"She is in the business longer than I am, and she is still alive." Jominda replies with little enthusiasm.
Getting half an answer Jolanda looks at Khamul with a raised brow as she notices that something else caught his attention. Following his gaze she notices the shady business.
Boreana can't help but overhear the enthusiastic blonde woman carrying on about 'the job'. She thinks to herself "Well, maybe my uncle was right when he suggested coming to this dive to find work."
Rising gracefully, she glides across the room, smoothly avoiding the junior pickpockets. She arrives soon enough to hear Jominda's comment:
...
"And with my annoyingly loud sister announcing our intentions, I think we're good.""Shall we take a seat at the bar, order a drink and see what happens?"
She leads the way to a corner where enough seats are available for them and at least one more.
She seats herself at the last spot at the table, and introduces herself, "You're quite right about drawing some attention. I am Boreana Deverin, and what is this 'good deed'?"
Getting half an answer Jolanda looks at Khamul with a raised brow as she notices that something else caught his attention. Following his gaze she notices the shady business.
[dice=Perception]3d6+10
Boreana comments "True, but in this kin of bar you're expected to be aware enough to keep your own coin purse. Also, even starveling junior cutpurses need to eat."
"I'm not sitting here when the kids are gone and the first guy notices he can't pay his drinks." Jolanda explains and leans back to enjoy what unfolds now.
Khamul looks around the table, and decides some discretion might the order of the day; he reaches out psychically , and whispers under his breath.
"Ladies, there is a monster lairing in the old clocktower, calling itself Lady Xanesha. It's a right clever son a b**!&, and it's up to it's eyeballs in plots. We still haven't really got an idea about what it wants, but it's involved itself with the murderous skinsaw cult and their pile of corpses. It's marking the bodies and people involved with the Sidhedron - which is a seven pointed star symbol that was used by the Thassilonian empire thousands of year ago. And's it's had a hand in an outbreak of Ghoul Fever up Sandpoint way. The job is to go in to the old clocktower, find 'Lady Xanesha' and kill it... Gods know what else is in there, but we have been warned about some sort of guardian: an ‘alchemical creation’. Also, she appears to know that we're out here, chasing her down. She's probably laying for us. So we're looking for tough, adventurous types with some experience. What do you ladies bring to the table?"
Boreana smiles winningly and replies: "I am experienced duelist, happy to close with a foe. I also bring some lesser magics, an inspiring presence , and of course, my natural charm."
"Well, you point me in direction of what needs to be dead - as long as it's legal - then I'd get up close and put a bullet between its eyes. Or a few more if necessary." Jolanda pulls out her gun and rotates it a few times around her finger before putting it back in its holster. "And I never miss."
Khamul shares a fraught glance with Jominda and says "You vouched for you sister and at the very least, Boreana is willing ... I guess we'll find out about able. I don't see anyone else beating down our door here. Shall we go do this?"
"Might as well. It's not like we can be choosy on such short notice." Jominda comments. "But I guess the question of pay needs a serious answer. Wouldn't want anyone peeved at us at the end of the job."
"An even share of any loot acquired, and any reward paid, sounds reasonable to me."
...[/b]
At Jolanda's mention of the children's deeds, the room looks at her as if she shouldn't have said anything. An older woman comes out from behind the bar and gives her a once-over that is terrifying even to the burliest of warriors in the room. She says only one thing before returning to her work. "Keep your mitts off the kids, or I start taking hands and serving them up in tonight's stew."
The rest of the Old Fang goes back to their business, a few chuckles passing between companions.
Even in broad daylight, it is dark under the Irespan bridge. A permanent sort of twilight covers the area and the building themselves look as if they are hiding from the light, bent and broken as they are. The clock tower is easy to find. At about 250 feet tall, scraping the bottom of the Irespan, it seems as if a stiff breeze would knock it over once and for all. Considering the smell of sea, fish and something you can't identify and aren't sure you want to, a stiff breeze would be nice about now. Approaching the road that leads to the tower, you realize that you are alone. Not just of people, but no plants seems to grow here and no animals, not even rats or carrion birds are present. It is eerily quiet for this time of day.
"Creepy." Jominda comments on the sight of the scene.
...
"Creepy." Jominda comments on the sight of the scene.
"Indeed" replies Boreana, "So our target is somewhere in there.
It does seem very odd, how quiet it is out here. This part of town is a slum, but you'd expect the usual collection of feral brats running in packs, layabouts in the street, and so forth. Where are all the people?She loosens her rapier in it's sheath, and readies her shield.
"So do we just go straight up the middle, right to the front door?"
...
"Indeed" replies Boreana, "So our target is somewhere in there.
It does seem very odd, how quiet it is out here. This part of town is a slum, but you'd expect the usual collection of feral brats running in packs, layabouts in the street, and so forth. Where are all the people?She loosens her rapier in it's sheath, and readies her shield.
"So do we just go straight up the middle, right to the front door?"
"Agreed, there's something wrong. Might be that guardian thing, the 'alchemical creation'. But no, not straight up the middle, that's not my style at all. We had been planning to climb the outside of the tower and come in from above, but two new friends put that idea back on the shelf; we only found a single potion of spider climb for purchase. But we also found this here map, which appears to show a hidden entrance... I say we try that, rather than the front door."
"For sure we'll have the full attention of everyone after the first shot fired."
Showing everyone the map, Khamul points out that the entrance to this supposed secret entrance lies underneath the Harpy, one of the few remaining bridge supports, just 100 yards north of where you are. Supposedly, there are no known entrances, but Ironbriar noted a loose sewer grate that leads underneath into some tunnels below.
"For sure we'll have the full attention of everyone after the first shot fired."
"It's a lot easier when you surprise people and get the jump on them, you know."
Khamul leads on over to Ironbriar's hope of a secret entrance. Whereupon, he focuses his psychic abilities and starts by checking for traps...
5 ranks +3 trained+1 Trait+4 Racial to detect danger+1guidance
Boreana, meanwhile, casts message to allow all of us to communicate in whispers...
As you start moving towards the supposed grate, you feel like there is a strange energy in the air, as if something is pulling you away. You find it, just a few feet from the bottom of the Harpy piling. Khamul starts to focus on opening it when he stops and realizes his ears have picked up a sort of shuffle, scraping movement not too far away.
The grate itself only has a city lock on it and even that seems old and rusted. Judging from the smell, this place hasn't been cleaned in some time.
Jolanda pulls her gun. "I can 'unlock' that."
Khamul whispers "So can I, and I can do it quietly. More immediately though, I hear something is shuffling around. Everybody get your game face on... "
Khamul listens closely at the gate , trying to discern if the shuffling noise is coming from the underneath it (or if it is coming from someplace else - like behind us)...
5 ranks +3 trained+1 Trait+4 Racial to detect danger+1 guidance
In response to Khamul's warning, Boreana casts Heroism on herself (duration 50 minutes), and draws her blade...
Khamul listens more intently. He hears very little coming from the garte, but the noise seems to be echoing from between a few of the ramshackle buildings that have been built under the Irespan. If he had to guess, it seems to be coming from the direction of the tower, though in the permanent dusk here, Khamul still cannot make out what made the noise. The rest of the team know something is up but cannot determine what it is.
Jominda looks around to check what Khamul picked up.
Jolanda joins the scanning of the area to find what's going on.
Your gut tells you something is out there, waiting, but your eyes just can't seem to pick it up.
"Whatever it is, I don't think it's coming from down below, so I'm gonna get this open. Ladies, cover my back while I work."
Taking a deep breath to focus himself , Khamul sets to work on the lock...
5 ranks +3 trained +4 Dex+1 Trait+1 guidance +2 MW tools
Boreana faces back the way we came, and keeps her head on a swivel, alert for enemies...
(Boreana has darkvision 60')
5 ranks +3 trained
Jominda gets a vial out of her pocket and downs its content.
Khamul gets to work on the lock, the old thing refusing to move with the rust of age. As he works on it, Jominda's vision starts to blur as she looks into the ethereal plane. Once her vision clears, she can see the remants of what Magnimar must have looked like centuries ago, ghosts of old buildings and the people who lived, worked and died in them crowding her sight. She does not see the source of the sound however, as the being who exist in the ethereal pass through Jominda as if she weren't there.
As the sound of scraping gets loud enough for all to hear it, Khamul opens the lock. He peers inside, seeing little but a rough-cut tunnel that leads to a smell best not described here. As he goes to tell the women what he sees, all of you notice that there is a creature appearing from behind one of the buildings. At first all you see is a large misshapen arm holding a rather wicked looking scythe. As the rest of the creature comes into view, you can see that it is easily over two men tall and the rags it wears barely contain the mass of its body. Khamul can see the aura of magic permeating it. It does not look friendly.
"Wow. That explains why noone wants to be here." Jominda states.
"That will be hard to miss." Jolanda determines.
+4 (Dex) +1 Trait
The creature bellows a warning as it approaches. "The Lady would like for me to collect your heads and bring them to her. I have yet to fail her." As if to emphasize his threat, he pounds the end of his scythe on the ground and the blade glows an unearthly green color.
"Are you singing encouraging songs?" Jolanda inquires from Boreana. If so, she waits for her to start, before shooting.
Boreanna lets her performance stand as reply to Jolanda. She advances with inspiring grace, smoothly dancing, taking up a position to shield her allies while not closing too close to that scythe...
+4 (dex) + 4 (armor)+1 armor enhancement +2 Shield +1 Dodge
+4 (dex) + 4 (armor)+1 armor enhancement +2 Shield +1 Dodge
+4 (dex) + 4 (armor)+1 armor enhancement +2 Shield +1 Dodge
Khamul pivots to face the thing, stepping away from the (now open) sewer grate, and replies simply: "Have some!", as his sling-staff blurs into motion...
+3 Bab +3 Spirit Bonus +4 dex +1 Enhancement -2 rapid shot +3 competence (inspire courage)
+1 str +3 spirit bonus +3 seance bonus+1 enhancement +3 competence (inspire courage)
As Boreana prances her way towards the creature, Jolanda and Khamul open fire, both hitting the creature solidly. However, even as they are sure of their shots, the rounds seem to fall out of the creature’s skin. It only growls as it advances on Boreana, scythe swinging for her head. Though the great blade destroys the air between her neck and the edge, it only barely grazes her, a tiny trickle of blood forming under her chin.
Jominda finishes affixing a tanglefoot bag to her bomb and throws the resulting grenade at the thing. She makes sure to exclude the nice lady from the explosion.
"Well, I wouldn't want to stand up front, but so far..." Jolanda evaluates stepping up and making two more shots.
Boreanna puts a pause in her dance for emphasis, which she uses to assess her foe...
Khamul takes another step towards the creature, his sling-staff whistling incessantly...
vs entangled AC
+3 Bab +3 Spirit Bonus +4 dex +1 Enhancement -2 rapid shot +3 competence (inspire courage) -4 cover (Boreana)
+1 str +3 spirit bonus +3 seance bonus+1 enhancement +3 competence (inspire courage)
vs entangled AC
Jolanda’s guns thunder as Jominda’s bomb explodes in the street, sending waves of flame and goo towards the creature and everything nearby. Luckily, Jominda calculated the trajectory perfectly and Boreana barely missed a step in her performance, dancing away from the creature, now soaked in the goo. It roars a challenge and begins hacking away at the slime entangling its feet. As if to add insult to injury, one of Khamul’s shots hit home. ”Do you think that will stop me?,” he bellows as his scythe cuts through the remains of the goo holding his feet, even as flesh and bone begin to tear open and strange liquid seeps from its wounds.