The irritation taking ahold of Xzot, the changeling takes a look around to see if anyone else is looking before climbing the fence and heading in the direction of Nark. "I should kill them both and turn 'em in to Karbal, just to get on his good side."
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Reposting the initiative list. Lony and Xzot are both joining in this round.
Nark: 26
Ratfolk: 14
Lony: 12
Xzot: 10
The ratfolk winces in pain, finally showing more than irrirtation with Nark's attacks.
"You stupid greenskin. Do you know what you've done? Whichever one of us doesn't die in this scrapyard, Mayor Karbal will slaughter himself."
The creature looks over it's shoulder, seemingly marking the progress of its allies who have scrambled over the wall.
Returning his attention to Nark, the ratfolk makes one more grab for the goblin.
Ratfolk's grapple check:
Nark's dagger attack of opportunity:
Nark's dagger damage:
The rat-man grabs Nark again, digging its short nails into the goblin's skin.
"Stay and burn, you little peck."
Lony's Climb check:
Lony's bite attack:
Lony's bite damage:
Just then, Lony bounds over the fence, and takes a bite out of the ratfolk.
The fire, meanwhile, has left only a narrow strip of space between the eastern (back) wall of the scrapyard and the small, cleared space where Nark is battling for his life. Soon, the small area will be cordoned off by a wall of fire and a wall of wood, with scrap to either side. As the first splash of cold water arcs over the far wall, Lady Jenise narrowly edges through the alley of flame and scrap, brandishing a short blade.
Ratfolk's Perception check:
Distracted by the combat, Jenise slips into place behind the rat-man and simply sticks her blade between his ribs. Gasping in disbelief, the ratfolk turns his head to look at his ambusher. Even this motion is a shuddering, jerky affair for the doomed rat. Jenise' attack appears to have crippled him.
A second splash of water arcs over the fence. It appears that the citizens are attempting to prevent the building proper from catching fire.
On the streets, Flametouched, Lothar, and Ormak struggle to keep the citizens organized. With a bucket line established, Ohak the orc simply charges back toward the party. Without stopping, he simply barrels through the front doors of the supply house, panting like a dog. From the sound of him, his lungs will burst at any moment.
The party on this side of the street has time to wonder whether or not he'll find Nark on the other side of the establishment's back door - the one that no doubt opens into the scrapyard. Taking Ohak's cue, a couple of human guards follow Ohak inside. Whatever is going on in the scrapyard, it's getting loud. The ruckus outside isn't so loud that you can't hear the muffled shouting around back.
Keep the bucket line going. I will go help look for anyone trapped inside. Lothar follows the orc and the townsfolk into the burning building, moving at full speed.
Flametouched continues filling and handing off buckets, working as tirelessly as the machine it is.
Lony Handle Animal: Guard Lony, ztay next to me
As the ratman succumbs to unconsciousness Nark coldly places his dagger on its throat and gives killing blow
Looking at the Lady Jenise who had suddenly appeared Nark nods at him better to get out of here... Nark explain later
Stealth Check
Using his natural size and ability to hide Nark tries to keep hidden as he attemps to climb over the fence
Climb
Attack of Opportunity Damage
Giving last hit towards the rat Nark turns and follows Lady Jenise and climbs over the fence and disappears to the shadows
Climb Nark
Climb Lony
Stealth Lony
Stealth Nark
Climb
Stealth
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Lothar and both guards barrell out of the back door as Nark is just cresting the fence, dropping silently to to the ground with Lony following suit. At this point, flames have spread throughout the center-most third of the scrapyard.
Lothar's Perception check:
Lothar spots a flash of Lony's tail over the fence, and spies Lady Jenise as well. Unfortunately, the thugs notice Lady Jenise, too.
"'ey! You there! Stay where you are!"
Both guards toss their buckets at the nearest flames, then make as if to bolt for the fence.
It looks like everyone here got out. We should try to extend the bucket line into the yard.
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The guards turn back, heading into the supply store.
"Grab some blankets." One says to another, hustling back into the supply room. Poking his head out the door, the guard
"The lot's lost, but we can save the supply house. Get the bucket line working through the supply house, here. And somebody get 'round either side. We seen a woman with a dog jump the fence 'round back. 'aint no local, I don't think."
Ohak shoulders past the guard to gather blankets for the lot. At about the same time, the adventurer Harmon and his companion Vau come hustling out of Dead Before Dawn's batwing doors - seemingly rushing in to help. The female ogress from the back of the bar also shambles outside, but Karbal raises a nonchalant hand, seeming to stop her.
Xzot turns to Nark, and drags him into any nearby shadows. "Listen to me right now you big toothed hooligan, if I'm going to have any chance of getting both of us out of this, I need to know RIGHT NOW and the TRUTH of what just happened. Spill it, or so help me that ogress will be having fried goblin with a side of wolf steak."
Nark looking a bit confused and collecting his thoughts as he tries to explain himself Ratman who iz dead... threaten Lony zo he threaten me. Nark kill becauzze Nark didn´t like the rat threat. Plaze for rat, rat place burning then so rat haz no place to ztay.
Lony iz only thing Nark haz. Lony iz made fun or Lony bullied... Nark stabs back! Waz iz it, Nark not remember... "He threatz with word, you stab back. Zword for finger" yez? Nark tries to explain while demonstrating with his hands.
Nark think it iz not safe here zo maybbe move more and come out zomewhere elze?
Upon verifying that that Xzot is clear of the yard, Lothar follows the guards back out through the store house and continues to help fight the fire.
Flametouched follows the guards, hoping to find out for certain what the cause of this fire might have been (and praying to the Flame that it isn't what it thinks it was).
Once the fire seems to be under control, Ormak ducks out of sight, trying to locate Xzot.
Flametouched tries to push ahead of the guards, reaching for its blade. "Be wary!" it says sharply. "Let me go first - if there is danger, my construction will protect me best." Though it means what it is saying, it has another agenda - one it hopes it won't need to follow through on.
Upon seeing the tracks, Ormak follows them, hoping to reach Xzot before the guards
Hearing that people are approaching Nark look nervously around and then at Lady Jenise I don´t want you to be caught here Lady Jenise. Nark can get out. Nark small and good at hiding. Nark can lead them other way. Lady Jenise hides somewhere while Nark fools them? Nark asks hastily and looks ready to leave
Handle Animal Lony : Guard/Heel (to stay with Xzot)
Stealth Nark
Stealth Lony
Xzot weighs in the options, then agrees. "We'll go with that. Just stay cautious." Xzot then slips away to hide while the goblin lures them away.
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Flametouched's Perception check:
Flametouched and the guards round the corner only to find nothing there... at least until Flametouched's vigilance discerns Jenise's hiding place - and Lony the wolf is with her. After a beat of hesitation comes a clatter from a distant alleyway. Nark's deliberate giveaway works, and the guards begin to hustle after the sound.
"There! 'tis way!"
Meanwhile, Ormak has traced Lady Jenise's footsteps right up to the fence, beyond which the fire still battles with the bucket line. A perimeter search turns up the trail again on the other side of the fenced-off lot. Around the corner, Ormak can hear the guards hustling off ("'tis way!").
Lothar's Perception check:
Inside the scrapyard, Lothar helps fight the fire. Having put out the flames around the perimeter of the lot, the fire-fighters are working inward. The fence is severely damaged, and most of the junk piled up in the yard has been utterly destroyed. Some hobgoblin (not a "guard," by his dress - at least not an on-duty one - but armed all the same) gives Lothar the stink-eye, as the makeshift team hustles buckets of water.
Flametouched - who knows where Jenise was, and that she did not have anything to do with the fire - sees Lony with some disappointment, but can draw no conclusions from the wolf's presence alongside her. Since she seems well enough, it continues on with the guards, after the other sound.
The fire in the scrap yard contained and none of his companions present, Lothar slips back out through the building and looks around for the rest of the party.
Nark runs around with his faster pace, scratching here and there while trying to maintain his stealth in most obvious spots while making his way towards the city "fence" wall.
Once reaching there Nark begin to make climbing marks on the wall trying and hurries up with it.
As Nark is ready he will again enter his sync with the nature, becoming one with it and dive back to the alleys and find a hiding spot
Once the guards are clear, Xzot will attempt to head back to the inn, with Lony in tow (if willing to follow). She'll attempt to take a back route, away from the crowd at the fire, though won't hide or look suspicious while heading back to the tavern.
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Making a false show of having climbed the wall is easy enough. Nark wedges apart some of the barricade spikes and loosens a coil of the twine cording that lashes the crude barricade "wall" together. Maintaining his speed and his stealth is easy for Lark, moving at twice the speed of the thugs.
Flametouched's Perception check:
Disappearing back into the ramshackle alleyways is easy, and Flametouched and the guards pass the goblin by, led by Nark's obvious trail to the edge of the east wall.
Ormak's trail goes cold - just like that. It's as though the goblin grew wings and flew away, somewhere near the east wall. Similarly, Flametouched's investigation seems to end there. One guard turns the other, after peering through the barricade.
"We'll have to get the damn harpy. Find the fire-starter; mayor'll want someone to go down for this."
With the guards all occupied, Xzot has no trouble finding a less-than-obvious route first to the main roads, then to the tavern. As Flametouched frowns over the cold trail, Lothar steps out into the street, and Lady Jenise crests the threshold of Dead Before Dawn, a voice calls out from the main road; from the direction of the burned lot:
"MAYOR KARBAL! GOT SOMETHING 'ERE! YOU'LL WANT TO COME LOOK AT THIS!"
Flametouched turns its head toward the sound, looking at the guards with concern. "'Harpy?'" it asks.
Ormak sighs in resignation then heads back to the tavern. If nothing else, he can try and cover for his allies later. He stops mid stride when a voice calls out.
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A quick rundown of everyone's current positions:
Flametouched: standing at the East Wall with two human guards.
Lothar and Ormak: on the main road.
Nark: hiding near the East Wall.
Xzot: near Dead Before Dawn, with Lony the wolf.
"Aye... h-harpy."
The second guard looks nervous... then hopeful. He looks up at Flametouched.
"Say... I don't suppose you'd care to fetch 'er. She ain't in the Holt, but she ain't far, neither..."
The first guard - the man who gave the order - objects.
"He can't go fetch 'er, idiot. For all we know he started the fire."
The second guard rebuffs the first. Stupid! 'e's one of those... Kalok Shash... guys. 'e didn't committ no petty arson." Foolishly, the guard knocks his knuckles against the flametouched iron longsword at the warforged's hip. A less even-tempered warrior might've taken this man's hand off by reflex alone, for an action like that. Flametouched cringes, inwardly.
The bickering continues as the first guard rests his forehead against his palm.
Fann, Kalok Shash means "flame." And he's a gods-damned warforged anyhow, he ain't no priest or paladin."
"He is so! I heard! And if he is or he ain't, it don't matter. He's indebted by way'a Karbal's gate tax. He can start workin' off his debt if he goes 'an gets the damn crone."
The argument rambles on as if Flametouched weren't there. The warforged is used to this sort of attitude - many humans seem to regard his kind as some sort of "talking furniture." When they aren't speaking to him, they're speaking around him.
Flametouched sighs, once it finishes resisting the urge to smack the guard who touched its sword. "Gentlemen," it says levelly, "if Karbal chooses to redeem my debt in that fashion, then we can address that then. In the meantime, I will tell you outright, I started no fire, and I do not know who did. Let us return to the yard and find out what your compatriots have uncovered."
Lothar glances at Ormac and shrugs, then steps aside to let Karbal pass and follows after him.
Ormak likewise falls in after Karbal passes by, curious to see what all the commotion is about.
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"Aye, it's the mayor's decision," says the first guard. Then, with a roll of his eyes:
"Come on 'paladin,' let's go."
Karbal strides down the road, brow furrowed. With a sidelong glance, he acknowledges Lothar's presence, and then Ormak's.
"You; shifter. Any thoughts on who started a fire in my scrapyard?" His tone is dark, but not angry..?
From the deck of Dead Before Dawn, Jenise can see Flametouched, Lothar, Ormak, and Karbal heading toward the scene of the fire.[b]
Snarky, finally all alone, can clearly hear Flametouched and the others hustle away from the wall.
Flametouched leads the men toward the yard, noting the rest of the townsfolk that seem to be doing the same. It still does not see Narky, and its jaw tightens further.
"No, but give me some time among the yard and I can probably find out." Ormak says in reply to Karbal.
Hearing that Flametouched and the thugs are leaving Nark takes his time to move out carefully before appearing in the vicinity of others.
Carefully moving closer to the crowd until diving to middle of the people and walking then towards others looking innocent and like having been there all this time. If someone ask question, Nark will answer Nark here aaaaall the time.... No one zee Nark, Nark too zmall. Nark a bit zad but too many many people zo Nark iz ok
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"Mm," is Karbal's only response to Ormak's answer.
Nark's Stealth check:
"Mayor Karbal, sir." says one of the guards - the hobgoblin that was eyeballing Lothar, earlier. The adventurer Harmon strolls on-scene, and watches the proceedings carefully. A stern and alarmingly old man in an apron, who - until now - had been doing his best to fade into the background, peeks out from inside the general store.
The hobgoblin lifts a scorched, brown sack. "Found this in the scrap. It's the 'missing' gold, sir. A little of it, anyway. We're searching for the rest."
Karbal lifts the sack, peers inside, grunts, then hurls the bag back at the guard. The huge bugbear then disperses the crowd, shooing most of the crowd back. Karbal leaves only a few specific individuals gathered near: Flametouched, Ormak, Lothar, the two human thugs who stopped Nark, and Ohak the priest.
Mayor Karbal stares down Flametouched, and spares Ormak, the thugs, and the priest a hard glance each, as well.
Addressing Flametouched, Karbal says: "You and yours were some of the first on the scene, seems t'me. I guess you're gonna tell me that the rat-men burned down their own home and left their gold behind."
"Or your tracker will. Is that what happened, shifter? Or do you need some time in the yard before you can say?"
Ohak grunts.
Meanwhile, back on the porch of Dead Before Dawn, the scarred and hideous half-orc who first interrogated your party at the gates, Red Maulla, sizes Lady Jenise up with an obvious stare.
"The wolf. He's not yours."
The statement is flat and without context. Xzot isn't sure if it's a question - it doesn't really sound like one.
Lothar keeps an eye out, but the only members of his party that he sees are Flametouched and Ormac.
Flametouched does not flinch under the hobgoblin's stare. "I'll tell you now what I just told your men: I did not start the fire and I've no idea who did. Perhaps you'd've preferred it if we'd let your town burn so as to avoid arousing suspicion toward ourselves, but I am afraid that's not how I operate. If you want more answers than those, you're on your own, Karbal. Your offer of hospitality is more than welcome, but seems to be getting thinner by the moment."
Lady Jenise glances at Lony, then turns back to the half-orc. "It would seem that he's his own wolf. Can I help he has good taste?"
Ormak returns Karbal's gaze with one of his own. "If that is the truth, that is what I will tell you."