Byron hustles into the back room, drawing a vial out of his belt, but not doing anything with it yet.
Byron moves cautiously into the store room, drawing a vial.
Odebie calmly walks over to the Flower Girl. After his remark about the owner, a heavy-set ifrit walks toward him. Still about fifteen feet away, she narrows her eyes and says, "No, I'm the owner. What's all this about, sir?" Her tone is neutral, but the slight emphasis on "sir" seems disapproving.
The undine runs to the back wall, straight to a steel door. He tries it, and curses in Undine when he finds it locked. He stops in his tracks as he sees Osric coming from the east.
Fiordelise moves to flank the undine from the west. She attempts to strike the undine, but his jittery movements spoil her aim.
Link to map.
Initiative Order:
Byron 22
Odebie 18
Undine 16
Osric 4
Fiordelise 3
The undine's head jerks back and forth wildly, looking between Osric, Fiordelise, and the locked door to the west. Suddenly, his gaze settles on a plant next to him that looks disturbingly like a pair of puckered red lips. Grinning, he stabs his dagger into the red bloom, yellow fluid splattering his arm. His bloodshot eyes jitter as he stares at Fiordelise. He is muttering an Undine word under his breath. ""điếm...điếm..."
"Again, I'm sorry about the confusion. We're looking for someone, and that one..." his eyes flick towards the Undine, his face suddenly growing concerned. "Quickly, what plant did he just cover himself in?!"
Fiordelise knows little of what the plant does, but while getting ready to strike she has a last attempt to get him to calm down.
"Please, just drop the dagger - lets sit down and talk."
"Flower what flower let me see," Byron hurries to the back and tries to get a look at it.
Odebie shifts his weight, blocking the door with his hammer. He's still going through the motions of polite discussion, but he's not affable any more.
"No. We have business to discuss, madame, and it would not do to have you leave before we're finished. Come, the others will settle this. Why don't we both sit down and talk about an elan named Lungs?"
Osric draws his sword from its cane, holding the scabbard in his off hand. Dropping into a fencing stance he declares, "Người phụ nữ không xứng đáng để được gọi là một tên hèn hạ như vậy, không phải bởi một người như bạn. Nghiêm túc, chúng tôi chỉ muốn nói chuyện. Tôi không có ý muốn làm hại bạn."
Byron runs to the back in time to see Osric and Fiordelise closing upon the undine.
The undine, seeing two pieces of sharp metal pointing unwaveringly in his direction, drops his dagger. "Đụ." He puts his hands up in the air. "Look, no more dagger, okay? I have nothing to do with this. Just buyer, okay?"
The owner takes a step back from Odebie after he blocks the door. Her hands make a calm, reasonable gesture, palms up. "Now, now, there's no reason to be rude, sir. Lungs, you say? It sounds as if that unpleasant undine who was accosting me in my own place of business is the one you should be..." She looks over her shoulder, as if confirming the location of Osric, Byron, and Fiordelise.
She whistles sharply, two high-pitched notes in a row. Without a sound, two pogonas burst from a screen of plants nearby. Unlike the placid beasts of burden most often seen in Hearth, these pogonas bear more resemblance to River crocodiles - their rows of teeth, in particular.
One of the lizards bites Odebie in the ankle, causing a flaring pain to run up his leg
"Okay I think that 'random destruction' is no longer an undesirable possibility in this case so it's time to test this batch," Byron babbles as he about-faces and runs back towards Obedie and the pogonas, mixing some powder into the vial he'd been holding as he does so.
Once his bomb is mixed, he hurls it at the owner, sending it on a long arc across the room.
A cry of pain turns into a roar, and Odebie slams his hammer down on the rightmost pogona's head.
Hearing one of Byron's explosions, Osric looks over to see lizards attacking the gguard-elen. With a quick glance at the undine he declares, "I expect to finish this conversation when we're all safe."
He then hurries over to assist Odebie.
Fiordelise keeps her sword pointed at the Undine and kicks his dagger out of his of his reach, while beginning a wordless song that charges the atmosphere in the greenhouse.
Byron hurls his bomb halfway across the warehouse. It lands next to the owner, and she screams in surprise as a gout of flame scorches her clothing.
Odebie squashes the skull of the western pogona with a crunch-squirt.
Osric runs toward Odebie and the pogonas.
Fiordelise kicks the undine's dagger out of reach, and begins her song of battle and anger. The undine glances down as his dagger skitters away, and looks back up at Fiordelise with anger and fear.
The remaining pogona snaps at Odebie, but absent a flanking partner the beast is not too difficult to avoid.
The owner moves north, far away from Osric, and begins climbing the twenty-foot tall shelf. She makes it about 8 feet up.
Link to map.
-------------
Initiative Order:
Byron 22
Odebie 18
Undine 16
Osric 4
Fiordelise 3
Pogonas, Owner 2
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Byron sighed as he walked over towards where the owner was climbing. "I don't know what you think you're trying to do I can throw bombs up there easily see?" As he spoke, he mixed another bomb, though this time it was some sort of silvery liquid he added to the vial before tossing it at the owner.
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Seeing that Odebie appears to have the pogonas under control, Osric redirects to the shop owner. "I'll take this response to mean you know something, but don't want to share. I'm disappointed."
With a quick motion he mounts the shelves and rapidly ascends, waiting for the owner to make her way to the top. "Can we just skip to the end and get our answers without excess property damage?"
Stepping deftly to the side, Odebie swings at the other pogona.
As much as she'd love to assist her companions, Fiordelise is reluctant to leave the Undine to escape.
She will maintain her song, while quickly glancing around for something to secure the undine with.
Odebie breaks the back of the remaining pogona with a loud crack.
The undine remains motionless under Fiordelise's stern gaze.
As the owner struggles half-way up the shelf, she cranes her head to look up at Osric, then looks over her shoulder at Byron. Her body tenses and she shrieks, "Porco Vulcunus!"
Taking a deep breath, she says, "Fine, I'm coming down." Slowly, carefully, she climbs down.
"See much better no need for unpleasantness," Byron states, looking expectantly over at Osric. He knows he's not the one to take the lead on questioning.
Instead, his gaze slides off the other Sylph and onto the plants, looking for any other suspicious species.
Osric quickly descends. "Let's get both of you over here." He waves towards Fiordelise to bring the undine to the front of the shop.
"Now, you both know something about this Lungs character. Let's hear what it is?"
"Come on you, back to the centre, fightings over." Fiordelise gestures with her blade to the Undine.
Stepping over the remains of the pogona; Odebie walks over to the others, favoring his injured leg.
The owner stares daggers at the undine as the two are herded together. Her gaze flicks down at his hand, and an ugly smirk twitches her lips.
Her voice dripping with venom, she says, "Almeno si muore per portare questo sulla mia casa."
The undine furrows his brow, not understanding. Then, a moment later, he clutches his hand, and begins screaming. Large blisters bud and swell on his skin.
We'll see about that," Byron mutters to himself as he leaps into action. He seizes the Jewel Weed he'd spotted and immediately begins crushing the petals, dripping the juices from them onto the undine's hands.
The effect of Byron's ministrations is instantaneous - the blisters remain, but they stop growing, and no new blisters appear. The undine still seems to be in a great deal of pain, but he has stopped screaming.
The matronly owner shouts at Byron, "You couldn't just let him die? He's a useless, brainless water-breather!"
Taking a step back from both the Undine and the owner, Odebie stands and watches.
You seem to be going to great lengths to protect your secrets here, I understand the desire to protect yourself and your business, but you need to tell us what you know. Now.
Osric watches their reactions, interrogations were never really his thing unfortunately.
But he seems distracted by the plants.
Byron shrugs. "I don't particularly care about the opinions of anyone growing scorpion orchid and I think you know perfectly well why that would be don't you?"
The owner-- you recall the flower girl called her Signora Toselli--sighs, her puffed-up anger deflating. Her words are flat, defeated. "And are my words going to keep me out of prison, girl?" She looks over at Odebie. "What's the difference between me talking and me spitting in your face, Mister Guard? Eh? Gonna give me a better cell?"
Odebie thinks for a moment, taking the question seriously. "Perhaps. There's a disturbing level of difference between me arresting you here and me arresting you three blocks from here in the Temple District."
Osric gets a somewhat vindictive look. "Besides, I'm pretty sure the penalties for assaulting an officer of the law are a sight less severe than those associated with the production and distribution of Gasp."
Fiordelise's eyes glint with anger. "Your words might not keep you out of prison, but they might keep you from being injured in that little soiree we just had."
Toselli is clearly surprised at the turn of the conversation - the presence of a guard had not prepared her for threats. Her widening eyes flick between the two dour sylphs--with more reason for anger in this place than anyone else--and the frowning ifrit who seems to have inherited her fair share of the legendary temper of the ifrits.
A merchant's cold calculation takes place behind her fear, and she sags when she comes to the bottom line. "I'm just a distribution point. I've got a crate of it hidden under the baby willow the pogonas were guarding." She points to the area with a nod of her head.
"Lungs gets the stuff, you understand? Never met the guy, he strictly works through intermediaries only."
"Now, maybe se mi dare una mano , play down the charges, I'll tell you if there's another middle man coming sometime." She offers a grin that is equal parts desperation and resignation.
Do you have names and descriptions of these intermediaries?
Fiodelise glances over Osric and Odebie, while her threatening a suspect gives them some deniability she doesn't really have a great deal of authority here.
She shakes her head. "It's never been the same guy twice, and they never give their names. I can tell you when they're going to come here next."
Osric glances at Odebie, "So, what now?"
"Let's give her a listen, and someone should close the shop. Don't want anyone wandering in and seeing these." Odebie kicks one of the pogonas and immediately regrets it, wincing.
Shifting a couple plant-pots to the side, he takes a load off and looks at the owner expectantly.
Toselli shrugs, resigned. "The intermediary always comes on a Coalday. The times vary, but always during the day to avoid suspicion. It's just a small crate - who cares what's in it, right? They have a specific knock on the back door, the steel one back there. They drop off the 'fertilizer', and I pay them a bag of 'silver' that's actually platinum.""
She sighs, her breath shuddering out of her. "Volc, I hope I don't get killed for this. So what's next? Taking me to the nearest prison?" She looks at Fiordelise. "Roughing me up a little bit to get your kicks?"
"Liar." Odebie proclaimed coldly. "When do they come?"
Toselli's face scrunches up as if she is about to scream a denial at Odebie, when there is a knock at the back door. A very...specific knock. The mistress of Fiore's Flowers tries to hide her reaction, but her face is full of despair.
Fiordelise glances over Odebie's leg, "Let me fix that for you before we answer the door." Fiordelise quickly kneels and applies pressure to Odebie's wound. "I'll keep an eye on these two if you want to deal with the visitor."