"After all of this, you still think so? I'd stand ready if I were you," Osslend says, nodding to Shinami in thanks for his examination.
Bryce presses piece of cotton into the still slowly bleeding gash in his side. He looks over at the headband that Osslend and Shinami are examining and says, "Might want Kayla or Maedoc to take a look. Can be hard to spot enchantments for us normal folk."
Bryce nods in appreciation at Osslend's fast-growing caution. Suspicious people live longer... No doubting that. He moves to stand by a wall, with easy sight of the door, and unlimbers his bow.
Kayla starts to move towards Bryce when she sees that he is still bleeding. She stops though when she realizes she shouldn't move in his way as he appears ready to shoot if anything hostile comes through the door. It doesn't look too bad, it can at least wait until we see if we are still in danger.
Brynn laughs to himself and moves to open the door. At the very least, he places a hand on the hilt of the sword on his back as he opens the door.
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Bryce opens the door to see a very happy looking Thobir.
"Ya did it! Ya performed beautifully! I'm just so..."
The dwarf's face falls as he processes the sights before him. Broken ceiling, bloody heros, dead and captive ninjas: tell tale signs of battle.
"I see you waste no time in making friends...Well, I'd better come in and shut this door. Brynn help me here will you?"
Brynn and Thobir quickly move nothing less than a palate of good food and drink into the room and set it on the table.
Thobir takes a deep gulp of sweet wine before speaking again.
"Who are these? Paid assassins? I wonder if Dango had family...What do we know about them?"
Shinami speaks up.
"These ninjas look to part of the Sairentosheipā clan, but I heard that they were wiped out years ago. Perhaps you have heard differently?
A struggling clan would not risk losing 4 of it's members like today and would have planned an assassination that could have been done by just one. Today, they met force with force, even after seeing what you were capable of in the arena. I'm afraid they are back, and with a vengeance."
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"Are you sure? this is terrible news."
Thobir seems lost in his thoughts for sometime. At length he swallows hard and looks at all of you.
"Your mission tomorrow will likely need to be postponed in light of these events. You must dispose of these fith and I envy you for it. I would much rather bury bodies than give the king this news..."
Thobir shuffles slowly to the door and calls over his shoulder as he leavs.
"There is a window down this hall to the right. Dump the bodies out the window. I'll pick them up later and get rid of them. You lot need to rest. Goodnight."
Goodnight he says? How I supposed to have a goodnight and get any rest at all while worried about more assassins dropping through my ceiling? Kayla throws her hands up in the air, looking rather upset as she speaks.
Osslend listens attentively to Thobir, nodding along. When he leaves, Osslend turns to his companions and says, "He did say to dump the bodies out a window, didn't he? I...well, that is...he seemed so casual about that, didn't he? Life in this place must be strange, indeed."
"We should rest, but let's take turns with a watch. I'll stay up first and keep a watch out while you do your best to rest up for tomorrow" Shinami walks to a corner and sits cross legged and prepares for a long night.
Osslend collapses onto a sofa and nods. He gives a quiet command to Virgil who stands at attention and then runs to Shinami's side, standing sentinel-still at the man's side.
"Virgil will stand with you for your watch, Shinami. You'll find his senses keen, I think, and useful if trouble arises. If, for some reason, something happens while I am not awake to give him commands, he will defend you to the best of his ability. I will take second or third watch, whichever. Someone need only to wake me when it is my turn," Osslend says, a yawn causing the last few words to be more mumble than anything.
Osslend lays flat on his back and pats his stomach. Raleigh gladly jumps atop him and settles in, laying just below the man's ribs. In moments, both seem peacefully asleep.
If you don't mind Shinami, I'd rather take first watch. I doubt that I'd be able to get to sleep for a while anyway. Are we sleeping in separate rooms or bunking down in here? Kayla appears to do a double take as she just realizes what Thorbir said. Wait a minute, toss the bodies out the window? What about the ones that are still alive? What are we doing with them?
"Please, my lady, come join me. There are 6 of us, and we will split the watch into pairs. Let us have the others rest well. We shall wake you in a few hours."
Shinami pulls up a chair and places it next to him and motions to it to Kayla.
Brynn stirs about. "Sorry to just be mentioning this now, but I have a ring that supplies me with my daily sustenance and also allows me to get a great night's rest in only two hours. I'm used to being the nightwatch, so as long as someone takes two hours at the beginning or end of the night, I'll gladly take the rest of the watch." Brynn takes another look around. "And I usually like to play my lute on that watch."
"Ninjas out the windows sounds... very efficient. Have we thoroughly searched them all? As for the survivors, I suggest we bind them and let Brynn keep watch over them, perhaps with a helper in shifts."
Giving the assassins a wide berth, Kayla walks over to where Shinami is and curls up in the offered chair. Thank you Shinami. When Brynn mentions that he will take most of the nightwatch on his own, Kayla starts to thank him until he mentions that he plays the lute. Wait, what? The large barbarian plays the lute? I suppose I shall just have to hope he at least plays it well?
At Bryce's suggestions, I suppose we can ask Thorbir where we should take the two surviving ones in the morning.
As Kayla mentions the word 'morning', Osslend slowly sits up and says, "Morning? That seemed fast...".
Looking around to see that everyone is still much where he left them and that apparently no time has passed, he flushes red for a moment before sitting up.
"Oh...not morning. Well, since I'm up, do we want to go ahead and take care of these bodies out the window? I don't suppose we're going to just execute the two live ones and dump them, too, are we?"
After a moment's pause, he says, "I'm kidding. Okay, who wants to lug these corpses to the window with me?"
Kayla giggles a bit as Osslend rises, thinking it's morning already. "Nope, not morning yet. If you don't mind I'll leave the lugging to people who are stronger than me. Though given their current state, I doubt too much that they would mind if I dropped them a few times on the way to the window.
Osslend ponders for a long moment before saying, "You know...I don't think Thobir really wants these guys hanging around in the morning, even the live ones. I wonder if we could lower them out the window after tossing the bodies, so that he can deal with them however he wishes."
As he finishes his words, Osslend is already heading toward the window.
"I don't think we're going to learn anything by interrogating them, but it still seems wasteful to simply throw them overboard. Maedoc, I have heard of arcanists who can tell much from a strand of hair or a drop of blood. Is there any value to you in keeping them alive?"
Bryce is still pressing a cloth against the gash in his side, it's now stained faintly pink as blood seeps through. He seems unconcerned.
Looking more concerned over his wound than Bryce himself is, Kayla asks, Bryce, why didn't you tell me you where still bleeding? Giving a loud sigh as she shakes her head and says, Men. Everyone feels another wave of warm energy pass through the as Kayla tries to make sure everyone is healed up before they turn in for the night. Hopefully that will take care of everyone too manly to ask for help. *sigh*
Seeing an opportunity, Osslend nods at the conversation as he approaches the assassin who attempted to bite him, though he keeps his distance.
"That would be a long, long fall. Nearly 200 feet, best I can tell. I'd rather have my throat slit than fall that far only to crash at the bottom," he says, grimacing.
"What about you, friend? I can toss you, or cut you. Or you can just tell me what the hells is going on and who sent you!"
Another intimidate attempt:
Kayla looks rather grim as considers the living assassins. This may sound a bit odd at first from someone whose Goddess preaches compassion, but I say go ahead and slit their throats now then toss the bodies out. Odds are that even if we turned them over to anyone they'd face a slow death by torture during whatever passes for intergation around here. Assuming of course that whoever sent them just doesn't arrange to have them killed somehow. If we all suffer some form of temporary insanity and just let them go, I'm sure they'll will be hunted down killed slowly for failing in their mission. Best for them to just ahead and kill them quickly and cleanly now.
"I agree with Kayla, but does anyone wonder why Thobir seems so aloof about us nearly dying and so hurriedly trying to cover up such an obvious assassination attempt?"
Kayls shrugs at Shinami, "Why should he care? He barely knows us and he could just hold another tournament or give our jobs to the Prince's men. As for why the cover up, it either will reflect badly upon him if we died so soon or he is trying to prevent a scandal if we were to find out that the Prince did send these assassins after us.
Brynn barely flaps open his handy haversack where his lute happens to be sitting at the top. Playing a few notes and quickly tuning it, Brynn plays a quick melody to get in the mode of his watch.
"Not too bad." Brynn hums the melody again. Looking back at the task at hand, setting the lute down, and placing a hand on the hilt of his sword once more, he asks, "Alright, shall I quickly kill and then toss them?"
"Unless anyone has any last minute objections, I say yes."
Osslend listens to Kayla, Shinami and Brynn and nods. "You're right. Let's just be done with it. The burden should not rest upon one, though. Brynn, I'll handle this one if you'll kindly take care of the other," he says.
With that, Osslend draws a dagger and says nothing as he slits the assassin's throat, careful to not let the blood get all over the place. Once that's done, he'll begin hauling bodies to the window and tossing them out.
With no appreciation for a life that tried to take his own, Brynn uses his foot on the assassin's shoulder to roll him on his back, pulls his great sword out wielded in both hands, and pierces the front half of the assassin's neck with the tip of his blade. Taking a dining cloth off the table and tossing it on the pool of blood, Brynn hauls the corpse to the window to drop it out. He turns around and grabs the first corpse and takes him to the window as well.
Brynn turns to address the room once more, "Alright, Shinami, you mind taking first couple hours and I'll take the tail end of the night?"
"Of course. Kayla, are you still going to partner with me for this watch for whatever few hours we have left remaining in this night?"
After the corpses were deposited out the window, Shinami cleaned up the area and a bit and went back to the chairs in the corner to begin the start of his watch.
Kayla nods, Yes, I just can't get to sleep yet anyway. So far this isn't quite what I expected. Who knows what else might come down from the ceiling? Kayla looks up at the ceiling thoughfully. You know, at some point we should go up there ourselves and see just how they got in and if there is some way to block people from doing the same thing in the future. Otherwise I'll never be able to sleep alone in my bed again.
"Good work." Bryce approves of the clear thinking that the group has shown when it comes to the assassins. At least I'm not shackled to a bunch of sentimental fools.
"And Kayla, thank you for the healing. Now I, at least, am off to sleep."
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Morning arrives without further incident. As the last of you wakes, at the same moment in fact, there is a light rapping on the door.
The same foppish elf who previously delivered the bill for the death of the halfling stands at attention and speaks when the door opens.
"You are all summoned to council. No armor or weapons will be allowed. There are clothes provided if you have nothing suitable. Food is provided at the King's table. Council begins in 2 hours time."
"We have two hours. I can climb up to check for a few minutes while we get ready. Brynn, would you mind giving me a toss up?"
Shinami waits for Brynn to shoulder him up and then grasps the edge of the hole and pulls himself up to look around.
"Hah," Brynn grunts, "I can actually toss you up if you want me to."
Brynn plays the lute a bit more while everyone shuffles around getting ready.
Orisons
Detect Magic
Light
Mending
Read Magic
1st Level
Bless
Command
Doom
Sanctuary
2nd Level
Hold Person
Sound Burst
Zone of Truth
3rd Level
Dispel Magic
Invisibility Purge
Kayla will excuse herself and go into her room to clean up, fix her hair and cast mend upon her cleric robes. Though a bit unsure as to what one wears when summoned to council, she figures it would be hard to go wrong with wearing the robes of her faith. Minus her armor and weapons of course.
When she feels she looks presentable enough, she will return to the common room.
Osslend glances down at his hounds. "I don't reckon they're invited, huh?"
He kneels to pet the dogs. "Stay here, guard our things. If there is danger, run, do not fight. Find me right away."
Rising again, he looks down at his crude, tattered clothes. "If I'm not fancy enough to serve his Highness, then he can bugger off, I reckon."
Bryce greets everyone good morning, and grabs some fruit from last night's left over platter. He dresses in his customary dark and somber colors, perhaps taking a little more time over his greying beard and hair than usual.
Well, this should prove... enlightening."
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One and a half hours later, there is a short rap on the heavy, oak door. Without waiting for a response, the door swings inward revealing a very different looking Thobir.
Gone are his harsh, wool trousers and leather jerkin. In their place are fine, black damask cotton breeches worn with green hose and soft, low-cut leather boots, a natural, flowing shirt, and a courtly doublet to match his hose.
He looks at Kayla and smiles. When he sees the men however, he furrows his brow and clicks his tongue like an grandmother finding her charge covered in mud.
“This will not do, gentlemen. Follow me.”
He leads Bryce, Brynn, Shinami, Osslend, and Maedoc to a towering armoire of deep mahogany. From inside, he produces several selections and lays them out on the sofa.
Each outfit, looks much like his own, however, his doublet bears a silver sun where the presented clothes sport a golden dragon surrounded by 5 stars: The mark of an Imperial Dragoon.
“It is imperative that one be recognizable by rank at council. Wearing these will bar lesser lords from bringing petition against you, namely house Dango…Moreover, you’ll look like you belong at the table.”
“Bryce, I know you mean well, but those contraptions at your wrists will have to stay here. Each of you is allowed only a belt knife for feasting. There are a few in that drawer if you need one.”
Finally, Thobir pronounces you all fit for council and leads you through the castle.
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After a time, you procession approaches a high citadel. It is a single spike of a tower made of a milky marble and topped with a solid silver roof.
There is but a single door of 2 foot thick, dull gray metal. Two guards stand at attention within and without. They are glad in plate armor of the same dull gray and each carries an elegant long spear and a shield nearly as tall as himself.
You are conducted though the door without word or incident. An aged human man, pushing 100 years old, receives you. He does not, maybe cannot, speak but he ushers you to stand on a small dais in the center of the bare room. He closes his eyes and sways slightly. As he does, sigils and runes appear on the dais at your feet and start to glow.
Where is Maedoc!?
Instantly you are standing in a perfectly round room nearly twice the size of the last. In the center, there sit 3 rectangular tables. Most of the chairs are occupied and their occupants look up at you in unison as the room falls immediately silent.
At the head of the center table, directly in front of you all is a massive golden dragon! As you stare, you realize this is only a statue. On either side of the big wyrm sit the King and Queen of Pollexia. Around them, various delgates, nobles, and politicians sit in some apparent order for there are five seats left open.
A man at the end of the table rises. He is dressed in opulent robes of golden silk and wears some chain of office about his neck. His hair bad beard are black and oiled.
“Please take your seats. We are ready to begin.”
It would be really nice if everyone would quit staring at us, as far as I know we are not here to provide entertainment. And what happened to Maedoc? Trying not to appear too self-conscious, Kayla goes and sits in the first empty chair she comes to. At least I doubt we'll by physically attacked while here. I wonder if any mention will be made of the gold we've been ordered to repay or of the assassins? I suppose it's more than likely we will all just sit here being bored until it's time for someone to inform us of what our mission will be. Hopefully we will manage not to embarrass ourselves here.
After settling from his start at the site of the dragon, Osslend glances about the room. His head moves back and forth, surveying each side of the table in relation to the door. Finally, he settled on the wing of table to his right, the closest seat to the door.
As he sits, he fidgets with this awkward clothing and sit up straight, hands flat on the table as though ready to push up from his seat at any moment.
They had better mention why Maedoc isn't here. I'll give them five minutes to do so before...well...something.
I'll have to discuss with the King later about the Prince's demands for gold for reparations since this was a tourney done by the King... Where's Maedoc? Why did he not transport here with the rest of us? Evil things await in the prince's plans I'm sure.
Shinami bows at the entrance to the king then nods to the others as he walks and sits lightly on the seat to the left of the entrance.
Brynn, while looking somewhat awkward in the formal attire, still holds himself as an official might entering the court of the king and queen. Respect is due here. Forget your upbringing and embrace the present. With a slight bow, Brynn enters the room and places himself strategically wherever he might be closest to the main door while still facing as many entrances to the room as possible. Suddenly realizing the state of his beard he quickly grooms it, but to those not paying him much attention it might look as if he was forming a thought.
I feel naked without a weapon... Brynn's dart around at the table, looking for anything that he may be able to defend himself with if the need arises.