The smoke is heavy in the lungs, the screaming of the people loud. Blades rise and fall, chopping through flesh and blood. Bjorkus roars in pain as two more find their mark, then Seilvana gasps once before collapsing, slamming against a table on her way down. Halfus swears as she falls, turning to help and receiving a cut for turning his back. He scoops up her frail frame, then roars and shoulder his way through the line of goons towards the door.
Bjorkus cuts down another man and follows on Halfus's heels.
Bjorkus finally retreats, swinging his weapon wide once to make the men back off and making a break for the door.
Outside Halfus is halfway setting Seilvana down when he sees you burst out. Without saying another word he throws her back over his shoulder, then begins taking off after you. "Da...damn you're fast. Wh..where to?"
"An alley. We're gunna get patched up and then go back in there to finish this."
Once they're in the clear, Bjorkus offers the brawler a potion before downing a couple himself. "We're gunna teach that sod a lesson."
Halfus drinks the potion without hesitation, then wipes the sweat from his brow. "I hope you have a plan besides going in swinging. Also..." He jabs you in the chest with a finger. "You owe me a night of drinks if we get out of this alive."
Bjorkus laughs between swigs of potions. "Sure. Drinks are on me after this."
"I got some other potions. I was saving them for a rainy day. I'd say this counts."
"This time we fight with our backs to the wall. He has a lot of men but I've fought my way through more with less. You ready for this?"
Bjorkus feeds Seilvana a potion too.
He scratches at his stubble. "You swim decent?"
"You could say that. What'd you have in mind?"
"Remember that rotten wood in the corner? Bet you could come up right through that, Barry sits about ten feet from it. Well he did before I broke his table, but criminals are creatures of habit." He leans back, breathing in the sun. "I'll come up through the front, make a distraction. No offense mate, you got a good swinging arm, but you move about as much as a rock when you're fighting."
"You want to distract his goons and leave me to grab Barry? You think you can stay in there long enough for me to make him squeal?"
Seilvana wakes with a start, gasping air and spitting out blood. She pounds your head and shoulder, trying to escape before she realizes she's amongst friends. "Wha...what happened?"
Halfus grunts, standing up. "I'll have to, won't I? And tell this idiot girl to stay here this time, she's about as dangerous as a five year old." Seilvana gets cross, standing despite her wounds. "I am not leaving this to be done by others! I am going in!" Halfus shakes his head, muttering something about a death wish.
"You want your brother back, then you're gunna have to trust me. I can't do this if I have to worry about you gettin' hurt", the minotaur rumbles.
Bjorkus pokes at the pearl hanging from the girl's neck with a meaty digit.
"I need you to bet on me."
She looks between the two men telling her to back down, then shrieks in frustration and surrender.
Halfus nods. "Alright, well let's strike while the irons hot. How you want to do the timing? I imagine there will be a few words when I walk in before the fighting starts."
"I'll wait for the screaming to start", Bjorkus says with a laugh. "Just make sure you make a lot of noise."
He stops, staring at you for a moment then putting a hand on each of your shoulders. "Now that. I can do." He grins.
Bjorkus dips into the cold water quietly, holding his breath and slipping underneath the Waterlogged Starfish. He resurfaces at the hole in the floor, the sounds of the tavern drowning out him quietly treading water.
Bjorkus puts an ear to the floor, ignoring the cold bite of the water . He hears a lot of boring talking, waiting patiently. After a minute or two Bjorkus hears the sound of wood snapping, then Halfus slurring (apparently acting even more drunk than he already is) "Hey! Barry, I got a surprise for you!" Bjorkus hears a person cry out in surprise, then the sound of a chair scraping, a pause, and more wood shattering.
Bjorkus knows this is the moment if ever there was one, bracing one arm against a support beam and ripping loose a portion of the floor. He grips onto the floor, pulling himself up nimbly and ending right behind Barry, completely unprepared for the entrance.
Bursting from the water with a roar, Bjorkus grabs his prey.
"Let's try this one more time. Call off your muscle and take me to the boy, now, or I'm gunna snap your fool neck. I'd imagine this town would do just fine with one less shark", the minotaur rumbles.
Barry grabs at his throat, waving his goons down. He doesn't seem terribly afraid, but he's too selfish to die if he can help it. Once he can get some air he spits out "Old shed by the tanner. Knock twice, tell them the starfish is dry. You'll get your kid."
Bjorkus carefully backs out of the Waterlogged Starfish with Barry held, then kicks him and takes off with Halfus at his back. Halfus laughs "You shoulda seen that ladies face when I took her chair and whipped it across the room..." Eventually you arrive at the shed with Seilvana in tow, knocking twice and saying the odd phrase that was told to you. The creaky door opens and you see Seilvana's brother. He's bruised and bleeding and missing a pinky, but otherwise unharmed. She cries and embraces him, then cuts him loose and you all meet back at the safest place in all of Port Balgradash; The Silver Minnow.
Bjorkus is a bit anxious about leaving a loose end like Barry untended but for now he focuses on the sense of victory and Seilvana's joy at being reunited with her brother. Entering the Minnow, the bull gives Halfus a hearty clap on the back. "Thanks for the help back there. I couldn't have done it without another fighter by my side. Tell Greg I owe him."
Lumbering up to the bar, Brokus order two of the strongest drinks Flenn has on hand. "One for me and one for my friend here. That sod Barry didn't make it easy. I'm going to give him a couple days to settle down before I try to talk to him again."
Bjorkus wakes late in the morning, still experiencing a comfortable buzz, with a pair of his favorite prostitutes in Balgradash curled up against his furry muscular sides. The minotaur grins as he recalls the night prior, wishing at least a little that Seilvana had been part of the celebration. Not one for regrets, the minotaur swiftly dismisses the thought - he'd bought her an incredible piece of jewelry, saved her brother, and spent a small fortune doing it. If that and his raw animal magnetism wasn't enough to get into her smallclothes, it was time to move on.
He had gotten one thing out of the little dockside adventure, a reminder of what it was that he'd enjoyed about his part of the war. It was being admired as more than a skilled pirate - he was a hero. The minotaur picks up his gear, knowing Flenn hated it when he came downstairs with his big manhood flopping about, and exits leaving his exhausted whores to sleep in a bit longer. They'd earned it.
"I think I'm gunna head back to Taryin", Bjorkus rumbles as he comes down the stairs, holding up a hand to block the bright morning light flooding in through the Minnow's windows. "There's nothin' I can do to get the Storm back now and I think there's plenty of fun to be had back in Andril."
"You mind helpin' me do some writin'. I need to send that fool Barry a message. And what's for breakfast."
There is much celebration upon return to the Silver Minnow, mead flowing like water to all the patrons. Seilvana's brother just went upstairs to sleep, exhausted from his affair. Seilvana stayed and celebrated, although she did less drinking and more singing. To Bjorkus's great (and drunken) surprise they ended up performing together . Halfus consumed an awe inspiring amount of alcohol, even managing to choke down an "I hate my job".
Everybody wakes late, a lot of them to the sun shining through their windows. Bjorkus is greeted by Seilvana and her brother, who looks a bit better off despite his pinky loss. Seilvana throws her arms around him "Thank you, I'm sorry I ever doubted you." She gives you a kiss on the cheek, then throws her brothers arm over her shoulder and walks off into the sunrise...
Flenn is up early, as always, already done fixing all the drunken messes caused the previous night. Flenn takes out a pen and paper upon your request. "I'd be careful, he's not one with a short memory. Benjamin! Get Bjorkus here some breakfast!" Flenn writes down your message as young Benjamin brings out a mix of scrambled eggs, cheese, and sausage.
Thanks for a good time last night. I'll have to come by the Starfish again soon. Keep a seat warm for me.
I appreciate what you did for me and the girl but it's in your best interest to let it go. As far as you need to be concerned, the boy's debt is forgiven. If he shows up around one of your clubs, you kick his ass out. If anyone asks, you tell 'em you made a deal with me. Hell, tell 'em I'm in your pocket - that's bound to help make up any face you lost last night.
Whatever you do, if you come after the girl, her brother, or anyone else that's with me, I'll find out about it and I'll come settle the score. I promise next time I'll be less open to negotiation.
-Your Pal, Bjorkus
After Bjorkus is happy with the message, and after a hearty breakfast, he find a trustworthy urchin and sends it off along with a shiny silver piece.
"I'll be back in a few weeks Flenn to take my ship back. Thanks for all the help", he offers the innkeeper. "Try to stay outta trouble."
Flenn smiles. "Please, trouble runs from me with its tail tucked. I'd tell you to stay safe but then you wouldn't have any stories for me."
Bjorkus comes back into town, Dalton recovers from his bombing, Lindale schemes in private, and Toramin mulls over his homeland and politics. But on the sixth day since your arrival, you are all separately brought a message by a young orphan. He smiles, running off without asking for money or anything else. The letter is plain and simple in a bit of rolled parchment, and it reads:
Golden Oak, sunset
Everybody and their mother knows the Golden Oak to be a large and friendly tavern in the middle class district. They pride themselves on quality service and the family that owns the tavern are known by everybody as very friendly. Also there is tale of their legendary but dangerous drink, the Four Horsemen.
"The Golden Oak's a nice place, I've heard they've got a specialty that'll put hair on your chest if doesn't kill you - called the Four Horseman. I've been hopin' to try it", the bull rumbles.
"Anyone know where this message came from?"
The orphan runs off and Lindale watches him go, not smiling in return. He slowly opens the note and reads its short contents before incinerating it. Time enough to enjoy the rare moment of peace before heading out. Though it had been a week since the war was over, Lindale had not rested much. Spending his time watching the gang he had approached. Tracking their movements. Disguised as one random hobo or another. He would wait a little longer before approaching them again.
The Golden Oak then. Heff. His hair pulled back and braided by a thin silver and black ribbon that was his disguised hat he leaves the apartment headed for the anticipated meeting.
An old halfling with a sack of apples slung over her back hobbles down the sidewalk opposite the Golden Oak. She turns the corner and enters a bakery.
Ten minutes later a young human boy, apparently about six years old, crawls from a second story window of the bakery and climbs down the wall into an alley. He retraces the halfling’s path, scanning the crowd as he looks in windows, for half a mile until he reaches a park. He feeds some bread crumbs to the ducks at a small pond.
Seeing the there is about thirty minutes of daylight left, he starts heading back to the bakery and then disappears down an alley. He climbs a building’s brick wall almost as easily as walking down the sidewalk. On top of the building, he looks down one last time to make sure he wasn’t followed.
Satisfied, he finds the backpack and halfling sling staff placed there earlier in the day, after receiving a note from an orphan boy. Taking the clothes from the backpack the boy removes his disguise to reveal the fact that he is really a female halfling.
Rilka puts on a deep brown pair of silk pants and a pale blue blouse. Looking out over the rooftops she confirms the path she planned a few hours ago to get to the Golden Oak. Downing an extract, she then runs across rooftops, leaping between buildings. With two blocks before the inn, the magic leaves her body as rolls into a landing. Almost exactly where she thought she’d be for the extract’s expiration from her system.
She takes her time moving across the roofs to reach the Golden Oak, enjoying the long shadows and the sunset. She cleans her face with a small towel, dabs some scented oil behind her ears, and watches the sunset from the top of the Golden Oak. After it’s gone down, she climbs down onto the stable and from there a back alley. Adjusting her clothes, Rilka heads for the Golden Oak’s front door.
Not entirely sure what to expect, Bjorkus approaches the well-to-do establishment with a bit of caution. The bull looks around for signs of a tail and then pushes the door open to let himself in.
"Let's see what this is all about..."
One by one the party makes their way to the Golden Oak, where you see Heff sitting and conversing with a female halfing. She has dark hair under a violet beret and a cream colored blouse worn beneath a velvet gray coat. The lapels have a variety of pins, enamel and inexpensive metal and she has blue earrings that match her eyes. Heff stands with a smile, motioning for you to come over where he orders drinks. Once everyone is settles he leans forward.
"I'd like to ask the blissfully ignorant question 'Did you all have a restful break?', but I confess I know some of you were rather lively." He glances at Bjorkus and Dalton in particular. "Anyways, let me tell you of our little organization..." The next twenty minutes or so he explains about the different branches and the leaders of each branch, then explains you get to choose a primary and a secondary branch to specialize in. "Make your decisions, then meet me at the First Bank of Theris in twenty minutes. There we will get you a brooch to establish your authority as an Aestheric."
He stands to leave, then hits himself in the head. "Ah, almost forgot. This is Rilka, she is already an established member. Since some of the members of the Hand's council are not entirely supporting of you joining so quickly, we decided having a well respected member leading you would be the best option." With that he bows with a flourish of his hat and takes his leave.
Bjorkus greets each member of the party with a hearty handshake. "It was anything but restful but good all the same."
After Heff's finishes his breakdown of the organization, the bull nods. "It sounds like I'd do the most good with the bruisers and this orc Krokar but you've seen me work a crowd. I'm sure I could work some magic on the social-front too", Bjorkus rumbles.
"Who's the dame? I don't remember seein' her face 'round here before", the minotaur asks after sending the halfling a flirtatious wink.
As Dalton shakes hands with the Minotaur, he glances at the woman to be their leader. Well-dressed, but easily overlooked. Just the type I thought they'd employ. He glances to the member from whom he removed his hand. And just the opposite.
"Twenty minutes should be plenty of time for a sip of the apocalypse. If I can live through an explosion, a dab of this and that shouldn't hurt. Miss Rilka, a pleasure. May I get you a glass?" These Aestherics are a varied bunch. Couldn't hurt to be polite.
Lindale greets Heff and sits. As the situation of the Aestherics is explained he thinks about the various branches and where he would be the most use. He is glad to be given a choice. "I believe I have made my decision. Shall we go meet Heff?"
The Golden Oak is eventually filled with the sound of scraping chairs as the party takes their leave into the crisp night air. It's gotten rather nippy outside, a bad omen of an incoming cold snap.
After navigating through the streets of the inner city the party comes upon the First Bank of Theris. The building itself is a marvelous work of engineering and architecture, made with cutting edge techniques from a dwarven/gnome joint operation. The flow of people in and out of the dozens of entrances is staggering, people walking quickly and counting coins and checking papers and...woah. Hard to keep up with all of that.
Anyways, as you take in the site a blur of red catches your attention, and you see Heff leaning against the building waving his signature hat. He waves you over, then quickly leads you inside before a large group of squabbling old men arrive and clog up the lines. The inside is even more magnificent looking, but even more crowded. Marvelous pieces of art dot the inside of the cavernous building: dwarven found gems in display cases, pieces of elven artwork on the walls, halfling poetry, and every other race's culture is on display here. But the largest and most impressive is a giant statue of a depiction of Abadar in the center of the room, his legendary crossbow in hand.
Trying to take in all the art ends up getting you bumped into more than a few times, and adding onto the frustration is the heat, the noise, and all of the people telling you to get out of their way. Heff leads you all to a hallway marked "Direct deposits and withdrawals" where you are at the end of a fast moving line of several hundred people. Once you reach the front of the queue a man ushers the party, Heff, and fourteen other people into the next room.
You discover this is a sort of "intermediate" room, and you see several obvious magical sensors around the room as well as half a dozen of the city guard. Once the door closes, an old, croaky woman's voice comes from all around you. "Hello, and welcome to the First Bank of Theris's vault section. Please remove any and all combat gear, including blades, hammers..." She drones on through a huge list of every type of mundane piece of equipment you can imagine (and a few you haven't even heard of). As the continues to hurt your eardrums the guards open panels in the wall where there are several large containers as well as small ones that are built to hold delicate items. You are each given a piece of chalk to mark your name on the box. "...also please remove any and all magical gear on your person. Also, keep in mind that beyond this point all magical activity, including but not limited to spells and spell like abilities, is strictly prohibited. An alarm will sound if there is any unauthorized magical activity. Thank you for your cooperation." As the nail-on-chalkboard voice finally stops, Heff is standing above a box with quite a few interesting items in it. There are at least a dozen daggers, his cloak, his hat, three wristbands, his earrings, a magnifying glass, two separate sets of spectacles, and a few pouches that he doesn't open. Finally he takes off his belt, dropping sword and all into the bucket. "Take their security pretty seriously here. Remind me to tell you a story about that when we're done here." He grins, as if remembering a story from long ago.
I must make my way back here sometime! The bank was a wonder of civilization, architecture, wealth, and history rolled up inside its gilded halls.
Unfortunately, Dalton was forced to roll up his things into one of those boxes. He initialed his box, set anything remotely weaponlike into it - a short list for him, which was a nearly non-existent list (though he dropped the heavy bars into it) - and turned to Heff's initiative. "Quite the tour you're giving us. Do continue!"
Lindale removes his cloak of resistance (bird pin fastened inside) and the dark ribbons holding back his hair, his rapier, short sword and dagger. Wraps them all up in 1 big indistinguishable bundle and places in a box. He marks it with L. Assa.
"Yes I must hear it." he says to Heff.
Bjorkus follows the instructions, dropping the bladed disks from his hip into the tray before pulling the massive sword from his hip and sliding it in as well. He pauses to ponder the instructions a second time, all magical gear...
With a shrug, the bull undoes the tie on his enchanted loincloth and drops it into the tray as well putting his hefty manhood on full display.
After a good amount of staring and suffering an array of gasps from those assembled in the room, the minotaur rolls his eyes. He fishes the traveling blanket from his pack and ties it around his waist. "I didn't make up the rules", he rumbles in complaint.
On their way to the Bank, Toramin revels in having order and balance restored to the world. Finally, a commanding officer, now Lindale will have to follow orders!
In the bank, he has some difficulty finding a bin big enough for his oversized hammer as he divests himself of anything that could be considered a weapon.
As Bjorkus de-robes there are several cries of astonishment from the civilians brought in. One woman even faints, one of the guards rushing over to check on her. The other three give Bjorkus a dirty look, but he was following rules so they don't say anything.
The inner vault room is nearly as magnificent as the main hall, albeit on a much smaller scale (if you consider this small) and with a lot less decorations. Lines lead from the left and right sides of the room, where busy people are discussing their business with bank employees. At the far end of the room is an opening where there are tracks, and occasionally a fancy cart with a driver comes and picks up or drops people off.
Heff finds the shortest line and gets everyone lined up. "Small withdraw, shouldn't take too long. Since it's a personal one we'll get to go down in those carts. The underground here is amazing, the way they're built their vaults. Imagine a cup full of marbles, how all the marbles arrange themselves to leave as little space as possible in between. That's how they are, with vaults of circular shapes and all sizes just sort of dropped in, and they have tracks running between them all. I'd try not to fall out though, it's a long way to the bottom and can take a few days to find your way out without a map."
Clever.
Toramin pays special attention to the stonework and metalwork that he sees. Is this dwarven construction? If so, which clan?