with once hellknight left, and that one not even standing, LeVash simply watches, as he expects the hellknight to be dead shortly.
"So dinner once we're out of the sewers? " Rokan ask calla with a wink. As he watches Bejis trip the remaining hellknight, Rokan makes his way over, ready to aid Bejis if the hellknight proves to difficult.
The hellknight looks surprised as Bejis just knocks him over. He flails about uselessly at him in retirbution and even more while still on the ground the prone hellknight now laying before Bejis's wrath.
The hellknight growls like a wild animal as she tries to get up and swing her blade for Brejis's face .
Bejis swats at the Hellknight with the flat of the greatsword blade.
(target will have AC -4 for being prone against melee) for
for
With a heavy thwack of the blade across her head the hellknight falls over unconscious as the others watch.
"Fancy that one for a bride Bejis?" Bloodless remarks as he notes the blow was not fatal. "You've certainly made an impression on her, I just don't think that's the way they normally do it in Westcrown"
Bloodless awaits the newcomers...
The exhaustion from the fight suddenly catches up with Bejis. He leans against the wall, breathing hard. He says a quick prayer, "Gorum, we give thanks for this challenge to test ourselves in battle."
Bejis looks to the rest of the party. "I wanted to know how they knew where to look," he pants. "Can someone keep her head above the... uh... water... We need to ask her a few questions. Best tie her up quickly."
Bejis examines his cut, then looks around the sewers. "Nasty place to get wounded."
Calla leans close to Rokan and sniffs. "The way you smell, Ah'm certain Ah'd lose mah appetite."
"Who are these people, Janiven? And how did these Hellknights know where to find this safe place you're supposedly taking us?"
Calla's sword remains out, though held down by her side.
"Name's Bejis Krupt." Bejis wipes his hand off on his armor and holds it out. "We heard these guys talking about marks of some kind..."
"Well" Bloodless remarks as he quickly searches the unconscious woman for any concealed weapons "These are Hellknights, and hunting people is supposed to be their job. Either someone talked after being tickled with gold, or hot irons, or the Hellknights had discovered this little game trail a while ago and the warren to which it probably leads, and then set up a trap." he starts tying her hands, curiously gentle in his handling of the woman, as though concerned with her comfort "All the hunters then had to do was send the hounds into the tavern, and then the ferrets down the rabbit hole to catch the fleeing rabbits" He gently props her up and cleans off her face, inspecting her carefully "What the hunters didn't count on is the rabbits having such big teeth"
Calla leans close to Rokan and sniffs. "The way you smell, Ah'm certain Ah'd lose mah appetite."
"Who are these people, Janiven? And how did these Hellknights know where to find this safe place you're supposedly taking us?"
Calla's sword remains out, though held down by her side.
Janiven puts her bow away and looks at the two mens work with some approval. "This is Bloodless and Brejis. Recruits to our cause like yourself. Thankfully however they're less prone to b%!$$ing every two minutes."
She frowns as Bejis mentions the marks. "They must have saw the marks and assumed they led somewhere. If there's a mercy to this they're trainees. Dumb arrogant bastards probably didn't even know what they found until Bejis was on them. We might be better off executing her now."
"I can't agree to an execution Janiven, that is their way, not our way. If there is to be a new dawn for this city it starts here with us. Let this woman live, and let her talk of our merciful ways and our fairness. Or leave a dead body and show Westcrown that the new rule is simply a different dog with the same fleas"
"I can't agree to an execution Janiven, that is their way, not our way. If there is to be a new dawn for this city it starts here with us. Let this woman live, and let her talk of our merciful ways and our fairness. Or leave a dead body and show Westcrown that the new rule is simply a different dog with the same fleas"
"And let her go home and drag the wolves back." She says grimly. "I don't like it either but we've been lucky that none of us have been spotted yet. Now we have a witness who has a location, descriptions, and five good reasons to be mad as hell when she wakes up."
"The wolves will be coming regardless. They already have a whiff of our scent and will keep on the trail, they will find their way to this spot and a pile of dead bodies sure as the sun rises in the morning, and her descriptions are probably a bit hazy from a dark and poorly lit tunnel. No, I can't agree to killing her, and taking her with us would be worse...by the time her fellows find her down here her information will be too old to be helpful, if we get a move on"
"I'm inclined to strip them clean and feed them to the denizens of the sewer. That way they just become another faceless casualty. She was here planning ambush; there's nothing immoral about killing her cleanly...could even give her the option of last words for her god."
"Killing for terror, or to make an example, that's them. I don't kill for pleasure, or to make a point...but to keep a safe house safe? That's only prudence."
"Leaving her here is not prudent. We clean up the fight, we erase all evidence of their presence. If you want her to live, you become her jailor for life. In a different situation, I agree, but this is not just our lives you are playing with, it is the entirety of the resistance effort."
Bloodless turns to LeVash shaking his head.
"I don't know you, so I take your words at face value as to your motivations, but let me just point out the hole in your plan"
"Unless you missed it, these aren't the only agents down here looking fir us, no doubt theres a whole lot more patrols where that one came from, so cleaning this dark tunnel is something we'd need to do in a big hurry... and what are you going to do with all the bodies? We going to drag them along with us for a while and try dump them elsewhere? Very soon, evidence will be found; blood, gore, remains, and when that happens I bet a copper gets you a gold that the Hellknights have some Necromancer down here conversing with the dead to get the story of what happened. How much do they need to find, you reckon, to make that possible?"
He pauses momentarily to ensure that sinks in
"So when dead men DO tell the tale, what message do they send? that the revolutionaries are to the death with no quarter spared and no prisoners taken? What then when our allies are inevitably captured eh? you ensure the same swift demise for our friends and families if captured?"
"Killing her you will ensure that not only do the Hellknights double their reslve to come after us, but you legitimise them as well. There will come a time when we need the public support to rally behind our cause, yet how many will truly rally for a bunch of people who act worse than the ones they hope to replace eh? Even the Hellknights are above killing for simple expedience and convenience, an act of craven cowardice."
"Those Hellknights aren't going anywhere either, most likely they will remain in Westcrown no matter who is in power, that a few of them died by the blade in combat is one thing, but the execution of one of thier own is sure to cement them as our enemies forever."
"Safehouses can be moved, identities can be hidden, but the stain you people are suggesting we cast on our honour will never wash off. Contemplate the prudence of that"
Two things Rokan would know due to his street wisdom.
1. Hellknight don't care enough about their armigers enoguh to tear up a whole city looking for one's killer. Hazards of the job, if you get beat up and murdered by the locals you weren't worthy of the armor to begin with. Armiger's also tend to be highly competitive and not in the spirit of teamwork as their higher ranking fellows. In all likelihood this team managed to discover something about the hide out or jsut made a good guess. They wouldn't share this information willingly with other teams so likely you are all safe for now. The sewers you know for a fact are a maze of winding corridors so it would be a very long time to find people down here, especially dead ones.
2. Moving a group of people through the night on the streets is suicide. You manage to get away with it alone because you stick to well lit streets with little traffic(a rarity) so you don;t attract attention and cna escape to lighted areas if need be. A large group of people is a walking buffet and ones with lights are bound to be spotted by the authorities.
"That's a nice speech, stranger," Calla says, "but Ah can see why they call you Bloodless. They'd kill us without hesitation ... well, once they were done torturin' us ... and Ah can't see why they don't deserve the same.
"Do you really think that they'll show mercy if we do? No. Maybe if they learn to fear us, though, they won't try so hard to find us."
"Whether they deserve the same is neither here nor there, last I was told this was about building Westcrown into a better place, not simply to have a dirty conflict with the lackeys of the ruling elite where the only way we can feel good about our actions is to claim they'd do worse..."
"Anyhow, I don't see theres a lot more discussion to be had. She stays here, alive"
"Well." Janiven says "All I know is that you're putting 16 other lives under the woman who was ready adn willing to cut off all our heads for a bit of praise and promotion in the morning." She picks through the other dead hellknights taking the potions they had at their belts.
"It's nightfall. To appease your sensibilities we'll have to drag eleven other unarmed and untrained civilians down shadow beast infested streets. More lives will be lost and in the end she'll still be baying for your blood. If she makes it out of here alive. I get the feeling that if Bejis just twisted his sword slightly we wouldn't even be having this debate."
Janiven looks rather depressed as she pockets the last of the potions she picks off the hellknights.
Bloodless shrugs, "We might, we might not. She wont be going anywhere in a hurry, we can lock her in that small room Bejis and I defended from. It will be a while before she awakens, even longer to slip her bonds, and then quite some time to escape the sewers. As to the unarmed and untrained civilians, well either this Hellknight was trying to follow us to find them, and we have ended that little hunt, or her friends already know, in which case their hide is already crawling with Hellknights who have slapped them in irons"
"I am glad you see it my way regardless. Ours being the side of good comes with the challenge of having to do the right thing, which I have noted is often the hard thing"
Bejis asks Janiven, "Are one of those a healing potion by chance? I'm afraid I'm all out." Bejis points to his wound.
Rokan steps forward. "Hellknights are brutal and deadly. They act without mercy, and that includes these armigers. Failure that results in death just proves they were not wothy of the armor or the name. They wont waste the time to find her, especially in a maze like this one."
Moving to stand above the limp body, rokan takes a moment to study everyone.
"From my experience, these new recruits are too concerned with advancement to share information among groups, most likely our secret will die with her, and die she must. No one will find her, because no one will look. She's too dangerous with the information she has. I understand your distaste for what MUST be done, you don't have to watch."
"I'm inclined to strip them clean and feed them to the denizens of the sewer. That way they just become another faceless casualty. She was here planning ambush; there's nothing immoral about killing her cleanly...could even give her the option of last words for her god."
...
"Leaving her here is not prudent. We clean up the fight, we erase all evidence of their presence. If you want her to live, you become her jailor for life. In a different situation, I agree, but this is not just our lives you are playing with, it is the entirety of the resistance effort."
Bejis nods along.
"It's nightfall. To appease your sensibilities we'll have to drag eleven other unarmed and untrained civilians down shadow beast infested streets. More lives will be lost and in the end she'll still be baying for your blood. If she makes it out of here alive.
"We need to get to the safehouse. For the others, we should strip down the others and let the sewer eat them until they are... anonymous. As for her, either we can move her or we can't. We can't afford to leave her alone. It would be good to get any information we can from her. But she choose to fight in combat, she didn't run, she didn't ask for quarter, she lost. In Gorum's eyes, she fought to the end, but she's done for."
Bloodless adresses Rokan, coldly, challenge in his tone...
"You say they lack mercy and honour, where then is yours?"
"Bejis, you chose to spare her rather than fell her cleanly in combat, and now you would allow shame and dishonour fall upon us all? Was I mistaken in judging you a better man?"
"Indeed, if you are truly willing to kill a helpless person in cold blood on the off chance it might preserve your skins, what loyalty can one expect from you later? - take this last chance to show me that your words are still driven from the passion of battle and not from an evil heart. Show me that you are men to be trusted, not curs who flee shadows, but true liberators of Westcrown"
Bloodless steps back from the woman, allowing Rokan his 'space'.
"I don't want her dead, I want her to talk. Afterwards, if you like, you are free to challenge her, one on one, to the death.
Bloodless nods quietly at Bejis words, but keeps his eyes fixed on the strangers.
"Fine." Janiven says as she tosses you and Bejis two each of the hell knights cure light wounds potions. "I don't see where leaving her here to die alone in the sewers can be called mercy but if that will make you happy we need to get out of here now. Or hey, Bejis might be right just kill her on her feet instead, hasn't stopped you before."
Janiven sighs. "Either way get done quickly because I'm sealing this way up. Maybe we'll get lucky and they don't even know what part of town they were in."
"She still gets a chance that way, it's on her then, not us. Can't ask for any fairer than that."
He still maintains his eyes fixed on Rokan.
Bejis quickly looks over the corpses for anything else of value, and then asks, "Should we try to hide them in the sewage, or pile them up in the room?"
"Dump her in the room, leave the bodies where they are, and lets follow the good lady's advice and leave quickly"
"Leave her alone, alive, and unguarded? She'll escape her bonds, find the exit, and give away our position."
"Leave her alone, alive, and unguarded? She'll escape her bonds, find the exit, and give away our position."
"Unconscious, bound, unarmed, and locked in a room in a pitch black sewer? She wont be going anywhere in a hurry. If she emerges from here our trail will be stone cold and her information will be of no use"
"If by 'Stone Cold' you mean 'Right Next To Us'..."
"Either move her to the safe house and keep her under guard, or you give her a healing potion and challenge her now, but we need to move, and she knows too much.
"No point me challenging her, not like our fellows would honour my word and let her go if she won now is it? So we take her or leave her."
"This is insane. She's unconscious. Pick her up and carry her if you insist on continuing to talk about this simple decision, but Ah don't want to stay here and wait for more to arrive ... or smell this stench any longer than Ah have to.
"Next time, just hit her harder and there's just one more body we leave here with a lot less useless talking. If she wakes up, hit her again. Or better yet, let me do it and Ah'll make sure we don't need to have this debate anymore."
Calla glares at Bloodless as she delivers her demand, then turns to their guide.
"Janiven, lead on. Ah'm tired of this stench and want to get out of this bloody sewer!"
"Thats solved then"
Bloodless picks up the woman after cutting the straps off her armour leaving her only clad in her undergarments.
Bejis checks the dead corpses for any remaining valuables or items of interest.
He then verifies his sheathed dagger is in easy reach, and checks that the Hellknight is tied up and gagged.
"I'll take her feet, you take her arms. We can move faster that way. Janiven, make sure the way ahead is clear."
"I'll take her feet, you take her arms. We can move faster that way. Janiven, make sure the way ahead is clear."
Bloodless takes a moment to catch the eye of his companion as they heft the womans limp form
"You've done the right thing today, you have shown great courage"
"Yeah, carrying around a half-naked woman shows great courage," Calla remarks sarcastically, apparently to herself but in a voice loud enough for anyone in the group to hear. "Maybe you should take off her undergarments too. Who knows what she might have hidden under there. Well, besides the obvious, Ah mean."
While the others discuss the live hellknight, one thing that this 'Bloodless' says does stick with LeVash, and he takes the time to hack off the lower jaw of each of the dead armigers, smash it, and scatter the pieces.
So much for Speak with Dead
"Janiven's given you a pass on this, so do as you will. But you need to feed her, care for her, and clean her litterbox. "
"Congratulations, you've relegated her to a miserable life. And I'll be blunt, if she leaves your care before Janiven has managed to safely relocate her people, she's a dead woman. I don't like it, I don't want to do it, but I will. I'll not risk our safety for such as her."
Bloodless looks at Calla mockingly "So glad you have recovered your sense of decency all of a sudden, proclaiming your worry as to this womans modesty. I suppose you are as shocked as I am at it abandoning you and robbing you of your ability to speak when talk was of killing her in cold blood. The courage I refer to is that of doing the right thing, not the expedient and convenient evil"
At LeVash's words Bloodless nods agreeably. "Had she been killed fairly and squarely then we'd not be having this talk, luckliy for you though I have chosen to save not only her life, but your reputation in both this world and the next. You mistake my sense of fair play though, if she tries to run then she is no longer a prisoner, in which case you'd be racing me to cut her down"
Janiven grumbles softly to herself
Getting the hellknight up the ladder proves quite a bit of work and requires everyone to lend a hand. Emerging into a narrow alleyway above you appear to be standing next to an abandoned temple of Aroden. The windows are boarded up and there seems to be no light coming from within. As Janiven helps you all up through the exit she closes the manhole behind you and makes a strange rhythmic knock on what appears to be a boarded up door. The door creaks open slowly as a nervous man holding a lantern opens it.
”Janiven! Thank Iomedae! Come in quickly!” The man ushers you all into a scene that you would not have thought possible based on the view outside. This temple seems to be in the process of being restored, its frescos being repainted and much of the dust has been cleaned. Even the shrine to Aroden appears to have been polished and given new coverings.
Within you see a group of people, about eleven in all not counting the group, Janiven and Morisono. At the moment they appear to be having a debate on what exactly to call the group and what “uniform” they should use to identify themselves to each other and the public. They pause the middle of their conversation to stare blankly at the site of a burly looking man and aasimar drag a half naked woman about the temple.
Janiven rolls her eyes at the eleven or so people staring and waves them off. "Long story."
She takes the time to gag and blindfold the woman before directing you to a closet.
"Arael's going to be pissed." Janiven says. "Let's introduce you to the rest of the group, then I'll go clean the mess up downstairs while you get cleaned up." Janiven offers a weak smile as she takes you back to the main room to introduce the rest of you to the group.
Janiven whistles to gain everyones attention and they look up brightly smiling and excited to see that she and her frends made it. She introduces each of them to you before allowing you to introduce yourselves.
She first gestures to a beautiful but plainly dressed Tianese girl.
”This is Amaya.” The girl blushes self consciously and gives a small wave.
Janiven then gestures towards a large young bearded man.
”This is Ermolos.”
The man waves and says ”Hail.”
Janiven then points at a small Halfling by the shrine.
”Fiosa.”
The Halfling smiles. ”Inheritor be with you.”
She then waves to a handsome lad with bright amber colored eyes. ”Gorvio”
The lad waves nervously.
”Larko”
A wiry tan skinned boy nods to you.
”Mathalen”
A tall wiry woman sits crosslegged on the floor with her eyes closed. At the mention of her name she slowly opens her eyes, nods respectfully, and continues her meditation.
”Rizzardo”
A massive brute of a man greets you. ”Hail”
”Sclavo”
The nervous man from the door smiles and waves at you.
”Tarvi”
A beautiful girl in fine clothes and jewelry nods curtly crossing her arms and revealing a large closed tome with her finger in it to serve as a bookmark.
”Vitti”
An odd little green haired human smiles manically and waves a woodcarving knife at you before going back to his little wooden rabbit sculpture.
”And..” Janiven sighs as she points almost accusingly at a gnome female. ”Yakopulio.”
The gnome gives you a rude gesture. ”Sup. Might I interest you fine gentleman in some nightly company?”
Earlier, to Bloodless: "I care not a whit for her modesty, but more to know what kind of ... man ... you are. You spoke earlier of rewards in the afterlife, but my studies in the temple of Calistria spoke of the sudden sting, and striking back at those who would strike at you.
In the church:
Calla turns to Rokan with a smirk after the gnome's comment. "There, you see, all your needs shall be cared for."
Then she turns to Janiven. "I'm sure these people are thrilled to meet us smelling as we do. Is there some way to wash ourselves -- and some privacy -- in this gods-forsaken place?"
Perception
Bloodless pulls Janiven up after the introduction, speaking to her in a fairly direct tone.
"leaving her down there while we made good our escape was my suggestion from the beginning, if you had such words of wisdom, back then would have been time to share them rather than stand as a mute"
"What sort of populist support do you think we would get if word got out of cold blooded kiling of captives? How'd you think Fiosa and her love of the Inheiritor would react to that eh? These people here have felt the lash of the Hell Knights long enough, they'd quickly suspect a new breed of tyrant was in the ascendancy. Let us instead build a new way based on hope, not fear."
With that, he makes sure that the woman is still well bound and blindfolded.
"And I would agree with Calistria, but cold blooded murder is the providence of Norgorber, so how am I to judge what sort of...woman...you are?"
Bejis queitly mentions those still in the ongoing debate, "Hypothetically, if someone found found a dead Hellknight in the sewers, dressed in armor and a big sword slash, I think they'd assume they'd died in battle."
Bejis asks, "Are any of you capable of healing this?" Bejis points to his wound.
Bejis will then head off to the tub.
Not willing to risk comfrontation, Rokan just shakes his head. [i]What do these people expect to happen when you revolt. Kill or be killed, thats the only way. She can only cause us problems.[i]
Quietly to calla "I prefer my woman taller, thank you. However if your goign to continue with the charade of no interest, then perhaps Amaya will be more ameable"
"So Janiven, we're here, in one piece, what's next"