"Would you mind if we all visited a certain bar? I have some...'friends', I would like to see. If they're still in town, as I said elsewhere...I have some technique to introduce them to."
Anri is cracking her knuckles, twitching slightly. She so desperately wants her payback.
"Would this side trip help us get to Sigil?"
Anri takes a moment to consider this.
"Yes! Well...maybe? They were talking about getting to Sigil when they spiked my drink, possibly did terrible things to me, and then somehow sicked me on you guys in the middle of a damn crypt city. Seeing as however they did that probably involved potent transportation magic ...Most likely! And I would get to boot someone in the head. WE ALL WIN!"
Lyan grins and nods.
"I have some stuff to, umm, do here in Freeport," admits Norrin, before he slinks off to attend World of Beercraft, Freeport's preeminent craft beer festival.
"I'll find you by listening for the agonised screams of sailors."
Lisbarr runs his hands through his tangled hair, looking more wild-eyed than usual.
"Impossible and ridiculous. I simply don't have time for this kind of nonsense. I am a serious man engaged in serious research and I will be in the library. By the lighthouse."
Anri head purposefully towards the seafront and the docks, hunting for the Supine Squid. Even at this comparatively early hour, the place is easy to spot. A brawl is already in full swing from the sounds of things.
"Rothel, stay behind me, try to keep up, watch for punches."
Anri is used to sidestepping around a bar of drunkards. And she has a score to settle.
Rothel looks down his nose at the disreputable establishment, "I do not feel that my presence is necessarily warranted on these premises, as I feel any information you would receive from the aforementioned establishment would be best presented to the rest of us in a locale with a capacity for civil discourse. It is my humblest suggestion that you enter deftly and withdraw with whosoever it is that has the knowledge you seek, in tow." he explains, clearly not looking forward to entering the bar.
"I'm surrounded by big, brave adventurers who survived a city of undead, and none of them have the balls to enter a Freeport dive. What is the world coming to?"
Anri deftly stalks her way amongst the drunken brawlers, seeking one particular group of sailors...
Lyan follows Anri in, glowering as seems appropriate. Which, to Lyan, it usually does.
Anri's entrance is greeted with indifference except by three seedy looking characters in the corner. They exchange swift glances and then one of them swaggers over to her.
"See you got yourself some new friends, cupcake. Want another drink on us?"
Inside the bar as well, is a tiefling standing on a table, reciting some sort of routine, gesiculating wildly. Her eyes crackle a strange purple hue, her pupils disappeared within them. Her short coat unbuttoned a few scandalous inches, and her soft leather pants seem to have seen better days, a bell hangs on her tail as well.
"Oh to be abused by fire..."
"Friends, Bowmen, Country men...lend me your beers. I came to dreary sleaze holes, but not to play them." Shoso laments in iambic meter, stomping from one table to the next, knocking a mug aside, spilling some of the poor quality ale's contents out of it, much to the dislike of its patron, who seems only not to start something due to her display of magical talent. The man curses under his breath about the ill omen of sorcerers.
She seems to take offense, pausing in her routine. "Sorcerer? I'm not a bore-ceror, I'm a poor sirrah, know some lore-sirrah, long to be adore-d-sirrah." She clasps her hands together as she imagines the scene, her boots clomping about on the tables. "To go explore-sirrah, crowds at a roar-sirrah, touch people to their core-sirrah, so tired of being ignore-d-sirrah."
Her flourished bow, even with cape accompaniment elicits little response, even after she teleports to the next table over! She scowls offhanded, moving to insult the patrons instead. "Except by your mothers, the whore-sirrahs, made her croak 'Nevermore-sirrah' , then booted her out the door-sirrah. And now I implore-sirrah, for thine change and......more....sirrah."" The vaguely...suggestive motions she made during the last part did not win her any more friends.
Anri has no time for music. Only payback.
"Boot-to-the-head."
Anri's leg lashes out at the swaggering sailor.
Melee Basic: ;
"I'll have an explanation, gentlemen. Or I'll have your heads."
Lyan watches from near the door.
The swaggerer backs off, clutching a badly bleeding nose.
"Thad's nod very dice. Do deed to take it like thad."
His friends help him to a table with a reproachful glance at Anri and her friends.
"Touchy. It's not like you came to any harm, is it?" grumbles the second sailor.
The third man, displaying a better sense of self-preservation, looks cautiously at Anri and nods slightly.
"We've got an explanation, but it might not be useful."
Shoso laughs, even so far as pointing at the sailor, then tsks, wagging her finger at the monk, "Extraction is the root of all heartache."
The battered sailor looks at Anri with deep dislike and his more thoughtful comrade smiles beguilingly at her.
"We did it for the money. Simple."
The tiefling watches with bated interest, "Treachery, violence without reason, betrayal and...erm..." She frowns, "...backstabbing."
She looks around to the room, "They're not all winners, folks."
Whiney stomps over to the tiefling. "Times are hard. I've got kids to feed. You judging me?"
Shoso perches on the table, tilts her head at Whiney, pointedly ignoring his self-justification. Her eyes crackle with sorcerous color, "Your mother's name is.....Herbert." She extends her hand, "That'll be three gold."
Anri raises one eyebrow at at the bard, and then turns her attention back to the sailors. She continues to be threatening:
"Who paid you. Why did they want me sent there. And how did you send me there? And could you use such power to get...I don't know, to Sigil?"
She draws her knife, and begins lazily twirling it in her off-hand, resting one hand on the table as she leans forward.
"I don't know the musician here, but I do know that I've learned the hard-wrought wisdom of ancient masters...and it tells me that you know what I need to learn. So pass on this knowledge. Please. Before I lose my temper and forget that you'd need a working jaw to tell me anything."
Bustnose pokes around in his mouth and extracts a tooth.
"Broken," he mutters mournfully.
Swarmy picks his words with care, his eyes never leaving Anri's dagger.
"We don't know that. The bloke said it was a joke. "Just tip the powder into her drink.". We're not the trustworthy type and if I'm honest, we're not that bright either, so you could say we've been tricked as much as you."
Bustnose adds his own two cents. "I thougd he was a wizard. Med hib od the dogs, outside the lighdhouse."
Whiney drags himself away from Shoso (without paying her) and makes a contribution. "He had good boots, I remember them. Red leather with tassels."
Shoso lays down on the table, her hands propping up her head. She's put a foot into at least one person's meal and seems to not care at all. "He speaks the fabled language of Meda!" She emphasizes Bustnose's new accent, "Cah Huu Unnstan Meh?"
"Dond be stupid, ob course I can. By dose hurds, dod my braid."
"Do you have what you needed?" Lyan asks Anri, not impatiently.
"Red. Leather. Boots. You will know MY boots very well in a moment, if you cannot give me more details than that."
Swarmy shrugs.
"Don't matter how much you kick us. We are dumb sailors. Nobody trusts us with anything that isn't simple. He said, "spike her drink". We did it. We got paid. Thought he wanted a bit of quiet playtime or something. If you want more you need to find him. He's a wizard with fancy boots, they're not that common even in Freeport."
This wizard sounds like someone you've seen before. He works on the edges of the local guilds and has a bad reputation, even by Freeport standards. He's got some funny tastes. Shoso reckons this is probably Ballian Neerut. If so, he's a nasty piece of work with a bad drug habit and no scruples. He usually hangs around a brothel run by Madame Fisk.
Shoso kicks her feet up behind her absently, the table now finally empty of customers. In a sing-song voice, she announces, "~~~I think I know the guy~~~." She innocently looks away from the group as she starts cleaning her nails with a pocket knife.
Now, Anri gives Shoso her attention.
"Oh? Where can I find him? Anyone who has that level of talent with teleportation is of great interest to my group, and anyone who decided to do...everything that may have been done, is of interest to my fist."
Shoso's eyes gleam brightly, "Teleport? I can teleport." She suddenly reappears a few feet away, without a table under her.
Acrobatics
She promptly falls on her stomach. "Teleport, that was a hella-port. Put on trial at Tele-court!" Shoso sits up, rubbing her shoulder then stands, "Nosekicker, where do you teleport to? Will it be fun? Can you show me how to kick noses? No wait.." The tiefling pauses, "The ear! I sort of do that already, It'd be fun to be more literal!"
Bustnose looks sour as Whiney and Swarmy help him out of the bar. Swarmy waves a hand and mutters something about just being on their way - clearly hoping to go un-noticed.
A familiar half-orc enters the establishment called the Supine Squid, followed by a nondescript human dressed in the garb of a travelling merchant. Norrin glances curiously at the three sailors going the opposite direction before greeting his companions.
"Sorry I'm late. I met an old friend of mine," Norrin presents the disguised mage with his hand, "and we decided to seek you out together."
The mage, a human male in his twenties, eagerly explains,
"Yes, using the clues Mr Axebeard gave me, I scryed for both sea dogs and the loudest screams I could find. However the first place was actually showing the Torog Tabernacle Choir's rendition of H.M.S. Pinafore."
With a sudden realisation, the mage—in one swift motion—turns, draws an implement in each hand, and aims an orb at each of the shady mariners. Not skipping a beat, the thief draws his own crossbow and points it at the third departing sailor.
In the distance, the screams of "We are his sisters and his cousins and his aunts" can be faintly heard. The departing sailors depart extremely fast as a well placed missile adds to Bustnose's woes and another scorches Swarmy. Whiney is not pleased with the arrow that whips over his shoulder.
"We're going, we're going ..."
Anri gives the newcomer a polite nod.
"Call me Anri, I'm a wandering monk, seeking enlightenment and peace. And if you'll all introduce yourselves, and the young lady with the horns introduces me to the man who drugged me, I can go introduce him to the ancient secrets of Tae Kwan Leep. It brings 'enlightenment' and 'peace' to all those that encounter it, after all."
She seems to be dead serious.
Still laying on the floor, Shoso shifts uncomfortably. She reaches beneath her, pulling out a cup she had apparently landed on. Probably from when she was knocking stuff around.
The tiefling moves to stand, her tail twitching, "Tell me more, there's wonderful elements here. I'll assign music to it, maybe make an opera!" She looks around, "What strange motley crew is brought together, maybe I can help! I can stand on my hands!"
Acrobatics
She does so before falling over, adding with a sheepish "Sometimes." Looking over the gathering people, she points at Norrin. "You've been dipped in gravy, and left to be eaten by large worms."
The barkeep looks less than impressed by Shoso's antics.
"You're paid to entertain the customers and keep them drunk, not crush my beer mug," he grumbles.
"Go on. Out you go. 2gp for the work today, and that's generous."
She dusts herself off a bit, gesturing to the crowd. "I think my singing earlier was bad enough that everyone got drunk. so I think I did a good job of it. I am at the very pineapple of my profession. Keep your scratch, I just got a better offer!"
Shoso leans in conspiratorially to Anri, "3 gold to show you where this guy is?" She grimaces politely, her hands clutched together.
Anri gives the newcomer a polite nod.
"Call me Anri, I'm a wandering monk, seeking enlightenment and peace.…"
"Well it's a pleasure to meet you, Anri," the mage holds his hand out in greeting, "I am Henry Porter, licensed illusionist."
"Do you mind if I accompany you on your quest for 'enlightenment' and 'peace'?"
Lyan, at his post, smiles slightly at the byplay.
Of course, with Lyan, a broad grin usually means he's about to do something deeply unpleasant to someone.
Anri gives Shoso a pointed look: "I'm not paying anyone who won't even give me her name."
To the others, she says: "Although...Anyone who wants to help me, I don't mind having."
Lyan's expression bodes badly for someone. The huge hobgoblin fits beautifully into the Freeport scenery.