"Leggo, ya big lizard," Danni says stretching out a hand.
A blob of acid flies out like an arrow towards the gator.
The half orc tumbles to the ground in a thud of entrails and blood. Smiling at the gnome, the young Lord talks to the gnome.
So be it. I suggest you lie down on the ground or my friend there will think you have not given up.
Causally pointing his weapon towards Garran...and smiles.
If he tries to run....would you be so kind as to show him the error in his thinking.
He chuckles a little and nods towards Alika
Oh and she will turn your manhood into a squirrel. A very tiny squirrel mind you.
Alistair looks at the Gnome and then down at Nicoleta. Making sure that the kukri is far away from the gnome and that he could not get to it easily. F+@* me...damn it Alicia...why did I ever listen to you....
He yells down at Nicolete...
You owe me for this. I just got this shirt.
With that said, Alistair jumps off the side and towards the alligator with his weapon pointing the way.
what the f#$+ was I thinking...this is not worth it...I should not be doing this. I am in so much trouble when Mrs. Chambers see this shirt. She will have my balls over her mantle in a heartbeat...Did I pay my tab at the Ugly Lucky Duckling last week...
I am in need of a new pair of boots and I am fancying some alligator skin ones.
Garran walks over to where Alistair is menacing the gnome, Giggles' blood still dripping from his weapon, and fixes the gnome with a glare.
"I'll buy you a new f*$&ing shirt!" Nicoleta snarls at Alistair from the muck. "Just help me get him up!"
A little busy with priorities...Selfish much!...did you happen to see the f$&&ing alligator that is right here. Try worrying about the threat to those around you and stop worry about what you want. Can you not see beyond your own nose...trying to help you and all you can do is worry about what you want. Snap out of this self absorbed boo hoo me s#!* and worry about the thing that is going to kill us all. Now f&$@ing hit tic toc croc before it tries to change my religion.
Nicoleta HP: 5/9 - AC: 17/17/12 Status:
Danni HP: 12/12 - AC: 13/12/11 Status:
Alistair HP: 12/12 - AC: 16/14/12 Status:
Garran HP: 13/13 - AC: 19/11/18 Status:
Alika HP: 8/10 - AC: 16/12/14 Status:
________________________________
Gaedran Lamm - HP: -4/38 - AC: 14/12/12 Status:
Giggles - HP: -5/26 - AC: 17/11/16 Status: Dazed
Hookshanks - HP: 13/22 - AC: 16/13/14 Status:
Gobblegut - HP: 33/33 - AC: 14/10/13
With the head of his flail stuck in the wood beam, Giggles can do little to defend himself against Garran's incoming swing. The edge of the sword strikes the half-orc on his shoulder, cleaving through his collarbone and driving an inch deep into his chest. Giggles tries to laugh before he dies, but can only manage to cough blood, speckling Garran with crimson droplets.
"A squirrel for nuts is better than getting in the water with that gator," Hookshanks mutters. The gnome kicks his kukri to the far wall before lying down on his stomach and placing his arms on his head.
Nicoleta glares at the alligator and continues to pull on Lamm's body, but feels her fingers slipping from him.
Nicoleta HP: 5/9 - AC: 17/17/12 Status:
Danni HP: 12/12 - AC: 13/12/11 Status:
Alistair HP: 12/12 - AC: 16/14/12 Status:
Garran HP: 13/13 - AC: 19/11/18 Status:
Alika HP: 8/10 - AC: 16/12/14 Status:
________________________________
Gaedran Lamm - HP: -4/38 - AC: 14/12/12 Status:
Giggles - HP: -5/26 - AC: 17/11/16 Status: Dazed
Hookshanks - HP: 13/22 - AC: 16/13/14 Status:
Gobblegut - HP: 15/33 - AC: 14/10/13
The alligator yanks Lamm's body from Nicoleta's hands, but releases him as it's splashed with acid and stabbed by Alistair's sword. The beast thrashes in pain—nearly wrenching the rapier from Alistair's grasp—and twists to face its attacker.
The alligator snaps a tooth-lined maw towards the swashbuckler and sweeps its tail at Nicoleta, the scaly appendage thicker than her thigh. Alistair pulls away from the bite, and Nicoleta ducks under the tail.
Garran stands guard over Hookshanks, trusting to the others to either escape or slay the alligator. If Hookshanks tries to escape, he'll get ended quickly enough.
After dodging its tail, Nicoleta turns her ire on the beast.
"He's mine, you stupid ... "
She punches at the creature, but, as typical, her anger betrays her.
"... f*%&pile of leather scrap!"
She punches at it again.
Alistair shifts his position and realizes that he will need to keep his second weapon out to help balance in this terrain.
So the angry one can hit something...nice job
Alistair smiles and stabs at the alligator.
I hope that will do the trick.
Alika gently taps Nicoleta, suffusing her with a moment of guidance.
Though she'd rather use fire on this thing, she doesn't want to hurt the others, so she lobs another acid orb at the gator.
Nicoleta HP: 5/9 - AC: 17/17/12 Status:
Danni HP: 12/12 - AC: 13/12/11 Status:
Alistair HP: 12/12 - AC: 16/14/12 Status:
Garran HP: 13/13 - AC: 19/11/18 Status:
Alika HP: 8/10 - AC: 16/12/14 Status:
________________________________
Gaedran Lamm - HP: -4/38 - AC: 14/12/12 Status:
Giggles - HP: -5/26 - AC: 17/11/16 Status: Dazed
Hookshanks - HP: 13/22 - AC: 16/13/14 Status:
Gobblegut - HP: 7/33 - AC: 14/10/13
The gator turns towards Nicoleta, releasing a rumbling growl that is equal parts rage and pain. The monk batters at its snout, the first blow bouncing harmlessly from its scaly hide, but the second finds purchase. Nicoleta feels something squish beneath her hand, and the alligator recoils in agony. She's punched the beast right in its eyeball.
Ignoring the blows from the rest of the party, it retreats to the deepest part of the pool and lies at the bottom in a feeble effort to avoid notice. Based on how closely the pilings cluster beneath the water, it seems very unlikely that the gator can leave the pool.
"Come back here you piece of s@$#!" Nicoleta screams at the retreating creature. She starts to move after it, but then catches herself and takes a moment to breathe and steady herself.
Her original goal finally comes back to her and she returns to Lamm's still form. "Dammit, You better still be alive," she says as, with assistance, she attempts to pull him up to the floor.
With ease, Nicoleta is able to drag Lamm's unconscious form from the water. The old man is shockingly light; and alive, but only just. He's lost a lot of blood.
"Can you revive him?" Nicoleta asks Alika. "Once I get the answers I want, you people can do whatever you want with him. Hells, you can even throw him back in with the gator if you want; I don't care."
She stands up and begins to pace around shaking out her hands in an effort to calm herself down. She's breathing in a practiced manor and repeating quiet phrases to herself.
Danni's small frame looms over the dying Lamm. "The gator seems a fitting end to this scum. Can't you get your answers from that one?" she says, pointing over to Hookshanks.
"Yes, of course I can," says Alika. "The best way would be for us to move to a place where I can channel Sarenrae's warmth to heal all of us at once."
"Oh I plan to question that little s$*@ as well when I'm done with Lamm," Nicoleta says as she shoots Hookshanks a nasty grin. She grabs Lamm by the ankle and drags him unceremoniously over to the far corner away from the other prisoners.
Before Alika can channel any energy, however, Nicoleta holds up a hand. "Um ... wait a moment," she says nervously before moving to stand over the other prisoner - outside the range of the divine magic.
"I had a ... a bad experience with that once. I'll wait over here until you're done."
Alika nods and holds forth the symbol of Sarenrae.
"Blessed maiden of redemption, gift us with your warm light of compassion," she says, unleashing a small, soothing wave.
AListair keeps his eyes on the water as the others work to bring up Lamm.
I was so hoping to have a matching belt too.
When he hears them talking...He looks up at everyone standing about what to do next.
oh...do not worry about me. I will find a way up by myself.
Once he pulls himself up out of the hole and back on level footing, he looks at his surroundings; and himself. Brushing off his clothes and kicking the mud from his boots, Alistair smiles still.
He looks at Nicolette and shakes his head.
Ungrateful piece of work. I hope that after this is over...I never see her again.
The healing magic suffuses Gaedren Lamm's prone form and, for a moment, it seems not to have been enough. Then Lamm starting coughing—a convulsing bout of hacking sounds as the aged crime boss heaves muddy water from his lungs. When finished, he looks around blearily at his surroundings.
"Hells," he wheezes, as he notices the party looming over him. "You couldn't just let me die?" Without his wide-brimmed hat and soaked to the bone, he looks less like an imposing criminal, and more like a bent old man. His yellowed eyes glint with malice, however, and he offers the party a grim smile.
Once Alika finishes her dispersment of healing energy, Nicoleta picks up Hookshanks' kukri and approaches the pathetic old man. She squats down and puts her face as close to his as possible and grins back, showing her teeth in the process.
"Can't let you die just yet, old man. Answer with the truth and you avoid the judgement of Korvosa's law."
She continues to smile as looks over the scrawny body and scratches behind her ear with the bent blade.
"D$*# around with me and I'll feed you yours."
Her smile fades and her face grows hard.
"I don't want much, just everything you know or suspect about Nadia Radacan's death."
"Who?" Lamm replies.
"Don't f@&! with me, Lamm! I'm not a real patient b*#&@!" Nicoleta snaps, pointing the tip of the blade at the man's left eye. "You know who I'm talking about; 'Nice-Night' Nadia!"
Alistair starts to take things off of Hookshanks and the moves to Giggles. Placing all items in a pile.
He sighs when Nicoleta start to talk again.
For the love of all the gods...Lamm, do my a solid and I will make sure your death is clean, fast and painless. Tell her what she wants to know so that we can go on with our lives...if not she will just continue telling anyone that will listen how much of a b#*!$ she is or how mean she can get...It really is tiresome. So please just do this and I will give you a soldiers death. Quick and clean.
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Nicoleta looks up at Alistair.
"Flattery will not you into my pants," she says. "That takes lots of wine and a nice dinner."
"Oh, Nice-Night Nadia," Lamm exclaims, grimacing from Nicoleta's rough treatment. "Why didn't you say so? Man came by looking to pay off a debt. Gave me a ring and some jewelry. I didn't ask where it came from, it ain't in my nature. So I moved it." He offers Nicoleta a yellow, crooked smile. "But I didn't kill her, honest Shoanti, I didn't."
"Yeah, but you know who did kill her, don't you? And unless you want to eat one of your eyeballs, you're going to tell me who that is."
Showing that she's ready to follow through on her threat, Nicoleta digs the tip of the blade into the skin surrounding his left eye.
Lamm gasps in pain. "I don't know who killed her, no. Could be the man who brought me her things. His name is Odill, an addict and a thief. Might be him, but he claimed it was the Key-Lock Killer."
The Key-Lock Killer hasn't been heard from in several years, leading authorities to believe, or hope, that he died or moved on.
Nicoleta looks around at the others in confusion, not understanding the reference.
Alika shrugs, unaware of the local stories.
The Key-Lock Killer has been gone for several years now. This person would break into a home, killing a single inhabitant and carving a lock into their flesh. The authorities are as pathetic at bringing to justice a killer as they are an old man that exploits children for profit.
”Do you have what you were looking for? Can justice be dispensed now?”
Nicoleta looks down at the frail man with nothing but disgust in her eyes.
"He doesn't have anything else I need. He's all yours."
She lets go of him and rises to her feet, fixing her eyes on Hookshanks. "I hope you have something to add to that. Otherwise, we'll be done with you as well," she says with a significant nod towards the water and the lumbering beast still moving around down there.
"I'm for tossing him back to the gator. It's a fitting end in my book." Hate seems to emanate from her eyes like a flame. "The things he's done to his 'lambs'..."
With Nicoleta now menacing Hookshanks, Garran walks away from the gnome, stowing his shield as he goes. Once he gets next to Lamm, he inverts his sword in both hands and says, ”This is for your betrayal.” He then stabs his sword right through Lamm’s chest, making sure the man is dead before drawing it out.
Alistair watches as Garran moves towards Lamm. He has a smile crossing his face as Garran speaks to him.
betrayal...?
Watching Lamms face as the blade descends...
May your victims haunt you for eternity.as the body falls to the ground...Say hello to Pharasma for me.
"I should have kil-" Gaedren begins, but Garran stabs him through the heart. Lamm groans, then dies, his blood dripping through the spaces between the wooden boards of the floor.
Hookshanks looks up at Nicoleta and back down to the pool holding the gator. The gnome swallows. "I know where you can find Odill. He comes around here for his shiver fix. I could take you to him."
Alistair finishes collecting the gear from Lamm, Hookshanks, and Giggles, although the piles of junk, assorted cabinets, and door to the southwest remain unexplored.
As Nicoleta moves closer to the gnome, she eyes him appraisingly. "So do you think Odill killed my mother?" she asks with a raised eyebrow.
Garran drags Lamm’s body to the water, then shoveds it in with a splash. Pausing a moment, he adds Giggles’ body to the water. ”That should keep the crocodile busy, and hide the bodies from the watch. We should add Yargin’s as well.”
Mixed emotions cross Alika's face. Finally after wavering a bit her scimitar dips, then she wipes it down and sheathes it.
"We should make sure there are no secrets left here, then vacate this place," she says. "I would rather not stay in this den of horrors, and besides I need to go to the temple to check in on the children there."
As the light of Lamm's eyes fades, Danni feels as though a weight has been lifted from her shoulders. She even seems to stand a bit straighter.
Danni nods to Alika. "We should also make sure all the children are accounted for, in case any are still here somewhere."
Danni holds up the keys they looted off Lamm and his lackeys. "We should check and see if these open anything important before we leave," she says, jingling them a little.