"Dont worry Setrona, If your cousin lives we will find him, we will save him, and hopefully convince him to help us save our city."
She began doing her best to sound reassuring.
"Come on guys, Lets get a move on time is of the essence."
She added. Now that they had something to do she was ready to get to it.
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Canacha and Jack finds out a event is sceduled to take place in the park this afternoon. Found the sounds of the guards around the city it's four criminals being doghoused to set an example to others.
If you want to know about the guard setup in the park you'll need to visit it as they are currently not there yet.
"Why are they so mean to those poor puppems! Dogs deserve love not being forced to hurt people."
She frowned as she thought about the probabilities of this going well badly.
" Do you think any of our new recruits are up for I dont know, doing some mayham nearby to draw some of the guards away while we hit the park?"
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"They are not really forcing the dogs to hurt people, they just put in a few starved feral dogs from the street. The person are placed in a doghouse in the middle and have to risk getting bitten if he wants to get some food. The doghouse itself is treated with sharp nails on the ground, walls and roof so that resting or sleeping is impossible." Setrona responds to Canacha.
"Well that is quite barbaric. I have seen people who have trained to lay on a bed of nails and even that, done deliberately, sounds dreadful."
"I don't think attacking the park in broad daylight sounds like a good plan, but the example they are speaking of? Do they mean doghousing the Hellknights or another "example" of killing them in front of the population? If we can wait to free them until darkness, I'd suggest we do that. Otherwise we should try as soon as we can."
"That's good. That's really good. We might have a chance to free them if they are being doghoused over being hung or something. I suggest we go this evening and check things out. We might have a chance to free some of the hellknights if given the opportunity."
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"If you are deadset on going there first, I would suggest taking a look during daylight to check things out. We don't know if they are hellknights are just some random criminals Thrune uses to get people to listen to him. I would also like to check out and make sure it's not my cousin, but I have a tavern to run in the evening which opens in a about three hours at this point." Setrona says hoping to get a look at the event before work calls her in.
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This first official excruciation takes place at the southern end of Veritas Plaza, where the dottari have erected a large scaffold for the event. The scaffold consists of a 30-foot-square wooden platform, at the center of which has been placed a small wooden doghouse-shaped structure, the walls and roof of which have been festooned with nails. When a poor soul is excruciated via doghousing, he is placed within the nail-studded doghouse.
You all arrive together with Setrona just as todays criminals are dragged up onto the scaffold. You see a pair of low caste criminals looking like pickpockets, along with a Hellknight of the Torrent. Setrona leans into whisper to Jack "That isn't my cousin, he's a low ranking member of the Torrents, a armiger, knights in training so to speak."
As you look around you notice that the guards attending this event is not something you could trifle with. You count in total four dottari guards, which looks more trained than what you have fought before along with four Hellknights of a different order. "I didn't imagine so many guards would be stationed by, and that's just what we can see from here." Setrona says just as the excruciation gets under way, one of the excruciators hauls the Torrent armiger out onto the scaffold to offer him one last chance to betray his lictor. When asked where Lictor Sabinus is hiding, the armiger stoically remains silent, at which point the excruciators force him down into the doghouse to the crowd’s growing shock and dismay.
"Damn damn damn."
She growled her voice sounding a bit unearthly without the elixer this time.
"its too far too shoot with my pistol. This isnt right! Hell its not even legal really. At least not what the laws used to be."
"He doesnt know!Is that how you are gonna treat everyone who doesnt know anything with torture?!I thought you Hellknights you know followed the law!"
She called out from the crowd loudly.
Her eyes openened widely when she realized what she had just done. So she kinda scrunched down trying to well not appear to anyone at all.
Lena spins and looks at Canacha as she yell.s "That's not going to work. We need to get out of here. We are out seriously outclassed right now. Maybe the you know who will ahve some ideas." Lena tries to step out of sight away from the crowd, but doesn't go do far just in case there is a riot.
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Canacha's shout isn't really heard by anyone other then those closest to her, the murmur and shouting from other onlookers makes it so people just mix it in with all the others. You can hear people yelling for his release while others wants them to go harder to them. It's clear that despite the good the Order of the Torrent does for the people, many have reservation against them just because they are Hellknights and that they serve the Queen and not the people.
"I think we should leave this place for now. My cousin are waiting for us back at the tavern, let's go back, relax and have a drink and a game or two." Setrona suggests to not look suspicious, but her fustration clearly showing.
This is where Meliora steps in as well, taking a quick hold of Canacha's hand.
"I think she's right. This isn't the sort of thing we can deal with right now. Let's get hammered and forget about it."
She's trying to smile, but she can't summon it up. Subterfuge isn't her strong suit, never has been.
"I agree let's go see your cousin. I haven't visited with him in a very long time." she says to Setrona. "This entertainment isn't to my taste."
Jack curses under his breath but has to admit to himself that attempting a rescue may cause more harm than good. "Very well--back to the bar for a drink and then on to Plan B."
"But Jack! look at what they are...."
She huffed and frowned.
"Fine! But they are gonna pay mark my words!"
She grumbled adjusting her hat and following the others away.
"Too many guards and too many witnesses," Jack whispers to Canacha while trying to guide her away from the spectacle. "Perhaps a night raid would be more to our advantage."
"Or, and try to think past that natural knee-jerk response, we could not do that. It's a lot of trouble for people we aren't even really looking for. We have a target, we can just... go there."
She holds up her hands in front of her like she's framing a portrait of the horizon.
"No muss, no fuss, no possibility of getting murdered, everybody wins!"
"Meliora has a point staying on mission normally makes sense. You do the job your paid for was always what we did but... its not a job. Were trying to be be a force for justice, do we let one injust stand to face another? I don't know. I just don't know."
"Fine! I said sheesh."
She said quietly but with a pout. She wasnt sure what the point of fighting for their rights and freedoms if they were gonna pick and choose when it suited them...but she knew they were probably right in this case. No sense fighting loosing battles. If only the folk here would have stood up with them.
That sure would have shown those jerkfaces!
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Back at the Tooth and Nail you get a private room where you can discuss how to approach the old Shrine to not draw any attention to yourself. On your way in you see the regulars have become to come and forget their sorrows with alcohol and games. For those interrested you are able to kill time with a game of Devilpin or Odds and Evens at this tavern.
Meliora is being her lovely self by sitting in the private room and not engaging in the tavern before going up there to sit. Once it's discussion time, she jumps right into it.
"So. Way I see it we have two options. one: Save the poor saps tonight and then figure out how to get to the shrine. Upside, they give us some good publicity and maybe extra bodies to work with. Downside, the guard had better be lighter or we're in deep dung. As for the shrine... I figure we can leave during the day and nobody'll stop us so long as we don't look like us. I've got magic for it, dunno if you guys'd just want to wear a mustache or something."
Lena will get a drink at the bar, but doesn't join in any of the games. When discussion time comes up. "I really think we should get the the shrine. It's embarrassing for the Hellknights, but not deadly to them just yet. If the leader is found out, I feel like he's going to be killed and not made an example of. He's to dangerous to them."
"Let's get down to a plan. We can head out tomorrow early. Make ourselves look like fisherpersons or something. What do you think of that?"
With a tic of her finger to the left and an arcane word of power, Meliora looks completely different.
She's a weathered-seeming, world weary fisherwoman with a wide-brimmed straw hat and a cynical, dour disposition.
...Okay one of those things didn't change.
"Works for me. Can't do this for anyone else, though."
"oooh no worries I can make an extract and do something very simular... four times even, of course if I do that well, cant make any healing droughts... lets uh not get hurt okay?"
"I must confess," Jack says with a sheepish smile, "that I'm not entirely sure what a typical fisherperson looks like. Can't say I've hung out with any during my years in this fair city."
"Just look like you don't give a damn about anything anymore, you'll be more or less on target."
Mic chuckles at Meloria's comment.
"So like I did before we got into the hero business. Got it."
She stoops lower and makes sure to apply some dirt to face and hands while she also pulls her hair back tight.
"Any glasses get left at the bar? I could pop the lenses out and be taken for another person I am sure."
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As you spend the evening in the tavern you hear a few rumors about some kind of crusade going on in the northeast part of Cheliax. A few workers sit at a table talking. "Have you heard? The Glorious Reclamation has seized control of several smaller towns, including the town of Kantaria. It's about time someone show the Thrunes whatfor." one says as another responds. "Yet in Longacre, Thrune agents have managed to send the knights packing."
The next morning as you attempt to sneak out of town, you don't encounter much resistance. Some dottari are checking people leaving Kintargo, but they don't seem suspicious of you and gives you your day pass. Once out of the city Setrona says "It’s should be a relativ short walk west of Ravounel Road to the swampy western shore of Argo Isle. The shrine is mostly underground, carved into an upthrust escarpment of stone that overlooks the Yolubilis."
Jack removes his fisherman disguise once the group is beyond the sight of the guards at the gate and other fellow travelers.
"I need to get outside the city more often," he announces aloud to no one in particular as he takes a deep breath of the fresher non-city air. He also keeps an eye out for trouble.
Lena smiles as she leaves the city if just for a little while. "Maybe Thrune is stretching himself a little thin when he takes over smaller towns. I could be helpful for us."
"If I had to guess, they mean the entire Thrice-Damned house. If our old boy has that kind of army..."
Meliora sighs and shakes her head.
"Well, let's just hope he doesn't have that kind of army." Carrying her spellbook in her backpack today, just in case of an overnight trip, she gives a nod to the directions. "Alright, let's see what's up with the shrine. We'll meet up with the guy and get ourselves some hellknights."
"Too much walking already. We should have gotten a cart."
She complained pulling off her hat and running her hands through her hair with a huff. She paused and frowned at Meliora's words then shook her head.
"I don't think we have to worry about the army so much. The empire's pretty big right? I mean to pull a portion of the army to here would mean they have to weaken it somewhere else. Things would have to drastically change for that to happen. Like I dont know blowing up the place Lord stupidface is staying at..."
She paused and her eyes got really really wide.
"Guys... can we buy a cart and blow up his house? I can do it I think. Let me math out what I would need."
She began pulling out her abacus and starting to well do math on it.
"He's been living in the opera house, so that's not going to happen on my watch. I mean, they were my best customers! Er... practically only. Customers. The point is, no."
Jack seems quite amused when Canacha again pulls out that weird abacus thingee of hers and her fingers go to town on it. "Meliora's right: The Kintargo Opera House is the most famous and most beloved building and institution in the city. Were we to blow it up, the new Silver Ravens would replace Lord-Mayor Thrune as Public Enemy Number One."
If she heard their dislike of the idea it wasnt apparent... then suddenly she sighed shook the abacus and replaced it in its hook with a bit of a pout.
"We would need something to drag the cart anyhow, and I dont want any horses hurt so until i can figure out a way to automate a cart it wouldnt work anyhow."
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Setrona add to the debate. "The opera house was also one of the places the original Silver Ravens took their final stand in the civil war, or so the stories tell I can't be sure of it since every writing on the matter has been redacteted." she looks ahead of the group. "We should be within sight of the shrine in a few moments, it's just up on that hill over there."
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As the you draw near, the shrine’s aboveground extents become apparent—a 2-foot-wide path rises up from the marshy ground, leading to what appears to be a heap of stones and driftwood. The mound has an opening on the southeast side, flanked by two poles sporting gouts of fire that dance erratically in the ocean breeze.
Only the shrine’s interior and the path leading to it are on firm ground; the rest is a shallow bog. The waters of this bog slowly rise and fall with the tides of the river estuary. The difference in depth is seldom more than a few inches, but the constant motion is enough to qualify as running water. The shrine’s dome is 8 feet high.
Jack looks in interest at the two strange fire-spouting poles, uncertain as to their function. To Setrona he asks, "Do you think the shrine's keepers will recognize you? I can accompany you if they get aggressive, I suppose, but we probably don't want to start a fight here."
Turning to his comrades he asks, "Anyone else feeling diplomatic?"
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"Truth be told I've never been here myself, but my cousin told me it was a safe refuge for his order. The keepers are to what I remember him telling me a couple of old oracles which might see strangers not associated with the order as someone to look out for in these times. But I'm sure we can convince them otherwise and if that not works we'll just have to ne creative in our approach." Setrona answers Jack looking ahead of the party.
"Hmm...not a whole lot of places for the lictor to be hiding, are there?" Jack quips quietly, half-jokingly looking up into the branches of the three wind-whipped trees near the shrine before focusing his eyes more on the shrine itself.
Jack informs the others of the two people waiting at the shrine and asks how they'd like to proceed. "It might be counterproductive if we approach en masse: A group of well-armed fishermen might spook them," he adds with a grin.
"Seriously, though, I think Setrona should be among those who approach the two guards: she knows the lictor best and might be able to pass some sort of secret message that'll prove to the lictor--if he's even here--that we're friends and mean no harm. I'll go with her. Anyone else want to come along?"
" I dont like squishy toes. The swamp stinks. Let's go and get this over with."
She said making a face. She did pause watching the nightingales with a smile. Birbs were great.
"You have one of those familiar things right Melly? Did you like have to catch it or did it just show up?"
"Setrona if you would be so kind as to join me. We'll go and speak with the people in the shrine." Lena goes in front of her to the shrine.
"Hello. How do we enter? We'd like to worship."
Lena looks at Setrona with a raised eyebrow? Is that your cousin? she seems to ask.