Rubin, reloads his crossbow, and takes another shot at the remaining thug. The bolt pierces the man in the leg. He stays up, and takes another swing at Kraull, but misses by a mile as the pain jolts through his leg as he twists his body for the attack. Right after the attack, the man falls down from the wounds he has taken.
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Tsai, still surprised at how everything has turned out, looks at the three of you and you can see him take a very visible *gulp*, as he looks on at Chef, ad the very formidable Kraull.
Hey...Hey...we can talk about this right? You don't have to take me to whoever sent you right? How about I double whatever you are being paid, to just let me go. Come on guys, lets be reasonable here, as you can tell he wants NO part of going to wherever you wish to take him.
Well, you *might* be able to buy your way out of this situation with the right information. Why don't you tell us who it is that's after you, and for what, and what you know about this "Authority" gang and their boss. If you have the information we need, maybe we won't have to take you back to him.
Chef looks over at Rubin. I think that is a good way to lose some fingers by letting him go.
While the others deal with Tsai, Kraull busies himself with looting the bodies of the thugs.
This is what adventurers do in all the stories, right?
Each thug was wearing leather armor, carrying a club and had a dagger each in their boot. They each had 2 gold coins, and 5 silver each.
Tsai, looks over at Rubin, and seeing as he has no other choice, figures he would give anything a shot.
Ummm...so.that.is.who.sent.you? Miles, the boss sent you to gather me. All I owe him is a few gambling debts. I took a line of credit, lost it and now I owe him 400 gold pieces. As far as what I know about him, its what everyone else knows. He has his fat fingers in everything: gambling rings, forgeries, drugs, slavery. He calls himself "The Authority" for a reason, cause nothing goes on without permission from him. He is "the authority" for our shitty little town, but we still love it here.
After a few moments, You don't seem like the usual bunch Miles sends to do his errands. You new or somethin'?
Kraull takes a dagger for himself, and the gold to be distributed later by someone better at arithmetic.
He looks poised to tell the man to shut up, but looks to his companions for guidance in case they're going somewhere with this.
Who we are doesn't matter. You are wanted alive, if you were wanted dead we wouldn't be talken like this since maken someone dead is the message rather than getting any gold or stuff.
That's all the information you've got? I hope you've got something better to tell His Majesty the Authority, cause that's where we're going next. Now do you prefer to come with us conscious and upright, or dragged like a sack of bruised potatoes?
Rubin gestures to Kraull to be ready in case Tsai chooses the latter option.
Setting his greatclub aside for a moment, Kraull cracks his large knuckles for effect.
Hey...you said you might let me go. You know what your new boss does to those who owe him?! He will cut off my fingers...LITERALLY!! What can I do to have you lose me?
well I sure don't have 400 to cover you, and it will be our fingers if we show up empty handed.
Kraull shrugs, as nuance isn't his strong suit, "Give us something we can use that's worth the risk of letting you go."
I'm not happy about turning you over to the goon squad, but we're working for the greater good, in our own way. Surely you knew what you were getting yourself into when you borrowed money from such a shady character, and from the looks of it here, from other even more unsavory elements. Considering that you might not be alive if we hadn't shown up just now, the loss of a few fingers shouldn't seem so great.
Rubin tries to justify all this to himself and to Tsai, without much success.
Chef looks rather doubious at Rubin's 'greater good' viewpoint and sighs. I dunno if this is really somethin I want to be involved in. He thinks.
But...but...but Tsai stammers on.Aghhhh, he screams in anger at the given situation.
He balls up his fists, takes up a defensive stance, but then gives in just as quickly seeing Kraull and his bulging muscles.
Fine, I might as well go peacefully
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You head back out of the sewers, and return to the stronghold of The Authority. You are quickly stopped at the entrance, but allowed to pass once they see who you are and who you brought with you.
You are taken down a series of corridors, all in varied widths and lengths. You cone to a 40x40 foot room, and Miles is sitting in a chair. He looks up from his paperwork, and a shocked look crosses it.
Well, I'll be damned! You actually found his sorry ass. I didn't think it could be done. Tsai, you are a hard man to find. You owe me some money brother. How would it look if I gave you a pass, other would think they get a pass too. That's bad for business.
Miles, looks to the three of you, and tosses a bag to each of you. Inside the pouch is 100 gold pieces.
Hey; big greenie. Time for you to get your feet wet. I want you to take the dagger on the table there, and cut 4 of his fingers off. I will even let him with 4 to give, and they can be separate hands. Then after greenie is done, Chef, you can patch up the blood so he don't die.
Miles, looks at you Kraull, with a look of 'get to it'.
Uh.heh He..Yea, I'll fix you up. Chef nervously makes an extract of CLW as an infusion.
After quickly depositing the gold coins in his belt pouch, Kraull looks to his two companions as if waiting for one of them to say something helpful.
"How about I just beat the ever living crap out of him instead? That's more my style."
Uh yea, isn't breaken arms what crime bosses do? If'n he can't wipe his butt without beggen for weeks, that'll teach him.
Miles looks at the two of you. He is just about to pipe up, when two guys come barging into the room, and both in unison yell the exact same thing,
With those words, Tsai is shoved into the corner as Miles shoves past him and looks at you three, DAMNIT all to hell. How did they find us?! We gotta get the hell outta, before the Shield catches us. Follow me!
Miles, despite being overweight, manages to move fairly fast for a big man. You go down winding corridors, and past a few random battle between members of The Authority and people who are from this new orginization called The Shield.
After a very stressful few minutes of running, you escape out another secret entrance/exit. When you are outside of the danger, How did The Shield find us? He wonders for a good 10 or so minutes, his eyes turn narrow like daggers, and his anger turns to you. [b]YOU, YOU turned me over to The Shield. Hmph, I new it was too goo...
His words cut off at an odd time. As you focus on Miles as he falls down to the ground, you see a man, almost shimmer into existence as a dagger is pulled from Miles kidney region of his body. You focus on the new man's image, and it is none other than the man who was the right hand man of Miles.
He wipes his blade on his tunic, he than looks to you, Hey girls. Which one of you wants to die first? I need to get back to my new role as leader of The Authority. Shame it had to be like this, but I needed a distraction. It may not have been my ultimate plan, but I will have to work.
Initiative:
Chef
Rubin
Kraull
Me
Tracker: Round 1
Chef: go
Rubin: go
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Me:
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Kraull:
Chef throws a bomb in the dude's face.
Rubin mumbles a few words and tosses a pat of butter at the thug's feet . He readies his crossbow to fire a shot off next round.
Let's take him alive and take him back to the Captain. Surely he has some useful information. And where did Tsai run off to?
The thug, stays on his feat, and carefully moves out of the area of the spell, but not before Chef hurls a bomb that explodes in his face. He than stabs with his dagger at Kraull, still trying to get into the fight. The dagger digs into Kraull's soft abdomen area and leaves a nasty wound.
Tracker: Round 1-2
Chef: bomb round 1, go round 2
Rubin: grease round 1, go round 2
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Me: attacked FF Kraull round 1 for 9 daamage
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Kraull: go round 1
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Damage:
Thug: 6
Kraull: 9
"You die now." Kraull says simply as he looks down at the hole left by the dagger and then swings his greatclub at the man. Afterwards he shifts over 5 feet to provide a possible flank for the others.
Rubin winces at the crushing blow that Kraull delivers. Rubin lunges with his dagger, attempting to subdue the ambitious scoundrel, but keep him alive.
Give up now, if you know what's good for you. We don't want to have to kill you!
Kraull crushes the man over the head, but he just smiles at him. Rubin than flanks the man but misses his ribs by inches.
Chef whacks at the man with his mace.
Rubin stabs again at the man's midsection. Man this guy's got a hard head. Hopefully he has some squishy guts.
Both Rubin and Chef try their best to inflict pain on the man, but he is too quick and sidesteps both attacks. He retaliates with a strike of his own. The dagger slides against the armor of Rubin.
Tracker: Round 2-3
Chef: morningstar miss round 2, go round 3
Rubin: weapon miss round 2, go round 3
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Me: miss rubin round 2
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Kraull: go round 2
Chef keeps bashing!
Kraull also keeps on bashing.
Phew! That was close. This armor is coming in handy after all. Stabby stabby!
Rubin's previous ethical qualms about harming his fellow men wash away in a wave of adrenaline and satisfaction, as he finally connects his weapon with a perfect scoundrel.
Rubin finds a soft spot in the man's armor and while he is distracted by the seemingly large club wielded by Kraull, Rubin thrusts it into the thug's lower back the man collapses in a heap, blood starting to trickle down the back of his leg.
On the thug, you find a masterwork dagger, a few copper coins, a few gold coins, and a vial with a green-hued liquid. Stamped in the front of the goal is what appears to be a cat.
Chef counts the coins.I guess we will need to find awizard to tell us what this weird vial is. What do we do now?
"Let's go back to our real boss before I'm ordered to hack off fingers again." Kraull suggests as he cleans the gore off his greatclub.
Chef concentrates real hard on the vial to find out what it is.
I agree, let us skeedadle since this place is going to get very uncomfortable for us.
Chef identifies the vial as a potion of cat's grace.
This potion makes you more nimble!
It is about a week's travel on foot, maybe they have horses back at the dead guy's place we can..um..borrow.
"I'm fine with that, let's see if the guy has a stable." Kraull agrees.
Chef makes a quick CLW Infusion for Kraull since he looks pretty beat up
"Thanks Chef, I'd carry more healing on me, but most people charge way too much for it."
I also agree, the farther and the faster we get away from here the happier I will be. Traveling all the way to Jasper with this lunkhead is going to be extremely unpleasant, but I think we should make the attempt. I hope you don't mind, Kraull, keeping him in check if he gets belligerent? I don't see the harm in helping ourselves to his belongings, for our trouble. Chef, what do you say we flip a copper for first dibs on the dagger or the potion? Kraull can have the coin and the guy's armor .
Chef flips a coin for the dagger Heads=1 Tails=2 Heads
Doesn't seem to be any armor.
He was also wearing masterwork chain shirt under a dirty old cloak.
Well no wonder I had trouble poking him. It didn't help keep his noggin getting crushed by Kraull, though. What are you bashing these guys with anyway, is that a tree trunk? I'll take this nice shiny dagger then, Chef can have one of my old ones, if he wants, along with the potion. Maybe you should take the money as well, since it looks like Kraull and I came out ahead in this lottery. Now how about those horses? At this point I'm even willing to buy them if we have to.
Rubin seems to be unaware of the rather sharp change in his own moral compass.
I fine with my own dagger, thanks. The potion is very nice.