When the captain offers for the two to join his crew, Dantes is momentarily alarmed. His nimble mind quickly runs though how that may impact his share of any loot they liberate. But just as quickly he calculates the odds these newcomers will survive the type of challenges to come. He smiles and nods, confident is his captain's instincts.
"Oh, thank you!" Carmelia says with a jolt of surprise. "I haven't been to that part of town, so I'm pretty sure I don't know the fellow after all."
She then considers the sudden invitation, drumming her fingers on the bar as she pays up her own tab. "Well I've been up to little but drink of late with no crew. I'm not committing to join you, mind. But color me interested."
She looks at the gnome and adds with a wry smirk. "What about you, Navasi? Have they colored you interested, or are you hued enough as it is?" She snorts at her bad joke.
Carmelia rises as well, cracking her neck and shoulders and swaying a bit. If she had known that she might actually be doing something today, she might have held off on drinking as much rum until later. She sheepishly asks for a dose of alchemist's kindness, putting a gold piece on the bar, to stave off the worst of her ongoing hangover. She drinks the fizzing cocktail in a single go with nary more than a cough at the end and follows the kuru, the dwarf, and the--well, he wasn't quite human, but she couldn't figure out what he was just from looking at him--to the door. Today would be interesting at least.
"Don't trust them, Captain." Faengrim growls out while still looking at Carmelia and Navasi. "I don't like the look of them. Shifty and shady for sure."
"Do you hear that?" Chumtooth says to the newcomers. "Faengrim is watching you. Dantes is also, I wager. I am not concerned. Those who know my reputation know that clean deaths are not given to those who betray me or my crew. Only fools would make such a plan and hope to succeed. Enough pleasantries. To the Rookery."
"Oh, he does speak!" Carmelia chides. "It's good to have your names, Faengrim and Dantes." She shrugs. "I have no reason to offer a betrayal, but I consider myself duly warned."
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At the rookery, you easily find Coran's home, a ramshackle house that looks as though it might collapse at any moment. The door is closed and locked, so you knock warily. There is a pause, then the sound of the door being unlocked. A black-feathered tengu comes to the door. "Yes, Can I h..." He is cut off when his chest suddenly sprouts a barbed crossbow bolt! Turning, you see the head of a man just above the rooftops about 100 feet away and about 30 feet up. He holds a crossbow and is readying another shot.
Chumtooth points to the crossbowman. "Return fire!" he commands. "Keep the tengu alive!" He then sprints towards the building at a full run.
A spray of blood splashes across Carmelia's face and her countenance darkens. Assassins, here? This was already more exciting than day drinking.
Carmelia kneels to the ground with the fallen Tengu, whom she presumes is Corlan, and looks him over.
A pulse of yellow energy surges through Carmelia's hands towards the tengu's garish wound. Hap swings down, tentacles gripping some needle and thread, to assist if he can.
"If you're alive, stay down and let me cover you so you're less of a target." Assuming she has enough time, Carmelia takes the shield from her back and adopts a defensive position over the Tengu.
Faengrim turns and runs to try and catch the assassin.
"Dead, Carmelia says before she conducts positive energy through the corpse. No need for that. She might be able to ask him questions tomorrow, but first she needed to live. She wasn't about to be taken out by some rank amateur sniping from the rooftops in broad daylight.
As Carmelia gets a reasonable look at the culprit, she takes a moment to study her target and then takes off at a reasonable to clip to close the gap and follow the pirates. The octopus around her neck latches on with a few of its suckers as his master starts to hustle.
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Navasi shrugs at the offer, and the comments made in the bar. As she watches the others leave, she catches sight of a large half-orc that bursts into the room. She immediately dodges behind the bar, and waits for an opportunity to skedaddle out the door.
"Yah, it might be a good time to board a ship and get outta here. I might as well tag along."
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When the tengu they seek is suddenly killed, Navasi's first instinct is self preservation, so she cases a spell. An obscuring mist begins to fill the immediate area, certainly providing concealment from the sniper.
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Navasi casts obscuring mist and a thick fog fills the area before the door. The assassin reloads and looses a shot at Chumtooth! The deadly bolt finds its mark in the large kuru's armor, but the armor holds and the bolt does not penetrate his skin. The assassin then turns to climb down the roof, disappearing over the eave of the roof (you can get a shot in before he goes out of sight if desired).
plus poison (DC20 Fort save or Con damage)
Carmelia watches as the assassin begins to escape. She knows that he is too far away to try her usual tricks, but she can still try to make him bleed a little. Then I'll be able to track you, coward.
Though she has her shield in one hand, she moves closer to get a slightly better vantage. She draws her own crossbow (loaded with a single bolt as usual) and aims at the fleeing man.
Chumtooth catches his harpoon on the run and follows after Faengrim towards where the assassin fell.
Dantes quickly casts a spell on himself and moves out after the assassin. Not all of his movement is horizontal.
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Faengrim, Chumtooth, Carmelia, and Navasi set off in hot pursuit, with Dantes taking to the air. Dantes easily spots the assassin moving down an alleyway and signals the others.
Dantes quickly calculates the most likely escape routes and directs the others such that they have the assassin trapped in an alleyway, with Faengrim and Carmelia advancing on one side and Chumtooth and Navasi on the other. The assassin scowls and assumes a fighting stance. You are 30 feet from him on either side.
INITIATIVE
Chumtooth
Assassin
Navasi
Carmelia
Faengrim
Dantes
Chumtooth gets a running start and hurls his harpoon at the assassin, continuing to move after the throw, attempting to close the distance.
Carmelia smirks and waves her hand at the assassin. "Sleep now."
The assassin feels a supernatural sleep descending on him as Carmelia hexes him.
Dantes flies a bit closer, hovering overhead. He is wary in case the assassin tries to eliminate his airborne watcher.
If the assassin fails their save, Faengrim removes their weapons and binds them.
If the assassin succeeds in their save, he does not attack, but moves to cut off their escape. "You're lucky. We really only want to talk and it's easier to do so while you're still alive."
Chumtooth pulls his shackles of compliance from his belt and locks them around the sleeping assassin’s wrists.
”When he wakes, we will get answers from him.”
Carmelia rolls her shoulders back and cracks her neck.
"I'm always glad when that works," she says. "Are we dealing with him here in the alley, or should we take him somewhere slightly less public?" She looks at the buildings around her. Although she's been here for--who knows how long at this point?--this part of town is quite unfamiliar. And the man's nap won't be long.
After a moment, but before the gentleman wakes, Carmelia looks these pirates up and down. "And do you all make a habit of dealing with assassins, or this a one-off you're seeking answers from?"
Chumttooth scans the area for a nearby blind alley to drag the man.
"Take his weapons, pouches and anything that might help him escape or kill himself," he says. "He will not die before he talks, though he may wish it."
Carmelia assists Navasi with the removal of the assassin's gear, taking care to check for things like false teeth filled with poison or needles hidden in socks or armbands. Not that she had any experience with those sorts of techniques...
She still has a lot of questions, but recognizes she might not have earned answers to them yet. Instead, she looks at Chumtooth. "If he remains uncooperative, I have ways of making him...more susceptible to talking." After a moment, she clarifies. "Without hitting him, mind you."
”Who hired you to cover their trail?” Chumtooth asks in a severe tone. ”This is your only chance to speak without pain.”
Carmelia fixes an evil eye on the bound assassin, listening to his responses and trying to determine how truthful he is being. This is not her quarry, so she sits back and lets this kuru handle the questioning.
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"No need to get rough. My current contract is to eliminate Haddon Pike, Roweena Kellet, and Corlan. My main contact is a Mwangi woman named Zarskia Galembar at the Jasperleaf Apothecary in Port Peril, who gives me my contracts and payments. Asking for “two pounds of powdered thileu bark” at the apothecary is a code phrase."
In the search of his body, you also find a missive with three names: Haddon Pike, Roweena Kellet, and Corlan. The first two names have been crossed out. The note also contains brief instructions: “Use the supplied dosage on each. When done, return to the apothecary in Port Peril. I can provide more toxin along with your payment if needed. Destroy this after reading.” The note is signed simply “Z.”
He wears studded leather armor, a heavy crossbow with a strange blade attached, a backpack, a climber's kit, and a spyglass. He also has six vials at his waist. Two of the vials, the armor, the crossbow, and the bayonet glow under Dantes' detect magic.
"Your cooperation is appreciated," Chumtooth replies. "Since you did not draw my blood, I shall be merciful. I will spare you, and you will keep your tongue and fingers. However, your ransom shall be everything but the clothes on your back. You will leave this port immediately, and you will not attempt to warn anyone of what has happened. If you so much as consider taking a contract or seeking revenge on me, or any member of my crew, you will suffer such pain that you will beg for keel-hauling in order to lessen it. Do I make myself plain?"
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Navasi pockets the non-magical vials, figuring they must be soem sort of poisons, or maybe poison antedotes. She also takes the spyglass, but then the monkey on her shoulder takes it from her and starts playing with it.
"Sure you want to leave him to talk? I mean, we weren't on this list and he tried to kill us, right?"
"No. That is why the Captain has allowed him to continue living." Faengrim removes the bindings from the assassin. "What should we call you, assassin?" he tosses a dagger or other small weapon further down the alley for the assassin to pick up when fully freed. He explains, "This town is dangerous. I can't leave him without any weapons."
Carmelia knows that she isn't an expert at identifying magic items or knowing much about the local scene, but she nonetheless offers her aid to try to reason things together.
She also looks a bit crossly at Navasi as she pockets the non-magical vials, but doesn't say anything. This crew seems interesting. They have a code all their own. Carmelia could see traveling with them--if they invited her.
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"My name is Halmis. Giles Halmis."
The two potions are cure light wounds, the armor is +1 shadow studded leather, and his crossbow is a +1 human bane heavy crossbow. The blade is called a sharpshooter's blade.
This bloodstained, skull-bedecked bayonet (Advanced Player’s Guide 176) has thin blood gutters running along both sides of its 14-inch blade. When attached to a magic crossbow or firearm, a sharpshooter’s blade gains the enhancement bonus and other weapon special abilities of the ranged weapon it is attached to, and feats, spells, and abilities that enhance or improve attacks with the ranged weapon can be used with the sharpshooter’s blade, provided these would work with a weapon of the bayonet’s type (a two-handed piercing melee weapon). These bonuses and benefits don’t stack with bonuses or benefits of the same type or from the same source. For example, a character with both Weapon Focus (bayonet) and Weapon Focus (heavy crossbow) would only gain the benefits of one of those feats when attacking with a sharpshooter’s blade attached to a heavy crossbow. Use-activated abilities of the ranged weapon can be triggered through the sharpshooter’s blade but count toward the usage limitations of the ranged weapon.
When not attached to a magic crossbow or firearm, a sharpshooter’s blade has no enhancement bonus, but is still of masterwork quality and counts as magic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Once Giles has been stripped of his gear and weapons, Chumtooth gives a final admonition: "Remember my warning, Giles Halmis. You are free to go, but if you seek my or my crew's blood in vengeance, you will be met with long, slow pain. I will tear out your tongue with my teeth, and eat it as you watch. I will bite off each of your fingers. I will peel the flesh from your skull, and add it to my collection." He gestures to his belt of shrunken heads. "I will slowly saw through your neck, and mount your skull on my rack, next to the other fools who dared to challenge me. Do you understand?"
Assuming he receives at least a nod of assent, Chumtooth removes the shackles of compliance and steps back from the assassin, never taking his eyes off the man.
Carmelia smirks as Navasi notices her. "Probably. I'll take a look."
Carmelia looks over the magical items with great interest, especially the sharpshooter's blade. She thinks that she must have seen someone use one of these previously. A nasty piece of work, especially paired with the crossbow.
Chumtooth's speech to Giles answers one of Carmelia's questions. At least as far as he was willing to say publicly, the skulls at his belt were of his own creation. How wonderfully dreadful! Not someone to be crossed, that was for sure.
"You have a way with you, Captain Chumtooth," she says after the assassin slinks off. "I certainly didn't expect this much excitement when I woke this morning."
She peers over the note again. "It looks like he finished his contract. So will you go to Port Peril next? Or do you have more business in Hell Harbor with this puzzle you are assembling?"
"To Port Peril," Chumtooth replies. "We will see what this Zarskia is doing once we make port. Perhaps, we will take a prize or two along the way there, should they wander into our path. Have you decided to join the crew, then?"
Dantes takes a turn with the non-magical vials, turning them this way and that, watching how the colors change (or don't) and the viscosity of the fluids.
Craft (alchemy) first vial type
Craft (alchemy) first vial type
"I've been looking for a crew. If you'll have me, I'll be happy to join."