With the Umbres having finally left the tannery, Ameliya takes her place with the others as they make their way to the gap that Veda spoke of. As they do, Ameliya calls on her psionic powers and surrounds herself in an invisible suit of psychokinetic armor.
Veda pauses to wrap a scarf around the lower part of her face.
Not likely we'll be quiet enough to go unnoticed and I've lived here too long to imagine I won't be recognized.
She just has to hope the dark will prevent her eyes from being noticed.
Veda doesn't hurry to get through the opening since they aren't doing any scouting and she isn't a bruiser.
Alixus follows behind Liky, well protected by his armor despite his lack of skill at arms.
Veda pauses to wrap a scarf around the lower part of her face.
Lily takes the lead followed by Alixus. As the two of them clear the gap in the palisade, they get their first good look at the tannery work yard. Cart furrows and disturbing stains mar this muddy yard. Around the perimeter, murky water pools in rows of sunken tubs. Unspeakable muck encrusts each vat and half-submerged skins float within. From these scabby concoctions drifts a sinus-assaulting reek—a dizzying miasma of rotten eggs, lime, and far worse.
Within the yard are a pair of dogs, dozing under the lantern-light of the northern building. Unfortunately, they seem to hear Lily and Alixus both squeeze their way through the gap in the palisade, likely from weapons and armor scraping against the wooden posts. The dogs jump up and look at the intruders.
They immediately leap to the attack, as if sensing the intruder's infernal intentions. However, as both dogs leap towards Lily with all the apparent intention of dragging her to the ground and ripping out her throat, they both seem to be a bit drowsy from their naps and they can't get through the half-orc's hide armor.
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Initiative
Party Average: 11.6
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Enemy Average: 13
Dogs go First
Lily sidles to one side trying not to block her partners from entering. Then without regard for her persona safety rauses her falchion up for an overhand chop. She viscously follows up by goring the dog with her tusk-like teeth.
Slenk stays well behind Lily and Alixus, but close enough to be engaged as needed. When he sees the dogs attacking he bends fortune to his will to aid Lily in her next actions.
Round 1
Despite his large, many-angled frame, the towering Jerax slips through the fence gap with no issues.
As he passes the barrier, the antipaladin lets loose his spiked chain and attacks the dog closest to the fence.
At the back of their line, Ameliya was wrinkling her nose in disgust at the tannery's pungent smells when dogs caught notice of the group's entering. Acting fast, she focuses her mind yet again, this time intent on dazing one of mutt's into a defenseless stupor.
Alixus traces his fingers in a five-pointed star on Jerax’s back and says, ”Asmodeus steel you, defeat these mutts!”
Near the back of the group, Veda has to squeeze and weave to get through the palisade and move toward the dogs. It's not something she can manage to finish quickly.
Alixus: Guidance on Jerax
Ameliya: Daze on Dog gored by Lily
Jerax: Spiked Chain (hit)
Lily: Falchion (hit); Bite (hit)
Slenk: Fortune on Lily
Veda: Move
Dog #1 (Fence): -6
Dog #2: -15 (dead); transfer Ameliya's Daze to Dog #1
Lily pivots the side to make room for the others coming through and brings her falchion swinging down for a devastating slash at the second dog. Then, in a classic case of Man Bites Dog (well, half-orc woman), she leans in and takes a chomp of fur... with a brief bit of mauling, it's enough to drop the poor animal to the ground.
Slink gives Lily some good fortune through his infernal patron, while Jerax steps forward and spins up his spiked chain, slamming it into the side of the other dog. It grunts and snarls at the impact, turning its attention to the tiefling but is not yet dropped. Ameliya tries to confound the simple creature, but its fury at having it's companion and mate so quickly slain is too strong.
With no room on the other side of the fence, Cimri waits outside the palisade.
While the dog's fury may be protecting it from the influence of your spells, it's also making it wildly lash out, grabbing nothing but armor and dirt.
From within the building on the north wall, you hear a man's voice holler, "By Calistria's honeyed pot, what is all that noise!?"
Lily tries to roll past the dog, unconcerned with the puny animal. Taking her falchion in one hand she's ready for the voice to reveal itself.
Round 2
The asmodean priest lays his hand upon Jerax, and the tiefling gets momentarily visions of Hell's many sweeping vistas, which puts a big unhinged smile on the antipaladin's face. Jerax whips the spiked chain up into the air, then yanks it back down onto the aggressive caine.
With her path forward now open, Veda moves up to the remaining dog. At the last moment she leaves her dagger in its sheath and instead rakes the animal with her claw-like nails.
Just feels right.
With her spell evidently ineffective, Ameliya decides to take a different approach and move closer to the unfolding action in the tannery. Entering the tannery through the gap and moving through her compatriots, the psychic takes a space right behind Veda and begins to load her crossbow.
Slenk raises an eyebrow at Lily then turns to towards the area the voice came from and says quietly, "Let's make this interesting... be aware what I create here is but illusion."
Slenk then begins an incantation and conjures the image of a crowd of people a bit to the south and west of Lily.
Having no clue what spell Slenk cast nor hearing what he said Lily snaps her attention to the suddenly appearing people.
Alixus catches his breath before tracing the symbol of the Archstar over his face and chest and saying, ”Archfiend, Infinite One, King of the Nine, let my actions in your service be concealed from the heretics who would sully your perfection.”
With that, his skin ripples and the young, pale man is replaced by the appearance of a middle-aged, olive-skinned, and dapperly dressed Chelish dandy.
”Well, this should suffice for a disguise.”
Lily tumbles past the second dog and, as it is distracted, Jerax and Veda dispatch it with a pair of strikes. Slink summons an illusory crowd to distract anyone who may emerge from the office (or anywhere else in the workyard) but, as Lily can't hear his explanation, she too finds herself perplexed by the gaggle of people.
"Annie? Jax? comes the voice from inside the building, an edge of concern to it.
Veda swiftly moves over the dogs and takes cover at the corner of the building. Pressed up against the wall, she listens for any further sounds from inside.
With the dogs now thoroughly dispatched, Ameliya quietly moves out from her position and relocates herself to a more spacious firing spot for her crossbow.
Unsure where the voice he heard came from, the tiefling slides up the fence in an attempt to get out of sight.
Lily says, "Someone to the north. They must've used magic to get help. They were ready for us."
Lily slips closer to the gaggle non-descript people and lands an uppercut right on one their chins. Or she would have if her fist didn't go straight through. She frowns and exclaims, "A trick!"
Veda watches the half-orc, puzzled at first. Then she rolls her eyes when she comes to understand what she is doing.
Yes, a trick of course! By us! Well, at least you'll be good bait if and when somebody comes outside.
Slenk shakes his head in amazement. "Yes, it is my trick and you are quite ruining it. Stick with the mission and pay attention to your comrades."
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Cimri follows you into the workyard, a sap in her right-hand, and looks over at the dead canines. She then glances over towards the crowd, over to Slink, the crowd again, then takes up a position along the fence behind Jerax.
The door opens, swinging into the office, casting a brighter line of light across the workyard and into the "crowd" where Lily is now standing. There, in the door, is a human male with thickly muscled arms and his hair pulled back into a ponytail. "What's going on out here? Who are you? Annie? Jax?"
Slenk concentrates and feels the power granted to him well up and erupt though his malevolent gaze. "Strike him quickly, my magics have made him vulnerable to attack..."
Lily tries to grab the man before he does anything. She says, "Should've paid your taxes. Don't resist and you won't get hurt."
Ameliya eyed the flabbergasted Louslik with an amused smile on her lips. "A respectable businessman such as yourself should have known that there would be consequences to flagellating disregarding taxation," she tsks mockingly, making sure to disguise her voice by making it lower and rougher than usual.
Her taunting at an end, the psychic aids her compatriots by penetrating Louslik's mind with a painful psionic intrusion.
Slink: Evil Eye hex
Lily: Grapple
Ameliya: Mind thrust
Veda, Jerax, Alixus: pending
Alixus slips into the illusory crowd and hangs back, keeping an eye out for any potential danger. His colleagues had the matter well handled.
Jerax holds his spiked chain in his hand also with his tongue, waiting to see how the initial meeting could go either way.
Veda holds her position pressed against the wall, waiting to see if an opportunity will present itself.
Slink: Evil Eye hex
Lily: Grapple
Ameliya: Mind thrust
Alixus: Delay
Jerax: Delay
Veda: Delay
Slink calls upon his infernal patron to weaken Louslik's resistances while Lily tries to quickly grapple the man. Though he is taken by surprise, the tanner is surprisingly strong and throws off the half-orc's efforts with a surprised yelp. Ameliya tries to break his mind but he again shrugs off the worst of it.
While he may not fully understand what is going on -- something about taxes -- it's perfectly clear you're not at the tannery to sell cookies. As he slides out of Lily's grapple, he brings an elbow up and back into her jaw with the force of a hammer.
Cimri runs up in a wide circle, through the crowd, and to the opposite side of the door from where she swings her sap at Louslik. With the benefit of Slink's hex, she just manages to connect.
Louslik; -1 Lethal; +4 Non-Lethal; -2 AC for one round
Hoping to get things under control, Slenk views Cimri's attack with the sap as the most effective and tries to warp probability to make her efforts even more successful.
Since waiting any longer seems useless, Veda turns the corner and rakes at Louslik with her nails.
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Lily's jaw is broken and her brain was a bit scrambled by the blow. But she recovers quickly and looses a bit of control. Her eyes turn red and the temperature of her skin becomes scalding while her falchion bursts with a wreath of hellfire. She still has the presence of mind not to permanently hurt the man, at least not much.
Ameliya's features made a frustrated sneer as she sees that Louslik mostly shook off her psychic attack. Undaunted, the psychic tries to daze the tanner and make it all the easier for the others to beat him into submission.
Veda makes a pair of swipes at Louslik; still suffering from the effect of Slink's hex, the first claw just manages to make it through his defenses, drawing a line of blood while the second goes wide. Lily, with an infernal rage infusing her body, unleashes vengeful blows upon the tanner, revisiting his strike upon her twofold...
With a sickening thud and spray of blood splattering against the wall, Louslik crumples to the ground with a thud. A strange looking stone, almost like a marble, rolls out of one of his hands.
Jerax stands over the fallen Louslik. "Take him alive?" The antipaladin asks. "I have rope."
Alixus comes out of the crowd and joins the rest of the party, ”Well, your efforts were certainly satisfactory. Competence across the board. Yes, tie him up, if you will. Whether now or later, we will get him to talk. He may even know something useful.”
Jerax nods at the cleric and gets out his silk rope. Looking up to the former pirate, the tiefling asks, "Lily. Can I have your help? Your knot lore must be more extensive than mine."
Lily grunts and nods. She grabs the rope after she's calmed down and begins tying the tanner up. She binds his wrists behind his back with a wrap and cinch double column and draws a lead to his ankles where she uses the same technique to hogtie the man. She considers adding a noose around his neck so that if he struggles he will strangle himself but keeps the thought to herself.
"Excellent, Lily", the tiefling smiled. "That's exactly what I was looking for." Jerax looks at the bloodrager's jaw. "You want help setting that back in joint?"
Though the sight of a hogtied Louslik brought an amused smirk to Ameliya's face, the ruin that the tanner made of Lily's jaw made it fall just as quickly as it arrived. "Take one of these," she says, handing the half-orc one of her healing potions. "It will mend your injuries somewhat... if you can drink it that is."
With that said and done, Ameliya gets down to business. "With our darling friend Louslik out of the way, I believe its time to find his ill-gotten gains. The tax money must be here somewhere. Let us find it and free ourselves from this stinking den."
Veda takes out a handkerchief and rapidly but meticulously cleans her nails before walking into the building.
"Yeah, lets find the money and get moving."
One thing the priest said puzzles her though. Looking over at him she asks "What kind of information do you imagine this guy would have anyway? That wasn't part of the job we were given, and it would cost time."