Another couple of hours later, and you were standing outside the Emerald Guardhouse. The columns of this wide, squat building are carved in the likeness of Runelord Belimarius, her stern expression watching all that occurs here. Its wide courtyard is filled with practice dummies and other evidence of martial training. Guards move in and out of the place in twos and threes, either beginning or ending their shifts. A short line has formed outside the door of a recruiting area, where a single guardswoman sat interviewing prospective recruits.
Several of the other people in line glared at Ava, and more than one called out "Get back in line" or similar. The guardswoman looked disdainfully at the halfling and said, "Garrla? I don't know any Garrla. If you're here to sign up, get in the line like everyone else."
She pointed at her uniform and said, "If you like it, and you have what it takes, this can be yours some day." Then, waving Ava away, she motioned for the next person in line to step up.
Dahros got in line, and after about a half an hour, he got to the head of the line. When he spoke of Garrla, the guardswoman rolled her eyes. "Did you seriously just stand in line to talk to me about someone who I told your friend I didn't know. Anyone else here looking for Garrla? You can go ahead and get out of line now. This is not the time or place to waste anyone's attention. You, where are your travel papers? Let me see them."
The guardswoman's eyes grew hard. "I am a sergeant in the Emerald Guard, not a Sugar. And you are obviously foreigners. Papers. Now!"
The woman took Thellira's papers and scowled at them. "All of you are signing up together? Hmm...your papers look in order. Perhaps you have what it takes after all, to be at the right time and place. Maybe in a couple of days you'll be standing guard at the docks like Ellvard. Either way, your names are in the roster. You'll be notified of your acceptance once your background investigations are complete. I hope you have what it takes to succeed." She says the last as she hands the papers back to Thellira and points at the guard stationed outside the door.
When Thellira took the papers, she felt a thin book inserted into them. The guardswoman gave her the barest wink and said, "Next!"
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Thellira nods, "I'll do my best sergeant. Uhh when would I be notified? I have a date tomorrow morning." She turns and pats Rolo on the chest, "Rolo here is going to take me to see the sunrise over Shard Cove. We can say a prayer for my sister Rolana taken from this life too soon. Then a quick roll in the surf and back to work." She watches Rolo's face turn red, and points at the guard smirking by the door, "you know what I'm talking about!" Grinning, Thellira tucks her papers away and takes Rolo's hand, walking toward the door to leave.
"I don't need to know your love life, recruit! Now, get out of here "
As the five of you left the area, the guards at the entrance looked you over. One started to say something, but the other stopped him. Instead, they just stared until you left their line of sight.
As soon as you were in a safe spot, Thellira opened the book to see it contained a ledger showing a guard named Ellvard recently sold an expensive piece of art to one of Bellimarius' agents. This information must be useful, seeing as how the sergeant had slipped it to you.
Asking around the docks area, Ava learns from a number of people that Ellvard is a guard there known for lining his pockets with other people's money. He was known to accept bribes for all kinds of services, not to put too fine a point on it. Traveling to the docks and asking around burnt up most of the afternoon, and dusk was well on its way before you managed to find the street with Themolin's warehouse on it.
The address of the warehouse led you to a building that stood out from the dilapidated housing that surrounds it. The well-maintained warehouse was surrounded by a wall, whose large doors were closed, but not locked. Inside the wall you saw a courtyard with neatly stacked crates, hand trucks and carts for moving the containers about, and a large warehouse with two primary entrances.
Hearing nothing but perhaps the low murmur of voices, Thellira knocked on the door, and the sounds of conversation stopped. She waited, but no one answered the knock on the door.
Receiving no response, Thellira swings the door open. The interior of the warehouse was filled with boxes, and only dimly lit by the last of the day's sun filtering through the skylights. The ceiling is at least 30 feet high, and the stacks of crates go up half that far in most places. It is almost like a maze, with the crates piled up higher than any of you are tall. There is no one within sight of the door.
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Nali uses this opportunity to try to assist, in other ways. Before she enters the room, she quietly mutters some words and reaches out to touch lunaball, which vanishes from sight.
"Lunaball! You know what to do! Let me know what you see."
The now invisible lunaball takes to the room and takes flight, flying in a clockwork rotation around the room from a high vantage point.
Lunaball returned to Nali quickly, informing her that there was a man tied to a chair in the center of the main area, and another man standing over him. There might be others, too, but those were the only ones she saw.
ava
dahros
nali
rolo
thellira
barralbus
harrald
hidden
You followed Nali's whispered instructions until you could see to teh back of the warehouse. There, you found Themolin bound to a chair, his face a bruised and bloody mess. Standing over him, with his hands on Themolin's shoulders and sneering at you, is Barralbus. Beside him is another man, a hired thug by the looks of it. From teh blood on his knuckles it is clear that Barralbus did not get his own hands dirty.
"Oh look, your foreign partners have come just in time. Maybe they'll be more forthcoming with the details. Harrald, deal with them!"
As the thug cracked his knuckles, a sound came from your left. There was someone else hiding behind the crates!
R1: thellira, nali, harrald, dahros, ava, rolo, barralbus, hidden
Thellira ran through the corridors of crates and barrels, lashing out at Barralbus and catching the man off guard. The ball smashed into his chest, causing him to grunt in pain. The thug Harrald moved up, drawing a rapier and thrusting it at Thellira's chest. The point was turned away by the barbarian's armor, and she grinned maliciously at him as her fire-based retaliation hit the thug a glancing blast.
R1: thellira, harrald, nali, dahros, ava, rolo, barralbus, hidden
ava -0
dahros -0
nali -0
rolo -0
thellira -0
barralbus (blue) -12
harrald (yellow) -3
hidden -0
Ava and Dahros tried attacking Harrald, but netiher managed to make contact. Rolo rushed in with mace swinging and caught the man on the shoulder, spinning him about.
Barralbus stepped back from teh fight, conjuring up a fireball that sprang into existence atop Dahros' head, burning the fighter a bit. From atop the crates, a pair of thugs sprang from hiding, leaping down from their hiding places in the crates to stab at Ava with their rapiers, though both were in such a rush that they missed completely.
R2: thellira, harrald, nali, dahros, ava, rolo, barralbus, thugs
ava -0
dahros -0
nali -0
rolo -0
thellira -0
barralbus (blue) -12
harrald (yellow) -10
thug (red) -0
thug (white) -0
Thellira whirled her meteor hammer about, catching her assailant with one of the blows. He lashed back at her, though, aiming for her legs and dropping the dwarf on her rear end. He drove his rapier in, but Rolo's warding glare kicked in and he felt himself weakening. He pushed through the effect, driving the blade into Thellira's shoulder before spinning back to a place of relative safety.
Thellira is hit for 4 damage
R2: thellira, harrald, nali, dahros, ava, rolo, barralbus, thugs
ava -0
dahros -0
nali -0
rolo -0
thellira -4
barralbus (blue) -12
harrald (yellow) -21
thug (red) -0
thug (white) -0
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"Sneaky Sneaky aren't you all. Gonna wish you stayed up on those crates"
Nali reaches out with her wiggly arm and touches the same target that Ava has engaged with a cold chilling touch.
DC 19 basic fort (enfeebled 1 on crit failure)
While the foe is distracted she then b#$## slaps him across the face with her tentacle fist.
B
Nali's spell did little damage, nor did her punch, but at least it pulled the thug's attention off of Ava. Dahros landed a heavy blow that killed Harrald, then stepped out of the flames to strike at Barralbus. Rolo rushed to his aid, cutting the arcanist deeply with his sword. In the middle of the warehouse, Ava took advantage of the distracted thug to smash him over the head with a hammer she found lying nearby.
For his part, Barralbus stepped away from Dahros and rolled the ball of fire over him again. This time the fire caught hold more firmly. Dahros screamed, and as she turned to look, both of the nearby thugs attacked Ava. But the halfling was too wily for them, spinning and ducking around the flashing rapiers.
Dahros takes 10 fire damage after the glimpse,. Basic DC 22 reflex save.
R3: thellira, nali, dahros, ava, rolo, barralbus, thugs
ava -0
dahros -8 (-13?)
nali -0
rolo -0
thellira -4
barralbus (blue) -27
harrald (yellow) -35 [dead]
thug (red) -11
thug (white) -0
Nali's spell caught one of the two thugs by surprise, though the other managed to close his eyes at the last minute. The one in white blinked a few times, but seemed otherwise fine. The one in red was clawing at his eyes and shouting about being blind. Thellira's swings went wild as if she too was blind. Dahros and Rolo both launched blows that nearly connected, but Barralbus managed to dodge them. At least until Rolo's backswing took him in the side of the neck. The man was still standing, though badly injured. Ava stepped back and launched a slat of wood into the back of the unblinded thug's head. The man dropped like a sack of potatoes, his dazzled eyes rolling up into his head as the plank connected.
As Rolo reached over to heal Dahros, Barralbus began moving he fiery orb over Dahros' legs once more, then steps backwards and begins frantically looking about as if for more help. The blinded thug lashed the air with little effect.
Dahros receives 12 healing
Dahros takes [9 fire damage[/b], Basic DC 22 Reflex
R4: thellira, nali, dahros, ava, rolo, barralbus, thugs
ava -0
dahros -5 (-10?)
nali -0
rolo -0
thellira -4
barralbus (blue) -42
harrald (yellow) -35 [dead]
thug (red) -11 [dazzled]
thug (white) -16 (dead)
Between them, Dahros and Rolo finished off Barralbus and the remaining thugs. Themolin, once untied and ungagged, thanked you profusely for his rescue. He offers to let you take anything in the warehouse as a reward for rescuing him from Barralbus' clutches, but the real treasure is the crate of artwork that is packaged in watertight bundles that he has prepared as payment for smuggling him out of of Xin-Eddaseril.
You find a single potion of invisibility on Barralbus' body, and some mundane weapons and gear on the thugs. Not much, but it's worth something.
With Themolin rescued and ready to travel, he joins you at the Rockfish Inn, where you find Yuleg feeding soup to his daughter Vurna, who is much improved. She should be able to travel on the morrow, though still weak and recovering from her illness. The night passes with little trouble, other than difficulty sleeping with so many things to keep track of.
Before dawn in the morning you make your way into the sewers, the large group of you making more noise than is preferred but still manageable. You find Flitch waiting at the meeting place, along with Daffrid, her family, and the stone giant, Seddothrum. Flitch takes the lead, heading down the tunnels towards Shard cove, where you hope to float some of the group out to the Rolanna's Prayer before taking yourselves and the rest of the refugees off on the Merry Mayfly for which you have papers and paid passage.
When you reach the cove, there is a single human figure waiting there, putting the final touches on a raft. When she turns to face you, you see it is the recruiting sergeant from the Emerald Guard barracks. "Oh good. I was hoping I had read you right. The name's Astrid, though you might know me better as Garrla. If I'm right, that boat out there is here to pick us up. Well, some of us at any rate. It doesn't look big enough for... a quick counting of heads gave her the total. "Fifteen of us. How are you planning on doing this?"
You recall Valais saying that the Prayer can only accommodate five people. The giant probably counts as two. The rest of you will have to try and get past the guards at the dock somehow. How do you want to divide the group?
Garrla/Astrid's raft is well built enough to get the first group out to the Rolanna's Prayer. Though the Shard Cove is aptly named, with many sharks and other feeding creatures circling around the rzor-edges shards of stone jutting through the water, you manage to get Yuleg and Vurna, Flitch, and Themolin aboard the smuggler's ship. The last of them had barely gotten aboard when the Prayer was asail, moving quickly into deeper waters and away from the Runelord's influence.
Getting the rest of the group aboard the Merry Mayfly looked to be the more difficult of the tasks. Despite going over the plan, and preparing the falsified papers you nicked from Flitch, there were just so many people to wrangle. As you exited the sewers and headed for the docks, you could see the sip you were slated to leave on. You could also see a pair of Emerald Guardsmen standing at the entrance to the docks, checking everyone's papers. More were patrolling the area, and you knew that fighting your way through was not the answer.
"The one on the left is Ellvard," Astrid murmured to you. "He's the one that Themolin founds records of selling forged artwork to the Runelord's factors. We might be able to use that to get past him. I'll have to take a back seat in this process, though. If any of the other Guards recognize me, they might not be as easily swayed."
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Thellira takes the others in, checking their preparations one last time. "Once we start moving, drink that potion Seddothrum. It should make your invisible long enough to get on the ship. Pick your time well so you don't jostle anyone and get caught. Nali, maybe make the kids invisible as well? They might cause the most trouble with the guards. Garrla, can you use this disguise kit to make yourself look different enough that Ellvard won't recognize you?"
She looks over Astrid's uniform and takes out her knife, "this will do." She begins putting removing any rank patches before putting it on, rolling the pants so they don't drag. "Ava, you and Dahros drive the wagon with Daffrid's family and Garrla in the back. Our papers say 5 merchants, so as long as the kids stay quiet you should be set. Oh!, and do that lovey-dovey crap we're all tired of." She grins at Rolo and Nalo, "while they're making the guards nauseous, you two will walk in before me. Flitch's papers should be sufficient while I have a nice talk with Ellvard."
She watches the guards for another moment and looks at the sun to gauge how much time they have left before they set sail. "Sound like a plan? Everyone ready?"
As you approach the guards, the one that you don't know asks for your travelling papers. You hand over yours, in addition to the faked ones you made up for the others. He checked them over, all the while sneaking a glance at the dwarf in the ill-fitting Emerald Guard uniform.
Either the forged paperwork or the disguise has the man's attention tweaked. You might need to convince him that nothing untoward is going on here.