After their unpleasant initial welcome, the grimples suddenly burst out into activity.
One of them vanishes into the small tunnels and disappears out of sight. Another also goes through the tunnels but remains near the holes and visible. Two other grimples, however, dash towards Joachim and Zacarias! Joachim, however, was standing ready for such an occurrence, and takes a swing!
Damage = 1 nonlethal.
The grimple, however, misses completely!
From the sacks below, the grimple jumps up and clings onto Zacarias' chest, and also attempts a bite!
Damage = 1 nonlethal.
However, the only thing he bites into is leather.
Joachim stands ready to attack the grimple and wacks at it.
Upon having obliterated the first grimple, Joachim moves to the grimple nearest to zacaria, lunging at it.
With zero hesitation, Joachim successfully strikes down two of the grimples in the blink of an eye!
The grimple hidden away in the tunnels pops his head out again, and the other jumps out of the tunnel to approach the heroes from the ground.
Then, out of nowhere, they start throwing rocks!
However, both throws fail completely. Rexus dashes up and attempts another casting of Acid Splash.
For a short second, the grimple is covered in a quickly dissolving acid that burns at its flesh. Once the acid is gone, the grimple, and its companion, clearly cower in fear.
Kal takes aim and fires an arrow at one of the remaining grimples.
The arrow strikes true and the grimple dies immediately, its tiny body skewered through the arrow.
"Should've surrendered before they puked all over us."
The last remaining grimple runs back into the tunnels. You all stand ready for a while, but it does not return.
COMBAT OVER!
"Oh my goodness..." Rexus exclaims, "I never expected a small abandoned livery like this to hide so much trouble. Anyhow, I've opened the door, shall we proceed?"
The five of you open the grating, and head through. You go down a short but wide flight of stairs, and finally go through another door.
A fifty-foot-diameter pool of rancid, brown slurry fills most of this circular chamber. Chunks of plaster have fallen away, leaving ragged patches behind in the walls and ceiling and mounds of rubble on the floor. What wall space remains is decorated in crude drawings and symbols of sinister form.
Greasy-looking chains run between four stout pillars rising from the muck and anchor to various points on the wall.
"Eugh!" Rexus remarks. "I feel I owe you all an apology for submitting you to this disgusting ordeal. Once I've settled a source of income, the first round of drinks are on me."
There's something moving in the water. Two somethings.
As if catching on to the fact that they've been spotted, from the middle of the pool of filth, two shapes rise up. The disgusting reddish brown liquid drips off their bodies, but at first glance, it appears as though a significant amount of thick, fleshy looking gunk refuses to drip off these shapes. Then you realize that it's their skin.
They are like roiling waves of flesh. Amid the fatty surge wriggle half-formed limbs and a dripping tumorous face. And slowly, ever slowly, they're gushing towards you.
Initiative
Zacarias
Joachim
???
Shiba
Rexus
Kal
Currently active (de)buffs
Flagbearer
Joachim moves to stand between his teammate and the creature, readying an attack and eyeing them suspiciously.
Zacarias takes up a position to the left of Joachim. The two of them cover a large area from which to assault these nasty creatures, and hopefully take them down before they get too close.
The masses of flesh slowly lumber forward, moving as though they have to drag most of their own body along as dead weight, the filthy and rank water splashing and making waves around them. For what seems like a painful eternity, the creatures close in on the two fighters... who immediately take their chance to deal some damage.
Joachim, for all his preparation, fails to find a proper place to hit with his mace, and when he tries to attack, the mace almost gets swallowed by the thick flesh.
Zacarias, on the other hand, gets lucky. He makes a fierce sideways swipe across the part of the beast that closest resembles a face, and upon contact, the beast falls apart in chunks that drown back into the nauseating pool.
Meanwhile, the other beast moves to attack Joachim, and lashes out with what looks like a limb with claws haphazardly jutting out!
Where Shiba's arrow failed, Kal's arrow proudly strikes true! The arrow pierces the beast's flesh and it clearly recoils... but the entire arrow gets swallowed up in the mass of goop.
"It seems to have some resistances in place against physical attacks! Allow me, my acid should be handy against this!" Rexus shouts, a glint of confidence you've not seen in him earlier, and another bolt of acid flies from his hands!
The acid hits the body of the creature, but simply drips off into the pool, not affecting it at all.
"F#@!", shouts the exasperated ex-noble.
Initiative
Zacarias
Joachim
???
Shiba
Rexus
Kal
Currently active (de)buffs
Flagbearer
Frustrated, Joachim swings again at the blobby monster in front of him. He's clearly getting winded from the assorted damage he's taken.
Not gaining much more purchase than before, he lets out a digusted noise.
Like before, the beast, that Zacarias recognizes as a Lemure Devil, absorbs most of the blow, but is not left unscathed.
The beast turns to Zacarias, the last person to have harmed him, and starts mauling with both its, well, claws, for lack of better term.
The gross blob hacks into the half-orc, aggressively! Zacarias is nearly overwhelmed by the lethal combo of its attacks, its strange, guttural groan, and its foul stench...
The blast of Kal's magic missile burns through the lemure's flesh with ease, leaving a large gaping hole. Instinctively, Joachim and Zacarias swipe with their weapons, each tearing a rift on a different side of the fleshy mass, meeting at the middle and cleaving the blob in twain. It drips down into the filthy water, motionlessly.
COMBAT END!
A tense pause follows, but peace returns. "Gods," Rexus sighs. "I pray that this is the last beast we have to deal with in this damned place."
He heads off deeper into the basement, and his frustration is overridden with a shout of delight. "Everyone! I've found it!" You all follow him into the room and it seems as though you have found the hideout of the Silver Ravens...
These rooms have fallen mostly into disrepair. Chunks of plaster hang from the walls, exposing rough stonework beyond. Scattered furnishings that once outfitted bunkrooms, a kitchen, and even an armory lie scattered about in states of complete disrepair, and doors hang from hinges in the crumbling archways that lie between the chambers.
Rexus is huddled over something in the northwest corner. When you approach him, you see he found three small, sturdy crates. On each crate, a tiny symbol of a stylized raven is adorning one of the corners.
"Lady, gentlemen, I believe we have found the Silver Raven cache." With a grin as though the events of only a minute earlier had never happened, he opens up the first crate for you all to see. Inside, you find:
A suit of +1 leather armor.
A composite shortbow of +1 strength.
A masterwork hand crossbow.
A masterwork silver morningstar.
A gray cloak.
A pouch of a dozen pearls.
Rexus' smile disappears from his face and he starts to look more contemplative. "The two of you pose fair points."
"Kintargo as a whole is kind of... elevated, on top of older buildings. Many years ago, Kintargo underwent a massive renovation to raise the city's altitude so they could better deal with floods from the Yaruga River and similar issues. As a result, many of the sewers and basements underneath Kintargo today are actually old streets and houses or stores. My guess is that the pool used to be an old cistern."
He then turns to Zac. "However, that does little to explain the presence of denizens of Hell. They must have been brought here, somehow, by someone. Could be Thrune, could be one of the infernally inclined noble families, could be the Church of Asmodeus... But then why would they leave this hideout and cache intact? Questions, questions. If you want to leave, I suggest we find a cart and carry the crates to my associate, miss Longroad. We can meet her, inspect the contents of the crates, and discuss our next move there with her. How does that sound?"
Rexus starts picking up the crate carrying the gear you just saw, and with some effort manages to bring it up. "I will admit I kinda dread the ladder back to the surface..."
Given some time and effort, the five of you manage to hoist the crates up the ladder.
Shiba spots what he's looking for in the back of the livery, clearly worn but should just be able to make the trip.
"...Yes, miss Longroad, as I said. She's a bit of a ways away, but she's the last person I believe I can trust in this city. ... Aside from the four of you that is."
He loads the crates onto the cart and covers it with some leather sheets. "Alright, are we ready to head out, then?"
Joachim has little eye for the loot as he is still trying to wipe bits of slime monster from his outfit. He's muttering furiously as he's wiping at the thick fluit with a spare cloth.
"...Barzillai's shiny t*ts....foul creatures......always happens to me....ughh gods....it's just like that time with Rakul's cat...for gods sake"
Upon hearing Kal's suggestion to vacate the premises he starts moving to the door.
"Way ahead of ya, let's move out and get us all cleaned up"
Time passes. The five of you walk for quite a while, all the way to the north wall of the city. You pass through the now-abandoned Aria Park, continuing northward until you hit the riverside. From there you head east, all the way to the Bleakbridge, where the many markets are slowly getting ready to pack up shop and leave for the day. At that point you realize that it's already getting close to 5 PM. The sun hasn't shown itself all day due to the overcast weather, but still you manage to appreciate a weakly visible sunset in the distance as you cross the Bleakbridge over the Yolubilis River, exiting the Argo Isle where the majority of Kintargo's buildings lie.
You enter the northern half of the city, and pass through the Yolubilis Harbor, where the salty sea air seems to hang just a little stronger compared to the rest of coastal Kintargo. Here, closing time usually never appeared to exist, but you can clearly tell that it's less busy than usual: most likely a result of Barzillai's newest Proclamation: with foreign captains unable to leave their ships to instruct the crew, many sailors are likely cooped up inside their boats, trying to figure out what to do.
You head to the northwest, along the walls separating the noble estates in the Greens from the common folk, until finally, after a long, long trip, you arrive at Villegre, the northwest corner of the city, the center of education and a bustling student center... Or at least, it was. Most buildings nowadays stand eerily empty as the Alabaster Academy has... seen better days.
Rexus leads you to a small warm-looking tavern called Long Roads Coffeehouse. As soon as you walk in, some people grumble a quick acknowledgment to all of you, and a young, blonde halfling lady shouts an enthused greeting your way.
"Rexus! And all of you! Let me serve the last guests up and then come on over to the back room, it's been ages since I last saw you all, let's catch up! Drinks are on me!"
She's all smiles as she serves up her last drinks.
None of you have ever seen this lady before.
Once she finishes up, she beckons you into a back room. You move the crates in in there and are greeted with some comfortable housing and several bunk beds, more than you'd expect from what appears to be a coffee house run by seemingly this one halfling. She locks the door behind you and turns towards you, a more serious expression but still with a hospitable tone.
"You've brought some friends, Rexus! Are all these people..?"
"Yes, Miss Longroad. All of them are interested in overthrowing Thrune."
"Excellent!" She exclaims. "My name is Laria Longroad, I'm an old friend of the Victocoras. I've made some arrangements with Rexus here, and you are free to use these back rooms as a resting place. You look... weary. And smell disgusting, I might add, what in the Nine Hells have you been up to..? Anyway, feel free to take it easy for a bit, we can talk later. My house is your house. Once you're ready, let me know, because I think we'll benefit from a good long talk about our next options, and I might actually use some capable types for a personal favor... Though I promise, it will very much be in your interests as well."
In response to Shiba's invitation, Laria smiles. "No-one in need of healing as far as I know, aside from the five of you, arguably. At the very least a cure for that horrid stench." She laughs out loud and slaps Shiba on the back, then immediately furrows her brow. [b]"These are dark times for Kintargo. We need to help each other in any way we can. Your abilities will help many soon enough, I suspect. As for my hospitality? That's just me doing my part."
Some time passes. Zacarias has left, Shiba is finishing up Joachim's treatment, and Kal is brooding in a corner for a bit. Rexus calls everyone present together to show what he found in the other crates.
"You already know the contents of the first crate, of course," he starts, barely able to hide his excitement, "but look at this."
On the table are four scrolls. Magic ones, by the looks of them.
"I studied them for a bit, and this is quite a catch. A scroll of Misdirection. A scroll of Pass Without Trace... Undetectable Alignment, Whispering Wind. Four magic scrolls, all convenient for keeping a low profile. We should make good use of those. More important, however... is this."
Apparently hiding them under the table all this time, Rexus slams down a huge number of loose sheets of paper, probably hundreds of them. A peek at them shows that they're unreadable: several different scripts like Elven and Celestial are interwoven together, creating a complete gibberish. "As you can see, these documents are clearly encrypted. I think I can work it out, but this will take me weeks, maybe months. However, I suspect it might be worth it. Now, finally..." He pulls out one last thing: a gorgeous silver figurine of a raven. "Now these things, I've read about these. Take a look at this. Awaken." This last word, aimed at the figurine, causes it to suddenly move as though it was a regular, albeit rather calm, raven. Kal's familiar flies over to it and looks it over curiously, although the silver raven seems to not acknowledge the bird at all. "Oi, bastard!" The black raven shouts. No response.
Rexus, amused, starts explaining. "This, and five others I found in the same crate, are Silver Raven Figurines of Wondrous Power. We can use it to relay messages subtly. Once we have allies in further away places, we could share our figurines with them for easy communication. Very interesting."
The rest of the night, Kal spends mingling. The clientele is mostly halflings, a few humans, and rumor has it that sometimes an elf stops by, but no elves tonight. later in the evening, the party minus Zac, who still hasn't returned, as well as Rexus and Laria, enjoy some time to get to know each other. Rexus turns to Joachim. "I have to admit, I'm a bit scared to ask, and please don't take this the wrong way, but your arm prosthetic is absolutely beautiful! Where did you find someone that makes these?" Meanwhile, Laria has taken an interest to Kal. "You're pretty good company, you know that? I can't quite put my finger on it, but if I first met you while blindfolded, judging from our conversations I would've bet money on you being a halfling! You keep the company of our folk often?"
A couple minutes later, Zacarias walks in, along with him two sheets of paper he picked up on the way back. The papers announce the introduction of two new proclamations of Barzillai. With a grim expression, Rexus reads them.
"Proclamation the Eigth: All nonnative ship's captains must remain on board their ships and are barred from setting foot on land within Kintargo’s city limits—their crew and agents are free to come and go, but their actions are directly the responsibility of their captains, and any crew caught breaking Kintargan law shall have its punishment visited upon the crew members as well as their captain. Any captain caught setting foot in Kintargo is to be punished by squassation.
... This one we knew about, it's the same one he promised us this morning. Now, the next one..." His face pales. "What in the nine hells, Barzillai...? Temporary Proclamation The First: Until the miscreant who thought to assault the Lord-Mayor has been apprehended, the use of the spell Magic Missile is now outlawed for practitioners of magic, with the exception of those who have been granted permission by the Dottari. All arcane spellcasters are requested to visit the Dottari at the earliest notice to prevent unfortunate misunderstandings.
Unfortunate misunderstandings, my foot. I don't know who cast the spell, but it's clear this law is meant to flush him out. These ridiculous rules make me sick to my stomach."
Laria stands up and addresses the four of you. "Clearly, we need to move out. I suggest we get a good rest, and tomorrow realy morning we'll discuss our next move."
Rova 11, 4715 AD.
Years from now, historians will speak of this day as the true beginning of Kintargo's pushback, where the Aria Park protest was the catalyst that made it happen.
The four of you gather in Laria's back office, as promised, to discuss matters. Though you've had free reign over the coffee house, you haven't really taken a close look at the office: it houses the way to the second floor by way of a trap door, but you never really lingered here.
All the more surprising is it then when Laria beckons you to her large, bulky office table, pushes a small button hidden underneath the wood, and the tabletop slides open to reveal an intricate model of Kintargo underneath.
Laria takes a deep breath. "So, I should let you in on some things. I'm part of the Bellflower Network. We're a secret group dedicated mostly to helping slaves escape the country. As such, I've had to keep my eye on the city and how it develops for quite a while now. Though Cheliax might not abhor the practice of slavery, it's deeply frowned upon over here, as I'm sure you know, which means this place is important for the Network... But I digress. What I want to say is, I know some people, I know some places, and I know some strategies. I've got some ideas on how to get our rebellion going, and I'd like to share those with you, but before we can do anything, we need a hideout. This back office won't do, especially once we need to start storing arms and such."
She starts moving away from the table, staring at, no, beyond the east wall, behind which the pantry would be. "The Bellflower Network has essentially gone dark under martial law. The risks are just too great, and many of my contacts have either fled or... I fear, met their fate. We have a bit of a hideout right under this very floor! We call it the Wasp's Nest, and I think it would suit our purposes excellently, at least while we're starting out."
She pauses. Rexus takes a guess at what her next sentence will start with: "But..."
"But here's the thing. I've been lending out the Wasp Nest and it's connection to the sewers to a friend of mine, Nan Comerivos. He wanted to use it to smuggles some textiles, and hey, I got some money out of it. He was storing the textiles here while he looked for a buyer, but... Last I saw him, he went down into the Nest, a few days ago, and he hasn't come back up. I've been leaving some food down there and it seems to get eaten, but there's something... wrong. I was wondering if you lot could make sure everything's in order down there. If it is, we can settle in down there and really begin our work."
Joachim rubs his arm a bit awkwardly at Rexus' question. "To be fair, I would not know who made this. I barely even remember it being attached to me. Even now I sometimes forget it's there until I try to grab onto something and I hear the clang it makes."
After the statement he takes a deep breath and claps his one good hand against the metallic one. "Anyway..."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Later, Joachim considers the task before them. "If you don't mind me asking, Laria, what will happen in the case things are not in order? Are we free to use the force necessary?"
Joachim puts his good hand on Zacarias' shoulder. "I require some time to get ready."
He moves to the side of the room and sits down on the floor there, folding his legs. Brieflym, he glances at the others and puts a finger to his lip in a "shh" motion. He then closes his eyes and holds his prostethic arm out in front of him, palm facing up.
At first, not much happens, there is just the noise of Joachim's breathing steadily getting slower and deeper. However, after a couple of minutes a soft ringing noise begins to rise up from the metal of his arm. Though his arm is perfectly still the noise almost sounds like it's moving gently over the metal.
Before Joachim starts his seance, Laria answers everyone's questions. "Markings, you say? I haven't heard about anything of the sort, and they sure don't look familiar to me." She then turns to the tiefling to answer his question. "I'll leave it to your discretion. What's important is that the Wasp's Nest is safe. Thank you for your help."
---
Joachim's remains in focused trance for an hour. As the hour progresses, faint, transparent apparitions start to hover around Joachim and his arm, as though circling it. One? Two? When counted, it seems like there might be six. Rexus looks in silent awe at the whole process.
In the end, all but one of the spirits return into the arm, and the one remaining appears to dive into Joachim's body. For a brief moment, it appears as though a sturdy shield was attached to his prosthetic arm.
Rexus especially seems even more interested in Joachim's arm than he was already, but he doesn't seem in a hurry to ask about it.
---
After all preparations are done, the four of you descend down into the Long Roads basement. At a glance, it doesn't seem like anything is out of the ordinary: The basement contains numerous crates of cooking ingredients, sacks of coffee beans, and other supplies needed to maintain a thriving business. The place is lit somewhat dimly, but you can look around with no issue. Laria has explained to you where the hidden door is, and you can continue into the Wasp's Nest at any time.