Kintargo -
Maggie is shocked by Sera's statement, "But who could it have been? No one has been down here but us, Tiel and Irisa."
Zel indeed does manage to fish out a healing potion and provide it to Treep . Her eyes flicker as Kadwyn tries to move rubble off of her, unsuccessfully.
However, quickly enough, the ladies are able to use teamwork to free the Tengu.
Korva comes out from her room as Treep is freed her feathers frayed, "What's all of this?!"
Sabotage, they said. Someone caused this wall to collapse. Stricia informs Korva.
Kadwyn scans the room for anything strange.
Zeldana knelt down beside Teep, removing the top of the bottle. "Drink this." She said softly as she helped the tengu sit up enough to drink the potion.
Kintargo -
Korva narrows her eyes and whispers, "Sabotage but who..."
Maggie whispers in her ear, Korva then states, [b]"We shall keep our eyes wide open for any such saboteurs in the future. Please inform Lavinia when you head back up that we will need to create some sort of warning system form now on when anyone comes to visit or to the storage room..."{/b]
Despite a search of the hideout, you find nothing. Well, the gator is still in the water but the Kenku seem to think its a fine deterrent for anyone trying to sneak into the nest through the water...
Kintargo -
By mid afternoon the four ladies' reach the area of the city where the ruins of the what used to the Silver Star lie. Patrols of the city do not seem any more frequent or aggressive than they have the past few weeks.
Zeldana
Stricia
Kadwyn
Sera
I see a masked person coming in also. Stricia whispers Does not seem to be a Dottari
Kadwyn focuses on every movement to reduce the sound of her shuffling armor, but it proves insufficient.
The faint sound of metal, probably armor since the sound doesn't carry a ring, alerts Kestrel to the presence of others. She flattens herself against the closest wall and slides along it toward... four figures it looks like... until she finds some shaded patch.
She stops there, remaining flat, and watches to see what they will do.
"If they do not seem to be Dottari should we worry?" Zeldana asked as she kept her voice low. "As I said, what we're doing isn't technically breaking any laws..."
Kintargo -
Despite Kadwyn's failure to stay quiet, a good thing to discover now before a critical point ina mission must be undertaken, it seems that only the mysterious figure spotted the ladies. The figure appears to have left, hopefully not to alert the authorities.
The foxes begin to search the ruins of the Silver Star, which would appear on their face, to yield little more than charred stone. The site is a sinkhole filled with said scorched rubble as the building collapsed into the chambers below when it burned.
Hopefully it is not some sort of assassin, but let us be quick about our work here!
Sera ignores the figure, having not seen it herself and predicting that a law enforcer would have immediately identified themselves. Still, it didn't hurt to be a little careful, she thinks to herself as she looks around.
Kadwyn nods to Stricia and begins to sift through the rubble.
Zeldana helps Kadwyn sift through the rubble though she moves much slower than the bard.
If no one finds anything Stricia takes the time to really go through the rubble.
The group of women begin to rummage through the debris of what used to be the Silver Star as Kestrel watches. It's precisely what she had come to do herself.
Kestrel moves in closer look, and if things seem to check out alright, make contact with them.
At a certain point Kestrel figures she will get no closer undetected. It's daytime and she's not able to move in perfect silence.
Kestrel steps out at the edge of the Silver Star's rubble pile and says "Good afternoon Ladies. Looking for something? If so, it seems we are all here for the same reason."
Stricia essays a short bow. If you are not with the Dottari, then I am certain that we can cooperate. We are looking for anything that could help us against them.
Zeldana clapped her hands over her mouth to keep from screaming as their "guest" popped up and nearly scared her half to death. "Are you trying to give us a heart attack?" The young witch asked.
Kesrel bows slightly in apology.
The Foxes(?) can see the woman is dressed almost completely in black or charcoal grey, including knee-high boots and a long coat ending past her knees. The only exception is a dark-purple waistcoat. Both a long blade and dagger are suspended from a leather belt around her waist. She wears a wide-brimmed felt hat and her face is masked so only the area of her face around her eyes shows.
Her eyes are brown, and she has a pale complexion suggesting Chelish ancestry. Her accent sounds local.
"It wasn't my intention to startle. I simply wanted to know beforehand who I would be talking to. Such are the days we live in now, no?"
Kadwyn stands from a crouching position and speaks bluntly. "Who are you?"
"That's true... but still..." Zeldana said as she shook her head. "Either way, might we have a name?"
Sera spots the ring on the woman's finger, and immediately draws attention to it, a little unsure as who this individual was and why she was hiding quietly while observing them.
"That's a lovely ring, why do you choose to handle it backwards, ashamed of something?" she inquires abruptly, not really wanting to waste time on polite introductions.
Kintargo -
An initial search reveals nothing at all of use.
Stricia begins to search more in depth as the rest of the Force begin to interact with the newcomer.
Suddenly, some rubble shifts beneath Stricia's feet!
Reflex Save
She barely dodges out of the way of a semi collapse below that he activity above caused that could have damn near taken her leg off!
However, the shift of rubble reveals a coffer!
The shifting of rubble does cause some noise...
"I'm Kestrel, and you?" she replies.
Kestrel shifts her eyes to the surly and ill-mannered half-orc woman. "My business entirely."
"You can call me Zel." Zeldana said with a nod. "You know, if you don't want someone to notice something you shouldn't wear it." Zeldana said in a friendly tone as she gave Kestrel a shrug.
When the rubble shifted and Stricia jumped back, Zel's head whipped around to look at the monk. "You alright?" She asked before she moved over to her. When she noticed the coffer she looked around before bending down and grabbing it. "Lets move, that made some good noise and this is likely all there is here." Zeldana said.
Ah! Stricia can't help but let out a shout as she barely dodges out of the way of the crumbling rubble. It would be wise to retreat I think as Zel says. She does look a little suspicously at Kestrel Perhaps to some place where we can ascertain that we can trust each other while we examine these?
Kintargo -
Perhaps we can find a hidden spot to go over these. No offense Miss Kestrel but I do not know if we can trust you very well at the moment.
"Agreed" Kadwyn responds, keeping an eye on Kestrel.
Kestrel glances down at the ring as she answers Zeldana.
"I guess you could say I'm too attached to it to take it off. I'm not sure it comes off anymore. I've had it for a very long time."
Kestrel may have smiled under her mask, it's hard to tell. "I haven't decided yet to trust you either." she replies to Stricia. "But yes, I'm agreeable to finding a more secluded place nearby. Let's move on then."
"Lets go!" Zeldana tried to whispered as she shooed her friends away.
Sera follows her companions, attempting to move swiftly and silently through the darkness,
Kintargo -
Despite the fact that it is the middle of the day and a patrol has just passed by, they did not even glance in the direction of the ruins.
The Ladies are able to find a spot in a Kintargo back alley to sit down on a few crates and relax. They are all out of sight of the street but can see people coming form both directions, an ideal place to inspect the goods discovered and speak to one another.
Kadwyn is wary of their new companion, but she's more interested in what they retrieved from the ruins. She asks Zeldana to display her finds and studies them closely.
Zeldana set the coffer down and opened it. "This looks like it was packed with care. I bet someone was planning on coming back for it." Zeldana said as she shifted through the things.
Hopefully the contents will help us move forward. Stricia comments.
Sera lightly touches the potions. As an alchemist, she is used to brewing such things, and hopes she can identity what it might be.
Kestrel stands with her arms folded, waiting for the group of women to open the package and identify its contents.
Kintargo -
The Ladies inspect the goods in the coffer.
It is clear, that these items will indeed aid the cause, what is not clear is whether this "Kestral" will...
The other thing that is clear from the investigation of the Silver Stair is that the group that Stricia has come to find, has been annihilated by the Thrune.
"Some of these scrolls I can learn." Zeldana said as she went through them. "Or we can leave them as scrolls. Tis up to the rest of you."
"Adding spells to your repertoire sounds more useful than the single use nature of scrolls. I think you should have them. Regarding the potions," Kadwyn muses as she runs a hand through her short hair. "Stricia and I prefer close-quarters combat, so maybe we should hold on to them."
This... this is where The Sacred Order of the Archivists were.. Stricia says in a faltering tone. They have been destroyed by the Dottari monsters
The young monk closes her eyes and takes a deep breath in order to steady herself. They must see justice for this crime she says finally opening her eyes again I think we are done here. I do not think we will find anything else.
Zeldana gave Stricia a saddened look before she wrapped her arm around her new friend. She knew the pain of loss and could empathize. "Yes, we should head back." She agreed.
Kestrel is as deflated as Stricia over the sparseness of their findings at the Silver Star. Her main concern is different though. The fate of Shensen, the local opera singer, looks as grim as the Order's
"I am sorry" She tells the monk. "I was also seeking something more hopeful here. Despise the dottari, but don't forget who's the true monster. It is Barzillai Thrune. He ordered it. Direct your hatred toward him. The fish rots from the head."
"I came for information. But if the Archivists kept anything of that sort there, it was seized or destroyed. If you'll part with one of those", Kestrel indicates one of the restorative potions, "I'll leave the rest of the coffer's contents to you. Given the dangers in our line of work, I can't ignore that having it could be a lifesaver."
Kadwyn turns to Kestrel with a heavy gaze. "The evil here reaches deeper than we know. There's no sugar-coating the situation. Asmodeous is revered by many here and I have no doubt the Thrune has had dealings with devils as well."
My course in this city is now set. But Kestrel, we must be cautious and I will be blunt. How can we trust you? We cannot be open about our resistance and secrecy is important. You have assured yours through your mask. We have not.
"They be always deal with devils. Tis even in their name as the thrice damned." Zeldana pointed out.
"While Stricia has a point... one who wears a mask either does not wish to be associated with what they do, or is looking for something while wanting to give nothing in return." Zel pointed out. "Trust is a two way street, we've trusted you with what we look like while you have trusted us with nothing."