Giggles: Dead
Yargin: 2 hp
Hookshanks: 11 hp
Giggles takes a lazy swing at Aerodus, somehow managing to hang onto the flail, but falls over with a gurgle. Bloo, the mangy cur of a dog, has a bit more luck, managing to almost bite through the bard's boot and into his leg.
Yargin sees the half-orc fall, and, on the verge of panic, wildly waves the wand around and mutters some arcane syllables before pointing it at Nora. Unfortunately for the normally sneering human, the spell fizzles and dies.
Hookshanks swipes at Balthazar, managing to just barely nick the man's arm. "Yargin, I thinks we's better get tha 'ells outta 'ere!"
"A-a-a-ag-g-g-gr-gr-gr-reed."
Arcane runes surround Talliree's hands as she inhales deeply. Then, a roar like a furnace fills the room as a blue-white blast erupts from her hands, cupped over her mouth, turning the air in the room ever colder.
Yargin: 2 hp
Hookshanks: 6 hp
Bloo: 6 hp
Aerodus lets out a loud,"Ugh!" as the dog nearly crushes his foot. It is all he can do to keep standing. Somehow, despite the wound his good natured optimism remains. At least I'm getting to see that wonderful gnome's magic up-close. I certainly don't want to cross her. Using his free leg, he kicks at the dog's head which allows him just enough leeway to take a step away. Bow/arrow already in hand, he raises the weapon. For a second he aims right between the dog's eyes but then sees the wand-wielding human stagger - clearly the greater threat. He raises his bow and lets an arrow fly.
The moment Giggles drops, his cooling corpse opens a safe passage for Nora's next arrow to fly towards Bloo. She takes a few steps forward and lets it fly!
*
*
Sensing and hearing the battle turning in their favor this time Tusilak shouts, "Not until you tell us where our companions are. What have you done with them?" With quarterstaff in hand, he strides forward confidently and bashes Hookshanks over the head with it.
In the blink of an eye, both Yargin and Hookshanks drop, leaving the mangy mutt the only one left.
Balthazar turns to the mangy mutt remaining, then suddenly feels sorry for him. "Aw, c'mon, do we have to kill the dog, too?"
After an almost comical miss, the dog is put down. Yargin is very much dead, but Hookshanks is still breathing.
It takes a minute for the bard to catch his breath. He applies pressure to his leg as he takes a look around - it seems to have worked this time. He flexes his foot back and forth to see that he can support his own weight before tenderly putting his full weight on it. With the bleeding stopped he feels confident he'll be able to go on. Almost as if he notices he is in a room with other people, Aerodus lifts his head up and begins walking again with confidence. He murmurs a few words and then looks around slowly, as if he were looking into another time or place. As he is doing so he states,"One of the them is still alive - I'm sure we can convice him to help us out." He then begins to search the bodies for anything of value starting with Yargin.
Aerodus finds that the wand is the only thing that glows in that telling light of magic. A quick search of the rooms also finds the other half-orc's gear and two locked cabinets.
Combat
2x Studded Leather
1x Studded Leather (small)
2x Sheild
1x Leather
2x Flail
1x Kukri (small)
1x Dagger
1x Lt. Crossbow
10x BoltsOther
1x Disguise Kit
1x Garnet Amulet (Worth 100gp)
2x Keys (looks like they go to the cabinets)Unidentified
1x Wand (Spellcraft)
3x Vials (Craft(Alchemy))
Nora peeks her head through the open door into the next room. While everyone is looting the corpses and unlocking cabinets, she takes stock of the area they'll be moving on to next.
"I'll take care of him. Let's see if we can wake him up and figure out where Lamm is. I also want to see if he knows about Cataree." Tusilak offers a brief prayer to the night bringing his hands up and then over to Hookshanks body as if to force air into it. Satisfied that he isn't about to die, Tusilak attempts to administer some basic aid to Hookshanks to see if he can return him to consciousness.
Aerodus keeps an eye on Nora & Balthazar as he goes about collecting and making a pile of the all of what he can find in the center of the room. He makes no disguise of keeping the wand, but also keeps the amulet, tucking it into one of his pouches. "These weapons and armor could fetch us some good gold when we're done here, Tusilak." He shows the vials to Tusilak to see if has any idea what they are.
Satisfied with the pile he moves over the the shaman. He puts his bow away and has his sword and small shield in hand, standing next to and guarding Tusilak as he tends to the man. "How long until he wakes?
"Probably at least an hour, maybe more unless I use a spell to wake him up. I could do it, but it will leave me with fewer spells to help with Lamm and any other problems this shack holds."
"Just tie him up and leave him there for a while. He's got no incentive to cooperate; he'll assume we're going to kill him anyway.
If Lamm was here, there's no way he is now. You've already been here once, and you probably spooked him. One of his lackeys even said he wished Lamm had left him some potions.. meaning Lamm is probably gone and may not have been here for a while. We'll be lucky if your friends are here, and even luckier if they're still alive. It would be faster to just turn the place upside down, get what we need, and leave."
Talliree pipes up when Nora mentions Lamm abandoning the fishery.
"Are you sure? I don't remember them saying anything about Lamm leaving, just that he wouldn't give them any potions."
Her unsettling eyes fix on Nora's.
"The old Lamm, the Lamm I knew would have ran, but I'm not so sure about the new Lamm."
While the group loots the front rooms, finding forged documents in the office cabinet and six sacks of coins, Hookshanks begins to stir. Nora and Talliree waste no time tying him up. By the time the others return, he's wide awake.
"What are you guys after? Lamm? He ain't worth dyin' over. He's down below. Now, how's about lettin' a guy go?"
After deciding Hookshanks' fate, the group moves into the fishery work floor. The room smells of stale sweat, rotten fish, and old seawater. Under the walkways hang over a dozen hammocks and the floor it covered in ratty, lice-infested bedrolls. Each one held a dirty, and very scared child. After a few tense moments, a small girl speaks up.
"Are you here to rescue us?"
With almost no effort they get the information they want. "Thank you for making that so easy on us. Your reward is the Korvosan prison. Perhaps after a few years you'll wish we had killed you." Aerodus tears off a strip of Hookshanks' tunic and stuff it in his mouth to prevent him from screaming out. Turning to the others he says,"I have a... connection in the Korvosan guard. I'll let them know to pick him up."
Seeing the little girl, Tusilak kneels down next to her, "We are here to rescue you little one. But first, we have to take care of Lamm. What's your name?"
Balth seems quite saddened by the eventual decision to put poor little Bloo down. He gives the dead dog a rough pat on the head before moving on with a sigh. "Don't worry buddy, I'm sure you'll have better luck with your owners in the next world." Distracted, he only comes in on the tail-end of the conversation over what to do with the apparently still-living gnome. "If my darlin' doesn't want him dead, I ain't gonna do the deed. Sorry, buddy. Hope your spot in prison ain't too cold."
Upon spotting the ratty, terrified children, Balthazar grimaces, looking on with extreme pity. He moves over to the little girl that is brave enough to speak up and tousles her hair as Tusilak speaks to her. After she answers him, Balth gives her a big grin. "We'll get you outta here, no worries, sweetie."
Aerodus puts away his weapons so as not to scare the girl. He kneels next to her and says calmly,"We'll get you to a better place soon. With clean sheets and soap-baths and as much food as you can eat! But we need to know where Mr. Lamm is first. Can you tell us? Then you go right back to bed and pretend to sleep, ok? We'll find you when we're all done."
The girl's eyes glance at the pile of junk in the northeastern corner of the room. She squirms a bit before answering.
"Below."
A boy in his early teens moves in between the party and the little girl.
"Were you the guys from earlier? You'd better hurry then. They took a man and woman below," he looks around the room and lowers his voice, "they also took two of us down there, a young shoanti girl and that one's sister." He points out a silver-haired girl, almost a woman, sitting with her back against on of the walkway supports and her head buried into her arms.
The little girl pipes in, "no one they take below ever comes back, except for Lamm, an' Giggles, an'--an' Wiggles."
The mention of Wiggles instantly quiets the growing murmur. The fear all of the children hold for that person is palpable.
"Don't worry, we won't let them hurt you anymore. Can you tell us how they got-- below?"
At this point, Aerodus takes out his bow and holds an arrow ready in his hand. He begins to look more intently around the room - this would be the perfect setting for someone as evil as Lamm to ambush them.
Aerodus sees no assassins in the shadows, although he feels a draft coming from the junkpile.
Nora is quiet for most of the interaction. If she was affected by the poor conditions these children were being kept in, she didn't display it outwardly.
"I think we have all the information we need. Let's get downstairs and then we can worry about freeing all of these children. Whomever they've taken below may be in very urgent danger."
Worry washes over the shaman's face when the Shoanti girl is mentioned. This despicable man would use children against us. "Yes, let's go. It sounds like they have Cataree, Sev, and Raina."
Balth gives the rest of the children a goofy grin before he stretches, yet again taking his greatsword in hand as he mentally readies himself for more battle up ahead. He will lead the group downstairs when they are ready to move out.
"There," Aerodus says pointing towards the junk pile and the draft he felt. He approaches slowly and his bow is drawn taut. "Do any of you have skill in finding traps? Lamm will be prepared for us."
"I fear you're probably right Aerodus, but its not something I've ever learned to do."
"Hmm?" the portly man shoulders his greatsword and heads over to the junk pile, giving it a thorough look-through.
The group finds no traps, but they do find a hole in the floor that opens over a walkway ten feet down. Balthazar can the triangular outline of a fin just above the surface of the water for a fraction of a second before it dips below out of sight.
After securing the rope, and testing it, the five unlikely heroes lower themselves onto the walkway. Just before Talliree goes, the girl that the boy had pointed out grabs Tusilak's tunic.
"Please save my sister! Please save Sig!"
She cries while a couple of the older kids pull her back.
"She and her sister were taken from their older sister. They still think that she's looking for them, but most would have given up by now."
The boy explains to them. His face bearing an apologetic look.
"She and her sister were taken from their older sister. They still think that she's looking for them, but most would have given up by now."
"I wouldn't be so sure boy. I kept looking for twenty years."
Talliree gives him a smile to scare crocodiles before clambering down to the walkway below.
"What the... there's a god-damned shark down there..."
Balthazar hesitates almost a half-second before shrugging it off and shimmying down the rope down below. Once everyone makes it down, he stomps along the path until he reaches a doorway. He presses his ear up against the door, trying to determine if there's any danger beyond.
Aerodus falls into step. He is impressed with the portly man's senses - he barely saw a flicker of the water himself. Aerodus provides a brief description of both Raina and Sev to the newcomers and finishes with,"With the exception of them and any children, I suggest we treat whoever we find down hear as hostile."
Other than the brief glimpse of a shark's fin, there seems to be no other threats at present.
"So basically look for anyone not tied up."
Talliree's hood covers her head once more as she comes up behind Aerodus.
Tusilak kneels back down next to the girl. "We'll get her back. Lamm isn't going to hurt anyone else." He nods to the older children, "Please keep them all safe up here." Once he's sure that the children are going to stay up top, he follows Talliree down to the walkway.
"Try the door, Balth."
If the door is locked, Nora attempts to pick it. Otherwise, she remains behind Balthazar with her bow at the ready.