"Wonderful. See you soon."
Jolanda turns on her heel and is on the way out and down.
Not liking this company, Jominda follows immediately.
Khamul trades a glance with Boreana, then follows Jolanda and Jominda.
Boreanna is last out of the room, keeping a wary lookout for any last minute treachery by Xanesha...
"I need a drink first." Jolanda states once they reach solid ground and orientates herself in direction of the next store distributing liquor.
Once in safe distance she turns to Khamul "But while we get to that, you could tell whose tendrils our new employer smells on your mind. And what she actually is, that she smells your mind would also be nice to know."
...
"I need a drink first." Jolanda states once they reach solid ground and orientates herself in direction of the next store distributing liquor.
Once in safe distance she turns to Khamul "But while we get to that, you could tell whose tendrils our new employer smells on your mind. And what she actually is, that she smells your mind would also be nice to know."
"Yeah, grab your bottle to go, and I might get some too. Then let's find a place where we can't be overheard and hash things out... Maybe the end of a pier or even a boat..."
The nearest pub is the Old Fang, so called for the giant tooth that belonged to some sea creature killed long ago that decorates the front stoop. The entire building is adorned with numerous nautical pieces and parts and the patrons seem like they have also just come from the sea, considering the smell. The spirits here are good however, for the price you pay for them, and it keeps people coming back. No one pays you much mind as you come in, most of them deep in their cups.
Finding an out of the way place isn't too difficult, especially near the shore. There is a short beach with some broken ship pieces stacked up, rotted with age and sea. No one is around but the gulls you hear overhead. The ones on the ground are rather perturbed by your interrupting their meal.
Once at the beach Jolanda opens the bottle she bought at the Old Fang, pours herself into her hin cup and offers anyone who wants to join in.
"Cheers, to being the MVP in this game." she toasts.
Jominda accepts bet wrinkles her nose when smelling at the content of her cup. Probably great for starting a fire, not so much for drinking.
"Yay?" she replies to the toast.
Khamul takes quick hit off the whiskey he bought and centers himself , and starts "Ok, yeah, I backed your play with the b@#$+ because I didn't like the odds at all. Four shapeshifters who've demonstrated a ridiculous level of toughness to hold the front line, and what seems to be a major mage . Yeah, that was looking bad. But I figure working for her is a death sentence, probably in the short run. Not to mention I suspect I'd hate what I'd end up doing..." He puts the bottle down and has his sling-staff in hand as he asks "How serious were you about working for the b@&#$?"
3 ranks +3 trained +1 Trait +1 guidance
Boreana is sipping here wine, while watching carefully... When Khamul puts the whiskey down and takes up his staff, she puts her hand on, but does not draw, her rapier.
5 ranks +3 trained +2 racial
"I don't know what brought you on this case, but I can tell you what it was for me: money. And the other important thing when you work for money is, that you work for the winning team. So you get a chance to spend that money at the end of the day. It is a plus if you can still look in the mirror after the job, but let me tell you, you can justify a lot of s~#% to yourself, as you rarely get to burn infants for some evil god on such jobs. Heck, someone could make a valid case that you, me and the rest of our group has to die for moral and/or legal reason."
"But feel free to educate me about the team you're working on so far and what their counter offer is here and what powerful allies they have to offer to be considered the winning team." Jolanda replies.
"But to come back to my question, what has supposedly tendrils on your mind?"
"So you gave up on morals completely?" Jominda asks mostly rhetorically.
"I didn't actually get in this for the money, although I sure don’t mind it. I got in this for hate - I thought I would get the opportunity to kill a bunch of goblins. I have a blood price to collect for my father. Then we started finding ritually murdered bodies... I figure that’s a sign that something real bad is coming if something ain’t done, quite possibly ‘burning children for an evil god’ bad... and that b**~$ is sitting pretty at the centre of the spiderweb. So no, working for her is not something I like one bit. “
Khamul pauses for a breath and then continues: ”Now about your other question, there’s at least one more monstrosity in town, apparently acting as a mob boss? It’s definitely some sort of psiker; it contacted Grenz and I by possessing young Scraps. It wanted a meeting. It wanted the b#%#! dead, offering a fortune for her head. Supposedly it ‘likes things the way they are’ and it implied her schemes were drawing too much heat into the town, and thus were likely to expose whatever it’s up to... No deal was arrived at, although the offer still stands. I thought Grenz was going to get us into a fight with it, right in the middle of the meeting. He has a stiff neck and wants all his whites separated from his blacks – no greys – and then ironed and starched into proper pleats. Hmmph, the world don’t work like that. “
He ruminates "If you want powerful allies and a counter offer, we could try talking to the thing again..."
Boreana interjects "This thing, the mob boss, if the lady can 'smell it's tendrils in your mind', are you sure it hasn't influenced you?"
Khamul blinks and replies "I don't think so, but if I was a puppet, I'd probably say the same thing..."
"So our current employer isn't an option when it comes to powerful allies?" Jominda inquires.
"According to the not so nice lady, he is a puppet to be played and somebody to be taken to the cleaners. Would you object to that assessment of hers?"
"Working for her has so far ended badly for all in her employ. Quite some of them by our hand or you, Grenz and who else was on the case earlier. And it seems she is fresh out of goons to throw at us."
Jominda hands the mug with the paint remover back to her sister to drink. "I don't want any part in that ritual murdering she orchestrated. Question is, if we get rid of whatever thing made you the same offer about her - and at least Grenz would approve of that - would that rid the city from another evil while keeping her off our back? And would time work in our favor here, or in hers?"
"Because I don't feel like going back right now and tell her that we have second thoughts about working for her."
"So our current employer isn't an option when it comes to powerful allies?" Jominda inquires.
"According to the not so nice lady, he is a puppet to be played and somebody to be taken to the cleaners. Would you object to that assessment of hers?"
Khamul spits, takes another swig, and replies "I don't know what Grobaras can bring to the table, but this is a big city, not a small town. Suspect that she might be overestimating herself; I wouldn't bet on him being easy to be played. Big cities generate a lot of coin, which can buy powerful help."
"Working for her has so far ended badly for all in her employ. Quite some of them by our hand or you, Grenz and who else was on the case earlier. And it seems she is fresh out of goons to throw at us."[/b]Jominda hands the mug with the paint remover back to her sister to drink. "I don't want any part in that ritual murdering she orchestrated. Question is, if we get rid of whatever thing made you the same offer about her - and at least Grenz would approve of that - would that rid the city from another evil while keeping her off our back?
...
"The thing below the Drowned Rat... Yeah, I figure it's got it's own schemes, and putting it down would probably be doing the world a favor. But that's probably a lot easier said than done. It felt powerful, had a presence. The sage Jarlsprocket couldn't identify the thing from a sketch and a description, had no idea what it could do... and it does have that collection of goons that the b!#*$ is currently short of."
...
"Working for her has so far ended badly for all in her employ. Quite some of them by our hand or you, Grenz and who else was on the case earlier. And it seems she is fresh out of goons to throw at us."
...
"Because I don't feel like going back right now and tell her that we have second thoughts about working for her."
Boreana takes another sip of her wine and interjects "You know, that might not actually be as silly an idea as it sounds. We went in there looking for a settling of accounts with her. As you say, she's pretty much fresh out of goons. She had those four shapeshifters left; if we could get to them separate from her, we could probably take them, given they don't have any more bells to drop on us... She was going to have them clean up - which puts them at the bottom of the stairs, well separated from her aerie. We go back there, we can probably settle with them before she can get downstairs to join the party. In terms of fighting her, well she's clearly a mage. Mages tend to prepare for fights ahead of time, by casting enhancing spells before it starts. Every mage has a limit for how much magic they can work before resting. I'd bet my own lunch money she cast a bunch of defensive spells before our confrontation. Also, she used some serious juice on that enchantment she used trying to get us to drop our weapons. It's been a couple of hours, but not a whole night, those defensive spells will have worn off and she won't have recovered her mojo to cast them again..."
"She is playing people. We don't even know for sure who or what she is. All of what we saw might have been a sophisticated lie. And what you told are all assumptions. And assumption is the mother of all f#%# ups."
"All she did was present herself as the powerful beeing that can use us as puppets by using ONE magic and sweettalk us. Even if that was her most powerful magic, that she can use only once a day I'm not eager to find out what other stuff she can pull."
"Have you ever been in a fight where suddenly your best friend stabs you in the back because of such magic? The minimum requirement before going back in there with anything but a smile and the money from the mayor is proper protection against that."
"We have two entities playing mind games here. Shouldn't each of them know what the other is?"
"We have two entities playing mind games here. Shouldn't each of them know what the other is?"
"I'm pretty sure they know about each other, yeah, but getting them to share anything useful by way of information, that's much more difficult. Both of them tend towards the close-mouthed, sharing as little information as possible. I figure both of them want us operating as blind pawns. For example in our recent conversation with the b#!&+, she didn't give a damn thing away about what she'd want us to be doing in the long run, just that she'd want the thing in the sewers dead... When I talked to the thing below the Drowned Rat, I asked what it knew about her, but it didn't have a lot it was willing to share. I do figure that it knows more than it told me. Just like I figure she probably knows a lot more about the thing under the Drowned Rat, but the trick is getting her to tell us..."
"All right, we don't want to be bold and go right back in. So what is the plan? Tell the mayor a bunch of lies and collect what we can from him? Play it straight with him? Just run for the hills?
"Morals lead to nothing here. Has anyone objections about lying to the mayor?" Jolanda voices her thoughts.
"Otherwise, we'd have to convince him to give us a lot of money to pretend working for Mrs. X. Which shouldn't be too hard either. If he doesn't want to, I'll suggest I change careers singing songs about heroic deeds fighting a Thassilonian Sihedron Cult in Magnimar and he is on his own with the Mrs. X problem."
"Running for the hills is a very long run until you get somewhere where you can make a decent living."
"Play it straight. This way we can go to him again if we need more support." Jominda votes.
Khamul takes another swig, and b#~#~es: "F#@&, I was looking forward to having that b#&!+'s head on a post ... All right, whatever else, we go to Mayor tomorrow morning. Jominda figures play it straight, and Jolanda doesn't hate the idea. For myself, I say play it straight as well, but try to keep that under our hats ... because I suspect that b#+$$ has a lot of sources of information in this town. For a public story, we could claim that thing with the scythe was the big bad, and then we have a convenient body to work with. "
Boreana puts in her 2 silvers with a winsome smile: "I can go along with that. But let me do the talking with the mayor, I find most men persuadable..."
"Unless anyone has a better idea, let's go crash at the Laughing Dragon, and talk to the mayor in the morning."
"Agreed.
The Laughing Dragon is raucous and lively tonight, a complete turn from where you were. The frivolity helps you forget, even for a moment, that there is evil underneath the streets and high above them. Your rest is not interrupted physically, but your mind swirls with visions of the strange woman and her seemingly untouchable power.
Wealday, 30 Lamashan, 4707. 9:05 am. Morning, 47 degrees F. Brisk (6-9mph) Breezes. Mayor Grobaras' Office, Government District, Magnimar, Varisia.
In the morning, you awake with a fresher mind, the dreams you had quickly fading from memory. After a hearty breakfast you head directly to Mayor Grobaras' office.
The place is quite busy in the morning, but due to your importance, time is made for you to meet with the Mayor. You quickly file into a council chamber and take seats, with water provided as refreshment. Soon after, the Mayor comes in.
"Well? Have you dealt with the problem? I have been hearing of strange activities near Underbridge and though that is not unheard of, it seems to have increased of late." He looks at each of you questioningly.
Jolanda takes a deep breath, but then bites her tongue and looks at Boreana.
Boreana replies "We dealt with a problem, that is for sure. An alchemical thing, hat was loose in the streets and attacking..."
Khamul interrupts, asking "Is this room protected against eavesdropping, magical or otherwise?
Boreana continues "A near giant with a scythe. We took it down, but it was a near run thing."
Mayor Grobaras raises an eyebrow as he listens. "We are alone, of that I can assure you," he says, twisting one of the rings on his amply sized finger. "Do we know who created this monstrosity? I cannot fathom that such a beast would also be able to orchestrate the murders of several prominent citizens."
As Boreana takes her sweet time to search for words Jolanda blurts out. "Well, it isn't. It's this mysterious Mrs. X, that we met and that made us an offer we can't refuse - literally."
"She told us to work for her and we'd get 90% of the earnings. The first one, the large sum you pay us for supposedly having removed this threat and keep the silence about it."
"Now there are two options: You play along and we see where that leads and what we can learn about her and her superiors until we have something we can actually work with. Or you pay us for our work so far and solve the problem yourself."
"Because this Mrs. X has demonstrated that she is a master in mind control and it looks like that might have been the way she turned someone as respected as Judge Ironbriar into supporting her horrible cause."
"The next job she has in mind for us would be to get rid of some abomination that lives under the city, that has like you approached Khamul about the removal of Mrs. X. I'd guess the city would benefit from getting rid of both, but who am I to judge."
Jolanda takes a deep breath and sighs.
"S&$*ty position you are in. Take your time to ponder which way you want to go with that and let us know I guess?"
Grobaras strokes his extra chins. ”I knew something was wrong with Ironbriar. He was always a thorn in my side, but his work was impeccable, until recently. Mind control explains it, but it’s not something I can tell the public..” He goes on for good couple of minutes about politics and his image before returning to the subject at hand. ”I don’t know who this Lady or Mistress X or whatever is, but I can not have her meddling in the affairs of this city, let alone some strange creature under the streets. I don’t like the idea of any one working for me also working for them, but I can see that I can trust you because you brought this to me first. That and probably the coin I am offering.” He stops and goes to his desk to get out a piece of parchment and an ink pen and begins to write. ”No one but us will know about this deal, but whatever you do, try to keep it clean. The less mess I have to cover up, the better. This note will get you your payment from the Abadar Vaults. Make this as quick as you can. The sooner our fair city is rid of these two carbuncles, the better.” He hands you the note after he stamps it with his seal.
"You're quick with your decision. I like that." Jolanda comments while bagging the parchment.
"We'll keep you informed."
Then she ushers her companions out of the office.
"Off to the bank then."
Khamul comments "Well, that went better than expected. How much is the note for?"
Looking over the note from Mayor Grobaras, you see that it is written out for the sum of two hundred gold bars, which you quickly calculate to be about ten thousand gold pieces, to be shared amongst your crew. You also recall that a thousand of that is supposed to go to Lady X.
"Well, 10 grand. That's a proper payment. Either Mrs. X has really good insight into human nature, or she plays with his brain too."