When Rexus says the documents are down in the Wasp's Nest, Vantine stops and turns.
"Down here? Where!"
She reverses direction and runs for the storage room instead.
"It must be in among them!"
The Raven follows the mob, careful not to smack his fragile silvered dagger against the cruel and unyielding stone walls. Shoving his way through the crowd, he arrives just as Iratea clobbers the devil to the ground. With no luck in his weapon-using attempts so far, the Raven instead plants a boot on the prone and stunned creature, pinning it to the ground. "Someone get a jar or something to keep it in. Maybe we can use it as a lantern."
Vantine reverses direction, dashing past the mob surrounding the imp towards the storage room. Even as she goes, the Raven swoops down the stairs, grabbing at the imp and seizing her tight. Despite her best efforts, she cannot manage to avoid his grip, and she thrashes helplessly for a moment.
The tiny fiend twists her wings, a short sword appearing in her hand and thrusting at the Raven's eye. Desperate, the vigilante throws his head back and avoids the worst of her stab, but she still scores a nasty strike on his cheek. Even as he pulls away, though, her tail lashes out in turn, but he is now on his guard against her tricks, and manages to avoid the stinger's stab.
"All will fall before his might, rebels! Even now, this realm is his!" She shouts.
Groaning in pain from her spectacular fall, Jessi is slow to realize that the Silver Ravens have the upper hand on the imp. When she does, she immediately starts one of her inspirational war songs, hoping that her friends can finish the annoying pest off once and for all. The bard pulls herself to her feet so she can join in the imp-thrashing momentarily.
As Jessibel's music fills the Wasp's Nest, the Ravens feel its familiar empowering harmonies flowing through them.
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"All will fall before his might, rebels! Even now, this realm is his!" She shouts
Aisling moves to where the Raven has grabbed hold of the imp. She glaresd at it, before hitting it with the morningstar repeatedly.
"Silence. In. Court."
"Alright! Wait, wait, wait! I give up, I give up, okay? Don't kill me!" She pauses. "Destroy my contract, okay? It's that one paper you got with the spell on it. I'll go back to Hell after far too long in this profane realm, and you don't get your meetings reported on."
Nyxra, unwilling to trust an infernal creature, readies herself to fire on the imp should she escape.
Rexus frowns slightly at the imp's words, but bites his lip and says nothing. His two lady compatriots, however, do not share this compunction, and lash out at the devil. Jay's blade slashes at her neck, but bounces off of the crimson flesh, only barely slicing into her flesh. "This is for Korva, you b%#~~!"
"I've fought more than a dozen of your kind in my life." Iratea says, similarly disinterested in negotiating with a representative of Hell. She continues as she brings her mace down. "You are by far the most annoying." The imp manages to squirm such that she has to check her blow or risk striking the Raven.
Vantine continues on to the storage room, where she casts Detect Magic and starts to look for the document.
The Raven slams the little devil to the stone foundation, pinning her face-down on the floor with his steel-gauntleted hands and stepping on her lashing tail with one boot. "There!" He huffs, voice ragged. "That wasn't so hard!"
A pinned creature is tightly bound and can take few actions. A pinned creature cannot move and is denied its Dexterity bonus. A pinned character also takes an additional –4 penalty to his Armor Class. A pinned creature is limited in the actions that it can take. A pinned creature can always attempt to free itself, usually through a combat maneuver check or Escape Artist check. A pinned creature can take verbal and mental actions, but cannot cast any spells that require a somatic or material component. A pinned character who attempts to cast a spell or use a spell-like ability must make a concentration check (DC 10 + grappler’s CMB + spell level) or lose the spell. Pinned is a more severe version of grappled, and their effects do not stack.
Casting Spells while Pinned: The only spells which can be cast while grappling or pinned are those without somatic components and whose material components (if any) you have in hand. Even so, you must make a concentration check (DC 10 + the grappler’s CMB + the level of the spell you’re casting) or lose the spell.
Vantine knows that there's a magical aura in the vicinity, but she has to scramble through Rexus' neatly organized files to find the one that she's looking for - a search not helped by the fact that she doesn't wholly remember what it looked like.
The Raven just barely manages to pin the imp to the ground, and, seeing that most of the group is disinclined to give her any mercy, she struggles once more to escape from the Raven’s grip, but he manages to keep her tight against the blood-slick floor. "Look, you are into mercy and forgiveness, right? So why not just send me back to Hell! I've been here for over 70 years, okay? I just want to go home!"
Jessibel considers using her last spell of the day to cast coin shot to pepper the imp with silver, but it'll be hard to hit the thing while it's in the Raven's grasp. Continuing to inspire her allies, the bard instead uses her last spell to heal her battered mentor.
Jessibel heals her mentor with a spell.
Aisling looks scornful. "You have NO right to talk of mercy and forgiveness! There is also justice, which you know nothing aobut. Let me show you. It looks like THIS."
Nyxra puts her arrow away and walks away to retrieve her sword.
Aisling's morningstar smashes down onto the imp, who wails pathetically, barely hanging onto consciousness at all. Nyxra, confident that her companions have things well in hand, goes to retrieve her sword, making her way back into the small room where first they found the imp.
Now more confident than ever, Jay lashes out in fury. "Die, you miserable b#&~&!" Her blade penetrates the devil's throat, and her wail ceases as she begins spitting up blood instead.
Rexus, meanwhile, looks away, clearly uncomfortable where this has gone, but unwilling to try to save a devil.
Iratea swings her mace down cooly. "Spawn of Hell, begone from this and all worlds." Once again, though, she is forced to pull her blow back when the imp manages to position the Raven between herself and the blow.
Vantine continues to concentrate on finding the contract, looking for a magical aura among the many documents.
Iratea is not fast enough withdrawing her mace and she smacks the Raven's gauntleted hand hard enough to knock his hands away from the devil. He jumps back, shaking his friendly-fired hand. "Ouch!"
Though Vantine isn't wholly sure of her choice, she's thinks she's found the right paper (it was sitting underneath a few notes on the other pages).
The Raven, unfortunately, releases the badly injured devil just in time for her healing to take her back from the brink of death . Freed from his grasp, she attempts to fly up towards the ceiling... but in so doing, leaves herself open to all manner of attacks. Of them all, only Aisling need take it, as she smashes the imp back down to the ground, where she bleeds slowly, though her wounds continue to heal themselves... until Jay lashes out with her dagger, thrusting it through the infernally tough skin and piercing the vile fiend's heart.
"... b~~*$." Jay scowls.
Iratea glances at the imp as its body slowly begins to discorporate, as is the wont of such creatures. She carefully cleans off the mace, before sagging against the wall. One of her sisters, Zenobia, comes rushing in from the storage area to help steady her.
From the direction of the Long Roads Coffeehouse basement, Maggie arrives with Laria in tow. The halfling looks from one face to the next. "Looks like you've either fallen under its spell, or you've killed whatever devil that Maggie says you found."
A couple of minutes later Vantine runs back into the main room, a piece of paper clutched tightly to her chest as if to ensure other invisible hands don't snatch it away.
"I've got it!" she calls out triumphantly.
The Raven straightens, smoothing down the front of his armor for no real reason. "Well. That was fun." He looks at the back of his smooshed hand. The gauntlet had absorbed any damage, thankfully. His worry quickly turns from his hand to the young bard. Striding over to her, he takes her hands. "Dearest Jessibel, are you quite alright? That was quite the tumble you took."
Jessibel removes her Magpie mask and looks up at the Raven. "Just a bruise...I think; nothing broken."
"The mask fits well," she announces with a faint smile. "It wasn't the reason I didn't stick my landing; I twisted in mid-air trying to grab that little creep. Good job putting it down, people."
The imp's equipment, however, remains. A shortsword and blowgun sized for her, a set of pipes that look like they are able to be used by someone human sized, four scrolls, and a wand. She also leaves behind a tiny set of finely crafted thieves' tools (sized for someone around two feet tall), a gold-and-platinum signet ring, and a silken wrap.
Vantine quickly realizes nobody cares. She is miffed, it was no small amount of trouble to rummage out the contract so quickly. But a dead imp and plus what is probably a good profit from it balances things for her.
She goes to work trying to figure out what they have after someone wipes the loot down for her. Vantine will not be touching any melted or ashy imp.
The first few scrolls go smoothly enough. "Summon a Monster beyond the most basic, very nice... These two dampen all mental faculties with a touch of the fingers, good good... the pipes allow one to summon and control rats. That one is easy to figure since we saw it in use..."
But with the other scroll and the wand Vantine comes up empty as to their purpose. She flips the ring over to Jessibel.
"This ring is worth maybe 150, but it's personalized isn't it?"
Jessi catches the ring and gives it a quick look, wondering if she might use it as a prop for yet another alias. Then she gives her consideration to the scroll and wand Vantine couldn't identify. Lastly, she examines the silken wrap.
Jessi suddenly sucks in her breath. "The ring bears the sign of the Sarinis...though it's an older, outdated emblem compared to the one my friend......my ex-friend, Sabrini Sarini wears. I might find a use for this...."
After examining the last scroll, Jessi says, "Euphoric cloud...not a spell I can cast." Handing the scroll to Vantine while pocketing the ring, the young bard says, "I consider that a fair exchange." She has no luck IDing the wand or appraising the imp's tiny silk wrap.
"Yes, it looks like your wings are not yet strong enough for you to leave the nest." The Raven jokes, trying to hide his concern for the bard. "And you, dear Dove, what is 'it' you have 'got'?" The magical items are all beyond him; he has nothing useful to add about the loot.
Nyxra comes back once she has retrieved her sword.
"...now I'm curious as to how it managed to find its way in. And how long it was spying on us."
Finally Vantine's moment to shine had come!
"Oh, this is what I got." She says far more casually now, almost as if the document bored her.
"It's the imp's contract. It was probably summoned by someone in the Sarini family, it had the ring, as a familiar or something of the sort. The imp was bound by this contract. That's what it was begging for, the contract's destruction. If this is destroyed the imp goes back to Hell."
"Probably whoever summoned it died or whatever and the imp was forgotten. It was still here tethered to the contract though. For whatever reason the contract ended up in the documents we found in the stables. The imp would have been there at the time. It could only go a certain short distance from the contract. So when we moved the documents here, it tagged along as well, invisibly. It was here from the time the documents arrived."
"Do you know what it was summoned for?" The Raven asks the lovely Dove. "Contracts have completion terms. It must have had a job to do."
Unfortunately, even with the knowledge of what the paper is, it remains enchanted to conceal what it says. All the moreso now that the last living creature to have been involved in the concealment was gradually filtering into nonexistence.
Rexus looks at Vantine admiringly. "You were very quick-thinking, Miss Roubanis. I would never have suspected that, let alone acted swiftly enough to grab it whilst we were still in combat."
Laria, however, has more practical concerns. "We had an imp in here? Are we certain it never left?" She looks from one face to the next.
Rexus coughs, clearing his throat. "If Miss Roubanis is correct, and I believe she is now that she's pointed it out to me, the devil was bound magically to the physical space around the contract. I imagine that when it was summoned, the contractor had more direct control over it, but something happened along the way - presumably the Civil War heated up - and the contractor died, leaving the imp bound to a contract that fell into the hands of our predecessors."
Maggie chuffs in amusement. "You'd think devils, with all their contract-nonsense, would have planned for something like that."
There's a bare hint of mock-smugness to Rexus' reply. "Why, my dear Maggie, even devils are subject to fate's whimsy." He grows serious, before looking at the wand. "I'd imagine that the wand is some sort of aggressive spell, given that she tried to fire it at Lady Jessibel." After a moment, he chants and gestures at it, examining it. "Hm. It appears to produce a particularly painful arrow - one of acid. Not a lot of charges left in it, though. Ten, at the most."
"Why, that little...!" Jessi huffs before censoring herself. "I'll ask my family if they know which Sarinis might've been powerful enough to call an imp here," she tells the others. "Maybe I can even visit the Alabaster Academy to find out what it'll take to get a peek at the hidden contract on the secret page."
After a pause in which she blinks a few times, the young noblewoman yawns and states, "But that'll be tomorrow--I need some sleep!" Looking to Aisling, she asks, "Do you have any more healing channels left?"
Nyxra looks down at the floor in thought. Eventually, she growls and shakes her head.
"...I don't even know where to go from here..."
"Well, I know where I and my sisters are going - back to sleep." Iratea gestures at the Scarlet Rose, who begin to make their way back to the residential barracks.
"I also have some information from the documents I've decoded." Rexus adds. "If you're interested in hearing about our predecessors."
Laria looks around the Wasp's Nest. "I've got to go back upstairs, but I want to hear what happened here later tonight, alright?"
Rexus leaves Vantine ambivalent with his 'compliment'; it's quite backhanded in a "I thought you were dumb until you proved you weren't" kind of way. It burns because she knows she's really smart, but people usually assume she's not.
"Thank you Rexus. Yes, I'm a quick thinker. That's why I'm popular at all the best parties."
Turning back to the subject at hand, Vantine can't be certain of more than she's already told everyone. But she can make a couple of guesses.
"Without being able to read the contract it's hard to say what exactly kept the imp bound to it. The contract would have to be very precise, devils you know. Obviously it was not set to expire upon the death of the summoner. That would be a terrible idea anyway" she remarks wryly.
"It may be there was a task or condition to be met that wasn't during the summoner's life, and due to changing circumstances became impossible to complete. I doubt there is a "unless it's no longer possible" clause written in. The contract might have become the imp's paradox. Can't fulfill the terms to be free of the contract anymore, therefore can never be freed from the contract even though the terms allow it. It does seem certain the contract contained a clause, or maybe magic, making it impossible to for the imp to destroy the contract itself. Somebody else must do it, which is why it hung around under the stables for all those years. It was clearly bluffing about informing on us. If it could have left here to do so, it would have already if only to claim a reward."
Vantine hands the contract back over to Rexus.
"We'll never know unless we can read it someday."
Aisling yawns. "I think after the day we've had we can all do wtiht some rest."
She calls on her goddess to heal everyone, before finding somewhere to sleep.
Rexus is a bit on the outs with Vantine right now, but she will go to hear what he has found out. After that she will fill in Laria on what happened, especially if she can scrounge some pastries while she does it.
Rexus gathers everyone in the storage area, where Vantine found his papers a few minutes earlier. Offering the Ravens a seat each, he sits on a box he's repurposed as a chair. "While I'd love to say I've uncovered more stashes or old records of how the Ravens were so effective, I've only got a few interesting points of note here. First, a folk hero named the Jackdaw - an elf, from what I can tell - helped to found the Silver Ravens in 4606. She'd already been fighting for the people back in Old Cheliax - which was, for all that we romanticize it, still a highly oppressive society."
He shifts his weight uncomfortably. "The Ravens as a group were founded to help protect Kintargo, specifically, from the chaos of the Chelish Civil War once Aroden died, though from what I gather, they were already reasonably heroic individuals. I don't have any names other than Jackaw's yet, but I'm almost positive that there was a priest of Milani involved somehow." He scratches his beard. "There is some other information, but it's mostly hopelessly outdated intelligence, from what I can tell."
"Jackdaw--another bird name!" Jessibel chirps in amusement. Then she gets serious again as another thought hits her.
"How long do elves live? Could Jackdaw still be alive? Assuming, of course, that they didn't meet an untimely end...which seems kinda likely, now that I think on it."
When the meeting's over, Jessibel sleeps like a log for most of the remainder of the day. When she awakes, she tells the others that she plans on visiting the Aulamaxa family villa to quiz her relatives on what they know of the Sarini family in the hopes of getting some idea who may have summoned the now-destroyed imp. She brings some of Laria's pastries as incentives/bribes.
The questioning goes so fast, Jessi ends up eating about half the goodies she brought from the Longroads Coffee House while she chit-chats about other topics that don't excite or intrigue her.
Vantine, who doesn't have deep roots in Kintargo, only 2nd generation, asks Rexus "so how did it end? What happened?"
Rexus shrugs at Jessibel's question. "I'm sure that the Jackdaw could still be alive, but I know not whether they are. If they are, then why did they leave Kintargo - or if they're still here, where are they?"
To Vantine's question, Rexus looks irritated at himself. "I'm not sure. Clearly they didn't succeed in keeping Kintargo independent from Thrune, but I don't know whether they were wiped out, or something else happened. I'm hoping that the documents will tell me more, but there's still a whole lot to go through"
Jakardos, a distant cousin of the main line and occasional guest lecturer at the Alabaster University, considers her questions closely, albeit in a hushed whisper - this sort of history is largely forbidden by House Thrune. ”Well, from what I know, the Sarinis allied with House Thrune during the civil war, and got promoted to Archdukes of Ravounel for it. Supposedly they worked to quell the rebels in Kintargo and the rest of the duchy.”
He considers for a moment. ”Because of that, there were a large number of infernalists in the House at the time. Just about any one of them could have summoned an imp, given how weak they are. Merendius, Davinia, Iustus, Rocardo… they had plenty of would-be infernalists, is all. I can’t tell you more than that, I’m afraid.”
He nibbles the pastry she gifted him with. ”Where’d you say you bought these? They’re delicious.”
Nyxra folds her arms. "I might as well help you sort through the rest, Rexus. Don't have much else to do anyway."
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In dealing with the imp Raven had shown he is not incompetent if he tries long enough. Vantine is also impressed that he was willing to touch the thing. She's certain it must have been disgusting, probably slimy. She wants to encourage him, and feels it would be a good idea to make some gesture to tell him if he keeps on with the knife throwing and punching that seems to be his thing, eventually he will improve.
When the opportunity to do so arises, she approaches him.
"Your were diligent and very brave. Without you we might not have been able to get rid of that awful imp."
This is a lie of course. Vantine would have banished it within another couple of minutes if other efforts had failed. But the facts aren't really the point.
Vantine steps in even closer and eases The Raven back against the wall before delivering a slow, lingering kiss. While in the embrace, she realizes she is flat-footed and her head isn't as tilted as much as she's come to expect when an elf is involved. She'd not noticed his height until now.
Poor guy. He's short for an elf as well.
The Raven shakes both his throbbing head and his aching hand. The talk of devils and infernal contracts is, frankly, beyond him. The matter is at an end, hopefully. Worse, Rexus had uncovered little of use to them in his research. "Who knew starting a revolution would be so difficult?"[/b] He chuckles quietly, mostly to himself. Jessibel does hit on an interesting idea. The Chelish civil war was not all that long ago by the reckoning of dwarves and elves and the like. Something that could be worth looking in to. I could search the Vashnarstill Shipyard records. See if any clients from a century ago are still around. "My offer to assist with the documents still stands, Lord Rexus. But another day. While the early bird may get the devil, the early bird needs a nap by noon." Exhausted as he is from maintaining both of his identities with the added burden of the noble work of the Silver Raven's, he looks deflated and smaller than usual, like a bedraggled raven that had found its way into a dirty pond.
The Raven disagrees with Vantine's assessment of his combat performance, Alexius was a professional duelist, after all. He opens his mouth to protest but is cut off before he can utter a sound when Vantine kisses him. Adrenalin and fire shoot though him, his fatigue instantly cured by her electrifying kiss. It takes all of his self-control to not grab her by her hips and pull her against him, but why? He had already kissed her and more; at least Alexius had. Why was she so damnably intriguing? He was not interested in perusing romance and philandering womanizer Alexius certainly was not. So why are his thoughts stuck on her? Why is he letting her push him around? More protesting thoughts form in his head, but the warmth of Vantine's lips wash them away as he relaxes into the kiss. He still keeps his hands to himself no matter how much he longs to grab her. The Raven is a gentleman after all. By the time Vantine breaks off the kiss, he is struggling to control his breathing. ”Uhh. Y-yes. I do my best. You did well, uhh, too.” His head is fuzzy and he can hardly remember where he is, never mind the fight with the imp. He can not remember what he or she had done in the fight, but he is sure she must have done something wonderful. The Raven places his hands flat against the stone wall lest they wander of their own accord. A quiet voice, somewhere deep down in the tactical part of his brain, tells him that he should push her against the wall and kiss her. That the act of defiance might at least put her on her back foot and show her he is not helpless to her wiles, but he ignores it, hoping for more.
Vantine steps back from The Raven and offers him a brief, reassuring smile before going to help Rexus with the documents for a little while before getting some sleep.
Rexus nods at Nyxra's offer. "I'll be grateful for whatever help you can offer." He pauses. "I don't suppose you can read Celestial or Strix?"
"I am fluent in Celestial, yes." Nyxra nods.
"Well, it's better than I'd hoped for!" Rexus says cheerily, and the two set out for work.