Gerry keeps a close eye on the door expecting someone to at least get curious here.
|
When Dragas hears the sound of the door opening up along the catwalk, he whirls, grabbing a javelin, and hurls it at the man holding the wand. The throw is perfect, nearly dropping the man.
Viggo attempts to daze Yargin, but the man resists the arcane assault.
Through the door Gerry's guarding, the halfling hears a deep, rumbling growl followed by loud barking, like a dog reacts to a perceived threat to its master.
Korinne
Donkere
---
Giggles
---
Dragas
Kradel
Viggo
Sora
Gerry
---
Yargin Balko
"Hold child and cover your eyes and ears." Kradel moves out a bit into the room to get a better view of the new threat above. He summons a favor from Torag, shooting an acid dart at the man above.
Sora hikes her dress up, carefully making her way across the slippery floor while keeping it clean. "Don't worry, this will all be over soon," she leans over, reassuring one of the kids.
|
|
Kradel throws an acid dart at Yargin Balko, and the man collapses, his wand clattering on the catwalk.
Sora tiptoes through the fish guts, reeling the kids in for a comforting group hug.
Meanwhile, back upstairs in the upper workroom, Donkere continues to cover the team's rear, he and Gerry exchanging furtive glances, reassuring one another that the situation down below is well in hand.
The dog's bellicose barking behind the door in the front room is so loud, Donkere and Gerry can barely hear themselves think. And now that the adrenaline of combat fades, even the rest of the team down on the fishery floor can hear the animal through the walls.
|
Viggo has never seen himself as a tactician or soldier, but is bright enough to rapidly take in his surroundings and come up with a feasible plan of action.
A good plan now often yields better results than a perfect plan enacted later.
"We need to get up stairs as quickly as possible!
Pointing at Kradel and Korinne, Viggo barks out a couple impromptu orders, "You two get those kids out of here and to safety, the rest of us will head upstairs and get Lamm before he has a chance to escape!"
Seeing the man fall, Kradel quickly heads over to Sophie, giving her the biggest hug he can muster "We've saved you, but there are more to save still. Be brave, hide here and I'll be right back for you, promise."
He grabs Dragas by the shoulder and points up on the catwalk before heading up there himself, picking up the dropped wand and looking into the room the man came from.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
When he feels a hand on his shoulder, Dragas turns, eyes narrowed to slits toward whomever grabbed him. Seeing Kradel, the big man feels the tension that only comes from battle ease ever so briefly. As Viggo invokes Lamm's name, that tension wastes no time in returning.
Giving Kradel an understanding nod, Dragas stops long enough to retrieve his greatsword off the floor and then climbs the stairs behind him toward the sour looking man's body and the barking of the yet unseen canine. As the pair ascend the staircase, Dragas spares a glance back down toward the floor to make sure the children are safe and that Korinne and Sora are watching after them.
"Tread cautiously. It sounds like the dog eats strangers."
Gerry grimaces at the Shoanti's words. Probably considers me a snack! He raises his hand and mimes pulling open a door, motioning to Donkere and mimes pulling a trigger. Hope he gets the message... He thinks as he grips the door handle...
"Gross." Sora carefully makes her way back through the fish gut-covered floor. "Come on kids! Form a single line and start making your way upstairs. Don't ask, just do it. We're here to evict the big bad Lamm." She leads them back up the stairs and towards the exit, while Sora stops just short of Gerry and Donkere, her left eye already glowing red. "Ready when you are, boys."
|
|
Hearing the barking dog somewhere upstairs, Viggo moves closer to the smaller, rectangular vat, calling on the others to move the kids to safety.
Kradel urges Sophie and her fellow lambs to hide somewhere on the fishery floor, then the dwarf races up the stairs to the catwalk along the south wall, halting over Yargin Balko's body in front of the open door. Peering through the door, Kradel sees what looks like an office, a wooden desk sitting in one corner of the room, its side preventing the western door from opening all the way. The table is heaped with dozens of slate boards covered with chalk scrawls, while to the east a cabinet slouches against the wall.
Leaving Giggles where he fell and picking up his greatsword, Dragas follows Kradel, worried about the bellowing dog.
Sora urges the kids to flee, and they nod and comply, helping Sophie, who's too weakened to move without help.
Meanwhile upstairs in the upper workroom, Gerry decides it's time to deal with the barking dog. Motioning to Donkere to be ready, he opens the door.
|
|
In the upper workroom, Gerry opens the door to the front room and sees a small, barking dog with a rough coat and a hungry look in its dark brown eyes.
Donkere gives the dog a menacing glare, and the cur begins whimpering, shaking in fear.
Through the open door, Donkere, Gerry, and Sora see a single desk sitting in the middle of the front room room, with a moldy chair pushed up against it. A small pile of ratty furs and straw is heaped under the desk.
Donkere
Kradel
Viggo
Sora
Gerry
Dragas
---
Bloo
---
Korinne
Kradel bends down and picks up the dropped wand, then stands and lays a reassuring hand on Dragas's shoulder once more "Let Torag guide you. His aim does not falter."
|
|
At first Viggo is careful not to trip on the fish-guts but once he reaches the stairs moves as quickly as possible onto the catwalk.
Sword in hand Viggo let's Dragas know his intentions, "Let's keep going, the slower we go the more likely it is that Lamm will get away."
Taking a moment to toss Kradel and Dragas a quick smile, "Nice javelin toss... went through him like a hot knife through soft butter."
Gerry steps into position to engage the mutt with his blade, "I'll take care of this, make sure Lamm doesn't slip away!" He takes a cautious stance and stabs wildly into the side of the door jamb.
;
"Thanks," the barbarian replies to Viggo's comment. Not wanting Lamm to escape, Dragas moves past Kradel and into the room the sour-faced man came from.
Expecting a big room and also expecting it to be occupied by an ill-tempered mongrel, Dragas is surprised to find that the room is a small one and that there is no dog within its confines, but a look of confusion crosses his face to hear the dog suddenly start to whimper. He spies another door on the other side of the room and moves toward it, opening it when he reaches it.
|
|
After Donkere makes the dog cry, Gerry steps in front of the open door and tries to stab it with his rapier. It's not as easy as it looks, hitting a shaken dog.
Out on the catwalk, Kradel picks up the unconscious man's wand and gives Dragas some helpful guidance. The bold barbarian steps through the open door, moves through Yargin's empty office, and opens the door in the northwest corner of the room. Dragas gets there just in time to see Gerry miss the dog and bury his blade in the floorboards.
Downstairs on the fishery floor, Viggo minces his way across the fish-slurried planks and climbs halfway up the steps to the catwalk, then pauses to catch his breath.
Donkere
Kradel
Viggo
Sora
Gerry
Dragas
---
Bloo
---
Korinne
|
|
Donkere glimpses just enough of his target to fire a shot through the cover provided by Gerry's small body, and the marksman paints a bullseye on the small dog. *Boom!*
"Yelp!" Bloo collapses in a puddle of blood on the floor of the front room.
Then the gunslinger pours powder from his horn down the barrel of his musket and places a patched lead ball on the muzzle and shoves down the barrel until it rests on top of the powder charge. Then, he pours a finer grade of powder from a different horn into the pan of the musket, pulls the hammer back and closes the frizzen, ready to fire at another target. It takes the trained ifrit only about six seconds to do all that.
Peeking through the door, the kids cheer, "Yay!" Bloo, who for so long terrorized Lamm's Lambs, will bully them no more.
The old fishery falls quiet after the barking dog is put down. Only the low groans of Giggles and Yargin break the eery silence.
|
|
Viggo notices that another door on the catwalk hasn't been opened... and since he didn't go in the room with Dragas will take a second to inspect it, determine if is locked and try to see what is inside.
"I am going to check out this door. We don't want to leave any stones unturned."
Position updated.
Silently waving the gunslinger to follow him Gerry steps quietly into the front room and glides over to the door on the opposite side, ignoring the dying dog, and presses an ear against the jamb.
Kradel rocks a bit back to his senses as the gunshot and dog yelp rings out, he looks instinctively back towards where they left the children Scarred for life, let's hope someone can lead them back to a good life... Come on Torag, make it so!
He steps into the office and quickly gives it a look over as the others continue the search for Lamm.
|
|
Viggo checks the door at the northwest end of the catwalk above the fishery floor, and spotting nothing of concern, he opens it to reveal a short corridor.
In the front room, Gerry listens at the door in the southeast corner. Nothing. Zilch. Nada.
Inside Yargin's office, Kradel takes a quick look around, his thoughts distracted by concern for his niece Sophie and the other children.
At first - only cursory - glance, this room appears to be the fishery’s office. The slates on the table are covered with transaction records, addresses of customers, and other accounting notes.
Sensing their quarry is escaping from their grasp Gerry waves the others over to the area even as he opens the door ready to confront Lamm.
Kradel makes his way out into the front room, looking to the others "Find anything? Nothing in here... " He gives Gerry a look as he opens what seems to be the last door.
If he's not in there maybe the children know... this is our best chance to get him. Maybe out only one.
As Dragas opens the door, he sees Gerry attempting to strike the dog before a loud explosion makes him wince followed by a death-yip from the dog he sees fall to the floor bleeding out profusely from a hole in its side. He looks back up to see Donkere behind the halfling holding a strange looking metal stick with tendrils of smoke seeping from a hole in one end.
What kind of sorcery is this, this bangstick the man holds? I'll have to watch that one a bit closer, but he seems to want Lamm dead as much as I do.
As Viggo and Kradel check a pair of doors, Dragas moves back to where the sour-faced man dropped and retrieves his javelin where it impaled the man's body, He moves back as Gerry is opening the last door that has not been checked.
If Lamm is in there, he's mine to kill. Everyone here has antipathy toward this man, but he killed my beloved, took what she had and left her in the street like a plucked chicken.
Sora walks into the room late, and notices the dead animal. "I really wish we didn't have to kill the dog, even if it was trained as something of a bully. Animals don't always know better."
Sidestepping the corpse, she joins Gerry and taps the door. "Hear anything? No? Guess we might as well just check it out. Lamm's gotta be in here somewhere, and I'm sure these kids are itching for a proper meal, huh?"
|
|
Gerry opens the door, revealing an empty room. A pair of bunk beds sits against the far wall of the room on either side of a boarded-over window. It looks like Gaedren Lamm’s thugs—Yargin, Hookshanks, and Giggles— shared this room. The fourth bunk appears unused.
The team cleared the old fishery's upper section with alacrity, but there's no trace of him here. During the rapid movement, the team hasn't spotted any way to access the lower section of the old fishery...
Gerry doesn't bother wasting time searching the room here. "Empty." He tersely reports to the others, closing the door behind him. "He must be hiding below us!."
"Ask the kids. If there's a way to get under the building, one of them might know," Dragas says, whirling on his heels to find one of the urchins.
'The longer we take, the more time Lamm has to escape us if he hasn't already.
|
|
Viggo will take a moment to collect his thoughts.
"There must be a way into the lower area. Do we need to check the docks? We only checked the north and west side of the building. Why aren't we searching that room? We found a key earlier." Viggo goes into the room and conducts a quick search (more of a toss) of the room and its contents including bunks and any footlockers, etc.
"Or perhaps a secret latch leading below?" Sora wonders aloud. She then begins to wander the area, searching for hidden exits.
Seeing no more immediate threats, and a lack of a way downstairs to find Lamm, Kradel hikes up his robes and hustles outside to find Sophie. "Sweetie are you ok? Uncle Kradel is here. Hold still, all of you. Let Torag fix you up a bit ok?"
Kradel draws out and presents the group with his small iron warhammer holy symbol. A bolstering wash of energy rolls over the children, healing wounds, and hopefully setting their minds at ease.
"Do you guys know how to get downstairs to Lamm's Playground? And who's Gobblegut? We've got no time to lose."
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Sora and Korinne regret the passing of the vicious cur, agreeing to burn or bury it, if and when the opportunity presents itself.
Gerry expresses the group's consensus that Lamm must be on the lower level of the old fishery, closer to the water.
Dragas and Kradel head outside to where the kids are mulling about, waiting to learn their fate. Kradel tries to mollify the survivors, and his healing of their cuts and bruises helps more than his sour attempt at honeyed words.
"None of us has ever been to the Playground, Uncle Kradel." Sophie sniffs. "We're the lucky ones."
"Seen a tiny door down there, facin' the boat," one of Lamm's Lambs says, stifling a sob and pointing down toward the southeast corner of the fishery. "Before, when Yargin put me on beggar detail in town."
"Gobblegut's Lamm's pet monster," Kester answers the dwarf's question. "Giggles called it an Alley-Somethin'-Ate-Her."
Meanwhile back inside the old fishery, Viggo and Sora take a look around, the former hasty and the latter more deliberate. The bard's inquisitive eye realizes there's much to learn here - when the team has the luxury of time to investigate. Even taking her time, Sora nearly misses it, but she manages to spot something interesting.
One of the floorboards behind the chair in the northeast corner of Yargin's office is in fact a cunningly hidden trap door. It doesn't appear to be trapped, but the door is wedged shut and barred from below. It would have to be smashed open from above.
|
|
Viggo goes to where Sora discovered the trap door and quickly realizes that only brute force can overcome it.
"I know a few things about locks and traps and this type of trapdoor isn't going to be defeated by anything except a strong arm."
Taking a position over the trapdoor Viggo attempts to force it open.
Realizing it will take more strength than he can muster he call for Dragas to make an attempt.
"Dragas, can you try!?!"
Gerry takes one look at the sturdy trap door and quickly shakes his head, "I'll keep watch with Korinne, that bastard won't get away from us!" He responds as he moves over to the south door cracking it and staring along the dockways.
"Gotcha!" Sora claps her hands once as she spots the trapdoor, and stands back to let the others put in the elbow grease. "Might want to work on those forearms a little more," she snickers as Viggo fails to break through the door. "But anyway, smash it long enough and it has to give, right? How about we all smash it together?" She raises her right leg and stomps her foot down.
|
|
Korinne assumes the firefights have already alerted anyone who might still be in the lower level of the old fishery.
Gerry, Korinne, Sora, and Viggo take a look at the barred trapdoor and realize it would have to be forced open. They give it a try, but the trapdoor won't budge.
Gerry and Korinne keep watch at the window, the panes of glass so dingy, they can't even see their reflection. Viggo suggests the burly Dragas lend a hand at the barred trapdoor.
Kradel comes in and waves the others away from whatever boot stomping dance they're doing "The children saw a small door down by the boats. Maybe that's another way in." He looks at the trapdoor and frowns "Maybe drag something heavy on top of that if they try to escape, then lets get down to the water!"
And with that Kradel heads down to the water's edge to find that door.
Dragas moves over to where the secret trap door is in the floorboards. Muscles straining and veins popping out on his arms, the Shoanti pushes and pulls against the wooden portal with all of his strength.
While his face turns different shades of purple and red, Dragas's effort to break through the door prove ineffective. He finally admits failure with a deep breath. "It's elm wood. Hard enough to cut through with an axe, let alone snap with my bare hands."
"One of the kids said there was a door facing the boat in the back. That could also be a way in," he says as he draws his greatsword, ready for action,
|
|
Viggo looks at Dragas, "Yeah, we aren't getting through that trapdoor... at least not for several minutes. I say we try the way the kid said."
Viggo takes a deep breath, "But this door is barred from the other side. If Lamm tries to escape... this might be the route he would use. Should we leave one or two people here to make sure?"