Round 1: Init 21
Corian moves up to confront the creature. "It's many of us and one of you. Can we discuss this?"
Round 1 Summary
22: Voreni took a defensive stance.
21: Corian rushed forward to confront the creature.
17: Morrigan cast Color Spray, but the creature resisted the effect.
16: Monstrous Crow Person attempted to eviscerate Ignati, but was unable to connect.
12: Valleria smacked the creature with the flat of her blade for 4 points of damage.
10: Wilhelm attempted to trip the creature, but it remained upright.
9: Ignati dealt 1 point of damage with his rapier.
Round 2, Initiative 16
The creature takes a short step north and turns its fury on Valleria.
This thing is quick, and I'm slow today. Come on, Wilhelm, concentrate.
He backs off to keep it at a proper distance from which to use his spear and tries once again to use his weapon to sweep this, apparently female, creature off its feet.
Voreni steps forward and attempts to parry the creature's attacks.
Round 2 Init 9
Ignati slides into a more advantageous position and stabs again with his rapier. Not bothering to continue talking now that he knows that his attempt at negotiation has failed.
Seeing her words resulted in nothing, Valleria continued her assault against the creature, taking care to not harm it.
Round 2 Summary
22: Voreni carefully created a protective shield of rapier thrusts around Valleria
21: Corian TBD
17: Morrigan fires another bolt of frost, but this one also misses the creature.
16: The Creature attempted to shred Valleria to ribbons with its claws, but met only her shield.
12: Valleria swung her sword at the bestial bird-person, but it ducked out of the way.
10: Wilhelm tripped the creature with his spear, leaving it vulnerable to attack (-4 AC)
9: Ignati skewered the creature in the chest (critical hit!) for 4 points of damage
A total of 9 points of damage has been done to the creature, 4 points of which are non-lethal.
Round 3, Initiative 16
Shrieking and squawking with fury, the creature rises to its feet, provoking AoOs from Valleria, Wilhelm, Ignati, Corian, and Voreni. Valleria's strike connects and does and additional 6 points of non-lethal damage, rendering the creature unconscious.
Peeking out from the storage area to the south are four crow-like faces, though they look a bit different from the creature you've killed. They are smaller, though still human-sized, and look more intelligent than the creature you've subdued. They look rather nervous, and as soon as they notice you, three of the faces withdraw into the dark storage room.
Corian casts Light on a rock and tosses it into the storage room. "Your friend, if he is your friend, is alive. We won't attack unless we have to," he says, in a fairly light tone.
The remaining crow-person narrows its eyes, and a raspy female voice replies:
"You can kill her for all we care, you'll be saving us a lot of trouble! What are you doing down here anyway? Leave us alone!"
Ignati sheaths his sword and looks at the crow people, reviewing everything he knows about humanoids. He approaches the storage area slowly with his palms open and facing toward the one who spoke.
"I'll tell you the same thing I told her. We mean no harm and only defended ourselves. How long have you been down here? Can we help you? I know this may all seem a bit strange but on the honor of House Vashnarstill I will not harm you, please, just tell us who you are and what you're doing down here. If we can help you, we will."
"My name is Korva Fushi. I'm here with my sisters from Riddleport. That's Chough that attacked you; we thought she was one of our kind when we found her egg, but she's...something else. I think it's called a Dire Corby? She's insane, and keeps killing people and getting us in trouble. That's why we left Riddleport, but then when we got here she killed the guy who brought us here. Go ahead and finish her off, I figure you must have come down here looking for him, right? Take your justice and leave us be. We'll see our own way out of here."
With the crow people's words, Valleria prepared herself to kill the creature in front of them.
"Also... I'm not sure we should let them leave... not that I want them killed... but they might have seen too much to be allowed to walk as they will..."
Seeing the creature get knowcked down, and put out for the count, Wilhelm relaxes a bit. He keeps his spear at the ready in case the creature gets up earlier than expected. He's pleased that Ignati's silver tongue is making dilogue possible, and he adds his voice to try and make things even smoother.
"If the man who brought you here was, indeed, Comerivos, then you should know that you are among friends. We did not come down here seeking justice, only seeking to discover why he hadn't been heard from in several days.
"I do not doubt your capability to see your own way out of here, but I warn you that the city above is in a state of turmoil and far more dangerous than it normally is. The woman who sent us -- whose place this is -- would surely do all she could to assist you. You don't have to go it alone in fear that we would hold you accountable for the actions of another.
"We are not Thrunes."
Morrigan isn't really sure what to make of the bird-women so she busies herself binding the dire corby with the manacles she snagged off the thug during the protest.
"An ethical dilemma. Can she be banished somewhere? And what are you folk? As my friend says, we are not Thrunies. We are here to save the city from tyranny."
Korva carefully steps forward into the light. Behind her, the three others follow at a respectful distance.
"We are Tengu. Have you never seen our kind before?" she asks, genuine surprise in her voice.
"If Tengu are so rare in this place, then perhaps we should not be seen aboveground while this...turmoil you speak of is going on. We will gladly meet with your friend if she can help us, however. As a show of good will, we'll give you what remains of Mr. Comerivos' belongings. Jay, Maggie, Treep!" she signals her sisters, who hurry back into the storage room and return with a satchel and two crates.
"Tengu are not so rare here. I have seen a few walking the streets. However, if they are hesitant to leave, do you think we could offer them protection down here?" Morrigan asks the party. "If we are going to start a resistance, there will be many things to do."
"Korva, how old are you and your sisters, and do you have any particular skills?"
"I'm also hesitant to summarily execute a helpless creature, though from their testimony it seems clear we cannot simply release her into the streets. Perhaps..." Voreni frowns, clearly upset at the idea that has popped into his head, "Perhaps we need to find a way to release it where it will cause havoc for our oppressors without putting honest citizens at risk. There seems to be a dozens ways that could come back to haunt us later, however. Well, this is Lady Laria's domain, we should defer to her wishes."
"We did some...second-story work in Riddleport, if you catch my meaning. As for exiling Chough," she says, gesturing to the unconscious dire corby, "You would be killing the first person she encountered wherever you sent her. Her temper is quite unpredictable; I don't think she can help herself. Killing is simply in her nature. We raised her, and came to think of her as our sister, and haven't the heart to do the deed ourselves. If we had, however, your friend Nan Comerivos would still be alive. Do not repeat our mistake."
"Ah...yes, I have seen some tengu. Near the docks--good for luck, I hear."
"We can surrender Chough to the authorities. If that means death, so be it."
Ignati runs a hand through his hair and shakes his head.
"Surrender her to the authorities and we risk her being turned into a pet for Thrune. Worse, she knows where this place is and what we all look like, if we're going to start our little rebellion, we need this place to be as unknown as possible. If we let her go there's no reason she wouldn't come back here which means potentially attacking Laria and her customers above."
Ignati looks at the dire corby and sighs.
"I dislike the idea of killing anything while it lays helpless, but I don't know that we have any other options. As for the young Tengu here, I don't see why we couldn't allow them to stay down here and assist us if they'd like."
He's eager to change the subject but he does stand near the bird with his rapier still out.
Morrigan quietly takes out a dagger and pierces the back of the dire corby's skull giving it a quick and painless death. She has used this technique in the past on her farm when butchering pigs. "There. It is done. I know many of you were on the fence about this so I acted on my own to relieve you of any moral sacrifices. You can punish me if you wish."
Voreni frowns and attempts to block Morrigan's words from his thoughts. I just helped murder a helpless creature by not acting in order to prevent it's death. But what action could any of us have taken that wouldn't have placed others at risk? That won't be the last time I will find our actions hideous going forward on this project. I must remember that making the citizens safe and free will be worth the cost to our souls.
"I think we were all in agreement as to what ultimately needed to be done, but we were all looking to pass the deed on to someone else rather than get our hands dirty. I see no reason to exact sanctions on you for taking the initiative on that, Morrigan. Thank you."
"Working outside the law is so much more difficult," Wilhelm mutters to himself and sighs. With the deed done by Morrigan, and the Tengu clan willing to be non-hostile, he relaxes a little bit.
"We've solved the mystery of what happened down here, so I'll go let Lady Laria know what happened, and what the current situation is with these refugees. The rest of you should probably either stay here with them," he nods at the Tengu, "Or perhaps go back to the chambers in which we stayed the night. It's probably prudent to not show a whole bunch of us in the public face of this place at once."
He turns and heads back to the trap door, and then makes his way into the coffee house proper to look for their benefactor, and trying to adopt a easy-going attitude when he returns to the part of the building where people are.
"Well, that's that I suppose." Ignati mumbles to himself while sheathing his sword. He nods at Morrigan to convey that he approves of the action.
Turning toward the group of Tengu, Ignati holds his open hands to demonstrate once again that they mean no harm and walks toward the storage room to inspect it.
"Is there anything useful down here that you have found while living here? What are your names by the way? I am Ignati, and although she attacked us, I am sorry for the loss of your sister."
Since Valleria was already with her sword next to the dire corby, ready to kill it, he was caught by surprise at Morrigan's action. She then looked at her, pausing her breath.
"You should not have done that... not that I disapprove your decision, quite the opposite, since I was going to kill it myself, just be careful next time... I almost attacked you by reflex."
She then sheathes her blade and, like Ignati, starts to look around for anything useful.
"Useful? Not really. The only thing Nan smuggled in here besides us was textiles." says Korva, gesturing to the crates. "I suppose you might find some use in some of his stuff, if you want to go through his bag. There was nothing to eat in there when I checked, though. Honestly, we're starving, even with the food that the Halfling has been leaving down here."
Searching the general area, Valleria notices that the white alligator's stomach, which had been cut open earlier to verify its contents, contains a very nice boot, which matches a boot worn by the remains of Nan Comerivos (a matched set). Despite having been eaten by an alligator, the boot remains in very good condition, which seems rather odd. And then there's that statue out in the water, tantalizing in its possibilities. Why put it in the middle of the water? Why a statue of Callistria, all the way down here?
"Well now that that's taken care of, let's make this place a little more comfortable for our feathered friends."
Morrigan removes her cloak and covers the corpse of the dire corby with it. Then starts helping clean up the general area. "We can dispose of this properly as soon as we get a chance."
When the boot is removed from the alligator, Morrigan replies. "Hmm. A boot that resistant may have magical properties. Let's examine it closer. Detect Magic!"
"Also, I'd like to know more about that statue of Calistra. I wonder if Laria can tell us more. This is her basement after all."
"Does anyone want to check Nan's notes and ledger? Or I can help with that once I'm done helping the tengus. We'll have to find a gentle way of letting Laria know her friend is gone."
"I'll check it out." Ignati searches through Nan's notes and ledger looking for anything that may be useful.
Once he's done he heads toward the statue of Callistria, looking it over to see if there's anything he missed in his first look over of the area.
"Hmmm....a statue implies something more. A hidden temple?" Corian wades out into the water, his mace out, accompanying Ignati.
Morrigan detects a magical aura from the boots, certainly Transmutation-based, but is unable to determine their exact effect at this time.
Working together, Ignati and Corian are initially unable to find anything unusual about the statue, but with a bit of extra time, they eventually find a secret compartment below the surface of the water. Time and water seepage have destroyed the paper scrolls within, but a solid gold holy symbol of Calistria and a finely-made, incredibly well-preserved whip (water seems to bead right off of it...) remain intact.
"Where you find Calistria you're bound to find a whip I suppose." Ignati smirks as he rolls the weapon over in his hands. CLimbing out of the water he brings it over to Morrigan.
"If I'm not mistaken, this likely has some magical properties, I don't suppose you could discern what they are?"
When she's had some time to investigate it Ignati suggests heading back up to see what's taking Wilhelm so long with Laria.
"I can certainly try. The boots are magical as well, but I'll need more time to determine its properties."
"We should keep that compartment in mind and case we need to hide anything valuable in the future."
"How's it going with those notes?"
At the sight of the whip, Valleria steps back, almost unconsciously. She breather deeply and tries to hide her reaction from her companions.
"Are you okay, Valleria?"
Back upstairs, Laria gives Wilhelm a friendly wave as he emerges from the storage room. Deftly vaulting over the bar, she gives him a playful slap on the rear.
"Well well, aren't you a lovely sight! So glad to see you again. Let's talk in my office..." she says, leading Wilhelm through the door. Once inside, she hops up onto a chair and motions for Wilhelm to do the same.
"Sorry about the performance, but I have a reputation as a lady-about-town to keep up, and you are quite a prize, Mr. Alcontara." she says with a wink. "Normally I'd be worried that you came back alone, but you don't look panicked, so I'm guessing it all went well? Nan is alright, and I sent you all down there over nothing?"
"Are you okay, Valleria?"
"Yes... I am. Just a couple unpleasant memories that came back too quickly..."
Wilhelm is better able to take Laria's performance this time without nearly so much confusion. He was expecting something, although the specifics were surprising. All in all, though, he's pretty flattered. It's a nice thing to hear, after all.
"It's a bit more complicated than that, I'm afraid," he says, somberly, when they're in the privacy of her office. "I'm guessing you weren't fully aware of what Nan was smuggling, or you probably would have mentioned it when you were telling us about him, I think. Turns out, among whatever else, he was smuggling a family of Tengu refugees from Riddleport.
"Unfortunately, that group also contained something called they called a Dire Corby, it's a creature that apparently looks very much like a Tengu and the real Tengu considered her a sibling. Unfortunately for all concerned, while the creature -- named Chough, by the way -- wasn't hostile to the other Tengu, she attacked and killed Nan. She attacked us, too. We subdued her, but she proved to be thoroughly insane and we ended up having to use lethal force.
"I'm sorry for the loss of your friend. By the time we arrived he'd been dead for several days, at least.
"We were able to talk to the other Tengu, though. They're scared and alone in a strange place, now. We're pretty sure they didn't mean for things with Chough to turn violent, and I'm not sure they deserve to be held responsible for the Dire Corby's actions. The others are still downstairs with the Tengu, while I came up to see how you wanted to handle them. They could probably use whatever help you're willing to provide, especially given Kintargo's current state."
Wilhelm pauses for a moment, feeling like he's forgetting something important, and then snaps his fingers before quickly adding: "Oh, and there was some sort of albino alligator down in there in the room with the statue. We were pretty sure that was what killed Nan, at first, but when we dispatched it, that was when Chough showed up, enraged. She'd apparently adopted it as a pet and called it Mister Snowball."
"So, who's our whipmaster? We should sell that statue. Yes, Morrigan, we can use that compartment, although it does leak a bit." Corian peers at the whip, but then shakes his head with a smile. "Wrong goddess for me."
Laria sighs heavily, slowly pulls herself out of the chair, and pours herself a drink from a bottle on the edge of her desk. After downing the shot, she slams the glass back down on the desk with a grimace.
"What's done is done, then. Nan deserved a better end than that, but I suppose justice has been done. The Wasp's Nest is your's; use it for as long as you like. I won't have much use for it for quite some time." she says.
"I'll leave the Tengu up to you and your friends; you might be able to make good use of them for what you're planning. Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help...but later. I could use a bit of time alone, if you don't mind."
Corian holds a somber expression for a good amount of time, watching Laria walk away. He turns to Wilhelm with a nod.
"That was heavy news to deliver, and you did it well. I feel no need to expel the tengu from the Wasp's Nest; they have nowhere to go save to run off and live off the land. If they stay here, we can help them. And...they did say they were good at second story work, did they not?" The false Asmodean finishes his sentence with a smile.
Wilhelm nods his understanding.
"I'll see that the others give you the space you need to grieve for your friend. On behalf of all of us, thank you for all your help so far and for the use of your secret place going forward."
With that he lets himself out. He heads back down to the Wasp's Nest to give a full account of what happened upstairs with Laria and to find out what happened downstairs while he was away.
"They did say that," he agrees with Corian after his explanation. "Many of us are fairly recognizable, such as Ignati, Valleria, and me. It may be easier for this clan we've found to stealthily gather information as a team, if they're up for it. Since they were never involved in yesterday's events, they'd have less need to attempt to disguise themselves, for example."
"Don't count me totally out of the game Will!" Ignati feigns a pout and then laughs it off. "Many of the nobles will recognize me, and any of the lesser hangers on trying to improve their station, but most of the poor folk couldn't tell me from Aroden, and any that do are my friends or contacts from my time in the less well off neighborhoods of Kintargo. Thank you, by the way, for speaking with Laria for us, it's not easy delivering that sort of news."
Ignati looks over their new base of operations and frowns at the statue of Calistria. "Should we do something about that? Should we ever get caught, or at least forced to leave, I'd hate to be branded as a sexual deviant. Although, it might make my title of Firebrand a little more interesting!"
Once everyone has been completely caught up Ignati starts inspecting the rest of the area to see if any works needs to be done in their new base of operations.
"I kind of like the statue." Morrigan stares in admiration. "What better goddess to look over the pool if anyone decides to go for a late night skinny dip."
"If the whip disturbs Valleria though, we should definitely sell it."
Corian shakes his head at Morrigan and laughs. "You need a curfew, young lady."
If no one objects, Corian speaks to the tengu and says they can stay there if they choose.
At Morrigan's comment about the late night swim, Valleria could not stop herself from thinking.
Oh... I would like to see that...
Her mind soon come back to her.
"Not at all, Morrigan, it was just a bad memory that now is buried in the past, nothing more. Anyway, I think it is useless for us..."
Rexus arrives downstairs a few hours later, bearing the pile of papers that he has been studying. He sets up a reading table in the room to the west, where Chough had been staying. He seems eager for you to join him in the room, as he has learned much from his studies already.
"There is a wealth of information in here...it could take me months to fully translate it all, but I've been focusing on what might be helpful to us now. It looks like the Silver Ravens were organized around a cadre of officers, each in charge of a specific aspect of the rebellion: Strategist, Sentinel, Partisan, Spymaster, Recruiter, Demagogue...I think we would do well to adopt this organization. We should also decide how we want to go about our resistance: do we agitate in the streets, stirring up the public against Thrune? Do we lay low and gather intelligence, hoping to strangle Barzilai with a noose of his own secrets? Or do we build a cell of partisans to take the fight directly to the guard?"