Nalun snickers at the obvious discomfort the artist has, but secretly he's just glad this woman is focused on the artist and not on him.
We ready to leave? Arkona should deal with us, we aren't working against him...yet
"Indeed." Laori saunters up to Salvador and loops an arm around his shoulders. The man winces as the spikes on her armour poke him.
"I'll just be spiriting him away, now. No sense in putting him in harm's way any longer." The priestess holds her holy symbol in one hand while speaking a prayer in a harsh, grating tongue.
The shadows swirl around her and Salvador as she completes her prayer. She looks up at the party with a grin.
"See you around~." She giggles before she and the artist disappear into the shadows.
"... I'm not sure we've let Salvador in goods hands. That woman is bats**t crazy", Lyla blurts out shaking her head. "Anyway, this is not that big a surprise. Glorio's name's been all over this whole thing for a while now."
"I am pretty sure Scream is not in good hands." Karri sniffs, but does not elaborate.
Curiously, Vencarlo's home is barely a few streets to the east of it.
"Well, we can't babysit everyone. Right now there are bigger fish to fry," Lyla shrugs. "The Arkona manor sits right by the edge of Garrisson Hill. Not far from Vencarlo's, actually. I'm not sure what our plan is yet, but I can try and scout the place before we go in. Between my extracts and these two babies," she says patting the two bags of holding dangling from her waist, "I might be able to smuggle Vencarlo and Seneschal Neolandus out of there without ever raising the alarm. That will depend on the level of security, but I think it's worth a shot. What do you say?"
"Scouting it out is good, but trying to extract them by yourself is far too risky. You should just get in there and get the lay of the land and get out."
"I completely agree with Demitri," Ortik replies. "We're dealing with the people that control the thieves' guild in town. This isn't a sunken ship or the bloody 'Emperor's' court, this is the serpent's den. I like our chances more together than separate."
Lyla sneers. "On the one hand, I'm a little offended that you don't think I can do it. On the other, you're probably right."
"We'd like to have you around when we are done here, Kitten." Karri tries to smile, but her nagging worries about Laori and Scream make it a fleeting thing at best. I don't know him, but he seemed to see things... a certain way. "Shall we begin or, do we have other plans?"
"I do believe in you. But I also care what happens to you. So run the scouting mission, but report back here before we go in as a team."
The group's open display of affection disarms Lyla. She blushes, shying away for a moment. "Yeah, okay. I know. Thanks," the girl mumbles. To put the moment behind, she quickly straightens up and claps her hands once. "Let's move then, people!"
The skies overhead are becoming cloudier and cloudier as the party departs from the now vacant shack.
----------------
This time, when the party makes their way back to Garrison Hill, the streets are abuzz with gossip and activity. Word of the burning of the 'Emperor's' estate has spread faster than the fire itself had--and already the news is being embellished. Rumours of the Emperor lying in pieces, left in his own courtyard to send a message--of him being cast into the fire, pleading for mercy. But one piece never changes--the party's role in his downfall.
No one steps forward to challenge them as they move. They all watch them go, hope in their eyes.
----------------
The Arkona manor is not so much of a manor now, so much as it's a palace. Nestled at the highest point atop Endrin Isle, the palace is a breathtaking structure built in the Vudrani style, with golden pillars; high windows that rise to tapered points; minarets; and domes decorated with slender spires. A pair of much smaller outbuildings lie on opposite sides of the grounds behind the palace, their construction much less ornate and elaborate than the palace itself.
A tall iron fence surrounds the entirety of the palace grounds, and the gate itself is locked.
Demitri looks to Lyla. "Alright. Do your thing. Just get in and get the lay of the land. Then report back and we'll head in, together."
"Hmm. I didn't remember it to be this big. Let me just take a first look so I can decide how to do it as quickly as possible. I have about 20 minutes worth of magic to get in and get out," she says while studying the grounds.
The grand Arkona manor stretches out before the halfling's eyes.
Lyla reaches into her backpack and pulls out a row of phials bound to each other by a leather strap. She sets four of them aside, drinking three of them right away. She spits the third one back into the vial, and then stuffs it in her pocket along with the other remaining extract. In a matter of seconds, the halfling becomes even smaller and, right after that, completely disappears.
Making the most of her reduced size, Lyla squeezes past the manor's fence and runs across the yard to reach the first window. She hops up on the window sil and looks into the room, inspecting the chamber and hoping to see and hear what goes on inside the building. She jumps down and moves to the next window, going clockwise through every room until she completes the house's perimeter.
Round 2: A long couch and two stuffed chairs sit around an elegant rug on the floor of this room, the walls of which are carved in depictions of air spirits cavorting in the clouds. A haze of exotic smoke lingers in the air, and four bejewelled hookahs sit in the room, two at either end of the couch, and one next to each chair. A flight of stairs leads up to the floor above, and a glass case built into the underside of these stairs displays a wide collection of cigars, pottery jars, and bundles of dried leaves in a range of colours.
Round 3: A gracefully curving wall lined with tall windows presents a commanding view of the western palace grounds. The room is empty save for three human-sized statues, each depicting a Vudrani warrior holding aloft a glittering blue-green javelin with a head carved from bloodstone.
Round 5: A magnificent mahogany table dominates this room, the surface of which is decorated by an immense cover fashioned from the brightly coloured skins of various great snakes.
Round 6: This chamber hardly seems to be part of a palace, but looks more like a clearing at the heart of a vast jungle, teeming with life. The sky above is a deep, cloudless blue, while in the distance, hazy towers rise above the verdant canopy. Exotic bird calls fill the air, the scent of dozens of unfamiliar flowers and plants assault the nose, and everywhere a riot of colour demands the eye, whether it’s the wing of a tropical bird, the petals of a brightly hued flower, or the glittering multicoloured tiles that make up a round fountain to the north. The fountain’s central plume is a stone pillar around which entwine two cobra statues that clutch green gems in their fanged maws. To the south of the fountain stands an immense, life-sized jade statue of an elephant, a howdah perched on its back, its tusks and trunk raised high in greeting to the southeast doors. From inside the room, the doors look more like gates set into a wrought-iron fence that encircles the garden. Other gates set in this fence doubtless lead to other parts of the palace, and after a bit more observation, the somewhat static nature of the jungle and landscape becomes apparent—the walls of this garden are in fact an incredibly realistic and clever painting of a Vudrani junglescape.
Round 8: A fourteen-foot-tall marble statue of a six-armed woman with four faces on her head—one looking to each of the four cardinal directions—stands under a dome of coloured glass. The statue wields numerous weapons in its six hands, and a small kneeler at its base gives a place to pay respects to whatever deity the statue represents. Each of the statue’s eight eyes is a sparkling bright green orb.
Round 9: This comfortable room is warmed by a large fireplace, its marble sides and mantle carved into a parade of capering monkeys and tigers. A large sofa is against the north wall, while a few cozy-looking chairs sit to the south.
Round 11: A black marble arch depicting dozens of elephants standing one atop the other frames a great ebony door in the south wall of this wide and airy entrance hall. Above the door, an elephant looks out over the hall, its single eye a glittering bloodstone the size of an apple. Tall windows grant a commanding view of the palace grounds, and a rich red carpet, ten feet wide and luxuriously thick, provides a pathway between doors to the west and north, and around a corner to the east. Each of these doors, as well as three smaller ones to the west of the northern pair, are decorated with images of a six-armed, four-faced woman who rides a tiger with human hands for feet.
Finishing her first round of the manor, Lyla reaches for another extract. The girl drinks the potion and feels her leg muscles strengthen. With barely any effort, the halfling girl jumps up in the air to reach the manor's upper floor. She carefully moves around the house, this time trying to keep her balance and occasionally hopping from one side to the other to reach every possible window and peep inside. When she's done exploring, Lyla jumps down to the garden and runs back to report to the group, crossing the bars before her spells wear out.
1: The air in this chamber is incredibly warm and humid, filled with steam rising from the bubbling oval bath set in the floor to the southeast. The walls, ceiling, and floor are polished marble tiles of alternating blues and greens, giving the entire chamber a pervasive aquatic feel. Three lacquered wooden benches sit just north of the bath.
2: This antechamber appears to be a balcony that overlooks the expansive garden below. The walls are decorated with murals of exotic jungle wildlife.
3: The floor of this room is thickly carpeted and strewn with numerous throw pillows and furs. The walls are carved with erotic depictions of men and women engaged in all manner of sexual acts. The only real furnishings in the room are the four beds against the western walls.
Inside the room are four strange-looking creatures--their skin a pale blue, their arms turning into multicoloured snakes at the elbow. They're dressed in elaborate Vudrani silks that fit their lower torsos loosely, and they're currently bickering with each other.
4: The crowning glory of this dazzling chamber is, without a doubt, the four-posted canopy bed that takes up a full quarter of the room. Silk sheets, gossamer curtains, ebony bedposts depicting tigers and cobras chasing monkeys in an endless circle, and a half-dozen huge pillows combine to create a resting place fit for a king. Strange and ferocious animal heads are mounted on the walls, their eyes looking almost alive. A towering redwood cabinet stands against the eastern wall, while to the west sits a massive desk covered with books and scrolls and a large green paperweight the size of an apple. An exotic-looking, five-foot-long stringed instrument sits displayed on a bronze stand near the desk, and a spherical birdcage
containing several brightly colored songbirds hangs from the center of the ceiling above.
5: This austere chamber is apparently the sleeping chamber of someone quite orderly. The bed is made, sheets drawn tight against the mattress and pillows arranged perfectly at the head, and a dressing table and chair at the bed’s side are
both dust-free and polished to a shine.
6: The plain ebony walls of this chamber seem to glisten with moisture. Above, the chamber rises forty feet to a domed ceiling set with eight wedge-shaped windows; to the north, east, and south three additional glass windows rise up from floor level to the dome. The room is empty, save for a thirty-foot-tall tree with sparkling gold and green leaves, its roots burrowing in and out of the floor. A breeze tickles the branches above, and as the leaves waver, the sound of crystal bells filters through the room.
Lyla sprints back to the group to get out of the Arkona Manor before her magic wears off. She squeezes past the bars and meets her friends in an alley just outside the property grounds. Her heavy breathing can be heard even before she starts to materialize back into view, now returned to her regular size. "Whew! Managed to get a good look of the mansion, and boy, what a weird decoration taste the Arkonas have. There's a serious exotic jungle vibe going on in there", she says pointing with both her thumbs over her shoulders, before proceeding to describe her findings. "In any case, I didn't see much activity, only those four weird snake-armed guys. No sign of the seneschal or Vencarlo yet", she summarizes at the end of her report.
"Alright, good work. If there isn't anyone else in the building, we should try to capture one of the snake armed creatures. They might know something." Demitri will cast a spell on himself before they enter the manor.
"Snakes for arms?", Ortik says with obvious confusion. "Now that is odd. Maybe a bound devil? He could have pulled some strings with the Acadamae. Regardless, let's stick to the plan - negotiate the release of Neolandus and Vencarlo without giving up too much of our souls." He gives a moment's pause to think of his own mystical abilities, and decides against casting anything before entering the Arkona manor.
The party approaches Arkona manor, walking right up to the front door and trying to open it.
As soon as Demitri's hand touches the doorknob, there's a loud trumpeting noise--one that sounds like it came from the trunk of an elephant. Aside from that, there's no immediate response to the party's intrusion...
"Well they know we're here. Keep your eyes open." Demitri says opening the door.
"That they do," Ortik replies, keeping his hand close to his spear, but still stowed. "In some ways, I feel like we were safer when we were dealing with the Cult of Urgathoa."
Lyla follows Demitri and Ortik into the house. She takes a look around, remembering the mental map she has made of the manor, and waks up to a doorjust past the corridor on their left. "Like I said, I saw no trace of the Devargo and the Seneschal, and I got to see most of the upper floor, too. I wouldn't waste time right now going over what I've seen already; my bet is that somewhere here in the inner rooms there's a stairway to a basement or cellar. From our experience, the baddies love to keep their prisoners underground, right?" She takes a moment to study the door before her before turning the doorknob and swinging it open.
Aside from the alarm on the door, there doesn't appear to be any traps that Lyla can see on it. The door swings open, revealing the luxuriously decorated front hall of the Arkona manor.
"You are probably right." Demitri moves to the closest door and opens it.
The door opens easily.
Two floor-to-ceiling bookshelves decorate the south and west walls of this chamber, facing a curved north wall on which hang a half-dozen grotesque paintings depicting torture, murder, cannibalism, and even necrophilia. Two glittering chandeliers hang from the ceiling, providing more than enough lighting to read by for anyone sprawled on the dozens of cushions strewn about the room.
The disgusting paintings have the colour blue prominently featured in them. They look to be Salvador Scream originals.
Demitri lets out a look of disgust at the "art". He moves through the room and opens the door at the other end.
The door opens to a narrow hallway, this one practically bare compared to the front hall. Doors stand at the east and west end of the hall, with a door directly to the south of the western door.
Demitri opens the southern door.
The door swings open.
Glass cases line this hallway’s north and south walls. The northern case displays exotic weapons, many of which resemble swords, spears, and starknives, hanging on the wall around a suit of bright blue leather and ivory armor. The southern case displays a gruesome tableau of a stuffed tiger feeding upon a extremely realistic sculpture of a dead Vudrani man.
"Charming," Ortik says with a grimace as he regards the Arkona's unusual aesthetics and decor. "Something's off. It's somewhat public knowledge that the Arkonas have their fingers in every shady deal in Korvosa, but this? This is demented, even for crime lords. Maybe they're Kuthonites as well?" Ortik quickly casts an orison to examine the area for magical auras.
The sculpture in the southern case (the one where the tiger is disemboweling a human), on the other hand, has something glowing in it as well--the human's exposed heart is actually a magical gemstone.
"Other than their questionable taste in art, I don't see anything out of the ordinary," Ortik says, glancing around the room. "Several magical weapons and armor, but that's to be expected from a noble's ma...hullo, what's that?" Ortik approaches the taxidermy display, peering into the Vudrani's open chest. "His heart's a magic gem. Now that's something you don't see every day." He studies the auras for a few moments, trying to decipher them.
"Let us take a look."
hmm... reeksofDIVINATION magics. Attunedtothemasterofthisplacenodoubt.
They're observing us. Perhaps they have ever since your halfling pet flitted about their windows... Kasdaye observes.
Laori would feel right at home. Nalun says, his hand mere centimeters from the hilt of Willbreaker as he walks into the manse.
Lyla approaches the items pointed out by Ortik to take a better look. Before picking them up, she checks the area for any kind of traps or special protection. "It's weird that they would leave it all like this, out in the open. Everything seems too easy."
The kama is a +1 ghost-touch kama.
The studded leather armour has a +2 enchantment on it.
Lyla stops dead on her feet. "Uh, guys... not only do they know we're here, they can actually see us. This thing here is actually someone's third eye, and I'm betting that someone is Glorio Arkona." She picks up the gemstone and drops it in her bag of holding—not the one with Blackjack's gear, though—followed by the other magic objects. "Well, all it's gonna see now is a the inside of a dark, extra-dimensional bag." She turns around to face the group. "So, since we don't have even an ounce of the element of srurpise anymore, we might as well go upstairs and talk to them. What do you say?"
"Yes, let's go meet them."
"Alright then. I'm sure it's gonna go smooth as usual", Lyla says mockingly as she heads back from whence they came. "There's a staircase over there." The halfling walks down the corridor, past the door, and opens the double doors on her right to gain access to the room at the southeast corner of the mansion.
Nalun follows, whistling softly to himself at the opulence of the place.
"Only a matter of time before they found out we were here," Ortik says, fidgeting with the tip of his beard. "Let's have a palaver with them. Hopefully they'll like what we have to sell."
Lyla goes up the staircase along with the rest of the group, leading the way to the room occupied by the snake-armed creatures. Stopping in front of the door to their chambers, the halfling knocks and announces the party's presence, despite her certainty that it is already known.
"Hey, fellas! We're looking for Glorio Arkona, hope you don't mind that we've left ourselve in! Care for a little chat with us?" She looks back to her allies and waits for an answer from the other side of the door.