Eldon sheaths his rapier and continues to climb up. "There is no escape from us, you nasty bastard!"
"He's getting away out a window." Kawrock calls down the ladder. The Tengu moves to the window and throws the flame from his hand at the rag man. "You best come back unless you want me to reduce you to ash!"
Arval moves up the ladder and sheaths his weapon in the room above.
"I am not able to fly out of this window and two stories is too high of a jump for me!"
He looks at Kawrock.
"Are you able to follow him?"
The rag man flattens himself against the building as Kawrock's fire flies by.
"How about you bastards leave me in peace?!" it shrieks.
Lena, Arval, and Eldon all scamper up the ladder and can just see a bit of the rag man through the window. He seems intent on climbing to the ground and escaping.
Iozif hurriedly climbs the ladder and moves to the window to see what's going on. He chuckles quietly to himself and waits patiently for the man to reach the ground, keeping his eye on him throughout.
Eldon concentrates on the little bit of the rag man he sees and yells at the top of his lungs. "You will move to the ground and stand still once you're there, until I tell you it's okay to leave!"
The magic missile slams into the rag man with enough force to send him flying right off of the wall!
"AAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...."
...
whump
Looking out of the opened, blackened windows, the group sees the rag man's tiny body on the ground below. He lets out a loud groan and starts to try and get to his feet.
Iozif stops chuckling for a second, stares at the man on the ground and says a short magical incantation.
If he falls in Iozif will say "that should stop him for 30 seconds or so. Who wants to go and grab him?"
As he says this he rummages in his scroll case and offers a scroll of feather fall to whoever wants it.
"Fine by me! The dwarf hurried up the ladder. As soon as he felt the featherfall spell take effect, he jumped out the widow to land near the ragman.
Iozif rattles off the spell to create a pit as Whiskeyjack tromps up the ladder. Up top, the enormous dwarf squeezes into the window, gets cast with a featherfall, and plops out. Whiskeyjack gracefully descends towards the earth in exactly the way a brick wouldn't.
The nimble rag man shrieks as the ground vanishes beneath his feet and he manages to cling to the side of the earth, scrabbling wildly to get out. He manages to stand, grabs his axe, and cast a spell on himself, gathering his wits. He then looks up to see a dwarf plummeting towards him.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
Having recovered, Grine steps away from the pit and swipes out at Whiskey!
Iozif will stay by the window where he's got a good vantage point.
"Blast it. Thought that would get him!"
Iozif tries again to down the escaping Grine with a different spell.
plus
Like someone's ale-dream come to frightening life, the red-bearded dwarf plummeted from the window, fiery axe trailing sparks and flame. He landed hard, and grunted as Grine swiped at him. He returned the favor, a little off balance from the fall, moving to the side to put Grine between him and the hole.
Arval follows Lena out of the building towards the creature.
"See you in a bit Whiskey!"
He yells after the dwarf as he jumps out of the window.
Arval, Lena, and Eldon slide down the ladder and rush out to the railing and then slide down the second ladder to the vat room. Meanwhile, Whiskeyjack floats in and swings out with his flaming hammer, just missing.
While in combat with Whiskeyjack, Grine leaps aside as a firebolt slams into the ground. He then snarls at Whiskeyjack before his feet fly out from under him!
"AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...."
whump
Whiskeyjack cautiously looks over the edge of the pit, and sees the crumpled body of the rag man. Breathing, but not really moving much.
End of Combat
The group quickly reconvenes near Iozif's magical pit. The rag man is badly injured and unconscious, but will live.
Eldon runs up to the others outside, breathing heavily. "It took us some... time to get here..."
He looks at the unconscious man and takes his rope from his backpack. "I'll tie him up. Tend to your own wounds before we patch him up slightly."
After tying the man up Eldon follows his own advice and heals the worst of his wounds.
Arval sheaths his weapons and stares at the unconscious creature.
"Well that was hectic. Now what shall we do with him? Do we heal him or do we wait till he comes by again?"
Eldon offers to tie the creature up and Arval helps out.
"Here let me help you down."
He offers the small halfling.
"We gonna tie 'im up? Or jest break 'is legs so he cannae run?" Whiskeyjack looks around at the startled faces. "I ken be healin' 'im up after, if'n ye think i' be necessary!"
Kawrock chuckles at Whiskey's comment to break his legs. "We have a rope so no need for such an extreme tactic." Kawrock wipes a tear from his eye to heal the wound he recieved earlier.
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Iozif slowly makes his way outside to join the others and is rather startled by Whiskey's suggestion.
"I think breaking his legs may be a bit much, we're not sure he's even guilty of anything yet. Saying that, we should make certain he can't escape while we check out the Chymic works."
There's a strange bwump sound, and the rag man, presumably Grine, floats up to ground level. He twitches.
When done tying the man up, Eldon starts dragging him back to the building. It obviously costs the little halfling a lot of effort, but he tries to pretend it's easy for him. "I do this every day, haha!" he says with a strained face.
Arval picks up the little man from Eldon, sparing him the effort.
"Here let me. Where do we drop him?"
He asks as he picks him up and carries him inside.
The group once again wander into the bleach and acid vats, carrying the unconscious, and surprisingly light body of the rag man.
As of yet the group has not explored the east doors from the little yard, or the northernmost door from the balcony inside.
"How about we start from the top and work down. See if we can shed any light on what's been going on here? I suggest we leave this one where we can see him in case he wakes up and tries to run."
"Wonderful plan, " Eldon tells Iozif. "I had the same plan, but you spoke just a bit faster. Let's get to it."
Arval keeps the creature under his armpit carrying it around as if it were a sack of some sort. He follows the others in their exploring.
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Kawrock keeps his sword drawn as he follows the group. "Hopefully we don't have another runner, I don't yet have the strength to shift again today."
Lena quickly pats down the rag man, discovering a potion of cure light wounds, a masterwork handaxe, three masterwork throwing axes, a disguise kit, a holy symbol that looks like this, 5 doses of a tarry black poison, and thieves' tools.
The group make their way to the abbatoir-come-bedchamber and begin looking it over. It is packed with various curios and medical oddities, including a complete alchemist's lab. There are also four vials of antitoxin clearly labelled. Under the bed is a small strongbox. One bell jar full of clear fluid has a gold key at the bottom.
Whiskeyjack lookd at the holy symbol before shrussing and handing it over to Eldon. "Hmm...ain't never seen tha' one before. Wha' abou' ye, Mouth? Ye ever seen such a device? These anti-toxins'd likely t' come in handy though. An' watch th' jar. People dinnae keep keys in flowerdy-smellin' water. "
Taking his own advice, Whiskeyjack carefully poured the jar out onto the floor, trying not to splash any on himself or the others.
Iozif speaks up as he catches a glimpse of the symbol. "I recognise this symbol. I've seen it a few times in some of the more... questionable... magical literature. I believe it's the symbol of Norgorber. Often carried by assassins and poisoners."
Conscious of his interrupting of Eldon, Iozif adds. "Anything you can add to the subject Eldon?"
Standing clear of Whiskey's pouring out of the jar, Iozif finishes up with: "You'd probably want to avoid picking that key up. Here, let me."
The liquid from the jar sizzles noisily on the floor, eating its way through some of the nails in the floorboards and seeping through to below.
Iozif waves his hand, the small golden key floating up. It takes a very long time for him to get the key properly into the chest, but the mage hand spell eventually does the trick, and with a flick of his wrist, Iozif turns the key and opens the chest.
Within the chest are 200 gold, and a small velvet bag containing three diamonds.
"It seems like the more we explore the more questions we have for this fellow." Kawrock says as the contents of the room are revealed.
"That is a lot of loot!"
Arval exclaims as the loot is laid out.
"And a lot of questions for this guy. I hope he wakes up soon. My arm is getting a bit tired."
He says as he jumbles the guy up and down to see if he is awake.
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"Ah yes, Norgorber," Eldon says while nodding his head. "Did you know he ascended into godhood through the Test of the Starstone? Nothing is known about his life prior to that moment and some believe he'll become undone if his origin becomes known."
Eldon follows after Kawrock as he addresses Arval. "Shall I carry him for you?" he asks Arval, his mind already having altered the fact he wasn't able to carry the ragman before.
Kawrock begins to clamber up the ladder, and as he starts to climb up to the very top of the tower with the group behind him, he hears the flapping of wings! One more homunculus is at the top and lunges at the vulnerable tengu, biting down hard!
Kawrock can't seem to keep his eyes open and soon lets go of the ladder and falls.
"Another one? This is getting tedious now."
Iozif reverts to his standard tactic of pulling out his wand and magic missiling the creature.