Trig saunters up to Balston angrily, and tells him, "You're done as a crime boss. I suggest you clear out. The employees of the Gold Goblin, and their families, are under our protection!"
As Trig makes her declaration, the silvery-white strands of Blossom's hair grasp Balston firmly about the head, forcing him to maintain eye contact with the fierce Gnome.
Saphren begins to take the weapons and other valuables off Balston, not even leaving him his armor. You were not very merciful to your half orc man back there. We had already defeated him once. You sent him in to be slaughtered. Now you 'xpect mercy? Give me some reasons not ta carve you up and feed you to the fishes. His tone is pretty hard, making it clear that "clearing out" might not be an option for the man.
Magnus looks ready to strike the killing blow, but his eyes widen as Trig marches in front of him and his mouth hangs open in surprise at the air of command the fierce little gnome has about her. Magnus shuffles awkwardly on his feet, smoothing out his beard and busying himself appraising each piece of armour and weaponry that Saphren strips off of the man.
Finally, his silent gaze fixes on Balston "Vhy did your holy elders let you hole up in here? Is sacrilege." he says, grimly. If there is a threat to his words, he leaves it unspoken, but he way he brandishes his hammer suggests that he had better like the man's answer.
"Oh yes, I suppose killing him might possibly be a wiser course... got to make room for proper governance and civilization, and drive out parasites like this."
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Reva storms up to Balstion.
"Suddenly... suddenly the fact this is a holy place becomes important to you?! You vile cretin, preying on the weakest and most powerless while perverting the Dawnflower's name and suddenly you want mercy?! Tell us where the Pauper is and how many of you walking pustules are left before I forget my oaths and cut you where you stand!"
As Reva rants at Balstion she comes across as more flustered and incoherent than terrifying, but she manages to add a bit to the overall menace of the group.
"You bested me men, all that are stayin' here at any rate. We ain't messin' wit' no one no more after that thrashin'. Jes' let us be and we'll skip out and this place'll ne'er see our likes again. Jes' please doan' let that big 'un hurt me."
He begins sniveling and crying and grabs you by the shins.
"Pathetic. I don't even care if we kill him or not," says Trig dismissively, straightening her skirt and blouse.
Magnus winces at the gnome girls remark. Silently shouldering his hammer, he makes for the door. "Come. Let us be away. I vill be makingk boiled beef and kielbasa..." Magnus says, pausing and turning back to Balstion once more. "That is, once our friend tells us vhere to find the Pauper."
Spill it Bub. Buy your life with what ya know.
"He has a room 'ere. It's that locked one back yonder." He points back at the room you had seen when you first came up the stairs.
"But he ain't in there much. He flits around 'ere an' yon. Always watchin' though. Always listenin'. Cain't do nothin' 'ere he don't see er hear 'bout. The others never spoke wit' 'im jes' me. If he ain't in there, I don't know where he gets too."
You sense that the man is telling you what he knows and that fear of retribution is keeping him from holding anything back.
Balston lowers his voice to a whisper:"I hear tell he walks aroun' in disguise. Maybe one o' you is him, even right now, an' this is some test. If I seen him, mayhaps it weren't his real face, even. Mayhaps, he's a necromancer or sumthin'."
"Fantastic, so he's a ghost or something. Well one thing I can do is find people. Tie this blubbering fool up and let's move on. You're smarter than you smell, Balstion."
Reva heads back to the balcony to retrieve the sap and shortbow.
Gonna let you and your friend hand around a bit. If you don't cause no trouble we'll likely let ya go after we finished our look about. Saphron explains as he ties up both prisoners.
The thankful hoods go willingly, hope that they may live lighting their dim-witted eyes.
Nodding once over to the group, Reva pads her way up to the door Balstion indicated. She listens carefully.
Reva strains to hear anything from behind the door, but there is no sound. The door is still locked.
Reva jogs over to Saphren. "We can boot it down, you can unlock it... or maybe one of these cretins has a key - hmm? Either way, no sound from inside."
On it. Saphren says as he finished tying up the thugs. Remind me ta get us some manacles.
He moves to the door and quickly examines it before trying to open it. Could use some "guidance".
"Going to check the remaining doors while Saphren works. No sense in wasting time."
Reva heads back to the group and briefly listens at the closed door near the fight before opening it.
There are no traps found on the locked door to the pauper's room. As you may recall, the lock is new (especially compared to the rest of this ramshackle place) and a DC 25 to disable. Your first attempt comes up frustratingly short of popping it.
Reva listens at the door near where the latest melee was, but hears no sounds from inside. She takes a deep breath and opens the unlocked door.
Kicked into one corner of this room is pile of bedding and a lopsided chair covered with blood-spattered sheets. A disturbing collection of small blood-encrusted tools dangles from pegs on the nearby wall, including pliers, rusted garden shears, some chisels, a hammer, a corkscrew, barber's straight razor, a fireplace poker, and three branding irons. A dull, foggy mirror hands mounted on the adjacent wall.
The dead shorn body of the elven sniper lies on the floor near the window. A short fat man, with many missing teeth stands near the bench of tools, hands raised. "I ain't no fighter, miss. Leave me be, if you will."
Hearing the conversation in the other room Saphren calls out softly Think disguise. we do not really know who we are looking for… He then gets comfortable and sets to work on the lock.
Reva glances over he shoulder.
"We've got some more doors up here, I'm pretty sure everyone who wants a fight is tied up. Check the remaining doors while Saphren works the lock."
She then settles her gaze on the toothless man.
Disguise... is this him?
"Tell me what the Pauper looks like. And why... is this a torture chamber?"
Saphren works the lock, taking his time, and is rewarded with the soft little click signifying success.
In the other room, the toothless man turns a disturbing grin on you. "It ain't no torture chamber, missy, unless you want it to be. I am Branding Norris, I'm the barber and surgeon for this crew. Take a seat in me chair and I'll give you a spin, missy. Oh, we could have some fun, you and I."
"As fer the Pauper, I reckon no one knows what he looks like. He's a master o' disguise, so he is. Right smart fella too, by the tale o' things."
Trig talks to Magnus for a bit, saying, "I thought we had the guy... I thought that one was the Pauper... guess we need to keep searching this place. We're doing good work, though, kicking criminals out of a church, right?"
After a few moments, Trig goes to see how Saphren is doing, arriving just after Saphren succeeds at opening the lock.
Ta Da! the large rogue pronounces as he stands fully and readies his weapon. We ready?
Reva shudders visibly. "Don't go anywhere, pervert." She slams the door and takes off towards Saphren after hearing him call.
"Similar names. Balstion, the second in command, and Beltias, the Pauper. It looks like most of the gang has been handled, but the leader is ... somewhere. If he's not up here maybe that priest downstairs knows."
As you open the door into the Pauper's room, you see this room is remarkably clean for a flophouse, and the bed actually looks comfortable - or at least free of lice. Three wardrobe cases lie partially pushed beneath the bed.
"Blast. He is not here." he says, cursing in Dwarvish and tracing his fingers over his smooth head. "...eh. Is enough of the good fight for one day, no?"
"I have no intention of leaving our backs open to someone of his notoriety. If someone wants to search this room for ill-gotten lucre I'll check the other doors before we go to the main floor. If he's disguised somewhere I will root him out!"
Reva storms out of the room and starts yanking open the doors along the south hallway.
Saphren will begin to search the room, starting with the wardrobe cases. Even if he is not hear, we might learn something of him from his belongings.
As Reva opens the doors on the south wall, she finds only 2 empty rooms which have stained mattress and stubby candles inside.
The search of the wardrobe reveals 2 which hold plain street clothes of various types. The third is a bit more interesting, it holds a masterwork disguise kit, a mirror, and sealing wax. One of the disguises appears to be as a bearded priest or acolyte of Sarenrae.
We have some stuff here. Saphren announces. Help he look through it.
Trig comes in and searches along with Saphren.
Reva grumbles and wanders back to Saphren, looking briefly in the drawer.
"Disguises as a priest? Disgusting. At least I doubt he had to rob someone for that so we don't have to find the rightful owner."
With that she turns around and heads to try the last door in the south hall.
This room was secure for a reason. And I am thinking we have not yet found that reason. Saphren announces as he continues to search the room, looking for secret doors and the like. Can someone help with a detect magic spell?
"Oh, right, of course." Trig scans the area and casts a spell.
Trig looks for magic in the room, and 2 different faint magical auras return, surprisingly from the bottom of the wardrobe, even though it appears empty.
Trig scratches her head and says, "There's some magical auras coming from the bottom of the wardrobe -- two of them. I don't recognize the signatures, but there must be a secret compartment or something!"
They ain't no way to open it. Saphren states, convinced of it.
"Maybe we should break it open then!"
Reva turns on heel as she hears of magical auras and moves to inspect the drawer more closely.
After a moment she steps back and shrugs over to Trig.
"Smash it."
She turns on heel and heads over to the last door in the south hallway, giving it a quick listen.
"Actually, maybe we should secure the area first. It pains my Adabarian heart to leave valuables, but we will be able to build our wealth better when we're alive."
Reva opens the last door into the lower floor of the mission's bell tower. The small, octagonal room has open beams, unfinished walls, and raw floorboards. The room is quite drafty, with scatterings of rat droppings about the corners. Set into the studs of the west wall a crudely spaced ladder leads up to the belfry.
The chamber rises 18 ft to a dusty loft which can be accessed from the ladder. A long pull rope hangs down from the bells above
The inquisitor almost accidentally finds a hidden catch that opens the false bottom of the last drawer, revealing the contents that had given a magical aura.
Inside the secret compartment are dozens of papers written in some shorthand gibberish, a pouch of flayleaf, 2 potions, and an ivory wand.
Blossom waves her lithe hands over the the items trying to identify them from their arcane energies. "The potions are from the school of evocation, but their exact properties escape me. The wand, however, appears to give the wielder a shocking touch."