"Got a plan for the spiders?" Shrike mutters, seeing Garrett about to go into the creepy, web-covered cabin anyway. No fear, this one. Don't know if that's good or bad. She eases back up the side of the ship and over the partially rotten deck-boards in practiced silence to stand beside him, so that when they both inevitably get swarmed, she can grab the halfling and leap with him into the Jeggare to drown the horrible creatures.
Nicolai will enter the ship's cabin behind Garret and Shrike, his wand at the ready."Lead on." he says warily.
Garrett whispers back "Hope they aren't really here or that they don't notice us? How big could they really be anyway?" The halfling asks as he glances at the massive amount of webs.
Lina followed the others to the aging boat, carefully picking her steps across the planks of the boardwalk. Sweat beaded on her brow as the boardwalk creaked and swayed. Even with the uncertainty of the boardwalk supports, it still seemed more stable than the boat itself. She watched as the others boarded the dilapidated vessel, electing to remain outside at hearing spiders mentioned.
Garrett can hear a skittering sound as he, Nicolai, and Shrike make their way inside the room. It comes from below the deck, and it's certainly more than one of the drain spiders Audria mentioned! It seems like it's getting louder - or there's more spiders becoming active below.
Shrike glances at her crossbow point and the arrow on the string of Garrett's shortbow. She's never met the spider big enough to reliably hit with an arrow or a spear, and the single one they saw before certainly didn't seem that size. "Regroup outside?"
Abella is standing back examining her nails. "Oh it's just a few spiders. How bad could it be? Someone has never been put in a box full of scorpions by Nidalese nobles when they were ten, and it's not me." Despite the comment, she makes no motion to head inside either, happy with how well everything is going. "Do as you will, though."
"You actually went through that," Audria asks Abella, the horror clear in her voice.
”Oh it was fine. They were the non-venomous variety. Well, low enough venom it won’t kill you without an allergic reaction. Luckily, I am not allergic.” Despite her affect blasé attitude, she is not able to full restrain a shiver. She nips at one of her fingernails.
Audria does shiver, her self-control already fraying from trying to repress her reaction to the fight from earlier.
"I guess I'm lucky Lamm only threatened to do it to me," she says. "Do you know why they are taking so long? Lamm wouldn't hang out in a spider's nest, especially not those kinds of spiders."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
With the party regrouped outside of the ship's cabin and on the deck, it's possible to see a narrow walkway weaving to the west of the ship, underneath the wooden pilings that hold up the fishery. There's a place toward the stern of the ship where someone could half-drop/half-jump from the upper catwalk to the lower one, if one were acrobatic enough to do so.
"Huh? Wonder how the old man got down there," Audria wonders to herself. She looks to the others to see if they are ready before trying to snake her way down to the lower catwalk.
As she looks for the best way to get onto the catwalk, the walkway she's on groans ominously before tilting just enough to make Audria lose her balance. She scrambles to find a handhold to stop her slide into the water, but the boards are too slick and she's moving too fast to find purchase. With a soft yelp of surprise and dismay she disappears between the ship and the old fishery before landing in the water with a loud plunk.
A moment after being dunked into the chilly water, Audria's head breaks the surface. Remembering the threats of being feed to the sharks from her youth, she tries to quickly swim to the catwalk and pull herself out of the water.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Shrike stows her guisarme, crossbow and candle lamp before the group attempts the short jump. She is just ready when Audria, losing no time, charges in as usual.
In silence, the mask tilts over the side of the walkway to observe the girl's unfortunate adventures, with a slowness that has almost the quality of a sigh.
Shrike makes the leap next, bending her knees for balance as she lands in a near-crouch with a soft thump. She reaches down to pull Audria back up to the dock by her arms, noting her surprisingly vigorous and successful efforts at splashing and kicking her way free of the Jeggare's depths despite her heavy new armor. At least we do not have to dive in after her.
Once Audria is safely on the dock again, Shrike attempts to help the others come down in less spectacular fashion, by catching them or steadying them as they land.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Audria's splash in the water results in a fast-moving, streamlined shadow cutting through the water toward her, and only Shrike's assistance at pulling her out quickly keeps her from being attacked by one of several sharks that seem to be patrolling the underside of the fishery. With her out of the water, though, it loses interest, milling about for a bit before diving back into the Jeggare River's depths.
The rest of the party, with Shrike's assistance, is able to drop down onto the lower catwalk. The catwalk itself is creaky and waterlogged, but traverses the river below toward a single door to the west. The door is oddly-shaped, a result of being jammed below a support beam keeping the fishery up, and sports an obvious brass lock, which matches the key found on Yargin's body.
Perhaps chastened by her dip into the river and near miss with one of the sharks that calls it home, Audria takes her place wherever the others put her. The cold water leaves her lips blue and she shivers from the warmth-sapping dampness under the fishery. She looks about, wondering what else could be down here, but keeps anything she finds to herself.
Shrike makes no sound at the sight of the sharks, but pulls Audria up with a quickness. She does not scold the girl. All of her own teachers believed that failure was the only way to learn, and their role was mostly to prevent mistakes from being fatal.
Shrike takes the lead this time, carefully picking her way over the catwalk's creaking boards. However, she stops at the obviously locked door with its brass lock, and looks to Abella, whom she vaguely recalls picked up some small items that could have been keys from the gang members.
If Abella hands over the key, Shrike takes her time and uses it in the lock as quietly as possible, listens for a moment at the door, then if she hears nothing, readies her crossbow and opens the door, also as quietly as possible.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Abella stifles a laugh at Audria’s little misadventure. Not out of any desire to help her save face, of course, but because she simply does not want to make too much noise. She makes a tut-tut-tut sound. ”Silly canary, it is not good to get your wings wet.” She brushes some water off of her and then taps her, sharing a guidance. ”To help you keep your wings dry.” She turns back around to seeing Shrike waiting for something. It takes a moment, but she remembers the key and pulls it out, placing it in her hand. ”Good eyes, Butcherbird.”
Audria's cheeks burn as she blushes, and she thanks Desna that the lighting is poor enough to hide her embarrassment.
"T-thanks," she tells Abella through chattering teeth.
The air in this large room is chilly and stinks of the river, thanks to a huge opening in the floor that drops away to the river shore three feet below. A single, sodden log floats in the middle of the opening. Several pilings emerge from the waters to support the roof eight feet above the floor, with mossy ropes slung between them. In two places, rusty manacles hang from the ropes over the water. Two five-foot-wide walkways cross the hole to the other side of the chamber, where a collection of old cabinets, lockboxes, and piles of clutter are strewn about. Chipped porcelain plates, a cracked goblet, badly rusted silverware, an old wooden shield with a crossbow bolt embedded in it, the odd dented helm, and other “treasures” litter the floor of this side of the chamber. Three tables heaped with clutter stand amid this mess. In the southwest corner, a wooden door provides access to a walled-off section.
At one of the three tables, an old man leans against his walking stick. He turns as Shrike opens the door with a creak sound, squinting beneath his brimmed hat. ”Who are you! And how in Asmodeus’s name did you find me!?” His hand drops to a hand crossbow, but he doesn’t draw it. ”Maybe you’re here for business? My son had some sort of job, said he might be sending people my way.”
The log is actually a massive reptile with scales, a long tail, and sharp teeth.
The old man can only be Lamm, and he does not seem aware of the chaos that went on over his head. Shrike's attention narrows to him and his possible escape routes. Her finger tightens on the trigger of her crossbow, but she manages to keep her cool and lower the point instead as she moves into the room. She needs to cut him off from that far door and allow the others to come in behind her.
"Yeah. We got business with Lamm. We were told we'd find him here." It is technically even true, but the harsh croak of her voice is not particularly reassuring.
Garrett stays behind some of the big people and tries to remain hidden in case the old man decides to shoot someone.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Abella saunters in, one hand on her hip and the other resting limp-wristed on the pommel of her sword. Her chin is raised high and disdainful.
”I imagined this going a number of ways, but none of them involved a giant reptile.” She nods towards the “log.” ”An old, cruel, slow reptile, yes. But not a giant one, too.” She tugs at her glove idly. ”Do you recognize any of us, Lamm?”
Lina's hands slammed over her mouth, but not before an exasperated "OH!" left her lips as Audria tumbled from the wooden walkway. Panic set in and her thoughts turned dark as shapes in the water began to coalesce. Thankfully, the young woman was pulled up to safety quickly, and Lina's shoulders slumped in relief.
They pressed on, slowly moving across the planks that made up the ramshackle bridge, swaying as it groaned in protest. As the others began to inspect the door, Lina escaped into her head, her memories rising up and casting shadows over her. This close, as they were closing in on Lamm, sent Lina into a dark place, where her fear began to tear away at her resolve. She held back, in silence, letting the other, bigger members of their gathering enter first.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
\
Lamm's eyes widen as the others enter behind Shrike. He glares at Abella. "I should have killed you after her, you know? I'll have to remedy that soon." He draws his hand crossbow, but instead of loosing it at the party, he aims unsteadily toward the water! "Gobbleguts, get them, you big lunk!"
16
When Abella points it out, Shrike glances at the 'log' in the pool she had previously missed and goes cold all over. Feeding your victims to a giant alligator is certainly one way to ensure they aren't found. His pet is also likely to be much more physically dangerous than he is, since he is significantly older than she expected. But this doesn't change what she must do. Lamm cannot walk away from this.
Lamm's eyes widen as the others enter behind Shrike. He glares at Abella. "I should have killed you after her, you know? I'll have to remedy that soon." He draws his hand crossbow, but instead of loosing it at the party, he aims unsteadily toward the water! "Gobbleguts, get them, you big lunk!"
In the instant before Lamm looses, Shrike reacts. She lifts the crossbow, aims at his center of mass, and gently pulls up on the trigger.
Then she races to take a position on the walkway that will block the heinous old man's path to the door.
"You shouldn't have made it my business to hunt you."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Nicolai slides into the room, unshouldering his crossbow as he goes. Shrike's crossbow bolt finds a place in Gaedren's shoulder, spinning him around and making him groan in pain. Nevertheless, he takes a shot at Gobbleguts, which splashes into the water. "Curse you, you stupid beast! Eat them!" He takes a few steps away from Shrike, cursing and muttering.
The alligator, for its part, surfaces and starts looking up at the walkways, but doesn't make a move to attack. Instead, it eyes Abella hungrily.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Seeing the hungry beast eyeing Abella, Audria comes up with a, frankly, terrible plan.
"Abella! Get back," she says before squeezing past her and running down the walkway. Just as she gets to Lamm, she jumps across the corner and takes a couple more steps as she turns to keep Lamm in front of her.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Shrike cuts her eyes over behind the mask to see what her allies are doing and this time registers the manacles dangling over the water where the huge lizard resides. With what Lamm clearly expects the creature to do to them, the significance is clear.
She drops the now-unloaded crossbow and spins the hooked and barbed polearm down into her grip. Holding it ready, she stalks toward Lamm with obvious deadly intent.
The mask is as expressionless as ever, but rage fairly smokes from the hiss of her voice. "You stole children. You beat and killed them. You fed them to your pet."
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Abella tosses a lazy smile to Audria. ”Oh my little canary, perhaps the beast should be the one to get away, don’t you think?” She begins weaving a thin weave of thanergy with her free hand like cotton candy. ”You know, I was saving this for you, Lamm. But I suppose this will have to do.”
She flicks her hand and the light cloud of thanergy envelops the alligator’s face momentarily, attempting to activate a primal fear response.
She then advances on Lamm himself.
Audria moves into the room, hopping across the corner easily, then keeps going. Shrike moves in to menace Lamm . Abella's magic settles on the alligator, but it's an apex predator and shows no fear in the face of the woman's spell.
Lina started into the room but immediately froze at the doorway at hearing the old man's voice. She took a half step back, but suddenly her anger rose up and pushed her fear away. Her hands rose as she chanted the arcane words to unleash a blast of mystic force.
Garrett stealths into the room and launches a shot at Gobbleguts.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Linna's magic bolt slams into Lamm, just a moment before Garrett's arrow finds purchase in the alligator's hide.
The alligator roars, then flails wildly out of the water, snapping at Abella's legs. It can't get out of the water quite far enough, though Abella can feel the wind from its jaws closing near the edge of the platform!
"Girl, you could have been a great Lamb! Without me, you'll still be nothing!" Lamm growls at Audria, dropping his hand crossbow, drawing a dagger, and stabbing away at the paladin! His eyes are mostly on Shrike's polearm, though, and he can't hit with his weapon.
Audria ignores Lamm's taunt. She knows how the man really feels about her. He made it abundantly clear he cares for her as much as a piece of trash.
She steps up to flank Lamm with Abella as she dodges the clumsy stab Lamm attempts, and goes for the grapple.
"Why should I listen to the ramblings of an old man over the voice of a goddess," she asks him as she starts to pin him.
Staying quiet in the corner, Garrett draws another arrow and fires it at the thrashing croc.
Her attention clearly divided between Lamm and the roaring lizard, Shrike lashes out with the blade of her guisarme.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Abella raises her sword high as Audria so kindly attempts to hold Lamm in-place. She could try a spell, but she has hardly mastered casting under such duress, so she goes with the safe bet.
Abella takes her moment and savors it. ”I am trying to think of something gracious and high-minded to say. The verbal equivalent of a pat on the shoulder as I stab you. Alas, I just really am not that kind of girl. I just think it is rather funny.”
Audria gets a good hold of Lamm, who panics and starts thrashing about to try and break the paladin's hold. A moment later, his armor takes Shrike's guisarme strike, which leaves a large scour down the padded cloth. He's not so fortunate, however, against Abella's sword, which catches him in the neck. While it doesn't quite behead him, it's clear that Lamm's days on Golarion are at an end.
Gobbleguts feels the arrow bounce off its thick hide and surges toward Garrett, lunging up to try and propel its massive body up toward the halfling. However, it still can't find purchase on the catwalk's slippery wood, and falls back into the water even as droplets of water and the meaty stink of its breath assault the halfling.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Abella’s typical expression of lazy amusement fades as Lamm falls. She just glares at him.
”I want my sister back, you son of a b*+%#.”
It takes her a moment to remember that oh, there’s a large angry lizard here. Truthfully, she would rather just leave at this point now that her goal is accomplished, but these people did help her. If Cainabeth was here, she would help, and that is enough to convince her.
She holds up her hand and weaves thanergy around her fingers again. This time, she’s going for the muscles. Shock them with enough energy to weaken the creature briefly.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Arianna holds Lamm, intending on having him call off the scaly beast in the water. Abella has other ideas. Audria shuts her eyes as blood from Lamm's mortal wound sprays her in the face and she staggers as the old man becomes dead weight. When she opens her eyes, she sees Lamm's head lolling against her shoulder and his dead eyes looking into hers like a damning curse.
The control she'd used to clamp down her emotional turmoil breaks and the young girl screams in horror as she shoves the corpse away from her and towards the gaping hole in the floor.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Shrike goes intently still as Abella neatly severs the old man's jugular and the fight leaves his body, which Audria promptly shoves away from herself with a scream. For a long moment, she just looks at the pathetic, broken husk of an old man who had caused so much misery, lying on the wooden walkway in a spreading pool of his lifeblood. Then the mask turns to the alligator struggling to heave its bulk up to the catwalk to get at Garrett.
She steps forward and a piercing birdlike whistle sounds from behind the mask to get the alligator's attention. With deliberate economy of motion, Shrike kicks Lamm's body into the water.
With Lamm dead and dumped into the water, Gobbleguts loses interest in trying to eat those on the catwalk. Instead, the crocodile grabs Lamm's body and begins flailing it around in the water in a death roll before dragging it under the catwalk below where Shrike and Audria stand.
With the fighting over, or at least lulled, it's possible to get a look around. On the floor is Gaedren Lamm's dagger, which he dropped when he was killed. Most of the "treasures" on Lamm's tables aren't worth much at all, though there are seven tubes of foul-smelling vermin repellant on one table. There's also a darkwood coffer on one cabinet, made with a touch of brass filigree on it. It's not locked, and inside are 20 doses of shiver.
Behind the door to the southwest is a foul-smelling room that seems to be a combination bedroom and study. A wooden bed with a lumpy mattress stands against the east wall, while a round table heaped with dirty plates, bread crusts, stained goblets, fruit rinds, and scuttling cockroaches sits nearby. At the foot of the bed sits a large strongbox; a slightly rusted lock secures it and a moldy ledger with pages rippled from moisture sits atop its lid. A sagging dresser filled with moth-eaten clothes well past their glory days is in one corner. What appears to be a wooden hatbox surrounded by a small cloud of flies sits atop this dresser.
Shrike watches the churning red-tinged muck for a long moment, the mask showing nothing. Her polearm is held loose but ready. Only when it is clear the alligator is more interested in an easy meal than a difficult one, as she had hoped, does she pick up the dagger, put away her guisarme and swiftly go back to the other side of the catwalk to retrieve and reload her dropped crossbow.
The next order of business is cautiously entering the stinking bedroom, pushing the unlocked door open crossbow-first as quietly as she can in case of further hostile creatures. When it is clear there are none, she looks around briefly and returns to the larger room with the moldy ledger in one hand, which she silently offers to Garrett. He had said something about Lamm framing his father for a crime. If he had, the evidence would likely be here.
To the others she says briefly, "The lizard's a maneater. It can't live."
Audria's knees buckle as Lamm's corpse is taken under. She sits, trembling, as she looks at the water where Lamm disappeared. Her eyes are wide, unblinking.
Lamm is dead.
She remembers cutting Giggles open, gutting him as she had fish dozens of times. With him, it is different. He was a person, as cruel as he'd been.
Lamm is dead. Shouldn't she be happy?
She killed someone.
The smell of blood and ruptured organs mix in her nose. The smell of death is one she has experienced often, growing up on the streets with a cruel man like Lamm, but now it has an edge, a potency that time and familiarity had dulled, at least until two years ago.
Lamm is dead.
She killed Giggles.
Monster.
No, it is not the time that has sharpened this keen edge. It is the proximity. It is her hands stained with blood. It is she that has killed another. She had asked him to surrender, but what of after the fight began? She had cut him down.
Lamm is dead.
Giggles is dead.
She killed them.
Monster.
Murderer.
Her breath comes quick and shallow, the pace built up like a horse starting to gallop. A little quicker, and a little more. A little on a little until she has no time at all to breath. Her heart races. Her chest hurts. Her lungs burn. All she can smell is blood, their blood on her hands. She had killed them. Lamm might have been able to avoid that last blow if she had not held him. Giggles might have surrendered if she had demanded it when he was beaten. She can hear them now, mocking her. Where is her goddess now? How could Shelyn choose someone stained with blood from men she'd killed or helped kill?
Nothing but a monster. Nothing but a murderer. That is all she is. That is the best she can hope for! Brother Theolan will not, cannot let her stay in the small temple. Eliana weeps as the mask is stripped away. Trinia looks at her with eyes filled with grief and horror before turning away and comforting the crying girl. Olga scowls and walks off. Bartholomew shakes his head, his disappointment clear in his eyes. "I taught you better than that," he growls before he too leaves Audria.
Monster.
Murderer.
That is what she is now.
Audria sits and stares blankly at the water where Gobbleguts had taken Lamm under, her breath coming fast, sharp, and shallow, when Shrike says they must kill the beast. She hasn't even attempted to wipe away Lamm's blood from where it sprayed across her face as he died.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Abella picks up on some deep turmoil taking place with Audria, and she assumes her normal casual confidence. She fluffs out a handkerchief and moves to dab at Audria’s face. ”Oh dear, poor, sweet canary. You should not have needed to be party to that. But do not feel bad. It was really my fault, so you can blame me. I really don’t mind. Beat me, curse me, bleed me. I can take it so you don’t have to. I do it all the time.” Much less without Cainabeth. Abella has always been the emotionally stable, resilient one, and she quite likes the position of scapegoat. People always assume the worst of her anyways.
"So are you" Lina said, staring at Shrike. "So are we all."
Lina turned to walk out of the room and paused. Looking back over her shoulder, she said aloud "someone should tell Zellara. Maybe she can find some peace now..."
Her head hung low and her shoulders drooped as she made her way back to the street, oblivious to her surroundings. Her feet shuffled along as she walked in a daze.
Audria flinches as Abella starts cleaning the blood off her face. She blinks and looks from Abella to Shrike before noticing Lina leaving.
"I-I'm sorry. I n-n-n-need to go," she says before following Lina out of Lamm's lair.
Out and back up on the street, the dam that had been holding back the weight of the grief and guilt she feels breaks. She weeps as she runs, not paying much attention to where she is going. Perhaps it is fate or just blind luck that she picks the same route Lina does towards Zellara's home. The only warning Lina gets is the pounding of running feet before Audria runs into her.
"I-I'm s-s--" she starts to say before she sees Lina, her fellow Lamm in this strange party that the Varisian Harrower had brought together. Her face crumples and she grabs the woman by the arms as the sobs come hard and fast.
"I-I killed them," she wails. "I'm no better they them. I killed them."