Gregoth terrifies his nearest gimmerling, then nearly then nearly cleaves it in twain with a mighty blow from his sword. One of the ones harrassing Turrey looks at the spectacle with shock that quickly turns to terror.
Turrey takes a step back, and the ground shoots uneven spikes out to trip him up.
He stumbles and scrapes his leg, but stays on his feet and fires an arrow. Off-balance the arrow looks easy to avoid, except the target is too busy staring in fear at Gregoth, and it takes them unawares.
Turrey's other opponent laughs at his friends misfortune, but then is bamboozled by Turrey's spell and starts whining piteously instead.
Kaldren pays little attention to the rest of the fight as he focuses single-mindedly on his unrepentant opponent. With a squelch his flail crushes the gimmerling's brain, and he storms on toward the next, swining at it but narrowly missing it.
Active Effects:
Haste: Everyone is quickened, and the extra action can be used for a Strike or a Stride only
Inspire Courage: Everyone has +1 status bonus to attack and damage rolls, and to saves against fear effects (until Gregoth's turn on round 6)
Gimmerling 2
Gimmerling 3
Gregoth
Turrey
Kaldren
Gimmerling 1
➤Bellaluna
Félicité
Gimmerling 4
Bellaluna looks down at the two remaining gimmerlings and just sighs. ”You are determined little buggers, aren’t ya?”
The elf quickly reloads both of her crossbows then spins one of her crossbows by the trigger guard before grasping it and firing at the gimmerling right in front of her!
Félicité stares at the more wounded glimmerling.
◆
◇
◆
plus plus
◇
She then slides over to Bellaluna, mimicking the battlefield doctors she's learned from.
◆
She'll then shield ◆ herself.
Bellaluna reloads and then outfoxes the poor gimmerling already struggling to adjust to having their senses rewired. She plants a perfect shot into its chest, and its all the little thing can do to keep its feet.
Félicité watches this happen and predicts the movements of the more injured gimmerling. She looses a perfect shot of her own, calling out a few words of inspiration to the others, and then rushes to Bellaluna's side to tend to her wounds.
The beleaguered gimmerlings show no consideration for their own safety, and despite the punishment they're taking they continue attacking turrey with glee, tearing into him like wild animals.
Their both manage to bite Turrey, and he can feel their white-hot venom dripping into the wounds. Their claws are also razor sharp, but Turrey manages to avoid most of their slashes.
Active Effects:
Haste: Everyone is quickened, and the extra action can be used for a Strike or a Stride only
Inspire Courage: Everyone has +1 status bonus to attack and damage rolls, and to saves against fear effects (until Gregoth's turn on round 6)
Didactic Strike: Gimmerling 3 is flat-footed to everyone's first attack before Félicité's turn, and it will do 2d6 additional precision damage.
Gimmerling 3
➤Gregoth
Turrey
Kaldren
Bellaluna
Félicité
Gimmerling 4
Shadows race from Gregoth, surrounding the wounded fey creature.
Slowly the large man advances, blade held in front of him like a ward against the shadows that surround him. They reach out to steal the light from around the other gimmerling and steal the breath from its lungs.
Bellaluna reloads her empty crossbow then shoots them both at one of the gimmerlings.
The elf then repositions herself
Turrey gasps in pain as the glimmerlings cut him from the left and right. Afraid to try to move around them, the bard instead casts a spell that he hopes will thwart further attacks on him.
Suddenly there are four of Turrey where there once was only one. All four of them raise their bow and take another shot at the frightened glimmerling.
The gimmerling scampers away from Gregoth's spirits at first, but the next lot catch up with him and leech the life away, dispersing to leave an ashen corpse.
Gregoth intimidates the last gimmerling standing, and even the treacherous ground seems to be afraid of him as it half-heartedly tries to trip him up.
Turrey conjures some illusory protection and fires a couple of shots at the remaining creature. Peals of thunder accompany the strikes as they both hit and stagger the pitiful thing.
Bellaluna fires both her crossbows at the surprisingly sturdy pin-cushion gimmerling, and both strike true before she repositions herself.
◆
Kaldren turns the final gimmerling into a fine mist with a single strike, then lays a hand upon Turrey to heal him almost as good as new As the gimmerling falls so too does the ground return to its normal state.
As the adrenaline of combat cools, you begin to hear the sounds of the market from all around the tent again. It is a busy and loud market, but both the strange sounds of combat and the sudden brief appearance of fleeing fey creatures have clearly been remarked upon, for you can hear several curious conversations going on outside the tent speculating on the cause.
One of the gimmerling corpses is just outside of the tent, but it is well covered from the throng by the canopy and the podium, so you suspect it probably hasn't been noticed yet.
Standing in the menacing aura of the covered final blade, and surrounded by corpses, you have to decide what to do.
As the adrenaline of combat cools, you begin to hear the sounds of the market from all around the tent again. It is a busy and loud market, but both the strange sounds of combat and the sudden brief appearance of fleeing fey creatures have clearly been remarked upon, for you can hear several curious conversations going on outside the tent speculating on the cause.
Hearing the speculation occurring outside, Bellaluna thinks quickly on her feet and puts on a disguise she’s already used recently: a Gray Gardener. In her Gray Gardener garb, she exits the tent and throws the corpse of one of the gimmerlings back inside. If anyone continues to look her way, Bellaluna glares at them but otherwise says nothing.
Félicité will heal everyone () and refocus, and investigate the final blade ().
If we appear pressed for time (i.e., Bellaluna's action causes discontent), Félicité will do it in the reverse of the order listed, and Battle Medicine instead of Treat Wounds.
Even as Bellaluna creates her quick disguise, the hubbub about the tent grows audibly, as people question whether they should investigate, if people might be hurt.
As soon as a gardener steps outside the tent however, the conversations die. After a moments eerie silence, the sounds of the market return quickly to normal, leaving all of you in the tent to receive Félicité's ministrations and to investigate.
Turrey detects several magic items amongst the Director General's belongings, and on the gimmerlings too. His striped shirt is as hard as steel and suffused with an illusion aura, and both his sword cane and his dagger are also magical. The ceramic mask he wore is mundane, but unusual as it's both plain and finely made. Each gimmerling has a magical hand-crossbow that they seemed to lack the patience to use.
Removing the tarp and examining Sharp-Tooth Hana ought to be easy, but it emanates an aura of such immobilizing dread that it's hard to summon the energy. When you all finally get a look at it, it is overwhelming. Despite studying it, none of you can discern the nature of its echantments, but you all know that the final blades are artifacts, and thus can only be destroyed, or even harmed, by a specific means unique to each.
After about half an hour treating wounds and studying Sharp-Tooth Hana, there has been no sign of anyone coming to investigate yet. As it's around 3:30pm some stalls are starting to close up for the day.
"This artifact is too powerful for us to destroy here. We should either move it at night into a place where the Gardeners cannot find it, or, we can booby trap the area around it."
Still panting, Gregoth looks the guillotine up and down. “It’s a bit big to be pushing around town without anyone noticing,” he offers, squatting down to see if the frame has wheels. “Even if someone makes it invisible or something, it’d look awfully strange to see a bunch of folks pushing and pulling at nothing. And there’d be Gardeners on us in a matter of hours. You sure we can’t just break it? Or maybe break the frame so it can’t be used without repairs?”
Bellaluna suddenly appears in her Gardener garb. ”I hate to say it, but if we can’t destroy or sabotage it in some way, we’ll just have to leave the final blade here.”
Félicité agrees, and wonders if anyone has an ability to trap the area around the blade.
Gregoth nods, then motions for folks to stand away from the blade. “Don’t want this to fall on anyone…” He puts his hands on the guillotine’s wooden frame and tries to push it over.
He then proceeds to push the barrels and crates nearby on top of the grim artifact in an effort to make it as difficult as possible for someone to get the blade operational again.
"If we cannot destroy it or move it then we will have to leave it for now."
While Turrey brainstorms how to smuggle such a large artifact out of the market, and Gregoth rolls up his sleeves try toppling it, Kaldren ponders the emanations coming from it.
Though at first Kaldren couldn't decipher the complex currents of magic surrounding it, as he considers it further he begins to understand just how evil this thing is. Everyone knows that final blades capture the souls of those they kill, but he realises that the guillotine's magic only has so much metaphysical space to store the souls. Now that enough souls are stored in it, they seem to have formed some sort of immensely powerful force of death, barely contained by the final blade.
Were this force somehow released, it has the potential to snuff out life around the final blade in an apocalyptic event not unlike what happened to Vigil!
Gregoth pushes the final blade, finding it much heavier than it looks. With a concerted effort he manages to topple it, and the resulting crash causes the hubbub of the market to cease for a second before continuing. After pushing some of the crates on top it looks like it would need the combined efforts of several people to get it operational again.
By the time you're finished, the market has started to die down as stalls close up and the sun sets, and you retreat back to Sun Mother's Herbs during dusk to discuss what you've learned and plan. You have two full days left to gather information or pursue leads before the Masque, and you feel a growing sense of dread about what might happen there.
Keznin prepares food for you and tries to keep your spirits up, but he too seems disturbed.
Bellaluna slowly turns to Kaldren and stares at him with a mix of confusion, terror, and fascination. "You're telling me that these things can only hold so many souls?! Um...can't believe I'm saying this, but let's not destroy this thing and find out what's inside."
*
"Alright, we should probably stop by the bank for that reward, then meet that so-called assassin."
Just as she has been doing the past two days, Bellaluna dons her Gardener disguise and gathers what she can about the Gray Gardeners.
Gregoth heads to the pub again, seeing if the stir in the marketplace yesterday has made folks more - or less - willing to talk about the blades that hang over their figurative heads.
Despite his love for his fans, Turrey decides it's wise not to draw further attention to himself.
Given that his impersonation of human children bore so little fruit, he goes with his not-yet-tried notion to disguise himself as a visiting scholar of the occult. He seek entry into a local university, and sees if he can befriend a local scholar and learn anything more about the Final Blades.
Troubled by what he has deduced regarding the Final Blades, Kaldren will spend the first part of the day trying to learn anything more about them. After that perhapse the bank.
Gregoth settles into another tavern, rubbing elbows with the common folks here for the festival. Every time he steers the conversation toward the final blades though, the locals shout him down for ruining the mood and return to their discussion of who's going to drink the most pints of cider before passing out at the festivities.
Bellaluna again dons her flawless Gardener disguise, moving around the city with impunity. One one point during the morning she turns a corner into an alley and finds a pair of Gardeners bundling someone into a carriage. They stop to look at her for a second, but quickly relax. After they bang on the door of the carriage and it drives away, she shares a few moments with them talking about the Masque.
"That idiot was saying we were all going to take off our masks at midnight during the Masquerade. Can you imagine? Whatever is going to happen, they'll be talking about it for years you can bet"
Bellaluna has to walk a fine line in the conversation to avoiding tipping her hand, but it becomes clear both that the rumour of the Gardener unmasking appears not to be true, and that not even the rank-and-file members know what's going to happen, beyond that it will be dramatic.
Félicité finds a young gentleman to assist her after she puts on a show of being lost. She listens more than she talks, using her knowledge of his family's history to nudge the conversation in the direction of the Gray Monastery, and he confides in her that the crypts under the monastery are said to be filled with spectral undead. Little else he says appears to be of any consequence, and he is left suprised when Félicité eventually grows bored and abruptly leaves his company.
Turrey disguises himself as an occult scholar, visiting from Lepidstadt. Lacking a formal university, he settles for a bookshop near Soul Mother's Herbs, "The Third Eye". There he finds a small but passionate group debating occult workings, and he quickly impresses them with his knowledge of rituals of distant origins. As local experts, they are happy to help him understand the details of Galt's final blades. He learns from them that the final blade known as Silent Lenore has been brought into the Gray Gardener' monastery as the centrepiece for the upcoming masque. The very same final blade took the life of Apalma Drannoch, mother of the current chairwoman of Galt's Revolutionary Council, or so one of the scholars confides to Turrey in a whisper. They go on to whisper that people say wearing a red scarf around it lessons the awful feelings of dread, perhaps because Apalma's soul still lingers in it, and Camilia is never seen without a red scarf.
Kaldren finds a street priest giving a small sermon to Pharasma, and then shares some blessings with her afterwards. She shares rumours that she's heard, including that some strange roustabouts in the Grange Market delivered a sheet-covered contraption after dark a few nights ago, and then yesterday there was some sort of commotion involving them and the Gardeners. She suggests he stay clear of there.
As the shadows start to lengthen, you decide to pop into Litran Bank to see if the fearful banker you rescued at the Mill is OK. It is a sprawing stone building with enormous bronze doors and a lofty but windowless marble interior. When you enter some guards whisk you into the office of the banker, who appears to be quite senior at the bank.
"Welcome welcome, please take a seat. Calance Massey, at your service. I'm awfully embarrassed you had to see me like that, but I'm sure you know that you don't get far in Galt by disobeying a Gardener. I thought that was to be my final day, and let me tell you the thought of the money I have amassed here proved no comfort at all. I have resolved to find better uses for it, starting with thanking you properly"
He passes over a small note containing an account number.
"I've transferred six thousand gold pieces into an account here in trust for you. I just need a few details from you to formalize it. In addition if you're interested I can vouch for you for a loan, I'll even use my own assets as collateral. It should be possible for you to get around eleven thousand gold pieces interest free for a year, if you're interested. Credit from the bank here is as good as gold all over Litran too, if you're staying in town"
"Let's pay a visit to that so-called assassin. We'll all want to go together; even a rumor about a Gardener assassin has to hold some truth to it, and going on our own would be suicide."
"I have some scores to settle with the Gray assassins that seem to harrow us at every step of our investigation."
Turrey passes on all that he learns. "I'm happy to go give her a visit, sure."
Deciding to look into this rumour of Zintaya Calbieste being a Gray Gardener assassin, you head to the farming cooperative meeting hall, a large barn-like building on the southern side of Litran. You keep a careful watch as you travel, cautious for any sign of Gardeners being aware of your presence, but you see none.
Upon entering, you find the building comprised of a single large room, big enough to hold a meeting for dozens of people, but the stacks of chairs against the walls show that there haven't been any recently. An elf dressed in neat and functional clothing is signing several papers at a desk at the front of the room, but she looks up sharply when you enter.
"I'm secretary Zintaya Calbieste. Can I help you?"
Her manner is pleasant enough, but her head is cocked slightly, like she's listening to something just at the edge of hearing.
---
Félicité steps forward.
"Madame Calbieste, we come seeking your assistance. We have politely inquired around town, and we have been informed that you are the one to impress. My name is Marie Pleyel, and I have skills that may ... impress you."
Félicité draws a dagger and throws it against a spot on the wall.
While she's talking, Félicité will use Biographical Eye to see if clues are consistent with Zintaya being an assassin.
vs DC 30
"I do hold an important position here amongst the farming community..."
Zintaya responds to Félicité's comments as she makes them, but she seems distracted.
You all notice that she casts occasional glances at a spot on the floor where the floorboards seem to have been recently replaced.
When Félicité draws a dagger, she raises a single eyebrow and replies.
"I'm afraid the entertainments for the festival have been secured already. Your - athletic display will need to be restricted to more, er, to taverns and such. Thank you"
All the while she continues to glance at the floorboards and tilt her head as if listening to something.
As she speaks, Félicité studies her with an eye for detail that borders on the supernatural.
"Unless you have anything else to discuss, I'm rather- I need to finish this- these papers"
By the time her sentence meanders to a conclusion she seems to have all but forgotten you are there.
Bellaluna shoots Félicité a glance in a silent conversation .
Félicité touches her hand to indicate a small cut on Zintaya's, showing she has recently been fighting, and the black flecks that could be the Gardener's favorite poison, shadow essence.
Félicité speaks slowly, deliberately emphasizing her own Litranese accent.
"I am also skilled in healing. Tell me what ails you and perhaps we can work together."
Gregoth glances at Kaldren and Turrey uncertainly. While he certainly appreciated the irony of catching the assassin off-guard (as opposed to the other way around yet again), he couldn’t help but worry that this was yet another trap they were walking into.
Zintaya barks out a laugh that turns into a swallowed sob when Félicité mentions healing.
"It's too late for that" She throws down her pen and stands up behind her desk with such force that her chair is knocked over.
"I've been so steeped in lies and murder for so long, one more death seemed so minor. But the corpse calls to me-" She points an outstretched hand at the floorboards she's been staring at. "I can hear the beating of his heart like an accusation, again and again and again!"
She then starts to talk quickly, so quickly that it's hard to keep up, speaking loudly for you to hear, but you guess more for herself.
"I am a Grey Gardener, or I was. I knew something was coming, something terrible that would hurt the lower ranked Gardeners, perhaps even kill them. I would be protected they said, we would be protected, but how could I discard the lives of my fellow Gardeners, my family?"
She has started to pace, ignoring you completely as she struggles to get out the secrets that have been eating at her
"I was given an invitation to the Masque to deliver to the Mayor of Tregan, but I never left, and they sent someone to kill me. Antoine was skilled but he underestimated me. Now I'm spilling their secrets it's only a matter of time before they send someone or something else to finish the job, but something has to be done to stop..."
As she speaks, the ground starts to shake. She stares aghast at the section of new-looking floorboards, but it quickly becomes clear that this isn't so localized. A huge section of floorboards breaks apart as thousands of small stones erupt out of them, but they seem to move under their own power as a huge swarm of rocks intent on destruction!
Active Effects:
➤Bellaluna
Gregoth
Turrey
Rock Swarm
Kaldren
Félicité
"But the corpse calls to me-" She points an outstretched hand at the floorboards she's been staring at. "I can hear the beating of his heart like an accusation, again and again and again!"
Bellaluna is confused at this Gray Gardener literally just spouting her life story, but isn’t complaining at the slew of free information. When the floor cracks and a swarm of stones burst forth, she instinctively grabs her crossbow!
When she notices that her valuable source of intel is still here, Bellaluna moves toward Zintaya without thinking.
”Gardeners? Sure. Assassins? Most definitely. Was not prepared for sentient cobble!”
Bellaluna pulls out her other crossbow. She then levels her crossbows and tries to nail as many stones as possible with her bolts.
Gregoth is too busy watching the Gardener from the doorway to pay attention to the whispers in the air around him until the floor beneath him buckles and erupts. With a cry of alarm, he grabs his sword from its sheath. His legs start moving, pounding across the floor as he places himself between the stranger and the swarm. The blade rises, then falls in a blazing arc.
Bellaluna reacts quickly as soon as the cobble-swarm arrives, and before anyone can blink she has both crossbows out and has fired two shots at it. One smashes firmly into the thickest part of the mass of rocks and one flies wide. Unfortunately the one is on target hits but breaks harmlessly against the rocks.
Gregoth leaps into action, drawing his longsword and smashing into the mass of rocks. His tremendous strengh scatters rocks asunder, but the rocks seem quite resistant to being slashed.
Zintaya is shocked out of her reverie by Gregoth and Bellaluna, and she draws a loaded hand-crossbow from somewhere, whistles to distract the monster, and then fires
Unfortunately her bolt flies end-over-end toward and creature and bounces lands on the floor well short of it
Active Effects:
Bellaluna
Gregoth
Zintaya
➤Turrey
Rock Swarm
Kaldren
Félicité
Turrey blinks with surprise when the Gardener seems to have developed a conscience. "Sweet Shelyn, even in this Dark Garden, still there are some among them not immune to the beauty you create!"
When the swarm burst forth, Turrey begins a song about the way hours can pass in the blink of an eye, when True Friends meet as One.
Turrey sings his heart out, the feeling of his magic wrapping you all up with speed and safety becoming familiar to you all.
The rock-swarm continues to move, but erratically as motes of magic move around it. Vibrations in the floor grow as it summons a powerful earthquake! Gregoth does what he can to stop it...
His sword sparks across dozens of floating cobbles, but they scarcely seem harmed, and suddenly the whole room shakes, fissures open beneath your feet as beams crash to the ground.
Gregoth, Bellaluna, Turrey and Kaldren all lose their footing and fall into fissures, but Bellaluna and Turrey manage to catch onto the edge and so hang precariously. Bellaluna grabs on by jamming her hand-crossbow into the side. Almost immediately the fissure trapping Gregoth closes up, burying him alive!
The huge swarm then rolls over the only two people who kept their footing, Félicité and Zintaya. It also descends slightly, burrowing into the ground and harrying Bellaluna and Turrey as they cling onto their edges. The small rocks batter at them, clearly ramping up for a more dangerous assault.
Active Effects:
Haste: Everyone is quickened, and the extra action can be used for a Strike or a Stride only
Inspire Defence: Everyone has +1 status bonus to AC and saves, and resistance 4 to physical damage (until Turrey's turn on round 4)
Ground Shaking: All the ground is difficult terrain, and everyone on it takes a -2 circumstance penalty to attack rolls, AC and skill checks
Bellaluna
Gregoth
Turrey
Zintaya
Rock Swarm
➤Kaldren
Félicité
Bellaluna
Gregoth
Turrey
↺
Trigger A foe takes a hostile action against you in combat.
Sometimes something intrudes upon your case unexpectedly, such as an ambush sent to bring your investigation to a close. You've learned how to compartmentalize your main lead and pursue a new one for your current predicament. You Pursue a Lead against the triggering foe, setting aside but not ending one of your currently active leads, if you have two leads. At the end of the combat encounter, you stop Pursuing the Lead against the triggering foe and return to the original lead, if you have one.
---
Félicité considers her options.
◇
Bellaluna moves away from both the fissure and the swarm of rocks and tries desperately to reload both of her crossbows
”W-w-wasn’t p-p-prepared f-f-for t-t-this!”
Gregoth hits the ground, knocking the breath out of his chest. Through the pain he watches as the wall of the pit starts to sway, starts to rock, starts to fall towards him. He blinks, and the dirt is replaced by a collapsing stone wall barely shielding him from the brilliant fire behind it. The shriek of that awful explosion fills his ears once again, louder, higher, worse and worse. His breath catches in his throat. It’s here - it’s happening again!
Gregoth convulses, jerking knees and flailing arms disrupting the dirt as it falls around him. He jerks one last time onto his feet, puts the sword back in its sheath, and begins to climb.
You don't recognize the creature. It looks like a cobbleswarm, an abberation that is resistant to piercing and slashing damage and immune to precision, but those are made up of pebbles rather than boulders and aren't known to cause earthquakes, so you're not sure if this is a larger version or something else entirely
Bellaluna jumps out of the fissure and reloads her crossbows, while Gregoth resists the forces of nature and climbs up.
Kaldren gets to his feet and looks up at the feint light at the top of the fissure. Reaching up he begins halling himself up the wall his heavy armour seeming not to hinder his movement.
◆ Stand up
◆
◆
Félicité draws her sling ◆, loads it ◆, then throws it ◆.
plus
She then casts life boost on Gregoth ◆.
Kaldren starts climbing his own fissure, the shaking from the earthquake not preventing him from quickly bounding up. Félicité plans a strategy, and launches a sling bullet right at a crucial rock at the centre of the swarm. It cracks it in two and seems to upset the cobblestone conglomeration, though her precise targeting was not as effective as she's used to. She then peers down at Gregoth crawling up the wall like an angry spider and offers him some magical regeneration.
With one hand holding the shaking edge, Turrey unsnaps the carpet attached this his pack, and throws it into the fissure. Instead of falling though it unfurls and floats serenely in place, the lone point of stability in a room of vibrations. He hops onto it, and flies up into the middle of the room.
Zintaya hops backwards across the shaking ground, trying to space out. She reloads her crossbow with some bolts hidden in her purse and fires...
The bolts bounces off a rock harmlessly. The rocks then focus on Félicité as the earthquake subsides, orbiting her with fury until she can be barely seen through a cloud of boulders. They try to crush her and pin her to the ground
She falls to the ground and several of the rocks pin her there.
The rocks then begin to hammer her relentlessly
Active Effects:
Haste: Everyone is quickened, and the extra action can be used for a Strike or a Stride only
Inspire Defence: Everyone has +1 status bonus to AC and saves, and resistance 4 to physical damage (until Turrey's turn on round 4)
...
➤Kaldren
Félicité
Bellaluna
Gregoth
Turrey
Zintaya
Rock Swarm
...
Bellaluna scowls as the swarm makes efficient work on Félicité, so she repositions herself then levels both of her crossbows and fires.
Bellaluna then reloads her crossbow.