Femi shares what he knows about the dogs and places to take them.
He sighs, "Kalem, I agree, we will not build our revolution on blood. There will be blood enough I'm sure. Let's take them to the Dottari. It's the only way to guarantee their safety that I can see. If we are destined to fight them again in the future, so be it."
"That's the price of decency." He looks to the others for agreement.
"Now, let's look around and see what we can find here before we leave with the dogs."
He pokes his head out the door and invites Rexus in. "Do you know what we're looking for exactly?"
He'll do a quick search of the place just to make sure they're alone and check for obvious doors, boxes, etc.
Then he'll check the obvious places where you might hide documents or other small stuff.
"I'm gonna help move the dogs, I guess."
Brask looks for a place they can keep them out of the way while they search the building.
Kalem joins the search, leaving Brask to move the dogs.
Mykhail listens to the discussion on what to do with the dogs, nodding every now and then. As much as it rankled him, handing them over to the Dottari seemed like the best option.
"As much as it chafes my ass handing them over to the enemy, at least it will line our pockets with a little extra to help with our journey. Just think of it this way, what money we get from them for turning the dogs over will be an instrument in bringing their demise."
He then starts to search the stable for any signs of these Silver Ravens.
"So what exactly am I searching for?"
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As the party handles the dogs, Rexus stops in front of a large metal gate and rattles it in an attempt to open it, it is, unfortunately, locked, but it seems to lead deeper into the building.
"If only we-" He begins, but he's interrupted by the sound of a slamming cabinet somewhere among the junk in the stables, not too long after the doors to the stable fly open again and close. As Femi inspects the area he noticed the temperature fluctuate in off patterns and there seem to be strange marks appearing along the walls.
Kalem, despite the disturbances, of perhaps because of them, looks up to find a ring dangling from the rafters, ripe for the taking if only he could reach it.
Mykhail searches the back of the stables and stumbles across a key of some sort, though everything else seems to be simply junk.
What the hell? A ghost?
"What is it you want spirit? What can we do to put you to rest?" he asks in earnest.
The dead should stay dead...
He studies the walls, trying to make out a pattern or language from the markings.
Brask lays the unconscious dogs in the back of one of the stalls and jams some discarded planks of wood into the opening, blocking it off. He isn't trying to permanently prevent them from escaping, but require them to have to work at it.
He turns around to see the room seems suddenly more trashed. "Woah. What'd you do, Femi?" he asks.
Femi looks guilty, like he's been passing gas.
He says weakly, "No, no, no. It's not me. I don't know what it is!"
His face flushes red.
Shiny....
Kalem reveals to everyone what he's found and goes up to grab the ring.
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Kalem jumps toward the rafters but only barely nudges the ring which now swings wildly on the string it's attatched to but does not fall.
Rexus raises an eyebrow at the mysterious noise but is quickly distracted by the key found by Mykhail. "If I may?" He says, accepting the key from the gunslinger before moving toward the black gate and swinging it open with a loud screech just moments later. "As I thought, our way is no longer barred!"
He walks a few steps in and calls the party over. He points excitedly to a decrepit trap door hanging loosely from its hinges leading beneath the building.
"Wait, I can do this...
Kalem jumps again, swinging his arm around to grab the tantalizing prize.
He turns to the others.
"Anyone want to give it a shot? And are we just leaving the dogs here then?"
"Hey Brask, maybe you can boost him up?"
"Yeah, I figured we'd leave the dogs here for now and take them to the authorities when we surface. They should be fine for a little while I think. Uh, right?" so says the man with no knowledge of animals.
"OK Rexus, we're coming, just a second, we want to try for this bauble."
He worries what the ghost thinks of all this and makes a quick blessing to Desna for luck.
Brask gives Kalem a boost, lacing his hands together to make a step.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Mykhail is poking around in the back of the stables all the while grumbling under his breath about dogs trying to tear their faces off and now was stuck searching for an item he had no knowledge of. Just as he's about to give up and search somewhere else, something shiny catches his eye and he picks up the key.
Before he could examine it any further, Rexus steps forward asking if he could take a look. Mykhail hands it over then turns to find that the room seemed to be changing, writing on the wall appearing and temperature fluctuating, all things that his mother would talk about when he was younger, things that he use to just shrug off.
With a shudder he turns to see Kalem and Brask trying to get a ring that was dangling from the rafters. He walks over to see if he could be of any assistance.
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Brask stands unsteady beneath Kalem but Mykhail offers his assistance and manages to keep them both straight long enough for the young tiefling to get a good grip on the ring and snap the bit of string looped around it.
"Hmmm..."
Kalem turns the ring over in his hand but doesn't notice anything significant about it. He tosses it to the next person.
"Think we can get a good mint for it?"
"Alas studying the nobility and their various sigils is not an area of expertise for me. I have an interest, but only in passing you understand. I suppose, if we're to get their aid, I should learn more about them, but that doesn't help us with this ring."
"If it is one of the noble houses though, we should be careful what we do with it. It might be tied to some gruesome event or other. Let's hang onto it until we can determine its providence."
Worried about the ghost and the symbols on the wall, he is never the less ready to descend - following the others of course.
Kalem nods, and is ready to descend as well.
Unlimbering his weapons, Elias takes up a position behind the brawler.
"Be cautious Kalem. I have no more healing magics, so make certain that you fall back, before you fall in battle, should it come to that choice."
"Point taken."
He turns to Femi.
"If its all right with you, I'll hang back and try to act as a last barrier to you."
He smiles.
"If you're knocked unconscious, how're you supposed to pay for drinks later?"
"I'll go first, then." Brask says, moving to the front.
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The party squeezes their way, one by one down the trap door and the eye-watering stench of urine and feces fills this large room. Nests made of chewed crates and barrels line the walls, while rusty knives and hooks cover the tabletops. Before Rexus can take his turn climbing into the room a trio of ravenous rats emerge from various corners of the room and move toward the party, mouths watering.
Elias
Femi
Mykhail
Rats
Kalem
Brask
Round: 1, Initiative: 15
Weapon Equipped = Quarterstaff
Crossbow Bolts = 10/10
Conditions = None
Melee: Attack: BAB +0, Str +0 Damage: +0
Ranged: Attack: BAB +0, Dex +1 Damage: +0
toppling spell: 5 (Caster Level 1 +4 Int)
Arcane Reservoir (su): 2/4 (+1 DC or caster level as free action)
Spells (Caster Level 1, Concentration +5)
Special: (2/7) Force Missile*
Zero (14) (2/3) Dancing Lights
Zero (14): (4) Acid Splash, Daze, Detect Magic, Prestidigitation
First (15): (0/3) Feather Fall, Infernal Healing, Magic Missile (w/Topple Feat)*
* +1 Caster Level, +1 damage
Not liking rats, at all, Femi blasts the one nearest to him with a Force Missile after he steps away from it - 5’ step then blast!
”I don’t have many of these left!” he cries out worryingly.
Round 1, Initiative 14
Weapon Equipped = Pistol
Bullets (including Blackpowder doses) = 25/30
Conditions = None
Melee: Attack: BAB +1, Str +1 Damage: +0
Ranged: Attack: BAB +1, Dex +3 Damage: +0 point blank shot
After making sure that Brask and Kalem didn't hurt themselves getting the ring form the rafters he turns to follow the others down the stairs, as soon as the stench hits his nose he pulls out his pistol and holds it at the ready, a place that smells this bad is bound to be holding some sort of creature or another.
Sure enough rats emerge from the depths of the putrid smelling room and are looking as if they intend to make the group their next snack. Not if he could help it. Taking a step back he takes a shot at the rat that is before him
Elias steps up to the only Rat not receiving the attention of his allies, and attempts to drive his sword down into it. He obviously also makes some attempt to hold in his breath against the stench in the wrecked room.
"Ugh, This place is foul. There had best be something that can serve our purposes down here."
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Elias strikes a solid hit against one of the starving rats and slices it nearly in two. Femi hits another with a force missile and the affected rat seems almost stunned by the hit. Mykhail fires his pistol, the shot ringing loud in the small room, and the bullet clips the rat that Femi struck and finishes it off.
Blue strikes out at Brask but is unable to land a hit.
Elias
Femi
Mykhail
Rats
Kalem
Brask
Brask hefts his Falchion over his head and brings it down hard on Blue. Growling with effort.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Round 1 Init 7
Kalem uses martial flexibility to pick up dodge and and readies an attack should any rat move within range.
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Brask neatly slices the final rat in two, leaving the room empty but for the party. Rexus climbs down and coughs when hit by the stench, but otherwise looks approvingly at the party.
"Swiftly done! Impressive."
Kalem you were healed in this post. So your health is at 7.
"So Rexus, do you know what we're looking for?" Femi asks as he searches the room.
If there's no hurry, and nothing is easily found, Femi will suggest, smell aside, that the party takes their time in searching (take-20).
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"Unfortunately Femi, you have as much information as I do." Rexus replies as he assists in the search. Unfortunately all you seem to find are a number of decaying rats and their nests.
As you search you catch a hear a few discordant notes from some sort of instrument, it seems to be coming from the next room, though they only seem to play when you're paying the least attention.
"You hear that?" Brask asks.
Kalem searches the room, looking for anything our of the ordinary.
"Well, we're in a basement. Other than the floor and rats I don't see anything particularly interesting."
"You hear that?" Brask asks.
"Yeah, I heard something..." Femi trails off. He moves over to the door and opens it, stepping back for the others to see as well what lies through it.
Mykhail is glad to be rid of the rats quickly, try as he might he never was able to grow a liking for the foul creatures. He turns to survey the room in the dim light but nothing of interest seems to be about and their only options was to continue forward or turn back. Making sure that Iustitia was loaded for whatever lie ahead.
"I almost don't care what it is, as long as it get's me away from these rats."
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Dirty salt and sawdust coat the floor of this gloomy hall. Bits of the wall masonry have been chewed or clawed away, revealing narrow, winding animal tunnels beyond. Steel rails are mounted in the ceiling, with a few lonely iron hooks dangling from them. A pile of stained pillows and moth-eaten blankets lies in a ten-foot-square depression in the floor to the northwest.
There are small tracks in the saw dust criss crossing all around the room, and a half destroyed iron grating blocks a flight of stairs leading downward, the lock clearly rusted over long ago.
As you move about the room the same notes seem to echo, equally as far from your hearing now as they were in the previous room. From the corner of your vision you see something moving but you can never quite lay eyes on whatever it is.
”I don’t suppose one of you has a light? My Dancing Lights just last a minute or so, and I don’t have that many of them. I don’t have one, but I could carry a torch if we don’t have magical light.”
He looks around the large chamber and wonders what it was used for originally. It somewhat reminds him of a slaughter house. I hope they just killed animals down here. He tries to put the ghost out of his mind...
He looks past the broken grate and down the stairs. ”I suppose we should see where those doors go to. I wonder how deep this place is?” he grips his quarterstaff and moves some debris out of the way with it. He looks at the group and hopes someone else goes first.
Brask pulls a torch from his pack, holding it out to Femi without a word as he continues to look around.
Kalem, having dark vision, looks around seeing into the crooks of darkness that the others might not be able to see.
He moves over to the grate, gives is a good shake to see if any of the hinges are rusted enough to just pull off.
As he pulls he calls out, "Anyone good with locks?"
Mykhail looks about with the others, the eerie notes echoing around them but still just out of focus. He hears the rattling of the great as Kalem yanks on it.
"Sure, I have a way with locks." He grinned holding up Iustitia.
"Everyone stand back."
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As Kalem moves toward a glint he sees from one of the dirty mattresses, Rexus rifles through his pockets muttering out loud.
"I have this key we can..." his voice is drowned out by the pistol shot. The lead ball hits the lock directly and rattles it against the bars of the grate, but the force of the shot breaks the rusted old lock easily and it clatters to the ground.
As the ringing of the gunshot abates, you hear something else, the patter of tiny feet as a number of small creatures poke their heads out from where they were hiding, eyes narrowed in suspicion.
Mykhail - 25
Elias - 19
Tiny Creatures - 15
Kalem - 14
Femi - 13
Brask - 6
Taken aback by their diminuative presence, Elias tries to make out what kind of creatures these are in the dim glow of the torch.
"Speak, what manner of creatures are you? We wish to find the previous tenants to this place."
Round 1, Initiative: TBA
Weapon Equipped = Pistol
Bullets (including Blackpowder doses) = 23/30
Conditions = None
Melee: Attack: BAB +1, Str +1 Damage: +0
Ranged: Attack: BAB +1, Dex +3 Damage: +0 point blank shot
Mykhail grins triumphantly when the lock clatters to the ground. He throws the grate open and before they could descend the sound of pitter patter could be heard and he turned to see the room filling with small creature.
"Of course there had to be more creatures."Mykhail said sourly as he loaded his pistol once again and took a shot at one of the creatures.
Round 1
HP: 9
AC: 18
Touch: 11
Flat Footed: 17
MaB: +2
F:+2
R:+1
W:+4
Weapon Equipped: Longsword
Condtions: None
Bit of Luck: 3/5 remaining
Channel Energy Remaining 3/6
Spells:
0th: Guidance, Light, Detect Magic
1st: None
Elias raises an eyebrow at his companion's immediate violence, but then shrugs. The creatures were obviously not from the Noble races. Their ill luck to be caught out so.
"Or we do that."
He shifts forward to engage one of the creatures, calling on his goddess to aid him in the battle.
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Mykhail fires another bullet, this one at one of the tiny creatures that has surfaced, but it just barely misses and embeds itself in the far wall. Elias prays to his goddess for a bit of luck.
For their part, each of the small creatures opens their mouths but not to answer Elias. Each one becomes, for a moment, a gushing fountain of vomit that flies across the room at a startling pace.
Kalem, Brask and Femi must each roll a DC 11 Fort save or be nauseated for rounds.
Round: 1, Initiative: 13
Weapon Equipped = Lit torch
Crossbow Bolts = 10/10
Conditions = None
Melee: Attack: BAB +0, Str +0 Damage: +0
Ranged: Attack: BAB +0, Dex +1 Damage: +0
toppling spell: 5 (Caster Level 1 +4 Int)
Arcane Reservoir (su): 2/4 (+1 DC or caster level as free action)
Spells (Caster Level 1, Concentration +5)
Special: (2/7) Force Missile*
Zero (14) (2/3) Dancing Lights
Zero (14): (4) Acid Splash, Daze, Detect Magic, Prestidigitation
First (15): (0/3) Feather Fall, Infernal Healing, Magic Missile (w/Topple Feat)*
* +1 Caster Level, +1 damage
Femi lights the torch with flint and steel. There’s gotta be a better way to do this. he thinks to himself. He holds the light up high as he walks.
When the creatures leap out, he’s caught by surprise, and tries his best to keep lunch down.
vs DC 11
”Bleargh!”
He stumbles back to the middle of the party, trying his best to keep the torch held high. It’s the least, and most, he can do.
hp 9/14 Fort +6, Ref +2 (+1 bonus vs. trample attacks), Will +3; +1 trait bonus vs. mind-affecting effects. Falchion +4(+7PA, +7R, +10PAR) (2d4+4/18-20)
Brask throws up his arms, using his shoulder and left upper arm to shield his face from the surprisingly far-reaching and accurate vomit.
"Bleah!"
He lurches forward, blowing air through his clenched teeth as he swings at the closest enemy with his Falchion.
Hp: 7/12
AC 16 (+2 armor, +3 Dex, +1 Natural Armor), touch 13, flat-footed 13
HP 12 (1d10, +2 Con)
Fort +5 (+2 base, +3 Con), Ref +5 (+2 base, +3 Dex), Will +0 (+0 base, +0 Wis)
Melee +1 Unarmed Strike(1d6+1/x2)
Base Atk +1; CMB +4; CMD 17
Feat
Combat Expertise
"What the-"
Kalem can almost get the words out before a spray a bile forces him to shut his mouth. He thinks he can almost taste the foulness.
But he shakes off the feeling and steels himself. He then turns his attention on their assailants. He lunges for brown and whips his fist forward with a surge of power.
But the damn things move so oddly that he can't seem to land an attack.
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Kalem crosses the room and strikes at red but the small creature dodges fists just as well as it doges bullets and his swing does not connect. Femi succumbs to feelings of nausea and moves out of the way. Brask scores a hit, and though he can feel his attack resisted somewhat, it is strong enough to kill the creature outright.
Mykhail - 25
Elias - 19
Tiny Creatures - 15
Kalem - 14
Femi - 13
Brask - 6