No one makes contact with Giggles, and the half-orc growls and pulls out a flail, which he swings menacingly before heaving it at Audria. "This should hurt! Hahahahaa!" The flail slams into the young paladin's upper arm, tearing into her bicep. "Hahaha!"
Bloo the dog runs across the orphanage floor, snarling and snapping at Lambs as he goes, and ends up right next to Garrett.
For a moment, Audria finds herself back in the alley. Giggles raises his whip, but it's no longer a whip. Instead, it us a wicked flail with leering, demonic heads. Fear holds her in place just a heartbeat too long and despite her scrambling to get out of the way of his swing, Giggles clips her arm and sends her crashing into the wall. Everything grows too sharp, too real. She can smell the old blood and rust on the half-orc's weapon through the rot of fish and brackish water. How many children had he killed with that vile thing? She has to beat him. She has to stop him before someone else suffers like she did at his hands.
Audria's eyes widen as Giggles sidesteps her thrust. She overcommitted. She's left herself wide open. She might as well be the scared girl back in the alley, just before the beating truly started. She does the only thing she can and scrambles to get out of his reach and to get him in thereach of someone else who might be able to end his reign of terror.
Lina glanced behind her, gave Nicolai a quick nod, and proceeded to try the door in front of her.
She moves into the room.
Her picks still in hand, she tries to open the lock.
Abella follows up behind Shrike. She cranes her neck up and around to try to see who they are fighting until she hears Giggles’ voice. ”Ah, the one who laughs.” Pulling back, she yawns and waves off Audria and Shrike. ”Take your time.” She alights the back of her hand on Shrike’s shoulder. ”Have another guidance, butcherbird.”
Shrike hears Abella's quick footsteps and waves at her not to approach all the way, shaking her head.
"Girl, get behind me," she says again to Audria as the half-orc smashes his flail into her arm, trying to project certainty and calm she absolutely does not feel. To the half-orc she calls, harsh and taunting as a mockingbird, "Ooh, big man you are. Beating up on kids 'cause you're afraid of anyone bigger. You're pathetic."
She slides back a step, sets her feet and shoulders in position to drive the spearpoint forward at a moment's notice, and waits for Lamm's bully to respond to her taunt.
Nicolai nods at Lina and loads his crossbow, waiting for her to open the door.
Garrett decides being here alone is not a good idea and tries to ditch Bloo.
[ooc]Not so good..
Giggles laughs. "Yep, I'm big and you're smaller. Ahahahaa!" He steps forward to menace Audria again, only to get a guisarme slash to the chest from Shrike. He reels back, and the strike forces his smashing attack against Audria to sail wildly in front of her.
Garrett successfully manages to evade the dog, which barks a savage-sounding bark as the door swings shut almost on its nose. Instead, it heads toward Giggles, running around the half-orc and taking a bite at Shrike (and provoking an AoO from Shrike as well, which would resolve before potential damage).
Lina and Nicolai find their ways into the room, arriving through the north door onto a stairway that leads down to where the orphans are sleeping. Behind Audria, who's up on the railing of a catwalk, is a big half-orc swinging a flail at her. Both are bloodied from their fighting.
Shrike wasn't expecting the dog as well. She reacts to the blur of motion with long-ingrained muscle memory built on a different weapon, knowing even as she does it that the balance and weight of the guisarme are all wrong. Her shoulders burn as she reverses the trajectory of the spear point. Too heavy. Not fast enough. Not good enough, mayfly.
"Get back!" she growls at Abella. She hasn't tried to fight in such close quarters before, much less in tandem with others who seem even less inclined or able to coordinate than herself, and it's proving to be a real pain. Her leg throbs. If she were alone, if the girl weren't still in real danger, she could cut her losses and retreat now. Could go back to her solitary habit of waiting patiently in the dark, hour after hour, to snipe from rooftops at inexperienced, night-blind killers unaware of her presence and unwise enough to be caught alone.
The dog is a distraction. The half-orc is the real threat. But I can't hit him with the damn dog in the way. Maybe I can turn his attention and make him come to me. Here's hoping it's his dog.
Shrike slides back a step and grates at the half-orc, "Real funny. Is this funny too?"
She brings the slashing blade down with precise and deadly force into the snapping, vicious canine that just bit her.
Take the bait. Leave the girl alone. Come on, you pus-brained empty.
Audria leaps over the swing and tries to roll behind Giggles. If nothing else it would hopefully confuse him enough for her to get a good hit in. If she were even luckier, it might divide his attentions between her and Shrike enough to leave him vulnerable to both of them.
The scene before her came together in a blur that almost bowled Lina over. So many memories flooded in that she almost lost her footing on the ramp. Despite all the faces, there were only a few she recognized, but the stench of the unwashed, the blood stains, the pint-sized, half-clothed children, it all served to remind her why she was here, a debt to be repaid.
Abella takes a gracious bow at Shrike's request and shuffles off towards the door that Garrett has just left and opens it. She sees Audria having a rough time and considers charging up a bit of thalergy to heal her up as soon as she gets a free moment.
Garrett moves stealthily forward and tries to shoot around Shrike at Bloo.
Nicolai fires his crossbow from the top of the stars across the opening at the half-orc attacking Audria
Children from below scatter as Audria's sword slices into Giggles the half-orc, who's clearly taken more than enough damage to be killed. Then, a moment later, the magic missile slams into him. Still, he stays up long enough to swing his sword one more time at Audria, though the blade goes wide. He giggles one last time, a long, drawn-out "Hahahaa..." Bloo finds himself even less fortunate than the half-orc, as the guisarme strikes deep and puts him down quickly.
The children, for the most part, push past the party in their half-asleep haste to be away from the fighting. A few, though, stay, blinking as if they might recognize some of the party members.
Through some of the eastern windows, it's possible to see an old, moss-covered fishing ship outside. Though not an open seas vessel, it must've once been a decent ship. Now, though, it's held to the dock, and held together, by dozens of ropes.
Shrike yanks the guisarme free of the dog's corpse and limps her way across the catwalk and down the stairs into the main sleeping-room as quickly as possible, using the haft of the spear to support herself. As the children begin to scatter, she kneels down and scans faces with increasing urgency, reaching out a beseeching hand but not actually trying to grab any. "Wait a moment. Please. We won't hurt you. We want to take you to safety, to your families."
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Abella enters and looks over the wounded Audria. ”Good work with the laughing one, my little canary.” Her hand charges up with pale light and she taps each of Audria’s wounds. She makes knitting motions with her hands while she focuses on getting the “canary” patched up. ”People call it positive energy, but I never liked the baggage of the word ‘positive.’ Energy is just energy. It has no good or bad. I call this particular type thalergy, which also rolls off the tongue a bit easier.”
She stands back and appraises her work. ”Not my best work, but not my worst either. I am much better with thanergy—negative energy if you must—but I try to diversify my portfolio.”
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While she's grateful for the aid Abella gives her, Audria finds herself with a more pressing problem. As her wounds knit back together and Talanaliel alights on her shoulder, she puts her fingers in her mouth and gives a sharp, shrill whistle that every one of Lamm's Lambs knows.
"I know you don't want to be here," she says once she's gotten their attention. "We don't want you to be here either, but neither do we want to abandon you to the streets. Please, wait while we take care of Lamm and we'll take you somewhere safe with hot food and warm beds."
Garrett begins looking around for a desk with notes that might help save his father. He then stops and says, "Did anyone see Gaedren Lamm?"
Lania is able to convince a few of the kids to stay, but quite a few of the children scatter, heading for the streets they know rather than the murderous adults they've just met. One, though, a blonde half-elf with blue eyes about 10, squints over his shoulder at the party, as if trying to place something familiar. He stops at the stairs and keeps looking, peering at each person in turn. Even though he's in rags, he doesn't carry himself quite the same as the other orphans - there's something more noble and less street rat about him.
One of the orphans who's decided to stay sits on the catwalk. "Why'd you want to find Lamm? He ain't a nice guy, not at all." She rolls her eyes, then points toward the ship outside. "He goes through there, when he comes by. Might be back there, might not. I think he lives in the old ship, but I dunno for sure."
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Shrike sees him and the air roars in her ears. Everything else is suddenly very quiet and happening far away.
"Isi?" Her voice is smaller, almost a whisper, with no trace of a growl. Still bleeding, she staggers over to the blonde half-elven boy, bursts into a torrent of Elven, tears off her mask to reveal an unexpectedly human-looking face, and hugs him fiercely.
"This wasn't too loud, but if he is in that ship he might have heard. We should move quickly before he escapes down some sewer drain." Garret suggests.
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Audria takes a step after the fleeing children, but realizes there's no point. She might find one or two of them, but they weren't likely to come with her. Instead, she turns to look at the ones that remained, wondering if any of them recognize her, or if she recognizes any of them.
When the girl tells them where Lamm comes from when he appears and asks Audria why they were looking for Lamm, the young Shelynite looks up at the girl, then down at her blood-stained clothes. Some of it was hers, but some of it was Giggles'. Bile rises up in her throat as a single thought hits her like a hammer.
She has killed someone.
She knew that she might have to someday when she began to train under Bartholomew. She knew that it was likely to end in bloodshed when she agreed to help Zellara. Knowing of a possibility and seeing someone else's blood on your hands are vastly different things. Horror at what she now knows she is capable of and that she will do it again tonight when they face Lamm threatens to take her under and leave her a blubbering wreck on the floor. She begins to shiver as tears well up in her eyes. Her control begins to fray and snap.
Not here.
The voice cuts through the tempest and finds Audria's consciousness. It is gentle, yet it commands her to obey. A thought briefly flickers to life as Audria recognizes Talanaliel's voice, but it disappears as she forces her emotions back under control.
She looks up at the girl, only a moment having passed as Audria regained control of herself.
"I had to help," she tells the girl. "I know what Lamm is like, and I couldn't just keep doing nothing, even if it meant I was going to get myself killed." She looks the girl in the eyes, confessing as much to herself as to anyone else the true reason she has come tonight.
As the moment passes, Audria turns to Talanaliel.
"Tallyfeather, can you look after everyone up here while we go see to Lamm," she asks the thrush.
"I can, and I will. Just come back in one piece, Audria," the thrush says before flitting to the girl's shoulder.
"This is Talanaliel," Audria tells the girl. "She's a friend of mine. Please do as she says, she'll keep you from getting hurt or worse."
The children seen to as best she can manage for now, Audria turns to Garrett and tries to smile.
"Shall we go then? I would rather not go traipsing around a sewer after Lamm if we can help it."
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Abella shifts about uncomfortably while the others having a bit of an emotional moment. The people who raised her and Cainabeth thought pain a blessing and warmth a joke, and she sees too much of her and her sister in these children. No wonder Cainabeth favored them so much. She wants to say something to make the girl she called canary not cry, to understand as she does that death is just a transformation. A metaphysical energy conversion and reaction. It is not an end, but a shuffling off of one coil for another. No different from a sculptor just balling up the clay when she is dissatisfied with the shape. But words and comfort were always Cainabeth’s forte. She was the one who learned all the little expressions and tics and niceties of talking to people. How to plead and convince and comfort. Abella just knows how to say exactly what she is thinking, and not in a way that makes people want to agree with her.
She sees Audria try to smile and feels relief that things are working out without her. ”First let us check these gang members for useful weapons, keys, and healing items. I see some of us still have wounds, and I only prepared one healing spell today.”
The half-elf boy starts to cry as he hugs Shrike back, clinging fiercely to her. He doesn't say anything, just sobs and holds the half-elf woman. He's clearly the worse for wear - filthy and in rags, he could definitely use a bath, but at the same time, he doesn't seem hurt.
Sure enough, the half-orc is carrying a couple of healing potions, as well as some other gear. There's also some possibly useful items on the other two of Lamm's associates, including a pair of keys.
Yargin: wand of acid splash (28 charges), acid (3), thunderstone, leather armor, dagger, light crossbow with 10 bolts, brass key , iron key, garnet amulet worth 100gp
Hookshanks: studded leather, mwk kukri x2, disguise kit, key to cabinet, 7 gp
Giggles: potions of cure light wounds (3),r chainmail, composite longbow (+3 Str) with 20 arrows, flail, 72 gp
Abella takes one of the healing potions for herself and tosses another to Shrike to work on her wounds, holding up the last one for anyone to take as they will. She loads the crossbow and straps it over her shoulder. Finally, she picks up the keys and collects them all together, sticking them in the small pouch of her backpack. She tries to stay out of the way of the others as they talk with the children, finding focusing on tasks makes it easier to avoid thinking too hard about them.
Shrike continues to hold the small child she called 'Isi,' speaking quiet reassurances to him in Elven until his sobs subside to sniffles. When they do, she asks in Taldane of the small group of wary, ragged children that have chosen to stay, "Does Lamm ever leave this place at night? He can't escape again. But I don't like leaving you in this room with him about. Even with the magic bird. I'd rather take you somewhere safe to wait out the night. Then in the morning back to your families. Or this young woman has a connection with a temple." She indicates Audria with her head.
When Abella tosses the potion at her, Shrike catches it mostly on instinct. She stares at it for a moment, then realization sets in and she downs the swallow of precious liquid. "Thanks," she says gruffly, standing straighter as the bite mark closes over and heals completely. Her voice is naturally low and somewhat husky, but lacks the harsh croaking quality from before — clearly an affectation to hide what she sounds like. "And sorry. For before." She takes up the discarded mask and puts it back on.
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"I am no mere magic bird," Talanaliel huffs indignantly, turning into a ball of floofy feathers on the girl's shoulder.
"Talanaliel could guide them to the temple. The clergy all know her," Audria says. "That's where I was wanting to get everyone to anyway. Brother Theolan would be more than happy to give them a warm bed and a good meal given what they've gone through."
Then lock me up for the rest of eternity, she doesn't add.
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”No need to worry, Butcherbird. I had the misfortune of growing up in Nidal, so people need to work hard if they want to leave a mark. All is forgiven.” She glances to the child Shrike was talking with and back to Shrike before speaking again, this time in another language.
”And all is forgotten.”
Abella is truly fairly resilient as she says, but she leaves out that she is especially so for husky-voiced women with striking faces and a sense of drama.
"If we leave, Lamm will not likely be here when we return. If they are off to the temple then they will be safe as long as Lamm is caught. If he escapes then the kids are going to be high on his list for a talk." Garrett says.
Lina finds a crate and hops up, sitting down as the others tend to the children. She watches through fog-covered eyes, her own memories fighting to surface, but she keeps a tight hold on them, forcing them back down. She pulls out the wand she had picked up off of Yargin and with a whispered incantation, begins to narrow her eyes and focus, letting her magic whisper it's contained knowledge to her.
She held the wand up, offering it Nicolai. "Acid splash. Yours if you want it."
Nicolai accepts the wand "Thanks. Will probably hit better with this than with this thing" he indicates the crossbow he carrying.
"If we leave, Lamm will not likely be here when we return. If they are off to the temple then they will be safe as long as Lamm is caught. If he escapes then the kids are going to be high on his list for a talk." Garrett says.
Aurdria finds herself agreeing with Garrett on this. They couldn't leave, and even as hardened by the streets as these children are, they are still children. True she was not much older than most of them, but even with Talanaliel, she did not know if they could make it safely to the temple.
"If we can't leave, and we aren't willing to let Talanaliel guide them to the temple alone, then we really don't have much of a choice. They'll have to stay here while we deal with Lamm," she says before turning to the children. "Can you wait here for us? Without Lamm's goons or Bloo, it's probably safer here for the moment than out on the streets."
After getting their answer, she gets out of the way of the others as they distribute the spoils of the fight. Her fingers absently probe the hole torn into her gambeson by Giggles' flail. The wound hurt much less now, thanks to Abella's magics, but the tender and bruised flesh of her arm was a sobering reminder of what could have happened. What if Giggles had hit her head instead?
She looks up as Talaniel flits over to land on her shoulder. The look in the little songbird's eyes belies her as a simple animal, even one clever enough to speak. It is times like these that Audria finds herself wondering what kind of companion she's been sent by Shelyn. There is something fathomless in those eyes, something wholly alien to this mortal realm.
"Take the mail and the bow," Talanaliel commanded, her voice quiet so only Audria can hear.
"What? I can't--"
"You will."
Audria sat, staring in utter disbelief. It feels wrong. She can't just take something from someone that had just died like some grave robber, much less when she is the reason that person is now dead. She starts to protest, but Talanaliel's voice cuts her off before the first sound even passes her lips.
"They are of no use to a corpse. You will need them. Perhaps not now, but soon. Take them and use them for a better purpose than they have had under the brute's ownership."
Audria tries to find the words to argue, but there is no give in that coldly practical reasoning. Talanaliel flits back to the girl that had first spoken to them, leaving Audria to her own thoughts.
Talanaliel is right. Audria knows she's right, and every excuse she can think of to not take the better protection of the mail and giving her another option beside her sword withers away in the face of the simple, brutal truth that she was likely to need something better, even in the fight against Lamm.
As the others tend to their own wounds and needs, Audria works on donning the suit of mail that had not done enough to protect Giggles in his final fight. It takes several minutes to pull the armor off of the corpse, which leaves Audria pale and shaking from the effort to keep her composure as she shoved the emotions down.
Another few minutes pass and Audria stands in the too big suit of mail, her swordbelt buckled around her waist to spread some of the weight to her hips and a bow with a quiver of arrows slung across her back.
"Who is leading the way," she asks the others once they are ready.
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Abella shrugs. ”Why not put that new armor to use and take the lead, my dear little canary? Unless you want the stealthy Butcherbird and Jackdaw.” She throws a thumb over her shoulder at Garrett as she says “Jackdaw.”
She hands Nicolai one of the three acid flasks. ”I am not sure if it works with a wand, but if you use an acid flask as a focus with that cantrip, the effect is more powerful. Figure you might consider it worth a try.” She takes another acid flask for herself and offers the last to Lena. ”Here you go, Thrush.”
Cainabeth told her years ago that nicknames are something friends give each other. Abella took that to mean that all she had to do to make someone a friend was to give them a nickname. She naturally does not tell them this, as she is not boorish enough to explain such basics of social interactions. That this technique rarely seems to work she takes no responsibility for. She is usually not so keen on a shared theme, but the bird lady and lady with a bird got her bird-brained herself.
Audria takes in a deep breath and nods.
"I'll do my best," she says before going to the walkway.
"I am no mere magic bird," Talanaliel huffs indignantly, turning into a ball of floofy feathers on the girl's shoulder.
"Right. Talking magic bird."
Elven:"And all is forgotten."
Re-masked, Shrike turns her head just enough to regard Abella, then nods slightly.
She kneels down and speaks in Elven to the boy clinging to her side, hugs him once more, and then stands up.
Shrike goes back into the entryway room, collects her discarded crossbow and reloads it. On the way out she notices and picks up the small but finely made kukris the gnome was wielding from the floor, where he dropped them when the spell hit him. She returns to the main fish room and stands silently as the chainmail is put on and the other preparations made.
"Send them to the temple. Its better then Lamm getting past us to hostages." Garrett says and then heads to where the kids pointed them.
"Follow Talanaliel," Audria tells the kids. "She'll get you to the temple and keep you out of trouble."
She then turns to the bird.
"Tallyfeather, let Brother Theolan and Eliana know I'm alright. I'll be back as soon as I'm done here," she says.
The orphans troop semi-obediently after Talanaliel, heading off toward the temple. With the kids more or less out of the way, the party is able to make their way out of the door to Yargin's office, across a slippery and uneven boardwalk, and over to the ship. A narrow stair leads up from the boardwalk to allow the ship to be boarded, though the taller members of the party can see under the bottom row of the guard rail around its deck. The wooden deck of the ship looks to be rotting in the Jeggare River's moist air, with moss actually growing on the guard rail around it. The deck nearest what looks to be a cabin door looks the least rotten, and the door hasn't swelled into its frame, or at least it's been used recently.
Audria follows several steps behind Garrett, trying her best to keep quiet, but the mail weighing her down makes too much noise, softly jingling as the rings clink against each other with every movement no matter how much she tries to avoid it. At least the problem of sneaking around in heavier armor than she was used to distracted her from the hollow pit in her stomach that has been growing since Talanaliel left. She cannot remember the last time the two of them had been far apart, and it feels too much as if she is missing something.
She sees Garrett pause at the railing of the ship and moves up beside him, knowing that she is probably getting on his nerves sounding like a walking coin purse as she does.
"I don't know ships, but that doesn't look safe to cross," she whispers to him as she sees the state of the deck. "Do we try for the door?"
Shrike retrieves her candle lamp and follows quietly behind Garrett with the lamp concealed by her cloak in one hand, and her crossbow in the other. When they reach the stair up to the rotten-looking deck, she offers the lamp to whoever is going to inspect the cabin door in case it would help to look at the rotten deck first before crossing it, or the door has a lock that needs picking. Meanwhile she covers the deck and door with her crossbow in case something should open it or try to attack them.
Garrett does not weight much so he will climb onto the ship and move quietly to the door to search it.
Audria climbs up onto the deck and carefully picks her way over to the door where Garrett is. Once he's out of the way and the others are ready, she opens it. while holding her sword in her other hand.
Abella strides along after the others. This is going really well so far, so she is in good spirits. She is even beginning to start wondering what to do after they take out Lamm. She swivels the grip on her sword anxiously as they advance.
Shrike steps up behind Garrett and Audria as quietly as possible, crossbow ready.
Audria notes that, outside of the 10 feet closest to the door, the floor is highly weak. It's likely it would give very easily.
Garrett is not, in fact, able to find a trap, nor is the door locked. The room, however, is covered in spider's web. Thick sheets of the cobwebs hang from everything - covering the mounds of blankets and cushions as well as the walls. Inside the room, just for a moment, Audria, Shrike, and Garrett can see a spider before it skitters down the stairwell into the hold of the ship.
"I don't think Lamm's on the ship," Audria says as she tries to keep from shivering while closing the door. She'd never liked spiders, and after her misadventure with Eliana in Old Korvosa, she'd had a few nightmares about them. "That was a drain spider. There's always a lot more than one, and I don't think their venom would do an old man like him any favors."
She gets away from the door as the deck begins to creak and moan at the weight it was being asked to carry.
"Maybe there's another way down. I really don't want to wade through a spider's den."
"Girl said he goes through the ship," Shrike points out, harsh but equally quiet. But she follows Audria back to the dock and prepares for a long and fruitless effort at searching the stinking fishery.
Garrett will stealth around to the stairs leading down and try to see if there are traps or spiders.