The first sibbecai woman drops to the ground unconscious as Pendrick stabs her. The second is blasted by Keiva with a chilling bolt, but still stands.
Try and hit something before dying. (1d20+3=18, 1d6+3=9)
Desperate to protect Keiva, Tzu swings again. "Just keep away from her!"
Tzu swings again and the sibbecai dodges.
'Still time to give up, Scout. You have my word we won't harm you.'
Pendrick seems sincere, but the surrounding carnage and the concurrent stabbing of his conversation partner might not help as much as he hopes.
'Come on, join the winning team!'
The other sibbecai woman looks with puzzlment and then shock as Pendrick stabs her too, and she also falls to the ground, unconscious.
"Tie them up and stop them bleeding."
Tzu pats her own wounds cautiously. "Advice I could take as well."
"Get them well enough to talk. That was awfully good Pendrick."
'Huh!'
'Nice slice there Tzu, the scar's gonna give you some character. Shall I stand guard while you and the lovely Witch tend to these bit...ladies?'
Pendrick rests his head against the doorframe for a moment and then assumes a watchful position just inside the newly reclosed door.
'Let me know if I can help...'
Keiva tears off some strips from the sibeccais' garments to bind the wounds, while also making sure they have no other weapons hidden on their bodies and coincidentally, looking to see if they have anything of value.
"Why are we bothering to save them?" she asks no one in particular. "It's not like they would return the favor if the situations were reversed."
Heal checks to stabilize (1d20+7=23, 1d20+7=15); Search (1d20+4=23)
"Because if they're dead they can't tell us what they were doing," explains Tzu, patiently. "Besides, I don't like killing things much."
'Maybe there's a reward for their capture?'
'Anyway Keives, can't grill a corpse...well, you can but I hope you get my meaning'
The sibbecai women are now no longer in danger of dying, and Pendrick kicks his heels.
He leans over to Tzu, "Guess there's only one door left!" he whispers.
"We go through it. Or listen at least."
Listening at the last door (1d20+6=24)
Tzu pushes her bruises to the back of her mind and advances on the last door, ears a-twitch.
Tzu thinks she heard rummaging.
Returning to the prisoners, Tzu kneels beside them and demands, "How many more of you are there? Just nod when I hold up the right number of claws. Don't speak and don't call out."
The sibbecai loll about unconscious.
"Bah."
"Maybe we should give this room a quick search," Keiva suggests. "We might find something useful, or something that explains what's going on, or...something." One gets the feeling that Keiva is maybe more interested in adding some new gewgaws to her already-overflowing pouches.
Search (1d20+4=22)
Keiva finds nothing of interest in the desks the sibbecai were searching.
Keiva pockets the purses, and moves the rest of the gear well away from the unconscious sibeccai. Seeing Tzu listening at the next door, she says, "What do you think? Call them out and I blast 'wm with more icefire? It worked well enough with these two." She nudges one of the disabled sibeccai with her boot.
"As long as I stand in front of you."
"Give us a growl, then. Nice and loud."
"GrrrrRRRRRoooaAAARRRRHHHHHH."
Tzu's threatening growl rises and falls and she clenches her claws in readiness.
Tzu growls.
The friends wait.
And wait.
No-one comes through the door.
"That's either cowardly or really sensible," comments Tzu. "Maybe both."
Keiva adds her own small growl of annoyance. "Fine. If they won't come to us, we'll go to them." Before Tzu can stop her, she dashes over to the door and throws it open, ready to blast whoever's inside.
The door opens to reveal a verrik man looking entirely unsurprised at your entrance.
"Your method of entry is entirely commensurate with your proceedings up to now." he says in the dispassionate way of his people.
Tzu looks him up and down. "We were warned about thieves and came to investigate."
If he were human, the verrik would laugh. He does not. Instead he looks at Tzu with the same regard one might have for a dung beetle, and turns back to Keiva, "So, here we are, one band of thieves, and another band of thieves. Or did you think we couldn't hear you shouting and thudding about in the attic?"
"That should have told you we're not thieves. Since you admit that you are, I think you should stop."
"No, that merely tells me you are incompetent ones." he says to Tzu before addressing Keiva once more, "So, you have rescued Bookman from the attentions of Gothag?"
"We are absolutely horrible stone-cutters too, and that's just as beside the point. We ARE interested in justice, and have proved slighter better in the area of 'not-being-killed' than your minions. Since you have all the answers, let's hear your take on the situation"
Pendrick makes sure his gore-encrusted sword is visible during his speach. Afterwords he glares, tight-lipped, at the verrik.
"If Bookman is the man your thug was beating outside, then yes," Keiva responds to the verrik's question. "He's out of the picture, by the way, as are your sibeccai bully-girls. So why don't you answer my friend's question before you join them? I'll even say 'please'."
Aid another (Intimidate) 1d20=5
Aid another intimidate (1d20+6=16)
Tzu stops talking and growls in support of Pendrick. She does her best to imply that while stone-cutting and thievery are not her skills, being very scary is.
"Alright," the verrik replies. It is difficult to tell, as ever with his race, what his real emotions are. You think he might be slightly rattled by the obvious display of prowess on Pendrick's part.
"Very well, it seems clear we are at something of an impasse. Bookman has something of mine. I would like it back."
Pendrick silently stares down his verrik adversary.
"It is of great value to me. If you have it, I am desirous of its return."
Tzu stares at the verrik. "Why was it easier to break into his building than to ask him for the thing you want so badly?"
The verrik glares at Tzu.
"Enough of this." he says flatly.
"Oh no you don't! Not before Maenora's black fingers caress your mind!" Keiva says, giving the verrik the evil eye as she calls upon the goddess of unending headaches and nausea (and not only after drinking too much the night before).
Cast mind stab, ranged touch (1d20+3=20), subdual damage (1d6+1=6), Spell failure (1d100=32) Ok!
Keiva steps up and attacks with her magic, causing the verrik to stumble in pain.