Round 11
Move to N7
vs Lamm
Round 12
vs Lamm
vs Lamm
vs Lamm
Ellismus glances down at the fleeing henchmen, Probably not the wisest thing... I suppose the shark will eat well... He then smiles grimly when he sees Lamm affected by his minor spell and draws his crossbow and loads it usure whether it will be necessary with the others surrounding and striking at him.
With no pause Cedric ran forward and stabbed The dazed Gaedren Lamm once in the side with a shortsword. At that Moment Jarrin, tears streaming down his face ran up and stabbed him once with the rapier in the upper arm. As Gaedren started to come out of his ensorcelment Cedric stabbed him once more in the upper thigh and as Akrem'dar looked for a place to get into the fight, Cedric stabbed Lamm one more time in the stomach, the blade coming out his back.
With a cough and blood flecking his lips Lamm slumped to the ground and he glanced up at Jarrin and as the life faded from his eyes he said I guess you'll never know the truth...haha..ha..ha ......
and with that Gaedren Lamm passed from this mortal life......
The truth is rather simple Lamm, you will not hurt anyone ever again. Enjoy Hell.
Her eyes upon the lackeys as they bolt from the room, Tolenn does not notice until too late her companions descend upon the helpless Lamm.
The words "Wait" die upon her lips as the man is cut down. Shaking her head, she walks around to where the evil man spits out his last words.
Such a man inflamed great passions in those he wronged, it was my failure today that such a thing happened
Gently pushing past Jarrin, Cedric and Akrem'dar, Tolenn kneels and places her hand on Lamm's concave chest.
"Go with peace, may the Dawnflower light your way." she intones quietly.
She then looks up at the three surrounding her and straightens, her eyes meeting theirs in turn, not judging but filled with compassion for the pain she sees there still.
Jarrin looks at the slumped body of his hated foe for what seems like hours. After all the searching, all the questions that went unanswered, we have finally reached the moment of revenge and justice. Tears continue to run down his face, though for which emotion they stream for is unclear.
After a while Jarrin speaks softly to no one in particular, I thought I'd feel some relief, some measure of closure. Does anyone feel it? Jarrin turns to face Tolenn and then Ashimar. Should't my burden be lifted? The man who murdered my family lays at my feet and yet I still feel a heavy heart. Why?
Jarrin then sits on his knees next to Lamm, staining his clothes with the blood of both man and beast which puddle on the floor. What more must I do? Was taking your life not enough? What else must I do? Jarrin stares at the corpse of Lamm as if expecting an answer. Taking a deep breath, Jarrin begins to search the body for anything that might tell him more about what the rogue was up to, especially anything that may tell him more about his daughter. Was he telling the truth or was that simply one final game he wanted to play?
cedric sheath his weapons and put a reassuring hands on jarrin shoulders:
it will take a bit to sink it, but yes its over. While there are other who still prey on the weak and innocent, this one will never hurt anyone ever again. Now if you want to know about some of the children may i remind you that he had some upstairs ?
The Shoanti finally comes out of his haze of battle, his breath coming out in ragged gasps. "It felt...right...but no...phew...relief."
It takes several, several moments, but the big man finally feels the almost uncontrollable quiver in his muscles stop, as he puts his arms on or around his new battle mates. "We have taken out one aspect of evil in the world, but there's still a lot to do, to undo it all. It's like taking the stinger off a scorpion after you've been stung."
Looking around the room the group can see a bag that was dropped on the floor by one of the guards when they drew weapons. On Lamm himself you can see a weapons belt with an ornate hilt of a dagger. A belt pouch was on the belt as well. The light crossbow he was carrying lay on the floor of the fishery. It seemed to made of oak, instead of the normal ash. He had bracers on his wrists. An ornate cane leaned up against the doorway to his bedroom.
From his room a stench that only came from dead bodies was present.
A wooden bed with a lumpy mattress stands against the east wall. Whiole a round table heaped with unwashed dinner plates, bread crusts, stained goblets, fruit rinds, and scuttling cockroaches sits nearby. At the foot of the bed sits a long strongbox, a slightly rusted lock securing it's lid. A sagging dresser sits in one corner a hatbox surrounded by a small cloud of flies sits atop it.
Cedric will head for the room and the locked box:
Let's gather what stuff could be useful to us and let's get out of here shall we? we can divide it up either upstairs or elsewhere
Ellismus mutters some words and touches his eyes, allowing to see the mystical spectrum and moves around helping to search and gather whatever ill gotten gains were around.
In the process, he relates some of his earlier discovery:
"Now that this foul business is completed, I should probably explain my earlier remarks. They were not pertinent before, but they may very well be, now that we plan to leave," he begins. "Those cries in the night some of you may have heard were the calls of battle between imps and pseudodragons. Now, such battles are not unknown, Korvosa being what it is. Imps are the prime summoning candidate at the Acadamae, and are quite plentiful, yet stay, more or less, out of trouble. As for the pseudodragons, Korvosa happens to be on one of their migratory nesting places. In any case," Ellismus drones on, "as I said, battles between them are not unknown at this time of year, as they fight for territory and food. But this...," his voice becomes sharper. "is an order of magnitude far beyond the typical. I'm estimating that, practically speaking, all the imps in the city are fighting all of the pseudodragons. This is unprecedented!"
He pauses and looks at each of the others hoping to drive the point home, although realizing that some eyes may be glazing over from his lecture. "Something big has happened. Something that upset the natural order of things in this city. I know not what it may have been, nor what we may expect when we leave."
"Of course...it wouldn't just be kill Lamm and go home. Well, no matter. Whatever it is, it can't stand up to my hammer." Akrem'dar flexes and hefts the weapon over his shoulder, resting the weapon head there.
Yes, it is kill Lamm and go home, at least for me it is. Imps and dragons? What do I care? Killing Lamm was the only reason I joined with you, and for that I am eternally thankful for everything all of you have done. I do not see how this man's death and some creatures fighting are connected or how that would even matter to me.
Jarrin stands up, wiping tears from his face and eyes. I'm sorry, I had hoped that I would wait until I was alone before I lost my composure. After taking a deep breath or two he puts his rapier away and tries to straighten his clothing somewhat. Looking at Cedric he says, Sure, we can divide up our gains anywhere you like, just let me know.
Once he has collected himself Jarrin then will try to find his way back up to where the children were. Once there, he will look at them all and try to see if his daughter could possibly be one of them.
Cedric moves to Lamms bedroom and moves to the lockbox and easily picks the lock. The constant buzz of flies is a distraction.
Jarrin thinks on Lamm's words and they could very well be true... so quickly he heads back out to the walkway and eyes the basket and the ropes...how to get upstairs....and he thinks to Ellismus' words and he can hear the ongoing shrieks of Imps? and Psuedo-Dragons? above the falling of the rain...then a flash of light and a boom of thunder...
meanwhile Akrem'dar and the others are standing there looking at Lamm's corpse with his gear, since all Jarrin did was take a cursory glance.
Ellismus mutters a quick incantantion and looks around. The bracers on Lamm's corpse and the wand in the case on the weapons belt on Ashimar's shoulder both glow to his trained eyes.
Looking at the basket Jarrin suddenly realizes he is alone. Perhaps I should stay with the others for now, I need to clear my head before I start looking for something that likely does not exist. After a quick stretch and a yawn, Jarrin makes his way back to the others. Find anything useful yet?
Curiousity gets the best of the bard and he approaches Ellismus. Quietly he speaks, The crying in the night, how did you know of this again? You can hear imps and dragons over the sounds of the storm?
While everyone's searching, Akrem'dar begins a more mundane accounting of Lamm's gear.
edric open the box, take whatever is inside it in his backpack and moves back to the basket
Grab whatever is interesting from lamm's body and lets get out of here. We will search the upper floors for any interesting stuff then divided later between us.
Curious, Tolenn enters Lamm's chambers, wondering why the man would keep corpses in his living quarters. Seeing the hatbox surrounded by the harbinger's of death, Tolenn removes the lid.
Jarrin will follow Tolenn into Lamm's quarters. When he catches the smell of death he pauses and waits to see what Tolenn discovers before he searches the room any further.
Cedric opens the Strongbox and see's several things wrapped in cloth tied with twine. There are 14 such items. He gathers them up without untieing the twine and puts them in his backpack.
As he is doing so, Tolenn walks in and looks around. She moves to the Hatbox and carefuly shoos the flies away and peeks inside. The look on her face is all you need to know that she has seen something that has taken her aback.
Jarrin see's the look on her face and glances over her shoulder....
And I wondered how this woman could know where Lamm was. Jarrin looks at the head and then to Tolenn. I bet she didn't see this in her tarot cards. The bard stares at the rotting head for a moment. So, if it wasn't actually you that we spoke to, who was it?
Jarrin starts to look around the room more intently. If he keeps a woman's head in his room who knows what else he may have in here. Help me search the place, look everywhere. Under the bed, in the pillow, check that box for secret compartments. Leave nothing untouched.
Careful Teamwork is still going, though I keep forgetting about the +1 bonus to Perception and Disable Device. Also it only lasts one hour.
Inside the belt pouch is a vial with a creamy white liquid inside and a small leather wrapped set of some sort of tools. Inside the bag is a decent amount of coins, mostly copper and silver but there is some gold within as well as a few rings and a set of ear rings loose. Plus a leather messengers tube
"By Sarenae's holy light.....how could this be? We talked to her just a few hours ago." Tolenn says quietly, turning her head to Jarrin as he gapes at the contents of the hat box.
She nods at his suggestion, and after replacing the cover on the hat box, assists in the search of Lamm's room.
Perception
Akrem'dar attempts to gingerly open the messenger tube.
A careful search of Gaedran Lamms room finds the bed infested with bedbugs, a Chamber pot in bad need of cleaning under his bed. A nest of roaches around the pile of dishes on the table. His dresser has changes of clothing that are old and wrinkled. This is the picture of an aging crimelord long past his prime and a shadow of his former self....
Akrem'dar carefully opens the messenger tube. Inside is a scroll. It is tied in a silken pink ribbon.
Akrem'dar is going to continue, and open the scroll.
Once everything has been searched, OK, I think all that can be done has been done. We need to sort this out. Does anybody have a secret hideout or something? Somewhere safe we can go to look through these things?
Jarrin then remembers the children and the woman upstairs. Looking at Ashimar, Perhaps you or Tolenn here might know of a safe place we could bring the woman and the children?
Looking back on the crimelord's corpse Jarrin wonders aloud. After all this time, suddenly a rag-tag group comes in and takes out a man that has avoided detection for decades. Look at him. You do not get to be that old in his line of work by being careless. Someone went through a lot of trouble to get us to do their dirty work. I wonder what is really going on?
Butchers! I knew this would happen and there was nothing I could do to stop it. They cut him down in cold blood - no quarter. Poor Lamm - great crime lord? Perhaps once... but his ugliness and corruption manifested into this over time... this pitiful wretch. And now that he's dead, even now his ugliness shows itself. Look at them - pawing through his body like ghouls searching for trinkets.
Ashimar throws the weapons belt at Cedric's feet beside the lockbox where it's () picked up along with the rest of the loot and ends up in Cedric's backpack.
She follows after Tolenn, not noticing the hat box. uh T-Tolenn - they seem to have forgotten about the poor woman u-upstairs. She may still need help... She leaves the question hanging, not wanting to impose.
** After dead Zellara in hatbox **
She's... dead? But - how?
She seemed so... nice. She was the one that brought us together and they seemed to doubt her... and here I was going to go back and thank her after all this was over. Poor Zellara, I wish I knew what happened. Those fools killed the only one who could give us answers! Did they learn nothing from how we dealt with Mikey? Patience, a chance for redemption go a long way - far better than revenge or lusting for violence!
Ashimar feels her eyes welling up at Zellara's plight as everything that just transpired comes crashing down around her. She reaches in her pouch for the card that started it all and lays it by the hat box. We need to give her a proper burial Tolenn...
"We need to give her a proper burial Tolenn...", but can that be done with just a head? Where is the rest of the woman? Fed to the shark?
We could search her home. Doubtful its still there, her body that is, but we might find other clues inside.
Ashimar reaches for the card that started it all, and finds its no longer there.
S.M.
So it was all an illusion... the card, Zellara... she seemed so real. I touched her. Was she an illusion or a spirit looking for vengeance for her own death? I hope you got what you wanted Zellara... Lamm's dead. But like Marcellano says, we need to look behind the layers. Will they actually care to do that or has revenge blinded them from seeing anything else?
"Guys! I think I found something!" the Shoanti yells, truly stating the obvious and showing the scroll to folks as soon as they're ready to look.
Jarrin will go over to the happy Shoanti and examine the find. Hmm. Any idea what S.M. could stand for? Is our head the incident? Why did he keep it in a hatbox?
Suddenly there are a lot of questions to be answered. Perhaps one of the answers will lead to my daughter's true plight. What if she was upstairs? Jarrin suddenly feels anxious about leaving again.
OK, let's go, no more to see here. Let's get up to the children... and the woman, yes, the woman too.
"Let us take them to the temple, I have a room there...small but private." Tolenn says looking at the distaught Ashimar.
As she passes the cleric, she grasps her shoulder and squeezes, then continues out to the lifting basket.
Cedric does put inside his backpack the stuff that ashimar drops at his feet.
Good idea Telenn, we can rest and figures out everything at your temple. We can also see what we do want to do with the children also. Unless we leave them to fend of for themselves on the street.
Once we have gathered everything we want from this level lets head back to the basket. I'll climb the rope and bring everyone up.
Akrem'dar will take everything of value from Lamm and try to cut a fair sized amount of the gator skin loose, wrapping it and packing it for the pair of boots he wanted. Once he has everything stowed away, he'll nod to Cedric and the rest. "Ready whenever you all are."
Ellismus wanders around looking at the other things that had been found. "So we have been dealing with a ghost... fascinating," he says upon the discovery of Zellara's head.
-----
"Yes. The temple should, hopefully be a safe place for the woman and children. And perhaps those at the temple will know what is going on out there."
Well if we are done here i'll climb up the rope and get everyone out.
Inside the belt pouch is a vial with a creamy white liquid inside and a small leather wrapped set of some sort of tools. Inside the bag is a decent amount of coins, mostly copper and silver but there is some gold within as well as a few rings and a set of ear rings loose. Plus a leather messengers tube
Ellismus checks the Bracers out and and then moves to look at the wand on the belt before it is dropped into the backpack by Cedric. He does see there are several alchemical potions and items on the belt as well.
Cedric carefully climbs the ropes as the party awaits him to raise the basket.
A disturbing site meets him when he crosses into the upper Fishery. Hookshanks who had been left tied up is quite dead, stabbed and cut and bludgeoned until he is barely recognizable. There are a pile of knives, shovels and pitchforks and the lower door to the outside is wide open. He can see rain falling on the stairs outside and the lambs are gone. vanished into the night.
quickly he raises Tolenn and Jarrin in the basket first.
Then Ashimar and Ellismus
Then Akremdar.
all see the same thing as they arrive. all see the rain and hear the thunder and flashes of lighting
and above it all the din of an aerial battle between Imps and Psuedo-Dragons unlikely to ever be seen again....
Jarrin is disappointed but not surprised that the children had already fled the building. He'll quickly check the dead gnome for anything useful, hoping he may have another clue as to what was going on.
Once he sees the battle raging on outside he just watches for a moment. Is it safe to go out there, Ellismus?
Jarrin kneels over the bloody mess of a body that was the gnome and finds a wickedly curved dagger , a sap, and a key in a belt pouch.
Ellismus glances up and out into the skies when given the opportunity. "Battles between these creatures at this scale are unprecedented. Typically the fights stay in the air, but there could be a risk of us finding ourselves in the middle of it. That being said, there is always a risk, and I'm not sure I would want to stay here much longer, although we should finish searching the building in case other things have been left behind."
well that takes care of that i think. So now it is just us.
Once upstairs, Ashimar heads to the front room to check on the woman while the others are searching the fishery.
Layers behind layers - and now this note the Shoanti found. S.M - wonder who that could be? Do I know of any other criminal elements with those initials? Or could this be related to the dock families and their in-fighting? Looks like your work isn't quite done yet Ashi. If there's anything else hidden here, the rest are likely to find it anyway. But the deeper connection can wait - that poor woman needs help now... she's been through enough already.
Ashimar makes her way upstairs and is reminded of the carnage she left the woman amid. As she crosses into the room and see's the three dead bodies and the dead dog.
The woman is nowhere to be seen, and bloody footprints lead out of the building through the front door.
That woman! Ashimar calls out to the rest of the group. She's gone and she shouldn't be out there by herself in her current state.
She couldn't have gone far... we were downstairs less than 5 minutes and she could barely walk.
Ashimar looks back to see if anyone is going to accompany her, wordlessly pleading for assistance from the group, before heading out the front door to the street to see if she can spot any signs of the drugged woman.