Rise of the Runelords with a Twist (Inactive)

Game Master Shadow Bloodmoon

"Anyone notice what their masquerade is about? Are those recognizable paraphernalia of a known cult?"

*** While pumping ***
Khamul asks Zarque, "So who are your friends here?"
introductions anyone?

*** after the fire is out ***
Khamul looks down at Maeve's mortal remains and asks the question aloud" "Maeve. I knew we were too late for someone, when he said 'move the body'... Goddamnit, how did that goat-f@#@ing bastard know about her?"

@DM ShadowbloodMoon, 2 cultist and Ironbriar managed to get out (by my count). I think we started with 10 cultists and Ironbriar, so I have added 8 more cultists worth of loot to the sheet. I have assumed that these cultist are the same as the ones outside (MW War Razor, Magic Armor, mask, 2 scrolls, pouch of sparkly dust apiece). Outside had 156 gp in assorted coinage between 8 cultists - how much here? Also, we have no problem carrying the stuff, as Zarque has her extradimensional room.

"Anyone notice what their masquerade is about? Are those recognizable paraphernalia of a known cult?"

Ok, Grenz got a 19 on K religion earlier, looking for holy symbols and ID'd the masks

Tears drip down Grenz's face as he stand over Maeve and he replies in a heavy tone: "They are cultists, worshippers of Norgorber in his avatar as Father Skinsaw. They see murder as prayer."

"Hi, I'm Jominda. Apothecary on the move. And you are?" Jominda introduces herself and offers a hand to the halfling.

Without waiting for an answer she continues the inquiry. "If you know the murderer is a respected judge and you knew the victim, are you sure we should take the odds with evidence in his turf?"

"But anyway, we were at introductions..."

In case you need this

Khamul and Grenz will both join in searching for clues (using detect magic and guidance)

Perception, Khamul: 3d6 + 5 + 3 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (3, 1, 1) + 5 + 3 + 1 + 1 = 15
5 ranks +3 trained+1 Trait +1 guidance

Perception, Grenz: 3d6 + 12 + 1 - 2 ⇒ (2, 1, 5) + 12 + 1 - 2 = 19
+12 character sheet +1 guidance -2 fatigued

After searching, Khamul asks Zarque "That room of yours, can we put all the bodies in there? At the least, I'd like to bring Maeve out of here, and if the other bodies disappear, it'll be a lot harder for Ironbriar to ring us up for murder..."

"Hi, I'm Jominda. Apothecary on the move. And you are?" Jominda introduces herself and offers a hand to the halfling.

Without waiting for an answer she continues the inquiry. "If you know the murderer is a respected judge and you knew the victim, are you sure we should take the odds with evidence in his turf?"

"Why not go with a classic assassination and place some evidence with the corpse. He has seen us now and playing his game in his court sounds like handing him the dagger to stab us."

"But anyway, we were at introductions..."

Khamul shakes Jominda's hand and replies "Khamul, Khmaul Froghoth"; he points a thumb over his shoulder and continues "The big guy is Grenz. Who has a bit of thing about being law-abiding. Also, we figure these cultists have burrowed deeply into the guard here in Magnimar and we'd like to get them all. So assassination is is a last resort."

”Well, I overheard these folks trying to find you, so I figured I should follow along, but I haven’t met them yet.” Zarque tells Khamul while putting out the fire.

To everyone else as introductions are made, [/b]”I’m Zarque. I’ve worked with these two before. I happened to overhear that you were looking for them. Should be careful about that in the future.”[/b]

In response to the request to put things in Zarque’s extradimensional room.
”I can only fit so much, and not enough for a whole body. Sorry. The big room we can all fit in only lasts a short time.” and Zarque seems to actually mean it despite who she is talking to.

Can only keep around 40 lbs of stuff at the moment, so even if nothing else was in there, it would not hold an adult corpse.

"Radek Angdur, warpriest of Trudd. We were sent by tha mayor to find ye, in case ye needed help with yer investigation." He catches the halfling's sorrow, and reaches down to lift the body of his friend. "I can carry her out. We'll get her a proper burial away from this place. Was she helpin' ye look inta this cult? Norgorber, ye say? Father Skinsaw? An' this Justice Ironbriar is one of 'em?"

@GM ShadowBloodmoon, having searched the assorted cultists (and Maeve), are any of them marked with the Sihedron?

"Radek Angdur, warpriest of Trudd. We were sent by tha mayor to find ye, in case ye needed help with yer investigation." He catches the halfling's sorrow, and reaches down to lift the body of his friend. "I can carry her out. We'll get her a proper burial away from this place. Was she helpin' ye look inta this cult? Norgorber, ye say? Father Skinsaw? An' this Justice Ironbriar is one of 'em?"

Grenz takes a steadying breath and gathers the Maeve's body and replies "I will carry her; you keep your axe ready in case there is more trouble awaiting us..."

...

In response to the request to put things in Zarque’s extradimensional room.
”I can only fit so much, and not enough for a whole body. Sorry. The big room we can all fit in only lasts a short time.” and Zarque seems to actually mean it despite who she is talking to.
...

Khamul looks around and 'speculates' "You know, sometimes fire re-ignite spontaneously. After we're done looking around in them mill here... that would do a decent job of hiding all the bodies..."

"Have you already checked the upper floor?"

Grenz and Khamul confirm that these were indeed cultists of Norgorber, specifically his manifest as Father Skinsaw, Lord of Murder. Maeve’s death appears to be an offering to him, though her body shows no sign of the Sihedron. A few of the cultists do, but not all.

You count the bodies, 9 in all, and realize that two of the cultists, along with Justice Ironbriar, escaped. You spend some time ransacking the place and come upon what must have been Ironbriar’s makeshift office. Inside is a small desk, chair and a chest that is opened to reveal a large pile of coins that have dried blood on them. Grenz recalls that sometimes there is a tithing to evil cults and this must have been one of them. You figure you can count the coins later as the arrayed paperwork on the desk catches your attention. There are shipping manifests, daily schedules, and notes that are signed from someone who uses a simple ‘X’ as their signature.

Most of them seem innocuous, but all of them have something in common, besides the name, the clocktower in Underbridge. They discuss plans to ‘cleanse the city’ of greed and corruption and destroying those who would oppose them. There is also a note from an ‘RB’, but it only says that they should meet with ‘X’ and all their prayers will be answered in time, as long as their directions are followed to the letter.

Finally, on top of all this, is a drawing of the staff you recovered from the tomb a while back. The notes along the side state that copies can be made, even ones that work, but the materials will be difficult to come by. Once they have been made, the copies will be sent out into the world and the original was to be destroyed.

You figure you have about an hour before the next round of guards starts making their patrol again, at least according to one of the markings in a ledger on the desk.

"Well, that's at least some clue to follow." Jominda states the obvious.

"But freeing the city of corruption and greed? Doesn't sound like the typical goal for the evil guys. Or am I stereotyping them? And what's about that Sihedron stuff?"

@All, I am assuming that when GM ShadowbloodMoon says we found "Ironbriar’s makeshift office", that he is referring to the room behind the blocking that I have turned pink on slide 11.

@GM shadowbloodmoon, why can't we see under the remaining white block on the map? Is it surrounded by solid-seeming walls? @Party, if it is solid-seeming walls, who wants to be the smarty pants who points out that the architecture doesn't add up; there has to be a hidden space...

Because I haven’t opened it up yet.. The office is the blank space on the floor you are on. The next level is below the first level, which is basically on the river where more machinery for logging is and not much else. Should be fixed now. Other than the clues and treasure above, there isn’t much kept here… There is like, what, 13 suits of enchanted leather armor lying around though.

"Well, that's at least some clue to follow." Jominda states the obvious.

"But freeing the city of corruption and greed? Doesn't sound like the typical goal for the evil guys. Or am I stereotyping them? And what's about that Sihedron stuff?"

"That's a long story. Let's save that until we are somewhere safer than here..."

Ok, the architecture is getting me mildly confused. There is 1 set of stairs on the first floor going up (pink arrow, slide 10). There are 2 sets of stairs on the second floor (slide 11) on going down (pink arrow, matching with the stairs up on slide 10), and a second set of stairs (green arrow) ?going up to a third floor? But I thought this place was only 2 stories high... Also, you have unveiled slide 12 (Water Level, Below First Floor), and I don't see any stairs to go down to it... Do we have to get wet to get there?

All that said,

... The next level is below the first level, which is basically on the river ...

So I figure we are going down.

Turning to Radek, Jominda and Zarque, Khamul asks "Did you guys search downstairs? We came in through a second story window..."

Radek shakes his head. "Heard the sounds of combat above and dashed up tha stairs te help. Didna' have the chance te look around." The dwarf answers.

The warpriest does what he can to help during the exploration, but Radek isn't particularly keen of eye. Instead he watches for more obvious dangers - such as more cultists that might spring out from hiding.

I just read our introduction post again and checked where this sawmill actually is and to my surprise we are still in the middle of Magnimar. Which gives some more options.

"Another way to handle what went down here would be that we make it known to the right people. I don't think Ironbriar will be back anytime soon. Neither with backup, nor in his official role as judge." Jominda muses.

"And our contact that hired us, told that we work directly for Haldemeer Grobaras. So we could set up camp here, arrest anyone who shows up for work, send away all customers, because of damage caused by a fire and report our findings to our contact to get some officials here."

"Which would be either official officials, who mark this as a crime scene. Or undercover officials, who'd do the dirty work of cleaning this mess up for us, if this investigation should still be kept a secret until we can nail the ones pulling the strings."

You know Khamul, I thought the same thing when I grabbed those maps. It is technically two stories, with a basement level that is the main machinery you see on the last slide, though the stairs that go nowhere is odd. (Green arrow.) It was a reinterpretation of the original map from the Campaign Book, which is a bit different from this one, as it had balconies and other entrances.

The way to get down to the actual machinery is one of two ways, you could go outside and down to the river bank and enter there or, you could go down the lift that brings the smaller pieces to this level. I’ll mark it on the map. It is right between the two windows that Jominda is standing next to and it was damaged by the fire.

Searching the remainder of the building, it certainly reminds you of an abandoned mill. Broken tools and old sawdust and several unidentified stains mar the first floor. The broken wagon and carts look like they could use some work to get moving again. Other than that, you find little of interest on this floor.

The machinery level is the similar, though there is something that stands out to Khamul as he searches. The gears have quite a bit of a dark brown staining on them. His guess as to what it might be is confirmed when he notes bits of bone stuck to the teeth of the gears.

"I guess workplace safety isn't their top priority." Jominda comments on seeing the blood and bone in the moving parts of the machinery.

"I guess workplace safety isn't their top priority." Jominda comments on seeing the blood and bone in the moving parts of the machinery.

"Heh, depends on your perspective - I don't see any evidence that anyone they didn't want disposed of got put through the gears. Also, if we do decide to dissappear the assorted cultist corpses, this is clearly a jim-dandy method..."

"Another way to handle what went down here would be that we make it known to the right people. I don't think Ironbriar will be back anytime soon. Neither with backup, nor in his official role as judge." Jominda muses.

"And our contact that hired us, told that we work directly for Haldemeer Grobaras. So we could set up camp here, arrest anyone who shows up for work, send away all customers, because of damage caused by a fire and report our findings to our contact to get some officials here."

"Which would be either official officials, who mark this as a crime scene. Or undercover officials, who'd do the dirty work of cleaning this mess up for us, if this investigation should still be kept a secret until we can nail the ones pulling the strings."

"Yeah, as mentioned previously, now we are getting into long story time for you as well as us. I guess we can say there are no other bad guys and nasty surprises in the immediate vicinity now. We got a few minutes before either we need to move or wait for the city guard to show."

With regards to your earlier questions,

..."But freeing the city of corruption and greed? Doesn't sound like the typical goal for the evil guys. Or am I stereotyping them? And what's about that Sihedron stuff?"

”I really don’t know what they mean by ‘freeing the city of corruption and greed’, but they are making lots of dead people... The Sihedron is a seven pointed star thing, and was the symbol of an empire long lost to time, Thassilon. It’s showing up a lot. As a mark on the corpses of people murdered. Also tattoed on some of the thugs and such that keep on fighting us. We’ve found a letter that talks about a ‘Sihedron ritual’ with ‘victims’, who ‘must be marked before they die otherwise they do my master no good and the greed in their souls will go to waste’. I figure that pile of marked corpses and this ritual have something to do with each other...”

”With regards to plan wait here, first who’s Grobaras?” (Khamul has never lived in Magnimar, and has no K Local) Second, it looks like this mill is abandoned – which means no customers or anyone showing up to work. The folks who will find us will be the city guard, and we know the cult has them infiltrated through Ironbriar. I think I recognized at least a couple of the cultists from upstairs as city guards. Don’t know how well asking the guards to bypass their chain of command, in other words, Ironbriar, to go to this Grobaras will work out... I think our odds are better hiding the bodies and getting out of here.”

Ok, I am not moving us forward here, just setting out the issues, so the party can decide what the plan is: a) hide/dispose of the bodies and get out of here, b) wait for the guard, or c) whatever somebody else proposes...

"'This Grobaras' is the mayor of the city." Jominda explains. "So I'd expect he'd have the better contacts to the guard."

"Ancient stuff you say? Is there any meaning to this Sihedron? I mean in old times or was it always about sacrificial murder?"

Where's a bard when you need one.

History: 3d6 + 10 ⇒ (3, 4, 1) + 10 = 18

Zarque knows a thing or two.

”Well, if this evidence is enough to cast doubt on Ironbriar, then I say we go to the mayor. Knowing of a threat to the city is certainly something to take to the mayor. And before this Ironbriar has a chance to spread the word of what we look like to all his contacts to have them watch for us. But if we do that, I would actually suggest we leave this scene relatively intact. It wouldn’t help our case to look like we were trying to hide our tracks. But time is against us if that is what we go for, in which case we should not wait for morning, but we should go now.”

Radek grunts in agreement with Zarque. "Aye, the mayor hired us to 'elp ye out with yer investigations. Seems like he'd be a safe bet in reportin' to. I'm nae keen on grindin' up these folk into bits an' pieces neither. I be thinkin' we 'ead out now an' tell Grobaras wha' we found. Maybe he's got soldiers he trusts te come out here."

Voting we leave the bodies in place and get the heck out of here. Grobaras seems like a good idea to report to.

"Well, it's better than heading back to the Halls of Justice and trying to talk Ironbriar into arresting himself. Let's go see the mayor..."

Having searched everything there is to search in the sawmill, Khamul retrieves his riding hound and follow Radek and Jominda off to meet the man who hired them.

Zarque recounts to you all she knows about the Sihedron symbol. It amounts to being an ancient symbol from the Thessalonians Empire, which supposedly was destroyed millennia ago. It was meant to symbolize their original guiding principles, but over time, it became corrupted, as empires do, and it came to mean something more sinister. It has been showing up recently on bodies of those in connection with various criminal activities.

Toilday, 29 Lamashan, 4707. 12:32 am. Midnight, 36 degrees F. Light Breeze. Docks, near the wharf. Magnimar, Varisia.

As if waiting for you the whole evening, the man that contacted Jominda and Radek regarding their mission with the mayor simply nods at your approach. He wears a cloak that he keeps tightly wrapped around him, and you can hear the clinking of metal objects beneath it.

”Well?”, he says nonchalantly. ”What have you found?”

"Short version? A cult of Norgorber murdering with some additional motivation related to an ancient symbol - the Sihedron. And the cult leader, at least of that session we interrupted is the well respected judge Ironbriar. Just to have to show something I brought one mask, one cloak and one warrazor, to give you an idea what that all looked like." Jominda presents the items.

"The rest of the mess with several dead cultists, including a new victim that was sacrificed during that cult meeting, can be found at a old abandoned sawmill on Kyver's Islet in Ordelia."

"If you need the long version of the story, Khamul needs to tell as I'm rather new to the backstory."

The man look expectantly at Khamul, but offers this first: ”If Ironbriar is involved, I hope you check and double check your evidence. That man will have you in chains if he can get away with it. These trinkets could belong to anyone. I am hoping you brought some sort of documents to show the mayor?” He again looks at Khamul and Grenz, who have been at this longer than the others.

"Hey, he has no other evidence of us being there than that he has seen us. If that is enough to get us to jail but our witnessing him doing a ritual murder isn't enough to get him into jail, then we either change strategy, or I'm out of this. I'm not going to play by the rules if the evil guys don't have to."

"If the testimony of us, who were hired to investigate the murders and have no personal stakes in that are not enough to at least put this guys house upside down to check what is behind that then you and your town are screwed." Jominda objects.

"We got some papers which are interesting for further investigations, but nothing there is signed by Ironbriar. He is not that stupid."

"Also, how stupid do you think we are. If you think you can push us to the front, see how it goes and duck away when Ironbriar gets the upper hand you're badly mistaken. The mayor checks if that is a case and if it is, he accuses Ironbriar and takes him down - not us."

Sorry about being slow to post.

As they headed to the wharf, to meet Jominda's employer, Khamul takes a few deep breaths to clear his mind (casts guidance), and then lets Jominda open the conversation. When addressed directly, he has a question of his own...

"First off, who are you? Ironbriar was supposed to be an incorruptible, a capital J Justice; but he's actually a Skinsaw cultist. Now, I see a man hiding his face in cloak, claiming to represent the lord mayor. Not sure I trust anyone in this town; I would like some bona fides, or at least a face that I can find again..."

Sense Motive: 3d6 + 3 + 3 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (1, 6, 5) + 3 + 3 + 1 + 1 = 20
3 ranks +3 trained +1 Trait+1 guidance

Grenz pipes up, "Both Khamul and I saw him with our own eyes, standing over Maeve's freshly sacrificed body. We will both be able to testify to that, happily under magical truth compulsion. Two eye-witnesses should be enough."

Sense Motive, Grenz: 3d6 + 12 ⇒ (1, 4, 6) + 12 = 23
+12 character sheet

Khamul senses that the man is definitely shady, but he is convinced of the importance of his work. Grenz and his experience with underground fighting can tell that this man is quite sure of himself and is not someone who enjoys toying around. The agent produces a small disc in his hand and an image of a large human man in garish clothing spews forth in a burst of arcane light, though only the size of a grapefruit. The image speaks: ”This is Lord-Mayor Grobaras Haldemeer. Be it known that whoever holds this medallion is indeed a member of my personal staff and should be treated accordingly. Should this person be in custody of Magnimar’s guard, bring them to my office immediately.”

The man then replaces the item within the folds of his cloak. ”Indeed, a magical compulsion could work, but Magnimar’s laws forbid it as testimony in a legal case. That said, there have been exceptions made, by Justice Ironbriar himself no less. Either way, you have scared Ironbriar enough that he ran. That is damning enough. A Justice would have no need to run from the law. The Lord-Mayor will want to meet with you, to make sure you are properly compensated for your efforts. I will set it up for later this week, Fireday afternoon should be available. Until then, I suggest you keep your heads low and if you happen to hear more about where he might have gone, come and find me. Scraps knows how.”

With that, he turns to leave.

"What about the mess in the mill?" Jominda inquires.

Large post incoming once I get it organized

Radek watches through narrowed eyes, the warpriest isn't following the entirety of the conversation, but the dwarf gets the gist that the halfling doesn't trust this fellow. He's not entirely sure that some magic image saying "trust him" is enough to assuage anyone's doubts, but for the moment it seems they have little choice. As he turns to go, Radek speaks up. "How will ye find us?" He growls.

...

The man then replaces the item within the folds of his cloak. ”Indeed, a magical compulsion could work, but Magnimar’s laws forbid it as testimony in a legal case. That said, there have been exceptions made, by Justice Ironbriar himself no less. Either way, you have scared Ironbriar enough that he ran. That is damning enough. A Justice would have no need to run from the law. The Lord-Mayor will want to meet with you, to make sure you are properly compensated for your efforts. I will set it up for later this week, Fireday afternoon should be available. Until then, I suggest you keep your heads low and if you happen to hear more about where he might have gone, come and find me. Scraps knows how.”

With that, he turns to leave.

”All right, that’s bona fides enough for me, so don’t be leaving just yet. There’s a bunch more to be said. There’s another problem in your town; the mysterious Xanesha,’mistress of the seven’, and her Sihedron ritual. I don’t know what you know, so I’m going to start from the start.

It’s been a ridiculously busy week or so. There was trouble in Sandpoint, it started with goblins raiding. I got there a few days after, looking to collect a few ears of my own. Once there, I hooked up with Grenz, Zarque, and the rest of their crew. Working with Sheriff Hemlock, we busted a bunch of smugglers, the bloody knuckles. They were being led by a priest of Pharasma by the name of Remus. Who was whisked off by the church before we got a lot of details out of him... One thing led to another, and we ended up chasing a ghoul into a maze of tunnels under Sandpoint. We caught him in the end, and took him alive to be interrogated; not that that worked out.

”Then Belor sent us off to the sanitorium, where we found Cai the Necromancer and his experiments. We sorted that mess out, prevented a ghoul fever outbreak, and found some clues pointing us to Foxglove Manor.

In Foxglove Manor, we found out a bunch of stuff. First, Aldern Foxglove, had run nuts. He’d murdered his wife Iesha and then turned himself into a ghoul with an arcane attempt at immortality. With the aid of Iesha’s revenant, we sent him back to Pharasma’s judgement. Searching the manor, we found several clues pointing to folks in Magnimar, and introduced Xanesha and her Sihedron ritual to the mix; we found a letter from Xanesha to Aldern Foxglove. Here, you can see it yourself”. Khamul pauses to pass around Xanesha’s letter (Slide 13)

”So, after we got done searching Foxglove Manor, we came back to consecrate it, to clean up the mess left behind by Aldern’s ritual. When we got there, there was a band of mooks on-site. After a bit of brawling, we took them down. They were investigating what Aldern had done to himself, collecting samples from the leftovers from the failed ritual and the like. I think they were Skinsaw cultists. Then we came to Magnimar, bringing a prisoner with us for interrogation.”

”In Magnimar, we handed the prisoner over to Justice Ironbriar’s office, and met his clerk, Maeve. Maeve who he murdered tonight. He didn’t have time to meet with us, but she asked Grenz and I to meet with her privately, and we did. We met her at the Foxglove townhouse, and we were introduced to ‘Lord Aldern Foxglove’, a man who we knew was dead, as we’d put him down ourselves... We were asked to investigate the rumours of ‘Lord Foxglove’s’ death. Of course we accepted the commission. After some investigation, we found that this ‘Lord Foxglove’ was an impersonator, a swamp aberration known as a faceless one. The thing had been put in place there by ‘Lady X’. I figure that’s Xanesha again.

Then we got to investigating the old sawmill, where we found Ironbriar’s cultists having a ceremony tonight.”

”In terms of things you should know, we’ve been repeatedly pointed at the old clocktower as Xanesha’s lair. We’ve been told there’s an ‘alchemical creation’ acting as a guard for the place...and god knows what else. I figure that we’ll try the place tomorrow in daylight, because I have a suspicion it’s no place to be at night.“

”Also, there are some things I want from you. I want legal permission to arrest and interrogate some folks, and search their houses and places of business. Starting with Pug of Pug’s contraptions – I think he’s building things for Xanesha... Also, there’s another address that we should take a look at soon. Also, can you give us Ironbriar’s address? Tossing his place might yield some clues... “

"That's quite the story. And all that in one week?" Jominda comments. "That's more unbelievable stuff than normal people see in their lifetime."

"That's quite the story. And all that in one week?" Jominda comments. "That's more unbelievable stuff than normal people see in their lifetime."

"I will admit, it's been a downright crazy week."

And DM ShadowbloodMoon had us using the downtime rules before it all kicked off... When it rains, it pours, I guess.

When you poke the barrel, water will pour out.. downtime rules are still in play if we wish to use them, we have just been going from place to place figuring out the mystery first.

After Radek speaks, he says, ”I know my way around the city. It won’t be difficult to find you.” The man looks at Khamul as he talks. He listens intently, as if working to remember what Khamul says, word for word. When Khamul finishes, the man says, ”That’s quite the tale, and I am certain the mayor will want to hear about it, especially since it seems to be centered here in our city. The Foxgloves had been upstanding members of our city for some time, at least until Aldern’s father passed. After that, they became shut in, they rarely ventured out of their home here.” He stops and rubs his chin, thinking. ”I can not formally deputize you here, that will have to be taken care of with the mayor. We had hoped that by not doing that, you would be able to get places that we could not with the law. That being said, The law doesn’t have much presence near the clocktower that you mentioned. The place was marked for destruction years ago, but as you probably know, the wheels of the city move slowly and we know there are some squatters in the area. I know nothing of a ‘Lady X’ or ‘Xanesha’, but there is a woman in town who has been seen going from Alabaster to Underbridge, a vast change in scenery for one such as herself. I believe her first name is Maisie. She dresses in fine coats and does not seem to be afraid of going there after dark. If you ask me, that alone is suspicious.’ He lets that hang for a moment before continuing. ”As for Pug, if you can bring us proof of his involvement with this Lady X, I will make sure he is arrested myself. We’ve had more than just your complaints about him. And Ironbriar keeps a manse in Alabaster, but we know he is hardly there. I would suspect that if he is running, he would not tarry here in the city. I can have a contingent of guards meet your there in the morning and we can toss the place together, deal?”

"Assuming Ironbriar is running, I agree he won't tarry in the city. But he wouldn't have his bug-out gear with him at the cult ceremony. The only place he might have it at, that we know of, aside from the cult headquarters is his manse. A troop of guards in the morning will be too slow. Give us the address of Ironbriar's place - if we go there tonight, directly, we might still catch the rat before he escapes... You can send the guards by tomorrow morning."

"We will see what we can find to justify arresting Pug. I can tell you that a woman called 'Maisie' was accompanying 'Lord Foxglove' on business errands, and also visited the abandoned Foxglove Townhouse."

”Fine, but if some of the local guards there are in his payroll, I’m not sure what I can do if you get caught. Try not to make it more of a mess than it needs to be. I need to figure out just how deeply this Maisie is involved in all this.” With that, he hands you a scrip of paper that you don’t remember him writing on. It contains a street address in Alabaster and nothing more. He looks at the rest of you, and if nothing more is said, he turns to make his way into the shadows.

"Onwards to Ironbriar I guess?"

"Onwards to Ironbriar I guess?"

"Yes, to Ironbriar's manse, as quick as we can..."

@GM ShadowBloodmoon, would this be an appropriate time for Grenz to split off ? Maybe he figures we don't know how Ironbriar found out about Maeve, and he should collect and protect Scraps and the boys?

I think that is a good idea. Grenz is too broken up about Maeve and will need to investigate ‘his way’.

Toilday, 29 Lamashan, 4707. 2:01 am. Witching Hours, 32 degrees F. Brisk Breezes. Ironbriar Manor, Alabaster District, Magnimar, Varisia.

Your breath steams before you as you approach Ironbriar’s place. The chill of the night air and the thought of infiltrating one of the most protected places in all the city gives you a shiver. The main gates are closed and locked, but you see no guards outside. There is a patrol of guardsmen that makes its way around the street that leads to the same gate. You wait until they pass to look closer. Beyond the gate, looking through the iron bars that make up the fence, you can see a path that leads further back towards a guard house. Beyond that is the manse itself. Several rows of well manicured bushes hide the rest of the grounds from sight. Most everything else is difficult to see at this hour. From the lack of light coming from the manse or even the guardhouse, no one appears to be home, but then, not everyone needs light to see by and Ironbriar is an elf.

"You see anything I don't?" Jominda asks the others. "If not, can you take a closer look from above?" Jominda inquires from Zarque.

How high is that fence?

Jominda walks along the fence looking for any damages or gaps or at least a dark corner where one could try climbing over it without being seen from further away.

Perception: 3d6 + 8 ⇒ (5, 6, 3) + 8 = 22

Radek does his best to follow the tale and finally shakes his head with a grunt. He'll just have to pick up the names and how they relate to each other as they go. For now, it seems simple enough. If it's evil, chop it down with his axe until it stops moving. He follows the others out with a curt nod at their host.

The dwarf eyes the patrolling guards and the high walls, then grunts to anyone willing to listen. "I'm nae very sneaky, ye know. Tha' spell I used te silence meself isn' a possibility nae more. Jus' how do ye plan te get me in there?" He growls the last.

"I could lift you over it." Jominda offers.

*** Previously ***
Grenz addresses Khamul: "We have no idea how Ironbriar picked up on Maeve. The Scraps and the boys could be in danger. They must be protected. I will go gather them up and guard them."

Khamul frowns and replies "You're right, we don't know. It could even be dumb luck. And you're right a second time, we do need to protect them. All right, go protect them. While you're at it, there's a couple of other things you can do. If you can stand a night on the streets, keep a watch on Pug's place. Keep track of who's going in an out. If Pug tries to decamp in the middle of the night, grab him. Also, have a long talk with Scraps. Either he really doesn't have any idea what the word 'discrete' means - he's talked to the mayor's agent, and these two besides."[b] He gestures at Jominda and Radek before continuing, [b]"Or there's something else going on - like he's already working for mayor, and didn't mention that little fact to us; but then he's been running a game on us, and thoroughly deserves a thrashing..."

"I'll ask" promises Grenz, who then runs off into the dark, heading for the Laughing Dragon to find the boys...

*** Currently ***

Khamul produces a wallet of picks with a flourish, and suggests "How about we try the front gate. Locks are really just a suggestion, not a prohibition... You guys keep an eye out for more guards while I work." He nips over to the front gate, calling on the darkness inside of him to let him see in the dark:

Cha Check, Dark Communion for Fiendish Form (darkvision): 3d6 + 2 ⇒ (2, 5, 1) + 2 = 10 vs DC 10
+2 cha
if failed, gain a point of influence

Taking a deep breath (casting guidance), he takes a look at the lock (for traps) and sets to work with his picks...

Perception, check for traps: 3d6 + 5 + 3 + 1 + 4 ⇒ (2, 1, 3) + 5 + 3 + 1 + 4 = 19
5 ranks +3 trained+1 Trait+4 Racial to detect danger

Disable device: 3d6 + 5 + 3 + 4 + 1 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (5, 3, 1) + 5 + 3 + 4 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 25
5 ranks +3 trained +4 Dex+1 Trait+1 guidance +2 MW tools