As you enter the Watch, you see four elens standing by the front desk: Gad, and three of his ifrit privates within the guard. The smug smile on Gad's face pulls his jowls up, making him look like a hungry bulldog. "I was wondering when you'd show up." He takes a step forward. "Odebie of the North Tribe, you and your friends are under arrest for withholding evidence from the Dims Watch. Come along quietly or I won't be held responsible for what happens."
"Come now, you left us that old fart ifrit. He and that dumb mutant sylph told us you have a volcing ruby that you didn't tell us about!"
Osric politely nods at the guard as he walks into the Watch looking for his friends.
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Odebie's brows furrow, and his eyes shift to the middle space between Gad and his privates. "No, no we are not. For two reasons, I know this. Firstly, if we were, either the Lieutenant or the Captain would be standing here instead of your corpulence. And secondly, you accuse me of withholding something that, by your own temple's speakings, does not exist. You claim otherwise, on the words of a traumatized old man and a criminal, and you act outside your station. Get the captain. Dwaas."
Fiordelise does her best to look confused by the claim against them and lets Odebie talk.
Gad balls his fists and bellows in anger. "Ek sal jou doodmaak!" He gets ready to charge Odebie. One of the ifrit privates mumbles something to himself.
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Stepping back to gain some distance, Odebie flips an iron nail out of his pocket and focuses briefly as his skin takes on a silvery sheen. Like before with the crutch, it twists and grows under his hand until he's holding what looks like a spear, save with a thick metal collar where the point would be.
If Geb is still charging, as he goes Odebie will try and loop the collar around the Sargent's arm before twisting violently to put pressure on the joint.
Odebie is using Ferrous Growth to create a Mancatcher - which is much better than I thought it would be. If he beats Geb in initiative, Geb will provoke on the charge. Odebie's also using a use of Stonestrike, if he wins initiative.
Also, quick reminder that Odebie has DR 1.
Standard action: Osric opens the door to the watch.
Move action: Osric steps into the watch and witnesses Gad and Odebie fighting.
Free action: Osric thinks, What in Sky's name?! Why are we having more fights inside the watch than out of it?
Not quite willing to draw steel on a guard in the watch building itself. Fiordelise commands the Ifrit privates "The sergeant's lost his mind, help us restrain him."
In his state of anger, Gad hardly notices Odebie's nail trick. Charging heedlessly forward, the sergeant suddenly finds himself caught in the unfriendly embrace of the mancatcher. An ugly yellow lump of sulfur tumbles out of Gad's mouth and onto the floor as he curses and strains against Odebie's strength in vain.
Seeing their leader so easily beaten, the other three ifrits listen to Fi, then look at each other. For the moment, they are not helping restrain Gad, but they are not attacking, either.
Fi looks around for something to restrain him more permanently (manacles, cord, chain), taking it from one the of the other watchmen if necessary. "Let's just all calm down and we can talk this over."
"Yes. You!" Odebie says, jerking his chin towards the closest private. "Go get the lieutenant, now." Driving the point home, he raises the handle and twists Gad further onto the floor.
"What's going on here? I came to the watch for safety from some thugs out in the alley, not to step into another brawl!
Odebie wrestles Gad to the ground, choking off his curses. The ifrit that Odebie yelled at looks at Gad, then Fi, and finally back at Odebie. His orange skin pales slightly, then he nods and runs off. The other two ifrits look at the floor, and glance at each other, but say nothing.
Osric, you feel a sudden, burning pain in your left shoulder as an arrow buries itself in your flesh and bursts into flame
Osric crumples forward onto the ground and rolls out of the line of sight of the door.
"Mab bys! How was your day, everyone? Anyone have some healing supplies handy?"
Fi manages to find a pair of manacles on the desk. With Gad thoroughly pinned down by Odebie, it is a simple task to lock his arms behind him, rendering him effectively helpless. The two remaining ifrits say nothing unless spoken to.
"Again with arrows from unseen assailants this pattern is getting rather tiresome," Byron grumbles, going to the door and peeking out.
Fi walks over and pulls the remains of the arrow from Osric as she reaches her other hand with a healing incantation
His voice muffled by his face being pressed into the splintery floor, Gad bellows, "Come back and finish the damn sylph you volcing coward!" He struggles violently within his bonds, but accomplishes nothing.
Osric winces as she pulls out the arrow and sighs in relief as she completes the spell. "Ahh, thank you for your kind touch, m'Lady."
He leans heavily on his cane as he gets to his feet, staying sure to remain out of the line of sight of the doorway. "Interesting, Mr. Gad. I knew we had annoyed you by being nearby as you made yourself look bad, but I had no idea you had this level of vindictiveness about you."
Osric turns to the ifrits. "I do believe the lieutenant would be interested in hearing Mr. Gad confess to conspiracy to commit murder as well, don't you? I suggest you follow Odebie's advice and fetch him. It would seem there is a matter of internal affairs to be settled here before this watch can be effective."
The orange ifrit comes back--rather quickly--with Lieutenant Dove. The painfully thin sylph has a small smirk on his face. "Gentlens, the...sweaty-faced private here has just relayed a most unconvincing lie to me on the way down." The private's eyes grow wide.
Dove continues, "Corporal Odebie is as likely to initiate an unprovoked attack on our beloved sergeant as I am to eat rocks." He fidgets with the rings on his fingers one at time as he thinks.
Looking at a wall, Dove says, "The captain, and much of our vaunted Watch, is out responding to a large melee near the Steams. I surmise the sergeant took the opportunity to deal with the four of you, his proverbial thorns, in an attempt to tie up loose ends after he murdered that odd sylph alchemist we had in the holding cells." Gad attempts to speak, but only lets out a strangled gurgle.
The lieutenant shakes his head. "But I digress. Would it be presumptuous to ask for an efficient summary of current salient events?"
"For my part, I walked into the watch, got shot by an archer who fled and heard Gad suggest that he should've continued attempting to kill me rather than flee. Gad seemed to be attacking Odebie in an unusual demonstration of a lack of restraint."
Not letting Gad stand, but not putting any more pressure on him either, Odebie does his best to answer in a level tone. "We came back from doing some research and Gad tried to arrest us. He claimed we were withholding evidence, that we had found a ruby and hadn't mentioned that to the captain - how he knew what we had said to the captain I don't know. I told him I wasn't going anywhere until I spoke to someone with a brain, and he charged me. He never landed the hit."
"In that case, I sincerely hope that I fulfill your demand, Corporal. The Captain, to my knowledge, has not shared the details of his conversation with you to anyone, let alone our erstwhile sergeant here. Most intriguing." He tucks his long, black hair behind his ears.
Dove turns to Osric. "Osric Ferret, correct? I was sorry to hear about your recent injuries."
Speaking now to the four of you, he says, "The current fighting by the Slums seems, in light of our steadfast sergeant's recent actions, to be a...diversion, or perhaps only part of a greater plan. I feel as though time is of the essence."
Looking at the three ifrit privates, he gestures toward Gad and croons, "Do be...obedient and sit next to your loyal leader, if you please." After they reluctantly do so, Dove takes a long, fine chain, made from a radiantly lustrous material, from his belt. He whispers a single word to it, and, quick as a snake, the chain wraps around the four elens--the three privates and Gad--in a complex series of loops and knots.
"Tell me what else you know as we return to my office. We searched v'Manco's mansion last night and found nothing - only an empty, conspicuously clean house."
Dove calls over his shoulder, "Gentlens, I would encourage you, in the strongest possible terms, to refrain from struggling against your bonds."
Byron, never one to keep his thoughts to himself, speaks as he moves to follow Dove. "All of this does suggest the possibility of a leak or some sort of surveillance on the Watch which..."
He realizes that this might not be the best topic to talk about out in the open and trails off.
"Whether it be V'Manco or not, Corazón has declared war on Hearth, and us in particular. He is driven by rage at the slightest offense, and he's smart enough to always work through surrogates."
Osric pauses for a moment in thought. "Speaking of which, how did Gad finally end that miserable creature? I consider it rude when elen's I've attempted to protect end up dead."
Sky's breath, I hope Leoni is okay.
Dove pauses outside of his office door. "In the early hours of the morning, when he presumed no one was present to witness his actions, Sergeant Gad gave the prisoner a taste of his own medicine, as it were. I believe the sylph would have found it instructive, if such lessons were survivable."
Inside his cluttered office, Dove remains standing. "I'm afraid most of my chairs have been assigned the task of acting as filing cabinets for the time being. Now, as I mentioned, v'Manco's house was found empty, and he did not report to the Temple Watch yesterday or this morning. Have you any thoughts to his whereabouts, or his next moves?"
"Well, I suppose at least that confirms he doesn't have temple backing on this. He has a grudge against the Misters, but now they've been taken out... he also has a fascination with me, and if we can work out a plan for that to work for us, I will happily use myself as bait." Fiordelise has been listening while the investigetors talk, but she doesn't want to be sidelined.
"I fear, though he may be no friend of the Inquisition, they will involve themselves soon. They will have to. Corazón has gone to much effort to appear as an efreet from the old stories - we had had the idea of looking at those to guess his motives. That is where we were coming back from when Gad attacked us."
"The feel from the street level echos your findings, Odebie. People seem to be seeing at least an implicit endorsement of Corazón's actions by the Temple. People are angry and frightened, and the church will have no choice but to take public action to dissuade the populous of this notion."
Osric neglects to mention his hand in this public sentiment in front of Lt. Dove.
The flash of insight that courses through your brain is pure celerity. It bites with a keen edge that is almost painful; you are left reeling for a moment after it passes.
There is a statue in the Dims - a fifteen-foot tall grotesque rumored to be a sculpture of King Fret himself, ruler of the efreet. The entire city block surrounding this statue has been abandoned for countless decades, even centuries, due to its dreadful curse - approaching Fret causes an elen to burst into flames that are impossible to quench until the victim is dead.
Legends of treasure beneath the statue have prompted foolish or desperate elens to try every few years, but everyone--including burrowing oreads--winds up dead. It did not cross your mind at first, as all citizens in Hearth instinctively write that area off as 'forbidden'. If v'Manco truly has any powers of an efreeti, that is where he could hide, and no one would ever look for him.
The statue, unfortunately, is in the beleaguered Steam Slums.
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Osric attempts to jump up in his excitement, but instead bangs his knee on the table and falls out of his chair. "Ow!" He cringes as he nurses his poor leg and manages to get out a "Worth it!" before taking a moment to recover.
"Of course, why didn't I think of it sooner? Where's the one place in town nobody would dare look? The flame-cursed statue! This definitely moves me into the 'destroy it' camp when it comes to the item we acquired recently."
Osric looks at Lt. Dove and makes a calculation that it's worth the risk to explain the ruby to him. "You see, Gad wasn't entirely incorrect in his accusations, though 'withholding evidence' is a bit of a stretch. We were given this item by the mutie." He pulls out his case, but does not open it. "It is how they were able to see through the mists. Whether it's a mythical ruby or not is irrelevant, as it seems to be heavily enchanted. If its power is tied to V'Manco, destroying it, if possible, might just wrap up the situation nicely if that's where he's hiding."
"Alternatively, it might protect us if we wandered into the radius under its influence, though I'm not eager to attempt it."
Fiodelise smiles, "I'd be willing to take that risk, and maybe we can remove that curse while we're at it. Seems a shame to waste the opportunity."
"You want to go BACK to the steam slums!?
...alright, but we rest first. I, for one, would appreciate a meal. I also believe some of you have some reading to."
Dove has been studying all of you intently as you have been talking. "I am, in all honesty, unsure what to make of the four of you. I cannot fathom what interest an isolated alchemist and a struggling noble-elen could have in this, save altruism, which," he lets out what can only be described as a high-pitched giggle, "you'll forgive me for being somewhat cynical about."
"Regardless of my feelings on the subject however, the rightness of your actions thus far cannot be disputed. While we have no elens to spare at the moment, I will give you all a writ to show you are acting in the name of the Watch." He smiles sidelong at Odebie. "Which accomplishes precisely nothing for you, dear Corporal. Suffice to say that you have my support, and the truth of your actions will be known, rather than the sulfur-flavored rantings of a certain ex-sergeant."
"If there is nothing else I can aid you with, I have other duties. The Watch, unfortunately, does not run itself, but perhaps some golems could be trained to start filing paperwork and murdering sylphs. It would save much time and elenpower." With that sour joke, he returns to collect Gad and the others.
You realize that Dove has, likely deliberately, said nothing of the chunk of ruby you possess.
If we're taking some time to consider our next action, Osric will aid Byron on the alchemy check for +4.
Byron thinks things over, mostly oblivious to the deeper meanings of what Dove said.
You have the reagents necessary to make the solution with you, and it should only take half a candle or so.
"That's useful information, Byron, thank you. He won't be anticipating company in the dead-zone, but we're pretty sure he can track the gem, right? I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the tactical position that would put us in, especially given his demonstrated proficiency with a bow." Osric rubs the healed-over, yet still painful wound from the arrow he took. "While Byron's bombs might be able to reach him, he's probably immune to fire. A cane, hammer, and sword won't do much good if we can't charge him."
"On the other hand, I'm not sure there's anyone else I'd rather trust this mission to. Fi, do you know any trustworthy contacts within the temple? Rumors aside, I can't imagine they'd really abide someone consorting with efreeti spirits setting up shop in Hearth. They might be able to provide a means of exorcising the spirits as well, which would certainly make things simpler."