Ayako does not appreciate the backhand and clonks him. Having quite enough beatings
Time for init
Round 1:
Active Effects: Lucien: Roll Card
Initiative:
23 - Ayako
12 - Sebastian
10 - Lucien - +8 temp. hp (46 hp); +2 on Con rolls
8 - Nadya
4 - Lavender Thug
The Teamster Harrow Card glows in Nadya's hand and a similar glow surrounds Lucien.
The thug was clearly not expecting Ayako to retaliate and is caught flat-footed as she attacks him.
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Ayako 5' to the north. Shadows seem to drop from her eyes and pitch black insect legs rattle from between her teeth as she hisses at the thug.
Strike you to the earth and let the shadows feast on your eyes.
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Lucien stands astonished at Ayako sudden reaction, but tries to stay calm and bring the situation under control. He's just about to speak to calm things down when Ayako threatens the guards with dark words. Too dark...
Lucien stands still for a few seconds, unable to understand what's going on. "Ayako, calm down!" he cries out. Does she even realize what she's doing? We're not in a dungeon, fighting undead and derros. We're in our city's streets, and she wants to fight against humanoids. If we kill them, not only we'll be morally guilty, but also legally. This would be considered as a murder attempt, no doubt about it. I can't take part in this butchery!
Ayako turns to glare at the paladin, the shadows down her face turning to mascara and the spider legs vanishing into a split lip and trickle of blood. Some protector you are.Fine, deal with him as you wish. Ayako hobbles back to the others.
Sebastian raises his eyes up from Ayako's backside just in time to see her get backhanded. He grabs his hat in surprise, but holds back from jumping into the fray to watch how Lucien handles the situation. That's exactly the kind of action this show needs!
Ayako successfully intimidates the thug but Lucien holds her back.
The thug stares in fear for a brief moment then shakes it off. "This whore is with you?" he says to Lucien. "You need to keep her in line. I'll go fetch Vendra but if you are wasting her time, you'll regret it."
The man goes around the back alley and enters the apartment using a key. After a minute, Lavender and two other guards (3 guards total) emerge.
"What do you want?" Vendra demands. "I am extremely busy. My liniment is in high demand and I must replenish my stock. Who's going to tell the sick that I ran out of cures because you had to disturb me?"
Lucien respectfully bows to Vendra as soon as she arrives. Then, with a confident smile, he speaks with calm words. "Your liniment is in high demand indeed, milady. But does it really serves to the purpose you proclaim? I suppose that the sick won't blame us for preventing them to waste their money on a useless remedy. We've tested your liniment, and got an opinion from both a local alchemist and the Church of Abadar. They agree on considering your supposed panacea nothing more than river water, sugar, and perfume. Your liniment won't cure anyone at all. We're here to inform you that you should cease the liniment production immediately. Otherwise, we'll inform the Korvosan Guard and have you arrested. Your choice, madame."
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Well this is definitely going to go sideways. Nadya sizes up the distance to the first guard. Just close enough. She gets ready to put the first guard to sleep as soon as Vendra laughs in Lucien's face.
"How dare you make such false accusations! I am a highly respected upper class merchant. I would never deceive my customers. My liniment does everything it claims to do and more. Now I don't have time for such charlatry in the middle of the night. Bring your so-called "evidence" to the Guard for all I care. The truth will speak for itself. I am done talking to you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to do. Do not come back here again."
With that, Vendra huffs and marches back into her apartment and slams the door behind her. Two guards follow inside and the third stands outside the door.
You know Vendra is full of crap and is continuing to lie. Your evidence will probably be enough if you bring it to the Korvosan Guard.
So much for justice Ayako mutters.
"What's it going to be? Are we going to keep after her and more evidence or go with what we have? I'd just as soon take out the smug b#$+!."
I suspect that she will be quick to pack up. So she is shut down and out of the city either way perhaps.
"Are you sure this is what you want Lucien? She's probably just going to take her racket to some other town. We could end this now and capture her for the Guard."
"If you want to alert the guard, I can stand watch and follow if they try to escape," Sebastian offers.
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Lucien looks Nadya in the eye, and his certainty suddenly starts to crumble in dust. I...I thought things would have gone differently.
With a thoughtful expression written on his face, Lucien spends a few, long-lasting seconds pondering the options available to him. He looks at Ayako, thinks to the backhand she received. Then he thinks to the words Vendra uttered. So much disdain in those words. So much hate. So much cruelty.
Lucien smiles to Nadya. He nods. "You're right. Let's take custody of her. Please, do not kill neither her nor her guards. She's our proof, while the latters are innocent. But first let me try another approach with them."
Lucien approaches the guards again. His face is not cheerful anymore. "You heard what your employer does. Do you want to work and die for her still? We're going to arrest her. I'm going to give you a choice: fight against us, lose and risk your own life for a cruel woman who defrauds your own city or let us pass without getting in our way and get away with your life, knowing that you've done something good for your city...and with your regular payment for the day of work". As he concludes his speech, Lucien pulls out a few golden coins from his pouch.
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The guard pockets Lucien's coin and tosses him a key. "You're right. The gig is up. I bet Vendra is packing her bags right now. I'd rather get out of the city myself than wind up in a jail cell."
Assuming he's free to go, he turns and saunters down the road to the east while whistling a tune.
Nadya nods appreciatively at Lucien's approach, "Not killing them is fine with me. I usually put them to sleep, drop them in pits, blind them, make it easier for you to hit them or harder for them to hit you. You're the ones that need to worry about killing. I do have some new tricks to try out soon, but not tonight. I don't think knocking is going to work either. Are you ready to go in?" Nadya makes sure she has mage armor protecting her and gets ready to enter.
I can aid in hindering them, I can snatch their weapons away and sap their endurance. I am ready.
"Splendid job, Lucien! Now, if we're quite ready, let's get on with it."
"Here, let's try this key they gave to me" says Lucien as he puts the key into the lock and opens the door. "We must move quickly" he says as he starts climbing the stairs to Vendra's apartment.
Ayako follows. Demand surrender first or knock them senseless?
"I think we just start taking them in. Knock them out with magic or carefully with weapons."
Lucien unlocks the door and swings it open. The group follows inside, ready to attack.
Delicate wall hangings, artistically shaped candles, and the fine scent of cherry blossoms fill this well-decorated apartment. A table sculpted with swirling ivy leaves bears a fragile porcelain tea service and an exotically curved hookah in a kitchen nook to the east. A door adjacent to the kitchen opens into a bedroom furnished with an antique armoire and a bed sheeted in purple silks and heavily laden with round pillows.
Vendra and the two remaining guards are frantically moving around the room, collecting anything of value, and shoving it into a sack.
They are not expecting you so everyone gets a surprise round.
Ayako will cast a Bless spell When she is able.
"Knock knock," says Sebastian as he enters the room, bashing one of the guards with the hilt of his sword.
"A wise man once told me that a fleeing man is always guilty of something. He was right, apparently" comments Lucien as he enters the room. He takes advantage of the surprise attacking the guard to his left with his greastword. "You should go, now, unless you want to be involved in this!"
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What about if said man is fleeing a dragon that wants to eat him?
"I think these ones are involved already, but if he wants to flee..." Nadya begins casting a sleep spell.
Sebastian and Lucien take down the closest guard. He falls unconscious on the ground. Ayako blesses the party and Nadya begins her sleep spell.
Nadya finishes her sleep spell and the second thug falls asleep.
"Do be a dear and fall asleep Vendra." Nadya fixes her stare on Vendra and wills her to join her guards in the dreamlands.
"Don't make this harder than it has to be," Sebastian says, leveling his blade at Vendra.
As quickly as it started, the fight is over. All three criminals lay unconscious on the floor.
Ayako stabilizes any wounded. Time to get them disarmed and tied up for delivery to the guards.
While tying up Vendra, Sebastian searches her pockets for a refund.
Vendra has on her two magic wands, two doses of poison, a masterwork dagger, magic bracers, and silver and violet jewelry.
Each thug has chainmail, a masterwork sap, one dose of Lavender's Luxuriant Liniment, and 20 gp.
In the sack that Vendra was filling is an assortment of random coins and valuables totaling 422 gp.
Vendra's apartment strives to mimic the salon of a Chelish noblewoman. The place is quite neat and clean, the perfumer's collection of tawdry romances and maudlin poetry being particularly well organized. Two pieces of amateur artwork hang among candle sconces and painted dishware—one a soul-soothing landscape of a mountain lake and another a sketch of Cheliax's famed opera house, Her Imperial Majestrix’s Melodeum. The room is peculiarly devoid of any sort of mixing or alchemical equipment.
A search of the bedroom reveals something out of the ordinary. A corner-hinged secret door leading into the bedroom of the adjacent apartment.
"There you go Lucien. Captured, not killed. Let's see what she has here." Nadya takes a moment to detect magic and to assess her poison and jewelry. "I have no idea how much the jewelry is worth, but some of the other items would be very helpful to us. I've no use for the jewelry or the poison, but the wands and bracers might be helpful. Maybe we should see if the Field Marshall would let us keep them."
Such interesting wands, perhaps we can use these to heal any unfortunate citizens we encounter. The rest an go as evidence. *cough cough*
Sebastian takes just enough gold to cover the purchase of a vial of Liniment. "Mmm. They might be useful, but perhaps they could be sold to cover the cost of healing some of Vendra's swindled clientele?"
You are taking those? That is quackery snake oil, only fit to toss into the sewer.
"What? No. I'm merely taking my money back. I think a refund is in order."
"Let's get back to Croft. If we're going to get to the bottom of this epidemic, we might need to get a lot closer to the disease. We might need that wand. I don't mind selling the other one and the bracers and donating the money to help treat people."
Very well, time to get moving.
You strip the cons of their gear, and with them bound, march them down the streets to Citadel Volshyenek. Vendra complains and shouts injustice the entire journey. Despite the late hour, Cressida Croft is awake although she looks exhausted and haggard.
"Well, what do we have here?" Cressida asks.
Lucien nods to Cressida and quickly explains the situation to her. "Before you stands Vendra, owner of the shop named Lavender. This woman started to sell a particular liniment, which she calls Lavender's Luxuriant Liniment, to our good citizens, asserting that this liniment would heal everyone who has contracted the recentmost plague affecting our proud city. We purchased multiple doses of this pretended panacea and took them to a local alchemist you should know, whose name is Col, and he revealed us that the liniment is nothing more than sugar and river waters, and it cannot heal anyone at all. To confirm our friend's judgements, we consulted the Temple of Abadar, and the priests there told us the same as Col did: the liniment this woman sells cannot heal anyone at all. Therefore, this woman has violated a law of our city, and hence is guilty of fraud against our fellow citizens. We have brought her here so that she can be judged for her infringements and punished accordingly."
Indeed, there is plenty of evidence on her actions.
"Gods. Thank you for putting a stop to this. Korvosa cannot abide false cures in a time like this. Vendra will be put in holding until she can be properly tried, which with everything going on, won't be for a very long time. I will send a contingent of guards to Lavender in the morning to ensure the shop is properly closed down for good.
You continue to serve this city well. Korvosa needs more heroes like you. Your work tonight probably saved hundreds of lives.
I hate to trouble you again so soon, but since you are here, I've heard a disturbing rumor that I'd like you to investigate.
In the days since the start of the plague, the disposal of bodies has become a great concern, leading us, the Korvosan Guard, to contract dozens of plague carts to collect the dead and see them buried in the city's Gray District or transported to wards where they can be safely burnt. However, it seems that some of the lazier northern plague carters aren't delivering their bodies to the Gray District as ordered. I fear they are instead disposing of them in one of several secluded alleys.
If you have time, please look into Racker's Alley in Old Korvosa. Racker's Alley, with its strange shape and shadowy corners, has long been a site of illicit exchanges, quiet murders, and criminal business near the eastern edge of North Point. Already shunned by the locals and constantly hidden from sunlight by looming buildings and the nearby wall, the alley would make a perfect dumping spot. We cannot allow these bodies to fester on the streets. Unless they are properly disposed of, they'll only spread the disease even faster."
I am certainly available, we do have the expedition to check out the river as well to consider.
Since no one else speaks up, you all return to the inn to rest for the night. Zellara gives another mental urging to perform the harrow reading.
