As you all stand around discussing your options for retrieving the crate, there's a sudden snuffling and shuffling noise from the pile of boxes behind you. Before you can react, a trio of dire rats squeezes out from between the crates, squeaking angrily at the intruders upon their nest!
Initiative: Li | Trig | Rats | Khale | Elysia | Arithas | Bendaxalon
Status
Khale: 12/13 HP
Li: 9/13 HP
Arithas shouts a warning as one of the rats leaps at him and chomps down onto his shoe, luckily unable to penetrate the thick leather boots and nibble upon his toes. Alas, Khale and Li are not so lucky; the aasimar's leggings do little to protect him from the rat teeth while Li's back was completely turned, and even his preternatural sense of things could not avoid the rat biting into his shin .
Li and Trig are up
Initiative: Khale | Elysia | Arithas | Bendaxalon | Li | Trig | Rats
Status
Khale: 12/13 HP
Li: 9/13 HPRat (Green): DEAD
Rat (Blue): 3 damage
Li neatly skewers one of the rats to the floor, right through its brain; it squirms for only a few moments before going limp. The other now simply has an arrow sticking out of its tough hide. Trig steps forward and swings at the empty air.
The two remaining rats attempt to repeat their previous tactic of biting at your legs, but it appears that their luck has run out... both can't seem to land a decent blow.
All three of the rats go splat before half the party even notices anything happened... Stupid indeed.
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Bendaxalon is still considering whether to go back and pilot the boat under the crate when there's a sickening splurch and he's suddenly spattered with sticky red blood. The oblivious gnome turns to see Khale removing his wicked glaive from an unidentifiable gory mess, that he can only assume was recently a giant rat like the two corpses with Li's arrows sticking out of them. "Aww, man! And I can't prestidigitate any more today. Now I'm going to have to actually take a bath before bed." Crestfallen at this unfortunate development, he wipes ineffectually at the blood staining his face and clothes.
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Disheartened, Bendaxalon wipes ineffectually at the giant rat bloody gore spatter all over him. "I don't know what you guys were going to do, but I'm going back out to the boat. Shout if you get what we came for." It's a very chastened gnome that finds his way back down the dock and pilots the boat under the precarious crate.
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Trig drops his pack and lowers his drum to the floor. He pulls the rope from the pack offers it to Li. "Here's the plan. You take the rope and ride the crane out to the box. Double the line to make a bight like this and run it through those handholes near the corners. Pass the rest of the line through the bight and snug it tight. Do the same on the opposite diagonal , but you'll have to tie the ends. When it's tight, pu the center of the line in the crane hook and we'll lift you and the crate back here."
With a bit of manoeuvring, Trig, Elysia and Arithas work together to hook up the crane, Li riding over to the crate with ease. The agile-footed monk is careful but quick, immediately sensing just how fragile the wood beneath the crate is. Khale and Bendy are watching from below in the boat in case the worst happens as well, although luckily the only thing that falls into their craft is a bit of wood shavings once the whole thing is moved away. Eventually you're able to lift the crate over to a more stable section of the floor and dig into it.
The rescued crate holds a smaller mahogany box inside, which contains five books and a few loose sheets of paper in a leather folder. The titles and subjects seem completely unrelated to each other: Practical Thaumaturgy In Accordance with Creation, Geographic Anomalies of the Inner Sea, Under Kaer Maga: A Trial and Travel, Physiology of Dragons: An Illustrated Reference, and Lost Sarusan. The leather folder contains cargo manifestos, warehouse inventories, and other financial logs from a dozen different merchant houses and trade guilds.
The crate also contains a variety of other goods: 10 sets of well-made thieves' tools, three flasks of alchemist's fire, a flask of acid, a dozen jars of various inks, a footprint book, one dose of adamantine weapon blanch, three bags of powder, a deck of marked cards, and two sets of loaded dice.
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Khale gathers up the books and papers then places them back into the smaller box, then secures it in his backpack. "Let's get this back to our contact."
As he turns toward the door, he looks at the rest of his comrades, "We best be wary, several of you have seen somebody watching us. They may decide to show themselves now that we have retrieved this parcel."
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Seeing the other objects inside the box, Trig licks his lips. He expected worse than the contents actually were, and some of it was quite tempting. He had expected to derisively say something scornful about Scarzni and a blot on his people. Some of this actually looks legitimate. Some of it looks quite useful too.
"Does the manifest say who this belongs too?"
Khale gathers up the books and papers then places them back into the smaller box, then secures it in his backpack. "Let's get this back to our contact."
As he turns toward the door, he looks at the rest of his comrades, "We best be wary, several of you have seen somebody watching us. They may decide to show themselves now that we have retrieved this parcel."
"Wait. Should we close up the crate and return it to its original position?"
Trig eyes the original location of the crate.
The Pathfinders cautiously emerge onto the docks and look around for trouble. Even after waiting for some time, no lurking Red Mantis assassins, no secretive ninjas from far Tian Xia, and no Aspis Consortium agents leap out at them from the shadows, and so the call is made to move out. You're able to deliver the requested books and notes to Guaril, who thanks you keenly for your efforts. "I owe you one, friends," he says with a thin-lipped smile. "Remember me next time you need a favour, yes?"
And that makes all your tasks done, just as evening falls upon Absalom's busy streets. Of course, the city never truly sleeps, and there are just as many people crowding the way back to the Grand Lodge for your final report to Ambrus as there were earlier in the morning. You head back north through the streets of the Foreign Quarter, the rather exotic sights and sounds of the district almost normal to you trainee Pathfinders who have spent so much time here. Here and there you pass by night stalls, and the wafting scents of dumplings, skewered meat kebabs, and thick noodle dishes tempt your rumbling bellies after a hard day's work.
You turn down a well-known street only to find that a throng of people has blocked the way forward. A performance art group commandeers the street, drawing graffiti to create a jolly hellscape complete with illusory devils comically dancing around in circles. A few citizens avoiding the crowd slip off-street through a nearby alley, the only egress past the gathering. With no other choice short of backtracking a good fifteen minutes walk at least, you follow suit and mix with the crowd funnelled down the detour route.
As you walk down the alleyway, Arithas and Trig pause a moment, noticing a familiar face amidst the crowd... that blonde halfling from before. They share a worried look and alert the others, although the grinning smallfolk has long disappeared into the crowd by the time they try to find him again. However, Li, with his preternatural sense of things, happens to catch sight of a young, red-haired woman he swears he saw down upon the docks just moments before he felt as if he were being watched. He points her out to Bendaxalon, who can confirm seeing the same woman right around the same time. Khale meanwhile spots a strange blonde girl that makes him feel quite uncomfortable, grinning crazily at him... or not? She's gone again before he can decide. Elysia, all the while, is quite busy chatting to Poe or otherwise completely oblivious.
As you progress down the alleyway, all of a sudden there's a loud whistle, followed by a hazy fog bank appearing out of nowhere, almost blinding all those unfortunate enough to be caught within it. People around you scream and dash off in every which direction, most back from whence they came. You barely have time to gather your wits (and your weapons) before a mad laughter echoes out from within the mist. "Give yaselfs up and no-one has ta get hurt!" A man calls out to you.
Of course... like that's a real option!
Initiative: Arithas | Li | Enemies | Bendaxalon | Elysia | Khale | Triccio
This is the SURPRISE ROUND. You can take a single move or standard action.
However, Elysia, alas, you can't act in the surprise round. You failed both the Sense Motive and the Perception check earlier, so you're a little oblivious right now.
So up right now are Arithas and Li.
Keep in mind the obscuring mist effect, i.e. there is total concealment within the mist... you currently have no idea where people are.
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There's maybe half a dozen of them and they've got to take us front and rear. That will split their force. If we move fast they might not be able to concentrate their force.
"Khale, lead us back the way we came! Elysia, switch places with me!" Trig grips his quarterstaff and steps into Elysia's place to keep her out of melee if it comes to that.
Deandre: 5
Ledford: 2
Larkin: 2 - Round 1 (charged; AC -2)
Initiative: Bendaxalon | Elysia | Khale | Triccio | Arithas* | Li* | Enemies*
* = Next round
All those still in the surprise round can only take a single action. Elysia's still oblivious. :)
Status
Li: -4/13 (dying, prone, unconscious)
Arithas blindly lobs a bomb into the mist. His throw is good, but of course he has no idea where he's throwing exactly, so it's unclear just where it landed. That said - the groans and yelps of pain from three people inside the cloud during the explosion inform him that his bomb did something in there. Li fires an arrow in blindly, but he sadly does not hear the familiar whunk of an arrow hitting a target.
From within the mist you can hear the sound of mystical chanting - the tell-tale sign of spellcasting.
A ray of sizzling green acid emerges from within the mists as well, but it harmlessly hits the wall of the alleyway.
There's a loud roar and pattering of feet as a person emerges from within the haze - it's the blonde halfling from before! His handlebar moustache is comical, but the frothing madness in his face and his large greataxe are much more serious than appearances would give him credit for. He charges right up at Li and swings wildly at the monk, landing a terrible cut down Li's unarmoured abdomen... blood spurts absolutely everywhere and the halfling laughs at the sight of it.
Initiative: Bendaxalon | Elysia | Khale | Triccio | Arithas* | Li* | Enemies*
* = Next round
Alright, we're in normal rounds now. Elysia may have noticed some blood get onto her robes. Maybe. :)
Status
Li: -4/13 (stable, prone, unconscious)
Trig: 7/9
All allies: +1 to attack/damage and against fear saves
Bendy whips up a magical shield and Khale steps forward to protect his friend, carving a nasty slice down the halfling's cheek with his curved kukri. The raging halfling simply laughs a crazed, high-pitched laughter at the wound, wiping some of the blood away with delight. "Oh! A kicker we got 'ere! How excitin'! Kee hee! Bring it on!!"
Triccio inspires the group with courage and bravado; would it be enough to stall off the ambush, though? Arithas hurriedly chugs down a strange and rancid potion, and he seems somehow more... limber afterwards.
Li stabilises! But he still wallows in a pool of his own blood.
The halfling warrior sneers as he swings his greataxe down upon Khale, although the paladin's strong armour deflects the force of the blow. "C'mon, big boy! Come an' play!" He takes a half-step forwards, roughly shoving Li's unmoving body out of the way with his boot. "Who's up next, then? Hmmm?"
Another figure appears at the edge of the mists, this one a woman with full golden blonde hair framing a healthy, smiling face. She fires off another bolt of acid that very nearly sears Trig's face, sizzling way too close past his cheek for comfort. It still stings a little where it passed, though.
Pushing past her is another young woman with red hair hanging in ringlets above her shoulders, short sword in hand. She wordlessly attempts to stab Khale from around the corner, but it's clear that her blow is clumsy and she curses viciously at the mistake.
Arithas notices the fourth man, still lingering around the corner of the building, begin to climb up the wall of a nearby building.
Deandre: 5 damage
Larkin: 2 damage
Ledford: 8 damage; round 2