Agreed.
After spending a bit of time in the underground, you make your way to the surface... still several hours to spare before your planned rendezvous - and over an hour before curfew. There is no presence here in the ruins.. no sign of authorities or any other wandering folk.
After using Prestidigitation to clean up any stray blood spatter, Idril turned to her companions and grinned.
"Well then, looks like we have some time before the meet. Shall we get lunch? I know a place..."
Having some time before rendezvous, you head to the Tooth and Nail for a meal. Setrona is engaged in conversation with another woman at the back table, but gives you a quick nod and still hand wave.
The only other patron is a human with a greying beard seated at the bar - currently eating some type of gravy over biscuits with an ale.
A lumpy fellow with close-cropped hair and a drowsy gaze greets you from behind the bar. "Sit where ye like... Drinks? Sumpin to eat? Gotta be gone by curfew, aye?"
"Of course my good man, we would not want to get into trouble with the authorities after all.
What would you recommend to eat? And a suitable beverage to go with the meal of course."
Water and bread please. Stricia says. She's still not used to the food of the city and feels like being simple to prepare for whatever is going to happen at night. Maybe later she would try the beans again.
"Taldan Hunter's Pie and house ale for me!" Called Idril with a wave.
Nio nods in Idril's direction. "Same for me," he says without taking off his helmet. The heavily armored man turns and checks on the big blue-feathered lizard at his side, making sure Hasta is behaving herself as they make their way to a table.
The patron at the bar eyes you, his gaze rests on Hasta. The man behind the bar wordlessly takes note, eyes Hasta as well, and nods before..
"I'll set you up with drinks first. That critters not gonna be any trouble, is it?"
To Indio... "Hunter's pie is a good one.. Dried beef gravy is good'n'cheap."
Nio takes off his helmet and shakes his head. "Nossir." He looks over at Hasta and whistles and the big lizard settles down in a corner, curling up like a cat. "But if you could bring her a big bowl of water and a tray of meat scraps, I'd pay for another meal for it."
No other patrons arrive as you dig into your meals and drinks.
The bread is crusty with a not-too-soft interior.
The Hunter's pie is rich.. topped with a layer of particularly buttery and crusty potato.
As you are finishing up, Setrona walks her dining companion to the front door.. a dark haired woman - pale and pretty with an eye patch and a simple dress.
She smiles at the bartender and then your group as she passes.
The bartender says "G'night Luculla."
Idril casually glanced at the "Luculla" woman. Did she know her?
Idril will go to the servor and ask for a handful of ground pepper.
"It's for a family dinner later, and I forgot to get some earlier." She pleads.
The lumpy man behind the bar shrugs, and dumps about a tablespoon of pepper into Idril's hand.
Setrona gives you a nonchalant nod as you exit the Tooth and Nail.
"Thank you for your business. Careful out there, folks."
You begin to make your way across Kintargo with speed to avoid breaking curfew during your journey.
"Thank you!" Idril said cheerily as she made her way back to her table.
There she took a sheet of paper, dumped the pepper in the middle and carefully rolled it up to form a thick straw like tube with ground pepper in the middle and a thin barrier of paper at either end.
Heading out with the others she tried to find her orientation.
Nio follows the others, trying to keep from attracting too much attention in spite of his distinctive armor and big blue lizard-bird.
You reach the Bleakbridge with fifteen or twenty minutes left before curfew.
As the officious balding collector takes your five silver coins of toll, one of the two guards and addresses you.
"Late to be out. Bedding down nearby?"
Nio turns his full-face helmet toward the talkative guard. "Here for work." Dressed as he is in armor resembling that of the Order of the Torrent, Nio hopes his terse reply will keep the other man from asking any more questions.
Idril nodded along with Nio.
"Yeah."
The guard eyes Nico in silence for several uncomfortable moments. He then looks over the rest of you, and waves you on.
The other guard simply says "Just don't get caught out in the streets an hour from now or anything."
As you move on, the first guard leans over to the tax collector's ear.
"Guard change in ten minutes.. we'll report it then."
|
Erodel nods and quickly moves on.
(favored enemy: human)
(favored enemy: human, favored community)
As party moves out of earshot of the guards, Erodel says, "Seems like they recognized your armor, Nio. Didn't seem to happy about it either. We've gotta move fast, things could go sideways in less than ten minutes."
Nio shakes his head. "Yeah, the Order isn't popular these days. At least the meeting is going to be out of sight."
How long do we have before we make it to cover? We may need to disguise Niro to proceed unmolested.
You make your way toward the Greens District entrance, but just as it comes into sight, you see several guards there closing the gate.
The hour of curfew has begun.
Oh, dear...We've just been cut off,it seems. Do we attempt to bluff our way through or double back through the sewers? Unless we have enough for bribes for all of us?
We should have been faster. We do not want to be noticed since we are going to be doing something that will draw attention so I say the sewers.
Idril hung her head.
"Back to the sewers..." She muttered.
Nio nods. "It's the only way."
You backtrack a block to a large enough sewer grate to enter. Just as the last of you are about to drop down, the glow from a patrol's lantern light is visible from down the road back to the bridge.
You take the sewer main south until it branches east - the narrow and slightly rising offshoot which travels under the wall of the Greens District where you'd gone to scout before.
A pair of large (but still insignificant) centipedes require squashing along the way, but you have no difficulties beyond that.
Idril busily cleans the gunk off with a Cleaning cantrip, then spritzes a little perfume on top of it.
You exit the sewer in the narrow back alley between the district walls and the fenced perimeter of the estate. It is dark and secluded.. there appear to be no eyes upon you.
Nio kneels down next to Hasta and murmurs something to his companion before standing up and casting a spell on himself. The deinonychus starts sniffing the air while Nio looks all around.
Bastargrae, flattening his top hat and stowing it away, adjusted his drab poncho to better cover his albino alligator hide leathers.
Before the teams separate, Idril casts Message on everyone.
"We just have to stay within about 150 feet, and we can whisper back and forth to each other. It won't go through walls though. Should last 50 minutes." She instructed.