"Thanks for the intel, Rexus." Meliora hems over it for a moment, trying to figure out if there's a pattern here. Luckily, she hits on something.
"Shensen's a notable activist around here, and she didn't just own the Silver Star, she had a shrine to Sarenrae in the basement of the place. And the Thrashing Badger? Put a few drinks in someone and ask them who they serve, it's even odds that it's a Milani cultist. Willing to bet that was part of why they got targeted. I figure we should check out the both of them, given that... I mean, after all. At least we won't find any Abadar prats hovering around the ruins of their sites of worship all hours of the day."
"Sounds like a good plan Meliora. At least it is some more threads to pick at."
"That's very interesting Meloiora. I didn't know there were so many followers of Milani in Kintargo. No wonder I was sent here to find them, and do what I can to help. Let's check out the Thrashing Badger. I'd like to see if there are any Milani followers hanging about the ruins."
"Well...unless everyone's up for a swim, I think the whole Thrashing Badger thing's a no-go." Jack falls silent a moment, contemplating that perhaps if his female friends wanted to start stripping off some layers to take a plunge it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world....
"We could cross the Bleakbridge and see what's left of the Silver Star, I suppose."
Mic moves to the edge and examins the wreckage.
Unlikely there will be anything left after this time but maybe.
"Maybe we should find a boat and see if we can poke around. I can swim ok, if I have to."
She looks again. "Maybe a job for another day lets hit the next thing on the list."
"First, a moment of silence for all the booze lost in this tragedy."
Pause, two, three.
"Right. Silver Star it is."
She was already half in the process of removing her armor to look in the water when everyone decided to move on or come back.
"Oh... right, i guess if there was anything important down in the water it will still be there later right? Man i hope there arent any well... dead folk down there... it would be..."
She paused and sat down pulling out her abacus for a moment doing some sort of internal math. After several moments she shakes her head for a minute realizing she was half out of her armor, sitting about a burnt down shell of a building doing math on the calculations of how much the fish were eating altogether innapropriate at the moment.
"Whats the next step then? One of the other places?"
She asked putting the abacus away and once more working on tightening the armor back into place.
"Yes. The Silver Star. It's closest."
Her reply is clipped, and Meliora quickly turns to walk in that direction. As she walks,she rubs her hands down her face with a sigh. Just because she'd thought about the others losing the armor to go for a swim didn't mean she'd expected someone to try it...
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The ruins of the Silver Star is now a sinkhole filled with scorhed rubble, if the rumors are true about it being a underground shrine to Sarenrae you can only asume that the building collapsed and the chambers below didn't have enough strength after the fire to prevent it from sinking into these chambers.
"Hmm, look at that wow... the whole thing is just whumph you know?"
She began moving closer to the building. She was carefully looking about to see if anything seemed amiss.
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From this site you can't tell anything about what caused the sinkhole without prior knowledge of what lies below it, but you think it should be safe from sinking deeper in. There could be a sewerline underneath but whatever or not it leads to the chambers below the Silver Star requires to check the sewers to know anything about. The area still seems a little unstable but you can navigate the most safe path through the ruins.
You can see what looks like a coffer half buried in the rubble around the center of the ruins.
"You see anything, Cana?"
Meliora isn't foolhardy enough to venture out onto rubble over a sinkhole, she'll be over here offering support from a safe distance thanks.
"Oooh oh Lena! Look there's a little coffer there in the rubble Do you Mila....uh I wonder whats in it?!"
She said pointing out the object to the others before half rushing torwards it in excitment.
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Canacha as you starts rushing towards the coffer you step on some unstable grounds and the sudden shifting rubble as it appears to settle deeper into the chambers below.
Reflex 11 save to avoid being damaged by the collapsing rubble.
The coffer is made of iron and it's in bad shape, but the content have survived the fire because of it. You find 4 scrolls and 7 potions,
"Well Yeah Melly come on there is a little coffer i bet its full of co....."
She called back in a rush only just narrowly avoiding rubble falling over. Sheepishly after the immediate danger passed she glanced back.
"Well okay... everything else should be fine i think."
She added somewhat lamely
Must. Not. Laugh.
Must not laugh.
...
Nope, she's laughing. "Alright, bring that stuff over and I'll try to see what it all is."
Mic was about to follow Canacha but pulls up short. Once she sees that she is alive she speaks.
"Watch that first step dear." There is only a small grin on her face. "Should we follow you?"
"See anything else down there? Like an erm shrine to someone?" Lena tries not to laugh as Canacha goes tumbling. "Are you alright? I need to remember to leave a spell slot to heal you."
"No need to worry about that, i have these healing potions on me... just uh dont give them to anyone else... i dont think it would help them."
She began patting her belt pouch, she should find like a special colored vial or something to let her friends know which were the Canacha only health vials. She frowned as she picked up the coffer, half digging it from the ruins with a frown. She glanced back up to her friends.
"From what I can tell the ground is stable, I didnt look up at the rubble I dont see any shrines yet but we could see if we can find out where the stairs to the cellar was. I wonder if there are sewer lines that lead up to the building."
She added finally getting the coffer up and out as she rose and head towards Meliora so she could do her magical gaze on the things within.
"Really don't see why Lena doesn't just do the channel thing and heal you now. Eh, but I guess we could need it later since there's one other place to check."
Time to do the magical gaze thing!
"Yeah no.. dont do that really its okay, channeled energy always makes me feel sick. I have a potion to drink."
She quickly began her face clearly looking horrified at the idea of well positive energy being channeled about her. She took one of the vials out of her belt pouch and quickly drank it.
After a few moments her pale skin well kept its healthy pale glow.
"See all better... what do you make of that stuff in there?"
She asked excitedly.
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Meliora can identify everything except one scroll.
Scroll of cure moderate wounds
Scroll of daylight
Scroll of remove blindness/deafness
4 potions of cure light wounds
3 potions of lesser restoration.
Canacha can't see anywhere a stair to a basement might have once been and digging around for it in the ruble could take weeks or months with an almost guaranteed chance of someone noticing the digging. It would certainly attract the attention of the Dottari and Thrune that someone was digging around the ruins of the Silver Star.
When you get to Rexus's family estate there isn't anything left to give you a clue about why that house was targeted or what Rexus's parents did in that order he mentioned they belonged too.
"It makes you feel sick..?" That was new. An allergy? Well, whatever.
Meliora clicks her tongue as she finishes her work.
"Buncha divine scrolls. I'll need to prep read magic for the last one, but the three are a Cure Mod, a Daylight, and a scroll to fix blindness or deafness. Potions are four cure light, and three lesser restorations."
Always good to have, but she was hoping for more phenomenal cosmic power so it's a little disappointing.
"Can anyone else use these or should I hold on to them for the group? Lena indicates the scrolls. "We should distribute the healing and restoration potions."
"I can't actually Channel Energy. I can cure wounds, but not large wounds. Let me take a look at that last scroll." She shakes her head. "No idea."
"I wouldn't say No to some potions," Jack quips. "Just in case I forget how to fight again when you're not around to bail me out."
"Not use for a scroll but one of the potions might be nice. I can step back and get back in the fight if needed. Still I can live without as long as someone pours it down my throat if I get knocked out. Dosn't happen often but these are unusual times."
"I should probably carry a potion... but let's be real. Anything gets a good attack off on me? I'm probably dead anyways."
So she just wouldn't ever let that happen. Genius wizarding 101.
"Thats not good. Lets move people."
Regardless of the others Mic takes off towards the sound, strapping her shield on as she moves.
Jack rushes after Mic, sword ready, eyes glancing left and right.
You can positively hear Meliora's teeth grinding as she storms into the room.
"What in the nine hells happened here? Lena, he alive?"
Lena moves up to take a look at the trader. "I'm not sure he'll make it, but I'll take a look at him and at the wall."
"I dont know much about healing things.. but I can check out the wall i guess... "
She began concered about the trader of course but really having no way of being useful in that way. She began to study the wall instead.
Meliora adds a detect magic. Just to check.
Mic, without a word, starts to dig the poor fellow out form under the collapsed wall.
Jack, neither healer nor engineer, helps Mic lift rubble and/or pull the trapped fellow free.
Undetered Mic continues to free the dead body.
"He died for a cause we need to honor him."
"Wait Mic! One moment!"
She began suddenly sounded startled.
"Look... Here and here!"
She began pointing at spots in the wall. Without waiting to see if anyone understood what those meant she continued.
"These are tool marks, this wall didnt collapse from age or random flaws in its design. Some one worked on it with tools causing the collapse. Does well does he have tool on him?"
She added motioning torwards the fellow. She was now intently studying more parts of the wall in case there were other marks indicating one hell of a trap she didnt want any of her friends getting hurt by.
Lena looks over the man trying to find a pick. "I'll see."
"Lovely." Meliora takes just a second to rub a finger against her temple.
"Someone draw a picture of the guy and put his name on it, we'll hang it up on a memorial wall. Can't do much more than that, outside of letting the family know he's dead without implicatin' ourselves. We'll make a bigger deal for all of 'em when we're done."
Meliora turns away from the dead body--truth be told it's a little unsettling to look at--and storms for her usual desk.
Does she think for a second that the dragon was responsible? Nope. Faerie dragons don't use tools, that she's heard of. Still, it's a very stealthy observer and might have seen something.
"Jeez, I don't think I ever asked the poor guy his name," Jack comments grimly. "Anyone know his name or if he has family in the city?"
"Fair enough." she replies with a frown.
"A shelf fell over, and one of our guys is dead. Sabotage, seems like. You're as stealthy as they come, did you happen to see anyone messing with it? Heck, anything unusual at all?"