Ziomarra runs to the edge of the window. She holds the battered Harrow card to her forehead, and the card glows with a faint silvery light. She then draws her arm back and throws the card with all her might at the woman on the platform. The card spins rapidly as it flies through the air, seemingly leaving faint silvery motes of light in its wake.
Teldon's face betrays his concern when the creature finally lands a blow and it is far more painful than he anticipated... seeing no option at this point other than finishing her before she finishes him, he repositions himself so that he is once again opposite Briana and desperately stabs at the lycanthrope...
As Teldon feels the warmth of healing washing over him, he studies the wounds endured by the Wererat and, making a final deduction as to which injuries are bleeding the most, stabs forward with absolute finality... The lycanthrope impaled on Teldon's sword flops stupidly forward before sliding from the blade and crashing to the floor.
Meanwhile, in the other room, Ziomarra and Nalathi can see their prey escaping...Nalathi lets loose with a shimmering arrow, it's arc describing a sharp line through the room and out into the shaft...whilst Ziomarra, moving out onto the ledge, spins a card through the air at the woman who has started to climb...
...both missiles find their target simultaneously, flashes of light bursting as the arcane weapons bite into flesh...the woman cries out in pain and, at just the wrong moment loses her grip on the rope. She tumbles backwards grabbing at thin air and disappears from view...there are several seconds of silence before a loud, and very final, crack. Looking over the ledge and out into the shaft, some hundred feet below you, the woman's body hangs limply over a crow-like gargoyle...a shower of red across the wall around it.
With the immediate threat passed, you have time to explore the rooms previously occupied by the Tower Girls; the small complex of rooms at the top of the stairs has been well looted and is stripped back to rough plaster and fire scorched paving stones....
...the cooking smell was coming from a small camp fire burning in one of the larger rooms...propped on a spit above the dying flame, two large impaled rats (of a similar size to the rat that you saw downstairs)... they seem to have been cooking for a while and are quite charred... Elsewhere in the room, there are three bedrolls propped up against a couple of trashed crates...
In the room that Ziomarra and Nalathi chased through, there are several decayed murals still on the wall and the remnants of a statue on a marbled plinth... The most interesting aspect of the room is the window and the ledge beyond. Taking a little more time to examine it, you can see that the shaft drops nearly two hundred feet to sea level below. A large coil of rope sits on the ground near the shaft, one end anchored to a large piton driven into a crack near the wall. The ceiling is a mere ten feet above, and crisscrossed by a complex tangle of stone arches that support the roof. Between the two ledges, a five-foot-square wooden platform hangs from four thick ropes that hang from the stone arches; the platform is further anchored by two thick ropes to spikes hammered into the walls near the edge of the ledge, whilst another pair of ropes hang from the ceiling above.
"I feel normal thus far... It would be prudent, however, to watch me closely for any changes..." Teldon answers, "as for these two, if you wish to do something for the human I have no objection, but I would prefer we not do anything to risk rousing the wererat."
Who could have guessed this would prove so valuable so quickly, he thinks sheathing the shortsword. "I don't hear any fighting or shouting... I suppose we could spare a moment to check them for useful resources before giving chase... are you able to detect anything magical?"
Well, we won't need to worry about her anymore. Wonder where that trap door leads to. She stashes her bow and retrieves her trident. "They're still alive? Okay, yeah that sounds like a good idea. See what they know. Also, there's a trap door up here." She jerks her thumb in the direction of the platform. "Maybe we should see where it goes."
When Nalathi and Teldon suggest that the dying Tower Girl might know something of use, Briana kneels down next to her and stems the flow of blood from her wounds. Joanna looks on slightly bemused but understanding the reasons for Briana’s actions. Whilst, behind Briana and with a final cough / splutter of blood, the Wererat dies…
Teldon’s cursory examination of the weapons and equipment worn by your defeated foes turns up the following:
- 2 Short Swords
- 2 Hand Crossbows
- 2 Smokesticks
- 3 Tanglefoot Bags
- 2 Hooded Lanterns with Oil
- 1 Set of Thieves’ Tools
- 33 GP
When Nalathi returns to the chamber where combat began, Teldon momentarily looks up from gathering the potentially useful resources and asks, "were you able to stop her from sounding an alarm? And, where's Ziomarra?"
Not noticing that Nalathi had left, Ziomarra stands for a moment looking down at the dead Tower Girl suspended from the statue below, her expression dark. A tear rolls down her cheek.
By the gods, what have I done? I didn't mean for that to happen!
Attempting to find meaning in this inadvertant death, Zee takes out her spell deck and draws a single card.
...Lawful
...Good
Wisdom gained from loss. The ghosts of the past who teach us new lessons. I will not let this happen again!
She replaces the card into her deck, closes the lid to the case, and stashes her deck into one of the pockets of her blouse. She looks down again at the dead Tower Girl, and then retrieves her flask of brandy. She opens the flask, holds it out over the shaft and pours out a good dram.
"Iartă-mă. Fie ca Doamna de Graves fi milostiv cu tine."
She then drinks a slug of brandy and wipes her tears, stashing her flask into a different pocket. She inhales deeply and returns to the other room, just as Teldon asks where she had gone to.
With a thin and mirthless smile, she says, "I'm right here. And, no, she was not able to raise the alarm. Or anything else ever again."
"Nope!" she says proudly. "No alarms there." She raises an eyebrow when she sees Ziomarra seeming more morose than usual. "What's the matter, Zee?"
Zee walks over to where Briana tends the unconscious Tower Girl. With a sigh and slight crack in her voice, Zee kneels beside her, offering what assistance she can. "Well, at least we didn't kill them all. That's something."
She looks at Brianna and whispers her confession, "I didn't mean to kill her. I've never killed anyone before. She wasn't even threatening us directly, so I can't even call it self-defense." She closes her eyes a moment and whispers a prayer.
"Cântec de Stele binecuvântat, vă rog să mă ierți"
To Nalathi's question, she responds, "I'd never killed anyone before. I don't like how it feels."
Killing someone who was trying to kill us troubles her but wading through a river of human waste was no big deal?!? Women really are inscrutable creatures...
Seemingly oblivious of the emotional state of some of his companions, Teldon says, "well, since we have a moment while nobody else is aware of our presence could someone check for any magical auras?"
How it feels? She thinks back to the moment she and Zee range-pushed the girl off the ledge. What had she felt? The twang of the bowstring-- that wasn't what Zee meant. The thrill of a well-placed shot-- surely that wasn't something she should've felt bad about? "You mean, like we might get caught? But Joanna said that anyone who's threatening us can be killed. So we were in the right, weren't we?"
Not at all sure how one might check for magical auras, she focuses on what little she knows about her magic and looks around the room.
Nothing changes. "I don't see any magic in here, Teldon." Though whether that's because there is none or because she isn't doing it right, she can't be sure.
At first simultaneously dumbfounded and saddened by Nalathi's line of questioning, Zee's expression becomes one of curiosity at her diminuitive friend's casting of detect magic.
Deciding to change the subject, she says, "Nalathi, I do think that the shard truly unlocked something magical in you. You just cast another spell. I think you might indeed be a sorcerer!"
Looking around the area, it seems that the rooms have been thoroughly ransacked over the years - there is little of artistic nor of material value left to see. It would also seem from your search that there are no hidden entrances or exits other than the previously discovered trapdoor above the platform suspended in the shaft.
Crossing to the platform suspended in the middle of the shaft does look to be quite an endeavour though...it seems that the woman fleeing Nalathi and Ziomarra used one of the ropes that is hanging from the ceiling to swing out to it. Alternatively, a tightrope walk along one of the ropes suspending the platform would get you there...or, if you are feeling particularly brave (or foolhardy), a running jump of about fifteen feet would reach the platform.
"I know how we can all cross in safety," Teldon offers without needing any prompting, "Joanna can cross first, with her ring if she falls she'll be fine and can try again... Once she's safely across she can put the ring in a little pouch and Nalathi can use her new found magical abilities to call it back to us. We can each cross safely by simply repeating the process!"
Having a good idea if what she might be up to, and approving, Zee follows Brianna. "Let me help you with that..."
"A sorcerer?" I think that's what my brother always called himself, she thinks in disbelief. She opens and closes her hands. Did the shard really make me one?
"No need to use a pouch," she replies to Teldon's suggestion. "I can move the ring itself." As proof, she floats a small nonmagical ring of her own out of her pack and lets it rest in midair above her open palm.
"I'm not certain it will work the same way with a magical ring..."
The bound Tower Girls eyelids flutter as Briana’s healing takes effect. It is a few minutes before she has fully come around; she struggles against her bindings for a few moments before, realising that she is well restrained, slumping back against the wall. In a thin voice, she acknowledges Briana, ”Seems I don’t have a choice does it? Just keep the Iomedean away from me…”.
The bound woman looks over towards the Wererat corpse, ”A shame about Sasha I suppose…she fell out of favour with Ayala and was looking for ways to leave…but you know how it is, once Sczarni, always Sczarni.” Then, realising that Briana had talked about friends in the plural, ”What happened to Embyr?”
Ziomarra nods at both Brianna's and the Tower Girl's words. As the comment about the Sczarni, Zee rolls up the sleeve of her left arm, revealing elaborate Varisian tattoos. "Știu ce vrei să spui."
At the Tower Girl's question about her companion, Zee sighs deeply. "I am sorry, but she fell from the wooden platform when I tried to stop her from opening the trap door. I did not mean for that to happen. I have prayed for her soul... and for my own."
The bound woman seems genuinely saddened to hear of her companion’s demise, ”How ironic… she was always one of our best climbers… she set up that platform, it took a lot of guts to do that…”. Now realising that she is on her own and very outnumbered, she ceases to move against her restraints, ”What are you doing here? Did the Wreckwash Blades send you? There’s a lot more of us down there you know… Ayala won’t let this hideout go without a fight… it’s hers now”
Growing curious about what's taking Briana and Zee so long, Teldon heads back to find them... "I'll be back momentarily, I'm going to go see what's delayed the others."
"We're not with the Wreckers or any any other street gang for that matter. I've cut my ties to the Sczarni. Honestly, we don't care if you use this place for your hideout. We are here to explore this Thassilonian ruin. When we said we didn't want to fight, we meant it. But we're not afraid to if we have to."
The truth, or at least as much as I'm at liberty to say.
"How many of you are here? Do you have a code word we could use for a parley? And have you discovered anything dangerous or interesting in this ruin?"
"That's not how it's going to go...I'm sorry, it's just we got here first and now Ayala has started going crazy looking for something...yeah, you said something about shards didn't you? You're looking for the same thing and there ain't no way Ayala is going to let you muscle in... Not after that Natalya b$!~$ ran off with the first shard...", the venom in the Tower Girl's voice is heartfelt at the mention of Ms Vancaskerkin...
"Look, I think I'd like to just disappear if it's all the same to you...I won't cause you no trouble...for what it's worth, Ayala has got about ten of us down there...and her pet rats of course", she mulls something over in her mind, "Sasha isn't... wasn't the only Wererat... Ayala is pureblood and her closest circle have all received the 'gift'... Me and Embyr weren't ever good enough... That's why we always got the rubbish duties... Still...", she grins a little, "Meant we didn't have no qualms about cooking two of her pets..."
The Tower Girl looks at Briana incredulously, "When did the Sczarni do anything that wasn't for profit? Ayala reckoned we'd all be made for life if she finds another one of those... Or if Terisha comes back with the one Vancaskerkin stole...."
"Down where?" Teldon asks as Briana speaks, his more distant voice fading into the background...
Looking up Briana and Zee realize that their bookish companion arrived halfway through the Tower Girl's monologue. What little color he'd had in his face seems to have drained away at the prospect of potentially having to fight 10 more wererats, but their attention quickly snaps back to the girl as she speaks again...
Realizing that the conversation has already continued without him, Teldon tries again, "blonde girl in armor, a pair of lackeys with crossbows? I wouldn't count on it... Now, you said 'down there', what did you mean? Are they underwater?"
"Down there...as in there's a load of levels in the Crow....don't think any of them are underwater though but then Ayala never let me nor Embyr much farther than this room...if you're going to go down into the piling, you'll need to get up through that trapdoor in the shaft and, soon enough, you'll come to some stairs downwards...most of the gang will be on the level below us...and they are not going to be pleased to see you"
"I think that's enough for now. We'll take you with us across the harbor when we leave, and then you'll be free to go."
"I have questions," Teldon interjects, "How often do people, or wererats, pass through here? Is there anyone you're expecting to come in or out today? Will someone come to check on you at any point? Are you required to check in at some point to avoid triggering an alarm? What time do they all sleep? Do they sleep in shifts or all at once? Do they have some sort of guard rotation while they sleep?"
Without any pause he turns his gaze to Zee and adds one final question, "Are you meaning to take her back now so we can attempt to secure some silversheen and the like, or planning to leave her here until we leave and then take her along?"
The woman winces at Teldon’s quickfire questions, minutes ago she was on the verge of death and now she is being bombarded by queries, ”I guess that some of the girls will come through here at some point today – probably not until the evening though ‘cos we don’t row to or from the ‘Crow’ in daylight… too much risk of being seen. We never needed to check in… it was always the way that we’d raise the alarm if anyone got in here – no one’s going to come looking for us anytime soon. As to shifts and sleeping…there’s another guard post up ahead, just beyond the trapdoor, that’ll have two of the girls – one of whom will be resting… and then downstairs, probably all awake I would think… Ayala has them searching for stuff all the time”
”That’s all I know… leave me some water if you are going on? You may be gone a long time…”, showing signs of exhaustion, she closes her eyes for a moment…
...sounds legit.
To Teldon, "We need to wait until nightfall before we row back across the harbor. Much like the Tower Girls, we don't want to attract undue attention to this place. I think we should leave her here for now," turning to their prisoner, "with some water." Zee looks around the room and finds an unglazed tankard among the Tower Girls' possessions. She fills the tankard with water from her own waterskin and leaves it with their prisoner.
Leaving the interrogating to more experienced people than she, Nalathi scopes out the landing and the rope. She tests her weight on both, trying to gauge whether she would need Zee's ring after all.
, giving the ropes a pull, it appears that they would support your weight.
Defeated, the Tower Girl barely acknowledges Ziomarra leaving her a flask of water...
As the Tower Girl nods off, Zee stands. "She said that we'll have to cross to that platform and go through that trap door to proceed. I think that's our next move. From there... we improvise."
After glancing into the other rooms, Zee returns to the room with the window, standing beside Joanna and Nalathi as they examine the ropework and platofrm.