"Agreed! What can we do with these ingots?" Then, thinking out loud: What we do with them? Who would WANT to buy ingots of poisonous metal? Assassins, maybe, but they certainly wouldn't be so careless as to flaunt the stuff about like this!"
I do wonder what these would be used for? They are too dangerous to be left in the wrong hands. I suggest that we bury them then burn the carriage above the filled in hole. It will serve to mark where they are, camouflage the freshly dug ground, and discourage any others who may come looking."
"There's merit in your argument, Kharamell. On the other hand, there is also the matter of getting paid for risking our lives for this dubious cargo. Maybe we should talk to that merchant first? Before letting him know that his cargo has been rescued, as such."
"It could be hard to find someone to sell these ingots to on short notice. I think we should talk to that merchant first. He may have not known what he was carrying on that cart."
"That sounds like a good plan. But where should we put what's left of the zombie things we fought? Those may or may not be useful for disguising where the ingots are buried."
"That should work nicely. I doubt anyone would bother to look under a set of strange zombie-things below a burnt out carriage."
You dig through the sludge and put the ingots underneath the burnt carriage.
After about an hour of digging, you head back to Torch. The three of you stink of muck and rotten meat.
Čemifobbar will likewise make himself presentable.
"The merchant will be awe inspired if the three of us are well-groomed and nonchalant when we tell him we destroyed those undead for him. Besides, he will probably be still be sleeping it off by time we have finished preening ourselves."
After going to an inn and cleaning yourselves, you meet up at the common room, which happens to be a tavern, and sit together at a table.
Looking around you don't seem to see the nobleman.
"After what we just went through, that gentleman is nowhere to be seen! We better ask around about him."
Čemifobbar will ask people in the inn, starting with the staff, what they can tell him about about that nobleman who passed out earlier.
Upon finding out about the Nobleman, Čemifobbar returns quickly to Kharamell and Tessara. "Our 'friend' has and gone to complain to the town hall about his missing carriage. We better go there quickly! We don't want anyone thinking we are the villains!"
You head to the Town Hall. Sitting in a row of higher wooden desks is a middle aged (or older) dwarven woman. She fidgets with an adamantine warhammer on the top of the desk. She seems slightly bored.
Except for a few townsfolk settled near the sides of the room, a single man is standing, barely, addressing the councilor.
"My goods were stolen, dwarf! What are you going to do about it? Find the culprits and jail them. Now!"
Čemifobbar will approach the dwarven councillor with a bow and whisper so the loud merchant can't hear him (which shouldn't be too hard):
"Lady Councillor, forgive my interruption. But me and my two friend here", motioning to Tessara and Kharamell, "… have recently risked our lives destroying some manner of mechanical creatures for this, er, GENTLEMAN. But I'm afraid he may not have been forthright about the kind of delicate matter of how dangerous his cargo is."
The nobleman (who is the same one from the tavern/inn) slurs his speech as he sees the three of you.
"It was them, dwarf. They're the ones that took my stuff. Arrest them! Call the Town Watch!"
The dwarven councilor, Dolga, says, "Well, what do you three have to say to that? You said this man hired you, but that doesn't seem the case, and what's this about strange cargo?"
Dolga Freddert says, "I see. You mentioned "Rust Risen"? Could you elaborate on what you mean? Are these things a danger to Torch?"
The nobleman spits. "Lies! I hired them and they stole my goods. Look at them, dwarf, do they look like trustworthy souls?"
Čemifobbar addresses Councillor Dolga beginning with a gracious bow. "My dear, learned, lady. My name is Čemifobbar. My companions, Kharamell, Tessara, and myself were chatting to this fellow here," motioning to the drunken trader "… who told us that six undead had attacked him and he needed someone to retrieve his cargo. We found his cargo were where he said it was. Which he said so loud I'm surprised everyone in Torch could not hear it. These 'Rust Risen', it seems, are often mistaken for undead. We killed six of them, with difficulty. We checked the cargo merely to ensure it was was undamaged. My learned friend, Kharamell here, noticed they were actually ingots of a very dangerous poisonous metal called Abysium. We hid them so they would not fall into the wrong hands. We assumed this gentleman here did not know the true nature of his cargo, since it was poorly stored for such a dangerous substance. We came to find him to tell him what we did on his behalf and are, quite frankly, astonished at his accusations of thievery on our part."
With another gracious bow, he concludes "A simple misunderstanding. We risked our lives, acting in good faith, and have been mistaken for thieves by the very gentleman who said he would pay us gold to retrieve his cargo. And in the process we found his cargo to be a danger not only to himself, but the good people of Torch. Truly, we are guilty of saving lives, not thievery!"
"I see," Dolga says. "Town Watch, please arrest these three and put them in the jail!"
Two lightly armored men with swords and shields look at each other and start to move towards you. The dwarf laughs. "I jest. I jest."
"Nobleman Jharvan, you need to pay these adventurers for clearing away these Rust Risen and recovering your Abysium. You will also be fined for transporting it in such a hazardous manner."
The nobleman sputters. "No. I refuse. If you can't see from these fool's lies then you are a bigger fool than they are. I demand retribution and compensation for what I deserve-"
Dolga slams her warhammer into the wooden table. It splits the table in half and causes the Jharvan to stop speaking. "Enough, Jharvan. Reward these adventurers and get out of my sight!"
Nobleman Jharvan turns white as a ghost. He drops a small bag that jingles at Cemifobbar's feet, and vomits on it unintentionally. Wiping his mouth with a bright green handkerchief, he scampers out of the Town Hall.
"Torch thanks you. I don't believe you'll want to see the nobleman, so if you could, deliver the Abysium here to the Town Hall."
"You are indeed just councillor!", adding another gracious bow, he mulls to himself: "Hopefully Tessara's tact is a bit better than normally!"
Carefully avoiding Nobleman Jharvan's mess on the floor, Čemifobbar scoops up the bag of coin left at his feet by and hands it to either Kharamell or Tessera (50-50 chance) without opening it and whispers "We will divide this evenly amongst the three of us, of course."
(hands it to Kharamell)
Turning back to Councillor Dolga: "We would be only to happy to bring Abysium ingots, but we are ill prepared to handle them safely. If we could be lent the proper materials and a small hand cart? Perhaps even some of Torch's capable guards to accompany us, to prove we can be trusted."
"Hopefully Tessara's tact is a bit better than that normally!"
Don't get your hopes up. Rocking 7 cha here.
I think I may have been off the mark with my last little speech to the good councillor... Čemifobbar chides himself, but maintains his friendly demeanor.
Dolga arranges for a small cart and some lead lined leather pouches from her smithing and gadget shop. The items are waiting for you outside of the Town Hall.
"We get complaints from the nobleman frequently. Most are far-fetched, or without credibility, so we're used to dealing with him. He isn't actually a nobleman, but a merchant from the River Kingdoms. On the other hand though, Jharvan does bring in lots of ore which our smiths turn into fine metal products, weapons and armor."
The dwarf turns away from you and addresses other members of the townsfolk. "Now on to other matters. Because of the return of the torch, waste disposal will now commence by throwing refuse and scraps into the ever-burning flame again. We'll need volunteers to take the current mess clogging up the streets and in the lakes nearby and get rid of it through the proper methods..."
You believe this is your cue to leave.
Čemifobbar bows to the councillor and motions for Tessara and Kharamell to follow him to the provided cart.
You take the cart along with the metal-lined leather and bring it back to the stuck carriage.
"We should also be alert for more trouble, since these ingots valuable and dangerous!"
Čemifobbar will do the grunt work, unearthing the ingots of Abysium, and will carefully load them into the lead-lined boxes in the cart provide by Councillor Dolga. He'll also stay alert and ready for trouble; even if means having to dig a little slower.
Does it look like the area has been tampered with? The burnt carriage still there? The remains of the rust risen still there?
on to lords of rust
The carriage seems to be exactly the same as you left it. It depends how much time it takes to fix the rifle, but its likely.
Almost done with the first book, just need a little bit of roleplaying.
Čemifobbar will do the digging. Taking a 20, if needs be to make sure the stuff is extracted and stored good and proper before returning to the town with the lot.
Alright I think this is all our unclaimed group gear, not including the more mundane gear.
4898GP
149 disks
5x batteries
Pile of Glittering Objects
7 Brown Cards
Brown Potion
White Potion
Empty Vials with Mysterious Liquid Remnants
magic tattered red cloak
A timeworn handheld gadget with lines on it and a wand attached
2x nanite canisters
a gun like device with a brown stripe
a clear tube with a stopper and an open area
2x Hemochem I
Scroll of Detect Radiation
Scroll of Technomancy
Scroll of Unseen Servant
wand of magic missile, CL 3rd, with 44 charges.
a magical light hammer (medium sized)
4 holy symbols of a female mask made of ivory
3 fungus encrusted potions marked cure moderate wounds
magic red pistol
2 canisters filled with gray dust
white access card
mwk backpack
a tool that looks like it is for gripping things
and a small sleek device shaped like a squarish pen with a black stripe on the side and circuitry along one end.
If we sell these items
Chain Shirt-100
mwk spiked gauntlet-305
2 mwk studded leather-350
2 mwk bucklers-155
4 mwk light hammers-1204
8 gruesome looking spears made of human bone-???
MW Thieves Tools-100
MW Hand Crossbow 400
5 Bolts - 5
mwk chainmail- 300
We get an additional 1459.5 gold, for a group total of 6357.5 Gold
Assuming no one objects, that's 6357.5/4 for 1589.47 gold each.
Can we get everything identified in our month off?
Do you want us to make profession or craft rolls for the month?
Are we advancing to level 4?