Ashivla points at the door. "Yes, Drakar block the door. See if you can drag a barrel or something in front of it."
She steps up to the crates and plunges her kurki into the prone, grappled wizard, hoping to end him quickly.
Ashivla's kukri slashes right across the tiefling's throat, silencing him and ending his struggles. Drakar bolts the door shut from the inside and drags the desk in front of it. Crashing and thumping noises are heard from the other side of the door.
Amari kicks the still slighty twitching and blood spouting man off him, then draws his bow and assumes position in the mid of the room.
An arrow is already on the bowstring and the first man to break through the door will face an immediate arrow-to-chest reward for his disturbance.
Ashivla considers the situation.
Best to let them in, she thinks. Can't let any of them live.
She tries and constricts her vocal chords in a manner that would sound as if Aroc was speaking, not a mousy thief girl, and says, "You there, unlock that door. I have control of them now. Come in!" She looks at Drakar. "Come in and close the door behind you, we have things to discuss! Ha ha ha!"
There's quiet outside the door for a minute then, when Drakar opens it, three armed men burst in. Several more can be seen behind them, as well as a halfling.
Amari sends an arrow towards the first man.
It strikes hard into the chest of the first man, slowing him down a bit and delaying the reaction of all those behind him.
The first arrow, is quickly followed by two more as Amari finds the rhythm of the desert snake: strike - pull back - strike again.
But he didn't calculated with the man to slow down after his first arrow hit home and both arrows miss the man by a small margin.
Ashivla moves up and attempts to trip the lead man in order to clog the doorway, but cannot get a good angle in the tight confines.
"You'd better give up, now."
Lo'Laan and his companion climb onto the crates and attack the reinforcements as they barge into the room. Serenity seems to have a much easier time climbing around then the hunter.
... or they would have missed, were it not for the man to stumble at the worst moment and walk directly into the path of the two projectiles.
Amari's arrows finish off the first man but two more rush in. Serenity bites and trips one of them while Drakar hurls his fists at the man.
But four more guards with the halfling behind them rush up to the attack. The two in front exert all their energy to crush their foes, seeing their dead comrades.
The halfling calls out
They got Aroc! Kill 'em, boys!!
Seein Drakar fall (again), Amari switches aim on his assailant, since the other has fallen out of view.
The sound of a bowstring being pulled back near their breaking point and let loose can be heard multiple times within only hand full of seconds, spitting a deadly payload at the attackers.
Amari's shafts down another man.
Ashivla stabs at the man on the ground, trying to end him quickly, then she steps out and to the side, readying herself for the next round of opponents.
---
Lo'Laan and Serenity pile onto the flood of enemies that shove their way into the room.
Lo'Laan and Ashivla finish off another man. The halfling in the back calls out Get 'em boys! I've got your back and I've got a plan! Two men rush forward, Serenity bites, trips, and claws one of them, despite the fact that he is actually wearing armor. A second rushes in and Lo'Laan trips him.
The two men saw how poorly being prone worked for their opponents and stand up, ready to wield their greatsword.
The halfling's "plan" seems to be keeping you occupied with his less-clever allies and running away. You see him head to the door of the warehouse.
Lo'Laan and Serenity continue their attacks as the last man makes his stand.
Seeing the last man fall under the half-orcs hellbard, Amari sprints past the body which not even had time to hit the ground fully and shots at the fleeing halfling on the run , nearly catching up to him.
As he lines up the shot, he searches the room for any signs of additional fleeing combatants.
As Lo'Laan finishes off the last guard, Serenity dashes with blinding speed through the doorway, her lithe back undulating as she rushes under Amari's legs and blocks the halfling from reaching the door, biting fiercely into the fellow, who cries out in pain. But her dash under his legs throws off Amari's aim slightly and his shaft slams into the wall behind the startled smuggler.
Ashivla rushes out of the room and into the next. She attempts to swing around the halfling and get in his way.
"Too late, friend. Fight, run, cower, beg, it doesn't matter."
The halfling steps warily toward the door and strikes with both of his shortswords in a desperate bid for life.
His flashing steel misses Ashivla but bites into Serenity, wounding the noble beast.
Ashivla strikes out with her kukri, attempting to trip the halfling.
Ashivla barely manages to trip the halfling, who falls with a curse in a tongue you don't understand but one that sounds better suited to gardening and commenting on quantities of beer.
Drakar continues to bleed heavily.
Lo'Laan returns to Drakar's side and uses his last spell for the day.
Serenity proceeds to tear into the remaining smuggler.
The smuggler lies bleeding on the floor, hanging onto life by a thread.
Get it off me! Get it off me!
Amari swiftly rushes into flanking position and uses all of his momentum to deliver a punishing kick against the head of the downed halfling.
With a sharp krack, something vital gives way in the neck of the wanna-be-last-survivor and silence falls over the shadows...
"We search them and the room, count the bodies and make sure we've got them all while where at it. And someone needs to keep a lookout in case that bout drew any attention." Lo'Laan says.
1 studded leather
4 daggers
6 greataxes
6 banded mail
72 gp
6 potions of clw
1 locked chest in Aroc's office (perception to find key)
Many crates of goods (appraise to see if there's anything worth taking)
Ashivla stands straight, dusts off her armor, and surveys the carnage around her. She walks over and kneels next to Drakar and says to Lo'Laan, "He'll survive, then. Good job."
She remembers the wicked slash Drakar had taken just a minute before. All the rest after that seems a blur to her. She waits a moment then stands again.
Her fingers move fast, signing and talking at the same time. "Well done everyone. Amari, see if you can't look around for anything useful they might've been smuggling. In fact, we may want to ransack the place. Make it look like a deal gone wrong and not an assassination. Don't want our handiwork too readily noticeable. Lo'Laan see if you can find anymore healing implements to use on Drakar, or just use our own. I'll go and peek outside to get a look at who might've heard the scuffle."
She goes to the door and pops it open a crack to see if anyone's watching.
Lo'Laan nods and does what he must to tend to Drakar.
Looking out the door, Ashivla thinks the inhabitants of the street look nervous and seem to be rushing from one place to another in fear.
Drakar gets woozily to his feet.
Amari looks around for the key to the lockbox
he doesn't find upon a first investigation.
Ashivla returns to the others. "We need to hurry before the guards arrive."
She kneels down next to the locker and removes her thieves' tools and begins to work on the lock for as much time as it takes to unlock it.
Lo'Laan grabs anything small and easily carried leaving weapons and armor of average quality behind.
24 gp, 2 potion of cure light wounds / From first two guards.
wand, a scroll, two potions, a robe, and 23 gp / Wizard
72 gp, 6(-1 used on Drakar) potions of clw / The rest
Total: 119 G
7 CLW, 2 ? Pots, Wand, Scroll, one or more brown robes
Ashivla pops open the chest with her nimble fingers and finds a few documents inside and several small but heavy bags of silver and gold coins (total of 1000 gp). The parchments seem to hold a random mix of letters.
The parchments hold a ledger of Aroc's illegal activities that is encoded with a relatively simple cipher you decode quickly, given the training you received in the fundamentals of cryptology. It reveals information regarding the operations of several other smuggling rings as well as some wealthy Taldan merchants (Ilsen Manori, Jacqu Demah, and Jonathan Swain) and mid-level Qadiran officials (Emmed of Koor and Abad the Lesser) who have conducted illegal dealings with Aroc's group.
Lo'Laan nods seriously at the finely constructed wooden lids of some of the crates and begins piling them up to carry off. Then he rethinks matters and decides they're probably best left behind.
You remember your orders to report back to the hidden desert cave where you received your wooden daggers after finishing your mission. It is about 60 miles away if you traveled across harsh desert terrain where finding food and water could be difficult. It is 100 miles if you take roads. What do you wish to do?
Amari stows his weapon and takes a deep breath, letting his adrenaline rush fade away by controlling his body with the ansetral mental training of the Al'Fahd monks.
As his heart rate has returned to normal levels he emthodically search the place over, while Ashivla plays with the lock of the chest.
At an opportune point, he signs:
<We should stay for another day.
Maybe join a caravan or something to cover our leave so that we are not immediately obvious suspects of this.
If we find a caravan heading our way, we can make nearly as good speed as if trying to find the more direct path.>
"Good thinking Amari," Ashivla says. "Yes, and we should clean our weapons and clothing too in that nearby body of water before we head out. Won't do to have caravan guards with blood-soaked weaponry. I plan to collect the rest of our earnings from the Crimson Caravan but I could use some backup in case he wants to double cross us, or worse, if he wants to start doing a little digging. We can also use them as our cover, maybe hire on as a trial run for them on a caravan heading out."
Searching the rest of the warehouse, you find nothing in particular of interest (at least, not without a better appraise check). Most of the goods seem to have been somewhat typical goods, probably used to cover for the illegal items.
During the night, Ashivla slips to the Pool of Sihbon and cleans off the weapons and armor, making sure she dries them quickly to prevent rust. The group returns to their inn and, after casually participating in a few drinks, heads upstairs for the remainder of the night.
At dawn, they head to the offices of the Crimson Caravan. The same young secretary recognizes them and, with a deferential bow, ushers them into the office of the man they made a deal with. He looks at the four of you with a slight smile on his face. Good day, countrymen. How may I help you?