Resisting the urge to spit on the nobleman, Kazador spoke the command words required to re-disguise his arms and armor. At least as such he’d attract less immediate attention. Raising an eyebrow when Mel found a little book on his persona, he asked ”We got what we need? If so I’ll carry the fooker out.”
"I think so, but I'm making sure. Could you please tie up Mr. Rogers here so that our friend can get out of his head?"
Your vision goes cloudy for a moment but you focus hard on the importance of what you are doing and your vision clears.
You find yourself re-living your worst nightmare, in the pit.
Mel shakes her head and blinks a few times, but focuses on what she's doing: checking to make sure this is the book of passwords.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
When Hal speaks out loud it is obvious his accent has been changed."I've got some silk rope. We can use that if we need to. Bag over his head too. Let me check Rogers for what he wants."
'Alright, mate...' Hal says silently, carefully enunciating the words mentally. 'We couldn't have done this without you. Deal's a deal. You want us to tie you up, gag you and never tell anyone that fact - or do you want a ticket to a job somewhere else? Choice is yours far as I'm concerned. That said, you try to finger us later and we'll be back. I've taken a shine to you Geoff, and I very, much don't want to have to come look you up later.'
Mel sees a long list of various word pairs like
"April: Periphery
Market: Dominion
Matilda: Primogeniture"
"Yes. We've got it. Also, I think there's some kind of magical trap on the book -- I felt a brief tingle when I opened it. We'll have to deal with that later."
She tucks both the book and the potion she collected from the Duke during the fight into her handy haversack. "All right. Let's secure Mr. Rogers here and then get out."
With a sigh of relief, the dwarf picked the nobleman up and threw him over his shoulder. "Right! Bloody good. Now let's get the fook out of here."
Unaware of Hal's internal monologue with the captive Mr. Rogers, Mel extracts a length of silk rope from her haversack. She starts towards Mr. Rogers, when Túrion puts a hand on her shoulder to stop her.
"Use this instead," he says, pulling a length of ordinary rope from his supplies.
Mel looks at the rope in her hand -- fine, silken rope, carefully twisted, perfectly smooth, featuring a subtle design in the interwoven strands. Rope that she purchased in Lywelas before setting off for Brookside. Elven rope.
"Ah," she says. She puts it away and instead takes Túrion's rope, which looks as though he might have picked it up on the Sonder. Human rope, sturdy but plain and nowhere near as fine. Rope that wouldn't raise any inconvenient questions later.
She sets about binding the butler so that Hal can let go of the possession spell. "Sorry if it's tight," she says to him. "But you'll be found and freed soon enough, I imagine." She is careful to bind him tightly while not cutting off his blood flow. Túrion attempts to assist her, but evidently his education -- while vast -- did not extend to knots, and after a moment Mel waves him away.
Possessed Geof thinks back "Given what just happened, the sky is going to fall. I want to be in another country."
"Hold." Hal says. "Change of plans. We're taking him."
'Is there anything - or anyone - you need to take with you? Absolutely need, mind. You can buy new clothes, but some things can't be replaced.'
Geoffrey replies "Well I will manage without everything else if I can bring my cat. He is at my tenement a few blocks from here."
"We're ... taking him?" Melia asks blankly, pausing with her hands full of rope.
"Can't leave him here. Best he can hope is to get fired without recommendation. I told him I'd get him refuge if he told me what I needed to know, and he's taking me up on it. I'll drop him in another country, settle him in, make my way back."
Hal sighs "Only thing he asked to take was his cat, so we go through the wards, split up, I'll walk him home, then give him a few choices as to where to go. Once he's settled I'll get out of his head. Means we're carrying two bodies out past the wards though."
"Oh. Huh. Well -- all right. It's going to be awfully awkward hauling two unconscious bodies out of here. Do we have a bag of holding we could tuck you into? Just briefly? I know it's not ... oh wait!"
She reaches into her haversack and pulls out a slightly crumbly posset. "Our druidic friend gave me this a while ago. Should do the trick." She eats it, grimacing slightly.
"I swear. We have to get that man a big jar of honey or something. Honestly. Pah! But it should give me the boost I need."
She ties a rope around the desk, noting that it was solidly attached to the wall. Moving into the bedroom, she gently collects Hal into a fireman's carry. "Right. Let's go."
Túrion calmly extracts a dagger from his pack and puts the rod away once more. "Go on. Once you are down I will cut the rope and join you. I can fall gently."
Letting some of the power within his runes emanate out, Kazador went first on climbing down with the nobleman over his shoulder.
Awkwardly clutching the unconscious Hal, Mel lowers herself down the rope carefully.
'You really need to work out more Geoff.' Hal preaches hypocritically.
Once the others are clear, Turion takes a moment to untie the rope rather than cutting it, then hops in and floats gently to the bottom.
You get down to the basement without being spotted and without, you think, being heard!
"Let's go," Mel whispers as Túrion floats to a gentle landing in the basement. She leads the way through the secret entrance that led them here, clasping the unconscious Hal's arms over her shoulders. His head lolls against her shoulder as she moves into the dark.
Túrion posts himself at the hidden door, and pulls it shut behind the last one in.
"As soon as we're well clear of the teleport trap, let's get out of here," Mel says.
You sneak back out into the sewers without any further trouble.
Kazador breathed a sigh of relief once it was clear that they had made it out. "Right. Now let's just get back, and bring this fooker with us. And let's pray that there is enough hard evidence in here to convict him, because otherwise I don't want to even think about the consequences."
checks to be sure the group is clear of the teleport trap on the Duke's manor.
fishes a hand into her haversack and pulls out a small pouch. She shoves it into Mr. Rogers' pocket. "Take those. That's a bag of various cut gems, ranging from about 10 crowns to 50 or so. In all they should total about 500 crowns' worth of ready cash. We've completely upended your life, Mr. Rogers, and I do apologize for it. The least I can do is provide some funds to help tide you over while you're working out what to do next."
finishes his examination and glances over the group. "We are clear to teleport away, but the addition of Mr. Rogers complicates matters," he says. "I can carry myself plus four others at most, and Mr. Rogers makes five." He looks at Hal -- or rather at Mr. Rogers' body carrying Hal within. "Can you make your own way back once you have evacuated Mr. Rogers?"
Hal, still clad in the body of Rogers, nods as he takes the pouch, and continues in his not-Hal voice. "I'll take Mr Rogers home, then teleport him to a destination of his choice. Once I abandon his body I should return to mine, and there is no need for Mr Rogers to know where we go, or who we are. I have some small funds, and as I made the offer I am happy to pay back the sum."
As he turns to go he hesitates "I may be a few hours - please do be careful with my body, I expect some pain when I come to, but it would be good to minimise it. If you could ensure I change position every hour or so I would be obliged."
Hal... drives? Rogers back to his home to grab a few possessions and get his cat while the rest of you do... something... with the unconscious Duke.
You get to Rogers' modest apartment near the Palatine Hill and find his cat ready to greet you. However, the orange and white tabby quickly grows suspicious, as if she can sense something is wrong with her master.
Once Hal has made his exit, Túrion incants his spell, teleporting the group back to the townhome.
He places them neatly on the second floor, and moves quickly to pull closed any curtains throughout the building.
Mel hauls Hal's unconscious form into her room and arranges him as comfortably as she can on the bed.
"Whew!" she says, returning to the others. "I can't believe that went as well as it did. Let's secure him."
Túrion examines the Duke, using magic to divine the presence of any magical items, so that they can remove them. Melia searches him as well, looking for any mundane tricks -- lockpicks, hidden knives, poison teeth and so on.
Once they have removed anything that might help him escape, Melia hands a rope to Kazador. "Would you care to do the honors?" she asks. "I think you may be better at this than either of us."
Mel finds several lockpicks and small blades hidden in the Duke's hair and the lining of several of his garments. She also finds many scrolls, gems, and what appear to be potions but none of them detect as magical!
Kazador nodded, and went about his responsibility with singleminded focus. [ooc]Take 20[/url]
[ooc]Perception aid auto pass to give Mel a 40. If that matters[/url]
"That is most odd. How could none of these be magical?" He asked. While his arcane background dealt in the use of runes, he still knew enough to know that the works of other races should still be detectable. "I wonder if he has defenses against being scryed."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"If I recall correctly from my Arcana for Non-Majors class, there are spells that can suppress the usual auras of enchantments. They would have to be cast on each item individually, and perhaps on the Duke himself to hide the signs of any long term effects on him personally. It would take a bit of work. But if he's got several mages in his retinue, hiding all his magic from casual detection is definitely possible. And it looks like that's what he did."
"Since we can't distinguish between the magical and mundane, I think we have to assume that everything in his possession is enchanted, and confiscate all of it." She blushes faintly. "Including his clothes. I suppose we should provide him some pants and a shirt at least. I'll ... uh, run and borrow some from Fyrtor. They're about the same size. I guess you can just, um, leave him tied up naked till I get back. Undignified, but necessary. Keep an eye on him, please? I guess if he wakes up, just knock him out again."
She turns to Túrion. "Here are the books and the passwords. I think there's some kind of enchantment on the book of passwords -- I felt it try to do something to me when I checked it in his study. Could you start investigating that while I run and get some pants for His Grace?"
Túrion takes the books with a nod, retreats to a corner of the room and begins studying them intently.
Mel trots off to retrieve clothing. Ai, Ostara, she thinks as she goes. How strange my life has become. Half an hour ago I abducted this man, and now here I am running off to fetch him some pants!
Túrion checks the books for hostile magic before touching them.
Then he sets to examining the evidence.
Turion detects no magic on the book. However, when he opens it...
Please make a will save as you attempt to open the book and before looking at the second spoiler. Use hero points as you like if you have them.
DC 22, mind-affecting.
Your vision goes cloudy for a moment but you focus hard on the importance of what you are doing and your vision clears.
You find yourself re-living your worst nightmare, Saria finding out about the other woman and telling you exactly what she thinks of you.
"Tch," Túrion mutters. "We knew he suppressed the auras of magic items on his person, and we took this book from his pocket. Ergo, it would show no auras."
Mildly annoyed at himself, he settles in to study.
”Clear headed? Good.” The dwarf said, his voice a touch concerned. When there was no visible magical auras that indicated hidden traps. It was a brave mage who willingly walked into such.
"Fine, fine," Túrion says.
Melia returns, extracting a shirt and some pants from her haversack for the Duke, and helps Kazador get him situated, trying her best to preserve his modesty while doing so.
The rest of his gear she puts into a bag, and tucks the bag into her haversack.
"Find anything?" she asks Túrion.
"Still working," he says. "The book of passwords is definitely trapped, but like the rest of his effects shows no sign of magic. Fortunately I was able to resist it. But no one else should touch that book until we can figure out how to bypass or disable the trap."
Melia nods. "I hope Hal gets Mr. Rogers sorted out soon. He was able to recalibrate that teleportation trap on the Cust manor, and it wasn't even attached to a physical object. Hopefully he can deal with this one even though its auras have been hidden."
Leaving Túrion to his devices, she pulls out a piece of paper and writes a note:
To the Honorable Viscount Turick, greetings. Our errand met with success. We are tying up a loose end, but should be able to join you in your garden within an hour or two to tell you all about it. I do hope your cook has more of those delightful petit fours on hand. With greatest respect, M.
Popping outside briefly, she locates a message runner and pays him to deliver this note to the Turick estate.
Returning inside, she opens the journal that connects them with Count Aral, and writes a much more specific note:
Infiltrated Duke Beaumont's estate and located his correspondence with Faedi. Getting the book of passwords to decrypt them required abducting the Duke. He is in our custody and should take no lasting ill from the battle. We got away without drawing attention from his guards, but his absence has no doubt already been noticed. Reporting to Turick soonest. Will share what we learn once we've had a moment to study the books.
Looking through the pairs of words with incredible code-breaking abilities, Turion determines that each pair is a reference to one of the Duke's password-protected possessions and a reminder of what the password is for that possession. With further work and help, he may be able to determine which pairing refers to the secret letters to the Elven Concordat.
The Count writes back "Excellent. If you can show treasonous letters in the Duke's handwriting, that will be sufficient for truth-telling magic to be brought to bear if the Viscount and myself throw all of our political clout behind the effort. I am preparing to come to Bannerhold immediately. I should arrive within 12 hours."
”Twelve hours? We can do this.” The dwarf said, feeling a glimmer of hope. ”Mel and I can take turns having watch over our prisoner, while Turion focuses on gathering evidence.”
"There are many passwords," Túrion reports. "It may take some time to identify the specific ones that reveal the text of the relevant letters."
After sharing Count Aral's message, Mel says "I think we should head straight to Turick once Hal has woken up. He has better facilities for securing the Duke. Also, if we decrypt the letters in Turick's presence, he'll be able to attest that we haven't meddled with the contents to frame the Duke."
"I just hope Hal finishes up soon. How long can it take to retrieve one cat?"
As if on command Hal stirs, wakes, and immediately grabs at his back and groans. "Gonna have'ta check up on 'im later." he comments "Man might love fishin' now but I reckon the shine is gonna wear off fast once he..." he trails off as he takes in the room. "News? What've we got?"
He immediately sticks out his tongue a little, coughs, and starts looking for a drink.
"Oh good, you're back. Fishing? Huh. Well, I'm sure his cat will be happy about the fish."
She gestures at the unconscious, tied-up Duke sitting in borrowed pants and shirt. "It turns out that none of the Duke's equipment is enchanted, including the obviously magical potions. It looks as though he's suppressing the auras of his gear. So since we couldn't distinguish between the mundane and magic equipment, we just took away everything he had."
Inclining a head towards the table where Túrion has been working, she adds "The book of passwords likewise doesn't seem magical, but definitely has some kind of magical trap on it. Both Túrion and I have successfully resisted so far. Could you please take a look at that and see if it's something you can undo? It might be challenging without the auras to study."
"After that, I think we need to get our ... guest ... to Turick post haste. I sent him a note letting him know to expect us in his garden shortly.
"More f'r him than the cat I reckon. Typical middle class fantasy. Fishin' on a tropical island 'n' writin' a "novel" - poor bastard 'as no idea what the life of a fisherman's like." He considers "Novel sounded interestin' though."
"I'm pretty much out of tricks, but I guess gettin' 'is grace there fast is better. I've got a way to hide auras, he might be usin' that. Hmm... Can't just dispel stuff... me specs might do it but I overloaded 'em to see through the wall."
"Any idea what the trap is? Curse, poison, sets fire ta the book?"
Melia frowns. "Nothing like that. When I resisted it, it felt like the sorcery was trying to push me back into one of the worst moments of my life. Like it was dredging through me looking for the things that give me nightmares and pulling them out to make me live them again." She shivers a bit, involuntarily.
"It didn't feel like a killing spell -- it's a noise maker, I think. It wanted me to scream. Draw attention to myself, maybe leave me unable to defend myself. It almost worked. If it had, our exit from His Grace's house would have been considerably more fraught."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Eugh. Sounds horrible. I, for one, am glad to stay the fook away from that." Kazador said, his voice scrunching as he thought about what memories might assail him. There were many horrible ones to choose from. He was glad, and appreciative, that his comrades were taking such travails upon their shoulders.
"Hmm. Have ta say, sounds... familiar." Hal starts pulling out books from his bag and cross referencing between them. He flips between notes, jotting down a few notes and rubbing his forehead - apparently oblivious to the black mark he leaves there.
"Right." he announces "Sorry it took so long, but I think I got it. We line all the items up on the table over there. I put a glass bottle of water over here. The water acts as a prism which should seperate the image of the items slightly from their aural emanation. After that I should be able to jury-rig somethin' to work on identifyin' the items while avoiding the illusion. If anyone's got anythin' ta help me concentration, now'd be the time."
Hal determines a LOT of new information. The book is indeed protected by a magical trap that forces anyone who attempts to open it to shake off the book's magic or be mentally trapped in their worst fear, screaming and disabled to alert anyone nearby. That is the only magic on the Duke's little black book of passwords.
Additionally, the Duke has plenty of magical items on him that do not detect as magical due to the Magic Aura spell.
”Ach…how I want that belt.” Kazador said, ruefully. ”But we will be turning him in, and it would be best to not be seen as thieves. We should catalogue his possessions and keep them together, but away from him.”