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@Raikdar: The two men look at eachother, then back to Raikdar. The smaller, with eyes like a rat, says angrily "What's our business to you, eh?" He moves to stand, but his friend's hand stops him.
The larger fellow, bearded and round, stands up. He offers in a welcome tone, "We've stopped a moment to collect ourselves, but I assure you, if there is some issue we'll step out immediately."
You get a bad feeling about these two. When Beardo stands up, you can see that he has a length of chain connected to a pair of manacles behind him.
Behind you, the rain clatters against the rooftops and forms puddles in the muddy street.
@Hania: You slip unnoticed into the second and then third floor. Despite the fact that you can't quite recall when Lukain said it, you remember the room number-- 37. Approaching the door, you silently pick the lock.
... z
Inside, it seems a simple inn room. You slip inside and shut the door behind you. You can see a group of bags sitting on the ground beside a comfort chair, an unstrung bow sitting atop the bed and a quiver full arrows laying beside it. An armoire stands at the far end of the room, a golden holy symbol of Erastil hanging from the knob on a beaded loop.
You notice immediately that the window is half-open. The sound of rain and smell of it enters the room, water beading on the windowsill and trailing down the glass. But what's alarming most of all is that you can see that the holy symbol is moving, slightly, though there is little wind to turn it. A soft sound inside the armoire tells you that someone is inside of it right now.
"Yes, loosely," she said, matching his volume, trying to appear as unthreatening as possible. "And I can respect someone who would want to keep their clients private, especilly in a city like Korvosa where you're far better off not knowing what people are up to. But there's someone in danger, possibly dead. I can't say she's too worked up over her safety now."
She realized Hania wasn't with her, and had to hide a smile. She'd simply stall the innkeeper, whether successful or not, until she'd finished with the room.
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Ovidio scratches his chin while listening to Rhiannon speak, and then nods. "The people who spoke to me earlier told me that it was just a missing person... I'd heard no mention of corpses until now. Many of my rooms are permanently rented for those who wish for a safe place in the city, and I was worried that the damned Field Marshal was trying to dredge up evidence on a crime not yet committed."
He snaps a finger to a serving girl, telling her to keep watch over the bar. "You speak of danger and death? There's nothing more important. However, as I cannot trust you entirely, I won't be having you go alone. I'll accompany you up, then," he says, raising a ring jingling with small keys from his apron pocket.
Rhiannon kept her expression as stoic as possible. "There's no hurry, sir. I do have some other questions that we could tend to first, while we wait for my friend. I believe she's gone outside, sometimes she needs a quick breath, but her sight is impeccable, and I'd like to make the trip up only after she's returned. Among the other women who have gone missing, an actress named Iszanna Imoroa was also said to have been here a few times. Does the name ring any bells for you?"
Percivel smiles at the girl and turns to Uriel. "We should interview the others. Something about this mysterious suitor is off."
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He raises an eyebrow and you can tell that this man is sharp-- he seems to feel that something is off. "I have a few regulars and that name doesn't ring any bells; Unfortunately, unless they've purchased a room in the inn, I cannot tell you if they've been here. And even if they have, it might take days to peruse through the record books to find it, and then those who wish to stay hidden would just use a pseudonym."
"Actress, you say, though? Perhaps too high class for my establishment. Fetch your friend, then, quickly, and we'll proceed. As the Master of the First Vault says, time is money, milady." He seems... insistent.
Hania slowly investigates the room and acts like she does not notice the person in the armoire. She looks over everything casually as if she is not finding what she is looking for.
"If I confront them I possibly face someone stronger than I. Thing is, I don't know who is in there. What to do. What to do.
After a few seconds, caution wins out and Hania silently retreats from the room and goes back downstairs.
"How about a tiefling? Every one of the women who've gone missing have been spotted with a devil-tailed tiefling. Have there been any around lately? Or people speaking in Abyssal?"
She knew he was onto her, and couldn't stall out any longer. "Very well. I understand fully; you're doing us and the city a great favour by allowing us into the room to begin with, so I don't want to keep you longer than I have to." She followed him out of the kitchen, holding her breath.
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@Raikdar: There's a loud bang on the stables roof above you, and both of the men look up at the roof. They look down to you and you are entirely certain they're nervous.
@Rhiannon: Ovidio walks out from behind the counter, up to the stairs. With a firm 'Pardon me' to a lingering patron he continues up to the third floor. "Abyssal? Couldn't tell you if I tried. Seen a few tieflings here, but they keep to themselves. No sense in running them out like they do at the Turtle or the Traveling Man. No memory of a tail, though, sounds like it'd stick out. The priestess's room is on the third floor. I'd be pleased if she had a name, but if what you said is true, it's possible we may never learn it."
@Hania: Descending the stairs, you can hear a man's voice echoing up it... the innkeeper. "... but if what you said is true, it's possible we may never learn it." In just a few seconds he'll round the corner of the stairwell and he'll be looking right at you, and by the sound of the stairs creaking, he has someone with him. What do you do?
Hania acts instantly. She shifts to a human male of 45 and reverses her cloak as she does so. She begins walking with a noticeable limp.
As she passes by Rhiannon she winks at her.
Rhiannon catches the wink, and all of her nervousness fades away. Speaking a little louder than needed, she says, "I'm sure if we wait here, my friend will be back from catching some air shortly."
"Tht's a shame, about the tail. Although I don't know how solid a lead it is myself; the guard's given us some fragments to work with and I'm ot entirely sure what any of them are worth yet." She sighed and nodded, looking behind her shoulder for Hania. "Hopefully we could find her name on her things. I would hate to never be able to give a family closure."
"If you're not a stable-hand here, little enough." Raikdar tells the beady eyed man. Raikdar shifts into a fighting stance. If Rat-Eyes wants a fight, he is facing the right man.
Then Beardo speaks up.
"I'd not be the one to shoo you out into the rain." Raikdar tells the man in a pleasant voice. "I'm looking for the stable master here, is all."
Raikdar notes the manacles that Beardo is trying to hide. I think I smell a rat in Old Korvosa.
Raikdar steps back, so he has his back is to the wall, next to the door. His adrenaline begins to rush as he ponders what to say next.
Then he hears the thumping from above. And now I hear one.
Drawing his sword, he says: "Maybe you two lumps should move along after all."
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@Raikdar: As Raikdar draws his blade, the two men look back and forth at eachother before their hands go up, palms facing Raikdar. "Of course, we'll leave right now," says the bearded man pleasantly. "Didn't mean to be a bother!"
With a clatter, a man drops from the stable roof into the doorway. Soaked with rain water and with a hood in his eyes, he holds out his hand to show a glittering holy symbol of Erastil. "I gots it!" he declares. "He weren't there, though. But we needa split else, almost nickered, I was!" the skin-and-bones man spits before realizing, wide-eyed, that Raikdar is there.
Beardo cusses. "You blew it, you worthless guttersnipe!" he roars at his ally before his hand goes to his belt.
-Beardo
Rat-Eyes
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Worthless Guttersnipe
Raikdar watches Beardo and Rat-Eyes draw their weapons fumblingly from their cloaks and belts, turning to face him with dangerous eyes and malicious intent. Worthless behind him goes "What? OH!" before fumblingly looking for a weapon.
@Rhiannon: "Agreed," agrees Ovidio as he reaches the room-- 37. Spooling through the keys, he finds the right one and tries it in the lock, popping the door open.
Inside, it seems a simple inn room. You can see a group of bags sitting on the ground beside a comfort chair, an unstrung bow sitting atop the bed and a quiver full arrows laying beside it. An armoire stands at the far end of the room, its doors thrust open to reveal it is empty, a pool of rainwater collecting at the bottom of it.
The sound of rain and smell of it enters the room through the completely open window, water beading on the windowsill and trailing down the glass.
As Ovidio lets Rhiannon into the room, she can hear a clatter from outside. She can hear someone shout "You worthless guttersnipe!" from the stables.
Ovidio looks surprised, charging the window, inspecting it quickly. He turns to Rhiannon, shocked. "Thieves! The window lock is broken-- they must have used something to open it! We must stop them!" He spins around and prepares to run back down the stairs to the first floor.
@Hania:
@Everyone Else:
Hania: Nice save! I'm interested to know what you do as well!
Either way, if you're taking a direct route to figure out what's going on, let me know and roll into Initiative as well (or not!).
Hania: Nice save! I'm interested to know what you do as well!
Either way, if you're taking a direct route to figure out what's going on, let me know and roll into Initiative as well (or not!).
Rhiannon runs to the window as Ovidio bursts out, looking at the broken lock, but most importantly, outside to where the noise is.
Uriel just nods at Percy. The man was right but he didn't ant to talk about it all in front of girl. "Could you send in the next one, your stage magician if you please." The director had said the man might know more.
"The usual odds."Raikdar mutters to himself. Rats always run in packs don't they?
Reaching into his belt pouch, Raikdar's fingers find the carefully rolled tubes of paper he needs. Three tubes bound together with a bit of twine. Raikdar has several such packets in his pouch, and he makes sure they are on top of the other odd items that occupy his spell component pouch.
So, it is a small matter to produce the packets. With a practiced twist of his fingers, Raikdar bursts the paper and sends a shower of red, yellow, and blue chalk-dust towards Beardo and Rat-Eyes. As he does this he adds in a conversational tone:"Rubrum flavo caecus somno hyacintho stupefaciunt." Causing an instant flash of tri-colored light to bathe the two miscreants.
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@Hania:
@Rhiannon:
@Raikdar: Raikdar watches Beardo and Rat-Eyes squint at his strange parlor trick. Beardo laughs out "Magic won't--" before the light explodes across them, dancing in waves.
When the color clears, Beardo is face-down in the muck of the stables but Rat-Eyes has his face shielded with his hand. Glancing up, he shouts "You killed him!" to Raikdar before turning to Worthless and calling out "Get behind him! Flank!"
Worthless Guttersnipe shouts out "I think I dropped it!"
Rat-Eyes face screws up in confusion and disgust and he almost screams "Dropped it?! Your--"
"My dagger! It's gone!"
They share a moment of incredulity. Beardo bubbles in the half-flooded mud.
Beardo (down for 5 rounds)
Rat-Eyes
-Rhiannon
-Raikdar
Worthless Guttersnipe
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Elanna takes her leave of the room, returning to the stage-- she informs the skinny Varisian with the drawing pad that he's wanted for questioning, and the man folds his pad of paper carefully and slips into the backstage quietly.
Knocking before entering Iszanna's dressing room comes a young Varisian man in commoner's clothing. He's carrying a pad of paper and a charcoal pencil and seems... attentive. His blue eyes flit from both of your faces, like he's trying to memorize them. "Zachariah, strangers," he says, gesturing to his chest and then holding out his hand to both Percivel and then Uriel. "You asked to see me? By name, in fact, I heard. Interesting. A suspect? Did someone attribute that I was a key witness? Apologies. I'm sure you wanted to interrogate me instead."
He stands still in place for a moment as if he's lost himself before sitting down on one of the tops of the vanity, perching with his feet on the chair beneath him. He unfolds the pad of paper, revealing a number of smudged caricatures drawn across it.
Percivel looks at the sketch pad with interest. "Tell me, Zacariah, have you ever seen the mysterious suitor that Iszanna was seeing? Might you have a sketch of him? Oh, my pardon. I am Percivel, a servant of Shelyn."
Hania will immediately make her way outside. As she passes through the doorway she will ready her hand crossbow. Once outside, she will make her way to the side of the building that the window would have faced.
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@Hania:
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Speeding out the steps and out the door with a hand crossbow in tow, you catch a few odd looks from patrons along with Ovidio's cries of "Thief!" but no one tries to stop you. As you burst onto the porch, the old devotee of Gozreh looks surprised and holds up his open palms to you, but you're already speeding around the side of the inn. As you come to see what you can only assume to be a rain-wet guttersnipe at the stable doors, you ready your crossbow...
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@Percivel: Zachariah looks surprised. "You know about her clandestine affair? You're quick," he says, and shakes Percivel's hand. "A patron of the arts? This makes more sense than it did a second ago."
"On the topic of the man she was seeing? He was... half a man, and not a halfling. Half devil. Hard to miss these kinds of things, especially since... well, nevermind."
"I can do one more than show you a drawing, though. With your permission, may I cast a spell?" he asks, politely stepping down from his perch mere moments after taking it.
Percivel looks to Uriel, raising any eyebrow to see if he disapproves. "Please, go on. And tell us anything you might have seen or suspected about this half-devil man."
Rhiannon climbs out of the window, grabbing her bow from her back as she got into position at the edge of the stable roof. She sucks in a breath and goes into full ham mode. "Hold, thieving slime, lest I fill your bloated, shambling body so full of arrows your own mother will mistake you for a target practice mannequin!
With her other hand, she draws a stick of butter from the pouch on her belt and begins chanting in that same loud, over-dramatic voice as she casts Grease.
Uriel shakes the man's hand when he reaches out, "Uriel Felar, servant of the Empyreal Lords." Introducing himself that way was strange to him but he figured he'd follow Percival's example.
The mentioning of a Tiefling or possibly something with a stronger tie to the hells was intriguing. Many of them ended up following the taint in their blood, though luckily some turned away from it.
Uriel simply nodded when the man asked permission to use magic and took a step back.
Raikdar grins. Beardo is gonna have horse dung in his wiskers. He moves his wrist and the razor-sharp tip of his sword scribes a circle in the air. Raikdar's eyes glint with steely resolves as he tells Rat-Eyes. "He's not dead, but you will be, unless you stand down now!"
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With a cry of "Hey!" the Guttersnipe pulls a wicked looking pearl-handled dagger from his sleeve. A second later, an arcane splattering of goo sends him reeling to the ground. He looks around panicked, trying to find the source of the confusing oil in the heavy rain.
Standing up, the Guttersnipe attempts to slip and slide to Raikdar with an angry expression.
Unable to get traction due to the enormous amount of sour fish grease that covers him, the Guttersnipe slips and falls a second time. "Why is this happening?!" he exclaims with furious anger, attempting to stand again and again but unable to make any progress, toppling over in the dirt.
Beardo gurgles, which seems to signal Rat-Eyes. With a quick, amateurish turn to one side, he brings the dull shortsword up to stab at Raikdar's neck.
At the last possible second, Rat-Eyes changes trajectory and spins wild and blurred. The true purpose of the motion is lost in the moment, but a glop of muck kicks up across Raikdar's face long enough for Rat-Eyes to stab his shortsword, leaving a long gash across the young ex-noble's chest and through his clothing.
Blood drips onto the floor of the stables. Rat-Eyes shouts "There's a spellcaster somewhere, you git!"
Initiative is thusly:
Beardo (down for 4 rounds)
Rat-Eyes
-Rhiannon is next.
-Raikdar
Worthless Guttersnipe (prone)
-Hania
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Zachariah begins to cast a spell, his hands twisting strangely into the air before a foul shape appears in the air before both Percivel and Uriel. A moment later, it coalesces and becomes a man.
Zachariah checks the pad of paper for a moment and it arranges itself-- a long dark cloak moth-eaten and ripped, dirty leather boots, straps, daggers, pale skin and long black hair that frames a pair of crimson eyes. His fingernails are cut neat and trim, and the rest of him looks like it was rolled through a gutter before apparating here. A thin black tail swishes beneath the cloak, with a devil's spade tip. A sword rests on his hip-- elaborate, long and axe-like.
The tiefling has a handsome face and an innocent demeanor despite his strange eyes and dark features. He flicks back the hood of his cloak, revealing that his hair is straight and dark and that his ears are pointed, slightly, like an elf's. He glances to Percivel and laughs quietly before crossing his arms and turning away.
Zachariah gestures to the image, that shrugs indignantly at the two of them. "This is the tiefling that was defiling Iszanna-- not specifically. This is an image of the tiefling that was defiling Iszanna. I do not know his name, nor do I know where he is, but if she has disappeared... It's obvious. If she's missing, he took her. Where? Unknown. Perhaps to elope. Perhaps to sell at a slave auction, or to a human meat distributor. Urgathoa. Nasty business."
He sits back on his perch. The tiefling stands there, appearing annoyed, as if you're wasting his time.
"Questions, questions?"
Rhiannon shoots Rat-Eye.
"Shvoss!" Curses Raikdar, in pain. Gripping his blade in both in both hands Raikdar makes his counterstrike.
Uriel eyes the tiefling up and down, "You think you can do the drawing anyway? That way I can spread it in my area so I can keep women save. I can't really bring this thing here." Besides that he'd simply rather not bring magic there, not of the wizardly kind anyway.
"What can you tell us about miss Imoroa herself? Anything. Mannerisms, habits, quirks, how those changed after he came into the picture."
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Taking a step forward, Raikdar cuts Rat Eyes with a mirror blow that pierces through his chest entire. There's a moment of shock and then the thief drops to the ground, sword clattering out of his hand into the muck. Blood dilutes the water beneath him.
Rhiannon fires an arrow down towards Worthless, planting it in the dirt beside him. The man panics harder, attempting to stand and flee again.
Finally finding traction, he turns and runs away, directly towards Hania-- he sees her hand crossbow and panics loudly. "Get away from me or I'll stick you!" he shouts, but it can hardly be heard through his stammer and the rain.
Initiative is thusly:
Beardo (down for 4 rounds)
Rat-Eyes (-7 HP)
-Rhiannon
-Raikdar
Worthless Guttersnipe
-Hania is next
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Zachariah tears a piece of paper out of the pad and hands it to Uriel. On it is a workable charcoal drawing of the tiefling who stands before you. "You can go ahead and have that. You seem to need it. So you think he's a city-wide threat?"
Zachariah begins to recite personality traits about Iszanna, going to great lengths and exact specifics. His general outlook is that after she met him, she became worse-- tainted-- by some etheric 'evil' quality of the tiefling. She was once innocent, chaste and simple, and the tiefling seems to have taken those qualities from her.
Zachariah describes that he believed the tiefling was up to no good and tried to tail him once, and that he headed east into Bridgefront-- just to watch the tiefling meet another woman in the Shingles and go into her home to, in his words, 'bed her viciously.' Unable to tell Iszanna because he did not want to break her heart or reveal his misdeed, he was forced to simply accept that this was the way things were. Days later, she disappeared.
You can tell that Zachariah, while seemingly innocent, knows a lot about her-- you get a strange vibe from him that tells you that he watched Iszanna very often, and it seems as if he was obsessed with her. Perhaps the tiefling is colored through Zachariah's judgmental glasses, but the accounts, while opinionated, seem truthful.
Hania steadies her crossbow, aims at guttersnipe, and exhales as she pops off a bolt.
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With a start, the Guttersnipe glances down to his chest, where the bolt rests comfortably in his quickly bloodying ribs.
He looks up, annoyed. "I'm not worthless!" he cries paradoxically and...
Beardo bubbles.
Rat Eyes bleeds.
Initiative is thusly:
Beardo (down for 4 rounds)
Rat-Eyes (-8 HP)
-Rhiannon is next, followed by...
-Raikdar
Worthless Guttersnipe
-Hania is next
Rhiannon fires another arrow, aiming right for Worthless Guttersnipe.
Rat-eyes down, Raikdar pauses to clean the blade and scabbard his sword. Stepping around Rat-Eyes he collects up Beardo's manacles, and uses them to chain the man's hands behind his back. Raikdar doesn't just manacle Beardo's hands, he props the fellow up against a vertical post and passes the chain around the pillar. Then he locks in the other wrist. Thus, Beardo's arms encircle the post; the man won't be going anywhere.
This accomplished, Raikdar searches Beardo. It would not do the leave him in charge of his own cuff keys.
Once that is done, Raikdar at last turns to Rat-Eyes to see if the injured man can be saved.
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An arrow slaps into the side of the Laughing Waves beside Worthless, who shouts "Why?!" and sprints in a direct line away from the inn, towards the bridge just north of the Waves that cuts across the canal to Bridgefront.
One of the patrons in the front of the inn shouts out "He just might get away!" as if that helps at all.
The old man laughs "Not very far with a wound like that; good shooting, lad."
Meanwhile, in the stables, Beardo is propped up and handcuffed behind one of the supports. He mutters slack-jawed for several moments as Raikdar looks through his belongings.
You find:
A curious red potion of some kind that glitters in the interior.
Two extra daggers.
Of course, he was carrying his short sword.
Thieves tools.
A small sack of clinking coin-- 25gp in total.
A folded piece of parchment with the words "37B Laughing Waves" with the drawing of the holy symbol of Erastil on it that Worthless has made his ill-fated escape attempt with.
The keys to the manacles-- yes, there we are.
Rat Eyes bleeds...
... coughing once, he seems to hang on to life dearly. Raikdar makes his way over to him, checking him over and wrapping the deep sword wound with the man's own cloak to still the bleeding.
You're certain he'll survive, though when he'll wake up is indeterminate.
Raikdar relieves Beardo of his burdensome sword and daggers, as well as the thieves tools. The lad only gets himself into trouble with those sorts of things. Briefly considering the possibilities, Raikdar decides the potion is a potential trouble-maker as well, and removes it too. He takes the note, but leaves the gold, for now. The coin will be useful as a bargaining chip, that can be taken away, one by one.
After tending to Rat-Eyes, Raikdar removes his weapons as well.
She curses herself for the terrible aim she's been having, and tries to fire another arrow to the quickly scampering away thief.
Unable to make her mark, she tries to see off into the distance for any notable features of him that she could identify him with later.
Seemingly cursed by the gods, she decides to make her way outside to Raikdar and the successfully downed thief the conventional way instead of simply climbing down, as she's wont to do.
Hania enters the stables to assist Raikdar.
"Well, what have we here? Looks like the thief had some friends!"
Looking about, Hania checks to see if there is anything else of note.
Raikdar looks up from where he crouches over Rat-Eyes. "Oh. Hey, Hania. Yeah, I had a mix up with these two. The second story man got away, though. I'm not sure what they were up to. Other than burglary.
Raikdar gestures toward Beardo. "That one there had some manacles, so he probably does traffic in human lives, on the side."
Raikdar spits. He has no use for people of that ilk.
"This one." Raikdar indicates the wounded man. "Took a poke at me with his toy sword. So I cut him down."
Raikdar shrugs. "I told him it would happen, but he didn't listen. Looks like he'll live, anyway." Raikdar says this last with regret. His ribs both sting and ache. He kind of, wishes that he had hit Rat-Eyes with enough precision to send him to a final resting place, in the Boneyard.
"So... Did you get into the room? And was it room 37B?" Raikdar shows Hania the scrap of parchment that Beardo had.
"Tell me of your relationship with Iszanna. You seem ... well aware of her movements and actions."
"It was indeed 37B. And yes, the man took off with the symbol. Not sure why they wanted it though. Hopefully we will find out soon."
"We shall have to pry some info out of them. Maybe when we regroup with the others hmm?"
Hania begins to search around the upper level of the stable to see if anything noteworthy can be found.
If she is out of sight of everyone she will shift back to the girl she was before and reverse her cloak.
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With a start, Beardo awakens. "Wh-what?" he stammers, one eye half-lidded as though his brain has been addled. After a moment, he tries the manacles, slipping through the muck trying to right himself before accepting defeat.
"Seems you've made the best of us," he sighs in baritone as he calms. He glances to Rat-Eyes and says "Poor boy. Knew he wouldn't last long."
Zachariah shrugs. "It's hard to not be aware of a beautiful girl. I was... an admirer of hers." There's a pause as he lets that hang in the air before saying "There are few women in the world who can truly inspire a man such as myself. She was one of them. I truly hope that this event comes to a positive end because losing her would be a tragedy this theater, to wit, the world, doesn't need."
Zachariah glares at the tiefling's image. It's easy to sense malice behind his glare, but to be fair... he does think this person kidnapped (and ate?) a young girl.
Rhiannon comes down, her bow put away lest she accidentally put an arrow through her own eye. She catches up with them, and regards the manacled thief closeley.
"Good, you caught one. We'll still have to pick apart her room still, see if they missed any clues, but perhaps..." She strode up close to him, flicking her wrist to release the dagger hidden in her sleeve. She held it to his shoulder and gave him a twisted smile. "We should pick you apart first."
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Beardo's eyes widen. "Let's not get too hasty, now. Guard should be 'round here in just a few moments and who knows how it might go down if they find you pickin' pieces off me. We can just talk it out, like gentle folk. Just don't hellknight around and actually ask questions fore ya stick me, alright? Alright?!"
He backs his head and neck away from the knife as much as he can, looking ridiculous in the process. "I know things! Tell me what you want!"
Percivel nods at the artist. "Have you any idea where she might have met this tiefling, or where she met for their rendezvous?"
"I can get you into the inn, and I doubt the innkeep will be too concerned about the rat who just broke into one of his rooms, so talk quickly. The moment I stop liking your answers, I'll have you scream them out." She kept the knife where it was, holding it firmly. "Let's start with some basics. Who hired you, and to do what?"
Raikdar stands back, and lets Rhiannon ask the questions. It should be interesting to hear what sorts of things Beardo knows.