"Not going to happen. You're sticking here. And I'll make sure you're 86ed from every bar in Kintargo."
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I am tired of smelling you down wind and seeing vomit chunks on my floor. I am tired of thinking today is the day you get drunk and sell me out to some guard unaware and unconscious while the rest of us die for your stupidity. You will be tied here for weeks in your own filth until you forget what booze is. So help me After this if you drink one more drink ever I will kill you myself and leave the costume on you to throw the officials off our trail because that will be the most use you have to us. Jarithe says with fire in his eyes and heart.
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Zea nods firmly. "You've been showing up late for our missions, barely holding it together. We can't wait for something to go seriously wrong. If that happens, we're probably all dead. Or worse." She grimaces at the thought of what the Thrunes would do to them if they caught them...
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Weeks?? Damn. Ok, Gibson, give them the charm, then.
Saul forces a smile.
"Ok. Okay! Message received loud and clear. You don't approve of the booze and you think it will lead to a bad end. I get it. So how about this? I promise to not touch the stuff. Me and booze, we are done. From here on out, it's just my spear, my costume, and you guys."
Cassius reads his friend's mind and spins on his heel. "Gods damn it, man, you're not weaseling out of this! We've all agreed. You're off the board till you really deal with this!"[/b]
"You're prisoner of the great Vendalfek. Resistance is futile!" the tiny Dragon teases Saul as he comes flewn over.
"What he said." Fhingle points to Vendalfek
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Saul bows his head in defeat. He knows.
He knows he should have done this exact same thing to Logan before it got so bad that night at the bar. If he had stopped Logan, maybe Logan would still be fighting by his side rather than barely surviving in the basement of a coffeehouse. Just like he is now.
It turns out, Jarithe wasn't bluffing. The days tick by as Jarithe, Zea, Fhingle, and Cassius keep him alive but don't do all that much else.
Some hours- the waking hours- were incredibly boring. Saul asked to be moved in by Rexus so he could at least read a book on the table.
Sleeping was terrible, unrestful. From the sitting position, surely, But also because the desire... the NEED... for a drink was always on his lips. Just one taste. Just one taste to get rid of that pain.
Just a nip. That will put me back in good spirits. Just a nip. Heh... remember that time when Sasha found my "just a nip" hiding in that old jar of pickled beets. Sasha...
It had been a long time since Saul had thought of his long-gone wife. Not long dead. Just long gone. She left years ago, with his son Cephas. Just five at the time. She had enough. Enough of his booze, enough of the carelessness, enough of those missing nights. He never cheated on her. He wasn't that kind of guy. But he was the kind of guy who just... wasn't there.
Sasha....Cephas...
Saul's heart breaks. The booze took away his first family. Now it was turning his second family against him.
No... it wasn't the booze. Can't blame the booze.
It is me.
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One morning Jarithe comes in and he looks at Saul and can see he has stopped shaking and stopped the sweating. The physical addiction at least is done. Now Jarithe sits for hours with Saul not saying anything and just being there. He brings in pretty wenches to wash him up as he isn't doing it and pays top coin for the pleasure. Jarithe starts treating Saul once more like a peer and one step further, his friend.
Fhingle comes down with some fresh coffee and some pastries for everyone. "Well Saul, are you done with drinking?" Fhingle asks pouring coffee forveryone and putting out the food.
"We have things to do and people to rescue, we need you. If you aren't ready then we can leave you here longer."
"I believe you." Fhingle cuts the ropes and helps Saul to stand
Zea is an optimist through and through and she also believes Saul. She pats him on the shoulder "That's alright Saul. You have a new road in front of you. Stick to it. We all want to see you succeed."
Just as it looks like a normal standup meeting again and Saul starts picking up his stuff, Lictor Octavio comes in for a talk. You almost don't recognize him, with his hairdo changed, a beard on him and regular peasant clothes.
As the conversation dies, he asks "Did I interrupt something?"
"If you have time I'd like to make a proposal."
Fhingle turns looking at the man for a few moments before he recognizes him.
"Hello Lictor. How can we aid you?"
"Sort of, if you ask for the long run." Octavio replies to Saul. Noticing the cut out chair, he asks "You had a furniture malfunction?"
"Well, nevermind, where was I... the Fair Fortune Livery is a dump. I would exchange it for this basement with next door coffee and pastries any time. But it is clear that our rebellion is too large for that. So to kill two birds with one stone I have a suggestion for an alternate place to set up camp. The Lucky Bones."
"The Lucky Bones was, to the public, a gambling hall and opium den. In truth, the building was a front for a guild of thieves and abductors known as the Gray Spiders. When my order learned the Gray Spiders were involved in a kidnapping and slavery ring tied to the cult of Norgorber, we confronted them. They responded by assassinating Lictor Reya, our heroic founder. In turn, we brought the full might of the Order of the Torrent down on them, and when we were done, the Gray Spiders were no more. But then Lictor Reya’s successor, Lictor Yehl, made the curious choice to seal the Lucky Bones rather than fully explore it. It was shortly afterward that others in the order discovered that Yehl and some of his subordinates had sought to preserve the Gray Spiders’ ill-gotten gains for themselves and had planned to return to the complex to loot it. Yehl and the others were charged with corruption and expelled, and command of the Torrent passed to Lictor Arcamo Hyrmagus, but no one ever followed up with the Lucky Bones. Lictor Arcamo was ashamed of the entire episode and forbade any of the rest of us from investigating it, and in time, it all mercifully slipped from memory. But those chambers still exist below the ruined gambling hall—chambers that were never mapped or officially reported. For all intents and purposes, they do not exist. Sounds to me to be the perfect place for a rebellion to set up shop... provided someone first scouts the place out to ensure nothing unwanted has moved in!"
Cassius laughs. "You're damn right it does! Good to have you back, detective."
"Sounds like a good place to set up a second shop. Is there anyway we could help liven up the Livery?" Fhingle asks with a bit of a smile at his own joke. "Maybe Liara is looking to expand her business."
"I will have to talk to her about that maybe tonight." Fhingle thinks
"I would be fine to drop the livery alltogether." Octavio replies. "Shall I lead you there right now?"
A short walk through town you stand in front of the remains of the building. The charred ruins of the Lucky Bones stand at the southwestern edge of the city, surrounded by warehouses. The ruins themselves are picked over—very little remains but rubble, a tangle of timbers, and three partially collapsed brick fireplaces. To casual observation, the ruins look entirely abandoned, but on closer inspection you notice a partially hidden trail that winds through the rubble. This trail leads to the southernmost and largest ruined fireplace, where a hidden trap door lies. Surprisingly that opens with ease on oiled hinges.
"That's as far as I can get you. As you see I have neither my armor nor my weapons on me now. But depending on how you want to proceed, I can come with my men, fully equipped and accompany you later. Maybe hidden with magic or something."
"Excellent, man. We will scout the spot first. If we need you, we'll leave."
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With no one around but allies, Saul quickly changes into Jackdaw.
But the change is different this time. Perhaps it was his days tied to a chair, but the Saul you see beneath the mask and black bird feather costume looks angrier, and more dangerous. You also can't help but notice that he is bulkier, and is wearing the magical breastplate that the heroes took from the jail commander.
"Jackdaw will scout the night. Where evil flourishes, Jackdaw will end it. Nothing will stop us from defeating the Thrunes. That is the way it shall be."
Without hesitating, Jackdaw drops into the the trap door. A few seconds pass, and you hear call up...
"Jackdaw...can't see in the dark. Anyone have a sunrod?"
Zea shudders at the talk of exploring ancient catacombs. "Sounds terrible..."
Zea then sets to work preparing herself for what's coming.
Saul hears a slimy slithering sound, before he feels something slap at his armor. But the tentacle like appendage slides off. Something here seems to have no problem to see in the dark.
Cassius casts Message and Protection from Evil on everyone as they get started.
Fhingle casts light on Saul's right glove, allowing him to see better.
Below the trap door, a flight of stairs descends into a partially collapsed basement. The air is thick with the cloying reek of garbage and decay, and clouds of fat flies buzz about, making it doubly unpleasant to breathe within the dank chamber. Saul is long enough after the gutter rats of society to recognize the beasts around him. With the light on he sees three Otyughs, who revel in the garbage that causes the stink. And for them, there is not much difference between that garbage and Saul. Well, the sleuth is more fresh. The only good thing about the situation is that they are not fully grown ones.
Saul badly wounds the first Otyugh.
Zea attacks the same Otyugh with blade and magic, leaving sparrow signs all over it.
Fhingle will move forward out of the way of Zea towards the enemy, Fhginle will swing his small mace at the enemy a head of him.
Saul stabs the monster wounding it badly. Zea moves down the stairs and stabs at the creature wounding it more.
The otyugh attacks Zea, but doesn't manage to hit her.
Fhingle has to move into the garbage to get at the otyugh, buit he deals the otyugh the final blow.
The other otyughs close in and attack with their tentacles.
Fhingle is hit and drawn to the creature as a snack.
Zea moves into position to flank with Saul, upset to see Fhingle in trouble. She attacks twice, hard, with her blade while unleashing a spell.
Her first attack misses poorly but her second attack lands home and adds some lightning to the power of the slice.
Zea moves past the otyugh dodging the tentacle and stabs at it, but misses.
Fhingle is swept from his feet and dragged towards the creature.
"Let me go, I will bash your head with my mace!"
Cassius sees Fhingle in danger and does something new ...he fires tiny bolts of force from his fingers!
Saul is lucky to not hurt himself or his companions, as he slips on the garbage. Fhingle doesn't manage to back his celestial words with actions. But Jarithe and Cassius both wound the garbage-eater.
Fhingle gets gnawed on, but his armor prevents most of the eating to happen. Only a painful slap on his calf comes through.
Saul is attacked too, but the monster slips too on a banana peel.
Zea looks around in confusion. "Is there a banana cult down here or something?"
She attacks the creature twice, trying to end it with her magic.
Zea makes short work of the otyugh that attacks Fhingle.