Graxlo turns and whispers to Angus "Should we get Goldfist?"
Pai quickly rushes back to the dwarves. "The King is not doing well. Get back here," she says, grabbing the two, and dragging them backstage to where the body was.
"I couldn't see any sign of him in the window.", Garridan says, clambering up onto the roof. He raises an eyebrow doubtfully to see Andre preparing to jump.
"That looks a bit... risky.", he says. Garridan looks down through the skylight to see if there's any sign of things being moved, or even anything to quickly grab to ease the trip across the roofs.
Perception:
Graxlo doesn't budge, "Well then" Graxlo twists his arm back as hard as he can "Lets go visit the king"
Strength Check
Grapple
Yeah, come along, Pal
Angus stands in front of his brother as they walk through the door with the snake.
Pai whispers to the two, if she can get them the slightest distance away from earshot of anyone else. "The King is dead! His throat was definitely cut. I checked him myself!"
Graxlo keeps a firm grip and grimly continues on
Angus nods his head. He continues walking into the room the king lay.
Worm, ye be under arrest. Ye'll hafta make yer case before the Magistrate.
He grabs the man (or uses Manacles if they were issued) and assists his brother, first tearing some cloth from the furniture and gags him and ties his wrists.
Whatever spells ye wish te cast, do it now. Not likely his goons er t'let the boss go easy.
Graxlo grins "Now this'll be fun" Graxlo enhances his weapon with his arcana pool. "Now, just so we all remember who it was tha did this..." Graxlo casts brand on the forehead of Pilts, etching the word 'Killer' onto it.
Unable to move quickly, Allysen hobbles over to the closest thing that can be used as a bench and tries to gentle pry the girl off and get a little more information on the one who supposedly did this.
"Can you tell me why your brother throw a rock at one of the men that came through here earlier."
Graxlo grins "Now this'll be fun" Graxlo enhances his weapon with his arcana pool. "Now, just so we all remember who it was tha did this..." Graxlo casts brand on the forehead of Pilts, etching the word 'Killer' onto it.
Pilts struggles unsuccessfully against your binds, screaming curses loudly before you gag him. There is no one to come to his aid backstage, however, and his cry for help goes unanswered.
Unfortunately, the cry does wake someone - The King. He stirs slightly, looking up drunkenly and stupid. He sees the three of you standing nearby, and sits up abruptly. He coughs and spits, rubbing his neck. As he does so, he removes an unbelievably realistic-looking piece of makeup that appeared to be a slice in his neck. He stares at the four of you for a moment before asking groggily, "Who'd Pilts kill now?" The king laughs nervously, thinking this is all a joke.
Pilts' eyes go wide and he begins to thrash wildly.
Garridan spots a figure huddled in the corner of the room below, but is distracted by Andre.
Andre attempts to make the leap, but his foot slips and he doesn't quite make the leap across the gap. Garridan sees Andre disappear and fall into the gap between the buildings. He hears a sickening thud a second later.
Andre falls to a balcony on the second building, a fall of about 10'.
The girl is calmer, but still a little weepy. "The...the...man...told...him...to...do...it..." she cries. "The man...who looks...like you."
"Ok, this is strange, guys. I could have sworn he was dead. I checked him myself!"
Angus doesn't miss the reference from the drugged king.
That's what we're discussin,ye seen im kilt anyone?
The "King" looks taken a back for a second. He laughs again, assuming you're joking. When he sees your stern faces, his faces goes slack. "Pilts? Kill someone? No way! Never! Pilts...wha's...wha happening?" His eyes glaze over apparently as the effect of his drug kicks back in.
Garridan winces, going to the side of the roof and whispering loudly down to Andre.
"You all right? Listen, he's in the warehouse, I saw him through the skylight. If you can make your way down to street level and find the exits, we might be able to head him off."
Graxlo sits there for a moment, then swears loudly in dwarven. He removes the brand from Pilts head "Next time actually feel tha damn wound, don't jus' look at it!"
Allysen looks puzzled for a moment. This just got a lot harder. How am I supposed arrest a kid that looks like he got bullied into doing this?
"It'll be okay. Did the man look like..." She begins describing Vancaskerkin and his thugs until she gets a nod or a yes.
Apologies Pilts. Looks like her perductions are real enough to fool the crowd. Her free to go.
C'mon, Pai. Leave the Men to their evenin and we'll talk on the value o lookin fer a life beat.
Group 1
Flailing as he makes the jump, Andre desperately tries to find a handhold on the building. Sliding off the roof he gracelessly plummets to the ground. "Uff!" That’s going to leave a nasty bruise, come tomorrow Checking himself over Andre doesn't feel any broken bones, but he can already feel a headache coming on from the rough jar. As Andre hears Garridan, he blearily pushes himself to his feet. He's in the warehouse? Half running, half stumbling Andre looks around at the base of the building for a exit to cover.
Graxlo storms off, mumbling about wasting his time
Come on Pai.
Pai follows behind the two, still confounded by the goings on.
Pilts devolves into a sputtering, cursing and maniacal madman. He is, quite clearly, furious with you three. You miss many of the specific threats, but you do clearly hear "The guards will hear about this. You will be on the streets! You filthy..." He turns his attention to the king and begins to berate him, allowing you to slip out without further harrassment.
You arrive back outside to find Goldfist talking to a group of people. He turns when you approach. "So, did ye find anythin'? Nothin' out here. That Pilts is a snake."
You come back around to the alley where you first climbed the boxes - this appears to be the only ground-floor door to cover.
The girl nods yes. And she appears to be telling the truth.
Once Andre's had enough time to cover the door, Garridan pulls open the skylight and hops inside.
Acrobatics w/armor check penalty:
... or, rather, drops like a stone.
Group 1
Almost arrested Pilts, on account o the king back there looking real dead, but he ain't. Didn't arrest him but he's sooking bout it anyway. Ye got anythin else we need t'stay here for?
Your attempt to jump from the window goes only slightly better than Andre's. As you try to squeeze through the opening into the room below, your gear gets caught on the window ledge and you fall into the room onto your back.
You hear a short burst of laughter, followed by a scared whimper coming from the corner of the room.
Goldfist's face goes dark. "Insultin' him's one thing. Falsely accusin' him's another. Ye might be in a spot of trouble after this. I'll vouch fer ye, but Pilts has some sway. Let's get these Endrin lads home and continue our patrol."
The rest of your control is largely uneventful. There are some drunken brawls that need broken up and some heavily intoxicated folks that need help up off the street, but nothing traumatic or significant.
Twelve hours after your shift began, you head back to the citadel. Much of the celebrations have died down and the city is quiet on your return. You walk through the gates and are almost immediately intercepted by a guardsman. "Please accompany me. The Colonel of the Watch has requested a meeting with you upon your return."
Obliging, you make the short walk up a flight of stairs to the office. Knocking on the door, you're ordered to enter. Inside you see an imposing older man with white hair, intelligence officer Gluckle, Watch Sergeant Soldado, a greasy-looking man you don't recognize and smugly smiling Pilts. The older man speaks first, his voice tired, but distinguished. "We have had a complaint lodged by a Mr. Swastel, here. He claims to have been wrongly accused, physically assaulted and emotionally...what word did you use?...oh, yes, 'molested'." Pilts nods solemnly as the charges are read. [b]"Mr. Swastel demanded to be present with his counsel" (the greasy-looking man, apparently) "to ensure that the truth was spoken by all parties. So, in the interest of expediency, will one of you three - either the brothers Coldforge or Ms. Kromnite - please explain what happened."
Group 1
"Can you tell me why he told your brother to do that? It's okay if you can't. I just want to know."
Allysen keeps her sentences simple and her tone soothing, trying to coax as much as she can out of the girl. After the girl answers, the aasimar pulls the child into a comforting hug, making sure that her hair isn't caught in the rings of her armor. She begins to sing to try and soothe the girl and hopefully keep her from getting hysterically again.
Graxlo was about to retort, but when Pai spoke up he bit his tongue Cmon Graxlo, the guard is one thing, jail is another "Aye, misinformed is all"
Andre bursts into the warehouse door, looking around, he tries to get a handle on his surroundings.
Garridan heaves himself back up, staggering toward the corner.
"Funny, eh? See how funny it is when you've spent the rest of the night in the Citadel.", he says. "C'mon, kid. Fun's over- let's do the responsible thing and nothing worse will come of this."
Aye, weren't assested. Merely detained fer a bit. Soon as we worked out the actor was fine, Mr Pilts there was immediately released. The man's play were quite convincin, a compliment to the mans production. In any case, Mr Pilts, if e's of a mind to tell the truth will attest at no time were he informed o being under arrest. We merely had him accompany us t'see to his actors well bein' he weren't detained not longer than 5minutes Max.
Pilts stands angrily "I was assaulted - branded! - by those dwarves there. They forcibly bound my hands and gagged me. And scrawled an accusation on my forehead in magic! Without cause!" The greasy man tugs on Pilts' arm and urges him to sit. He pipes up, his voice high-pitched and grating.
"Mr. Swastel requests that these three guardsmen either be charged with assault or released from their service in the guard as they are clearly incapable of fulfilling their duties. Furthermore..."
He is interrupted by an angry Goldfist. "Ah, shut yer mouth, you slimy bastard. These three 'ere did their jobs. They were followin' my orders, so if anyone should be in trouble, it'd be me."
The Colonel raises his hands. "Gentlemen, please. Mr. Swatsel, you have the apologies of the guard and we assure that we will look into this matter further to assign the appropriate punitive arrangements. Please, return home and get some rest." He speaks with authority and all stand. Pilts looks as if he's about to speak, but when sees the Colonel's face, reconsiders and simply storms out.
"Pilts is not an enemy to be taken lightly," the Colonel says to no one in particular. "He is quite influential in Old Korvosa. I am afraid some action must be taken against you all, but I am too tired to mete that out right now. Please return to your bunks and you will be briefed before your afternoon exercises. You're dismissed."
The little girl doesn't know anything and merely returns your hug as you begin to sing. She seems to be calmed down.
You see a stairway directly in front of you and can hear Garridan speaking upstairs.
You hear the door burst open below you as the child remains hidden. "The man told me to! I was doing as he told me. It's not my fault!" he whimpers. As you get closer, you see he's holding a small sling and is probably about 12-13 years old.
Garridan crosses his arms, using the same air of stern impatience he would on his younger brother.
"Well, first- hand me the sling and get on your feet and we'll discuss this. What man told you to fire the rock? Do you know him? Do you always do what some stranger tells you to?"
Graxlo shifts a little at the brand comment That might get me in some trouble later.... Generally he stays quiet the whole time, then when they're dismissed he walks over to Goldfist with a little more respect in his voice "Thas quite tha thing ya did there fer us...uhh thanks. I'll try ta do a little better from now on"
Group 1
Bah, the night could a gone a lot worse. We'll take our licks an move on, don't worry about the pair o ye!
Angus returns to his room, glad the shift was over and besides the small incident with Pilts, it went well.
Heart hammering in his chest, Andre bounds up the stairwell willing his legs to move faster and faster. Breathlessly reaching the second level of the warehouse Andre follows the sound of Garridan's voice, though the maze of hallways and rooms. Finally, he bursts into the room where he heard Garridan's voice coming from. Chest heaving he wipes the sweat off his brow with one hand. Sorry... whew... it took... me a... little... while... to get... here.
Graxlo scratches his beard and looks sideways when Pai apologizes "Ehh don't worry ta much 'bout it. Without feelin tha wound I prolly woulda said the same thing. We didn't do too bad a job infiltratin' tho eh?"
Group 1
Goldfist grunts and rubs what remains of his left arm. "Aye, Pilts can cause some trouble, but no need for you young'uns to take the brunt o' it. I shouldn't have left ye to it alone. Ye'll be fine. Colonel is fair. Now go get some sleep."
The boy looks up in alarm as Andre arrives. He grips his sling, but doesn't aim or attempt to move. "I do what the guards tell me to do. I'm a good boy! They were hurting my grandfather and they said they'd stop if I'd do it!" The boy is clearly frightened.
Andre and GM:
Sense Motive:
"So this was a guard? He was wearing a cloak like ours? Be as specific as you can- what did he look like?"
Allysen continues to softly hum the tune while waiting on her comrades to return. She finishes and looks down to see the little girl quite calm.
"Can you tell me what happened when the man told your brother to throw a rock at one of the others?"
Graxlo chuckles "Aye, guess yer magic can be useful sometimes. Well I'm gonna head back to our quarters. I've been trying ta research something all day but I kept getting distracted..." He trails off, muttering magic words and and fiddling with his weapon again.