Maelorn moves over to Bron and uses his last spell to heal Bron.
Zane strikes out with his cane, landing a direct hit. The shocking grasp discharges through the the boar with a sharp crack, the boar leaps into the air and falls dead.
Nakoda recovers her feet, dashes over and kills the last heavily wounded boar.
As Bron lies in a spreading pool of blood, Maelorn reaches out and heals him. (Bron goes to exactly 0 hp.)
The battle is over. Other than the shrieks and retreating footsteps, the gambling hall is silent.
Maelorn quickly makes sure that all of their enemies are dead (saying a short prayer over Bojask as he does so), and then floods the area with positive energy over and over again.
Zane gets to his feet and gazes at the carnage in the room.
"That was.....intense. Is everyone all right?"
Taking in the damage inflicted by Saul's defenses he silently shudders at the thought of being on the other side of them.
"We need to find Saul before he goes to ground."
Grabbing the haft of his heavy flail as he wearily rose to his feet, Bron takes a look at the carnage around him and his own blood-soaked form before saying, "Though I was out, judgin' by the looks o' the room I'd say we won. Thanks are in order for ya Maelorn. Though I am excited by tha prospect o' meeting the Drunken Hero, I ain't quite ready ta met him yet." Moving stiffly, Bron checks over his body and is amazed at the effectiveness of Maelorn's healing magic, noting only a few scratches and stiffness in the areas where the others saw the boars had viciously torn into the man. Resting his flail across his shoulder, the man stands at his full height and says, "I agree with Zane on that count. We need ta find Saul and get some straight answers from that double-crossin' one-handed midget."
There is a *Creeek* by the door, and you see Liry Parmenter (still in costume) peek around the door.
"Hello? Mister Maelorn?"
When she sees you standing in the slaughterhouse, dripping with blood and standing in a pile of bodies, her eyes widen and she sucks in a lungful of air to scream...
Being the closest, Bron drops his flail as he rushes to the smaller woman, taking her up in his arms and clapping his hand over the woman's mouth. Though not the nicest way to get Liry to not scream, in his mind, it was the most effective.
Grapple CBM check if wanted:
Maelorn straightens up,"Calmly Liry. You see we have been beset, but things are safe for the moment"
Liry lets out a brief yip befor Bron wraps her up in a grapple and smothers her screaming. When Maelorn speaks to her, she eventually calms down.
Once Liry has calmed down, Bron gently sets the woman on her feet and lets her go and says apologetically, "Sorry 'bout that miss, we just didn't want ya to warn that good-fer-nothin' Saul about what has happened here." With that, he moves back to where he had dropped his flail and stoops down, gripping the haft and lifting it to rest on one shoulder.
After Bron lets Liry go, she stands there wringing her hands. Looking down at the blood Bron got all over the front of her dress and face, she can only say "Eeeeewwwwww..."
"Sorry 'bout that miss, we just didn't want ya to warn that good-fer-nothin' Saul about what has happened here."
"Mr. Vancaskerkin? He went and jumped into the fighting pit. He said... he said you were here to kill him and take over. But that can't be true! I don't know about anyone else, but Mr. Maelorn, he just wouldn't DO something like that!"
She looks at Maelorn.
"...would you?"
"No we wouldn't, but after everything he's done, everyone we care about is in danger until we get a hold of Saul. He's going to be looking for a way to stike back, but first, he'll try to get to somewhere safe."
Zane looks over at Nakoda staring down at her hands.
"It's normal, adrenaline wearing off and the realization of the stakes. No shame in it."
Maelorn pauses a long moment before answering, "This morning it would have been the furthest thing from my mind, Liry. But tonight, Saul had my mother kidnapped in order to lure me to my death...and we've found evidence that he had the previous floor manager murdered."
"I see no way that I can in conscience allow him to live. He is a danger to me and mine, when I did nothing to harm him. I...fighting pit?"
"I'm with Maelorn, Liry. Saul is the one that tried to kill us, was even willing ta use Maelorn's mam and yur pretty self ta lure use inta the swamp. I don't know why he wants ta get rid of us, but I am achin' ta find him and ask." the normal smile that graces the brawler's face is gone, replaced with a grim expression that meant all business.
Liry just looks speechless at your declarations of Saul's crimes.
"...fighting pit?"
Liry nods. "Yes, the fighting pit."
She looks at your uncomprehending looks."You know, where the gladiator stuff happens. Dog vs. boar fights, handicapped duels, that kind of thing. Come on! You're Saul's partners, you gotta know about it! The Overlord loves that stuff! I think that's why we haven't been taken over by one of the big gangs. Oh bother. Come on then!"
Impatient now, she brusquely motions you to follow. She walks out on to one of the security walkways that allows watchers to look down on the games from concealment. She points down.
"There. See now?"
Looking down you can see the central podium had been divided and rolled to either side. revealing a pit 30 feet by 30 feet and 20 feet deep. It has a sandy floor and you can see several barred doors at the base level, suitable to let savage animals in. The folded back podium halves make this a dandy mini-amphitheater. You don't see anyone in the hall right now.
"Look at me Liry."
"I've made no secret of my concerns with the things we have been asked to do for the Goblin. Do you honestly think I would have stood silent if we had been told about this? Saul kept this secret from us...I suspect he has many darker secrets as well."
"Secrets that he was willing to send a small army to kill us over."
Liry just stands shaking her head. It doesn't look like she can bring herself to believe it.
My magic is almost tappeed for the day, but I have scrolls and the wand. The longer we let him run the harder he'll be to find. Besides, if he's in the wind, your mother, Samaritha, the people at the Shoanti enclave, there's no telling who he'll go after to get back at us. I say we finish this."
Zane looks down at the pit as if preparing to jump in.
"I agree with Zane. If we wait too long, Saul will go to ground. This is our best chance ta confront him and make him answer fer what he has done." Bron says all this as he eyes the distance down to the sandy floor of the gladiator pit, judging if he could make the jump from here with little injury.
"I have little power left, but I agree. We cannot afford to give him time to go to ground."
"Nakoda, will you join us?"
Climbing (or Jumping) safely down to the bloodstained sand, you see the badly cleaned up remnants of brutal combat to the death. Blood spatter, broken weapons, broken teeth... This is a place with an ugly vibe.
There is a peculiar smell, beyond the odor of blood and pig. A kind of unusual musk...
Troglodyte!
Looking around you see that the doors leading out are shut, but before you make your way over to check them out, you note there is a place near the center of the mini-arena that had been swept away, revealing a wooden plank.
Gingerly lifting it up, you see a two foot by two foot wide metal plate in the floor with a peculiar keyhole. You note that the trap door had a peculiarly alien design to it... And you realize the key that Saul had fitted to his stump looks just like it would fit! The trapdoor is clearly magically locked, and the lock itself looks difficult.
The design is strange, you've never seen anything like it. You know it's not dwarven though.
And you realize with a silent pang through your body that THIS is your path to the blot. You saw this in your dream quest; you must descend into the blackness of the earth. Your spirit guide knew this, and instructed you with the Word that would command it.
In game terms, you need to make a Perform (Oratory or Sing) DC20 check to open the trapdoor.
When you searched the dead up in Saul's office, you found:
-270 gp all told in various coinage
-3 sets Leather armor
-1 set Leather armor +1, Shadowed
-3 sets Studded Leather armor
-1 set Studded Leather armor +1
-1 Chain shirt +1
-9 light clubs
-17 daggers
-3 throwing axes
-1 Throwing axe +1
-3 Longswords
-1 Longsword, Masterwork
-3 Rapiers
-1 Rapier, Masterwork
-1 Battleaxe, Masterwork
-9 Potions, Cure Light Wounds
-1 Potion, Expeditious Retreat
-1 Potion, Reduce Person
-1 Oil, Magic Fang
-5 Smokesticks
-3 Wrist sheathes
-1 Blade boot
Nakoda's normal voice becomes... something greater as she speaks each syllable of the Word.
"EN..."
"...UR..."
"...A..."
It's power is beyond anything you have expierienced before, reverbrating through your very soul. You could almost swear you could see the waves of the Word roll unstoppably across the arena.
Both doors into the arena unlock, unbar and open with a creak.
Zane's scrolls fall from their tubes and unroll.
Bron's swordbelt springs open, spilling his weapons to the sand.
The trapdoor twists in a complex pattern and opens silently, revealing a yawning black throat from which darkness flows.
That was... one of the Celestial Words. A fragment of Quintessance left over from the creation of the universe. But... only a God could use one. Right?
Bron started to get a little spooked as Nakoda's words begin to reverberate throughout the room. Once the doors started opening and buckles mysteriously came unbuckled, Bron's eyes widened until he had to force himself to blink just to keep his eyes from drying up. Warily stooping to pick up the items that had fallen, Bron looks up when the door at their feet pops open.
"Well, you all sure know how ta keep things interesting." Bron says as he finishes rebuckling his belts and sheaths. "What, by the bottom of tha Drunken Hero's mug, just happened?"
"She...spoke a word uttered when the universe was created. A Celestial Word, the kind bandied about by Gods. Fascinating!"
Zane studies Nakoda intently as he speaks
Stepping closer, you can see there is a strong ladder descending into the darkness.
When you decide to descend, tell me the order.
Looking to the others to make sure they were all ready, Bron distributes the weight of this heavy flail to make the climb down the ladder more comfortable before drawing the well crafted dagger from his new wrist sheath and starting his descent down the ladder.
Maelorn follows Bron, after a quick look to make sure that Nakoda has not been harmed by her use of the word.
Zane stood at the top of the ladder for a moment, processing everything that had occurred. There was an ominous sense to the descent, as if once down that ladder, everything would change, and with it the intense intellectual curiousity that drove him.
"Until we get back, don't trust anyone previously associated with Saul's business dealings. If he returns and comes after you, find Maelorn's mother and both of you get to Samaritha at the Wizard's enclave. You'll be safe there, even he wouldn't be insine enough to rile a host of mages."
With that he descended after Nakoda.
As he continued his descent, Bron didn't have the apprehension that others in the group felt. He had lived much of his young life in places and situations he despised. However, he too felt the sense of omen going down this ladder and he gripped the dagger in his free had as he carefully moved his left hand from one rung to another.
Liry looks frightened as she looks down on you from the edge of the pit. She simply nods at Nakoda and Zane when they speak.
You descend deeply into the shaft; down through packed earth and stone.
After some twenty or thirty feet, you come to the bottom of the shaft.
You stand in a cave lined partly with brick.
The air is cooler here, damp and pitch black.
The structure is that of Riddleport several centuries ago. It must have been made during the earliest days of the town; back when it was a series of smugglers hideouts.
Off to the side, a gaping pit drops away along the eastrn wall, descending twenty feet to a sloshing pool of water below.
The pit's sides are steeply sloped and slick with moss, bt are also covered with many rough ledges and protrusions.
A series of lwooden ladders and ropes descends along these walls to ledge below, just around the edge of the pool.
When his booted feet hit the hard ground of the cavern, Bron sheathes his dagger and draws his heavy flail as he steps away form the ladder and waits for the rest of the group to finish their descent. "Mighty dark down here" he whispers to no one in particular.
There are traces of shoeprints leading from the ladder to the sinkhole.
Looking around, you see no other exits from this chamber except for the sinkhole.
"It seems we are spared the burden of choice. There is only one way to go..."
"Down. Wonderful." Zane says sarcastically.
"Well, we may as well get it over with."
Moving over to the edge of the sinkhole, Bron looks down uneasily before taking a short swig from his wineskin and gripping the haft of hist flail, begins to descend the ladder to the edge of the pool.
As the group descends Zane whispers a brief word, bringing a silvery glow to the head ofhis cane to provide light.
One at a time you climb down the slick mossy sides of the sinkhole, fortunate that the ropes and ladders are there to give purchase. At the bottom, you see there is a pool of water in the middle of this chamber, surrounded by a dry ledge. There is a five foot gap you have to traverse to get to the ledge.
Is it possible to detach one of the ladders and use it to bridge the gap?
Nakoda slips as she tries to make the jump to the ledge in the lower chamber and falls into the briny pool with a splash.
You see something underwater moving rapidly towards Nakoda.
Roll initiative.
Perception
>CLICK< for the area down below.
You see something moving rapidly through the water, it's going to attack Nakoda! It's position is about [R,10].
You have one standard action in this surprise round.
Nakoda surfaces, sputtering in the deep briny water.
Looking around she sees a rough walled chamber; perhaps an old sea cave. A sandy ledge sits on the verge of a tidal pool that foams with the surf of the sea, though you see no open sky. Water marks on the cavern's irregular walls and the collection of flotsam, small shells, and mussels embedded in the sand attest to the flooding that this cave periodically receives. A tunnel exits on the pool's opposite side.