Age of Ashes (Team Dahak)

Game Master Delta Arena

Once Kiilo arrives at the pickle shop, the goblin happily hands him some pickles.
Day bees free!

At the boisterous reprimand by the crooked nose young man, the goblin points to the Bard.
He done made Mees does it!

Mosquito quickly finishes chewing the current pickles stuffed into his mouth before running up the stairs!
Surprises! Whose Burpday bees it!

Do you mean you are following the crooked nose young man? Or where are you running to?

Do we know the man?

Mosquito is definitely seen racing up the stairs after the crooked nose young man.....

He could be the one armed man! Mosquito gots your back, Harrison Ford!

You do not know the man, he is a new employee

When Mosquito manages to catch up with the young man, he finds him talking to a middle aged man and a middle aged woman. He is explaining the intrusion to them and pointing your way.

"I'll get Roxie," says the middle aged woman, and leaves by a nearby door.

The middle aged man then gets sight of Mosquito.

"’Ey, you! You are the cleric of Cayden, are you not? You've performed here. Were you one of the people in the storeroom?"

The crooked nose young man nods in response, but the older man waits for an answer.

The Strix took a very deep breath and minor magics swirled around him as his harness released his wings and compressed itself around his waist: with his friend he was frequently concerned when there was LESS noise and right now the little pickle-mouth had gone upstairs, yet no one was cheering or shouting. This could be trouble indeed!

"Friends, I'm not sure who the new bus boy is, and I'm not sure if maybe he thinks everyone is a drunkard, and I'm not even sure that's far from the truth here at the Pickle ... but I do know that Cayden's Smallest Chosen One is in a tavern unsupervised. I think we should ascend."

As Kiilo and the rest walk into the room where Mosquito now is, they find him faced by the two men who are questioning him.

"Well? Don't leave yer trap shut. Were you taking pickles from our storeroom?"

Markus breaks the silence "We're on official duty to Breachill. We demand to talk to miss Denn immediately. She has some explaining to do."

Mosquito seems to be chewing on pickles that may or may not have been once downstairs.....

The goblin smiles and points at Markus.

Rosie hears Markus' request as she approaches.

”I don’ believe I do. You are the ones in other people’s storerooms. So, pray tell, what “official duty” are you in, an’ why should I care ‘bout it?”

Markus puts on his best official face and says "We're investigating the Hellknight citadel, where we found the culprit for setting loose those fire creatures during the Call for Heroes. There we found a tunnel that led to your storeroom. It is a possible way the culprit took there. I have two questions for you. Did you know about the existence of this tunnel? Did you have anything to do with the attack?"

Mosquito (munching on probably not pickles) stands next to Markus with an official looking posture, face, stance.

"Ha, Don't be ridiculous. If there was a tunnel, everyone at the pickled ear would know about it,” says the older man.

”Ay’ there’s yer answer,” says Roxie. ”And no. I didn’t have anythin’ to do with no fire. Am just here to run ma business. I don’ know what could‘a given you such ideas.”

"Ha, Don't be ridiculous. If there was a tunnel, everyone at the pickled ear would know about it,” says the older man.

”Ay’ there’s yer answer,” says Roxie. ”And no. I didn’t have anythin’ to do with no fire. Am just here to run ma business. I don’ know what could‘a given you such ideas.”

"Ma'am, with whatever respect may be due, and that's hard for me to determine to be honest, we know EXACTLY what gave all of us "such ideas" ... the tunnel excavated into your basement. The tunnel isn't a figment. It isn't an illusion. If we got here by magic I would tell you, and Easivra knows we certainly didn't fly. We crawled here all the way from Citadel Alterin. Having done so, we want to hear what you know, and it's more than "running your business" so out with it. But you're busy, perhaps we should simply leave and head to the Council to let them know you're in cahoots with the halfling arsonist. I'm sure that would be great for business. Heroes, we should excuse ourselves."

INTIM: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (9) + 9 = 18

"Let me deal with 'em," Roxie says to the two men. "We need to keep the place runnin'"

"Aye, tavern starting to fill up. Come along Dereck," says the older man.

"Follow me," Roxie says. She starts walking back to the storeroom that connects with the tunnel.

Seeing that the adults were taking the conversation back downstairs, the excited goblin accompanies them (for more pickles).

Roxie waits until everyone is inside the storeroom and shuts the door.

"I don' know anythin' 'bout no halfling arsonist. Only people who know 'bout the tunnel are me and Lirayne. The whole town knows 'bout Lirayne’s assistant by now, but I had nothin’ to do with it. As for Lirayne,... Oh, she has a butt kickin’ comin’ when I see her next.” She tries her best to slow down. ”Look, I don’t want no trouble with the council. Lirayne just asked me to use the tunnel in exchange for gold. I didn’t know ‘bout no tunnel, but the coin was good, and all I had to do was keep quiet ‘bout it.”

The town gazetteer talks of the apprentice called Calmont Trenault. We know this fella? If not...

Markus asks "Can you describe the assistant, please? Also, how could you allow someone to use a tunnel in your shop for gold without knowing or asking what is going on?" The wizard is getting increasingly agitated. Something in this story triggered him.

He continues "Lirayne could have been smuggling... I don't know, reagents for necromancy and you didn't care?" He finishes barely controlling his voice "That is beyond irresponsible!"

He catches himself, breathing heavily. He finishes "Well, we'll show you the tunnel, but then we have to go talk to Greta about this, it's up to her whether you are partially held accountable for what is going on. Obviously we will recommend her to put up a search from Lirayne, but until we find her, you will be the only one with a hand in this. Ignorance does not exculpate you. So you better hope to Shelyn we find her soon. Then... you can worry about your pickles."

You do know Calmont, he is the arsonist that you captured.

"I've not met Lirayne's assistant. And I told you, the coin was good. The pickle' ear has been strugglin'. You know how expensive it is to run a business? But never mind that, you saying that Lirayne messes with the dead? I know she was weird, but I had no idea. I just thought to myself, she's a bookworm, they are harmless and weird. And loaded, apparently. Please, I just want to keep the pickle' ear afloat."

Markus stops himself from going on a tangent about risky businesses, that the law doesn't care whether or not you know you committed a crime, and bad choices. Instead he says "Enough. Now you know. Now, we'll be going to report our findings. If you want to make a case, do it to the council. We are not responsible for such judgement."

He makes his way out bringing the rest of the party with him. He says "Come, Cranky, we're leaving. And you! You don't get to pet Cranky." to Roxie.

Mosquito (probably munching on pickles) gives Roxie a glare before following Markus.

"Wait, you still haven't paid for those pickles!" She says as the party leaves, but she doesn't have the courage to follow. "I can also report you to the council for thievery!" She adds before you are out of hearing range.

Where are you heading to next?

Markus angrily walks with determination looking for Greta.

Not sure if she lives somewhere. She's not mentioned in the Gazetteer.

Vrosi holds back. Gets out his coin purse, and says quietly, "Brilliant Burnis buy munchies for Misquoto. How much to pay for pickles?"

Assuming that the amount is not unreasonable, Vrosi will pay it.

Roxie asks for 5 copper pieces for the eaten pickles. She looks at the coins with a vacant stair, and thanks Brilliant Burnis for them. Her voice sounds defeated and concerned as she ponders what will happen next.

It is still day outside, and Greta can be found in the town hall, where repair work of the damaged halls is already underway. She is found talking with some of the contractors who are assessing the damage caused by the fire.

Markus sees Vrosi paying Roxie and looks disapprovingly. To him, the woman is too outrageous to be making demands about pickles. He pushes this off his mind and goes to the town hall directly.

Arriving, he looks for Greta and asks to speak with her. Once they can safely talk, he says "Councilwoman, we have some new findings. There is a tunnel between the citadel and the town. It leads to the storeroom in the Pickled Ear. It is probably how Calmont escaped after attacking the Call for Heroes. It seems that Roxie Denn has been taking money from Voz Lirayne to use this tunnel and smuggle in... whatever. Roxie never asked."

He shakes his head disapprovingly then continues "I gather that Voz is probably somewhat responsible for what happened, and needs to be found and questioned immediately. We need to understand what was her goal in all this. Or still is her goal?"

He stops his line of thinking to add "Until we find her, all the information we have is that Roxie has been involved in illegal activity. She facilitated it. Claiming she doesn't know what was happening does not exculpate her in my opinion. However, this is not my call and I defer to you to decide what to do with her."

Mosquito (probably still not pickles that he is still munching on) points to Markus and gives a green thumb up!

"Those are some serious accusations against Voz and Roxie, specially given that Calmont confesed to acting alone, and the guards at the city gate confirmed that he left the city through the gate, before we knew he was responsible for the fire. Do you have any evidence of smuggling?"

Wees gots ta talks to da Vox!

"That seems like a logical next move, head to her bookstore, find out what you can. I will send someone to talk to Roxie. And to take a look at this tunnel."

I have placed a marked for the Reliant Book Company, Voz's bookstore, in the map of Breachill.

Markus says "Yes, that would be best." and he starts moving towards Voz's store.

Looks like we're retracing our steps, since it's close to the pickled ear.

Voz’s bookshop is tucked into an out-of-the-way corner of Breachill, receiving little foot traffic. At the moment, the shop is locked up, with no indication on anyone on the inside.

Markus turns to the others and says "So, Voz is suspiciously absent. I don't think this checks out. Cranky, have sniff around, please. But stay within sight."

Cranky proceeds to sniffing the shop's front door, then moves on. When he reaches a corner, he says to Markus "Come, come!" and Markus moves along with him to make sure he is safe.

The place smells dusty, but clean, with a hint of lantern oil and old parchemnt. It is consitent all around the bookstore, but Cranky and you notice that there is a locked window on each side of the building.

Markus asks Cranky "So no one, huh? Weird!" He proceeds to tell this to the others. He wonders if any of them have the ability to lockpick the window from outside, or even the door. He asks "Can any of you find us a way open without causing any damage?"

As he says this, he also thinks about the structure itself to think if he can find a way in.

Lore Architecture: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25
Lore Engineering: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (5) + 9 = 14

Vrosi will get out his thieves' toolkit and get to work on one of the windows.

Thievery: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (12) + 8 = 20

Mosquito barely bothers Brilliant Burnis while the orc works on the lock......

While Markus thinks that there could be a chimney, or something similar, that they could use to get in, it is not necessary. Vrosi takes a little bit of time, but he manages to slide his tools between the frame and the window to reach the latch and flick it open. One that is out of the way, the window opens with the slightest force.

A look towards the inside reveals a display and merchandise area filled with shelves upon shelves of old books written in myriad languages. At the front of the room, there is an epty counter with a till box. On the opposite side of the room, there are two closed doors, one of which reads “Staff Only.”

Mosquito enters the establishment, sees the sign and the goblin begins searching for a staff.
Bees gotsa has da staff about here somewhere!

Mosquito starts looking for a staff near the staff door, searching high and low, looking for it even in the doorframe to the room. He doesn't find any staff, but he does notice that there are holes hidden by the door all around the doorframe.

"That could be a trap, be careful little friend! Now that we know there is greater evil on the wing, we must be more careful. What if all those pickles had been poisoned and they only served them after using an antidote!?"

Markus gets in last. He notices that Cranky has his ears pointing down. He says softly "See, buddy? There was no one here to find. You did a great job!" The fox perks up and rubs his forehead on the wizard's leg.

Markus takes notice of the entrance and says "Judging by how this place is, it looks like all the staff has cleared up this place of valuables and left. But as Kiilo says, it doesn't mean this place is safe. They'd have no reason to shut down any security system they had implemented. So be extra careful of traps and defensive mechanisms that would be too heavy to take."

Markus is thinking of a golem. He'd love to see a working one for the first time. However, he thinks it's unlikely the owner of a small book shop would be wealthy enough to have one. He stops his line of thought. Knowing himself, he could spend a few hours considering all possibilities, and he doesn't want to ask his companions to wait as he ponders.

He says "As much as I love architecture, I've never studied traps much. Anyone here know how to disable them?"

With a big toothy smile, Vrosi says, "Brilliant Burnis takes traps apart."

Mosquito is seen looking into the mystery holes in the Staff Only door frame.....

I can help with that if you want.

I take it Vrosi is trying to Disable a Devise and Kiilo is using Aid for the trapped door?

Vrosi was just responding to Markus' question.

"Markus want Brilliant Burnis to take trap?"

If Markus agrees, then go ahead and roll for Vrosi. Thievery is +8

Markus says "Yes please."

Vrosi disable trap: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16

THIEV(aid): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14
Not much help ...