"You bastard, you took her from me in the marketplace months ago. You've destroyed so many young lives they're all of blur to you, aren't they? This is no time for jokes."
Is there a map?
Gaedren's face hardens into its familiar scowl. "Is it not? I thought you all just came here for tea and biscuits. No, you're here for my scalp, and woe to any who stand in your way. What I know means something to you, eh? You can't just kill me if your precious Nadia might yet live." He grins viciously, aware of his power over Demitri. "Maybe I do remember your whimpering whelp... but did I sell her to the flesh market, or feed her to old Gobbleguts here?"
Demitri tries to ascertain if Lamm was serious or playing more games. Fully aware that the fiend still held the cards as long as there was a chance his daughter was alive, hate and anger still welled up inside. "For once in your miserable life, do the right thing. If you do, you may earn a quick merciful death as opposed to what you're going to get now." It takes all his willpower to speak intelligibly as opposed to growling.
I'd listen to the father here. I know what he is capable of and I am afraid of him.
Gaedren's eyes widen for a moment, and he licks his lips, looking all the while like he ate something sour. After a couple moments, he snorts and spits a phlegmy gob that lands on the alligator's back. "Bah! You want the truth, crusader? Well have it... Your poor Nadia was good for nothing, wouldn't listen to her lessons, perpetually crying and sobbing. All those tears might have worked well in a scam, but she just kept whinging, on and on. So I clamped her up on yonder chains, and dropped her into the pit, inch by inch... Gobbleguts ate well that night." He locks Demitri's eyes. "And she didn't stop crying."
"...false or not, that was a stupid thing to say," Rosa can't resist commenting, mostly to herself over the roar of Demitri's response. "Let's see if we can't arrange some poetic justice right here for you."
"You monster! She was a little girl!" Demitri roars as he runs right up to him to start his "quick and merciful" death, ignoring the alligator. Tears roll down his face as he brings his blade down on Lamm.
Seren will draw a smoke arrow and quietly move to the west along the northern walkway.
Melianthe moves to Q25, saying nothing.
The moment that crocodile moves 10' away from Lamm, she will hex the croc with Sleep.
Absinthe says... nothing. Her lips squeezed together in an expression of disapproval and determination, her eyes burning like coals, the tiefling stalks along in Melianthe's path, but goes a step further than she does, her eyes flicking left and right.
As soon as Demitri moves, Lamm pulls out a hand crossbow and fires... at Gobbleguts. The small bolt hits it right in the back, and sends the docile creature into an immediate rage. Lamm throws off its leash and sets it free to rampage.
Demitri charges Lamm, and the man's sour look turns to surprise at how quickly he closes the distance, and how slow his own reactions are. Demitri infuses his sword with the power of judgement, and cuts deep into Lamm's side.
Silently, Melianthe moves forward but then comes to a sudden stop as a metal clamp trap with steel teeth, cleverly hidden in the garbage and clutter, closes painfully over her ankle. Segang moves past her, stepping nimbly away from a second trap as it closes with a metallic clang, before closing in on Lamm.
Seren moves quietly along the walkway, stopping beside Melianthe. Rosa moves around the room. Absinthe follows, searching for more traps along the path, and finding none. It appears Melianthe and Segang set off the only two.
;
Demitri is oblivious to most things around him as he continues to lay into Lamm.
With a serenity one wouldn't normally think from a Calistrian priestess, Rosa quietly pulls her whip free and sends it out, not with a crack, but in a wide loop around one of Lamm's arms, attempting to yank him off the platform.
Absinthe mutters a mild curse when she hears the snap of the trap closing, turns, and squats next to Melianthe.
"Keep the reptile off my back, please," she says while she sets to work on the trap's mechanism.
Seren fires his smoke arrow at Lamm only if Segang moves to fill the space to Lamm's west ... given his location, he doesn't really have any where to go, but forward into the pit. Otherwise, he fires a normal arrow
+fills a 5-foot cube with smoke ... essentially making him blind unless he moves out of it.
If Segang can 5' step into the flank with Demitri he does, raging and attacking Lamm.
Melianthe grimaces with pain, her eyes on Gobbleguts. "Leave the beast to me!" she says to the general assembly.
With no clear path of retreat, Lamm throws away his hand crossbow and draws his dagger, stabbing at Demitri and penetrating his armor enough to draw blood. Oblivious to the wound, Demitri continues to attack, but Lamm hops away from the attack... right into Segang's slashing blade. With a rasping cough, Lamm spits blood and manages to smile at Segang. "Always knew you had a killer inside you, boy. Help me now and I'll make you a full partner."
Enraged and bellowing, Gobbleguts charges straight for Absinthe, leaping out of the water and half onto the flooring. Its jaws clamp down hard on her leg and rends flesh. Despite the pain, she is able to free Melianthe from the trap.
Seren's arrow finds its mark, and Lamm coughs again as the smoke envelops him. Rosa cracks her whip at Lamm, but only snaps the air over his head.
Demitri grimaces in pain, but continues to fight on. He brings his blade down again onto Lamm.
Rosa glances nervously at the alligator, but decides her best move is to try again.
Question: does Rosa threaten the alligator from where she is? I.e. can we flank with her?
Question: does Rosa threaten the alligator from where she is? I.e. can we flank with her?
Segang uses the flank provided by Demitri to try to down his kidnapper.
Mel will hobble to O26 as a 5' step. If Gobbleguts is asleep, Mel will cast Sleep Hex on Lamm. If not, she will cast Misfortune Hex on Gobbleguts.
Retcon: as the alligator leaps at Absinthe, Melianthe's hex takes effect and the reptile slumps over momentarily.
"One regrets this somewhat, reptile named Gobblegut," Absinthe says as she stands. She takes careful aim -- and then stabs her rapier through the crocodile's eye and into its brain.
"Then again," she says as she draws her blade out again, "you have been taught to devour humans. One does not believe it responsible to let you live."
Seren waits for Absinthe to stab the beast in the head and then immediately fires, hoping to still catch the alligator flat-footed.
Snarling and coughing, Lamm makes one last stab, clipping Demitri a second before he cuts him down. With a rasping cough, Lamm crumbles to the boards.
Before Gobbleguts can awaken, Absinthe and Seren dispatch it with a blade through the eye and arrow in the neck.
"That was... easy," Absinthe says when she sees Lamm fall. "Easier than one expected. Oh, well. 'Tis done now."
Shrugging, Absinthe turns to the body of the late and unlamented Gobbleguts. "Sleep well, and Gozreh welcome you home," she murmurs -- and then she wipes her rapier clean on the dead crocodile's hide and shoves its carcass into the water with her hoof.
"Do you perhaps require some support?" the tiefling asks, turning to Melianthe and holding her hand out to the Dusk Elf. "One promises not to pinch anything interesting - this time." Absinthe winks, but her smile is friendly, rather than salacious.
Seren lets out a breath, "I ... I can't believe he's gone. Finally ... feels like a burden has been lifted and I can move on with my life."
Seren walks over to stare down at Lamm's body, "Definitely no sympathy for his ignoble end. Are we going to leave him here?"
"Hmn," Absinthe muses. "For completeness's sake, one would suggest driving a wooden stake through the heart and chopping off the head and limbs, then setting each separate piece on fire. Just a thought."