Leonore, keen to distance herself from the situation outside and curious about the young boy, silently follows Barka through the window.
Urach decides that clambering through windows might best be left to the more nimble members of the patrol. He does however lend a hand to Barka and Leonore to help them climb through safely.
[ooc]I don't know if I need to make two separate aid action rolls for Barka and Leonore. If not just use the first result for both.
With Urach giving the two a boost, Barka and Leonore eventually manage to clamber up through the broken window. Leonore manages to get through safely. For Barka, it's a bit more tricky, but Leonore can pull her up to make it through the final stretch.
The interior of the workshop is an absolute mess. On a good day, this likely looked like a professional workshop that has everything a person could need for enchanting or potion brewing. Several cauldrons of different sizes, with a very large one as the centerpiece of the room. Tool shelves and bookshelves filled to the brim with arcane instruments you can't even begin to fathom what they'd do.
But this isn't a good day. The books and tools are all over the room, along with torn pages and liquids that you imagine were once potions in mid-brew, judging by the overturned cauldrons.
Only one cauldron remains upright, the big one, but not due to lack of trying. The alleged kid is trying with all his might to tip it over, but is having some hefty trouble, what with it being filled to the brim with some sort of brew.
The kid's a scrappy looking sort, with curly blonde hair and pretty nice (albeit dirty) robes. He can't be much older than 13, if even that much. When he sees you, he backs off and says, "S-stand back! I'm on a mission for justice! Porphyry is a villain and I won't stop until she releases Master Kemeneles!"
Tima stares after her colleagues silently for a few awkward moments, then smiles sheepishly at the woman.
"Guess I got a little carried away there. I'd better go make sure nobody gets hurt".
Before the woman can get a word in, she dashes towards the door and checks if there's a gap Rissi can squeeze through.
A timid smile crosses Leonore's lips as Urach helps her through."Thank you!"
After listening to the boy, she calmly gestures with an outstretched hand to indicate that she means no harm. "Ehm... hi." she begins, with a slight waver in her voice. She finds a spot on the floor that isn't buried in tools and books, and cautiously sits down. "We, eh... we heard you were causing quite a lot of trouble... in here, that is. If you explain to us what happened to your master, maybe we could help?"
She then glances toward the door to see if it's blocked, or if the lock has just been turned.
Tima tries to open the door, but it's clearly blocked by something hefty: she has no success to get it open even the slightest bit.
Leonore, on her end, notices the door to the workshop-room is open and leads into a hallway; it's the front door that Marin's been locked out of.
The kid calms down a little, but he's still uncomfortable. "Help? Yeah, right. I know what's gonna happen, you'll cuff me for breaking and entering, I bet. But know that my cause is right! My teacher, a great wizard, has been abducted by this fiend!"
Leonore looks baffled, and looks toward the door before continuing with a hushed tone. "By her ? But... she doesn't seem like a kidnapper...".
She ponders for a moment. "If your master really was kidnapped, then that's something that the guards should look into... or I mean, we... we should to look into. Why is it you think that she was the one to take him?" she leans forward a little, as if to make sure that the people outside can't hear the conversation.
The child puts his nose up. "Oh, yeah, sure, you're going to help me, huh? I'm wiser than to fall for duplicitous tricks like that!"
He's not being very being very helpful, but maybe he just needs some convincing that you can be trusted.
Raising her hands to show they are empty Barka moves to where she can see and be seen. "What is your name? We are a new squad, we need a name, what do you think of Peace Makers?"
"If your master is missing our boss will want us to make a report."
The boy relaxes just a little bit further. "... Eunice. It's Eunice. Apprentice to the great Kemeneles. We... got to Absalom two weeks ago, then split up to run errands, but he never came back." He looks somewhat downcast as he recalls that time. You imagine he must have been through a lot. Then, he perks up with the same serious look he's had so far.
"But we don't need reports or bureaucracy or anything! This is a matter between great mages, and I have the upper hand! If she wishes her workshop back and intact, tell Porphyry to release my master! And the name Peace Makers stinks!"
"It might get a bit difficult to stay cooped up in here forever..." Leonore mutters, almost to herself. "What about if we look into the matter personally? As, ehm... I'm a spellcaster myself. Hearing about a missing mage is a little bit scary, and I don't want to be the next one to go. If you help us, I'm sure we could all figure this out before anyone else disappears. Forget about reports and bureaucracy... just, ehh... mages helping mages?"
"She has a magic lizard, I am sure se can introduce you."
Eunice's mouth opens with surprised delight. "A magic lizard? Can I see it? I'm sorry miss, I didn't know you were a fellow patron of the arcane arts!"
His animosity all but melts away and is replaced with admiration towards Leonore.
And excitement at getting to see the gecko.
Leonore, taken slightly aback by Eunice's reaction, flashes a shy smile. "That's okay! You're worried about your master, so your anger is understandable! Maybe Blue can cheer you up a little bit, though."
She extends her arm and lightly scratches a small bump under her sleeve, prompting the green gecko to emerge from its hiding place. It pokes its head out from underneath the fabric for a second, then scurries out onto the back of her hand. "He's my little helper." Leonore says, smiling proudly at the gecko as she lifts him up toward her face. "He's not that great at fighting, but that's okay... I'm not either. He does help me cast spells, though, and he's not always a lizard! Sometimes he changes into something a bit more useful, like an owl, or a cat... but he seems to enjoy being a lizard the most."
She moves her hand toward Eunice and nods at Blue. "You can hold him if you want. He likes meeting new people!"
"Let's get out of this stuffy shop." Barka moves to open the front door.
Eunice is absolutely delighted to meet Blue, and slowly but surely, softens up, to the point that he follows Barka's instructions as well. You all leave the workshop, allowing Marin entry back in.
After a little bit of an exchange between the two, the conclusion of this tale appears to be a positive one: Eunice offers his apologies to Marin and requests you to investigate, or at least report, his master's disappearance. Marin says she doesn't wish to press charges, and is more than happy that the kid's ended this siege of her workshop. Upon asking about the link between her and Kemeneles, she (out of earshot from Eunice) tells you she mostly remembers him as a creepy guy that glared at her a bunch back when they were both at the Arcanamirium. "Had I known I had a 'rival' I would've at least put him in his place sometime."
Finally, Marin and Eunice agree that he'll clean up the mess he caused and pay back damages by doing some odd jobs for her. With that, this case has come to a close. Marin and Eunice thank you for your efforts, though before you leave, Marin gives a little glare at Tima, muttering that as a team, your conduct with civilians could do with some improvement.
Tima rolls her eyes and flashes a smile.
"Well, I don't think Marin and I will be friends any time soon, but crackin' job you two."
"If you want 'ta amble round to those food carts, I'll do my best not 'ta piss anyone off this time."
Leonore is practically beams as they exit the building, proud of the outcome they accomplished.
"Thank you! I was a bit worried we were making a mess of things at first, but I'm glad things worked out in the end! Eunice was very sweet when he eventually warmed up to us. I hope we meet him again." she gives Blue a gentle stroke as he crawls in behind her hair. "I'm happy to go to the food carts, but, I think I'll just... stand behind you guys this time... that was enough confrontation and anger for me for one day."
"Let's not forget to tel the Sgt about this missing mage, there might be something going on."
The food carts are actually pretty close by, but the way this patrol routed, you'd go through the entire district clockwise and end it near the carts. Of course, you could also choose to head counterclockwise from here and get there a lot faster, so you decide to do that. After the carts, you'll still need to finish the beat, however, which would be the long counterclockwise way around from the carts to Marin's workshop.
After a brief walk, you hit the location of the dispute. Smoke and profanities rise up from a cluster of food stalls near a small park overlooking Absalom Harbor. The commotion centers on two particularly decrepit booths positioned across from each other, each little more than piles of haphazardly nailed boards, their peripheries scorched and smoldering. Everything Fried and Pelmo's Pickle Hut is what they're called. Suddenly a clay pot flies across the intervening space, smashing against one of the scorched stalls and splattering flaming oil across several others. As much as Leonore has had enough of confrontation and anger, it seems the group has found it.
The two food stall owners appear to be goblins, their stalls placed right next to each other. They're hurling things at each other, both insults and assorted items from their stalls. All other stalls around them have been vacated and their owners are observing the fight from a distance, worry in their eyes. However, their worry likely isn't about the fight itself. The goblins don't seem to notice in their focused rage at each other, but the front part of Everything Fried has caught fire, and it's slowly spreading towards a set of barrels marked with an cooking oil drop symbol that Everything Fried's owner stores behind the stall!
A concerned onlooker chimes in. "Guards! Get this madness sorted, before the whole place blows up!"
Initiative
The goblins, seemingly unaware of anything happening around them, simply continue hurling insults at each other. Eventually, Pelmo (of Pelmo's Pickle Hut) says something like "If yer so tough, why don't you come here and duke it out!", only to be somewhat taken aback when his opponent rolls up her sleeves and actually starts marching towards him. This altercation is about to get physical.
Leonore clocks the fire and, seeing that the goblins haven't noticed it yet, silently prays that the owner of the stall won't get angry at her for what she's about to do. She takes aim for the stall, and sends a blast of pressurised water its way.
Without missing a beat, Leonore focuses on the most pressing issue: the fire. She casts a spell, and a large burst of water emerges from her palms, covering the whole Everything Fried stand. Slowly it leans back more and more, until finally, it tips over, falling onto the ground.
After that use of the spell, the entire fire is doused, but the area around the stall is a mess of cooking oil and utensils scattered all over the floor when the stall tipped over.
The goblin, still rolling up his sleeves, turns back to his stall in and stares at it in dumbfound silence, all while Pelmo lets out a shrill, sadistic laugh at her expense.
"Let me help you with that." Barka leaps into action, picking up utensils. "Had it occurred to the too of you to work together, fried Pickles might be the hit of the festival."
The scavenger in Tima longs to pocket a utensil or two, but, picturing the stern face of Lavarsus, she holds off.
"I din't do the best job of talkin' last time," she says quietly to the group, "Does someone else want ta' talk these two out of whalin' on each other again?"
"Fried... pickles... Fried pickles..." The goblin suddenly turns back to Pelmo. "I was selling fried pickles! I didn't need this witch for it!" He hisses.
Pelmo responds "Pickles are MY territory, Grunka! I'm not letting you muscle in on my turf, stealin' my customers! Serves you right to have your stall pushed over!" Pelmo gives Leonore a thumbs up.
Grunka follows Pelmo's eyes to Leonore, and suddenly realization begins to set in.
"You TOPPLED my CART!!!"
Leonore instantly shrinks and her eyes widen in terror as Grunka's attention shifts to her. Her lips part slightly as if she's about to speak, but the fear keeps a tight grip on her words, and she remains silent.
Urach steps up and places a hand on Leonore's to reassure her. He gives Pelmo a stern look and answers: "What she did is save your cart from lighting this entire corner of the market on fire."
Having made his initial point and hopefully taking the attention from Leonore to himself, Urach continues. "I hope that goblins of business like yourselves can see that if you keep going like this, neither of you will have anything left to sell by the end of the day no matter whose territory it is. I'm going to ask you two to spend the rest of the festival with each other. Just settle down for a bit and in the meantime we'll look into settling your turf with the organisers, alright?"
Pelmo, from his still upright stall, laughs and shrugs. "Sure, sure, whatever, seeing all this happen made it all worth it!"
Grunka, however, is not satisfied, and in a fit of rage, she runs up to Urach and strikes with a ladle she picked up!
The ladle proves no match against the half-orc's solid armor, but she jumps up and gets a lucky, albeit weak hit in against his cheek!
"Do you have ANY idea how expensive that stall is? It's going to take me years to pay off the reparations! Typical, make one little fire related mistake and immediately all of Absalom is ready to gang up on ol' Grunka to ruin her property and tell her it's her fault! Aaagh!!"
Barka will step forward and attempt to pull the ladle from Grunka's hands.
The girls hands move quickly.
Attack
Requirements You have at least one hand free. The target can’t be more than one size larger than you.
You try to knock something out of an opponent’s grasp. Attempt an Athletics check against the opponent’s Reflex DC.
Critical Success You knock the item out of the opponent’s grasp. It falls to the ground in the opponent’s space.
Success You weaken your opponent’s grasp on the item. Until the start of that creature’s turn, attempts to Disarm the opponent of that item gain a +2 circumstance bonus, and the target takes a –2 circumstance penalty to attacks with the item or other checks requiring a firm grasp on the item.
Critical Failure You lose your balance and become flat-footed until the start of your next turn.
The girl then stoops to pick up the ladle. "Please do not strike an officer, Ma'am.
Barka tries to pull the ladle away. She doesn't quite succeed, but Grunka's grip on the improvised weapon is seriously hampered.
Noticing that the stall has little to no damage, Tima steps in front of Barka to try to defuse the situation.
"Relax, have a look at 'ya stall, it's just fine. Trust me, I've been selling goods out of one most of 'me life. Few coppers and it'll be good as new."
She reaches into her pouch and pulls out a silver.
"Take it if you want. I know it's not an easy trade."
Grunka initially scowls at Tima as she approaches her, but upon being given a silver piece, her face softens. She drops the ladle and lets out a sigh. "Just get me away from this guy," she says, pointing to Pelmo. She then looks at Urach. "You told me you could get that done."
She slowly starts picking up the pieces of her cart, ignoring Pelmo's jeering laughter. The crowd around them lets out a relieved sigh and starts dispersing.
Leonore, half hidden behind Urach, keeps a fearful eye on Grunka during the interaction. As the crowd disperses and Grunka turns her attention to her cart, however, Leonore slowly emerges from behind the orc, clutching Blue close to her chest with both hands.
"I... I'm sorry for causing such a mess. I saw the flames and panicked... I don't think well when I panic." she looks to her companions, and her shame turns to admiration, and then joy. "Thank you for handling it so well... we didn't even have to fight anyone!"
Urach nods to Grunka "I'll personally talk to the organisers about it Grunka, you have my word." He gives a quick nod to Pelmo as well, to make sure he's addressing both. "Now please stay out of each other's hair for the time being. The less we have to come back, the faster everything will be sorted."
Urach turns around to the squad and gives a grateful nod, clearly sharing Leonore's feelings about not having to fight in the middle of the marketplace. "Good work people, now let's finish our beat and see if we can't find a solution for this merchant's dispute."
Once out of earshot of the goblins Urach attempts to personally reassure Leonore. "Do not worry too much about the stall, you did good work. You prevented a much bigger disaster from breaking out after all."
You make your way to the stage where Acting Primarch Wynsal Starborn is set to hold his speech. You look around a bit instinctively, but it's just as Ollo said: a great number of stoic-looking guards keep watch, making sure the crowd doesn't go out of control. You sit down in a quiet corner and have a quick breather, when eventually, the opening ceremony begins.
Wynsal Starborn walks on the stage, a somewhat aged but still very healthy looking man decked in ceremonial armor. The armor's probably still from his time as Siege Lord and captain of the city's First Guard. He'd retired, but remained politically active and somehow ended up as acting primarch when the current ruling primarch, lord Gyr of House Gixx, vanished a good four years ago.
"Greetings to all here! I reckon this is the largest crowd I'll ever see in my lifetime, filled not just with faces of Absalom's own, but with guests from around the world! I bid you all welcome this festival, this event that truly comes but once in a lifetime: The Radiant Festival!"
Cheers well up from the crowd as he calls the name.
"Now, I don't intend to keep any of you here for long. At a time like this, you all have better things to do than listen to the ramblings of an old man. Be that as it may, I'd like to say a few words about the significance of this festival. For it is my belief that this century's Radiant Festival is a symbol of the new era we have been slowly ushering in, after the tough times we've had since the last festival!"
"Our misfortune has been great, but I am convinced that ever since we broke the Whispering Tyrant's siege, we've entered into a new age for Absalom. An age of peace and prosperity! And let this festival stand as testament to that! Let our city show the world that Absalom's greatness cannot be broken, and that our gates are open to all! I hereby declare a start to the 31st Radiant Festival!"
And just like that, the armored Wynsal steps off the stage as the crowd explodes in cheer. It doesn't take long for it to slowly start emptying out as the people head to the different attractions. Eventually, the stage area is mostly empty, leaving you alone with your thoughts, each other, and the rest of your job to do.
Throughout the gathering Urach tries to keep an eye on the crowd around him but once the Primarch starts speaking he can't help but look at the man in admiration. After recovering from his awestruck state at the end of the speech he turns back to the rest of the party. "Gives you hope doesn't it? Everyone in Absalom just rallying behind this common cause and recovering after all the hardship. The love and faith people have for this city is what makes everything grow and thrive more than anything else I think."
Tima nods. "I've been ta' a lot of places in my travels. The people of Absalom stick together better than most."
After your breather, you continue on with your beat. Things remain quiet for a little bit; you pass by more stalls (that are decidedly not on fire) and eventually your patrol route takes you to the Silver Lawn. The Silver Lawn is a large stretch of flattened grassland that hosts most of the big foreign attractions, the ones too big to fit the other host of foreign visitors and curiosities, the Hall of Nations.
And indeed, these attractions are big. Some standouts include the Graveraker, a massive Arcadian excavation machine the size of a building, and the Dragonfly Pagoda, a beautiful Minkaian temple, built right on-site in Absalom... Though you notice the construction effort isn't quite done yet.
Not all attractions are even stationary. One of them has been walking a large circular path around the other fantastical structures. A crowd of fairgoers stands watching in awe as, just beyond a line of guard ropes, a stone castle—complete with battlements and domed towers—marches along a wide, elliptical stone track. Dozens of thick mechanical legs support its bulk, and nobles in fine dresses
and coats wave from atop its walls. This is the Walking Castle of Kelesh, and it's been garnering a lot of well-deserved attention.
Suddenly, a commotion erupts from the crowd. A woman races out holding a dagger and a belt pouch. Behind her, a red-faced man points and yells “Thief! Stop her!”
The woman smirks as she looks at her hapless victim behind her... but she seems to have completely missed the guards she's about to run into. That's you!
Leonore, quite distracted by the awe-inspiring castle up ahead, gets startled as she spots the armed thief heading toward the group at such a rapid speed. She flinches and instinctively throws her hands out in front of her, blurting out something that sounds rather nonsensical. A vine instantly materialises in the air and shoots forward from her hands in the direction of the woman.
The vine careens right towards the woman's legs, and wraps around them, locking them completely together. She falls over and hits the pavement, dropping the pouch to the ground.
"Augh, godsdammit!"
Leonore freezes in position, eyes clenched shut as if she's bracing for impact. Upon hearing the thief curse, however, she dares a peek through one of her eyes and lets out a squeal of excitement when she sees the thief's legs bound by her vine. She then proceeds to bounce on the spot, clapping her hands in delight, and beaming with joy - completely forgetting that restraint is only the first of multiple steps in an arrest.
Tima pulls her crossbow and points it at the woman.
"Best ya' stay down there 'fa now, I think".
The thief grits her teeth and sighs. "Alright, alright, ya got me."
Her victim runs up to you and grabs the bag she was holding. He takes a quick look. "Thank Abadar, it's all still there. I don't have much to begin with, you see." He gives you all a satisfied nod. "That's the fastest response time I've ever seen. You must be the new department's finest, huh?"
Barka will move to the trapped thief. "There is another way, if you are looking for some honest coin, I could use some eyes and ears in the streets during the festival. Want a job?"
The thief looks up and raises her eyebrows, but stays quiet for now.
Her victim, however, looks at Barka with a frown. "You capture a thief, then offer her a job?" He grabs his pouch from the floor. "What happened to prison? She committed a crime, officer."