HP: 8/12
"Argh!" shouts Clarence as the Magic Missle strikes him.
"Oh, you've called down the pain now, slime!" With a growl, Clarence steps to the side of the table to get a clear line of sight and fires another bolt at the sorcerer.
"Grab that pig, Relan!"
Sword and bolt flash and somehow the lucky sorceror manages to dodge harm twice, although a small flash of mystic force over his threadbare silk clothes clues Relan that there's more to the unarmored man than meets the eye.
Changing tactics, he steps away and blasts another cone of technicolor light at Relan (will save DC15 or be unconcious for rounds).
Nearby, some of your party begin to groan as they start to awake.
Braelex stumbles to her feet, trying to adopt a defensive posture.
Round 4
HP: 8/13
AC: 17
"He's got mage armor!" he shouts as the mage readies his next attack. Relan stretches out his arm and slumps to the floor, managing to keep the light from being snuffed out, as he collaspes.
"RRRRrrraaaaaaaawwwwwwrrrrrr!!!!" comes the wailing holler as Clarence charges across the open space between him and sorcerer. He leaps into the air (not a pretty site considering his size) and flies at the man, arms and legs a-flailing.
Lorlenn blinks awake and mumbles, "Are people hurt? I bet people are hurt." Then upon hearing Clarence's roar, he nods his head in agreement with himself and says, "Yeah, people must be hurt."
Lorlenn lays where he is, reaches up to his holy symbol, and invokes Desna's power.
The thin man fends off the monstrosity that is Clarence, stunned at his charge and swipes at him with his dagger scoring a light hit along his belly.
; HIT!; Damage:
The rest of the party groans and comes awake.
A beaten down and bleeding Clarence gathers himself and goes in for one more grab on the sorcerer. "Squirmy little rat, get over here..." he grumbles, exhausted from all this floundering around.
Lorlenn blinks awake and mumbles, "Are people hurt? I bet people are hurt." Then upon hearing Clarence's grumble, he nods his head in agreement with himself and says, "Yeah, people must be hurt."
Lorlenn stands up and then touches his holy symbol to invoke Desna's power.
Plutivarch swipes at Clarence as he attempts to wrestle the sorc down. Clarence''s eyes roll back in his head as he passes out from blood loss.
; HIT! ; Damage:
Plutivarch mutters, "No, no, no ... they're waking up!. He proceeds to whip out some cord and binds Relan's hands and feet.
Braelex stands and gets on the defensive and Lorlenn sends a burst is healing energy healing everyone, including Plutivarch. Clarence wakes and Fulmen stops bleeding out (and may awake depending on his HP)
Andel stands and picks up his staff, anger on his face.
At Clarence, who is prone.
When Stable Fulmen will cast Cure Light Wounds on himself
Fulmen will cast Shillelagh
Fulmen will attack with his staff.
Round 6
HP: 13/13 (+5 channel energy)
AC: 17
Relan lays unconscious and bound, but gets a little healing from Lorlenn's power.
(healing)
8 of 8
17 (t 13, ff 14)
Mutagen (+4 Dex, -2 Wis) 10 min
1st: stone fist, true strike
3 of 4 remaining
19
Braelex rubs her eyes to finally clear her vision. Seeing the melee, she reacts with enhanced swiftness, moving lateral across the room while aiming her crossbow at the magic user. Bracing behind a table, she fires.
;
Clarence groans and his eyes flutter back open as the healing surge washes over him. He snaps to, growls and fires his crossbow, point blank from his prone position at the sorcerer.
The twang of the crossbow bolt is just enough to alert the sorceror, but although unable to dodge, he catches the bolt in his magical armor and it stops just short of harming him, falling to the ground.
Getting frantic the caster looks at Clarence and then Fulmen and then his eyes narrow and settle on Lorlenn. "YOU! Healer! You're ruining my plan!" He points his non dagger hand and fires yet 2 more bolts of magic force hammering the elf hard, who some how stays on his feet. Surprise flashes across the sorc's face, quickly replaced by a twisted scowl of rage, "It can't be!"
Braelex moves and fires another crossbow bolt, but either the lingering gremlin aura or this particular sorcerer's gods-awful luck prevents her from striking.
Andel roars soundlessly, nearly avoiding the slight break in his voice as he does so and charges forward, both hands on his quarterstaff. He smashes the chair near Plutivarch, a good foot short.
; miss
HP: 4
AC: 15, Touch: 11, Flat: 14[/ooc]
Lorlenn gasps at the pain, then bellows, "I bet you're getting low on spells, sorc, but I'm just getting started!" He again touches his symbol to channel Desna's healing power.
Lorlenn nimbly navigates the clutter of chairs, tables, and bodies to move behind the slaver, morningstar in hand.
Climbing to his feet, Clarence glances around looking for likely escape paths. In an attempt to preempt the sorcerer's escape, he heads toward the kitchen entry, while keeping one eye on the foe.
"I recommend that you give up now, slaver. You're surrounded and out of options. Help us out, and you won't have to die."
Braelex remains focused, reloading and firing again.
;
Lorlenn heals the group and repositions behind the sorc flanking him. Clarence moves to block the secondary exit.
The sorc glances around in desperation clenching his dagger tightly, he takes a quick swipe at Lorlenn, missing wildly. He then bolts away moving towards the exit. Andel and Lorlenn both take swings at him as he goes. The sorcerer dodges under the morningstar but gets clobbered by Andel's staff. As the man stumbles to the door, Braelex puts a bolt deep into his leg. With everyone closing in on him, Lorlenn's words sink in and he falls to his knees, dropping his dagger and sobbing, "I had you ... I had you ..."
; miss
; miss
; HIT; Damage:
A quick search of the man turns up a masterwork dagger, a large amethyst, a coin pouch with 35gp, 6 darts, and a potion satchel with 8 vials, 3 of which are empty. They are matching pairs and are labeled. The remaining vials are marked Healing (2}, Better Healing, Invisibility, and See in the Dark.
You recall the man's face from a wanted poster at the Arvensoar. His name is Plutivarch and he is wanted for various minor confidence schemes
Braelex examines the vials with ill-disguised curiosity. She carefully opens each one and investigates the contents
Lorlenn says, "I recognize this face from posters at Arvensoar. Upping your game to slavery, Plutivarch? The guard wants to talk to you about some other issues, but we want to know about this new work of yours. Tell us everything and maybe we won't need to tell the authorities that you're mixed up in it."
Plutivarch Dremis, once he tells you his full name, shrugs and speaks quietly, "I was using the recent disappearances to my benefit. Once I heard that people were showing up missing, I spread rumors of Nidalese slavers throughout the city as a possible answer, hoping to entice a decent mark. Looks like it worked, finally." He looks at you all and adds a bit sheepishly, "Maybe too well."
Relan stretches his arms as he wakes up, rubbing his head he grumbles, "Ah good, I was half-afraid we'd wake up in chains.. Sitting up he notices the captive mage "If we woke up at all." he thinks.
Standing up to full height, he towers over the little mage. "Well, well, it looks like you should have stuck to cons little man. Giving the mage a little tap to the head for good measure.
"You said you had us...what were you going to do with us, if not sell us to Nidalese slavers?"
Lorlenn turns to the rest of the party, "Can someone tie him up before I send out another healing pulse or two? If anyone needs healing beyond that, I've got you covered. Save your potions."
"I'll be happy too." Cracking his knuckles, Relan grabs the rope and proceeds to tie up the mage a bit more roughly then is required. Being sure to pull the binds together extra tight, he grinned at the man. "Now you be sure to be a good boy and answer all the nice elf's questions, or you and I will be having a little private time before we decide what to do with you." slapping the mage upside the head again enough to draw some blood from the corner of his mouth, "assuming you live that long."
Wincing under the violent contact and cringing as Relan comes near him again, he shouts, "I will! I will! I was going to sell you to the Aspis Consortium. I thought they'd be interested in a man who could capture a group of new Pathfinders and then let me join their organization. They've ignored me before, but I was sure they wouldn't ignore this!"
Braelex sighs, "Is this a dead end?" She turns to Dremis. "If the slaver ring was a farce, then what do you really know about the recent disappearances?"
Fulmen gets up and walks over to the mage and taps him heavily on the shoulders, "Has this Aspis Consortium accepted other pathfinders? What do they do with them? Who is your contact for this group?"
Relan leans down close to Plutivarch, "So, I want to hear more about this Aspis group too."
Lorlenn gives a broad grin, "Not exactly a dead-end...this let's us, again, talk to that clerk who was oh-so-friendly towards you."
Turning back towards Plutivarch, Lorlenn says "Come on now, out with everything. We're looking for one of the women who went missing and/or a relic that she possessed, but preferably both. Would this consortium have anything to do either? Even if not, we're obviously still interested in knowing more about them. I'll note that if you anticipate our questions, you'll be out of our less-than-gentle hands sooner, rather than later."
Lorlenn picks up the torch and starts searching around the rest of the building, but not straying so far as to leave the rest of the group without light.
Plutivarch looks confused and scared. "I don't know anything about the disappearances. I never caught anyone until you. Did you ask the Watch?"
He trembles a bit more and you think he might piss himself, "The Consortium has a large regional headquarters called the Bronze House, not too far here. I don't know anyone there, they wouldn't let me in the door. Called me street trash. I found this noble outfit at a laundry a few months ago so they wouldnt think I was destitute. You were supposed to be my ticket in!". He starts punching the ground and muttering unintelligibly. You get the sense he might be slightly unhinged.
Andel coughs and takes on a lecturing tone, "The Aspis Consortium is a trade organization with interests in many parts of Avistan and Garund. What distinguishes them from other trade groups is the size of their operations, and their willingness to do whatever is necessary to accomplish their goals. While it is not unknown for merchant groups to sell weapons to both sides in a conflict, the Consortium might take it further and actually have a hand in starting the strife to begin with. Others might praise the Consortium for providing desperately needed grain to a famine-struck region, without knowing that agents helped cause the drought. They are loyal to no government, having members from many countries and nationalities. This also allows them to take neutral positions in any disagreements and appeal to all sides. The Consortium's emblem is that of a golden snake on a shield."
He coughs again and grins, beaming at you all. "Not the nicest of folks, but we haven't really had too many issues with them here in Varisia. Other parts of the world, their operations often run counter to the Pathfinder lodges, especially where we wish to gain knowledge or artifacts for posterity or safekeeping and they prefer it for gold or power."
"We bring him in, and the watch should give us an audience," Braelex suggests.
Lorlenn's search of the rest of the one turns up tables, chairs and empty barrels and crates. Cobwebs, reaches, and a few rats are the only signs of life. This place has been unused for a while
Straightens up and look at the mage shivering on the hard floor. "Andel? Why don't you check the bar over there and see if we can't find our good friend a little water to drink, he looks parched." Seeing suprise in Andel's eyes, Relan waits till the man moves out of earshot and leans over to the man again.
"Your doing great, little man, I have one last question before you go get to see a comfy little cell." Relan lowers his voice a bit and continues, "and keep your voice down, or ill ram your own dagger so far inside your chest that you'll taste iron."
He grins into the man's face and at his frighten nod continues, "just how did you know that the scribe was with us?"
The con man gulps as he looks down at his chest where Relan was pointing, "I, uh, was struggling with getting the right people to show. A few times the Watch showed up and I'd just stay out of sight until they left. Eventually even they stopped showing. I decided a targeted approach was more important than rumor spreading and as luck would have it, your man was in the wrong place at the right time. I've been doing confidence schemes a long time and he looked susceptible so I employed a few folks and set him up with the game and the beating. How did I know he was with you? I didn't, I knew he was a Pathfinder because of the symbol on that book he's always writing in. I thought he'd bring a couple friends, not an entire army."