Tristain head rolls to Ezren, blinking for clairty. He jumps in his skin, snapping back to what needs to happen.
"Yeah, I'm moving. Yeah...we got to get out of here," Tristain says, moving to quickly disencumber the weapons (and armor, if he has time) from the Hellknights. He will do a quick search for gold as well.
Maybe the meatheads will want to fight with real weapons, not just their bulging forearms.
He does one last scout for the arrows that he missed with:
high = found;
high = found;
high = found.
"Ezren, are we taking that horse with us?"
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All the Hellknights are dead or will be dead before any help can arrive. You may leave them and not worry about them reporting what they saw.
Tristain grabs 5 longswords, 5 light crossbows, 5 chainmail armor sets, 1 plate mail armor, 1 heavy mace. When he looks for gold, he finds a letter on the driver.
Dear Captain Treton of the Citadel:
I demand you respond to my previous letter detailing the problems with the Bastards of Erebus. The dottari are not able to solve crimes that somehow keep occurring at night. It should be simple enough for a simpleton like yourself since they leave a wooden coin with a strange symbol everywhere they go. If you cannot send squads of men to solve this problem, I will speak with your patron and demand he investigate your lack of leadership skills. Perhaps you believe you are better suited as a sacrifice to Asmodeus. I can arrange that if needed.
Signed,
Lord Mayor Aberian Arvanxi
Jimmy takes the letter, reads it out loud for all to hear, then burns it with his flint and steel.
Voice: Well done Jimmy, now the horses.
"Jimmy thinks we can take the horses attached to the carriage, and the warhorse. If we can't use them we can sell them. If we can't sell them we can eat them." Jimmy will use his bastard sword to cut the carriage horses loose, then grabs the reins of one of the horses as he sheaths the weapon.
"Help me with some of this, eh, Jimmy?" Tristain asks after Jimmy comes over to take the letter off him, leaving him carrying the load. "I think Emerlos or Rizzardo might profit from some real weapons and armor. Maybe others too."
Tristain hauls stuff back to the horses, not yet ready to speak to Ariel yet.
Moshley hobbles after Jimmy and grabs two swords to lighted his load, which are already very heavy for him. He turns to Ariel to answer his questions.
"She is save, for now. And we have a spare horse for you waiting a bit from here, although there are enough to come by here anyways. Anyways, Are you yourself alright? Have you any news for us?"
He looks to Jimmy and his still very heavy load.
"Also would you mind to help my brother here with some of the load?"
"Forget the loot! The mission is to get Ariel to safety. Anyhow most of the loot and the horses will be marked by the Hellknights symbols. Leave them and lets be away." Ezren's voice cracks with tension.
... do they not understand if we get caught we are dead or even worse damned ...
Ezren brakes into a jog toward the horses they hid.
If there is nothing else, Tristain makes his way back to Westcrown. His stomach is still queasy but he holds it in for the ride home.
"Jimmy I think it is unwise to take the horses and also the carriage. If we take those in the city a lot of questions will be asked. Come, let us leave on our own horses."
Moshley begins to walk towards the horses, still with the two swords in his hands.
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Since Moshley has also decided not to secure the carriage, it becomes apparent to Jimmy that he lacks the manpower to handle all the additional horses and the carriage in a reasonable amount of time, so he takes his own horse carrying some of the loot. The Hellknight bodies litter the ground and the prison carriage is empty.
Eventually, your four other revolutionary partners catch up with you outside of Westcrown, having been chased for a good while by the Hellknights.
The nine of you ride through Sunset Gate, and you notice one of the guards points at Ariel as you go through the gate. Again, some thieves seem to come out of the alleys to steal your horses in Rego Cader, but then think twice at the sight of armor and weapons. You pass through Obrigan Gate, and two guards point at Ariel as you pass through the gate.
Eventually, you reach Jacovo's Stable. Jacovo is having a heated argument with a well dressed man, whom you do not recognize . Well, it's more like the well dressed man is berating Javoco with lots of foul language as you pull up to the stable. Both Javoco and the other man stop arguing briefly and look at all of you.
You recognize the man as Thesling Umbero Ulvaud. Both of you know Mr. Ulvaud is one of the best performers in Cheliax.
"Hello!" Jimmy says as he moves up to Jacovo andThesling. He looks at the latter. "Jimmy recognizes you, you're a famous actor! How are you doing?"
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"Piss off you low-life performer hack. I'm having an important discussion with this, uh, person of questionable heritage, about his lack of special horses I demanded."
Jacovo responds, "Questionable heritage! How dare you sir! I am only distantly related to them. I have no taint in my blood I assure you. Still, the horses you requested have now arrived, see!" Jacovo looks at the horses returning, and his face turns very sour.
The man responds, "Oh, I do dare. Anyway, since the horses were not ready as needed, you will provide them for free to me, if you know what is good for you."
Tristain keeps quiet with Jacovo; he focuses on getting the horses back and getting his 'deposit' back. However, being an 'artiste' on his own, he does listen in to the conversation.
An actor, is he? He's kind of a jackass.
Feeling protective of his new friend Jacovo and appreciating the favor he just did for him, Tristain moves closer to that actor.
Just in case I need to shut this jackass up.
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Gorvio quietly asks, "You gonna let him talk to my uncle like that?" Gorvio looks disturbed.
Walking by are a few dottari, keeping an eye on the shouting from the street.
Jacovo looks at all of you with a strange face. Then he turns to the famous actor and says, "Dear sir, my nephew is an ill-bred idiot, and stupidity and evil run in his blood. Please accept my apology. Of course you can have the horses for free. Furthermore, we have an extra horse that you can sacrifice to Asmodeus to bless your production, offsetting the harm I may have caused you. Please forgive me, your patronage does me great honor." Jacovo bows before the actor in a humbling way.
The actor looks a bit more pleased. "Seems you have learned your place. Your blood ties to that, thing, should remind you of it." He then turns to the group, and spots Amaya and Tavari. "Well well, two beauties on horseback, riding with low lifes. Interesting. Ladies, I know you would like to get to know me better, but I can only have one of you before the production, and the other one will have to wait until after the production. I promise I can squirt my white seed into you deep enough for you to have the potential honor of having my bastard child." He puts his hand up to Amaya first, waiting for her to kiss his hand.
You didn't notice it early this morning because of the poor light, but Jacovo's stables seems much messier than it should be, like it was vandalized.
Do not describe any damage done to the actor in your gameplay posts for a very specific reason, just roll the attack/damage dice in a spoiler please. Allow me to describe what happens. Thank you.
Moshley follows Jimmy and sees him standing there.
Moshley talks to Jacovo after the actor had his say.
"Horses for FREE? We just payed you dearly and you are giving this eel free horses? He is the biggest ass I have ever met in this city! You should ask him extra for being this rude!"
The actor moves over to the ladies, and offends them dearly. Moshley grabs his crossbow in case of the worst happening. He still has his buckler secured to his off-hand.
"Hey prick! First I ask you that you stop your babbling and pay this merchant honest gold since you are this almighty well paid actor. And second to stop insulting our company. Else I will use this and make sure you never walk this earth again."
This coming from the fairly small gnome.
Tristain balls up his fist, but does not strike or even acknowledge the man. If Jacovo is willing to placate the ass, Tristain is willing to ignore it.
Perception
Tristain instead leads whatever horses that should go into the stables to the stables. He'll have nothing to do with the actor.
He pauses only to watch what comes from the gnomes speech.
I've killed enough today already.
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Since you moved into the stables, you notice that the stables seem to be partially destroyed.
Jacovo looks absolutely horrified at Moshley's comments. The prick famous actor smiles and laughs. Jacovo says, "My lord, please, please, they are friends of that thing, and thus you must discount their comments. Please, take all the horses! Sacrifice the extra one." Jacovo steps in between Moshley and the prick famous actor, as if ready to take the bolt himself.
The prick famous actor smiles, and laughs heartily at Moshley. "Well done, well done. That probably goes over well in Rego Cader, where all the small time actors perform. You know, you should really thank me for being an audience to that performance of yours." Turning to Tavari. "Do you like it in the butt as well? You look like the kind of girl who likes it that way." Not waiting for a reply, as if he already knows the answer, he looks for Tristain who went into the stable. "Clean the horses well, boy, and hurry up."
Jacovo yells out, "Be quick and give him all your horses, clean them up. Prepare that one" pointing to the stolen horse "for the sacrifice."
"Go f*** yourself," Amaya replies to Thesling in a calm voice. "If you touch me with even one finger, you'll be misisng the eleventh pretty soon."
------
"This is Jimmy's horse. You stay off of Jimmy's horse and ladies, or Jimmy will do thing to you from behind! Whatever it is you plan on doing to the ladies! 'Cause Jimmy doesn't GET IT AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!"
Jimmy's voice increases even more in volume as he starts shouting in Thesling's face from a distance of two inches, spitting in the actor's face. "JIMMY WILL SMASH YOUR FACE!!!!!"
It's after he's done shouting that Jimmy notices the mess in Jacobo's stables. "WHAT DID YOU DO?! YOU DESTROYED THE STABLES?!"
More spit was added to Thesling's face, and Jimmy looks like he's going to explode.
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The actor looks at Amaya. "Pfft, your horse has a prettier face. I'd be better off just f+%~ing myself. But your friend here, she wants it in the butt, I can tell."
When Jimmy begins yelling at the actor, Jacovo get's in between them, and Jimmy's spit get's all over the stable owner's face, filling his beard full of spit. "Gorvio, tell your crazy friend here to calm down." Jacovo is clearly worried. The actor just stares at Jimmy, sort of bewildered, as nobody has yelled at him like that before.
"Sooooo," the actor tries to act cool, and does a pretty good job of it "who's going to kill the horse to lord Asmodeus? Great is his name!"
Jacovo looks over the group, with spit all over his face. He says, "Gorvio, if you don't get one of your friends to sacrifice the horse, you know what will happen. This one with the big sword looks strong enough to do it. If he swings that thing as well as he spits in my face, it should be over quick enough."
"Yes, uncle, I know."
Approximately 5 dottari have now stopped across the street, looking at all the yelling and screaming going on. One of them points at someone in your group.
With the dottari watching, Tristain will continue to ignore the actor.
"Let's get out of here."
Whether or not others follow, Tristain begins to leave.
Jimmy looks over his shoulder, and sees the five dottari.
Voice: I'm taking over here...
The angered expression on Jimmy's face disappears, changing into a very serene expression. Jimmy eyes become calm and clear, and he speaks with a reasonable-sounding voice. "You will die if you don't leave now. Those five dotarri will try to arrest us, and they will also die."
"Leave," Jimmy, or whoever controls his body at the moment, says as he draws the bastard sword. He walks to the rude actor's other side, forcing Jacovo to choose if he stands in between Thesling and Jimmy, or Thesling and the others.
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Jacovo moves to protect the actor. Jacovo says, "What are you doing? And you, boy, why are you leaving? Give this man his horses!
Thesling says rather calmly, "I can assure you, they won't arrest me. I haven't done anything wrong, either. I'm here to pick up my horses that were promised to me. Now they have arrived. Why haven't you given me my horses?"
Two more dottari show up, plus an Asmodean priest accompanied by Jamenez, a well known dottari lieutenant . A crowd is beginning to slowly form around the stable, they are blocking your way Tristain. If you try to slip past them, they move in your way.
Gorvio turns to Moshley, and his eyes begin to flicker like a flame has burst inside them. "Master, now is the time to serve Hell's dominion and end this. Please, please, I want to see you do the sacrifice. Blast the horse back to Hell! It's the only way out of this mess your brother has created."
Ariel shakes his head. He looks at Ezren and says, "This is going from bad to extremely worse really fast. Someone needs to give him the horses and perform the sacrifice. If we don't, we'll be the sacrifice."
Jacovo is terrified of you guys. You're about to destroy his only business and now you've put his life in danger.
The actor looks like he's getting ready to go talk to Jamenez if he doesn't get what he wants quickly. He's in a hurry.
The Asmodean priest seems only interested in making sure a sacrifice (how did he become aware of it so fast) is done properly. He could care less about the actor.
Jamenez is looking to crack every one of your skulls inside out. He's itching for you to give him a reason. The crowd is terrified of him (rightfully so I might add).
Ezren draws his dagger as he walks over to the horse and promply slices it's throat. Blood begins to shoot everywhere as the horse falls to the ground. Ezren just stands their looking at the crowd covered in horse blood.
... now they will think that all the blood on us was horse's blood not Hellknight's blood ...
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Gorvio calls out, "Hail Asmodeus! Deliver us from Chaos that we may serve you in eternity!"
The crowd repeats it, "Hail Asmodeus! Deliver us from Chaos that we may serve you in eternity!" And again, "Hail Asmodeus! Deliver us from Chaos that we may serve you in eternity!"
The Asmodean priest looks over at Ezren's handiwork. "Abadar be praised? Well done. We'll make you one of us yet." He then turns around and leaves. The crowd begins to break up.
Jacovo begs, "Please, your lord, please take these horses. Your performance will be blessed by the almighty Asmodeus. It was even overseen by a priest. You'll be wonderful."
The actor scoffs. "Of course I'll be wonderful, idiot. I'm always wonderful. But, the sacrifice might help bring the other actors closer to my skill level so not to embarrass me." The actor turns to look at some of the crowd that's leaving. "Would any of you fine ladies like to help me take some horses to the performance? I might shower you with my seed afterwards. Come now! Ha, I'm a comedian to."
Several ladies run up to the actor and help him take his horses off.
After a few minutes, you look around and there's a ton of blood all over the street. Jacovo goes back into this stable, which looks like a disaster hit it, and plops down and cries. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? YOU NEARLY RUINED MY BUSINESS." He begins to sob heavily while sitting in horse sh't and bloody hay.
"My whole business is renting horses to the actors, and you nearly destroyed my business. You insulted the best actor in the city, and almost left the Hellknight carriage horse to live at my stable. What do you think would happen if they recognized that horse in my stable? Are you trying to kill me? At least the fools last night only robbed the place. They left me the same calling card they leave everyone, this stupid WOODEN COIN."
Jimmy, or rather the person still controlling jimmy's body, doesn't have time to react to everyone leaving. He sheaths his sword and walks up to Jacovo. "We could have killed all of them. You owe me a horse now," he says, and swings his fist at the man's face.
It's right after the punch that Jimmy takes back the control of his body. "Jimmy's so sorry! Jimmy didn't mean to punch you! It wasn't Jimmy!"
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"Leave, now, or I will call them back. If you ever return here, I will report you to the authorities." He rubs his face. "Gorvio, I never want to see you or your kind again. I was a good man. I worshiped Abadar and I put up with a lot. Heck, I gave gold to the poor and tickets to shows to some of the locals I got from the actors."
Jacovo begins to pound his fist into the bloody ground. "I was wrong. I see now that they were right, and I was wrong. Well, no more." Jacovo moves away from you for a minute, and kneels. "Dear Asmodeus! I renounce the weakness of Abadar! Fill my soul with hatred. I will forever be your servant my lord. I will enter the house of death willingly. Shower me with power to fight these idiots who are destroying my business. Lord Asmodeus, do with me what you will, so that I may prosper."
Jacovo stands and smiles at all of you despite the bloody nose. "Time for you to leave."
Jimmy switches right back in his former behavior. "You owe me money. Or a horse."
Tristain leaves. He's had enough of this show. He tries to get Tarvi/Ariel to come with him. If they decline, he will go without them.
We're in enough trouble without adding additional things to worry about.
Turning to the Bodrick brothers. "Wisdom does not run in your family does it. You must pick your fights with care in this city or you will die quickly. Drawing attention to us with Ariel in tow was not the best course of action." Ezren turns on his heel and marches after Tristain. "Scalvo are you coming?"
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Tavari leaves with Tristain. Ariel stays behind to watch.
Scalvo follows Ezren and whispers into his ear.
"Why are we converting people to Asmodeus? He was our ally and gave us horses in the time of our need, and now we push him over the edge? This is a black mark upon us all. I am unsure if following this revolution was wise. I might be better on my own. I must now go an atone for my participation in this."
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Gorvio, breathing abnormally heavy as if he was running a race, tries to speak to Moshley. "Master, what are....what are you going to do? Is this....is this the right time to summon.... powers from Hell? Killing him now will...brandish us enemies of...the almighty and great Asmodeus now that he...now that he's a servant of Asmodeus." Gorvio is wringing his hands, and sweat pours from his brow, but a tear drops from his left eye, highlighting his sadness at losing his only mostly-human relative. "I can't believe he did it."
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Amaya cries next to Ariel. "I have, I have a song for this sad moment. To consecrate your conversion Jacovo? Shall I sing it to you?"
Jacovo turns, "By the powers of Hell, please do so before you leave."
Amaya cries again, then regains her composure, and sings a song for those who worship Asmodeus.
Blood and thunder, mix with rain.
Into the kingdom of darkness again.
Lightning flash, and body in flame.
All shall kneel at the sound of his name
Your path is set, live with no regret
You're sworn to kill, never to forget
No road back, and you never will return
Into the fire of Hell you will burn!
And die! Into the house of death!
And die! Into the fire of Hell!
Army of the heavens, your army waits in hell.
To battle on the earth, for all the souls who fell.
You will not go onto your death alone.
Seven gates to pass, until you reach your home.
Across the bridge of death, beyond the gates of light,
Into the heart of darkness, into the black of night.
No road back, and you never will return.
Into the fire of Hell you will burn!
And die! Into the house of death!
And die! Into the fire of Hell!
Jacovo smiles. "That was lovely and evil. Thank you."
Ariel frowns. "I hate that song."
Tristain smiles at Tarvi's joke, not caring if she is serious or not. That is alive and walking away right now is cause enough for celebration.
"Seems like everyone here bends over for either Asmodeus or the dottari," Tristain quips back.
He glances briefly behind him at Ezren following.
"I'm not sure we should be celebrating or not, Ezren. We should discuss that when we are safe."
Tristain returns to the safehouse.
Moshley whispers to Gorvio.
"Now is not the best time to show our powers."
Moshley pats the man on the waist to try to comfort him, not being able to reach any higher.
"I will teach you some more first, before we charge into a battle like this. Let us return to the safehouse, we can't do anything anymore here."
Moshley turns to Jimmy, now ignoring the actor. A terrible stillness has come over him. He stows his crossbow.
"Jim, let's leave. There will come a day when we meet them again. It will most likely be a better time. We will not forget this day. Gorvio will you join us? We are leaving."
"First you cry like a little girl, and you beg your boyfriend Thesling to forgive you. Now you claim to have converted to some generic evil god, and you act like the ass your boyfriend is."
"I wanted to kill Thesling, and knock you unconscious so the guards wouldn't think you'd sided with us. Now you've become an ass yourself I won't harm you. At least not now. You deserve to be terrorized by Thesling."
Jimmy walks off, motioning for Amaya and Ariel to come with him. Once they're outside Jimmy becomes himself again, and he sees the dead horse. "Jimmy's horse is dead?"
Amaya places a hand on Jimmy's back and pushes him forward. "Yes, Jimmy. Spontaneous combustion, it happens to horses."
"Jimmy doesn't get it, but okay!" Jimmy replies cheerfully. "Jimmy's hungry. Ariel, Amaya, you want to get something to eat too?"
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Before you leave, Jacovo says, "You wanted to kill my best customer? He's paid me handsomely many times, but because you took my horses this morning, in my belief I was helping your cause, they weren't ready as I had promised him, so I gave it to him free since he always pays me excessively after his successful performances. Protecting him was the best thing for my business. Killing that Hellknight carriage horse saved my life. But, you have taught me weakness is for the weak, and now I serve the master who preaches strength. For that, I thank you for pushing me to know the truth: the weak live to serve the strong. Don't ever come to my stables again. Now all I have to do is figure out who robbed me last night. I was going to ask you for help, but not anymore. I'll report this to my new priest. Maybe we can sacrifice some orphan children in hopes of better luck."
As you walk with bloody footprints behind you, Ariel shakes his head. "This is terrible. We're doing the wrong things. I can't eat after what I just saw."
Gorvio is also sad. "Hope we don't need horses anytime in the future. He's really the only one in the respectable part of town that would actually rent them. I wonder if I'll ever be able to see my uncle again." Gorvio is having trouble holding back his tears.
Amaya tries to comfort him. "Eating? No. I feel like throwing up after watching what you did. I know we found a silver unholy symbol of Asmodeus back there. Perhaps you should wear it Jimmy, it seems appropriate."
Amaya and Ariel begin to have a quiet conversation between themselves on the way back to the shrine while Jimmy runs off to get some food before returning to the shrine. Along the way, a few guards point at Ariel. Gorvio hangs his head in silence on the way back.
When Ariel arrives at the safehouse, Janiven and the rest of the NPCs are extremely happy to see him. However, they are confused by seeing him in such a sour mood so soon after his release. Ariel will inform the NPCs of what happened at Jacovo's stable, and the rest of the NPCs quickly quiet down, and try to pretend to be busy with other things than talk with the PCs. Nobody congratulates you on rescuing Ariel.
Moshley sits down next to Gorvio.
"Are you alright? A lot happened today."
Moshley hears out Gorvio, with a look of great understanding.
"Jimmy and I lost our parents years ago, and have no family left anymore either. It's hard. And I wouldn't say evil. Just because some far relative gave you these powers doesn't mean that you are evil. Do you see me as evil, I have the same power's as you do. And what we did today before everything went awry was for the good of the city."
He grabs the man's shoulder to comfort him.
Jacovo's words were completely lost on Jimmy, who didn't even know what had happened. He decided to simply ignore them, and went to get his snack.
"Jimmy doesn't want a symbol," Jimmy says to Amaya, "Jimmy doesn't even like Asmodidius, Asmodidius is very mean."
Tea drinker: Asmodeus, Jimmy.
"Asmodeodius?"
Tea drinker: *sigh*