Vedika spits, says, "A better fate than you deserve," pivots, draws her machete, and rushes the alligator.
Weyland groans in his unconscious state having provided an excellent distraction for the gator!
The bomb strikes the alligator in the back, blasting open a gaping wound near it's tail. It thrashes about in pain and anger. Vedika unfortunately can't keep up with it's violent movements and misses with her machete.
Bellis loads her crossbow and fires at the thrashing beast.
Nicolai looks on with dismay as Lamm easily shrugs off the effects of his spell. Pulling his staff from over his shoulder he steps up to the old man "Looks like we have to do this the old fashioned way" he thinks to himself as he swings at Lamm's head.
"Nicolai, what are you doing?" Bellis cried.
Wenzeslaus misses the shark again, but it manages to chomp onto him. Gobblegut, thrashing about in an even greater rage, snaps at the halfling and her strange contraption but misses. Its lower back is bleeding heavily from the bombs, preventing it from using it's tail to attack.
As the reptile snaps at her, Bellis's mount rears up and tries to bring its hooves down on gobblegut's head.
A hoof strikes the alligator in the head with a deep thud. The beast staggers somewhat as it has little more than pure rage driving it forward. It is severely wounded.
Vedika pivots and rushes the alligator with her machete!
Weyland moans softly but is unable to sit up.
Samantha sends her third bomb flying at the enemy
Alligator flesh blasts across the room, as it finally dies.
The shark pulls Wenzeslaus underwater.
"Well that's finally ov-" Bellis blinked as she heard a splash.
"Oh for Desna's--" She drew her crossbow and galloped back across the dock.
Vedika pivots again and rushes the shark once more.
Samantha turns around towards the splash, spitting out a curse "... I won't let you have him you overgrown Sardine" and throws her second to last bomb.
Vedika remains distracted by her missing sister and is unable to harm the shark.
Samantha's bomb explodes right next to the shark, ripping a massive hole in its side and practically removing one of it's fins. It lets go of Wenzeslaus, thrashes around for a moment, and then swims off.
Wenzeslaus floats unconscious in the water and slowly begins to sink. However, he is easily pulled out and remains stable but unconscious.
With the fighting over, Bellis returns and looks over the man who caused so much pain to so many. With one foot, she kicks the crossbow out of his hand and glares down at him, gripping her sickle in one hand and her last bomb in the other, and giving serious thought to forcing them down his throat.
The infamous Gaedren Lamm lays there unconscious and looking, quite simply, utterly pitiful.
Weyland awakens but Wenzeslaus remains out cold, pale from the severe blood loss.
With the area now still and quiet, you hear some faint wheezing coming from the room in the corner.
This foul-smelling room seems to be a combination bedroom and study. A wooden bed with a lumpy mattress stands against the east wall, while a round table heaped with dirty plates, bread crusts, stained goblets, fruit rinds, and scuttling cockroaches sits nearby.
At the foot of the bed sits a large strongbox; a slightly rusted lock secures it and a moldy ledger with pages rippled from moisture sits atop its lid. A sagging dresser filled with moth-eaten clothes well past their glory days is in one corner.
What appears to be a wooden hatbox surrounded by a small cloud of flies sits atop this dresser.
Lastly, two children - a boy and a girl - lay on the floor, unconscious and wheezing with each gasping breath coming difficultly. There are no obvious signs of injury or illness (i.e. boils, rashes, etc.) but they are clearly not well and you fear for their lives.
"Sita!" shouts Vedika as she rushes into the room, heedless of danger. She runs up to the young girl, kneels down, and cradles her head. "Sita, it's going to be all right. We're getting out of here. You'll get well again and you'll be able to run and play and everything will be normal again." She gently brushes the girl's hair out of the way and looks for wounds.
Craning her head to look back at her companions, she says urgently, "Someone, help me! My sister is sick."
"I have a bit of medical Knowledge, but I am no healer"
Unless someone else proves more qualified Samantha would enter the room to take a look at the children
Weyland stands up a bit woozy from the loss of blood.
"If there are none that can heal her, we can bring her to a healer with the ill gotten gains of Lamm to heal them no?
In the meantime, we should secure him. I believe that bringing him back to our "employer" so she can see him before he joins her would be the most just way to handle this no?"
Bellis sighed, both frustrated at her inability to take revenge for her parents, and relieved the opportunity was taken out of her hands. "I'll see if this bastard has anything" she says, searching through his pockets, "you guys look around the room."
Nicolai shoos the flies away from the hatbox before he cautiously opens it, dreading what he might find inside.
Samantha examines the children and determines that they are suffering from both very severe heart and lung problems. Their heart is beating irregularly, rapidly speeding up and then slowing dangerously down, and their breathing is more of a gurgling wheeze from fluid in their lungs. Moving them does not seem to be a danger, but you are unsure if they will survive the night without a powerful intervention.
A quick search of Lamm by Bellis reveals he has:
- +1 padded armor*
- +1 dagger
- masterwork hand crossbow with 8 bolts
- brass key (unlocks all the doors in this building)
- rusty iron key (unlocks a strongbox in this back room)
The fly covered hatbox sadly contains Zellara's head, poorly preserved and decorated with unsightly makeup in a crude attempt to give her dead flesh the semblance of life. Underneath is a smaller wooden box that contains a very old, but high quality Harrow Deck.
In the main room there are:
- 7 applications of foul smelling insect repellent
- a darkwood coffer worth 100gp containing 20 doses of shiver, a drug Lamm manufactures and sells
- a lot of useless and nasty garbage
On top of a strongbox in the back room, sits a very detailed ledger that appears to be written in some sort of code. If someone spends some time with it, they might be able to decipher, but it will take more than a passing glance to sort it out.
Inside the strongbox are an odd assortment of valuables that Lamm has collected and individually wrapped in cloth tied shut with twine:
- narrow teak cigar case inlaid withy bits of jade (25 gp)
- 2 pound gold ingot bearing the Cheliax coat of arms (100 gp)
- miniature gold crown (350 gp)
- fist-sized scrimshaw carving of a kraken with garnets for eyes (200 gp)
- a silver ring bearing the inscription "For Emmah - the light in my nights" (150 gp)
- a highly realistic and highly scandalous ivory figurine of two entwined succubi (450 gp)
- masterwork shuriken
- adamantine arrowhead
- glass tube containing a dose of oil of keen edge
- masterwork dagger with a strange blade shaped almost like a key with the inscription "For an inspiration of a father" (750 gp)
- abalone-shell holy symbol of Shelyn (300 gp)
- obsidian wand of magic missle (23 charges)
- bejeweled brooch with a broken clasp (???? gp but looks FAR more valuable than the rest of the stuff)
- Nicolai's wife Natalia's purse that now contains 50 gp
- crystalline vial (50 gp) containing a dose of silversheen that has the seal of Samantha's father's alchemy lab
"somthing's wrong with their heart and lung, I can't tell if it's a disease or a drug, but we should be able to move them with little risk and should get to a healer or a temple "
Upon finding the vials carrying her father's seal, Samantha holds it in her hands, motionlessly staring at it deep in though and memories.
After minutes that felt like hours she continues to inspect the items found in Lamm's room.
Vedika cradles her sister and says, "Thank you," to Samantha. To her weakened sister she says, "Don't worry, we'll get you out of here and everything will be better."
"Let's tie this bastard up, call the authorities, and get back to Zellara's house." Bellis said. "I can ride to the Chapel and get a healer for the children."
"Do we trust that he does not have contacts with the authorities that he can use to free himself? Should we not just simply exact vengeance upon him Bellis? We may never het the chance again if he escapes us now."
Shaken, despite expecting it, Nicolai replaces the cover of the hatbox "The sick bastard killed her and kept her head as some kind of grotesque trophy."
Bellis fingered the bomb in her pocket again. "I'm going to get help for the kids." she said, re-mounting her pony. She looked Weyland in the eyes before closing hers. "Deal with Lamm as you feel is best." She wheeled about and rode out the room, keeping an eye on the waters.
"while seeing Lamm publicly executed for his crimes would be satisfying, I share your worries. I doubt that we will get a chance like this again if he manages to get away. And a dead man can still be hung on the marketplace " Samantha finishes with a nasty grin
Nicolai sits on the edge of the unkempt bed clutching and unclutching his wife's purse as tears well up in his eyes. Suddenly a look of determination crosses his face and he stands up and walks out of the room. Those still in Lamm's bedroom hear a sickening squelching sound as Nicolai bring the butt end of his staff down on Lamm's head.
Gaedren Lamm is very, very dead.
Lamm's corpse is left cooling on the ground, his skull smashed in. There are two extremely sick children, including Vedika's sister, and 26 more scared children upstairs. Bellis rides off to find a healer while the rest of the group leads over two dozen children outside to head several blocks to Zellara's home.
BELLIS
You gallop along, the clank of the metallic hooves echoing through the empty streets. You hear some faint shouts in the distance, but it sounds far away and you are too focused on your search for a temple to be distracted. Much of this district is composed of merchants (closed, since it's the middle of the night), but you do find a small chapel to Abadar that doubles as a place of arbitration to settle minor disputes between merchants.
You pound on the door, and an acolyte – apparently already awake – answers. He is a dwarf, his short, blonde beard still showing some signs of youth , and he has an annoyed look on his face that quickly drops away after he sees you, "What is it now – oh, my pardon, *cough*, um, can I help you?"
EVERYONE ELSE
The children are unsure of leaving, but staying together as a group, they head out with you into the night. Several show deep concern for the sick ones and stay close to those who carry them. The other children, once into the street, naturally move to the shadows, skulking silently along.
One of the oldest of the children, a gangly, dark-haired boy named Kester, carries a pitchfork with bits of fish guts still hanging off of it, and directs some of the children to scout around corners and when they should dash across intersections. After a couple blocks moving south toward Zellara's home, Kester whispers to you, "I'm worried. There's been no sign of guard patrols yet, and it sounds like there's some kind of commotion deeper into the city. A block over is Harborview Boulevard – it's wider and might give us a better look. Or we can stick to side roads and just be glad we don't run into any guards. Some of the night patrols aren't the friendliest."
Listening, you can hear very faint shouts or loud voices toward the west, but sound quite far away. Otherwise, the streets seem empty so far.
"Long story short," Bellis said somewhat breathlessly, "a criminal got some children sick in the old Fishery. We took care of him, but we need somebody to heal them if they're to survive the night!
Weyland nods to Kester, "Son, let's get everyone secure inside. Thereafter, we can investigate the commotion within the city. The welfare of you and these younglings are what must concern us just now".
"it's unlikely that knowing what that commotion is right now about, compared to knowing it after we have reached a safe location will make much of a difference."
Vedika continues to carry her sister and says to Weyland, "We need to find a healer or temple. Do you know anywhere nearby?"
Vedika continues to carry her sister and says to Weyland, "We need to find a healer or temple. Do you know anywhere nearby?"
BELLIS
The acolyte of Abadar hurries off to quickly throw on some vestments and gather several vials into a bag. "This is truly a dark night, I am sorry. The head priest was called away earlier this evening for-" and then he catches himself, "- another dire emergency. I will do what I can for these children. Now let's hurry!"
OTHERS
Everyone else manages to get to Zellara's home without problems. However, the night is definitely unsettling. Most of the streets are unusually empty where you are, but you hear yelling and commotion echoing from the distance. At one point, a squad of 6 hippogriff riding Sable Company marines soars low and fast overhead towards the heart of the city. They are close enough that you can see an intensity on their faces but they do not even look your way even as one skims so low over an apartment building, that it knocks a few shingles loose.
Arriving at Zellara's home, the children file in, filling much of the small building. Thankfully, they seem quite used to tight quarters. Most of them look and try to huddle around the sick children, but Kester and the other older ones force them away into small side rooms.
After they are out of the way, Zellara's spirit manifests, her face a swirl of emotions. Relief, worry, joy, sadness, and then a focus on the sick children. "What has happened to them? Are you all ok?" As she looks around at the group, her translucent hand goes to her mouth in shock, "No, no! Please, not another. Where... where is Bellis?"
Samantha speaks up quickly, trying to avoid unnecessary worries and drama
" She's ok. She took some of the sickest children to a temple for healing. Her pony was the quickest mode of transportation we had available. "
Vedika taps her fingers on her folded arms nervously and says, "Hopefully they will be able to cure my sister."
Bellis leads the Acolyte through the streets of the city, noting the agitation in the air.
"Yes, all is well Zellara. We, uh, found part of you in that villains lair. What would you have us do with it? A burial perhaps?
Also, the city seems to be in a state of unrest are you aware of what happens in the city in general when you are... on the other side?"
Zellara looks sullen hearing Weyland's words, barely keeping back tears. "I... don't care... I... burn it if you can, or bury it if it's easier. It's... not m-mine... it's not me anymore." With a deep breath she continues, "I am not sure what's happening elsewhere in thr city. I don't really understand this very well yet, but I am most bound to my home here. I can exist beyond here, but it's... difficult and unclear. But I can see if I can sense anything."
She starts to proceed towards the door, but pauses and looks at Vedika, genuine concern in her eyes, "I hope your sister recovers and there are no more deaths due to Gaedren Lamm." Then she heads to the front door and doesn't bother opening it before fading through it.
Soon Bellis arrives with the acolyte - Assistant Clerk Luthson. He examines the two children and looks extremely concerned. He spends the next hour performing various rituals, mixing herbal concoctions, muttering to himself about "Dire, dire omens" and countless looks of concern and meek apologies to Vedika and the others that he can only do so much.
As the night passes, Luthson eventually slows in his work and says "I have done all that I can. We just need to wait and let Abadar's will be done. Hopefully the chief priest will be back in the morning and can possibly do more than I can. My sincere apologies that he was called away." He looks again at the two sick children, "I just have never seen something like this. Their young bodies are just giving up. The only time I have seen something like this is when I have comforted elderly devotees in their final days. But never in children. I... wish I could do more. I am sorry."