"I found hundreds of coins buried in your pen." Magda corrects the not making money "Check his desk" she also suggests before she nods and runs downstairs to get the other lady hanging out front. "HEY, we got him!" she waves and whispers LOUDLY while poking her head out the door (after unlocking if possible).
”I have no idea what you are talking about. The others? They left the abattoir? They’re supposed to be working on the new animals for tomorrow...” He shakes his head, ”I don’t think you’ll kill me - Kroft wouldn’t like that. I could be convinced to talk to them if you explained to me what the hells is going on. What unscrupulous job are you talking about!”
He says to Magda, ”why would there be that much money sitting under a trough in the animal pen? None of this makes sense! We don’t get paid for the meat we give out, and even if the boys had been taking coin for it, we haven’t given out enough meat to make that much.” He shakes his head.
He doesn’t appear to be hiding anything about this issue.
Magda gets back, hopefully with their other person.
"Yes I know he is telling the truth, why are you... oh I should tell them" the half orc whispers to herself then notices the others "He is telling the truth." she tells them without any sense of embarresment. "What about the finger I found in the grate?" she fiddles around in her pocket and produces the finger, putting it on the desk. "There is a ring that was on it, Vera has that." she then starts searching the room.
Kali lowers her bow when the man surrenders. She watches the group question him while she puts her unused arrow back in its quiver and moves to search the room with the Magda. When he protests innocence, I mean who wouldn't, she almost interjects but Magda says he's telling the truth.
She turns to face him and nods "Thank you for surrendering peacefully."
One of the first things found is the broken arrow of Kali's, which she hands back to the archer, after wiping the blood off on her own jacket. "tip is still good, can use it for your teeth if nothin else" she says with a toothy smile "Right in the arm, No bone, pow!" she gushes at the shot then adds "Oh he's bleeding, should we bandage that or heal him?"
Verik is startled when he sees the finger, ”Gods - a finger? What have they been doing!? Have we been feeding people... people!??” He looks like he is going to throw up. ”It wasn’t supposed to be this way!” he cries, obviously disgusted at what happened. He slumps against the ground, then shakes his head as if to clear it.
Miserably he adds, ”I will try to talk to them - but if they’re in it this far, I doubt they’ll listen to me. Maybe Karralo will.” He looks down, ashamed.
"Eating... PEOPLE!" Magda goes from confusion to shock "What the blazing hells is wrong with them!" she steps away from the finger that she had no trouble carrying around before that. She spent days starving on the street and never, not once, did she consider eating them around her "you said they were off to get more meat, but we paid them to go clean up bodies, people bodies, bad people but still... this is evil."
Looking to the steel walls, "We have to stop them, all of them, let none of them get away."
Marcus enters the room as Verik surrenders, handing his manacles to Krovax to bind the man.
Marcus sneers. Not only are these men nothing more than vile looters, their commander doesn't even know what's going on and has no control of them. Disgusting. "Careless, it must be willful ignorance to be blind to this level of depravity."
"We should secure the rest. Verik can call them in individually or in small groups."
Asoka eventually comes inside once Magda comes out to retrieve her. She grins as she sees the others have detained the man they were sent to secure alive. She catches the tail end of the conversation with about the others feeding citizens people and shivers slightly at the thought of it then notes to Verrick "What have you been doing that you are so unaware of what your men have been up to? Are you not the one in charge of this band?"
Not waiting for an answer she looks to the others "Obviously, he doesn't know what is going on in this place, but the others seem like they are up to no good, we should search the place in depth and see if we can't find any more evidence as to what has been going on here."
Looking to Magda and Vera she notes, "Why don't the three of us go check the place out." She turns to look at Krovax, Marcus and Kali as she continues "The rest of you maybe secure the prisoner and get setup to ambush the others when they return so that we have the advantage if it comes down to a fight?"
Marcus frowns, scratching his nose. "As long as we can divide them. If they catch wind of what's happening and all come at once it could be dangerous with only three of us." He looks at Verik. "Well, want to help us reign in your men that have gone off leash?" He asks.
To Asoka’s question, Verik doesn’t answer, looking ashamed.
Verik straightens up and responds to Marcus, ”yes, whatever I can do. I would even fight if given a weapon. I am sorry for what has happened. What would you like me to do?” He looks somewhat clearheaded, and you all realize that there is a subtle smell of alcohol in the room, masked somewhat by the fact that it seems relatively high quality. It appears that while Verik has not drunk recently, he may be a severe, if semi-functional alcoholic, given the number of wine bottles around the room. ”It may arouse their suspicion if they see me out of this room actually. Did you make a mess downstairs? If you clean up, you could ambush them when they go to sleep, knock them out next door. However, they are supposed to perform the night’s slaughter first. You can also catch them before that occurs. I do not know their exact schedules, though.”
When the man provides suggestions on the ambushes Asoka shrugs "Either of those options may work better than a straight out confrontation. I would suggest, once we decide on our approach for securing the other deserters, we post a watch for them to return. Then the rest of us search until we see them coming back, at that time we stop our searching and get into position for our ambush."
"Verik, you had your heart broken, right? Sorry--I know that means I'm prying, but that explains a lot about why you holed yourself up in your room with all that wine. What happened? And is that why you decided to leave your post?"
When Vera says this, his eyes go wide, ”how - I don’t... I don’t want to talk about it.” He looks to the side, embarrassed, his cheeks flushed.
Marcus shakes his head. "No, no fighting on your part. And we're not waiting that long. How many are there in total? You can call them in here one or two at a time, and we will capture them piecemeal."
He nods to Asoka. "Agreed. Krovax and I will stay here to guard him. Kaliyah, take watch to see when the rest of the men return. Everyone else can begin searching, but don't strip the place too much or it will arouse suspicion."
Krovax nods at Marcus’ plan. ”Sounds good. Everyone, move out and be quick and quiet and rally back here in ten.”
"Sorry, I was too forward. You don't have to tell me anything, but you'll probably get more lenient treatment if you can explain why you deserted."
Vera doesn't seem interested in leaving when given the offer to do so. Instead, she finds something to sit down on, clears some space on the desk, and takes out a harrow deck. "Would you like to have your fortune read, Mr. Verik? 10 minutes is long enough for a simple three-card fortune."
Check: Once per day, you can predict a creature’s fortune for the near future. You spend 10 minutes interpreting the divination means at your disposal. The GM then attempts a secret Sense Motive check with a DC modified by the subject’s Hit Dice (see the table below). The result of the check can give you basic insight into the subject’s nature, including its alignment, class, and levels or Hit Dice, and might reveal clues to the creature’s immediate future.
Determining the immediate future as an augury spell has a chance of successfully interpreting meaningful readings equal to 60% plus 5% for every point by which the check result exceeds the DC (to a maximum of 90%). With a single check, you determine all the information whose DC you meet.
For instance, if you had a result of 22 when telling the fortune of a creature with 2 HD, you would learn that creature’s alignment and class, but not its level, HD, or fortune.
Task DC
Determine alignment 15 + creature’s HD
Determine class 20 + creature’s HD
Determine level or HD 25 + creature’s HD
Determine fortune as augury spell 25 + creature’s HD
Try Again: Yes. You can attempt to read a particular creature’s fortune repeatedly, but only once per 24 hours.
Special: Specially crafted items purchased for the exclusive use of this skill grant a +2 circumstance bonus on Sense Motive checks to prognosticate.
Verik nods at Marcus, ”I can try, but as I said, they may get suspicious. I haven’t ever done that. There are four - Parnes, Karralo, Baldrago, and Malder.”
Verik looks at Vera askance, ”I am in your power - so I cannot object. But.. I cannot talk about it.” He straightens up a bit, ”In the end, I was the one who decided to leave.”
Marcus shrugs. "That's fine. Only four, we could take them in an open fight. We can call in two, then the other two." He works on disarming Verik, not worrying about taking his armor, but taking all his weapons.
When Vera mentions taking time to read the mans fortune Asoka notes "Maybe that would be something better to do later when we aren't in a time crunch? Let's search for clues in this place first maybe?"
Once they are set with Kali on look out duty and Marcus and Krovax ready with Verrik Asoka will go with Vera and Magda room to room to help them search for any more clues as to what exactly has been going on here under Verrik's lack of control.
”All four are decent fighters, you shouldn’t underestimate them. They can fight at range or in melee too, so keep that in mind, and they know how to fight together with tactics,” he adds. ”Do you mind if I sit down?” He gestures with his hand towards the chair he was sitting in.
Marcus nods to Verik, appreciating the advice on his men, doesn't care to elaborate or argue further. He was talking tactics with his team, he doesn't need to justify his plan. Marcus nods. They would be here a while, and not everybody has the same endurance for being uncomfortable as he does.
Kaliyah doesn't argue or discuss her assignment as it plays to her strengths and seems fitting, and she gets to do it alone which is a bonus. While the others keep talking, she heads out to find a place with a decent vantage point where she can keep watch.
The party spends the next few minutes cleaning up and searching.
The last unexplored room, what looks like a meat locker on the map, is just that. The air in this room is stale, stinking of day-old meat and blood. Straw litters the floor, scattered to catch the drips from the meat as it hangs. Meat hooks are affixed to the walls and ceiling on metal rods. To the north is a low blood-stained table and two barrels of salt, while double doors stand in the wall to the south. An iron bar extends through a narrow hole at the top of the doors; the bar runs along the ceiling for five feet before ending at a vertical pole running floor to ceiling.
The LobsterEels are pushed down into the grate, and the grate is closed. The group puts everything back as they found it, and Vera performs a prognostication on Verik.
At the end of the prognostication, Vera senses the cards are muddled, and she's unable to get a read on his future. Kaliyah keeps watch, and the others file into their hiding spots.
After another 30 minutes or so, Kaliyah spots the men pulling a cart with a blanket covering the contents towards the back door.
When Kali notes that the group of men are arriving back and dragging the cart with them she notes "Wait, we may need to change our plan. We didn't find any other direct evidence of what these men have been up to but if they are lugging the corpses back here it might be our opportunity to catch them in the act. Though there aren't really any great hiding places, except for maybe in the grate?" She shrugs and looks to the others for ideas. "Either way, we need to act quickly."
"We could hide up in the office and then come down once they start into it." Magda suggests. "It fits his plan..." pointing to marcus "...of calling one of them up here as well."
"I can hide out back, Kali stays at her lookout to delay any trying to run."
The four men pull the cart into the shed, and out of sight of Magda, though she can hear a discussion from her hiding spot in the debris.
The voices are slightly muffled, but she can still clearly hear the men discussing the haul. "Odd that lady didn't know how many corpses there were - just the dog, the crocodile, and the headless half-orc. You'd think someone in that business would count better, heh." A different voice adds, "right, we kin count and we're in that business too, we coulda done the job for less."
Another voice mutters, "quit messing around, get them inside and cleaned, we gotta see if any meat's still good. Lucky we got the animals today."
With a series of wet, heavy thumps, the corpses are pulled from the cart and brought into the abattoir. After a few minutes, there's silence from the shed.
Magda moves into the shed, through the door, closing it behind her.
The party hears the sounds of the guards moving into butchery area and slaughterhouse, and various noises, and thumps can be heard. Verik hears this too, and nods at the party. He looks a little nervous, but he seems to be trying to as nonchalant
"Karralo, Malder, could you come up please?" He shouts towards the stairs with the door open. He nods and steps back into his room, waiting for the others to come up the stairs.
A voice comes up from the stairs, "busy night boss, could I ask what you need?" Verik shrugs at the party and goes back to the door, shouting again, "just want to check on how the donations are going, and if our supplier has been delivering. I can check around if they're not." A few beats later, a voice says, "alright, we're coming up."
Footfalls sound on the stairs, and from Shi's hiding place under the desk, she's able to peek and see that three of the guards have come up, not two. "Boss, what happened when we were gone, some stuff was out of place downstairs. I though you were resting, and now you're asking for us" says the lead man, apparently, Malder. He peeks around the door and sees Verik standing on the other end of the room, opposite the door. However, all are still armed, with their bows drawn.
Krovax clenches his jaws behind his helm. They were being too cautious, they knew something was up...
Trying to cut off any chance of them fleeing, he moves out quickly while they were still unawares!
__________
Seeing Krovax charge out into the next room, Vera gives Marcus a shove. "Come on--go back him up, Marcus!"
Asoka climbs out from her hiding spot, getting her bow at the ready.
Magda moves quietly through the butcher room.
Marcus clenches his frown as they're spotted, but then suddenly he's shoved from behind before he can move. He catches himself right in front of the doorway, and seeing the soldier in front of him instinctively throws a shoulder into the man to try to send him sprawling over the table.
Kaliyah moves to the doorway and fires two arrows in rapid succession as she takes sight of the enemies. Unfortunately she doesn't take enough time to aim either shot and both do nothing more than fly past their target and embed into the wall behind them.
Magda heads towards the fight upstairs, but isn't as quiet as she normally is, and splashes through some of the gore on the floor as she is startled to see a man with a butcher's apron at the butcher's table.
The man is cleaning the headless body of giggles, and looking over it to see what is and isn't rotten. He seems to be making enough noise, humming to himself, that he doesn't notice Magda.
Marcus pushes into the heavyset man who's surprised to get shoved and trampled. He stumbles back, and is bruised badly in the process.
Kaliyah's single shot is decent but unable to penetrate the armor of the former guards.
Everyone else moves appropriately.
They ARE eating people! what is wrong with them.
Deciding maybe the city is telling her stealth is not the answer here since she is louder than a drunk sailor, she tries to use her magic instead.
The man straightens up and turns around. ”My friend, what are you doing, here?l” He looks confused, ”What was your name again? I am just butchering some meat here. The people won’t know the difference when it’s all packaged, and they’re in no position to complain.” He chuckles to himself. ”Want to help?” He smiles, happy to see Magda.
Malder and Baldrago’s eyes for wide, and Baldrago says”you people?! And Verik is here? What did you do to him! Verik, how could you betray us.” They look sullen, but move tactically to try to take down one foe.
The arrows all miss, and the former guard near Krovax seems to issue some type of challenge, and strikes out with his long sword. ”Fight me, you rogue!”
Karralo misses with his attack, but manages to grab Krovax and grapple him.
Verik says nothing, but looks ashamed.
Magda and her new friend hear the sound of fighting, and her friend says, ”please excuse me, I have to go see what’s happening to my other friends. I’ll be back soon, make yourself at home.” He moves towards the stairs, grabbing his bow on the way.
Vera moves along so she can get a view of what's happening in the next room. When she sees that someone is grabbing Krovax, Vera begins a chant, to give the man a vision of the creatures he has butchered coming back for revenge.
Asoka pulls out an arrow and takes aim with her bow firing at one of the men not in melee combat.
Magda grins as she makes a friend, even with what her friend is doing. Then he starts going upstairs anyway and she stumbles in what to do. "Hey! I... um... iffff there is fighting up there shouldn't you make sure there aren't any bad people down here? So they um can't trap you? I'd be in... danger too if you left?" she tries while thinking ugh
Marcus turns, planting his feet and immediately turning around to slam back into the man. This time he lowers his shoulder and hits the man so hard he lifts him clean off the ground, and with a roar he throws him into the man grappling Krovax!
Shi’s shot his the man in the northern part of the room, and the man grabbing Krovax seems shaken, but doesn’t let go of the warpriest.
Krovax attempts to wrangle himself free. ”Let go of me, you fool!”
Kali steps into the room and quickly fires two shots at the engaged enemy.
Karralo looks at Krovax after getting pummeled badly, and drops his sword, raising his hands in supplication. "It was all Parns' idea."
Baldrago, the bushy-eyebrowed guard, curses, "f&*$ you Karralo," and spits on the ground, fleeing down the stairs.
Parnes puts down his butcher's knife, and turns away from Magda "no, it's okay friend, I'll be right back." He smiles at her and starts to head towards the stairs, when Baldrago comes rushing into the room, shouting.
Baldrago says to Parnes, while looking at Magda, "Parnes, you fool, they're ambushing us. What are you doing down here, talking!?" He still has his bow out, and he looks furiously at Magda. Parnes simply replies, "oh, Baldrago, this is my friend, I've known her forever... but I can't remember her name at the moment." Parnes looks at Baldrago, "an ambush? upstairs?" He grabs his cleaver.
Baldrago adds, "Malder's down, and Korralo surrendered, we gotta split!" Parnes looks askance at Magda, "you should run with us too, I can protect you." He looks like he'll be fleeing soon, too.
Krovax shoves the man aside and says to the others "Cover him."
He then bolts down the stairs as fast as he can in his heavy armor. He comes up just behind this Baldrago fellow, and snarls "I don't think so. Surrender and beg for mercy, or suffer the consequences..."
Asoka keeps her bow trained on the man that Krovax released as she notes "A good idea to surrender, we aren't here to kill you all, but will do what we must. Don't cause any problems and this should be over soon."
Marcus runs downstairs after Krovax, ending up just behind him. He pauses for a moment and stares at the two remaining men, seeing if they heed Krovax's warning.
Vera follows along, catching up to Marcus and Krovax.
"Sorry friend, but you and your other friend here needs to stay." Magda whips her whip around the ankle of Baldrago and pulls hard.