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As the Thug tries to outflank Kaneko he meets with the pointy end of her spear, tearing a horrid wound. He arrives to her rear and begins trying to hold his insides inside when Kishara slides up behind him and compounds his dilemma by adding a hole at the rear too. Confused, bloodied, and out of alternatives, the fellow simply falls to the floor unconscious critically wounded.
Kish additional Crit damage -
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SauceMoving
Moving out of a threatened square usually provokes attacks of opportunity from threatening opponents. There are two common methods of avoiding such an attack—the 5-foot step and the withdraw action.
Take 5-Foot Step
You can move 5 feet in any round when you don't perform any other kind of movement. Taking this 5-foot step never provokes an attack of opportunity.
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SauceMoving
Moving out of a threatened square usually provokes attacks of opportunity from threatening opponents. There are two common methods of avoiding such an attack—the 5-foot step and the withdraw action.
Take 5-Foot Step
You can move 5 feet in any round when you don't perform any other kind of movement. Taking this 5-foot step never provokes an attack of opportunity.
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Grimaldus continues to brush filth and bugs off himself whilst suffering the most incredible, stomach churning nausea.
Haemish comes zipping through upon Lady.
Mandrak steps up beside Kaneko, ready to attack!
Tikrit came in beside Grimaldus, blasting the thug with blade and spell!
Yhen hisses her curse of misfirtune at the thug facing off Kaneko and the look on his face says he feels his doom.
Closing summary R1
Yhen (Cursing!)(resolved)
Haemish (Moved up)(resolved)
Grimaldus (sickened)(resolved)
R2
Mandrak (Closed distance)(resolved)
Tikrit (Katana overkill)(resolved)
Kaneko
Yhen
Kishara
ENEMY
Haemish
Grimaldus (will act this round)
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"Hey hey hey, alright alright!" The rogue facing Kishara blanches significantly and calls to his friend "C'mon Clem, let's just let it go eh?", the other one - likely Clem if the fellow is to be believed - steps back from Haemish and Lady, another befouled head in his hands, ready to be thrown.
"Look lets us just get our friends and get out of here, what you say?" He hasn't given up his weapon, instead holding it defensively before him as he eyes a Tiefling and a Tengu in the company of a woman bathed in the blood of her enemies. Understandable really...!
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Kishara narrows her eyes, considering the situation. "Collgardies appears many hours dead... but you waited here in shadow... no assassin would ever be so foolish." Her eyes travel between the two men, and then widen as she comes to a conclusion. "Someone paid you to wait here... someone who knew Collgardies was expecting someone, yes? And I'm betting you weren't expecting so many, no? Tell me who has set you up to die at our hands! I think you can see they do not have your best interests at heart." She gestures to the unfortunate fellow bleeding out at her feet.
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“Besel Ardoc, he hired us.” The thug puts the emphasis on the name, as though it should have a certain gravitas, “You killed Collgardie, and Besel was a friend of Collgardie’s. I’d kill you too, if you killed a friend of mine.”
The Thugs continue their wary stance, eyes furtively switching between the party, their fallen members, and the nearest exit.
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"Do you remember the name Kish?" Yhen whispers to Kishara.
Kish does have a moment of recollection, fragments of a conversation she had in passing one day; the Ardocs are one of the most powerful families in Kaer Maga — they control the Kiln, a golem factory, and own a lot of the city. Between the Ardocs and the Commerce League, they make up the majority of the city’s power base. Besel doesn't ring any bells, but the surname Ardoc certainly does.
" We didn't kill Collgardie, if you want to argue about it feel free."
“Well, if that’s true,” he pauses to look about, “You’ll probably want to tell Ardoc that.”
"Yes, yes. We will need more confirmation before we take you for burglars and murderers and carry out vengeance."
"Here" He flicks a note out of his pocket and drops it in view, “He won't be calling us in now for payment given how this has gone, so contacting him to check, well, that’s now for you to figure out, isn’t it? No one pays for a botched job, and in Kaer Maga we're gonna have to stay out of sight”
The bandits look about waiting for some sort of resolution.
Kish can tell these flunkies aren't going to be of much further use as they are simply goons and hired muscle, unlikely to have any real knowledge than the needs of the present task. Neither of these guys seem like heavy thinkers.
You can all see the place hasn't been 'tossed', everything is neat and orderly.
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"Yes, I think we will need to find and speak with this Ardoc. You men should go, I don't think anything can be done for your friends here. It's not healthy to cross blades with my friends, you see?" She shakes her head sadly and checks the downed thugs anyway for a thread of a pulse. Assuming she finds none and they are beyond help, she'll move to examine Collgardies' corpse.
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Kishara speaks low to her companions, "The Ardocs are a prominent ruling family, we will need be mindful of how we deal with them."
Link to where they are mentioned in the narrative, this is where I was remembering it at first.
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The goons drag their fallen away and disappear out the door.
The living room is where Horis was murdered. His body lies in the northeast corner on the room, his head smashed open and a congealed pool of blood surrounding him. Kisharas detective work leaves her satisfied that this is where it happened
The front door the only access to the house; the windows are so heavily barred that is appears as though smashing down the house’s masonry walls might be faster than breaking in from the outside. There is a small, narrow hallway connecting the living room to Collgardie’s storeroom and sleeping area, and a small meeting room with a thick wooden table in the middle.
Tikrit examines the note and finds it to be precisely what it appears, with no codes or double speak evident, as well as examining Colligardes ledgers - it appears the merchant was in the cloth trade, with a bias towards quality linens – and it appears his transactions were orderly and mundane, with nothing drawing attention. By all accounts a legitimate trader.
You find the keys to his house on his body along with his modest coin purse; whoever killed the merchant wasn’t interested in ransacking his place or stealing anything, and pretty much left it just the way the old merchant liked it—neat and orderly.
Grimaldus now feels much better, except for the bites and stings.
Kishara isn't sure what the local practice is regarding reporting incidents, perhaps simply notify the Dusk Wardens and arrange a burial - one way or another, it is certain Colligarde has no local family, so no one is going to come looking in a hurry, and enough time spent in bad areas suggests this house won't be left unmolested long once its vacancy becomes evident.
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You all work through the house methodically, but no further clues or information stands out, and any evidence to the killers identity remains a mystery.
All you have is the name 'Besel Ardoc' that holds any clue to what might be going on.
Notifying the Dusk Wardens, they take a report of what happened, and express that they have no belief that the party was involved in any wrongdoing, but that is about all they seem to commit to.
Arranging a burial is likewise a straightforward task, and the coins in his purse seem to satisfy the financials.
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Kishara and Kaneko get to work talking with the locals and putting their ears to the street...
***
Sard Coalbreath, a male dwarf scallywag, is gruff and drunk and seems down on his luck. The fellow engages in conversation but is cagey with his details, rubbing his grubby hands together and coughing in anticipation. A gold coin later his eyes could, notionally about the rough grog he is soon destined to buy.
Besel Ardoc likes to drink
“I hear that Besel can’t make it through a day without a pint or six of whatever grog the pub he’s in is selling. I don’t know what those Ardocs are involved in, and I don’t even want to—whenever someone tells me what they’re up to, I realize again that I’d probably drink myself stupid three times a day if I were one of them. Then again I do that anyway”
He laughs to him self, the laugh ends with a phlegm filled cough.
***
'Miss Feathers', despite the name, is a hulking, muscular man with a deep, booming voice and a quick laugh.
Besel Ardoc doesn’t travel anywhere without his golem
bodyguards — all six of them.
“Those Ardocs aren’t stupid. They run the best golem-making factory since Thassilon, and when you run something like that, you have an obvious source of guards. I ain’t never seen Besel without at least six of those iron things stomping around behind him, then again I don't see much at times, 'a man in my position' eh? Usually I can only see the boots" he adds, as though it has some lurid meaning "If you’re trying to find him and put a hurt on him, you best change your mind, friend" then as an afterthought he looks at the stalwart males of the party, a gleam and spark in his eyes, "Unless perhaps a bit of pain is your fancy..." he trails off with a suggestive smile, part friendly, part rattlesnake.
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Kish finds fresh answers few and far between, seems the earlier run of charm and just the right social touch begins to wane into the afternoon.
Yhen is pretty sure the man has his golems because he is rich, because he can, and because the laws are pretty lax - he might need golems for protection, or maybe enforcement.
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Kaneko also does some legwork into the late evening spending up to 5gp on various small bribes to scare up information on Collgardies murder, hoping her Tien charm and the Goddess Shizuru will lead down different paths.
She uses her touch of glory ability as well as a liberal use of her guidance orison .
.