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Zabu grins at the bartender and cracks his knuckles. He's just tensing to leap over the bar when word of the little red running hood reaches him.
"You better thank whatever gods you worship. They just saved your life," he says, aiming a long nailed finger at the bartender before bolting out of the bar to give chase to the spy.
"What are you guys waiting for? You want to just wait around for trouble to find us?"
Fearful Berry begins to cast a spell, which catches a lot of attention. People are relieved to see him leave. This is also the time when Marcus tries to impress folks in the tavern which only makes it worse, he follows Berry with also much relief from patrons.
Zabu threatens the bartender and follows the others, and the rest follows.
Behind the corner, the person pointed by Anjo is standing and turns when you come by
"Look what we got here, you were nice enough to come to us."
Only then do you see two other figures hiding in the shadows
You can see the other two humans reaching for their weapons. They look similar, wearing hoods on their heads, but they carry swords and crossbows.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Marcus
➤ Anjo
blue
Zabu
Othello
Rhizzuk
Berry
Red
Yellow
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Marcus rolls his eyes. "Oh no... it's an ambush..."
He ◆ strides forward to get a good look at all of them and smirks.
"...but not for us you idiotic-"
The last word is replaced with a stream of inky black wasps which fly out of his ◆◆ mouth with supernatural speed, expanding into a cloud that engulfs their assailants.
Marcus moves forwards and spits out a swarm of all sort of creepy crawlies who mostly fly to the sides, but some of them go to the assailants.
Anjo analyzes the enemy, the way how they stand and the way how they walked. He determines that those are regular low-lives accustomed to fight in the alleys, used shadows to their advantage and attack in groups for better effects .
He reaches for his bow and sends two arrows that hit the ambusher.
One of the ambushers moves forwards, reaching for their sword and swings at Marcus
"I will shove you those worms back down your throat!" yells ambusher in a surprisingly high-pitched voice.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Marcus
Anjo
blue
➤ Zabu
➤ Othello
➤ Rhizzuk
➤ Berry
Red
Yellow
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"Well, I was going to knock some sense into and teeth out of that bartender, but you'll do!" Zabu declares as they are ambushed.
He rushes past the closest assailant, since the group has them well in hand and it's not as much fun slicing up someone with help, and goes after the one in back.
◆ Rage
◆ Stride
◆ Strike (Yellow)
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Rhizzuk wades into the thick of things, drawing their meteor hammer and joining the flank on blue.
Trigger An enemy damages your ally, and both are within 15 feet of you.
You protect your ally and strike your foe. The ally gains resistance to all damage against the triggering damage equal to 2 + your level. If the foe is within reach, make a melee Strike against it. Or if within 5ft of reach take a step and then strike.
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Fearful Berry is quite surprises as he leaps into the air at the surrounding attackers. As his soft body shudders several of the bones within protrude out creating a makeshift armor. He unintentionally fires off a pair of dark and vile seed pods from his body. The smell of death and decay permeates the air.
AC 23
HP 80/80 | +10 Temp HP | Resist 3 Cold, Elec, Fire, Piercing, Slashing | Resist 5 Fire
Hero Points 3/3
Focus Points 2/2
Demon Mask 1/1
Curse Stage: Minor (Non-magical healing cut in half)
Spells (1) 3/3 | (2) 3/3 | (3) 3/3
Battle Medicine:
All things happen in great speed. The light of the setting sun shines on the alley as the fight advances. You are certain that some patrons have heard or saw your struggle but they quickly looked the other way.
Zabu rages and runs towards one of the enemies standing in the back, he bites with his teeth leaving big wound.
Othello reaches for his weapon and moves waiting if the enemy would strike, but not hit has come. Then he threatenes them making a warning strike that hits the ground.
Rhizzuk grabs his meteor hammer and swings it walking past the blue thug. The thug sidesteps the hit and the giant weight hits the floor despite distraction.
Berry wraps himself in the armor of bones and sends two seedpods vs blue thug, and one of them hit.
Red moves to the side and attacks Rhizzuk with their drawn swords.
The thug finds a weak spot in hell knight's armor, but Othello reacts to protect his fellow paladin from the worse of the damage.
Yellow thug reaches for their sword and strikes Zabu
But misses completely.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Marcus
➤ Anjo
blue
Zabu
Othello
Rhizzuk
Berry
Red
Yellow
|
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Marcus tries hard to hold a straight face as he cautiously ◆ steps back. "I've got questions... lets make sure some are breathing enough to answer them."
He eyes the most heavily wounded one and twitches as his eyes turn pitch black as he wracks their brain with ◆◆ phantom pain.
Anjo sends two arrows in quick succession. He would have taken down that thug, if not for the number of people in between his target. Yet his arrows still hit the target.
His third arrow missed the target.
Marcus takes a step back and attacks the most wounded enemy with a mental strike
Blue thug turns around and looks at their ally "Let us take this shorty and we will go after bowman next." They strike at Rhizznuk with the short sword
Two strong strikes cut the mighty, altho short, paladin.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Marcus
Anjo
blue
➤ Zabu
➤ Othello
➤ Rhizzuk
➤ Berry
Red
Yellow
|
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Berry skitters around. It seems the bones within his body along with the red gen in his head seems to be attracting a bit of the unsavory presence. Misshapen skeletal forms erupt from a ground, clawing and grasping at two of the assailants.
AC 23
HP 80/80 | +10 Temp HP | Resist 3 Cold, Elec, Fire, Piercing, Slashing | Resist 5 Fire
Hero Points 3/3
Focus Points 2/2
Demon Mask 1/1
Curse Stage: Minor (Non-magical healing cut in half)
Spells (1) 3/3 | (2) 3/3 | (3) 2/3
Battle Medicine:
|
|
Rhizzuk looks down at their wounds and brushes some of them off as if they were nothing, before stepping out of the flank and swinging his meteor hammer.
Trigger An enemy damages your ally, and both are within 15 feet of you.
You protect your ally and strike your foe. The ally gains resistance to all damage against the triggering damage equal to 2 + your level. If the foe is within reach, make a melee Strike against it. Or if within 5ft of reach take a step and then strike.
Prone on a crit.
Berry moves and casts a spell, skeleton hands begin to reach out of the ground and swing at the two thugs.
Despite red being good at avoiding some of the damage they fall to the ground, motionless.
Zabu turns towards the other enemy, gets a hold of them, and swings his claws twice, connecting only once.
Othello swings twice at Yellow and soon in Zabu's hand is only a motionless body.
His last attack at blue misses.
Rhizzuk heals his wounds, takes a step, and swings at the enemy sending them to the ground.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
➤ Marcus
➤ Anjo
blue
Zabu
Othello
Rhizzuk
Berry
|
|
Marcus looks the remaining thug in the eyes, leaving his own bleeding wound in plain sight. "In an hour or so the only sign of this wound will be the damage to my clothes. The same will not be true for your compatriots... or you. How about you lay down your arms and answer a few questions... and then rethink your life choices."
◆
"Or we can see you pinned to the wall by my compatriot here."
◆
"Your choice."
He ◆ draws his rapier and shrugs. "Think quickly."
The last thug looks around and tosses their shortsword to the ground.
"Look I don't anything. Martha told us to stop you, apparently, you are after Daughters, she was in the inn watching for you. Anna and I were here to rob some fools." When saying Martha she pointed at the red wearing thug, and Anna at the thug wearing Yellow.
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Even after she drops her sword, Zabu stalks toward the last thug, claws and fangs out. He gets quite close to her and makes a show of licking some of the blood from his talons before reverting to his less feral form.
But relief is short lived as he pulls out and dons a fierce mask carves to look like a fearsome, demonic cat.
"Only fools around here are you and your friends," he says. "Now, you're going to answer my friends' questions or your blood is going to fill the gutter just like Martha and Anna's."
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Marcus quickly assesses the fallen thugs and checks their vitals, doing his best to stabilize them, or call time of death if necessary.
"Hmm.... myess..."
He turns about slowly and faces the last remaining thug. "You are clearly more intelligent than the other two as you were able to discern which way the tides of battle were turning before it was too late. Which tells me that you may also be intelligent enough to know two additional things. One... we are not particularly after Daughters... and two... we are not particularly uncomfortable with spilling blood as needed. So... how about we all take a nice long walk together and chat..."
Zabu with a little help from his demonic mask, tries to convince the captive to talk the good old way. He can see that she is beginning to shake with fear.
"Whatever you will do to me it can't be worse what Mother Forsythe does to her captive. She particularly like to choke and frighten others even to death. The light following her, I heard that it feed on fear. Last month she get a hold of couple of individuals, I never heard more terrifying screams."
She listens to Marcus who checks on the thugs. He believes to stabilize them, but he keeps it to himself.
"North from here is the entrance to the tunnels, they kept one of them there, I don't know where are the rest."
After a few more attempts you believe that she told you everything.
You believe that those could be will-o-wisp, small air aberrations, naturally invisible who feed on fear.
Anjo searches the bodies, finding no insignias or any other mark that would designate them as gang members. But he does find: climbing kit, composite shortbow (10 arrows), lesser darkvision elixir, leather armor, sap, and thieves’ tools.
You head towards the tunnels, following in the evening through the port is an exciting experience. A lot of drunk sailors, and dodgy folks standing in dark alleys, you were offered ice tears a couple of times during a 15-minute walk.
You arrive at where the entrance to the tunnel is, and not that far away, just around 30 ft you can see a body, that looks like thrown out of the water.
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Anjo distributes the elixirs to anyone interested in them and keeps the climbing kit.
"Why do I get the feeling this might come in handy?" Anjo addresses the rest of the group,
"This equipment suggests these three were climbing down holes in the dark."
When Anjo sees the body, he designates it as his prey, not sure if it is only playing dead.
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Zabu had a head start but the rest of the group soon catches up to him as he has stopped to speak to a lady. Well...given how she's dressed and made up, she's probably not technically a lady in the technical sense of the word but she's a woman. Their conversation seems to be equal parts flirtation and negotiation.
"Hold that thought Sweetcheeks. I see my friends. If I don't go watch out for them, they'll all wind up dead," he says and rejoins the group just as Othello is investigating the body.
Berry shares what he knows with others.
The party stops and looks at the body. Anjo grabs his bow and observes it for a moment. He believes it to be a woman, looking by the posture, and probably not human, or a very slim one.
The body lies on the shore, could have been thrown out of the sea.
Othello turns the body around, it was a woman. The body is slightly bloated and heavily bruised.
At the docks, the PCs can see the slightly bloated and heavily bruised corpse, saltwater coursing through her lifeless body. Othello looks at the different wounds and determines that she was bludgeoned to death. The shape of her ears, height, and build makes you believe she is an elf.
Zabu and Anjo find footprints leading to and from the body, that hasn’t yet been washed away by the ocean, towards a nearby sewage grate. The same that you were heading to. Footprints toward were deeper like someone was carrying something heavy, and footprints back to the sewers were lighter, which leads you to the conclusion that someone brought her body from the sewers.
When you check on her corpse, you find a ruined spellbook and material components, as well as a now-illegible journal whose cover reads, "My Search for Cheliax’s Truth." The elven woman’s face is locked in a visage of pure terror.
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Marcus grimaces at the find. "I suspect we've located Selia Torossel. Given the look of fear, I suspect she may have fallen prey to one of your Brussel Sprouts. Or Will-o-wisps as they are more frequently referred. We should preserve her remains and bring them back to the manor at the first opportunity."
He looks over his own battered figure and back down at the corpse. "In the interests of limiting the number of corpses being returned... would you mind if we take a moment to bandage up? I think Rhizzuk could use a bit of tending to as well."
He adds, almost mindlessly, "Oh... right... is anyone here capable of piercing the veil of invisibility? If we're going to be dealing with Will-o-wisps later that may be exceedingly helpful."
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"A shame," Zabu says as he sees the dead woman.
"'They're all self-important jerks,' am I right, guys?" he says, holding up the journal and pointing to the title with a grin.
At Marcus question, he taps his nose. "I can find it as long as it has a smell."
Speaking of, he doesn't look too thrilled about heading into a sewer.
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Zabu is a sensate gnome so he has imprecise scent within 30' and a +2 to Perception checks to find an undetected invisible creature.
He also has Supernatural Senses as a Barbarian Feat - When you target a concealed or hidden opponent while you are raging, you reduce the DC of the flat check to 3 for a concealed target or to 9 for a hidden one.
You spend around half an hour healing and bringing yourself into a fighting form.
Anjo believes that the footsteps belong to humanoids. But it is hard to say exactly with that light and this kind of ground.