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Vesparo's face falls, "But then we killed... Are they very dead? But no, no I think the fault this Ardoc's, or at least as much of it. But still this is a thing to regret. Perhaps we ought to seek out this Besel Ardoc, perhaps he can tell us about this false Lodge, and discover whom to avenge Master Collgardie upon."
The party looks a bit harder but doesn't find anything of note.
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First Aid
You usually use first aid to save a dying character. If a character has negative hit points and is losing hit points (at the rate of 1 per round, 1 per hour, or 1 per day), you can make him stable. A stable character regains no hit points but stops losing them. First aid also stops a character from losing hit points due to effects that cause bleed.
Time: 1 standard action.
The party wakes up one of the men. After questioning him, he reveals, "Yeah, hey, look here! I was just doin' my job is all, ok? I was hired by Besel Ardoc." When the party doesn't look impressed by this he looks around, exasperated. "Really? Out-of-towners, eh? Well, the Ardocs are one of the most powerful families in Kaer Maga-the control the Kiln and own a whole lot of the city. Between them and the Commerce League is most of the city's power."
"Why did Ardoc hire us then? Well you killed Collgardie, right? And Besel was a friend of his. I'd kill you too, if you killed a friend of mine."
"Ha! You think he'd be stupid enough to deal with us directly? No. We don't know where he is, never met him, only his men."
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Vesparo kneels down beside the fellow smiling, "No hard feelings my friend? We have all been the victims of an unfortunate understanding here, but fortunately there has been no permanent harm done. Since you seem to be well versed in the ways of this great city would you suggest the best way to reach Master Ardoc and explain the situation to him? It seems that we are like to be allies more than foes since we both wish to avenge Master Collgardie."
The man responds to the man questions and threats, "Pft! If I could help you folks out, I suppose I'd have to. But don't you understand? You don't contact him. He contacts you. He's a hard man to find and I haven't any idea how to contact him. Once the job was over his men were to find us and hand off the rest of our payment. Like I said, I've never spoken to the man-only his associates."
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"Could you maybe let them know about us when and if you see them? I hope we've cleared up this sad misunderstanding now and we certainly do not wish to make enemies of those that could be friends. I cannot imagine we would be too hard to find several of us tend towards the ostentatious I think!" Vesparo says, grinning as he selects a copper flask of mead and takes a swig, proffering it companionably to the floored fellow.
Hitting the town to find more information, Sutekh comes across a colorful personality who calls herself Miss Feathers. Miss Feathers, despite the name, is a hulking, muscular male human with a deep, booming voice and a quick laugh. Everyone knows that Miss Feathers generally knows a little bit about everything that goes on in this town and Sutekh finds that she does indeed like to talk. It takes hours of talking with her-mostly sordid stories about bad run-ins with the locals during his day-to-day work-before Miss Feathers indulges Sutekh's original line of questioning, "I hear that Besel can’t make it through a day without a pint or six of whatever grog the pub he’s in is selling. I don’t know what those Ardocs are involved in, and I don’t even want to—whenever someone tells me what they’re up to, I realize again that I’d probably drink myself stupid three times a day if I were one of them."
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As Ennoia walks about she notes a small girl reaching for her coin pouch. Questioning the little mouse of a girl, Ennoia discovers that her name is Fasch. She grins at Ennoia's line of questioning, "For a warm meal I'll tell you everything you need to know about Kaer Maga."
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With his head full of obviously useless stories, and only partly filled with what he needed, he goes back to where the others were interrogating their assailant.
"Well, I have a little bit of info to offer.. I just hope I never have to sit through that again..."
-Posted with Wayfinder
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Fasch is happy to eat anything and Ennoia finds a nearby restaurant where she can treat Fasch to a nice meal. After three main courses, Fasch notes to Ennoia, “Those Ardocs aren’t stupid. They run the best golem-making factory since Thassilon, and when you run something like that, you have an obvious source of guards. I ain’t never seen Besel without at least six of those iron things stomping around behind him. If you’re trying to find him and put a hurt on him, you best change your mind, friend.”
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Farg asks around and finds a dwarf named Sard Coalbreath. He already looks quite inebriated but for another drink he tells Farg, “Oh yeah, I seen Besel drinkin’ in Downmarket a bunch—had a few pints with him m’self. It’s probably because of those pints that I can’t recall the name of the pub where I last saw him.”
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Vesparo's eyes light up as Ennoia shares her information, "Woooohooooo! Legitimate reason for a pub crawl! Oh Cayden Cailean I knew worshipping you was the right choice, thank you my Lord I see your divine hand at work in this!"
The tiefling makes a beeline for the nearest tavern and is soon engaged in lively conversation with all manner of local miscreants. His main difficulty seems to be recalling his mission...
"So I jumped over this river of *hic* lava and am all, "Have at you villain!" But two of my stalwart companions are wearing heavy armour and plunge into the fiery depths as they try to cross! Another brave fellow hauls one clear, but poor Jax was incinerated. So I'm fighting this sludgey demoneymthing and this cultist woman who summons this weird magic whip thing..."
Ennoia and Ash do not have much luck asking around. Vesparo, however, meets a woman named Roold: a short, muscular, and thick woman with close-cut hair and polished leather armor. He spends some time 'praising his god' with her and after she's had a few she shares, "Down by that disgusting troll Augur temple—called Augur’s Entrails, I think. There’s a troll on the sign pullin’ his own damn entrails out on the sign. You won’t catch me drinking there, but I saw Besel and his iron monsters there this morning."
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using guidance
Ash walks around town asking random people;
"Do you know where I can find a bar which has a sign of a troll pullin' his own entrails out? I know it sounds disgusting...but I'd still want t see what kind ofbar it is..do you think they serve troll drinks there? Or drinks made from trolls? Or drinks made from entrails? .....why do I want to go there again?"
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Sutekh tags along. Just to see what other odd people are around this place. He has had his fill and stays quiet. Merely observing
-Posted with Wayfinder
The party works their way across this strange city of outcasts. Along the way you come across a cart of corpses being pushed through the streets, with the cries of the corpse collector making it clear that he's in both the business of burying corpses for a fee and of selling unclaimed bodies for unspecified purposes.
A little further on a parade in which some sort of priest wearing an oversized mask in the shape of an enormous eyeball is followed by several worshipers costumed to form the legs of a giant centipede. Nearby a sign advertises a brothel and three prostitutes lean out of a window to display their 'wares'-one woman is quite beautiful, the other is scaly, and the third is clearly undead.
On the way to finding Augar's Entrails, Ennoia meets a fruit merchant named Jorda Dollobart, which is tall and skeletally thin as a result of a disease he had during childhood. His face is pockmarked with scars and he speaks stiffly, as though his lips don't fully work. After Ennoia purchases a bit of fresh fruit from him, he says, "I was in the Augur’s Entrails over in Downmarket this morning and heard Besel say he’d be back there again tomorrow morning for something. That’s probably your best bet for finding him, friend."
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"Anybody who wishes to see... oh right. The bar place. Sorry. Was destracted by many things that would get you cuffed and in chains in any other city. Well. Lets get planning. If he comes by tomorrow we better have a plan and a backup plan if things go sour"
-Posted with Wayfinder
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Ennoia smiles kindly at Jorda Dollobart. "Thank you for this information, good woman. May Falayna watch over you."
Answering Sutekh: "What sort of plan are you fancying? I for one intend to speak plainly, and soothe his fears so that we can talk like civilized men and women.I want to tell him that we can work together to find whoever killed Collgardie. If he has wrong ideas about the Society, I also intend to make known who we really are and that we have nothing to do with this new lodge. How does that sound?"
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"I have no problem with your plan, all im saying is it wont hurt to have a backup plan. For instance he runs, or he has goons waiting to jump us, or evwn worse, the same people who murdered the poor man in his home try to attack him while we are talking."
-Posted with Wayfinder
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Vesparo tugs on his moustaches thoughtfully, "If he really has a squad of golems with him hadn't we better be sure we make nice? I mean I'm confident in my own abilities, but my rapier is going to be sorely pressed to trouble such things. I'm a fool, but it does not seem likely he will run, nor that we can afford to fight him, and if we go in prepared for a fight a savvy fellow might sense that and react accordingly..."
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"either we jave people in reserve when we talk to him or we have people at the exit. No use we all go talk to him"
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