Moira wanders around the vicinity of the pig races, hunting for her friends. I suppose she might find Salom and Rigo? If so, she's going to excitedly explain that she met someone who knows Uriah Agaric and he's really nice.
The flames die away and Audria nods stiffly at the praise, not trusting herself to not scream in horror at what she had done if she opens her mouth.
The tall shaggy head of Rigo is not hard to spot, as he towers over the halflings (who average 3.5 ft) and the humans (who average 5.5 ft) with his 6.5 ft height. The large tiger is wandering around, head rotating with almost machine like precision as he samples the air currents of the fair.
"Grace is up here most nights... she can't resist coming around and threatening my sisters and I", Asa's voice quivers, "She says that she's going to take us in the dead of night - and that the best food is food that knows it is going to be eaten... it's never been more than words, not yet anyway... but, good sir, if something untoward were to befall her" – there is a hopeful note in Asa’s squealing voice. "If she isn't in the Fayre tonight then I know where she lives… she’s always talking about it – and, oh dear, its big oven. Down near the Black Finger… there’s a cookhouse called the Squealing Piglet – Grace and her dead sisters, they live somewhere near that place, and oh my!!! Oh, I never want to know that place…”
By now, other swine have joined in the chorus, urging Aishe to slay Grace, ”It would be a mercy… to her and to us… and, if she should live? How many others must die for her appetite?”
"Thank you, uh, Asa. And all of you. We'll keep you in mind as we have breakfast as we meet with Grace. Rest easy."
He isn't sure exactly what to think as he walks back and begins to look for the others. He's a bit adrift. "Audria, were we just talking to pigs? I know it shouldn't be that weird, but I'm really having trouble with it."
He continues on in silence.
"I don't think talking to Grace is going to work," Audria says with shiver, "and what about those 'sisters' of hers? Will they come after us after we finish this errand for the Grasts?"
Salom sits on the rotted wooden porch of a random establish, eating from a paper cone full of boiled peanuts. Thea sits on his shoulder, holding a paper windmill aloft and trying to catch it in the breeze.
Listening to the warnings of Asa, he chuckles. "Ah, but rumour is a pipe blown by conjectures and jealousies! We must see things for ourselves!"
Only then does he process what he's heard. "A talking pig?"
Moira spots Rigo and starts filling him in on what she learned from Grunwaldt--but then she sees the others and, assuming Rigo follows, she subjects the tiger to the tedium of hearing a story told twice in short succession. The important bit: she's met someone who knew Uriah Agaric, and he might be willing to help out.
Responding to Salom, Moira says, "We've yet to meet a friend of Grace's... everyone seems pretty scared of her. Rumors are rumors but we'd better be very careful."
On hearing that the pigs talk, she is eager to put her new friendship to use to solve the mystery. "Hey all! We can ask Grunwaldt about the pigs! He's a pig gambler, he can probably tell us what's what."
Then all of a sudden, it hits her: "Umm... Where's Alexis?"
Rigo listens with great patience to the partial story, then allows himself to be dragged along to the others, and listen to the story a second time.
Upon hearing the other story, the tiger droops. "Pigs in this hell hole speak? Can't eat speaking pigs." He says with an absolutely dejected demeanor, even his tail droops. "Chickens and cows not talk too?"
Letting out a loud groan and slumping back. Looking around the area and asking out loud, "Anybody ever seen this Worm thing before?"
Audria let's Aishe do the talking. She doesn't trust her voice, and what she'd done to the dog had terrified her.
A nearby man, biting into a pie that appears stuffed with bloodied meats, shrugs at Alexis, "Can't say I 'ave... I think it's a new one and anyways, I tend to come for the foolery shows - these thespian pieces that they do, they don't always work so well - there's only so much you can do with animated sackcloth and sawdust", he shifts on the hard bench and wipes his chin where the juices of the pie have dribbled, "I'll give it a go though... then I've got to get back to the races - I've got a stake on Thistleweed that could see me in the coin tonight"
...and then seeming to really notice Alexis for the first time, "You've not seen a golem show before? Where are you from sweetheart?"
The crowds are starting to gather once more as a loud voice announces that the races are due to recommence - and now a cacophony of voices starts to call out the odds being offered on each of the racers... the volume and pitch rising as the odds shorten or rise for each pig...
...and of Alexis, there is no sign.
Rigo begins to sniff the air, looking for her trail.
"Our little darling no doubt has become enamored with the races. She's probably jockeying her odds and swindling a fortune on these damned piglets."
"I hope you're right... but I can't see her among the gamblers. Oh gods. We need to find her. How the hells do you find a specific drunken waif in this place?!"
Moira's rising panic combines with recent draughts of strong cider to heighten her prison-pallor. She rushes in every direction, but rushes back to the group equally quickly when she realizes that she has no leads, no information.
"Where would I be if I were Alexis... where..."
If anything happens to her...
Aishe does indeed tell the party what they discovered, including the intelligent ham. He leaves out the battle with the dog, but whether it's due to his own failures and blubbering or out of respect for Audria's feelings it's hard to know.
"We're somewhat conspicuous. Let's not panic. We'll watch the next race, and if Alexis hasn't found us by then, we'll split up in pairs and go hunting, meeting back here every hour or so. How does that sound?"
Tilting her head to side and staring at the man for an long moment before answering, "Doesn't matter anymore cause I can't go back.."
Shrugging, "I gotta go back to the races can my have a really grumpy cat." Giggling at her own words.
Audria vehemently shakes her head at Aishe's suggestion.
Moira realizes that Aishe's talking good sense, but... "Gods, I wish there was something we could do! I hate sitting around worrying."
She scans the crowd for Grunwaldt, thinking that his aura of normalcy might help calm her down...
Looking around, and with Moira starting to feel rising dread at her friend's absence, there is precious little sign as to where Alexis may have disappeared to... although there are many distractions - the shooting gallery, the 'automata macabre', the golem show and Castorhage's 'most accurate' teller of fortunes to name but a few - into which the young girl may have wandered...
...and it is now, of course, whilst one of the group is missing - that Rigo smells what he had been looking for... death. The unmistakable scent of the dead, and not of the freshly dead variety, wafting on the air from somewhere nearby.
Rigo snarls. "Found the corpse." He says in an undergrowl, and begins following the scent.
Audria swallows as Rigo mentions that he'd found... something. She didn't know if he'd found Grace, but she was certain he hadn't found anything good. With no other options, really, she scurries along with the others and tries not to look too nervous.
Staring into the empty middle growing more agitated as more time goes by. "Told that dump man I had only a little time and he said I would get a show."
Looking around and seeing no sign that the show was gonna start and not really wanting to deal with the others being mad at her. Fidgeting in her seat before standing up. With an agitated growl in her throat she snatches up her things and storms out.
Taking a moment to stare back at the ramshackle building and the sign, they own her some entertainment after all. People should learn to delver on what they offer or be honest if they can not do so. Otherwise there is a price to pay. Gonna collect on that later.
Kicking at any trash in range as she stomps her way back towards the pig races.
Rigo snarls. "Found the corpse." He says in an undergrowl, and begins following the scent.
Aishe fingers his crossbow as he follows the great cat on the trail. He's nervous, and expects this isn't going to end well.
The scent picked up by Rigo grows a little stronger the farther the group move away from the pig races... and pretty soon, as they pass some of the more vibrant smells of the Fayre - the exotic foods, the pens of circus animals, the latrines - the tiger is able to discern more... that the stink seems strongest in a network of alleys behind some ramshackle wash-houses... and worse, that the pungent smell of lost mortality is mixed with an unmistakable smell of human fornication...
Stumbling along and pausing to look for the rediculous race. Gotta be this way. Turning and picking up her speed and slamming right into the much taller Salom.
Looking up at him and narrowing her eyes, "You all left the races."
Rigo rumbles as Alexis returns. "This way, smell of death and animals rutting." He says succinctly, nodding toward the alleys. "Watch for danger." Rigo continues to follow the scent, leading the group deeper into the darker areas of the Fayre.
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On seeing Alexis, Moira rushes forward and hugs her, hard. She's about to start lecturing her on staying with the group--but realizing that would be pretty hypocritical, she instead decides to keep a better watch over the girl. Meanwhile, she tags along, deep in thought--she's always been fascinated by undeath, but this might become her first close encounter with someone unliving that unlifestyle...
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"Oof!" Salom has the wind knocked out of him. Thea's wings flutter as she shoots a few feet into the air, fangs bared in surprise.
"Careful, love," Salom coos to Alexis, his breath smelling of peanuts. "Wouldn't want to do that to the wrong type of person. This place, for all its ornament, is a thing of poison. Behold--" He gestures toward the filthy, reeking alleys behind the wash-houses. "Our rendezvous with darling Grace is about to commence." He chuckles, drawing a newly acquired tobacco cigarette, its wrapping darker than his hair, from his jacket pocket. He strikes a match on his shoe and takes a slow, crackling draw before exhaling with a grin. "I for one am dying to meet her."
"All her clients are, fool." Rigo growls at Salom. "That's the whole point."
Pushing back with both arms. He is so strange. Were they selling drugs at the races? Turning and looking down the ally, "So I guess we ain't gon.. oof!"
Turning and seeing Moira wrapped around her and looking back down the ally. With her head away from Moira the young girl again shows her age by rolling her eyes. Reaching back and patting the older woman, "Stop groping me Moira, we can do that later." Ha!
Moira grins. Alexis will be Alexis. "You're a little young for me, kiddo, but I think we'll be meeting someone a little less discerning soon. Got your money with you? Wonder what it'll cost."
Audria groans at Salom's joke, complete with burying her head in her hands.
"Can we just get this over with already!" Her voice is no less indignant for being muffled by her hands.
It seems there is one thing that can get her to push back the fear and nervousness she's been feeling of late.
Moira grins. Alexis will be Alexis. "Wonder what it'll cost."
"Left arm, kidney, spleen, liver, possibly right eye and tongue." Rigo deadpans.
"You forgot a leg," Audria mutters darkly.
"Not think you were into the stuff that cost the leg too." Rigo says, and chuffs.
Glaring at Moria, "Break my heart why don't you. Hmm, never bedded down with a corpse before. Never know till.."
Turning to look at Audria and Rigo and sticking out her tongue, "You two are no fun."
The alleyways are surprisingly labyrinthine, and littered in the mud is animal excrement, human waste and worst besides... the smell is overpowering and the thought about what one might be stepping into is troubling to say the least. How, or why indeed, anyone could use this secluded spot to enjoy some sexual gratification is beyond imagination...
...but there are indeed people here engaged in the kind of 'love' that money buys - although as far as the group are able to tell, for the lights of the fayre don't penetrate the gloom here, it is only the living here.
And then, sharp and full of agony over the distant circus sounds, a pained scream rings out from just beyond the corner.
"Probably trap..." Rigo complains, but moves to get to the corner to see what is going on anyway.
It is perhaps fortunate that the light is dim here, for it saves the younger and more innocent members of the group the full view of the man staggering towards them... naked from the waist down and clutching his neck, dark blood running through his fingers and down his wrists from an apparently mortal wound, he makes it no more than fifteen feet from his 'attacker' before he collapses face first into the filth...
...and there, wiping the blood from her cheeks and chin as she observes Rigo's arrival, the dead-skinned harlot - there can be little doubt what her trade is given her attire and the fact that, she too, is naked below the waist - bares her teeth in the way that a cornered hound may do...
The darkness is no use, thanks to Thea's ability to see through it. The grizzly details curl Salom's lip but, he supposes, they're better than the hangman's noose.
Thea is airborn in an instant, sputtering through the air, the smell of burnt oil following in her wake (he would need to rework her adiabatic mechanics). Salom rushes forward, spear in hand, and reaches the harlot as Thea descends from above. His spearhead thrusts out, but the ghoul has seen him coming, and jerks back...
...into Thea, whose metallic fangs snap down into the creature's shoulder and give it a taste of its own medicament.
"Is this the fabled Grace?" he asks, his cigarette still hanging from his lip. "A pleasure."
Round: 1, Initiative: 19
Conditions = None
Weapon Equipped = Crossbow
Silver Blanch, Cold Iron Bolts = 18/20
Ranged: Attack: BAB +1, Dex +3, Masterwork +1 Damage: +0
Melee: Attack: BAB +1, Str +0 Damage: +0
Grit = 1/2
Aishe, nearly sickened at the thought of what was just happening, quickly raises his crossbow and shoots at the monstrosity.
(point blank) (point blank)
He uses a bit of grit* to make the attack against her touch AC instead of her normal AC.
Whilst Salom, splashing through the filth - and over the fallen man - is too wild with his spear... Thea is far more effective though, fluttering down below the distracted creature, her metallic teeth sink into bloodless flesh... raging, the ghoul turns to slash and bite at its attacker... and barely notices the bolt thuds into her back...
Rigo lets out a roar and charges...
His first claw rips into the doxey, then the second as well! The doxey staggers to the side, and his bite aimed for her skull misses, and the motion also throws off his attempt to rake her lower half with his feet claws!
Round: 2, Initiative: 19
Conditions = None
Weapon Equipped = Crossbow
Silver Blanch, Cold Iron Bolts = 17/20
Ranged: Attack: BAB +1, Dex +3, Masterwork +1 Damage: +0
Melee: Attack: BAB +1, Str +0 Damage: +0
Grit = 1/2
Aishe, pleased that he’s making some headway, moves into a clear firing lane, and shoots again - hoping to connect.
(point blank, bard) (point blank, bard)
Alas, his second shot seems to fly wide of the mark.
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Moira begins belting out the story of Apollonius and the Empusa, hoping that the philosopher's ability to see through the falsehood of the Empusa will inspire her allies to acts of courage: though this may look like a beautiful woman, it's an illusion!
Audria yelps and instinctively calls upon the flames to consume the vile creature.
I didn't even think about it, she thinks in silent horror, I just did it as if... as if...
Staring at the man and then the chaos that follows. Ok, so sneaking must be done away from the cat. We knew that. Dumb Golem show.
Tugging out her rapier and running towards the evil harlot. Trying to find an angle to attack between Salom and Rigo. Angle found and she stabs forward.
Nuts and bolts fall from Thea and scatter through the filth as the fight continues...
The ghoul woman, semi-naked and increasingly feral as she smashes savagely against her mechanical attacker, can surely not hope to survive the onslaught... and fall she does, whether it is Salom's spear, Audria's flames or Alexis' blade that deals the final blow is uncertain - but her second death is quick...
...and, a few seconds after Rigo's roar echoed through the alleys, there is the echoing return of whistles... and shouting, distant for now but growing closer and announcing themselves as 'Officers of the Watch'.