Dom's life had left him somewhat inured to the cries of others. Nobody answered yours, did they? So, he followed Dervin into the room where there had been movement, keeping to the wall and angling to keep Dervin and his blade between himself and any potential threat. With the man running through the door, Dom shakes his head and says, "I really don't think you should be leaving."
the man aprantely shakes off the spell as he bumps his head to keep it clear. opening the other door. as he does he turns to the group and says "gotcha" as a smale gnome man comes out underneath the desk attacking Dervin. surprising him with a sneak attack.
Ripshank hits him with a gash accross the leg.
tactics-
Devin down 7.
two enemys
heroes round 2.
Furious enough over the surprise attack he tosses caution aside despite the grievous wound, Dervin takes a 5ft step towards the door and spitefully targets the gnome...
The pain from the gash clouds Dervin's vison, making his aim unsteady. The arrow misses it's mark, skidding across the floor ineffectively.
Dom sees the blood streaming from Dervin's leg and begins having second thoughts about this entire endeavor. He yells in the hope of summoning help, "Uh, Dervin is bleeding. A lot!"
He then tries to put their gnome-ambusher to sleep.
Hearing the yell Nanta moves back up the stairs and releases a burst of healing energy.
Not discovering her brother amongst the children, Kesso tosses the bag of of candy and copper onto the floor so their contents spill out. "If you wish, you work for me now and there is more where that came from. Stay out of our way for now." Turning to Amadune she thanks her, then hearing the fighting going on in the next room she goes through the door. Instinctively, she interposes herself between Dervin and the door and takes a swing at Ripshank.
Keeping the weight on his good leg, Dervin feels the healing energy washing around him, Whoa, that's... very nice. So *THAT* is magical healing? Very nice... Gotta stay on his good side.
Ripshank shakes off the sleep spell, "You bastard you aint going to get me with those tricks" looking at Dom, he swears. suddenly Kesso shows up next to Dom and Dervin and stabs through Pipshanks heart.
Yargin Looks in the room and sees Kesso strike down Rip. "Take this to Pharisma once you die!" Grabbing some vails off his vest he mixes up a bomb and throws it at Dervin. missing Dervin and hitting the floor he then spends the remainder of his action moving.
Amadune casts a spell on herself- (divine favor)
You hear shouting from the bottom the the stairs. "Get over here you stupid Little lamn's. dont make me do what i did to donny to the rest of you. " when you look into the room you see a H-orc with a flail in his hand, standing over a dead body of a child with his skull caved in.
Heroes round 3 go.
Dom curses the thugs' luck. You're too soft, boy! Get angry! Stop trying to put them to sleep and KILL them!
He grits his teeth and runs into the room. When he sees the half-orc with the bloody flail, he thrusts into the bastard's mind and tries to turn him to Dom's side. And then you'll kill him. Yessss.
The year spent with Madam Chun allowed Kesso to spot Ripshank's momentary lack of attention and she throws a telling blow towards him. A look of shock crosses her face as the blade bites deep into his chest as this was no training pell. She throws a guilty look back towards the cleric of Abadar. 'You've killed him, and in front of witnesses.' she thinks. But the half orc yelling quickly distracts her. As she runs towards the scaffolding she sees exactly what the villian has done. "You bastard!" she screams. Then her attention turns to the remaining children. "Run and get behind me. I will protect you, for if he tries to get to you..." She locks eyes with the half orc. "...He will die" Almost casually she swings her naginata at the bomber on the scaffolding with her.
So distracted by the mayhem occuring below her, she doesn't come close to hitting Yargin.
Instinctively favoring the wounded leg, Dervin realizes after three steps it is in fact only slightly wounded now and he can make good time.
He pulls another arrow out as he joins Kesso and Dom on the catwalk. Seeing Kesso has what he assumes is an alchemist engaged, he fires at the half-orc across the room.
Amadune takes double move to head downstairs to the children crying.
Nanta hears the yelling from the half-orc in the other room, with righteous might in his head he starts to head down the stairs to engage the Orc. however when he starts heading towards the stairs he slips in fish guts and detritus next to the aquarium and he spends the next few moment picking himself up of the ground.
with a sneer the H-Orc looks towards Dom and says "try again mage. Your not smart enugh to get in here." with that he taps his head with his Flail.
Dervin then shoots him with a arrow with a "thunk" the arrow pierces his shoulder. he looks up at Yergin with a giggle "Hah, Yerg no witnesses!" before he moves across the room to engage Amadune.
barely missing her with a wild swing of his flail.
Yergin then pulls out another vial. and throws it down in the middle of all the children. Screams fill the air, as Yergin looks back at ya'll, and with a smile he moves further on down the steps. the children pass out from the heat or die at the bottom of the stairs one young one falls through the floor in the bottom of the room through a fishing hole. vanishing under the water.
H-orc- down 2
Children burning or dieing. in negatives through splash damage.
%$#@ these guys are vicious…
Dervin moves along the scaffolding, pulling out another arrow and switches target to the bomb-thrower, My ally with the identity issues has the half-orc and I don't think I can do anything for kids...
No healing, floor is obviously unstable, so Dervin will not jump down to put fires out; but taking HIM down will help matters...
Nanta was not used to working besides such lightly armoured individuals, he would have to adjust. He moves down the stairs to support Amandune. He kept his shield and weapon up as he approached.
Dom stared at the flames for a half-second as the reality of what had just happened registered. Children. Burning. Dying. He knew he couldn't help, not from up on the scaffolding, so instead he loaded a bolt into his crossbow and fired at the bomb-thrower.
Kesso puts all regret about killing the gnome out of her head. 'These people are evil.' she thinks, appalled at the atrocities they casually commit. She hurries after the alchemist, intent on killing him before he can endanger any more innocents.
The screams of the burning children just distract her to much.
yergin takes a arrow in the leg before ducking behind a post before Domir shoots his bolt, the post also protects him from Kesso bloody Naganata. stepping away from Kesso's reach he throws one more bomb striking Kesso stait on the chest and getting dervin in the splash radius
Dervin take 3 points fire.
Giggles strikes out with his fist at Nanta. twirling his flail at Amadune to keep her back. The swing at Nanta is a wild punch.
some of teh screams die out as children fall to the ground not moving. you can see under the stairs there are a couple more kids hiding.
Amadune attacks Giggles with the borrowed silver mace unfortunely the H-orc sees the attack coming and dodges out of the way.
giggles = 2 down
Yergin = 3 down
Nanta began to edge around Giggles swinging his morningstar to keep the half orcs attention. For a flash he had considered releasing healing energy to help the children but they were to far for now.
The edges of his vision red with anger and barely in control of his judgment, Dervin advances quicly across the walkway, down the stairs and to the floor proper, pulling out an arrow taking another shot at the alchemist.
A look of sheer terror crosses Kesso's face as the flammable liquid splashes across her. But she clamps down on her fear as she chases after the alchemist.
@kesso sorry no flank due to different levels. no AoO. for either dom or yergin on each other. so your attack misses.
Nanta and Amadune can tell that Giggles knows how to fight with the way he dodges and feints against two skilled opponents. he manages to twist and turn with your attack and backhands Nanta with one of his fists. as he takes his flail and bashes Amadune against her side. she yells out with a shout. as you can hear snapping of her ribs. Kesso sees yergin pull out a flask to drink a potion. Kesso pulls her naginata back before stabbing him through the chest right as he vanishes from sight.
@nanta - enforcer by giggles intimidate- needed to add at bottom to keep rolls. where they are at.
"Where did he go!" Kesso yells as she steps back to help Amadune and Nanta.
Not being able to see the alchemist, and another enemy still in view, Dervin takes a few steps to get some more space and fires into the melee...
Thinks to himself, ...thought it was a good plan...
Nanta continues to circle around Giggles and tries to bring the hammer down on his side.
Dom seems stupified by the carnage and cruelty, the sounds and stench of children burning alive. When Yegrin disappears, he snaps himself out of it and pulls the door closed behind him then loads a bolt into his crossbow, taking a slight step to the side for a better angle at the half-orc.
Seeing everyone else trying to block doorways Amadune pulls back and keeps her weapon ready just in case of attack. (full defense) "I got this doorway!"
Giggles steps forward to try a last moment vicious attack against Kesso hopeing to take at least one person with him; knowing the end is near. Giggles is bleeding from multiple wounds, but somehow is still alive. throughout it all he has a smile on his face he must be mad.
giggles 7 down-
Dom fires off a crossbow bolt at the half-orc.
If he was lucky, he might have hit the broad side of the opposite wall. He reloads.
Giggles lands a glancing blow on Kesso's armor and Kesso steps back, trying to keep him in range to attack.
Nanta brings his morningstar down hard on Giggles' shoulder taking a step towards where he had last seen the orphans.
Giggles goes down, with a quick stab from Kesso and a follow-up strike by Nanta as he was falling forward.
the warehouse goes quiet, only the sobbing of a couple of children can be heard. after a few moments Yergin reappears where he was on the ground dead, apparently he blead out from Kesso's strike after drinking the potion and it just now ended.
Still wounded, sweating and breathing heavy, Dervin's synapses fire off, pulling his thoughts and attention many directions at once, the kids, that smell... are there any kids still alive? Is that Giggles down for good? What happened to the bomb-chucker? Plug a few arrows that way just in case?
Frustrated, he almost yells defensively, "I thought we had a good plan, we all agreed to the plan, right? Geez, there were only three of them!"
Still nervous with his bow raised, "Did... did any of the kids... make it?"
Dom looks around as the fight is finished then puts away his crossbow and inspects the burns from the one bomb that exploded near him. Hmm. Not going to inspect the children’s bodies? Rush to sooth the survivors? Life in Korvosa was hard, brutal and frequently short. It wasn’t fair, but... You may as well have killed them yourself.
”No, I didn’t.” He blinks and looks briefly at the others, continuing, ”I didn’t help much. I’m sorry. They seemed to resist my magic. I tried putting them to sleep, but...” He walks around the scaffold and descends to try to help with any of the children who survived.
Kesso runs to the fishing hole. "I don't know." she responds to Dervin. Any of the kids that are still on fire, she tries to dip into the water to put out the flames. She looks into the hole, trying to see the child that was dropped in just a few seconds ago.
Nanta moves into a position so he could get all his allies and the surviving orphans in a healing burst of energy, keeping his eyes peeled in case any of their fallen foes stirred. Seeing many of his allies, for now at least, were still injured he repeated the process.
...man that healing magic is great stuff...
Seeing no further threats, Dervin stows his bow and walks over to help look for kids. More concerned with deflecting any blame for the plan gone awry than actual concern for the welfare of the children, he deflects some more, "Anything? Did any crawl under the walkway?"
He makes a thorough, diligent search...
@Kesso- Looking through the hole you see a dead body that was burnt, as you are looking you see the body twitch and move a little even though it is face down, you also see a boardwalk-like area under the main level. leading to a door you also see that a door is fitted on the bottom of the derelict barge that is docked.
@nanta- You see that with the Healing burst one of the young children moves a little with your burst, the healing was enough to keep him alive but he is still burnt badly.
@Dervin- You see a total of 5 kids survived ages 8-14. they are hiding under the stairs and when you come close they quiver in fear from you.
"I'm sorry there are these gaps in my memory, I can remember the time I took on fifteen warriors with only my earthbreaker. damn I miss that weapon. " if anyone listens she starts to tell a story about the time he rescued a maiden from a dragon, which is a little unusual coming from a perspective of a man with a woman's voice.
"I think he's still alive." Kesso exclaims as she lays down on the floor, her shoulders over the fishing hole. Reaching down she tries to pull the child out of the water. "There is a whole boardwalk under here, and I can see what looks like a door on the bottom of the ship. This may be a secret escape route from the boat."
Frustrated that she can't reach the child. She lays her naginata down and takes off her backpack, obviously preparing to go into the water.
Coming down the stairs from the scaffolding on the eastern side of the room, Dom goes to try to calm the children, casting a quick glance down the fishing hole as he walks by.
Seeing much the same as Kesso but figuring she has it in hand, he kneels a short distance from the children and tries to calm them. "Shhhh. It's alright now. I know that was scary, but it's alright now. They can't hurt you anymore."
@kesso- the drop is about 10-12 ft to the water.
@Dom- the children after their initial hesitance they start to come out, One particularly brave one comes out in front of the others, speaking in a rough accent language of the streets " What do You want eh? Me seen you kill the bads, you gonna do us too?"
Seeing that Dom is dealing with the other children, Kesso takes the rope out of her backpack, dropping one end to the ground and tying the other end around her waist while moving around the most sturdy support she sees for the scaffolding above. Moving back to the fishing hole she picks up the rope she left on the ground and then starts to lower herself into water, using the support beam as a makeshift pulley. Once she reaches the water she uses her free arm to pick the child up and lays him/her across her shoulder and then proceeds to pull herself back up the rope using both her hands. If she makes it back up, she immediately hands the kid over to Nanta. "I think, he's alive, but is drowning. Can you fix him?"
Dervin backs off when he sees the kids are frightened, but it is more a practical thing that they are found than sensitive to their fear, "You can come out." He motions, "We're not here for you. It's over. We killed them. You don't need to be scared of them anymore, and we won't hurt you."
Oblivious to Kesso and her efforts, and not emotionally equipped for empathy, Dervin looks up towards Dom and the walkway opening, ponders for a beat, then without looking at the others muses, "That little one upstairs, the sneaky git... he came out from under a desk. Could be there is useful info, records or addresses, whatever, in the desk."
Nanta gives Kesso a level look. "I am a Priest of Abadar, I have extended healing to yourselves in this endeavour as a the undertaking is of civic benefit. I can not expend the blessings granted by Abadar idly without proper justification or proper compensation. Healing magic such as I have would not help while someone is drowning."
Hmm. Yes. Are you going to kill them? Dom considers the child's question for a moment before answering, "No, we not gonna do you too. You free to go. But we lookin' for the bads boss. Gonna do him, too. You know where we finds him?"
Dervin smiles, inwardly thinking to himself, man's gotta get paid, Kesso
When kesso comes up to the child and grabs the Arm a jigsaw shark starts thrashing in the water, you can see that the "twitching" was the shark eating on the legs.
@kesso you need to the a swim check (DC 10), you see you can either try to make it to the boardwalk under the fishery or try for the rope. if you make it to the rope its (DC 10) climb.
@Domir- "the boss is downstairs from what we understand sometimes he comes up to hurt us, but mostly he stays below."
heroes first-
As Kesso grabs the child she lets out a cry when she realizes its a corpse being nibbled on.
Although startled, she manages to get to the boardwalk. "These people. They're monsters." she says as she draws herself out of the water. "Do we want to try coming in through the back door. If we throw the bodies of the alchemist and the child molester into the water it would probably keep the shark busy." Hearing Domir talking to the children she adds. "Tell them if they want a good, hot meal to go to the Solstice Inn in the Midland District and tell Mama Balan that Kesso will cover the cost. I will meet them there after dealing with Lamm."
Amadune goes up to the edge of the fishing hole in the floor grabbing the Naganata she then leans forward and throws it to Kesso , "Here!" she says with a shout before throwing.