Cavell flashes a grin to Ozz, then heads over.
"Why do I get the feeling you're trying to get me arrested?" She says plainly as the Half-orc mentions going to the tower. She turns her head slowly to see the commotion and raises an eyebrow.
After Burke finishes speaking she looks back at the woman with a cocky smile. "Well beautiful, if you're ever looking for a new line of work let me know... Seems like a losing deal you got here. HA!" Her tone rather gregarious and she begins to wear a big smile again as she turns toward Burke and his posse.
"Well if you want a hand, likely the two Sharks know where the last one is, Mind if we tag along? Maybe we'll catch them off guard since they're not expecting you know... a couple of our types. What do you say?" She rests a hand on her hip and cocks a confident pose.
When he hears the the execution is in an hour, he tenses, but tries to hide it
He hopes no one noticed his nerves, and is thankful that his face is hidden from them.
He turns his head toward her sharply "Moira, we do not have time to flirt. And I do not need to catch them off guard. If defeating them will lead us to your prey, they will fall. The sooner we leave the surface,(he says with disdain) the better."
You head inside of the small, overgrown structure and inside, behind some mildewy old hay stacks, is a trap door. "Here we are!" Coin says.
"What?! No!" Burke says, looking both angry and afraid at the two of you. "We can handle this." he mutters, and if not stopped, runs off with the others with him in tow.
"Be a gentleman would you Ozz?" Cavell gestures towards the trap door, then keeps a lookout until they can all duck safely inside.
Scarlet sneers as she hears her name spoken aloud and looks over agitatedly at Beast, before she can respond Burke does and she looks back at him.
"Your loss then. Come Beast, let's continue the hunt then."
She begins walking away from the Cointoss but as soon as she's outside of earshot of the Shields she turns toward Beast, face clearly contorted by exasperation.
Removing the sword from her side and handing it back to Grellik she whispers in a low tone to him. "Okay Grell, change of plans. We don't have enough time to mull about anymore and the others have to be warned abiout the severity of our situation. I need you to go find them, Coin mentioned a passage somewhere near the Cointoss here. Go find them and warn them, if you're having trouble remember that the call word is 'fiasco'." She looks off toward the Shield tower.
With a huff, "I'm going to drum up a distraction elsewhere. We need to buy all the time we can, and I have an idea how." She says with a hint of concern in her voice. She then looks back to Grellik.
"Promise me, promise me you'll find them and get outside the quarantine to save the others." All hints of Scarlet gone in Triss's mannerisms and voice at this point as she looks at him pleadingly.
"I know Grell but you have no clue what needs to be done or how to achieve it, and if I do get caught I'll need that determination of Adrien's to save me. I don't have time to argue about this."
Trissae turns and starts to run toward the tower.
"sure." Ozz says, and heads over to the hatch, opening it quietly and peering around inside.
Now, if there is anything I am unaware of, some objective we need, perhaps, rather than gallivanting alone, you can inform me, and I can aid you, or even accomplish it for you, while you catch Adrian and Ozz up." He takes a deep breath. "Or, better yet, we both go find the others, and we might be able to make it to the execution site before one of our friends is hanged!"
As the two of you move in toward the shield tower, Grellik chasing after Trissae, after a handful of seconds of running, you see a strange fog dense area in the trees and bushes within the park-like area across from the Cointoss.
A large, supernaturally out-of-place area of fog (about 40 feet diameter) drifts lazily in the nearly breezeless morning amongst trees and houses.
The hatch opens to a ladder that goes down 50 feet before meandering away, southward. Ozz climbs down the ladder and begins to move slowly, letting his darkvision guide him.
The tunnel is dark, so Adrien says close to Ozz as he navigates. It twists and turns, and sometimes it gets fairly narrow. After what feels like several hundred feet of slow-going, you turn a small corner and see torch light in the distance. About 80 feet away from you, you see a torch on the wall.
"At Beldabar's rest. That place your giant friend was talking about, with the chicken. We're still quite a bit out before we reach it, though." Coin whispers back.
Ozz squints at the light, and listens close for any sign of... anything.
Triss continues to run briskly until she catches sight of the fog and halts almost immediately. Looking at it with an expression of recognition. She begins shimming in place, looking first toward the Shield tower then back toward the fog, before cursing underneath her breath. "Hells, Hells! Hells!!" She looks back over at Grellik.
"C'mon Grell, the boys might be in trouble we need to go find out." She starts heading toward the fog. Once inside she begins whisper shouting the code word "fiasco".
Trissae glances back at Grellik over her shoulder. "Ozz has used fog recently to cover our retreat, I fear this maybe his doing and they are in trouble."
You get to the edge of the fog, and it is clearly thick enough (like when ozzed used it before) to effectively blind anyone within it. Going past some flower beds, and behind a shed where the fog gets thickest, you enter the concealed area. Walking slowly, carefully through the dens fogs Trissae mutters out her code word, but no sounds answer from the blinding screen.
There are trees and bushes in the area, and you frequently bump into these objects as you comb carefully around.
"Wait... Ozz says listening, halting Adrien and Coin.
"I hear someone up there." he whispers very quietly. "In the darkness beyond the torchlight. From the sounds we were making going through the tunnel, they probably already know someone is down here with them."
With Ozz and Coin following Adrien's lead, you all emerge blinking into the dim light of the torch's far reach.
As you do so (single file, Adrien in front?) a voice challenges from the darkness beyond.
"Stop right there!" A youngish voice, male. Assertive but nervous. "This tunnel is currently closed, turn back!"
Triss sighs dejectedly."I guess we better move then, lest we draw more attention to this area. Let's go..." She glances about trying to get her bearings on which direction to head to exit the fog.
You all hear the sound of another voice muttering in the dark, apparently prompting the first. "H-hey! Stop! You can't come down here and we'll have to shoot you if you keep coming forward! Perhaps if things were different, friend, but right now isn't a great time!"
The sounds of wood on wood can be heard. You are now at the edge of the bright light, 20 feet from the torch.
It sounds like a slight argument breaks out between several voices, the voices too low to be understood. After a tense moment (allowing the group to gain another 10 feet) a torch flickers to light in the darkness beyond.
The tunnel widens here to 10 feet, and there has been several wooden half-barricades constructed just beyond the torch light you are in, creating several hurdles to slow down passage. Spears have been set pointing toward you into these barricades, making rushing them dangerous.
Beyond this stretch of obstacles are four people near by some simple chairs. Three of them are adventurer looking sorts, people armed with bows in traveling cloaks and a variety of light and medium armors. One especially young man marks the speaker from earlier, he is holding a bow, with arrow knocked, and looks decidedly uncomfortable with all of this. The other two of these cloaked figures look more experiences, appear to be showing some amount of distaste but look resolute. One of these is holding the torch, and the other is armed with a knocked bow.
The fourth of the figures is clearly different from the three in dress and demeanor. He is wearing an ornate gold and steel breastplate over fine black and red clothes and is walking toward the obstacles. It is a half-elven man, clearly battle-hardened and grim faced. A half-cape hangs from the breast-plate and is clasped on the left side by a Shield of Yartar symbol, and on the right by a holy-symbol of Tempus (A flaming silver sword on a blood red shield). He wields a halberd and climbs over the first of the four obstacles, facing you.
He calls out "Did you really think the Waterbaron knew not of these tunnels, and wouldn't seek to stop the spread of disease through them?! Do not risk your child's life for I have made oaths to follow my orders, no master how distasteful!" This final word he spits back at the other three, clearly upset with their discipline. "Return to the city and pray the malady has truly ended. Don't make me kill you when you are already so close to being released from the quarantine. It would be foolish."
The tunnel beyond them bends to the right and out of sight.
This fourth figure (the half-elf in the breast plate) is one of the Waterbaron's personal guard, an elite Soldier of Yartar hand selected to defend her or to follow her orders. Clearly she expected the attempted quarantine breakers to try these tunnels and has put some efforts into securing them.
Retargrad "Trollslayer" is the name of this elite soldier. He is a paladin of Tempus, very loyal and but not very smart. He was hand selected by the Waterbaron after he showed his skill by killing a troll (with some help from a few others Shields) while defending a farm near Yartar.
Ozz puts a warning hand on Cavell's shoulder. "Careful, that one could be dangerous."
Cavell glances at the symbol of Tempus, recognizing the man. When Ozz warns him, he visibly bristles (not a good sign) but forces a grin and takes another step forward. He keeps up the guise of a noble or merchant, in his tone and posture.
"Perhaps you can check the boy for plague, then let him through at least? By the Gods the Waterbaron will hear of this when next we dine! Did she really tell you not even personal friends are allowed through, who clearly don't have the plague? I don't believe it for a second."
The soldier hesitates for a moment, thinking. "You don't know the Waterbaron very well..." the half-elf mutters darkly. In a clear voice, he shouts out strongly. "Her orders to me? Retargrad, I am sorry but let NO ONE through. If you were to see even myself begging you for passage out of the quarantine, I would rather have you kill me then to let the plague spread!"
The archers behind him yell out. "Yeah! Besides, no one looks like they've got it right now, not for sure anyway! Give it a day, idiots! We'll shoot you, I swear it!" the torch holder mounts it on the wall, and knocks his own bow. "One step more men, and drop em! And remember what Ratargrad said, if he engages them, even he isn't allowed back through!"
Two of the archers aim their bows at Adrien, the youngest third hesitates but then does the same.
The group is now at the torch, 40 feet away from the front-most obstacle.
Cavell smiles suddenly, relaxing visibly. "Her trust in you is well founded, Retargrad troll-slayer. She always speaks highly of you in private, but now I've seen it for myself. Incorruptible, she said. Loyal to the death, she said," He offers a hand to shake. "I won't hear the end of it now," he laughs, then peers past Retargrad at the men behind him, then whispers conspiratorially.
"I know you are trustworthy, but not them. Our mutual friend ordered me on a secret mission to research and test a cure from within the quarantine." He pulls the healing potion from his belt pack. "Now I've only to return this to her."
He lowers his voice further. "Many lives were lost in the testing of this. The formula is just-so. My assistants and I have taken it and are immune, but we must return with our findings to the Waterbaron."
"The plan was to slip out after the quarantine ended, but the situation has changed, some of those people may be carrying the plague but appear healthy, and when the quarantine is ended, they will spread it to the rest of the city! I must get this to the Waterbaron before that happens."
The half-elf's square jaw drops in some surprise. "You've... You've got a cure?!" he shouts, disbelieving only reluctantly. Then something within him gives, and he nods. "Then hurry! We must get it to the Waterbaron!" he lowers his halberd and motions you forward.
"What!?" one of the bowman says. "They're f%@!ing with you, Retargard! How could they have a cure? Even Amberglow doesn't know what's causing it!" Their attention to their bows seem distracted while they argue with the half-elf.
"Lord Amberglow must be the mutual friend they speak of, as he is in charge of finding a cure! Do not underestimate his knowledge of the arcane, and his dedication to this cause."
"Well f%+!ing fine then, but THEY don't have to come across, just have them give you the vial so you can scurry off with it to Lord Amberglow. Why RISK letting them through?"
Retargrad's brow drops in thought at that, and he looks at Adrien for explanation.
With the unseen moment passing, Grellik and Trissae continue on their way out of the fog and blinking into the daylight of the somber and desperate city.
Grellik scans the nearby buildings for horses "We need to make haste. We should "commandeer" a horse."
"Are they trustworthy? Are they loyal to the Waterbaron beyond any doubt, Retargard? If so, I will speak openly."
If Retargard doubts them, Cavell will move up and gesture the knight forward to speak in hushed tones. If not, he'll say it aloud.
"My name is not Barnabe, it's Lazarus Alderman. Lord Amberglow instructed me to find a cure at any cost, and the cost was steep indeed." he cradles the simple potion as if it were an immense treasure. "I was to write nothing down, and tell no one but those truly loyal to the Waterbaron, and even then, only if I had to. Take the cure if you must, take it to the Waterbaron so at least she will be safe. But only I know the precise formula and conditions to make more of it. And we will need much more. Not just for the Waterbaron but for her personal guard, and for the Shields to maintain order. Then, Gods willing, we can save the city. Even a small delay could mean thousands of lives lost Retargard. The hourglass runs low."