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Variel sees Litsy glance at him waiting for confirmation. He gives a slight shake of the head no hoping that Beorn’s latest gambit works and they head back in to count the coin. He wished he knew more about what was going on here though. Thus far he hadn’t seen the harsh treatment he expected nor did he see the signs of whipping upon the workers themselves. Perhaps this was a wild rumor and nothing nefarious was going on here.
The dwarf sighs and jumps off the cart signaling for them to continue on as he takes hold of one side of the gate and starta to close it.
"We can go down to the tavern up the street if you like and give me the money there. Or as I said you can just have a servant bring it later if you'd prefer not to expose your daughter to rough men."
The men appear a little emaciated and dehydrated and a few bear fresh welts from the whip though not nearly as many as you'd expect. Given normal Asmodean hospitality these men got off light. There foreign look and general demeanor suggests they might have been a group of bandits or mercenaries though you are i clined to believe the latter given most bandits don't even make it to jail alive. Chances are these men were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.
The corpulent fellow looks up from his book with a look of a man who has just found a dead goblin in his pickle barrel.
"It's not a", the man struggles with the word mouthing it slowly sweat forming on his face as new vocabulary tries desperately to survive the trashfire of memory. [B]"Eru, eruuuuuu, eruptiiing er-er-er, erotica!"
Nodding satisfactorily that he solved the riddle he continues his protest.
"It's an alchemy text. Very important very secret that is!"
A quick sideglance at the text reveals to Pollux the ancient secret of ginger tea with honey. He is also exposed to the no doubt forbidden knowledge of ginseng and goblin weed as the man pages the book with one finger on your list trying to find the appropriate entry. After a bit of trial and entry he puts a meaty hand down on the book and starts reading the entry out loud struggling with the big words.
"Serpents tong-you, native to the land of gar-und. Bitter, abrasive taste for the use of preventing fem-male estresesesess. Four ounce suitable for horse use on long ship voy-āge. One half ounce," he double checks your list to confirm the amount, "recommended dose monthly for human female to prevent pregnancy. For dwarven and elven uses please refer to app, end, x, c."
He looks up from the volume with a scandalous look.
"That's downright scandalous that is. Goes against the natural order of Asmodeus I says! What kind of wiman goes against the will of her husband like that?"
My little lady is made of stern stuff. I am sure we can handle things at the tavern!
"Rough men?" Litsy scoffs. "Oh please. I can handle them."
She stands on her tiptoes to watch the cart go, and tries not to let her frustration show.
She notices Variel making signal out of the corner of her eye. It looks awfully like a countdown. She positions herself at Beorn's side.
Indeed you are! She can kick shins with the best of them.
Borgan stands at attention as well, trying to copy Variel's posture as the group moves.
He glances at Variel, but doesn't see his hand motions. Though he has no clue whatever the plan is, he keeps a hand close to his mace.
The dwarf merely grunts an affirmation. The gate closes as the cart trundles along to its destination at the docks, the man in the back giving the group a blank stare all the way until it disappears around the corner. As the dwarf whispers some instructions to the gate guard he prepares to leave with you to the tavern a block or two down the street.
Litsy moves swiftly behind the dwarf. She's been agitated, more on edge than the last time she had to rescue some sneaky little brat from angry street thugs. Perhaps some light backstabbing will make her feel better?
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Beorn will decide to verbally castigate the dwarf after no doubt venting his fury on Litsy.
That is no way to speak to a young lady! I WANT TO SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER!
"That's downright scandalous that is. Goes against the natural order of Asmodeus I says! What kind of wiman goes against the will of her husband like that?"
"There are women and there are women" Pollux says turning their eyes pointedly to the unfortunate painting. Eyes returning to stare at the shopkeeper the stranger continues. "And we all serve in our own way." Pollux glances at the painting again and shudders, whether from artistic disgust or patriotic fervor is an open question.
"In any case my Mistr.." Pollux catches themself, glances again at the painting, swallows, and continues, voice flat as if reciting a carefully memorized cover story. "My Master, is traveling from Court and one of her horses is having, issues. Our veterinary's stock of this herb is low so I have been sent ahead to acquire one half ounce. No more and no less." Pollux glances again at the painting.
The tattered stranger continues their voice stronger now and carrying an undertone of threat. "It is best not to go against the natural order of Asmodeus nor against the will of his chosen. Triumphs and tragedies attend our betters and it is well not to know more lest our eyes burn from staring too closely at the sun."
Pollux silently places the necessary coins on the counter
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If there is time for Variel to react after giving the signal to Litsy and Borgan Variel will try to incapacitate the dwarf and the gate guard with a color spray spell. Hopefully it will knock them out so they can be tied up to be dealt with later. The fewer that died the better possibly for the city.
color spray DC 14
Litsy's stilleto work finds flesh to bit under all the hair and chainmail of the dwarf.
will
The dwarf screams and curses as hes enveloped in scintillating light. Gripping the bars he sways heavily as he tries to come back to his senses. In the yard a guard blows a shrill whistle alerting any of the other guards inside of the brawl.
Bad guys:
Bad guys thay happen to be pcs: eh pretty sure you have this.
You are up! And so is the map.
"Oh! Was that the signal? Right, let's have at it."
Borgan states as he unslings his shield from his back and saunters up to the dwarf.
"Nothing personal, my man."
Beorn inspires courage. 8/8 rnds +1 Hit/Damage/Saves vs.fear
"He doesn't speak for me," Litsy explains to the dwarf, twisting the shiv for good measure. "It's probably a little bit personal at this point."
The dwarf barely has a chance to respond as the group collectively rushes forward and beats ten kinds of crap out of him. As Variel starts to make his ultimatum its drowned out by the panicked guards scream "Shit! It's a set up! TO ARMS! TO ARMS!!!"
Two other guards rush up and one pulls the door open and Variel finds himself the recipent of a mace to the chest.
A quick look above her shoulder suffices for Litsy to figure out that Variel is going to need some help pretty soon.
"Tough guy's going to need us," she says to Borgan before drawing out her shiv and rushing to Variel's side. She easily slips out behind one of the guards threatening him, but doesn't anticipate his seeing her coming.
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Maybe just give them all a sounds drubbing and leave them trussed up? After all, we are not blood stained dungeon crawlers!
7/8 rounds left
SURRENDER KNAVES! YOU ALL FACE JUSTICEEE!!!!!!!!
Borgan sees the dwarf fall down, all crumpled up then looks towards the opened door and sees Variel getting hit.
"I've got your back Variel." the big green man says as he takes up a position behind him.
Then proceeds to whack the man standing between Variel and Litsy.
The dwarf, still alive and very angry now, backs up and spars a split second to assess his surroundings before hee grabs and oddly lumpty bag off his belt and hurls it at Borgan.
As he does so the bag flies apart and borgan suddenly finds himself covered in sticky rapidly hardening tar.
"I'll truss you up by your damned guts!" The dwarf responds to the half orcs belligerents.
The other two guards shocked expressions quickly get dark and focused when Variel expertly separates his first opponents head from his body. Turning their attention to the magus they try to bring him down quickly.
One manages a solid blow in response to the death of his comrade while the other barely misses the mark. As the guards gather themselves up the element of surprise is gone and it's left to raw skill at arms to win the day.
Beorn keeps singing 6/8 Lighten up good fellows! Beorn proceeds to tell a little joke of Queen Abrogail and the entire garrison of helknights.
"EW!" Litsy hurries out of the way of the fountain of blood that was once a guy's head.
Where she comes from, one doesn't easily lose one's head unless they're caught by the guards and very, very unlucky. She's not sure she likes to see it first hand.
Variel's pained noise when one of the guards strikes at him provides a semi-welcome distraction from looking at the head she knows just fell somewhere to her right.
With her next priority being simply to move away, very fast, she clicks her heels together, ducks behind Variel's arm, cartwheels past the guard standing behind his back, jumps back on her foot and strikes like a cobra.
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Variel takes another slice across his abdomen but considered it a fair trade for the death of one of the guards. While he wished not to kill any of them now was not the time for second guesses. Using the flank set up by Litsy Variel continues his assault.
2-handed power attack with flank, imbued weapon, and inspire courage for
threat for
After the devastating blow from the scimitar Variel steps forward to provide another flank for Litsy on the last guard.
Borgan will move up to strike the dwarven guard that was apparently still up.
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **...
.
Suddenly jovial and channeling Brian Blessed Pollux exults. "Aha my fantabulous friend you are a very clever apothecary indeed!" Pollux slaps their stick flat on the counter as if to punctuate the point, but the stick remains on the counter amidst the lethal leaves.
"Not many, no it is a fine and rare apothecary who is clever enough and sufficiently gifted with foresight to comprehensively mislabel their stock. It takes a very special mind to place a harmless veterinarial plant in a jar so clearly labeled with the name of the famed and toxic hemlock. No thief or base competitor can steal your secrets. Well done sir. Well done.
Your confidence in your arts calms my spirits and bouyes my heart. To know that you are so sure in your skill that you do not fear the ill fortune that would lead you to the magistrates bench while a witness, such as my humble self, states, with such truthfulness as to satisfy the most exacting Hellknight, that they saw you fill the order from the jar clearly labeled hemlock. I say again sir, well done."
Pollux at this point appears to drop something and bending down turns away from the counter giving our armature apothecary a chance to correct their error and to allow our hero to truthfully say the they did not see what exactly went into the final package.
In short order the rest of the remaining guards are put down choking on their own blood on the street before expiring.
Not allowing this particular fact deter him the dwarf turns to the softest target available to him and brings his mace down on the half orcs head.
A blow Beorn barely manages to back away from before it takes his head off.
Beorn makes an artful dodge and skips away from the foul villain's strike!
Finally able to catch a breath, Litsy tries to spot the young man from earlier, hoping he didn't take part in the bloodbath.
Litsy doesn't see the wagon come back from around the corner. Either they were out of earshot or the assault was over and done so quick ir didn't even register.
Its basically free so go for all of it.
In a few strides, Litsy gets behind the dwarf again.
"If I were you, I'd give up at that point," she offers benevolently. "Alone, surrounded by maniacs? Come on."
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With the fight over Variel quickly wipes the blood off his sword as he utters an incantation as the blood spilled on him fades away. He then drags the bodies out of sight. We need to find a place to stash the bodies so no one will know for sure what just happened. Variel then casts prestidigitations again cleaning up any spilled blood on the ground and on the others. The less that people know exactly what happened the better. Word just needs to get out that slavery is not allowed and will be dealt with severely. Anything else could bring too much pressure on us too soon.