“Then answer our questions NOW or I keep shooting until I run out of arrows! I’m sure the city will give us a reward for your unique carcass regardless of how many holes it has in it.”
"Mister Skunk, before you leave, could you please mark over here again?", Lia asks the small celestial skunk, which heads towards the statue and sprays it's musk at where Lia suspects their adversary.
"I wonder if there's such a thing as dire skunks.", she then muses, not having any questions of her own for Xanesha.
"You still don't seem to understand the asymmetry of the situation here. You are pinned under a pillar. We can leave, stand around, kill you slowly, kill you quickly, or whatever else we dream up, reference that skunk for example."
"We're inclined toward killing you to be blunt. About the only thing that's going to prevent us from harming you further is going to be wanting to avoid causing interruptions in the effusive stream of detailed information pouring out of your mouth. So, if you want the attacks to stop, start talking right now."
"Let's begin with what the point of the murder cult was, and whether you're at the top of the wearing-people's-faces-like-masks crowd, or there's someone higher up you answer to. We killed all the murder cult people by the way. They didn't have much to say you see."
There are momentary gagging souns after the sunk sprays beneath the statue.
After she takes a few deep breaths once the smell clears, Xanesha speaks up again, her words carefully measured.
"Yes, you do seem to have me at a disadvantage. You want to know about the Skinsaw Men? They are devoted to that upstart Norgorber, and I manipulated them to kill people who were more to my liking. What more is there to know?"
"Gosh, I don't know what I don't know. If that's really it I'd have to speculate that if you get out of your current jam, you'd just start the whole nasty business all over again, either here or somewhere else. Can't have that happening."
"Karmid, shoot her again. Keep going until she stops yelping or the invisibility runs out and we can see her."
Xanesha quickly replies.
"What if I promised to leave this pitiful excuse of a city and never come back? There are other towns where I can ply my trade after all."
"That's the problem. I know that's exactly what you'd do. We can't have that. You preying on people somewhere else instead isn't acceptable. You're a monster and you have to be put down."
The crowd of Ro's approach Xanesha, going to the side she figures to be opposite the front of her torso. While all them appear to slice her with the starknives in their hands, one of them actually does.
"By the way." Drasven interjects.
"Let all be seen." Drasven casts Invisibility purge.
"You'll not be leaving here in one piece. This is for certain. You have murdered, instigated others to kill and fermented dissent all for your own enjoyment. Tell us everything that you have done and why. At least it may lessen the weight of your evil deeds on your soul." he intones.
"Drop the pretense of ignorance witch! Ironbriar had a diary. He insisted there was more to all of this, but tried to trade the info...and you...for his hide! He's wasting in the city's jail for that stupidity, and here we are hot, bloody, and literally standing on your tail holding you down snake! What did the Pathfinder call it?...'A new method of murder that requires the Sihedron seven pointed symbol carved into the flesh of their victims?' That sounds suspiciously like a ritual to me. What is the symbol for! Speak! NOW. Or meet Norgorber in the afterlife after Pharasma judges you!"
"Its almost like shooting fish in a barrel! I really can't miss, can I?"
As Drasven finishes speaking, Xanesha seemingly pops into being pinned beneath the stone statue and you hear her curse loudly in frustration from beneath her snake mask. "Well, since you can't be convinced ..."
A split-second later, where you just saw a monster with the upper body of a woman and the lower of a gigantic snake, you see a young, harried-looking street urchin dressed in rags. With the bulk of the creature suddenly gone, the enormous statue that had been pinning her down suddenly drops, and the young woman barely rolls out from underneath it and avoids being crushed. Dust and debris shoot out from where the stone statue lands, causing the ground to shake. A second later you feel the entire ancient tower noticably begin to sway ever so slightly. Freed from her confinement, the young woman sprints toward her nearest exit: the break in the wall that leads to the rickety wooden staircase going down.
A a rumbling sound can be heard coming from below.
"NO! Stop her by any means!"
Ro doesn't disagree with Karmid, but to her mind Xanesha is no longer the most immediate problem. The gaggle of Ro's start to run after Xanesha. As she goes she yells.
"We have to get down the tower! Right now!"
Ro's new, on the fly plan is to stay close behind Xanesha, harrying her to make sure she keeps moving and doesn't have time to pause and sabotage anything. Once within arm's reach, Ro swipes at her with her starknife.
Not to be outdone by his cunning foe, Drasven leaps for her and attempts to tackle her.
"Tower is collapsing but how about cooperating with us and not going down with it?" he chides Xanesha.
Lia attempts to cut Xanesha with the Starknife she held, more a reflex than a planned attack, then turns to her.
With the swaying of the tower, Ro and Karmid's attacks on the fleeing Xanesha fail to make contact. It doesn't help that she is preternaturally agile and seems to almost be able to foresee where they will strike. Drasven encounterns the same when he tries to tackle her, strong-arming him as he dives for her.
As the altered form of her nemesis rushes past, trying to flee down the tower, Lia gathers energy in her right fist - hidden from her foes sight, then unleashes a mighty punch at Xanesha as she is distracted by the multitude of attacks from her companions.
"I'll be...." Drasven curses and chokes midway as he picks himself up....She was strong.
,
Lia's spell hits the humanoid Xanesha directly in the back as she speeds past. The force of the blow sends her tumbling ass over tea kettle off the edge of the tower where she immediately starts falling down and out of sight below the edge of the building.
Lia rushes to the edge of the clock tower to make sure Xanesha is well and truly killed by the fall from such a tremendous height. Less than 20 feet from hitting on the dark streets below, however, the creature's descent is suddenly arrested and she floats down the rest of the way, easily landing on her feet before dashing around a corner and out of sight.
The building continues to rumble and shift slightly below your feet, making you sure that it would be a bad idea to stay too long at the top of this tower.
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The City of Monuments was home to many people. Rich, poor, good, bad, and from all strata in between. There had been rumors of nefarious activity of late: murders, cults, that sort of stuff. But most people went about their lives. They baked, they shopped, they played, they loved. But there was a definite pall over the Magnimar. And Karina Rotarescu was unable to escape the miasma of it all. Not that she wasn't trying.
She was sitting outside of a little cafe in Lowcleft across from a vaguely handsome boy named Marius who had asked her out on a date. She was wearing a white dress wrapped with a floral print and was--unfortunately--wearing heels. He was a sailor and was adamantly dressed the part. Normally that would have been cute, but his uniform didn't fit properly. He was also a dreadfully boring conversationalist, seemingly unaware that he had nattered on for nearly an hour without asking her any questions. When she tried to respond, he mistook whatever affirmation she offered as an endorsement to continue unabated. She was stirring the grounds of her second cup of coffee with the noisy scrapes of a spoon and wondering why he had bothered asking her out if he wasn't going to get to know her at all. Were all of the sailor boys like this?
She tucks a strand of dark hair behind her ear and tries to give the clearest nonverbal signal that she can that she is bored, but he doesn't pick up on it. It would be one thing if he had interesting things to say, but he was even a bad storyteller. One would think that sailing around the Varisian Bay would provide captivating tales, but the boy's uneven sense of detail promises only a lack of depth with a plethora of unnecessary background and rushed climaxes. Her parents would probably warn that he'd be the same way in other areas as well...not that she was willing to find out.
Karina has just started to scratch lightly at the edge of her latest tattoo, a peacock feather on her left forearm, when she hears a distant crack! She turns her head immediately to the northwest, towards the Irespan, while Marius discusses the finer points of different hitches. He seems not to notice that he has officially lost the remnants of her attention. She stops scratching and feels a pang of panic in her mind. Dragoste was worried.
"Anyway, that's how we managed to survive getting eaten by reefclaws," Marius says. Karina turns back to him and slides a few silver pieces onto the table.
"I have to go," she announces in a monotone. Marius looks surprised, both at Karina paying for her part and for her sudden exit declaration.
"When can I see you again?" he asks. Not just can I, but when. The presumption.
"I'm playing at the Trio next month," Karina responds as she retrieves a scarf and wraps it around her shoulders. "A new symphony by Skrelyn Leisson. It's very nice."
"Oh?" Marius responds, looking confused but seemingly excited. "What do you play?"
Karina looks at the boy and rolls her eyes. "You should have asked that an hour ago."
"Oh," he whispers dejectedly, looking down and finally seeming to--maybe--recognize his error. "Can I, uh, walk you home at least?"
Karina sighs. She didn't owe him anything, and ~Dragoste was worried!~ "No thanks," she says. The next crack! is accompanied by a rumble, which finally gets Marius' attention, and
Karina reaches down to awkwardly wrestle off her heels. She crouches down and starts running down the street in her stockings towards the Irespan. "Bye, Marius!" she shouts as onlookers in Lowcleft begin to notice the young Varisian woman running towards a tragedy in progress.
Putting his bow away quickly, Karmid grabs his hammer and runs to the edge of the tower to suddenly see the evil witch-snake slow her fall.
Grimacing in disgust, he grab a bit of wall…
“Everyone, get out of here!”
… and jumps after her.
Sticking to her own advice, Ro doesn't waste time stopping to spectate Xanesha's fall. She goes straight for the rickety wooden staircase descending to the belfry and takes the steps in long strides, try to prevent her weight from coming to rest on any one spot long enough for it to cause it to give way.
As you land in the street you quickly look around but see nothing but a few locals staring up in horror behind you. Turning around, you can see smaller pieces of the clock tower begin to break off and fall to the ground as a woman points and screams. All you can think about is your friends still stuck in that collapsing structure.
The City of Monuments was home to ...
Cursing the snake-woman back to whatever hell she spawned from, Karmid turns back and races for the tower to try and help his friends escape the collapsing tower quickly and safely!
Drasven doesn't bother with acrobatic agility or sure footed movement. He bounces off the first collapsing floor to land on another which cracks under him giving him some slight cushioning before Slamming into another piece of masonry which he uses to ensure he keeps his footing as it and he lands on the ground.
Looking up, he claps both Hands together and Prays for a Divine miracle from his patron as blood from his wounds flows from his supremely ungraceful escape from the tower. The Birthmark shaped like his Patron's symbol upon his Palms begin to glow as he prays. It's light enveloping him.............
Though her feat ache from sprinting along the cobblestone (and worse) paths into Underbridge, Karina finally reaches the source of the rumbling: the crumbling Shadow Clock. Hadn't the city condemned this thing? A woman points and screams. It's nearly impossible to tell in which direction the tower will fall. Karina watches in horror as a Shoanti man jumps from the top of the tower, only to cast a spell on the way down and avoid breaking his legs from the fall. Then he starts running back inside. Were other people inside this thing?!
"Shelyn preserve me," she says, remembering last year's apartment fire. Why was she always doing things like this? Casting her heels aside, Karina rushes into the collapsing building after the Shoanti man.
Almost immediately as she crosses the threshold she hears a clanging as a splintered brass bell crashes through the steps above her. She rolls out of the way, her dress snagging and tearing on something sharp. A scythe? And not far from it an enormous, foul-smelling golem. Something mad had happened here.
Karina sees two more young women and a dwarf skittering down the stairs and leaps ahead when she sees a wooden beam crack and begin swinging towards them. She leaps up and grabs the beam with both hands, twisting in midair and snapping it off before it hits them. Before she clatters to the ground, she swings the beam down and uses it as a makeshift pole to vault to the higher level where the trio is running down the stairs. "Need any help?" she says as she sails to the rescue.
Ro crosses the floor of the belfry and starts down the interior stairwell. She takes on the wide gap in the stairs with a running leap that doesn't quite get her there. Ro grabs for the edge but it tears away, leaving her holding a broken plank. She drops it in favor of catching hold of the stairs as they circle around again down lower.
Pulling herself up, Ro manages to make it to the bottom of the tower with no further mishaps.
The strange, gangly, pseudo-reptile dives and glides above the tangled streets, rendered nearly invisible by the darkness and haze that seems ever-present in the fetid air of Underbridge. Zoeye’s task was to circle the area, look for anything ‘strange’, and report back. It was a nearly incomprehensible mission. All of Magnimar, and most of what humans did, seemed odd to her on some level. Still, her task was clear. She finished her circuit and flew back towards her master.
Issengrim proceeded cautiously through the byways of Underbridge, side-stepping a pool of not-water and not-blood liquid that he didn’t care to examine more closely. He had spent the last four days scouring different area of Magnimar in search of the proverbial needle in a haystack. Not for the first time, he cursed Sister Thea’s ability to bait him:
”All I said, Izzy, is that you might be of real use in Magnimar. Someone you may recall from Sandpoint – if you’re half as observant as you think – and a few younger folk are looking into some troubling events there. It might be worth your time, if you’ve got nothing better to do.” Then she gave a feigned, unconcerned shrug – challenge offered.
Knowing Thea, the clues were easy to piece together. Some of the students from the Cathedral are in Magnimar… and at least one of them was in Sandpoint when I was there. So, I just need to identify a single adult who was a child the last time I saw them… and who is currently roaming somewhere in a city of 16,000 souls. That’s not quite impossible. I’d have better luck plastering pamphlets of my face around and letting them find me…
Issengrim continues walking, keeping an eye open for Zoeye, and debating better ways to dress this particular deer… when the sounds of raining masonry and crashing blocks along with churning waves of stone dust roil through the canyons of the narrow streets. Izzy jogs in the direction from which the stone dust belched forth, hoping to be of service… It may not bring his goal any closer, but at least it would have tangible results.
Lia makes her way down. Again, she waits for the others, assuming she was supposed to be in the last spot again. For a moment, she considers simply doing the same thing as Xanesha, jumping down and landing safely. But she was not SURE if she could do both.
If she could not jump and only land safely, that would be fine. But if she was falling when she'd find out it was the other way round, she was pretty certain smashing into the floor from this height with her face would be painful.
She WAS pretty certain she could land. But then...was it worth it? The demon-woman had managed to flee, it seemed - so they could as well take their time.
At first, everything seemed to go fine. She managed to dodge a large part of the ceiling when the others called out for her to dodge.
Then she made it down reasonably swiftly, dodging debris with sheer luck.
But when she gets close to the ground floor, she is surprise to see Karmid going INTO the tower. Was she heading the wrong way? Was she supposed to go upwards? Why WAS she rushing down again? As she stand and contemplates, another large stone from the collapsing building smashes into the step she was standing on and sends Lia hurtling down towards the floor. Luckily there's already some debris that helps break her fall a bit.
"Are we coming or going?", she asks Karmid standing nearby while she gets up.
Drasven continues his prayer unflinching at the sight of the tower already giving way.
His only prayer focused with all his being on arressting its fall away from innocents lives.
Looking at Lia with amazement, he replies while striking potentially lethal falling rocks out of the air with his earthbreaker…
”Out!!! GET OUT!!!!”
Ro can only shepherd so many people at once, so he grabs Lia as quickly as she can when they're down to the bottom.
"Definitely going!" she tells Lia.
As Ro starts ushering Lia outside and away from the tower, she spares a moment to warn the would be rescuer who has shown up.
"You need to go! This whole pile might come down!"
"Ah, ok, going. If the tower is collapsing anyway, next time we should start with that. Like, just make it collapse while we are at the ground, then fight her when she floats down to us. I mean, the next time she hides in some decrepit tower, right?"
Lia doesn't resist being led outside by Karmid and Ro.
A large, ancient slate board in the dilapidated tavern known as the Friendly Merchant dubiously displays the details of its Shadow Clock Betting Pool marked in dusty chalk. The numbers displayed are like a macabre version of roulette, with mundane bets like time of day, day of the week, or month of the year eventually giving way to "buildings demolished" and "people killed." The odds and likely payouts are kept continuously updated as regulars and visitors alike come to place their bets for the circumstances of the destruction of one of Magnimar's oldest, most peculiar marvels of ancient engineering.
There had been some controversy some years back after the tenth person had died trying to climb the Terrible Stairs. The city government had ordered the Shadow Clock formally closed. While settling the side bets for people killed through circumstances other than total collapse , some patrons worried that the city might intentionally demolish the Tower. Couldn't that present a conflict of interest, if someone could purposefully engineer the destruction and ensure themselves a high payout? Would there be protections in place to ensure fairness?
The friendly merchant himself, Siov Cassimeel, kept a leather-bound tome behind his bar, where he had kept track of every bet placed on the Shadow Clock's eventual demise at his tavern for the last hundred years. The contents were known only to him, with the clever use of a few charms and spells to keep lookie-loos out and contingencies to prevent changes. Siov was not an honest man (honesty was overrated), but he insisted on the integrity of the process. There were rumors that he had personally lobbied Lord-Mayor Haldmeer Grobaras to not demolish the Shadow Clock by encouraging the then-newly elected Lord-Mayor to place a bet of his own. Whether this was true, neither the friendly merchant nor the Lord-Mayor was willing to discuss.
So for the last eight years of the mayor's tenure, the Shadow Tower had remained officially closed, but there were no efforts to demolish it. And the Betting Pool had continued on unabated as it had for the one hundred years since the founding of Magnimar in 4608 AR. The Betting Pool had always been good for business, and as the one running the racket, Siov was confident that the House would still win the most in the end.
In fact, Siov notes as he pulls out the book, today was the hundredth anniversary of the first bet he had ever taken for the Pool: from a long-dead human man who had placed a single gold piece on the bet that the Tower would fall on a Moonday. His name was marked down with his bet and a next-of-kin back in Korvosa from where he had originally hailed. Siov had made some effort to keep track of the foreign bets over the years to make sure that he could collect and distribute the by-now-immense pot when it eventually came down. With a one-in-seven chance but now thousands of people who had put a gold piece in on a Moonday, that hundred-year-old gold piece might be seen as an investment by the man's descendants, if he had any. Siov hadn't checked the calculations in a while--he had people for that--but those especially old bets could offer major payouts by now if people were willing to come collect.
"Drunkards and drunkettes," Siov announces to the current inhabitants of the Friendly Merchant, "I've just remembered that today is the hundredth anniversary of the opening of the Friendly Merchant's Shadow Clock Betting Pool! In honor of our patron, I'm offering a shot of Irespan whiskey and a pint of Seacleft Lager for half price." The tavern erupts into cheers and the elf pours himself the first draft to get things started, turning idly towards the window that provides him a look at the face of the Shadow Clock just as its permanently frozen 3 o'clock reading swings suddenly down to six.
---
Rusted metal screeches and strains while the three remaining bells of the Shadow Clock vibrate with a crescendoing resonance. Stones grates on stone while wooden beams held together as much by stubborn nails and sawdust as by the prayers of the people living in the shadow of the Irespan finally snap in showers of splinters. Several humans and a dwarf vault and leap off the remaining steps and tumble out into the streets where a crowd has gathered to watch the fall. Some were running and screaming while others seemed to accept their fate and others still stood in defiance and excitement. Even now, the betting continued at the last minute as individuals sought a last-minute increase in their fortunes, or at least a balancing of their risk. The date, time, and month were locked in, but the direction? The cost? The death toll? Those still remained open questions until the moment of collapse!
The Shadow Clock groans, swaying this way and that as the people below gasp and scream. Running as fast as he his legs will carry him, Drasven Hammers, Scion of Abadar, offers his most fervent prayer to his patron to avert the seemingly inevitable disaster. As he prays, eyes closed, those around him observing the tower watch as a purple rune begins glowing around the cracking foundations. Then a second and third join it, gold and red, before there is a near explosion of runes cascading upwards in a spiral. Within the tower, another of the bells snaps from its frayed rope and plummets down to snap the final beams of the Terrible Stairs. Taking advantage of the sudden lack of balance, one of the final bells swings through the wall, sending a shower of bricks and jagged steel flying through the air. And yet these arrest in midair, held fast by some unseen force instead of raining down certain death.
Brick by brick, beam by beam, fragment by fragment, the Shadow Clock straightens from its sagging mess once more to its original height, until the final spire tip recenters itself. Then the runes all wink out at once and the structure collapses in on itself with a final terrifying clatter of debris and a cloud of dust that blankets the entire Underbridge District in a matter of seconds.
And yet, through the voices that call out all around, it soon becomes clear that those who had bet on the unlikely scenario that no buildings other than the Shadow Clock would be destroyed are going to be very happy with their longshot payouts.
Ro is too busy hustling out of the tower while yanking Lia along with her to see the beginnings of the tower's collapse herself. By the time she stops and turns around to see what's happening, the tower has started reconstituting itself for its second, and more dignified, second fall.
She stands with her hand gripping Lia's wrist, slack-jawed and gawking silently until the dust in the air begins to engulf her, forcing her to shut her mouth and squint.
Her only thought is what the unholy f+@~ was that?.
Accepting the miracle for whatever it was, Karmid makes sure to usher as many as he can to safety and away from the tower! He watches the collapse of the building with pursed lips and a heavy heart for anyone possibly injured.
After the dust starts to settle, he looks in the general direction the devious snake-woman had managed to run off to. Cursing aloud he spits rock dust out of his mouth again and silently curses his bad luck again in his head. He also gives thanks to Gozreh for his life and his friend's lives. Yet again.
'Have we done the right thing? Are we done here? Should we try and pursue the snake-woman? Even if we could...how would we do it?'
Covered in dust caked blood and sweat, Karmid limped toward Ro looking almost like a strange golem of some sort himself. He stops and finally manages a smile at Ro, and leans on Angela's haft like an enormous cane.
"I've done my part as leader so far: Everyone lived. But the 'bad guy' (or is it 'bad gal'?) got away. What do you think? Should we try and find her again? Follow somehow? Or have we done our bit for Mayor and City?"
Ro looks at Karmid and slowly shakes her head.
"I have no idea."
Issengrim weaves through the labyrinth of streets befogged with stone dust to reach the collapsing, then reprieved, then collapsing again… clocktower. He looks around the ruined tower for victims along with the anticipated broad swath of rubble. The minimal collateral damage leaves him briefly perplexed and largely relieved. He waves at the dust cloud trying to disperse it a bit, then tugs down the scarf he’s been breathing through, exposing his face. The right half is normal beneath the layer of dust. The left half is a dusty topographic map – a mass of horrid, disfiguring scars barely concealing a large, wine-stain birthmark.
”Nine Hells! It’s a wonder this isn’t worse.” He glances up at something vaguely seen stirring the clouds of dust above the square and makes a tight circle motion with his hand, ”Zo, call out if you find anyone injured or trapped.” Something unseen flaps off on leathery wings.
Before 4696 AR, Karmid may have seen the slash-faced Wart periodically as he visited the church (particularly Sister Thea) but he wasn’t living at the church. And, kids being kids, his scarred face drew a lot of teasing.
In 4696 AR, there was the Hard Spring with massive rainstorms. Several farmers and woodsmen on the outskirts of town were killed by floods and mudslides. Karmid was 7 yo at the time. Wart (15 yo) killed a couple deer on Scarnetti land and gave them to the family of one of the dead woodsmen to prevent them from starving. Wart was eventually caught for the ‘crime’. The Scarnetti (a notoriously nasty leading local family) wanted his hands cut off in punishment. After some negotiations, it was decided (mostly due to the Sheriff’s and the Church’s insistence) that Wart be sent to prison instead… and he was hauled off in chains.
My thinking is Karmid will recognize his face, if nothing else. Feel free to have Karmid remember – or misremember – as much or as little as you want. Also, you would only know him as Wart or Wartface, Issengrim was a name he adopted much later.
Zoeye doesn't see anyone injured or trapped on first glance (nor it seems does anyone see her). But amidst the rubble there may be other people, or things, waiting to be unearthed.
Many people have now gathered around the shattered ruins, gawking. No one is bothering the large Shoanti man, the three small Varisian woman, the dwarf, and the scar-faced fellow standing around the square. The tallest of the three women--raven-haired instead of blue or sandy brown--turns to the Shoanti man, blinking a few times. "Bad gal?" she asks, planting her fists on her hips, arching an eyebrow, and swaying forcefully to one side. "What, pray tell, are you talking about?"
She stabs a finger towards the rubble. "What were you all doing in there? It's supposed to be condemned."
"Oh, hi.", Lia waves excitedly at the scar-faced fellow and the tall woman, starts walking to greet them, only to find Ro was still gripping her wrist. "Oh, Xani is gone. It'll be a while before we see her again. I think. You can let go."
Turning to the woman that spoke, Lia points up towards where the top of the tower was:"That's why we tried to get the squatters to leave but that bad gal was If I can't life here, nobody can. and crashed into a statue and everything came tumbling down and now it is uninhabitable for good. And razed. Maybe the Mayor could build a soup kitchen here? Oh wait, we haven't met yet did we? Then I'm Lia."
When Lia tugs, Ro realizes she's still clutching Lia's wrist and remembers to let go. The tall woman's questions instantly gets Ro's back all up. She just wants to go take a bath, and she really needs a few drinks. She looks at her with an irritable, squinty-eyes expression and asks "and who the hell do you think you are?"
Ro doesn't see any badges or crests or such, so she figures she's on safe ground asking very directly.