Each Hellknights wears a chainmail, but they would be too clumsy to carry with you, especially because you don’t have any magical means to carry objects. Aside from their armors, each Hellknight has a longsword, a crossbow with 20 bolts and a potion. Assuming you take 10 on your Spellcraft check to identify the potions, you identify them as potions of cure light wounds.
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Catina nods at Faustinia's words, halfheartedly. "Yes, I know things would have been bad for us if we were caught. But, but... they were so young. I can't believe they would be so far gone as to deserve this. It wasn't supposed to be this way, was it...?" She sighs, then rouses herself into action. She takes a few steps down the tunnel they just came from, then stays on the lookout while Faustinia checks the bodies, alone with her thoughts and trying to make sense of her situation.
Catina nods at Faustinia's words, halfheartedly. "Yes, I know things would have been bad for us if we were caught. But, but... they were so young. I can't believe they would be so far gone as to deserve this. It wasn't supposed to be this way, was it...?" She sighs, then rouses herself into action. She takes a few steps down the tunnel they just came from, then stays on the lookout while Faustinia checks the bodies, alone with her thoughts and trying to make sense of her situation.
Lorenzo tries to explain, more to himself than he cares to admit, "Listen. They came after us. They drew weapons. I think we all know what they would have done to us."
He concedes, "It's not like we had much of a choice in the matter. If it helps you any, I'm not happy about this either but Iomedae herself had to kill evil entities."
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"Catina," Faustinia calls over to the young acolyte, "this one is in bad shape, but he's not dead yet. Can you do something to stop his bleeding?" Faustinia moves out of the way to allow the tiefling some room to tend to the young man.
With Sev's assistance, she moves their attackers' swords and bolts to the side, and casts another simple spell while holding their scavenged potion vials. Her eyes glow with an arcane light as she examines the potions. "These should come in handy. These are some more healing potions." She turns to Sev; "Would you please hold on to these? Thank you," she says, handing off the vials to her new halfling ally.
Once she's done with the potions, she motions for everyone to gather around her (as much as they can in the cramped sewers), standing a little ways away from the bodies. "Now," Faustinia says boldly, trying to draw everyone's attention as if she were going to toast a dinner party, "there is one more interesting snag in our plans. None of our three new friends here are dead, you'll be glad to know. In fact," she says, here lowering her voice to a whisper and pointing to the man with the acid-burned face, "that one there is, I believe, still awake, and only pretending to be slain. He may be planning to run away after we leave. We should at least tie him up; as useful as questioning him might be, we should probably just leave. But he could be dangerous if we just leave him alone."
Once she's done with the potions, she motions for everyone to gather around her (as much as they can in the cramped sewers), standing a little ways away from the bodies. "Now," Faustinia says boldly, trying to draw everyone's attention as if she were going to toast a dinner party, "there is one more interesting snag in our plans. None of our three new friends here are dead, you'll be glad to know. In fact," she says, here lowering her voice to a whisper and pointing to the man with the acid-burned face, "that one there is, I believe, still awake, and only pretending to be slain. He may be planning to run away after we leave. We should at least tie him up; as useful as questioning him might be, we should probably just leave. But he could be dangerous if we just leave him alone."
Lorenzo's eyes grow wide; Iomedae would not approve killing defenseless men, especially these young boys. He whispers back, "We can't kill them. Who knows what brought them to be Hellknights. I could very well see myself selling my services if that was all I could do to feed my sisters."
He sneaks a look back at them, "But we can't let them follow us either. We were entrusted with the secret location of a safehouse and we can't endanger that."
He breathes, chest expanding into his armor as he makes a decision, "We need to tie them and knock them out so they don't know where we went. Some of their friends are bound to find them. We'll also let the people in the safehouse know about this; they may have a better idea."
"Are we Ok with this? Anyone have another idea?"
Catina gives Lorenzo a critical look. He looks sincere... But still. Vermin?! Was that just said in the heat of battle? Is that when truth comes out?
Being called upon to do something is something of a relief to Catina, as is the news that at least of them is not dead. She comes closer even if it means having to step closer to the site of the battle, with all its blood. "Yes," she mumbles. "I have served chores in the infirmary at the temple. Maybe we can still save him." She tears a sleeve of his shirt to create a makeshift bandage, then tends to him as best she can.
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When she's done, she rejoin the others at Faustinia's motion, trying to keep as much distance between herself and the others while still conforming to the woman's request. At the mention of the man pretending to be dead, Catina's first instinct is to look over her shoulder at him. She catches herself, but still feels unsettled. I was just near him. Could he have tried to attack me, just then? Catina stays silent, nodding at the plan to tie the men up and leave them behind. "They much be organized in groups, so they will search for them and find them, right?" she whispers, barely audible. Maybe they'll consider that we took care of them and didn't kill them, she thinks hopefully, but another part of her realizes that that isn't going to make a difference for the Order of the Rack. "So, now we really are rebels and fugitives...?"
I was already a fugitive. Sev thinks as the Hell knights are finally dealt with one way or the other. He had kept quietly to the shadows as he had been taught to do when important matters were being discussed. Every few moment he would palm the potions Faustina had given him to make sure they were still there.
He pulls his sunrod out of his pocket where he had stashed it and holds it up, looming nervously back to the fallen foes, knowing that one of them was still awake frightened him, but not as much as killing him did.
"W-we should go if we do not want to fight again ma-" He cuts himself off as he realizes he almost called them masters , blushing he turns away and looks for the nearest sign that will tell them where to go.
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"We can't afford to let them get back and report on us so easily," Faustinia calmly explains in whisper. "It would be foolish to just kill them, yes, but we should at least make sure they're all knocked out. Lorenzo, go hit him on the head or something. Then let's get moving."
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Faustinia cleans the rest of the battle's detritus from her and her allies' clothes with her magic. Hoping to calm her new friends, she points out: "I know you are worried about being fugitives, and I know you are worried about the Hellknights. They are powerful, yes, but remember: they work outside the jurisdiction of Cheliax. As much as they think that Westcrown is theirs to protect, they have exactly as much civil authority as we do. And I say that our vision for Westcrown doesn't involve having people hunted in the sewers for wanting to make it a better place to live," she asserts, trying to summon enough confidence for the four of them. Taking in a big breath, she sets her face with a look of determination, then gestures with her staff toward the next symbol. "Now, let's go before anymore of them arrive. We're going to be alright."
Catina isn't quite convinced by Faustinia's explanation, but she puts on a brave face for the benefit of Sev. "You're probably right," she lies. "Let's just get out of here."
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After Catina takes care of the dying Hellknight and Lorenzo knocks the falsely dead Hellknight out, the paladin has to rip up his own clothes in order to tie the armigers up. With that done, the group moves forward, hoping this will be their last encounter with a Hellknight patrol.
You turn left following the sword symbol, and after walking through the tunnel for about 30 seconds, you have to turn right, following the tunnel in its turn. As soon as you turn right, you cannot avoid noticing a patch of human-sized purple mushrooms just ahead of you.
Sev nearly cries out when he sees the mushrooms up ahead. Human sized meant they towered over him, larger than any mushroom he'd seen in his entire life, it was like looking at a strange copse of trees.
"Um, Lady Faustinia, do...do you know what they are? Are they edible?" His stomach growls a little, despite the double serving of fish soup he had earlier. Even in this dank sewer running from Hellknights, his halfling proclivity for food could not be denied.
Lorenzo adjusts his shirt as best he can after cutting/ripping parts of it to tie and gag the armigers. At least he still has his armor.
He comes to a full stop when he sees what appears to be giant mushrooms. Having never encountered them before, he also stops and listens to Faustinia hoping she knew or at least had read about these things.
Thoughts keep vying for his attention... do they move, can they attack us, are they edible...
Catina looks dumbfounded at the mushrooms, and cautiously approaches them. "I had no idea there was this much life down in the sewers. The torbles, and these... Isn't it wonderful?"
She stops when she sees Lorenzo hesitate. "They won't be dangerous, will they?" she asks of no one in particular. "There seems to be no way around them, so we'll have to go through anyway... I'm not sure if they're edible, Sev,"[b] she says gently. [b]"Might be best not to try. I've heard it said that some mushrooms look alike, so it takes an expert to tell whether they're poisonous or not..."
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"Err, I'm not really sure," Faustinia answers Sev, eyeing the mushrooms quizzically. "I've mostly studied history; I'm afraid I don't know much about fungus. Honestly, I never saw a potential future for myself where that sort of thing would ever be useful."
Lightly resting two fingers against her temple, Faustinia takes a moment to contemplate. "Well, as long as they're not moving, they won't be dangerous if we don't get close. Is there another way around? If that would cost us too much time, I'm sure Lorenzo's sword will cut through them with little effort."
"We don't really have to cut our way through them, will we? They're just mushrooms..." She can already imagine the trail of blood they're leaving in the sewers, having to fight and butcher every living thing they come across,and it shows in her voice. She sounds miserable at the prospect.
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Lorenzo is still cautious, "I hope they don't attack but let's be careful nonetheless."
With Catina's great relief, the group is not forced to cut its way through the mushrooms. There's enough space to pass through them without harming them, but as soon as the group does, the mushrooms start shrieking. The sewer tunnel echoes with the mushroom's piercing shriek. The group decides to pass through the mushrooms patch as quickly as possibile, hoping that the piercing shriek caused by the patch of fungus does not draw any dangerous creature to the tunnel. Unfortunately, as the group discovers after turning left into another side tunnel and walking for about thirty seconds, Westcrown's sewers are filled with dangerous creatures, and many of them have learned to read the particular sound of the shrieking fungus as a sign of approaching fungus. In particular, the group passes past something hunkering under a piece of refuse, mostly concealed by the sewage: no one manages to notice the silent observer, but as soon as the group goes beyond, the creature pops up and stabs Catina in the back with a small but wicked broken weapon similar to a short sword but dealing slashing damage.
The creature that just attacked Catina stands barely three feet tall, its scrawny, humanoid body dwarfed by its wide, ungainly head. A goblin!
Lorenzo and Sev are just too far and away to react in time, and Catina too shocked by the sudden attack, but Faustinia manages to focus her mind on the creature and gains the chance to strike back!
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Faustinia winces as the mushrooms start shrieking, covering her ears and dashing with the others past the noisy fungus. Once past, she frowns as they move forward. Perhaps I should do some more research on these sorts of things if I'm going to be trapped in a sewer more often.
Temporarily lost in her thoughts, she whirls around when she hears an odd sound behind her, too late to stop the goblin slashing at Catina. Acting on gut instinct, she fires an acid dart at the creature, brow furrowed in concentration. Recognizing the creature, she warns, "Careful! From what I've heard, Wiscrani goblins are tougher than the usual sort. Catina, defend yourself!"
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Faustinia's acid dart hits the goblin as it panicks and tries to run away. The creature darts in the tunnel, following the direction you took to pass through the mushrooms.
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"Good shot, Lady Faustinia."
Lorenzo's sword is out and is about to give chase but changes his mind, "We can't spread ourselves chasing a goblin over a network of sewer tunnels. It knows this territory and we'll probably get lost."
He looks at Catina, "If you're OK, I think we should get going. The sooner we are at the safehouse the better."
As the mushrooms start shrieking, Catina puts her hands over her ears and urges Lady Faustinia forward to make haste. She massages her ears as soon as they are through and the sound has stopped. "Well, that was weird. I've never heard of such a thing before. Mushrooms sounding the alarm?" She looks back in wonder.
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As she's suddenly hit in the back, Catina cries out. She spins around to defend herself, only to see the missile form Faustinia's magic fly past her, scaring off the goblin. She shakes her fist at it, but doesn't pursue. "Yes, I'm fine, Lorenzo. Thank you for the quick reactions," she adds to Faustinia. She puts a hand on her back to check the wound, but finds that the skin has almost healed itself, already. There is still a tear in her cloak, though.
"Have you ever seen goblins before? I've heard that they're real nasty. And they're supposed to all hate dogs?" Her voice makes that sound hardest to fathom.
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"Ah, thank you, dears," Faustinia responds to her allies' compliments. It was strange to hear flattery about her aim, rather than a witty remark or a new ball gown, but welcome all the same. "Is it dogs? I thought it was horses. In any case, I've never seen one myself before now. Luckily our fair city isn't plagued by quite as many as other places are. The ones we haven't driven off, though, have to be tough to survive. Horrible little creatures either way, in any case."
She sighs, watching the darkness for signs of movement before turning her attention back to the task at hand. "Lorenzo has a good point. We should keep moving - there's no sense getting lost down here just to track down a single goblin. I'm ready when you all are."
Sev, who had been holding his breath since the goblin arrived, finally lets it out and looks up at Faustinia impressed that the elderly woman stopped the fight before it even began.
"Th-that was an impressive spell my Lady!" He squeaks out before nodding his agreement to moving forward.
"Should Lady Catina watch the back again? I-incase it went looking for m-more?" He asks, wincing a little, unsure how his betters will take being given suggestions by a halfling.
"I hope he doesn't. M-maybe the mushrooms will yell again if anything else comes this way. So we'll know if we're being followed." He holds his sunrod high and moves back to Lorenzo's side, ready to move on.
"Yes, of course," Catina replies to Sev. She registers being called a Lady, but decides that this isn't really the place to argue about it. "I'm really sorry I didn't see him. I should have, being tasked to watch behind us..."
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After deciding to let go the goblin who had attacked Catina, the group pushes forward, hoping to reach the safe house as soon as possible: Westcrown's sewers have revealed themselves to be a really dangerous place!
You travel to the end of the tunnel, but when you reach yet another intersection, no one in the group can clearly see a sword marker. The interesction would allow you to choose between three options (north, west and east), but without the sword marker you're unsure on what direction to choose.
Lorenzo looks again at all the tunnels leading from the intersection. Now that the had shaken the goblin off their tail, if it ever was, they had lost their way.
He asks Sev for the sunrod and searches again. He shakes his head, "Anyone see the sword mark?"
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"None of us saw that creature before it ambushed us, Catina," Faustinia notes. She turns to Catina, adding, "And besides, you're the one that it attacked - there's no need to apologize for that!" Despite her encouraging words, the older woman's tone is half scolding, as if Catina should know better than to doubt herself. She looks ready to continue speaking, but standing this close to Catina, she can't help but feel uncomfortable as her gaze keeps falling on those fiendish features. She quickly nods and turns back around. Are all tieflings so... apologetic?
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"Hm. I don't see the marker either..." Faustinia muses at the next intersection. Scanning the three paths before them, she picks one arbitrarily. "How about this way?" She suggests, gesturing down the western path.
"Right," Catina says, not really sure how to reply to that. Something in Faustinia's tone makes her take a step back. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." Realizing that's she's apologizing for apologizing, she shuts her mouth.
Catina looks for the sword mark along with the others, but makes sure that she doesn't let up her vigilance of the tunnel they just came through.
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Quickly after Faustinia has chosen a path, Catina points in the same direction. "I have a good feeling about that one as well." Where that feeling comes from, is left unsaid. She takes a hasty look at Faustinia, then looks away. "And if that isn't the one, we'll know soon enough, won't we? From the lack of markers. Then we can backtrack and try one of the other tunnels..."
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Sev peers in the darkness, scanning the area lit in dim light as easily as the walls right next to the sunrod, but he can't seem to find the sword marker any better than his comrades.
When Faustinia points in a direction, Sev nods his head. "It's better than just standing here at any r-rate." He mumbles to himself, looking over his shoulder to see if there's anything coming up behing them.
"How long do we go before we d-decide we haven't seen a marker?" He tries to recall the distance between all the previous markers and roughly how long they walked between them so they can turn back when they've gone too far.
"How long do we go before we d-decide we haven't seen a marker?" He tries to recall the distance between all the previous markers and roughly how long they walked between them so they can turn back when they've gone too far.
Lorenzo sighs, "Good point. I have no answer. I guess we'll just have to start walking and see."
He then takes out his dagger and marks the walls of the tunnel and the direction from where they came from. Satisfied, he adds, "There. That will at least tell us the last area where we knew we were on the right path and the direction we came from."
He peers out again and is ready to continue.
The path is chosen. The group enters the eastern tunnel and walks through it for about fifteen seconds, before the tunnel suddenly bends to the left. As soon as you come up in the next tunnel, however, everyone notices something they'd rather avoided: a light flickers in the dark, 60 feet away from you. It seems like the light produced by a torch, or something similar to it. Automatically, you realize that whoever is carrying the torch has already seen you as well. Only 60 feet separate your from the source of light. What do you do?
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"I think they've already seen us," Faustinia whispers, her brows creasing in concerned thought. "Let's keep moving forward; the further we get away from those mushrooms the better I think. And who knows? Maybe they'll be friendly," she suggests. Despite the old woman's smirk, she grips her staff tightly, her thin hands white at the knuckles.
"I agree," Catina adds in an equally low voice, with quite some doubt in her voice. "They haven't started shouting at us, claiming that we're rebels. So we can probably rule out that they're with the Hellknights." Then, with a lighter tone of voice. "Maybe it's Janiven, who managed to lose her pursuers?"
Tired of running away or hiding, coming forward seems like the good option here. Lorenzo nods.
With sunrod in his shield hand and sword out but not menacing, the paladin walks towards the light.
He wished he had some sort of code word or something to identify Janiven's friends.
"You there. Identify yourselves."
Sev turns to run when he sees the other person, but after a couple steps he realizes the rest of the party hasn't moved.
Quivering, he listens to the tall folk speak, and realizing they're all resolute, he moves to the back of the group so if a fight breaks out Catina isn't stuck wasting her prayers on his shoddy marksmanship.
Please be a friend. Please be a friend. He thinks to himself, willing it to be true.
Catina stiffens at Lorenzo's words, then moves up behind the others as silently as she can, when she notices Sev dropping to the rear. She has an overwhelming urge to call out that they mean no harm, but she bites her tongue and holds silent.
The light source approaches, dancing in the dark of the sewer tunnel. No one answers to Lorenzo’s question, but you can hear the sound of heavy boots clinking on the floor. A few seconds pass, and the last hopes to see the torch lighting familiar, helpful faces disappear. Now you can clearly see the black boiled leather of the Hellknight’s armigers, as usual reinforced with chainmail parts. Unfortunately, the Hellknights see you as well: again, they’re three, but this time one of them is a young woman. As soon as they realize that they do not have in front of them other Hellknights, they start running at you, drawing their swords in the process. “There you are!” shouts out one of them. “I will capture you, vile, horned abomination!” yells another at Catina. The three Hellknights dart through the tunnel, leaving you with two option: hold position and face them or turn around and flee.
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Catina's heart sinks into her stomach at seeing the armiger's familiar armor. Their words put her heart right up in her throat, leaving her stunned for a second, shocked with fear. "Oh, no..."
Do we fight these as well? What would happen if we ran? Catina can picture it already, their group stumbling in dark, split up due to a moment's confusion and choices made under pressure. Neither choice seems the right one.
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Lorenzo quickly regrets his decision of going to meet these people. Nonetheless there is no backing down now. Nowhere to go but forward.
He issues a challenge as he steps up to meet the hellknights wanna-bes, "By the light of Iomedae, leave now and let us pass in peace. We mean you no harm."
He waits to see their reaction but attacks if they get near him.
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In keeping with his previous train of thought Sev moves to the back of the group, hoping to leave a better opening for the more combat oriented party members.
Once safely in the rear he draws his bow, and waits to see what happens next, unsure if the party will fight or flee. He hopes they'll listen to Lorenzo but he's not expecting a peaceful outcome.
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Faustinia curses as the hellknights advance, as if she'd lost a wager on who the torch could belong to. "You should listen to the young man," she calls out to the would-be captors. "It's not too late to turn around and avoid a sound defeat!"
To emphasize her point, she clutches her necklace, and concentrates on the area just in front of Lorenzo. This ought to slow them down, at least, she thinks, holding a number of arcane words in her head, ready to slip up their foes when they get close.
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Sev moves in the rear of the group while Lorenzo and Faustinia prepare themselves to face the Hellknights. As soon as the first one arrives, charging forward at Lorenzo, the paladin anticipates him and swings his longsword, but his strike is easily parried by the Hellknight. Right after, Faustinia creates a layer of slippery grease in front of Lorenzo, causing both of the Hellknights caught in the area to slip and fall to the ground. The charging one isn’t ready enough to stand up immediately, since he suffered a particularly bad fall. The other one manages to stand up, while the last one steps forward, much more carefully than his peers, draws his crossbow and charges it, ready to fire it.
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As their pursuers navigate Faustinia's slippery magic, she drops her staff and reaches for her crossbow. Seeing the hellknight in the back loading one as well, she points her hand at them and conjures her last reserve of acid, which speeds down the narrow sewer and splats wetly against the wall. She curses her bad shot, then says to Lorenzo, "Now, while they're down!"
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Lorenzo's sword and shield are all over the fallen hellknight.
"Why won't you go away?!"
But his blows are clumsy as he watches the magical sheen in front of him taking care not to step in it.
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Catina's eyes pop in surprise when Faustinia's spell sets two of the Hellknight's crashing to the ground. "Why didn't you say something? We could have lost them in the sewers with the entire hallway full of that stuff!" She puts two hands on the noblewoman's shoulders. "Come on, do it again, and we can run."