The Shards of Oberon

Game Master FangDragon

Zendara nods and keeps playing interference just in case Yukarii dies of boredom.

Yukarii listened intently to Rawlins as he described how his filing system worked and realized she didn't understand much of what he said. Yukarii was by no means dumb, but her common was not that great with a lot of holes when it came to more advanced technical terms, so when the man started talking about products, in a way that clearly didn't mean things for sale and then calculating moduluses and started pulling numbers from somewhere she couldn't identify. Yukarii's fac ebecame puzzled. Still he seemed to know what he was talking about even if she didn't.

Yuukarii considered if it was a wonderful system or not, once again with one arm below her bosom and her opposite elbow in the palm of said hand, she tapped her lips with one finger as she tried to work it through. After a moment she looked to Rawlins and said, "I am afraid that my common is not so good, can you maybe...simplify it some? For instant I know that you do not mean 'product' like something you buy at store, and what is a modulus and how you get those numbers?"

Rawlins flashes surprise and disappointment when Yukarii admits to not knowing what a product or a modulus is. He was about to make a sarcastic response when Yukarii adjusted her posture in a way which emphasized her ample bosom, he blinked several times as if in disbelief before replying, "Uh no not something you can buy in a store, a product in this instance means to multiply. And uh a modulus, it's er well never mind. Suffice it to say it's clever and simple and hard to explain all at the same time!" Really he'd been worried that Yukarii would spot the flaw in his system which was sometimes two or more items ended up with the same decimal. He did have a plan for that, but he wasn't proud of it, he just put it in the next available slot.

Blinking one more he peered at Yukarii's chest as he asked, "So uh anyway, was there something I could help you with?"

At that very same moment, Eliza retrieved the last ledger she needed and put it carefully in her bag before moving quietly towards the door.

Zendara keeps running interference until Eliza makes it through the door. Then she walks over to Yukarii and Rawlins. Speaking to Yukarii, she tries to help extract her from the situation.

Sorry to interrupt, but we're going to be late if we don't get going. Mr. Jennings won't be happy. Some legal thing with Star Costa. You ready?

Edwin surreptitiously listened to Yukarii's conversation with Rawlins, ready to intervene if the man tired of her distractions. In the end it wasn't necessary; he caught sight of Zendara coming over, and quickly understood that Eliza had found what she was looking for. He headed towards the agreed meetup point.

Yukarii was almost surprised her simple adjustment to posture headed off Rawlin's sarcasm as that might have led to something unpleasant, and she listened with a smile as he began to explain things. When he told her what he meant by product her eyes lit up in understanding as she said, "Ah, kakeru, which means other term keisū," she giggled, causing her bosom to bounce a little as she said, "I am not so good in math, but wonder, can you get sa..." As she was about to ask the dreaded question of same number for different files Zendara found her.

Yukarii assumed this meant Eliza was done and she showed a look of worry at the words her companion said. Turning her gaze back to Rawlins Yukarii said in a fluster, "Oh, I must go Rawlins-san, must go work," she quickly turned and began to head towards Zendara quickly as she waved of her shoulders, "Mata ne!!" She reached Zendara and quickly passed her heading towards the exit.

Zendara follows Yukarii out and meets up with everyone again.

Rawlins gives Yukarii a confused look, he was talking to a girl, a very nice girl and it seemed to he going well, until it wasn't. Looking baffled he watched Yukarii depart.

Outside the room Eliza pinched the bridge of her nose as he did her best not to laugh and she softly relocked the door and lead you back through the mothballed offices and to the stairwell. Once you where back on the roof she grinned at Yukarii, "Goodness Rawlins is a hopeless case isn't he. I'd feel bad for him if he wasn't such a vile lackey. Anyway we best get out of here, I give it half an hour but Rawlins will figure out what happed and run to his master and then there'll be violence."

Clutching her bag containing the ledgers, Eliza leads you directly down the other side of the building and through another confusing series of corridors which leads you to a locked side door. She fumbles for some keys and unlocks the door before telling you in a hush, "I don't use this very often but Fred often does to escape Korrin when he gets into one of his rages .It leads onto a quiet cul-de-sac which leads through a residential area back to the plaza."

The door squeaks open to reveal an empty street and you follow her through past several blocks of houses before entering a small square. Still clutching her bad Eliza stops looking pale and turns to you, "Oooh have you ever had the feeling somebody just walked over your grave? This is going to sound silly, we got out and nothing bad happened but now all of a sudden I feel very nervous."

The street itself is clean and the houses well kept but otherwise unremarkable, you've seen a few people coming and going but it's quiet at this time of day.

Edwin nodded at Eliza's description. He hadn't overheard the entire conversation, but he had an idea of what had happened.

Perception (DC 25): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (7) + 10 = 17

He followed her to the side door and out onto the square.

Perception (DC 20): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (17) + 10 = 27

He got a funny feeling they were being followed. He whispered to the others, "Someone was waiting for us in one of the houses near the side entrance. There's at least two people following us!" He looked for an opportunity to cast a spell where the pursuers wouldn't see him.

Edwin is looking for a concealed spot where he can cast Mage Armor.

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23 (fail)

Can we assist each other on this?

Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23

Zendara also notices that they are being followed.

We're all together again, right?

Continuing to walk, and acting like they are having a normal conversation, Zendara thinks through the situation out loud.

What's the fastest way to the courthouse? We might want to run. If that isn't realistic, then perhaps a really busy place will discourage them from attacking us?

That of course depends on whether they have people waiting ahead. What do you guys think? Run, or defend ourselves? I'm in favor of running if possible, because I don't want to make our court case more complicated by someone ambushing us and then claiming we started it or something.

Just in case though, She starts singing softly as they walk, inspiring the courage of those around her.

Inspire Courage: +1 morale bonus on saving throws against charm and fear effects and a +1 competence bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls.

Inspired perception DC 25: 1d20 + 9 + 1d6 ⇒ (18) + 9 + (4) = 31
Inspired perception DC 20: 1d20 + 9 + 1d6 ⇒ (4) + 9 + (2) = 15

As the wind briefly picked up, the sailors busybodies' activities caught Xindyra's attention once more.

Hmm? Oh my, that's not very good.

"Say, remember those sailors busy with covering cargo?
I saw them covering up a big ballista just now. Right up there.", she points.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (13) + 8 = 21
Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27

Ferian accompanies the others out and raises an eyebrow as Xindyra mentions a ballista. "Perhaps the magistrate should be informed of that as well."

Noticing the men following them, Ferian says, "I agree with Zendara. We should flee if possible. I think we could probably deal with them if necessary, but let's try to make sure it isn't necessary."

Once they were away from the archives Yukarii began to feel bad for what she had done to poor Rawlins. This was probably the first time she flirted without any interest in the end result, pleasure, and it felt bad having led the poor man on. It had to be done of course but she still felt like she had dishonored herself with her actions. She decided that she would keep her eyes open, one day she might run across the perfect woman for Rawlins and when she did she was going to make sure to point her towards him but for now she would have to live with the guilt.

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23
Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (9) + 5 = 14

Yukarii had no idea what it was her companions were seeing but she decided to trust them. "I agree, either run or deceive would be best. If we can break line of sight," all her words were spoken softly so that hopefully only her companions would hear, "I might be able to hide us all beneath and illusion."

I think a map might be helpful, and I've also made and avatar for Eliza. The ones following you will come along the road from the west. Edwin is currently out of line of sight, so we can consider that spell cast.

When a ballista is mentioned Eliza responds, "How odd. It's not exactly uncommon for merchant vessels to have armaments, round here's peaceful but some areas are infested with prates. The Merchant League doesn't exactly encourage it either, there's a fairly hefty peace bond per weapon the ships have to pay when entering League skies, refundable upon exit. The idea is to ensure a financial incentive to avoid adventurism, I bet those ships didn't pay that either."

Thanks, that helps a lot. Do we know approximately how far it is to the courthouse?

About 10 mins walk, half that if you run.

Probably could make a run for it if they're still behind us. If they try firing arrows or whatnot at us, Ferian can put up a wind wall to block them. Or cast warp wood on their weapons. Any nonlethal/nonviolent means we have of escaping could be useful. I suggest we keep Eliza in the middle of the group to shield her as much as possible from danger in any direction.

Edwin looked around the corner. "Shall we a make a break for it? If we need to run, my footwear helps me run surprisingly fast!" He pointed at his shiny dress boots, which don't obviously appear to be running attire.

The boots are Edwin's transmutation implement. The Sudden Speed focus power increases land speed by 30 ft for one minute; he has 3 points of mental focus currently invested, so he can use it three times. Which is good, because his base speed is only 20 ft.

The consensus seems to be resolving on making a run for it. I'll move us forward with that tomorrow if nobody disagrees.

Just want to make sure Eliza is okay with running. I'll stay with her in case she trips or can't keep up or something else unforeseen.

Yeah, Ferian wouldn't leave her behind either. Besides being at least a somewhat decent person, he's also financially invested in her at this point, or at least in her son.

I agree, running is our best bet. These ships, now that Yukarii knows about them, are not a good thing. I some how think we'll be fighting our way through a warzone to get to ours and leave as it is and if there is fighting that might close the courthouse down for who knows how long.

While everyone is starting to tense up, a mischievous smile comes upon Xindyra's face.

"So everyone, we should slow down a bit before the next intersection with at least a street on both sides."

Her tail swiftly grabs something from the back of her belt.
"See this?"

She holds up a simple looking wooden stick, and slowly starts walking closer to the walls of the houses.
She holds it against the wall, letting the rasping wood on stone friction do its magic.

The stick catches flame and starts producing a heavy cloud of smoke.

"-Now- we can make a proper run for it! Hahahaha!"

What kind of item did you use?

A Smokestick

Nice, Xindyra. Very resourceful.

Once the smoke starts, she encourages everyone to run, heading for the courthouse.

The sudden rush of thick black smoke takes even some of the party by surprise but you make the most of this distraction to put on a sudden burst of speed. You hear one set of footsteps run the wrong way followed by, "No this way you fool! They're getting away!"

I don't have a full street map for this town so we're going to have to do some of this theater of the mind, however if it ends up in an actual combat I'll do my best to provide a map. At the moment you are rushing down pathed residential streets and you have a couple of rounds head start, Eliza is running as fast as she can but won't be able to keep this pace up for long. There are several turns needed to get where you're going so you might be able to loose them, however at least one of them has semi- respectable perception. Feel free to post 2 round's worth of actions.

Edwin ran as fast as his short legs would carry him. He didn't activate the power of his boots just yet; he didn't want to get ahead of Eliza. He told the others, "Don't wait for me — I'll catch up soon enough!"

Running at 4 x speed: 80 ft per round. If the enemy gets close, he'll activate Sudden Speed as a swift action, boosting his base movement from 20 ft to 50 ft for one minute.

Ferian runs along with the others, making sure to keep himself between Eliza and their pursuers. With Xindyra's smokescreen, perhaps they could get away without too much trouble. But for Eliza's sake, Ferian wants to be sure.

Ferian will cast Obscuring Mist when we get to an intersection where we could go multiple ways, to hopefully stall them longer. He'll hold off on wind wall unless he sees the pursuers getting ready to fire.

Do we know how much Eliza weighs? We might could carry her between all of us if we had to.

Zendara joins Ferian, staying between Eliza and any pursuers. She definitely doesn't want to get into a fight, but she keeps her bow in hand just in case she needs to drive them off or defend Eliza.

To Zendara's compliment, she smiles.

"You never know when those things will come in handy. But now we do." ^^

Eliza weighs around 130lbs so I suppose two of you could carry her easily should it come to that.

With the pursuers hot on their heels, the party darts towards a crossroads where Ferian summons a deep fog bank covering everything. Together the party dart to the right and pause hoping to loose them.

They're rewarded by the sound of feet pounding to the left followed by several explosive oaths!

Having successfully given the pair of goons the slip the party reach Avril Plaza without further incident. There are lots of folks milling about, along with several jongleurs whose antics are attracting attentive crowds.

To the courthouse?

Edwin stopped briefly to catch his breath and straighten his outfit. "That was certainly exciting; we seem to have acquired some enemies. Shall we head to the courtroom and get in line?"

Still breathing hard Eliza grinned, "Lets go!"

You head over to the court and join the queue, there are a number of cases ahead of yours and you spend the next few hours twiddling your thumbs. Eventually you are ushered in and a different Judge from before, Lord Brock, hears your complaint asking, "Ladies, Gentlemen, how can the court help you today?"

Eliza takes explains, "Your Honour, I've been aware for a while that the Harbourmaster Korrin has been faking the official ledgers in order to hide his profits from various illegal transactions. He regularly organises out of hours auctions for impounded vessels and sell them for next to nothing back to the pirates he impounded them from with a lick of paint and nice fresh legitimate name. More than that he's accepting payment to look the other way for pesh and opium imports and to cap it off he's an intimidating violent drunkard, whose regularly promised to strangle my son Fred if I was to speak of this."

The Judge takes a deep breath before asking mildly, "Those are very serious allegations, do you have any proof?"

Eliza nods, "For the financial misconduct yes, I can present the official and his unofficial ledgers going back eighteen months and I can demonstrate how records where falsified. As to his character, I'm afraid it's my word against his."

The Judge turns to one of the ushers and writes a note, "Find Master Irmgard from the accountancy guild and inform him his presence is required. He'll be able to confirm if there's a problem with the accounts." Turning back to you Lord Brock says, "Please wait here, hopefully this should take too long."

Twenty minutes latter a greying accountant Torrin Irmgard enters the court accompanied by an usher and several police officers. He's directed to the ledgers where he spends the next fifteen minutes examining, his initially neutral expression darkens as he continues reading before he exclaims, "This is outrageous your honour, Korrin has been conducting a systematic fraud under out very noses. The best part of ten million marks in illegal activities siphoned off in the last year by my estimation."

The Judge sighs, "Very good Master Irmgard, you have the court's thanks. We would appreciate a written report once you have had a chance to study the documents in detail.".
"Yes your Honour I'll start right away."

The Judge then beckoned an usher and handed a note, "Please give this to Sergeant Morris over there. It's an arrest warrant for Korrin and every senior member of staff."

Turning to Eliza the Judge adds, "Off the record I find your concerns over Korrin's character to be entirely warranted. He's been implicated in a number of murders over the years but has always managed to present credible alibis. Coming here is very brave and you must be commended, however I'd like to suggest you consider entering voluntary protective custody for your own safety. I must warn you that organising a trial will take time and likely it wont be here due to the worry of jury nobbling. In theory we could have bench trial but for a high profile case like this, which will a capital case, justice must be seen to be done so I think the arraignment will be at Issenport high court on Dargan Island."

Looking a bit scared Eliza gulps, "Err Yes if you think that best... But what will become of Fred, will he still be able to go to the university?"
"Oh? Well if you have the funds I see no reason why not, it would be good for the lad."
"I do thanks to these kind folks."
Turning to you he said, "You have the court's gratitude citizens. There will be a substantial reward upon conviction, given the size of the fraud involved. You may also be called upon to testify, please ensure you leave a forwarding address with the usher."

There are two other small matters, if you please sir. Yesterday we went as representatives of the court to inspect a ship. Here is our report from that trip. We were wondering if we could get a court order allowing it to sail.

Also, on the way over here my friend here observed some questionable activities at the dock which are related to this corruption, but which might need to be addressed quickly.

They explain what they saw at the docks.

Figured they would need to know about the scary illegal activity at the docks soonest, and trying to move the story forward by getting the ship free. :)

Edwin gave a detailed account of what he saw and when, "That's right. I saw several sailors on some of the impounded ships, moving things around on the deck."

He wondered how long the court case would take. It sounded like they could be stuck here in port for some time.

The usher passed the report to the judge who scanned it before shaking his head, "It seems Korrin has a lot to answer for. I don't suppose we'd be able to prove who caused the damage but he must have known about it. We'll add this to the charge list. I'll order The Dawntreader's immediate release."

When Edwin mentions sailors moving things around on deck, the Judge sighs once more, "What is Korrin thinking?! That makes a complete mockery of the customs dock restrictions. We'd better let Captain Curruthers know, she'll sort this out. Well it seems we owe you our thanks once again ."

Captain Curruthers is the head of the local watch. Unless there's anything more here, happy to move us forward.

Ready to move forward. Thanks for indulging our little side quest to bring justice to the town. :)

Yes, you were quite indulgent of us. :)
Ready to move forward whenever. Might be good to have a final private conversation with Eliza if the opportunity arises.

Adding to Edwin's comment.

"Your honor, at least one ballista is among those things."

"That doesn't sound good..." replied Lord Brock, turning to the local watch representatives he tells them "Make sure Captain Curruthers is aware."

The court session breaks up shortly afterwards and when you leave you realise you've not seen Dr since the morning and now it's late afternoon. You look around and are un able to find him, but you bump into Professor Dexter at the cafe.

When she spots you Professor Dexter orders a round of coffee and tells you, "Xavier insisted on seeing that farmer Giles Mcree which put us in a bit of a pickle because there was no way I was going to let him go off on his own. He had assassins after him the other day and it's like he doesn't care. Claims he's not going to let the #$&*@s win. Fortunately Braenar turned up and volunteered to go with, that dwarf has his head screwed on right and between you and me he's pretty handy in a fight so I offered to wait here for you."

She take a sip of coffee and tells you, "From what I hear something weird is going on round here, and I think I have an idea whats behind it. Met up with a friend of mine in the diplomatic corps and rumour has it the new Kez has got a lot of problems at home, food riots, a plague, economic unrest, you name it. He's only been Kez for five years and is yet to really stamp his authority on the empire. The obvious thing to do is to go on a military adventure, he's done a bit of that with some of the new islands, but that's small fry. My friend things he's looking for an excuse to bloody our noses and this whole thing with the ambassador stirring thing up is red rag to a bull. The Marchant League frankly can't afford a fight, we've got enough problems of our own so the government is doing everything it can to ensure that absolutely nothing happens. Problem is an election is coming up and if something did happen the hawks in The Admiralty party will use it to push the moderate Free Winds Alliance out and the new policy will be total war. Last time that happened a couple of hundred years ago, close to twenty million people died..."

Holy cow. Now we have to stop a war?

That doesn't sound good. Is there something you think that we can do to make a difference?

Edwin listened in disbelief to everything that seemed to be happening at once. How are we ever going to get out of port, and on to the archaeological site?

Professor Dexter takes another sip of coffee, savouring it's rich dark flavour before replying, "In the short term we've gotta walk on eggshells around the Ambassador and that Kez ship in the harbour, if anything was to happen... Long term? Honestly I don't know and neither from what I hear does the government. There was talk of giving the Kez a couple of islands as a gesture of good will, but that idea went down really badly with the hawks who see it as a sign of weakness."

She takes another sip finishing her mug and shrugs, "It's kind of academic anyway, our ship sails in a few hours and then it'll be out of our hands. I just hope and pray we'll have a home to return to. Heck I don't want my animals becoming the Kez's petting zoo! If you're all set we should probably make our way to the docks."

She means the rather impressive array of dangerous creatures she's hunted and subdued over the years for the Chelmsford Zoo. Oil of Taggit and cunning has taken Miriam a long way!

Edwin replied, "The magistrate asked us to leave a forwarding address. We may be required to testify in the matter of Harbourmaster Korrin. Will we be in the position to leave on an extended expedition?"

Professor Dexter replies, "Arraignments like that one always take ages, I doubt the trial will be this year. Besides like all university sponsored missions we have a quill of automatic writing with us. It allows somebody with the matching quill to write a message on a sheet of parchment at any range. It works in both directions. You'll have to check but I think that should count."

Having made it away from the pursuers, to the courthouse, and through the presentation of the evidence Yukarii left the talking to the others. With their endeavors a success thus far she was pleased they were able to accomplish their goals so easily. Truthfully it seemed to her that it had been too easy since they arrived here. She had a very bad feeling about those ships that had the ballistae. Something about that made her think an invasion was about to happen. Could they be leaving just in time to avoid a war?

As they met up with Professor Dexter Yukarii took one of the open seats and accepted the coffee. She never thought she''d get used to the taste of the stuff when she first arrived. It was always so dark and bitter, sometimes it was barely even a liquid, but she'd learned to at least tolerate the stuff to help her get through some of the rougher stretches of her education. As they were filled in about where the professor was Yukarii pouted a bit. She'd been looking forward to see the farms of these lands to see how they matched up to the ones she was used to back in her homeland but it seemed the Professor had gone without her.

It was probably for the best though, Yukarii figured she wouldn't have been able to stay long enough to make the trip worth it anyway. "I will be glad to leave this place, everything that has happened here, it will be nice to be on our way and free from it for a while."

Ferian shakes his head when he hears that Dr. Munroe went to see the farmer without them. Calculated risks were one thing, but that just seemed completely reckless.

"Perhaps we should check in ourselves every week or two. While I want to see this expedition through, if our homes are threatened and war comes, I don't want to be on the other side of the world."

Quill of automatic writing... is that a Stormlight reference? :)

Zendara gets up when Mariam suggests they head to the docks.

So, if Doctor Munroe isn't back do we need to go after him, or are you certain he is okay?