With a bit of a nudge from Varuzhan Miranda realizes that the hard unscratched metal of the puzzlebox is in fact adamantium, the star-metal known for its unscratchability and uh hardness. That does make sense! Miranda noted. Completing her examination of the cube she holds it up for all to see.
"It's made of adamantium!" She frowned a bit "Also I can't get it to open..." Not right now at least. Maybe if she had a good few evenings to sit down with it? But it wasn't really the time or place. But I *will* see what is inside! For now she put the puzzle down and turned back to the iron coffer whose secrets she was comfortable to pry into the open a bit quicker!
"Varuzhan, could you give me a hand ...?"
Aldous stands, nodding to the prisoner. "I'll of course need to mention your offer to the others, but it seems amenable to me."
Walking over to the rest of the group looking over the items in the crates, Aldous whispers, "Gregory has offered a deal. He can pass misinformation onto the Dottari for us. He'll do it one time in exchange for his head remaining attached to his body. I think it is a good offer. We just need to see where he lives if... when we get out of here, to follow through on the offer. And for the implicit threat that we can find him if we need it."
Nodding to Nissim, Aldous frowns slightly. "I can see what I can do. Perhaps I can unravel their true nature. Please, call me 'A' when nearby Gregory."
Waiting on a benediction from the Strix, Aldous takes the bracers, thrusting his consciousness into item. The bracers spoke to him, in a manner of speaking at least. The barrister understood implicitly that they existed to protect the wearer, perhaps through some form of deflection or force.
"Our friend N. here is correct. They protect the bearer's whole being."
"Likewise the padded leather, as N. says. It has been enchanted to be tougher, more difficult to pierce."
"The bolts are designed to hit an enemy with greater force, and to do more damage"
"Ahh, interesting. The cloak's wearer can blend in with his or her surroundings, much like those wondrous Mwangi lizards."
"Huh. The helmet is at once a helmet and not. It can be whatever headpiece the wearer desires, and the wearer can appear to be another as well. It isn't a physical transformation, but rather a trick of the eye."
Handling the ravens for a long while, Aldous simply shrugs. "They don't tell me anything at all. I'm sure N's intuition is correct, given that he was on the platinum with the bracers and leather."
Miranda takes a moment off when the rest of the loot is identified and her Guidance is taken from her. She studies Aldous intently as he worked. As opposed to Nissim earlier, he seemed to *listen* to the items ... Something that she hadn't met many that would.
One he was finished she snatched the oversized helmet and briefly turned into a giggling mini-Boros before handing it back. "Certainly works!" she noted. Another thought also struck her and she opened her satchel unloading the Gnome's wand and the Silver Amulet-Key. She handed the items to Nissim and Aldous and nodded. "Why don't you take a look at these too now that we have a breather?"
Then she went back to working on the iron coffer.
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As the salvaged rebel gear is inspected and identified, Boros grows steadily more impressed by what the group has found. It seems the rebel had a really good supply chain going for them. Running his fingers over one of the little raven figurines, he looks at the other group members thoughtfully. "So we've found a bit o' loot then, all that remains is to parcel it out. It's meant to be used, after all, and does no good stuffed in a sack." Boros is about to say more when Miranda puts on the helmet and transforms, which unnerves him considerably. Shuddering, he carefully puts that image out of his head and instead addresses Aldous' thoughts on the informant's usefulness. "Fine idea, but yer missin' an obvious point here. We turn him, and keep him, we get an ear into the Dottari's information gathering; we hear what they hear through Gregory, and we hear it first. Further, he likely has some knowledge about other informers in his area, which we can use." Boros then snorts in amusement as he glances toward the bound man. "And this foolishness about names and all, he probably already has ours. We were bein' pretty free with callin' out to each other upstairs, if ya recall."
Walking over to the bound man, Boros stares wordlessly down at him for several moments while idly running his fingers over that little raven he's still holding. Coming a decision, he tucks the raven into a pouch, squats down, and begins untying the informer. "Congratulations are in order, citizen, ya just made it worth our time and effort to see ya stay uneaten. What a joyous day, yes? Here's how yer work'll go from now on. Ya keep tellin' this Captain Hunter what ya hear and see, only ya tell us first. Now, obviously, yer Captain'll be a mite suspicious if ya never tell him a word about the rebels that'll be pokin' at the Dottari in due time. So we'll even let ya feed him bits about us, approved beforehand, o' course." Helping Gregory onto his feet, Boros pats the freed informer amiably on the back before digging into his pouch and coming up with one of those platinum coins. "Now, this not-so-little lie yer willin' to feed the Captain, that buys yer passage out o' here. So, bein' fair folk who believe that a worker is worthy o' his hire and all, ya'll be gettin' paid for the rest o' what I mentioned just now, and this coin," And here, Boros holds the platinum piece up for a quick look. "Will be yer first payment. Well, once we get it changed out for somethin' a bit less obvious than platinum, yeah? Be a bit o' trouble if ya just wander up to a moneychanger with this in yer hand, I'd bet."
After finishing with all the items they found in the crate, Nissim moves on to trying to figure a way out of their new prison.
He walks over to the hole and drops his lit copper into it to see what will happen.
With the tension having ratcheted back down since the two men who seemed most intent on possibly killing Gregory deciding to let him live in exchange for services rendered, Lily had managed to calm herself down, looking from person to person as they worked and simply trying to stay out of the way... aside from taking one of the little ravens in hand and stroking it slowly, feeling the curvature and detailed work of the statuette.
"Maybe Varuzhan should use the illusion hat for now? It might help him stick out less when we get out of here." She says, as she watches Nissim drop the coin down the hole, causing her to frown. "I don't suppose one of you is able to cast that nifty clean-up spell..? If we go down there..." she trails off, shaking her head, though it's clear she's having difficulty breathing without retching at the thought.
*words* For now she put the puzzle down and turned back to the iron coffer whose secrets she was comfortable to pry into the open a bit quicker!
"Varuzhan, could you give me a hand ...?"
[dice=Disable Device: Taking 20]20+8+1
Gregory does not exactly seem to like Boros's terms, but doesn't really have much room for negotiations. As such, he agrees, reluctantly, then rubs some feeling back into his wrists:"As long as you give me good info for him. It's not like I'm in a spot to argue, but do you even KNOW what happens to people when they are found to be double-agents, which is what you're trying to make me? I can assure you, I'll take a good clean death over it any day. So I'd really appreciate if you leave me some breathing space...or I'll be a short-lived asset when I either have to try and flee the city, or, more likely, slit my own throat and hope they don't have a healer with them.". He pauses, then glances at the sewer:"So I guess you take this exit? What should I tell them? That you left me behind for the rats and I managed to cut my bindings when I already heared them?"
As Nissim drops the coin down into the fetid waters, it briefly floats along on a muddy surface, before a bubble rises beneath it, pops, and lets it fall into the brackish water. It only briefly illumminates the substance from below before growing dark. Yep, those are sewers.
With all their filth, and all their lawlessness.
Meanwhile, Miranda manages to open the box. It contains a number of scrolls, a small bag, and a few vials. Beneath all that, there's a large folder of documents, written in Celestial, Elven, and Strix interchangeably, and coded as well. Actually deciphering it would be a hard task, considering the sheer volume to go through.
The scrolls are:
Scroll of Misdirection
Scroll of Pass without Trace
Scroll of Undetectable Alignment
Scroll of Whispering Wind
The bag contains 12 Pearls(with your previous appraise, this one's a freebie...they are worth 100GP each, if you find someone buying at full price - you estimate that you could get about 75GP each with no questions asked.), and both a Pearl and a Ring radiating magic.
"Wow!" Miranda whistled once the pesky box finally spilled its secrets. She leaned in to wholeheartedly shuffle around among the contents, lifting some up at random for the others to see. "Look at this!" she exclaimed and pulled out a page with a familiar script on it. Or so she thought. "'Moar cowbell'?" she reads with a deep frown. "What the heck does that mean? And the rest of the page is just scribbles ..."
Once Miranda makes it known she has the box opened and there are items of interest inside, Nissim walks away from the sewer opening to take a look.
"Our way out of here is looking awful" he murmurs to her as he starts rummaging through the stuff.
He begins looking for magical auras again Detect Magic concentrating on what any can tell him about the items.
Pearl:
Ring:
Vial 1:
Vial 2:
Vial 3:
Vial 4:
Showing the items that display magical auras to Miranda one at a time, Nissim goes through what he discovers.
"Both this pearl, but not the others, and this ring are enchanted. I cannot understand their purpose though. I also do not know what the vial with the green liquid might do. The purple liquid in this vial increases the drinker's size. For example a human would become as a giant. The yellow liquid is a curative potion. Interesting that it is yellow, they are very often a pale blue color. The cyan liquid is enhanced to prevent spoilage, not quite a potion like the others..."
"I know ... I can't even swim..." Miranda sighed at Nissim's first comment. Her cheery mood quickly returned once he started going over the loot though. She picked up the purple potion to take a closer look. "So you become larger if you drink this? Hmm..." She had always wondered how life looked if she was 3' taller. Not sure if she wanted to find out right now though.
"One vial makes you larger, and the other... makes you small." Lily says, pursing her lips. "Someone's being awfully clever about this whole rabbit hole, thing. I think someone foresaw needing to run away through this hole... unfortunately. Oh well... to Wonderland it is." Lily finally says, handing off the potion and dropping into the hole. This whole thing was going to be unexplainable... She held her breath and closed her eyes against the inevitable splash of detritus, and then immediately tried to find an edge to grab to pull herself out of the gunk.
Clearing his throat, the barrister turns back to the informant. "Ahem. Come with us, and you'll not have to tell anyone anything."
Aldous raises an eyebrow at the demure woman when she mentions the vials. "Egorian Wagontrain? Great band."
Holding his hand out, the barrister then turns his attention to the remaining unknown items. "May I?"
"The pearl, it doesn't reveal its purpose. But, I agree that someone thought through every contingency of an escape. The ring gives the wearer great facility with swimming - a welcome boon, no doubt, for whoever goes first into the sewer."
Staring blankly at Lily as she talks about rabbit holes and someplace called Wonderland, which Aldous apparently recognizes as well, Boros shrugs the whole thing off as some weird local thing; gods know Alkenstar has plenty of those itself, some of which mystify even the locals themselves at times. He's about to reply to Gregory's question when Lily simply... jumps. Right into the open well to the fouled water below. Boros gazes at the lip the well in slackjawed shock for a moment, then rushes over and peers down at the water. Once he sees Lily, he yells down to her, voice filled with mingled anger and concern. With a wordless noise of frustration, he turns to the others and points at the various bits of loot. "Right, no time for plannin'. Shove everythin' that'll fit and can't afford to get wet into that coffer. Miranda, if ya can lock it back up after, get on that." As he speaks, he swiftly but carefully unloads his pistol, dumping the powder into one of the horns on his harness, which he meticulously looks over afterwards, ensuring that it is properly sealed against water. Turning to the various spellcasters, he then points at the unloaded weapon. "If one o' ya could cast that little light spell again, I'd appreciate it. Might not have time down there to do so." He looks back down the well at Lily and growls in aggravation. "I don't know what I'm goin' to do with ya about this utter lack of thought on yer part, but assured I'll be doin' it with vigor and enthusiasm!"
Turnig his attention to the informer with a final frown at the half-elf swimming in tainted water, he address the man's concerns. "I'm pretty sure the Dottari aren't goin' to rush to get through the ash and rubble o' the Livery, if they bother to search it at all. There's no way they'll get down here soon, and we're takin' the light with us. So if ya stay, ya really will be trapped here in the dark with those rats. And maybe worse besides, on account o' that book being used as some way o' bringin' that slime beast here. Who in the Hells knows if that horror won't pop back up the moment we uncover that book or get it far enough away." Shaking his head, Boros continues as he helps get stuff ready for the trip through the water. "If ya weren't with us, I'd leave ya in a heartbeat and never think again on it, if I left ya alive at all. But since ya agreed that yer our ears now, even if ya did so under duress and all, ya one o' us until ya prove otherwise. And that means ya come along. We can figure out what ya tell yer Captain after we're out." He gives the rats a pointed glance, then looks at the looming darkness beyond before turning his eyes to Gregory with a slight smile. "But if yer absolutely minded to wait, I won't argue with ya. Not at all."
"Aie! Are you okay?!" Miranda rushes to the edge of the well and peers down. She waves to their bird-like companion and calls out "Varuzhan! Take that ring and get down there; you might have to catch us ..."
Once she has made sure Lily isn't drowning in shit Miranda will head back to the iron locker and start stuffing everything papery or fragile into it while moving the things that wouldn't mind a bit of water into her satchel.
"All right gimme that logbook and I think I got everything in here!"
She finishes packing by placing her cloak ontop of everything. That way any little bit of water making its way in wouldn't cause too much damage. And with a bit of luck I'll have a non-shitty cloak! Then she closed the whole thing and torsion wrenched the lock back into locked position, making sure she heard the tumblers fall and that the box couldn't be opened afterwards. She moved the box to the edge of the well and looked down again to make sure they were still okay.
"All right big folk! I got a scroll here that will let you climb and swim for a short while; best to use it on one of you. Then you can climb down with me and the locker. And once you are down there make sure everyone else that jumps makes it back to the surface. Deal?"
She pulled out a crumpled scroll from her satchel before tying it properly closed.
"Now, who wanna climb?"
"The ring gives the wearer great facility with swimming - a welcome boon, no doubt, for whoever goes first into the sew--"
~~
"Balls."
Giving the scroll in Miranda's hand a dubious look, Boros plucks the ring from Aldous' hand and slips it over a finger. "If it's all the same to ya, lass, I'll wear this little trinket and trust my own skill for any climbin' to be done. Best to use that on someone who can fly, or at least glide, if the spell gives out," he says with a look in Varuzhan's direction.
Boros leans over the lip of the well, examining the inner wall intently for handholds while Miranda casts her spell on the strix. It not that he doubts the power of magic, but his personal experience with (helpful) magic cast on his person has thus far been confined to healing and that light spell--which he very much approves of--and those spells are either done the instant they are cast, or harmless if they fail without warning. A spell of the sort Miranda proposes to use is anotber matter entirely, and Boros can't shake the instinctive rejection of such things that his upbringing has instilled in him. The ring is a different matter, however, since Boros can't swim regardless, and its failure would leave him no worse off than if he didn't have it at all.
Lily, having jumped down into the sewer water with a source of light, fights against the urge to get rid of her breakfast, fast. Looking up at the others, a worried face appearing, then another, and disappearing again in a hectic frenzy, she aims to find the closest edge to pull herself up. Doing so, she notes that a metal ladder mounted overhead(horizontally) on the ceiling is leading to a ledge.
If one managed to climb down the well, or use a rope to get down from upstairs, at the right place, it would be possible to grab on to the slick metal ladder, then use it to get to the ledge, without dropping down into the sewer.
It would still not be easy, but definitely preferable to swimming there.
The stench down there was indeed sickening, in a almost toxic-smelling way.
For Lily, it's a simple matter to (Swim - DC 5) over to the ledge, then pull/(Climb - DC 10) herself up on it. The ledge extends in both directions next to the slowly flowing sewage waters, which are making their way towards the river.
For the others, it's a single (Climb DC 15) to get down to the ladder(if Lily points it out before you jump - you may assume so if you wish. If Lily acts contrary, it of course invalidates the actions, but I guess it's pretty likely that she lets you know).
This is followed by a (Strenght DC 15) check to make one's way across the ladder. If failing the Strenght Check, make a (Climb DC variable) check with a DC of 10+the amount the Strenght Check was failed by.(Can take 10 on that).
Success on the Strenght check gets you across to the ledge.
Success on the Climb check, same. Fail climb check by less than 5, no progress and restart from strenght check with DC one higher than before(so DC 16, then DC 17, etc.).
Fail climb check by 5 or more, *sploosh*.
If you made the save: Congratulations, you are not infected.
If you failed the save: Congratulations, you are not infected with Dysentery(on the down side, you caught Filth Fever)
"All right, good luck!" Miranda replies to Boros and peers over the edge of the well again. The divines knew she wasn't envious of Lily.
All right, time to get down there! "All right. V. can pick me up and glide down to that ledge. B. is climbing and L. is down there ..." Using code-names might be a bit late now, but it was sorta fun. And it distracted her from the smell a little bit. She glanced at their 'friend'. "And you should start climbing unless you want to live out B.'s rat-and-darkness predictions. Then ..."
Miranda picked up her scroll and then a copper, flipping it. "All right A, you won a free climb. Good luck!" She stood up and read the invocation of the scroll touching Aldous gently at the end. "And see you down there! V., let's go!"
The Strix easily picked up the small tiefling and ...
... despite the small size of the well managed to fly down gently!
Aldous marveled at the slip. Like many of her kind, she seemed... innocent in the way that children were innocent, full of wide-eyed wonder at the world, and irrepressible for long in the face of catastrophe and horror.
It was a quality he'd do well to try and emulate, though the barrister knew he'd fail miserably. "Indeed, Gregory," Aldous said, letting the girl's mood infect him, with a smile, "I'd listen to Miss M. I suspect she's cheated death more often than either of us ever will. We do as she does, and we'll be alright."
Following after Miranda, the barrister made his way slowly down into the sewer, convinced at any moment that he'd take a tumble, and surprised when his hands seemed to find the right holds, and his feet stayed true despite the slippery descent.
Following Lily's shouted advice, after getting Juliette to reapply that light spell to the crossbow bolt he'd almost forgotten about, Boros makes his way down the ladder with little hesitation. The shift across to the ledge is just as smoothly accomplished, and once he's sure of his footing, Boros kneels and offers Lily a hand in getting out of the noisome muck she's currently treading. "Ah lass, I really hope ya don't get hit by some o' the foul ailments that afflict those exposed to stuff like this," he says while breathing shallowly through his mouth in a futile effort to avoid the smell.
Seeing as her planned bird-taxi didn't have room for both herself and the loot Miranda was forced to make a hard choice. And sadly the loot didn't look like it could climb down on its own, so that had to be her. All right, how hard could it be? she thought to herself and peered over the edge again.
At first, she took things veeeeeeeeeeery carefully! So carefully that infact she made exactly no progress!
Uh-hu. This isn't working. What if I reach down for that one? She reached out with her left leg for a promising ledge, but as she did, the grip her hands had around the slimy wall started to slip. noNONONONO!
"Aiiiiiie-*SPLASH*-BLEH!"
While the brief travel trough the air wasn't half-bad the taste of her landing certainly was. Spitting and flailing and cursing like a drowning rat Miranda made her attempt at "Swiming"...
...and surprising even herself, it seemed to work! She quickly reached the ledge and...
...with the fervour of someone neck-deep in excrement scampered her way up the side of the ledge. Once up she sat still for a moment coughing, spitting and dripping in misery. But she had at least made it. Maybe the Chelaxian dungeons wouldn't have been so bad? In an effort to brighten her mood she stood up and looked around for Boros and Aldous.
"Hug? ... *sniff* No? She shuddered/chuckled and grimaced in disgust. But eventually, as she regained her composure and senses, she started mumbling a Prestidigitation spell to rid herself (and anyone else unlucky enough that took a bath!) of the dripping mess.
Juliette attempts to climb down...barely holding on to the upper edge, before losing her grip and falling. Disgusted by...everything, she barely manages to paddle towards the ledge, but can't get a grip, refusing to open her eyes. She even slips off and has to paddle some more before finally making her way up on the ledge.
Gregory, on the other hand, seems a lot more willing to exit the area with you after learning there is a way that does not have him swimming through the sewers. He carefully approaches the edge, going very slowly, testing handholds. Steady, he then makes his way down, grabs on to the ladder, and makes his way across to the ledge.
Nissim is in no particular hurry to start down, somebody has to go last, and he might learn something by watching the others go before him. It turns out he didn't though.
After tucking his glasses safely away with Lugo, he starts over the edge, and immediately loses his grip. The fall is unpleasant, and the landing more so.
Bobbing to the surface like so much else, he swims to the wall.
Hauling himself up to the ledge, Nissim looks like a giant version of a drowned Lugo. Miserably he asks "Cleanup Miranda?"
Rexus easily makes his way to the ledge, as well, after only a brief moment of hesitation.
"Mm." Miranda moves over to clean Nissim, Lugo and Juliette. She had figured the less she spoke the less she had to open her mouth and the less she had to breathe in the atmosphere. Once everyone is reasonably clean and dry she points in the direction the sewage is flowing. "River?"
Lily manages to swim over to the ledge, but it takes a second try before she finally gets out, exposing herself to much of the nastiness that is the upside-down.
By the time she reaches the side and clambers out, the others have already started to make their way down - "There's a ladder just below." she sputters, annoyed, and replacing her own light spell, though she doesn't particularly need it.
Lily was surprised to find that Miranda was capable of doing the cleaning spell, but quite thankful, if and when it was used on her. She stayed quiet, regardless... she didn't care much for breathing just now.
Once everyone is reasonably clean and dry she points in the direction the sewage is flowing. "River?"
Nissim nods. "Seems like good thinking to me. I hope so. I really need to check in at home."
Aldous also nods, his face grim. There were many directions he had envisioned his life going, but chasing sewage towards (hopefully) a exit to the river was not one of them. "Onward then." the barrister says, gesturing with a wave of his hand. "If you don't mind, I'm not much of a fighter."
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Boros lets the others lead the way, as Kintargo is still quite unfamiliar to him at street level, and the sewers more so. Chuckling at Aldous' words, he pushes the barrister on ahead of him with a polite but firm hand to the back. "Aye, which is why yer not takin' the tail position on this rank trip through Kintargo's hidden wonders. That sublime joy goes to someone with armor to weather a surprise blow, and Varuzhan is already near the front, so that leaves me."
Looking at the water below--and not far enough so, in his opinion--he continues. "I'm not lookin' forward to gettin' the smell o' this place out of my gear. It'll take a bit of time, for a start. And I can't think o' many places that'll even let us past the door, much less let us stay a bit."
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Varuzhan seems strangely happy to be dropping down into a sewer - it doesn't take long to realize the source of his joy, as he spends some time flapping his wings and flying back and forth in surprisingly graceful arcs before finally settling down. "Ah, to fly again. Even in this cesspool, it is a gift beyond compare."
Helping the others up, he then assumes a lead position once more. "Fear not, Aldous. I'll hold the front. And I agree, let's go downstream" Quarterstaff in hand, he leads the group onward, keeping an eye out for more danger.
Aldous frowns, pushing the spectacles that had - perhaps miraculously - stayed on, and unbroken throughout the fight, further up the bridge of his nose. "Yes well, you've both got my blessing to punch anything we come across. Though I hope it isn't necessary."
With the livery having been somewhat close to the river, the group decides to follow the sewage waters...there is another drop, after about 100 feet. It would seem a ladder was previously mounted here to allow climbing up or down, but it's long gone, only the holes remaining. Nissim notes how curious it is that the ladder would have been about the lenght of the one mounted on the ceiling, at the livery.
Climbing up the slick stone may be tricky, but downwards, it's not so hard, with the group helping each other. As you near the exit, there's another small inflow, crossing the maintainance walk. there's are some metal bars across it's lenght...probably to prevent larger animals from entering. With the desolate state of the sewer system, it's the other way round. Something that you HOPE was an animal(Lily is pretty certain it was some kind of dog) seems to have gotten caught on the other side, now only a rotting mass of fur, bones, and decaying meat. It works as an additional obstacle, though, and as you pass it with disgust(the smell emanating even out-does the sewer smell), Aldous notes that a purse seems to be caught by it. Utilizing his rapier, Boros manages to retrieve the purse without touching the corpse.
Soon after, without further events, you arrive at the outflow, where the sewage flows into the river. The walkway is blocked by a locked cell door, with a series of bars blocking the area over the sewer waters. Given some time, Miranda gets it open easily. Meanwhile, Varuzhan makes sure to keep the slime-book well under cover, all the time.
You find yourself outside, on a somewhat steep ledge, but inside the city. To your south, there is a large Watchtower, overlooking the river. As Rexus points out, it's well-staffed with Archers, now that the city is, effectively, on lockdown. As such, it seems advisable to get back away from the river quickly, and the stairs the lead down to the service access area are great for that. You come up in a little road that would be a dead-end, if not for the stairs, and vanish back in the city, turning north at the first chance you get, moving away from the livery
The objects found were interesting, the documents, the magical items. But for now, you need to lay low, and several of you have friends or family that are likely worried by now. To talk, discuss how to proceed, and decide about a monetary reward for those not looking to be involved further with the rebellion, Aldous and Rexus suggest another meeting, in one weeks time, in the park(Villegre Park) overlooked by Lady Docur's School for Girls, about 2 hours before sunset. From there, you will walk to a secure location.
Those without a place to stay are welcome to stay with Rexus.
Juliette, during this talk, states that she already brought too much scrutiny down on her family, and does not wish to further endanger them. As member of a noble family, she fears the Thrunes may decide to make an exempel of the Aulamaxa. She will opt to follow Eldonna's guidance, and hide in the Maiden's Head, not getting further involved in any rebellious behaviour. For now.
.
After the all-too-long investigation at the Livery, followed by the absolutely wonderful trip through the sewers, Boros is more than happy to lay low somewhere comfortable, and quickly accepts Rexus' offer. Before parting ways with the others, he takes some time to settle what--if anything--Gregory is going to reveal to his Captain about the events at the Livery, then gives him the agreed-upon payment in the form of 10 coins taken from that purse found in the sewers, a rather fortunate find. "Well, we're out, yer alive and uneaten, and ya even got some coin in yer pocket," he says to the informer. "What ya do now is yer decision. I can't be standin' over ya with a club to ensure ya stay bought once yer out o' my reach. But if thoughts o' sellin' us out anyway do happen to be crossin' yer mind, consider that I am a man o' my word." Boros then claps a friendly, but firm arm around Gregory's shoulders and pulls him close. "I said I'd take ya out o' that out basement, and I did so. I said I'd pay ya good coin to work for us, and I did so. I said I'd turn ya loose, and I will. So please believe me when I tell ya that ya will regret it if ya decide to turn on us after yer on yer own once again." With that said, Boros releases the man to go on about his business, after ensuring that they have a secure way of meeting up in the future.
He bids the others heading to their own homes--or a safe refuge, in Juliette's case--a hearty farewell, with a tentative hug for Miranda, who's odd personality has quickly grown on him. After, Boros follows Rexus to his home, where he eagerly partakes of a long, thorough bath. Changing into more nondescript clothing, he makes his way carefully through the city to the safehouse where his former rebel employers had him stashed only a few days before. It takes a bit of explaining about his disappearance during the protest at Aria Park, but Boros is able to recover his stashed gear and bring it back to Rexus' place. He then approaches his host about the possibility of changing out those recovered platinum coins for more common gold and silver--possibly selling them to a collector, if one could be found, though Boros has little knowledge of such hobbies--and acquiring some ingredients to use in restocking his dwindling stocks of powder and shot. He also inquires about securing a small assortment of materials with the intent of finally getting his gun into top condition. Its performance over the last couple of days was sorely lacking, and Boros aims to finally deal with that.
As soon as they were finally outside Miranda takes a deep breath to quickly replace the stinky air in her lungs with nice fresh one. The next step is vigorous application of the Prestidigitation spell on each and every one - purging the smell was good not only for their senses but also to avoid any annoying questions like "why do you smell like a sewer?". The last step of the freedom celebration was appropriating the perfume Boros found and applying a healthy dose. Much much better then sewer! she thought as she passed the small vial to Lily whom looked like she also wanted to improve the aromatic situation.
"*Pew*..." She exclaims once the world starts being a little nicer. By then, it seemed like it was time to say goodbye. She returned Boros hug with affection, but also offered hugs for the rest of the party. After all this mayhem, it felt like something they (and she!) might need. Before splitting she makes sure to get ahold of the gnomes jewellery box as she would have plenty of time to get it open. She was a bit interested in in deciphering the logbook and all the code they had, but another slime-encounter wasn't really on her to do list, so someone else could have the first crack at that. As they parted ways she offered a wide smile and a wave. "Good luck everyone!"
Her first order of business would be to immediately visit her parents. They knew she was planning on attending the protest. And she hadn't had time to check in before heading to the livery. Which meant that they, by now, had knocked on her apartment door approximatively twenty times already. Gee, I hope the neighbours don't complain! So showing off that she was alive was probably good. Also, after the lectures, there would probably be hot nice food. That she looked forward too! Less so the lecturing ... She wouldn't share too many details with them - probably safer that way (For me at least! I don't *think* I can still be grounded, but I rather not find out ...) - just that she felt the need to hide a bit after the protest. They might (would) suspect a bit more, but hopefully not the full extent of how deep in shit Miranda now was. Thankfully not literally anymore! Yey! It was with a big grin she knocked on their door.
Then, assuming she survived the encounter, she would head home. Her parents would likely have closed down the shop anyhow for the day, on account of herself being 'missing' earlier, so she had the entire afternoon to work on the lockbox! And take a closer look at the shiny key/amulet thing. Now that is a pretty thing! But first she would make sure to hide the lead box really well. Since it was quite big, that probably meant stacking tons and tons of things ontop of it. Maybe under the bed? But that's a bit cliché ... Hmm I wonder if any floorboards are loose? Maybe I can make them ...
But seeing as the box and trinket was so much much interesting she merely threw a blanket over the lead box and sat down to examine the curiosities.
Then, after the easy things were taken care of and thoroughly examined, she started to go over the adamantine puzzle-box Though it didn't look like the pesky thing would share its secrets just yet!
Miranda wakes up full of energy and ready to tackle the day! As her parents held their shop closed for two days there was plenty of things to catch up on - and thus Miranda was compelled to help out. Not that she minded much, but she would rather be at home with a cup of tea trying to get into that damn puzzlebox! Her desire to quickly go home inspires her to work in a seldom seen fervour and she quickly completes her assignments.
Once she gets home, the first thing she sees are a suspicious blanket covering something large. With a groan she sighs and realizes she should probably do a little better. She looks around in her small apartment and thinks for a while, then simply puts a tomato plant pot ontop of the blanket and places a pillow next to it. It's now a properly sized-table! You are a genius! she congratulates herself and sits down on the pillow to examine the puzzle yet again.
It seems as if the pesky puzzle wins again, even though she spent the entire evening poking it. She even contemplated trying to gnaw it open, but realizes that the box would probably win that too ...
This day Miranda wakes up with considerable less energy. Breakfast tastes awful and only the tea seems nice. Thinking back to her swim in the filthy waters and her rising body temperature she does what every able-bodied and adult person would have; she wraps herself in a blanket and heads over to her parents.
"Moooom, I'm sick! *sniff*"
She is swiftly stuffed in the sofa, soup and tons of extra blankets are applied and a doctor is called. The stern grey-haired gnome casts one glance at the shivering Miranda and mixes together the most bitter-smelling concoction she had ever smelled. And with an intimidating flex of his moustache he insists that she drinks *ALL* of it! With a taste even bitterer then the aroma, Miranda is thankful that her taste-buds quickly hide in fear and attempt to crawl out of her mouth. Hopefully it would have the same effect on the fever! Needless to say, she spends the rest of the day on that sofa.
It seemed as if the harsh medicine worked out well and Miranda wakes up feeling much much better. Might just be the threat of another dose though ... Still, she got to stay in bed today too! She has vivid dreams of the damn puzzlebox.
"I'm free!" Miranda wakes up full of energy and with her appetite back, finally! She bounces trough breakfast eager to get back home to the puzzle box when her mother casually mentions that they still have plenty of work to catch up on since she had been home caring for Miranda for another two days. Quickly guilt and puzzle-box desire battled in her mind, but the former secured victory. The box wouldn't (hopefully!) be going anywhere...
After a productive day she rushed back home only to find yet another obstacle to her quest. Her precious tomato plants, whom she hadn't watered for - Hmm. Not today, not yesterday and not the day before. *Uhurhmrm* - were looking kinda sad. But a bit of water seemed to remedy that and she soon sat down next to her fake-table and made yet another attempt at the damn puzzle box!
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When Miranda unstoppers the small vial and generously applies some of the perfume (smelling rather tangy, with a note of peat,) to herself, she finds both Juliette and Lily are acting strange. Batting eyelashes, maintaining eye contact in a certain way, attempting to maintain physical contact...if Miranda wouldn't know better, she'd think both of the woman had a crush on her.
And why not. She was awesome. In fact, if she could, Miranda would date herself right now.
But all of this still seemed...sudden. Lily and Juliette did not exhibit this kind of behaviour before, did they? Could it be simply joy of life? Thankfulness for Prestidigitation? Or maybe...Miranda quickly puts the stopper back on the perfume, and decides against passing it on before taking a closer look.
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Rexus himself does not live luxuriously, being used to being on his ship, but not daring to go there while the harbor is on lockdown. But it is sufficiently spacy and clean, for a few days.
When Boros suggests to try and sell the platinum coins to a collector, Rexus shakes his head:"People go by metal, and weight, here. There's very old coins, from places far away. Of course, the local currency is preferred, known to be standardized, but in a harbor town, you get all kinds of coins. Them Sailors make good use of land leave, because there's little to spend their coins on during a voyage.", basically crushing Boros's hopes that they would sell for more than their material value.
Alas, while fetching supplies for bullets is not THAT hard (even if actually making one's without the proper equipment to melt the metal and cast them will be), it's a bit different with black powder - it seems the Paracount has ordered vast quantities of the required materials to be bought up. With few other uses, the open market does not have a stockpile of the ingredients large enough to easily provide what is suddenly requested.
The key-brooch is warded against fire. Some of that protection is extended on a creature carrying it...not enough to survive in an oven, obviously, but noticeable. As Miranda expected, no imprint can be found.
The jewellery box does indeed reveal a bit more. The last "user" was, little surprise there, the late Gnome you took it from. His emotional state was one of intense longing. The box cannot resist Miranda's skills, and opens to reveal a hand-drawn picture of 4 vaguely humanoid figures, 2 of them small, 2 very small, as well as 3 locks of hair.
The puzzle-box maintains it's aura of mystery. But with the intense devotion so far, Miranda feels that she understands it a bit better now.
She estimates that there's a full sequence of challenges hidden on the various smooth surfaces of the box. There MUST be a way to get the smooth box to reveal it's secrets, right?
Yes, with an Intelligence DC 21 check being the first obstacle(no assist on that).