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The haunting melody wafting from the lute suffers an abrupt and jarring change of pace, from soothing to quick and spunky, as the halfling's fingers pluck feverishly at the strings. As his strumming and fingering increases in intensity and tempo, as he switches his song to a continual string of barre cords, always hammered in powerful downstrokes, implementing a perfect buzzsaw technique.
"Better yet, Halswell," Wrigley shouts to the shop owner, moments after Aeslin. "Just run for it and get out of here. We'll take care of this brute..."
"Well... hopefully..." he says under his breath, panic beginning to peer around the edges of his words.
She hopes that she can get this spell off...
'Please let that, and the misfortune, be enough!'
'I cannot go down. If I do, then Wrigley is wide open. Why didn't he just try the hideous laughter spell?'
A invisible shield of force is created, adding to her invisible force armor. She hopes that this will be enough.
"Let's see if this chump can keep up..."
Baz cocks his head at Gado, thinking. I wasn't expecting that.
"I wasn't expecting that answer," Bazsil says, already moving toward the back door after securing his goods.
"Out the back it is. We'll see if his cohort went to go get help or is watching the back door. Just so we're clear, Gado, we can't lead them back to you-know-where," Baz gives Gado a knowing look. "We have our commitments to keep."
Already loose and limber from being in peak physical condition, Bazsil is ready to start the chase scene.
After shoving aside some silk swaddled lad, (Lass? I can't tell with elves.) Gratum sees a flash of green in the corner of his eye and rushes towards the thief.
A whistle echoes across the street, snapping Barley's attention out of his apple-induced reverie as he trots over to his best friend who climbs on his back.
"Mooo!" Barley exclaims in joy as he feels his head scratched. Some angry man yells behind him, but Barley feels the heels of his best friend push into his sides and he knows that means he is supposed to go where his best friend points.
The yak barrels down the street as people leap out of the way. "Moooooooooooooooooo..." opines the yak as he sees all the delicious food he is passing.
Elon waves back at the rapidly shrinking man in the distance as he chases the pair for a short while. "Soooorry! He loves apples!" Elon apologizes as the merchant doubles over, breathing deeply to assuage his burning lungs.
"Follow that guy!" the dwarf yells as he sees Gratum moves down another alley.
I wonder where that nice halfling fellow got off to...
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Sumaru follows suit with her companions and pushes through the crowd, jaw set determinedly she arrives at the mouth of the dark alleyway, and looks around for the thief.
The thief stops dead in his tracks as he realizes the alleyway is a dead-end. He seems to be looking around for a ladder of some sort, but apparently has either got the wrong alleyway or has forgotten where it is.
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---
Bazsil and Gado open up the back door into the alleyway and prepare to run for it.
The half-orc rushes up to a bear of a man, puffing and panting, "Mister Gammon! They've gone into a shop! Looks like Gado's buying up big."
"Money to spare on trinkets, eh?" the bear-faced man strokes his wild beard, "But no money for Mistress Lanvi. Oh, Gorg, I am going to enjoy this beating so much."
The pair of brutes quickly run back to Rory's Curios, but approach from the rear. Yarvik "Bear-Face" Gammon turns to his subordinate, "We'll set up in this alleyway. When they come out of the door, Norn will chase them to us and we'll jump out and beat the living snot out of Gado... and if his friend tries to stop us, him too."
While the two brutes lie in wait, a door creaks open behind them. They are so focused on the front door of the shop, they pay it no mind. Norn the lookout however, completes another 'nonchalant' circle of his tree and sees Gado and his friend stepping out into the alleyway. "There!" he cries, pointing.
---
While Wrigley starts up another sleep spell, Aeslin makes herself harder to hit .
The shopkeeper looks worriedly around as his customer tries to get him to help. "I-I-I'm just a store owner..." he stammers, "I don't... I can't... oh, very well."
Halswell picks up a lamp and tries to smash it over the Shoanti's head.
Unfortunately, he is no warrior and the lamp doesn't even come close.
"You are to be getting a bigger beating for that, Halswell," boasts the big man as he swings mightily with his fists again, hoping to down the madly laughing woman so he can deal with the apparently ineffectual spell caster in the corner.
"Haswell! Get the city guard, or constable, or police, or whatever you call them here!"
Aeslin contemplates her next move... She was trained in combat casting, but she hadn't had much need to test her skills. For sure, she was more suited to a support role as apparently was Wrigley. But, she thinks, they will overcome this simple thug.
The big tattooed man suddenly feels very sleepy. He sets himself down and curls up into a ball, thumb in mouth, and starts snoring.
"Wrigley. We should tie him up now. And get the police. "
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Wrigley releases his prized lute, allowing it to swing out of his way. Reaching into his pack, he begins to dig through its contents, sifting and sorting through the adventuring gear until he eventually pulls free a coil of silk rope. Scrambling through the shop, the halfling run as quick as his legs will carry him to the sleeping form of the shoanti.
"Halswell," he says quietly, unsure if his words will wake the sleeping man. "Get over here and help us tie up this man!
Once to the shoanti, Wrigley freely holds out the rope to either Aeslin or the shop owner, in case they would like to begin tying up the brute.
The door flies open and a disheveled Ciarán bursts in. "I knew you two would bet into troub..." he begins before taking a surprised look at the sleeping Shoanti, "Oh, well done."
Ciarán helps tie the Shoanti up and then leaves, promising to call the authorities.
Halswell is a trembling wreck. "Authorities? G-g-guards?" he stammers, "W-w-well okay. B-b-but make sure they l-l-lock him up!"
Unsure what way to go, since Gado has never actually gone out the back door and generally sticks to routines, the skinny man does his best to pick through the crowd.
"Excuse me, pardon me please, my apologies, Oh watch out! Yes, so sorry ma'am. I'm in a bit of a hurry, just squeezing past... Hey, didn't I see you at the hall of wonders earlier? I never got a chance to ask your name... Gado Folklo, at your service... Oh what am I thinking, I've got to go! Next time I'll give you a proper introduction m'lady..."
Completely distracted, Gado makes very little progress out of Rory's back entrance.
"Aha! I've got him!" Gratum shouts over his shoulder, as he lunges for the thief.
"Well, that didn't go as expected. What was that all about, then, Mr. Halswell? I expect it was just a brute trying to strong arm you? Should we not have gotten involved.
"Oh, and what discount have we earned by this?"
Elon feels the rhythmic clopping of Barley's hooves hitting the cobblestones with every gallop. "Do ye see which way he went?!"
Elon sniffs the air and the unique cologne of the thief permeates his nostrils. "Ah! He's down there! I smell other dwarf that way too!" yells Elon as he directs Barley down the alley and around a corner to see the thief tussling with Gratum.
"Get him!"
Those words sound familiar as Barley has had some training, but there are two people there!
Barley looks from dwarf to not-dwarf, confused, but his best friend is spurring him into action, so he charges forward, head lowered. "MOOOOOOO!"
The yak charges into the thief (luckily) as he tries to knock him into the wall.
Barley slams into the man and sends him flying!
Halswell, begins picking up the bits of his shop that were used as weapons and whatever had been knocked over in the struggle. "Yes, he and his boss, Fellock, run a racket around here. Fellock's a tiny man - not a halfling or dwarf, but not far off - who will be lost without the Shoanti here and his men that those adventurers I hired finished off. Thank you, thank you so much for what you have done. I wish there was some way I could repay you..."
"Oh, and what discount have we earned by this?"
"Discount? You would rob me too?" Halswell seems to recover his business voice, "Ah, very well. I suppose... ten percent is reasonable?" He looks at Wrigley and CIarán as the two expertly tie up the Shoanti who moments ago had him by the throat, then over to Aeslin with a sour expression on her face, 'Very well, twenty percent... but only on non-sale items!"
---
Gratum grabs for the thief, but is unable to get a hold of his satin cloak and his hands just slip off.
Moments later, Barley hammers into the thief, and he smashes into a wall.
Sumaru carefully picks her way thorugh the alleyway and after the thief. .
The green-and-gold garbed man looks worried with all these foes harrying him, but picks himself up off the ground and quickly clambers up the roof .
---
Round Surprise!
"Excuse me, pardon me please, my apologies, Oh watch out! Yes, so sorry ma'am..."
Bazsil watches as the little man asks for permission to get by...asks!
"Do not ask, Little Man...just follow me!" Bazsil says oozing with confidence.
Know Local
"Foolish little man, we should be going...right this way--" Bazsil leads them into cul-de-sac. Bazsil backs up, going no where.
"I clearly had him! Till I saw your charging yak!" Gratum shouts trying to play off his bungle. Seeing his chance to make up for it too, Gratum bounds remarkably high to attempt another grab of the rapscallion, this time on the roof.
But he uses all his luck apparently defying gravity by flying up, and landing on the shingles like no dwarf ever before, and just can't seem to grab hold of the slippery bandit.
To the thief he says, "You bathe in grease today?"
---
While Bazsil meanders ahead - only to end up back where he came from - the half-orc known as Norn follows up his cautionary shout by rushing forwards. Rather than heading directly for the pair, he finds another route that he thinks will put him closer to his quarry.
He rounds a bend and finds himself exactly the same distance from the pair than he was earlier.
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"Heh, did you put your shoes on the wrong feet today?" replies the slippery thief, grinning broadly as Gratum's hand once more slides off his billowing gold-trimmed green satin cloak.
---
"Great job, Barley!" yells the erratic dwarf as he eagerly pet the bovine behind his ears.
"Follow him, buddy!" he commands the yak. "Take that door over there!" he says as he points at an open foyer with a staircase in it.
The yak looks around. "Mooo..." he says unsure of what to do.
As his best friend points him to the door, the yak eagerly bounds up the stairs, his hooves pounding on the stoneworked staircase.
Clippity cloppity, clippity cloppity
They race to the top and see the sunlight through an open door, only to find the thief and Gratum play-wrestling again. Barley knows what to do! He charges the man and tries to knock him back again.
"Take that, ye thief!" Elon yells at the man as his yak charges him.
The thief in green and gold is both taken aback and knocked back with the sudden appearance of the yak. Barley bowls into him and the man is knocked off the edge of the roof. He lands with a sickening thud onto the street below. As the thief goes to stand up, Sumaru looms over him, spear at the ready. He gulps down hard and sheepishly produces Elon's purse.
"Sorry..." he begins.
Just at that moment, a disheveled Ciarán comes barreling around the corner. The door flies open and a disheveled Ciarán bursts in. "I knew you three would get into troub..." he begins before taking a surprised look at the prone thief, "Oh, seriously? Again?" The trio have no idea what he's talking about as the big man simply kicks some dirt in the thief's face and stomps grumpily off back towards the market square.
At that point, Platonius appears also .
---
"Let's take this methodically." The academic says as the two of them look around for a place to escape the searching eyes of the goons behind them.
"Look, we can go here, follow this flow of foot traffic, and... voila! Look, we can lose them down this way." Gado says, talking his way through the problem at hand.
They probably were out of my league... but she didn't scream when I said hi just now! That has to count for something...
"Methodically?" Bazsil repeats the word as if he had never heard it before. "No. I am a man of action. If I wanted to think, then I would not be acting. And there is a time for each...but now is not that time. Now is the time to run as the frog swims!"
Know (Local)
After his earlier misstep, Bazsil quickly orients himself. "I know the way now," Bazsil says confidently, and then moves in a direction. "This is clearly the way."
Bazsil runs a bit more before examining his location and assuming Gado is with him.
"Now, good! Now we climb! TO THE ROOF!"
Climb
Bazsil hops, leaps, and pulls himself up to find a better path way. "Now you do it!"
Yarvik rushes around, trying to figure out which way to go. In frustration, he tries to cow a washerwoman into telling him. Failing that, he smashes that woman in the face and asks her friend. Her friend is much more forthcoming and Yarvik finds him face-to-face with Gado.
"Come here and take yer beating!" he yells, Gado can almost feel his bear breath on his neck, "Ya can't be spending money that ain't yours! Lemme take it out of those items ye bought and maybe I won't tell the mistress!"
Norn once more attempts to navigate a better way to the pair, and has much better luck this time, popping up from his alternative route in as pot that is not too far behind them. He yells at the same washerwoman who promptly gives up the best way through the residential district.
The washerwoman cries in frustration as she directs yet another half-orc towards the fleeing men. Gorg makes a grab for Gado, who miraculously avoids the big half-breed's grasp.
---
"Yeeeeiiip!" Gado lets out a squeal that he is immediately ashamed of for its non-masculine nature. With hardly a thought, he is instantaneously about five feet further away from the brutes trying to grab him.
"What the $&%* are you doing Bear Face!? Don't you know I am supposed to get hired on? This is part of the job, I am buying stuff for my new boss!"
With a look of abject terror on his face, he instinctively casts the spell he just recalled with his pearl of power. "GREASE!" he shouts, and suddenly his clothing is covered in a grey-ish, slimy substance.
The now slick wizard reaches for the rope, the wall, or whatever he can find to climb the wall and follow his new friend who does not appear to be afraid of a fight.
Oof... Just... can't.... pull... myself... up! Oof. whew. Well at least they will think it is because of the grease I can't climb the rope, and not because I am a pathetic weakling.
DC 5: A rope with a wall to brace against, or a knotted rope, or a rope affected by the rope trick spell.
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After the large shoanti is finally tied up, and hearing a sizable discount has been offered, the halfling stands, places both hands on his hips, and stretches his back for a moment. Next he moves to the sprawling mess of Aeslin's packages and begins to collect the scattered garments and boxes, picking each up with care and placing them into delicate, orderly piles.
"So, Halswell," Wrigley beings, once Aeslin's belongings are neatly stacked. "I think I will have to take you up on that generous offer of yours. Perhaps buy some clothing to protect me from the elements. I can't say I'm too keen on the colors though..."
The halfling pauses to pull at the sleeve of nearby shirt, the garish colors of cheliax cause his teeth to gnash painfully together.
"I don't suppose you have any other color options available," he asks, letting the sleeve drop while he unintentionally sighs aloud. "I don't want to go around looking like some slip, now do it? Because I don't think I can effectively pull-off the ironic vibe and make a cultural statement about the chelish's treatment of halflings."
"Oh," he adds perkily. "And based on what happened, even though things looked pretty grim for a moment, how does the shop's new name sound to you now?"
"Halswell that Ends Well..." he says, oddly serious. "It's got a nice ring to it."
Bazsil, seeing Gado approaching, lowers a rope for the man. He figures it gives easy access to the roof and easy escape.
"Come Smart Little Man! Come follow Bazsil, your friend!"
"Yeeeeiiip!" Gado lets out a squeal that he is immediately ashamed of for its non-masculine nature. With hardly a thought, he is instantaneously about five feet further away from the brutes trying to grab him.
At 1st level, you can teleport to a nearby space as a swift action as if using dimension door.
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After sitting and poking at his boots and grumbling for a moment to himself, Gratum gets down off the roof with much more clomping and noise than he did in getting up. Almost as much as the Yak had made.
He then pulls out some rope, and ties up the thief after grabbing the sack of cash saying, "I may be no native to this city, but from what I hear Pediment Building is precisely the place you belong!" Then he turns to Elon and says, "But the boss gave you this money," he hands Elon the bag, "so how do you want to proceed?"
With that Gratum sits down and takes his boots off and switches which feet they were on, then states back to the thief, "You know, they were on the wrong feet!"
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Kerplow!
The man flies a bit farther than intended and falls off the roof as Barley slams into him.
Thud!
Barley moves to the edge and sees the man spasming on the ground below and stands back on two hing legs, pulling down a Grappler's Mask over his snout and horns. Across his studded leather barding, the word 'The Moo-chador' is scrawling in silver and bright red. The yak leaps down the couple stories, slamming into the man in a brilliant style.
Oof!
"Barley..."
Barley puts him into a hooflock as the man struggles to tap out, but not today!
"Barley."
Picking him up in his teeth, Barley begins to spin, swinging the man around erratically in the arena, going for the big finish: Udder Spinning Destruction.
The yak snaps out of his reverie catching himself on his hooves as he is spinning on the rooftop in circles. His best friend is yelling at him to follow him.
"Moo..." says the dejected yak.
Elon leads Barley and Gratum back down to meet up with Sumaru and interrogate the dwarf. "Yay! We got him!" he says joyfully as Ciaran barrels around the corner and then huffs off again in a hurry.
"Psst..." Elon whispers to Gratum. "Do we know him?"
"My gold!" he says with joy as he grabs the purse from the man. "Why did you take it from me? That's not very nice!" he asks the man as Gratum ties him up.
"What happens if we take him to this Pedicure Building, brother dwarf?" he asks of Gratum.
Platonius spots the commotion on the roof and moves to investigate, swinging down to the party on a cut clothing line with a flourish. "Ah-ha! I see you have captured the thief! If you had not done so, I'm sure that I would have in your stead, great Elon. It is good that you handled it, otherwise I'm not sure the man could draw breath!" the halfling says with bravao.
"Ah! Platonius Lightfoot, Esquire! I'm so glad that you were watching out for me! You are truly the best!" Elon says overexcitedly.
"I got my money back!" he says overjoyed as he shows the halfling his bulging purse. "We should go find those guys you said that had cool stuff and such."
"Of course!" he says with a bow. "Who are your friends? Are they also looking for unique and interesting wares?" he says with a charming smile at Sumaru and Gratum.
At 1st level, you can teleport to a nearby space as a swift action as if using dimension door.
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"Sure... sure, Mister Halfling," Halswell replies, clearly still rattled, "Let me help you get the proper fit on those clothes. As for the name of the shop... I kind of like it. Yes, I think I'll rename it! Heh. Sure."
---
Yarvik yells at the washerwoman a third time, and she grows tired of him and lets him through. He easily clambers up the side of the house, "Gado, I don't care where you think you got the money, or who you think it belongs to... Lanvi owns any gold you acquire!" The man is not known for his ability to reason.
Amazingly, Norn manages to get a hold of the slippery Gado and holds him still on the rooftop. "Gotcha!" he cries.
Gorg tries to hoist himself up, but falls back down as the gutter rips free in his hands .
From behind a chimney and over the peak of the roof, a strange rumbling and grumbling sound can be heard, along with the shuffling of clawed feet.
---
"No!" cries the thief, "Not the Hells! I'd never survive down there. Please, I'm not actually a thief," he lies, "It's just that I'm hungry," for gold, "And you were flashing that purse around like it didn't mean anything to you - it was just so tempting!" The truth at last.
A quartet of guards seems to be making their way to the scene, drawn by the commotion.
---
Bazsil drops the rope, looking first at the orc, then at Gado.
"Did you want help?" Baz asks innocently, giving the orc a chance to reevaluate his decision to hold Gado and Gado a chance to decide what he wants to do.
Know local - "Bear Face" and his goons
Gado shoots a worried look at Bazsil when he tries and fails to shimmy his way out of the half-orc's grasp.
"You would be stupid enough to not understand that this money isn't mine! I am shopping for my new boss you twit! Bear-face is too nice, they should have gone with something that reflects your lack of brains." Gado shouts, fully believing his little white lie about the money not truly being his. It was for the expedition after all...
This time Gado manages to slide out of the grasp of the goon. He spins to face him the same time he blinks backwards once again, trying to close the gap between himself and his new greatest-friend-in-the-whole-world-who-isn't-afraid-of-a-fight.
"No!" cries the thief, "Not the Hells! I'd never survive down there."
Gratum hears a shred of his own voice in the plea of the tied up thief, and thinks to himself, It's just a prison how bad could it be, didn't such a place reform my own misguided youthful self? Or was that the mines and the army, the adventures of fortune...
He hands his bag of gold to Elon saying just loud enough only for the dwarf, "להחזיק את זה לרגע, למקום בטוח,
ולעמוד מאחורי היאק שלך"
and stand back behind your yak."
Then he stands the thief up against the wall, and grabs him firmly. "Kid, if you don't want to end up in 'The Hells' don't move, and play nice for a few minutes. And this might still be a profitable day for you... what's your name?" He unties the kid, still holding onto his shoulder firmly, and nods to Sumaru to put away her weapon.
Then he waves to the guards, "Hello officers. Sorry if we caused a bit of a commotion there in the square. We had a little bit of a business misunderstanding. But it's all settled now. Again sorry about the all the running and hollering."
Bazsil watches with amusement as Gado wiggles free of the half-orc. He notes the look of panic an Gado's face and decides to take action.
"I have decided to help you, Smart Little Man," Baz says as he flicks his oiled curls.
"And I think I am done playing with you, Half-Orc," Bazsil says. "My little friend has told you he does not have what you want or what you seek. And now you are close to annoying me. Go tell your boss to go away, lest you make me angry."
With that, Bazsil gives a strong straight legged kick to the chest of the half-orc who recently climbed upon the roof (hence, unarmed).
CMB vs. CMD (Bull Rush) - off the roof!
Bazsil then readies his hammer should the goons not take the hint.
---
Bazsil doesn't recognize Yarvik "Bear-Face" Gammon or know anything about him. Nor does he know anything about Gorg or Norn.
---
The guards nod to Gratum and move along warily.
"My... my name is George," says the thief, before asserting himself, "And I'm no kid - I'm fifteen! What do you want me to do? Anything but prison in this city." Gratum notices the thief's strong native Varisian accent.
---
Bazsil sneers at Bear-Face, making an introduction of his foot to Yarvik's face.
"You will let go of the Smart Little Man or I will be angry," Bazsil readies his hammer.