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"I think you might be right about hurting the boat, Tuich. How about we use the crane? We lower someone secured with rope, and then while suspended over it they tie off the crate with another rope. Then we can gently lower it down to the boat."
"So, uh, any volunteers?" Vyk said with a nervous chuckle. He looked around at his comrades. "It's going to be me, isn't it?
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Tuich mock-slaps her forehead. "Duh! We have a crane! Sometimes I can't see my hand before my face!"
Tuich walks over to the crate of ropes and opens it to retrieve a couple of coils. "Good call Vyk, but I don't think you have to put yourself at risk." She walks over to the tool crate, rummages around, and pulls out a screwdriver. Satisfied, she returns to Vyk's side.
"See those handholds all around the crate? I'll thread a rope through those and we can tie off to that."
Squatting, she unfastens one of the coils and knots an end around the screwdriver. Casting Mage Hand on the tool, she "points" its way over to a handhold and directs it through. Guiding it onward, she walks cautiously around the hole in the floor while weaving the rope through the handholds in alternating directions.
"See? Just like sewing," Tuich giggles as she floats the screwdriver back to her hand. Untying the tool and then knotting the rope's ends together, she looks at Vyk and smiles. "There! Now, do I run this other rope up to the hoist, or should we try sliding the crate first?"
Initiative
Perception
Kawrock briefly examines the coffins and determines that, although there are a lot of them and they are stacked some deep, they appear to be empty and unused. He does, however hear the soft but distinct sound of clawed feet scampering across the wooden floor behind him and turns to see a flash of furred body and long, scabby tail as a giant rat-creature leaps over a crate towards the trio of oblivious Pathfinders.
Startled by the rats and more eager to warn his companions than anything, Kawrcok's fiery bolt goes astray, singeing a crate.
One rat makes a clumsy charge at Vyk Tyr while another only closes in, but the third charges in and somehow gets past scale and shield to land its filthy bite on Eurydes.
While the long blade of the nodachi slices only air and and the rapier and ray of frost miss wildly, a simple flick of the bladed scarf catches a rat across the neck and sends it sprawling backwards, bleeding out.
Eurydes swings with his warhammer, but the heavy weapon misses the nimble creature.
The rat find that vulnerable spot again and gets in another nip.
While everyone is missing around him, Eurydes finally gets his revenge and brings his warhammer down on his opponent, caving in the rat's head, and he then moves to help Vyk Tyr.
The remaining rat makes a feeble attempt at getting past Vyk Tyr's defenses, but shows no signs of retreating.
The rat makes a quick nip at Kawrock in passing, but misses, distracted by its many opponents.
Tuich jumps up onto some small crates, but her footing isn't stable and she rolls off the edge of a crate, throwing her swing a little off...
But not enough for the rat, and the wide arc of the deadly scarf comes around and down on the beast's back, staggering it.
Eurydes, too, crowds in on the combat, but does not connect either.
The giant rat - not the smartest of creatures - continues to attack Vyk Tyr, but is dazed and bites only air.
The rat dodges the ray of frost but, moving to the side, is just caught by Vyk Tyr's rapier, which pierces it deeply, ending its fight at last.
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Tuich kicks one of the rats as she slings the scarf around her neck temporarily. "That'll teach 'em. Nice anticipation on that last shot, Vyk. Looked like you were going to miss like mad, but he almost threw himself on your weapon in the end... you knew exactly where he was going to dart!"
Untying the tool and then knotting the rope's ends together, she looks at Vyk and smiles. "There! Now, do I run this other rope up to the hoist, or should we try sliding the crate first?"
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Tuich shrugs. "Shouldn't be a problem." So saying, she unfastens another coil of rope, tying one end to the loop running through the crate's handholds and the other around the screwdriver. She recasts Mage Hand on the tool and then floats it up to the crane.
Task completed, Tuich unties the screwdriver and offers the end of the rope to Vyk. "Now what? Strength's not exactly my... strong suit," she giggles.
Glancing over at the loose loop coming off one side of the crate, she frowns a little. "I didn't consider lifting, though. This'd work fine for dragging, but I should have crossed the corners or caught two sides to lift from the center. This way the crate'll tip as we hoist it. Shouldn't be a problem, though."
The lid of the crate does seem to be nailed down sufficiently, so tipping the crate shouldn't spill items out.
You work together to lift the crate - it is probably a couple of hundred pounds - and are able to swing it with the crane safely to the sturdier sections of the floor.
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Tuich sighs with relief as the crate settles into a better spot, then lies down and wriggles forward until her head extends over the hole, most of her weight supported by the safe part of the floor. Peering down at the water, she grins widely and waves at Zander bobbing in the boat below.
"We got it, come on up!"
Without much effort, Kawrock finds a crowbar and is able to open the crate.
The rescued crate holds a smaller mahogany box inside, which contains five books and a few loose sheets of paper in a leather folder. The titles and subjects seem completely unrelated to each other: Practical Thaumaturgy In Accordance with Creation, Geographic Anomalies of the Inner Sea, Under Kaer Maga: A Trial and Travel, Physiology of Dragons: An Illustrated Reference, Lost Sarusan. The leather folder contains cargo manifestos, warehouse inventories, and other financial logs from a dozen different merchant houses and trade guilds. The crate also contains 10 sets of masterwork thieves’ tools, three flasks of alchemist’s fire, a flask of acid, a dozen jars of various inks, a footprint book, adamantine weapon blanch, three bags of powder, and (judging by the included instructions) a deck of marked cards and two sets of average loaded dice.
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Tuich retrieves one thieve's toolkit and a bottle of ink. "Knowing the Sczarni view of "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine too," I don't think I care to accept the invitation to the rest of the warehouse," she opines. "But I think we should definitely take all these flasks. And weren't we supposed to retrieve that leather folio as well?"
"Ah, so it is" she says, leaning over to look in the box Kawrock is holding. "Vyk, can you help lug the rest of the stuff? I could carry a few things but I haven't a bag nor the strength to manage all of it."
"Or we could just yell for them to come in here..."
Arriving at Paracountess Zarta Dralneen’s townhouse in the Ivy District, you come upon a magnificent gothic structure three stories in height. The ebon lacquered double doors wrought with gleaming silver fixtures greet the characters, a prickly brass cone hanging from a chain serving as the door chime. Moments after ringing it, a servant in loose casual attire opens the door, greeting you as if expected.
“My mistress will answer any questions you have once we reach her quarters.”
Led through well-appointed sitting rooms, ballrooms, and a grand stairway granting a view of an elaborate study, your finally arrive on the third floor of the house, at the door of Zarta’s personal study, which lies beyond her bedroom. Knocking upon the door and announcing his presence, the servant opens the darkly stained wooden door.
A large intricate carpet dominates the marble floor in this sitting room. A chaise sits along the north wall and a desk spans the southwest corner, its chair positioned with its back to the southwest corner of the room. Three comfortable chairs are positioned around a small, low circular table.
Crash ... Boom!, come noises from beyond the room's west doors.
“Aldor, you are dismissed. Close the door behind you and attend to your other tasks.” Crash, tinkle! Paracountess Zarta Dralneen then turns her attention to the group. “It’s always so incredibly adorable when I see a fresh-faced batch of Pathfinders. I mean, look at you scrumptious little teacakes. I could eat each and every one of you up. Well, maybe not you.” Zarta points at Kawrock. “I assume this isn’t a pleasure visit since most of you are terribly overdressed for that manner of occasion, so that must mean you are here for that trinket Valsin has been nagging me about. Seems I can’t get that man around these parts anymore,” she gestures, sliding her hand down her body and widening the gesture to sweep out and across the room as if her home were a secondary thought. “On the good side, he always sends me all the precious new recruits.
“Many think we in Cheliax serve and worship devils, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, we use the creatures for their power. They serve us..." Boom! Boom! Boom! Rip!, an extended cacophony erupts, causing the Paracountess to pause. "...and we sculpt their power in our own interests. The world must come to terms with the order of things. People need to know their place and operate accordingly. It is the only way to make order from this world. Too many people stretch too far beyond their station, making waves and eroding the true order.”