrive at the Bank of Abadar, they eye you suspiciously at first, but once they see the writ that Cressida gave you, they are happy to give you the gold.
Once outside the bank, Copper suggests the group go back to the run-down house to sort out the loot from the sting.
"Anyone think we need to be overly cautious about selling some of this gear? I dont think any of us needs to go alone to the market, in case some of Verik's men are watching us, but aside from that, I dont think we need to be sneaky about it. it's not like it's the Queen's Brooch we are trying to fence, after all."
"Does anyone want to go wth me to see Verik's interrogation tomorrow?"
When Neva calls upon Zellara's spirit in the Harrow deck to identify the magical items, she is easily able to determine the properties of the arrows. However, when she examines the silver dagger, Neva waits for several uncomfortable minutes before Zellara's voice echoes in her head once more. "This aura is strange, it is unlike anything that I have ever seen before and try as I might, I can't make heads or tails of it I'm afraid."
Senjin scratches at the stubble on his jawline. "Maybe this dagger is something we want to hang onto till we can figure out its purpose. Sounds unique, might be hard to judge it's true value."
@ Copper "I would be interested. Would like to know what made so many men forget their oaths. And what was he doing with the butcher shop...but I guess that is not as important."
Neva held onto the dagger, turning it over several times in her hands, musing. In response to Copper's question, she shrugged. "I don't know that I'd enjoy an interrogation, despite my curiosity about Verik's plot."
"I don't really care what Verik thought he would accomplish. I think we should hold on to the dagger until we can be sure to get a fair price for it. I'll trust Neva to hold on to it for now. I could probably use it, myself, but I'm still trying to get comfortable with these kukri." He indicates a pair of very nice, but unmatched, kukri tucked in his belt.
Over the next couple days, Rutter lays low, spending a lot of time in a cleared-out room at Zellara's working with the kukri. Pretty soon, his movements appear more confident and less clumsy. For meals, he heads to a nearby inn and gets healthy, but common dinners. He drinks in moderation.
Jericho spends his time checking in on Verik, working to make sure he isn't being treated too unfairly.
Copper will spend the rest of the day sitting cross-legged on the floor, mentally going over the final elements of a new spell he has been working on. While he makes significant progress towards harnassing the power of the new spell, his efforts are fruitless, and he is unable to manifest it correctly.
Come morning, after eating a quick meal, he is back to working on the spell, and to his delight, he finds himself able to manifest his new power quite easily.
Mearly pointing a finger in the direction of a person who he would like to speak to, he is able to communicate with them as if he was right next to them, while he is only whispering.
"Rutter?", he asks, while standing outside the house, nearly 100ft away, 'Can you still hear me? Im trying to test the range on thi..."
The words die off in Rutter's ear as Copper keeps stepping backwards, finally reaching the limit of the magic.
Once back inside he asks of the others, "Im going to leave for the interrogation in just a few minutes. Anyone coming with me?" Either way, Copper goes.
"Yeah, I'll come. I figure we will see Jericho there."
Neva snorted awake as Copper began moving about the room. Rising slowly, she took a few minutes to stretch and bend, frowning at the various creaks and snaps that accompanied her movements.
"Ugh. Gray Lady, be patient. You'll have me in the end, no need to ruin me now.
With that, she moved slowly into her morning ablutions, praying for herself, her companions and the people of Korvosa.