Stella whips a dart at the board without looking up from the contract. She's clearly pretty experienced here and it's still a decent shot, but quite obviously not as good as Morthos's dead-center bullseye. "Oh, you beat me." She sounds mildly surprised.
For her second shot, Stella actually looks at what she's doing. Her dart deflects off of Zisiro's. "Oh, whoops. Well, seems you win that one too!"
For her third dart, Stella stands properly at the line and aims. She gets a bullseye, which Tirx doesn't quite manage. "One for me, though!"
Beckoning for the Pathfinders to come with her, Captain Fane returns to the table and lays out the contract. "Valsin assured me that the Pathfinder agents who were bringing this to me would be impressive. When you were late for the meeting I was a little unsure, but at least I know you can handle yourselves in a fight since you're good at throwing knives at people." After removing one of her gloves, she pricks her finger with a knife and writes her name in blood. "I'm impressed; I'll honor this contract as it is, assisting the Pathfinder Society with the pirate blockade in exchange for nothing more than information on slaver movements."
After Fane rolls the contract back up and hands it to the field agents, she looks around suspiciously. “Maybe I have had too much to drink. This meeting as supposed to be somewhat clandestine until we reveal that the deal is done and dusted, but I've gone and drawn attention to myself. Never can tell who’s watching—the Free Captains have eyes and ears everywhere. Best to be sure that if these
lot remember anything about this night, it’s not that they saw us here together.”
With that, Stella Fane sweeps her hat off her head in an exaggerated bow and bids the party good night. She extends a leg behind her, tripping a nearby server. The server drops a plate of exquisitely prepared crab and raw fish, which lands across the faces of a nearby table of fishers. Enraged at the waste of food and livid with hunger, they lunge from their seats. One of them attacks the server, drawing ire from nearby patrons. Another attacks a diner at the next table, blaming him for causing the mess. A third leaps at someone else entirely unconnected to the commotion for reasons that are unclear.
Stella then activates her cape of the mountebank and disappears in a puff of smoke, as the entire bar erupts into chaos. It's as though the place was a powder keg, perpetually one moment from exploding into violence. Which... well, is probably accurate.
An assorted crowd throws punches, flings bottles, and otherwise flies into chaos as a bar fight breaks out. Four elves armed with fishing knives seem to have it out for the Pathfinders in particular. "Them!" one of the shouts, "It's those guys, they threw that!"
>MAP<
Herkemer's turn
Initiative:
Herkemer (AC 18; 16/16)
Blue Seaborn Fisher
Tirx (AC 18/20; 20/20)
Hezrioux (AC 18/19; 17/17)
Yellow Seaborn Fisher
Morthos (AC 15; 34/34)
> Lidya (AC 19)
Riddle of Nowhere (AC 19; 19/19)
Red Seaborn Fisher
Green Seaborn Fisher
Zisiro (AC 19/20; 20/20)
|
Seeing the bar erupt into chaos, Herkemer moves into action. He draws his rapier, then starts grabbing bar patrons, shouting and shoving at them to clear the area. He sees the elf fishermen looking fearsome, but figures his team can have a better chance in fight, if the space is clear. Plus he doesn't want to make the first strike in case he misreads their intent.
Herkemer cows some of the brawlers, who shift further away from him. There's no guarantee the brawling won't spill over a little, but at least there's less furniture flying overhead.
It doesn't work on the fishers glaring at the party. The quickest of the fishers draws her dagger, but doesn't approach the assembled Pathfinders. Instead, she cast a spell. A spark of lightning arcs from Herkemos to Morthos.
Tirx and Hezrioux's turns.
Initiative:
Herkemer (AC 18; 16/16, DC 15 Reflex vs 5 electricity)
Blue Seaborn Fisher
Tirx (AC 18/20; 20/20)
Hezrioux (AC 18/19; 17/17)
Yellow Seaborn Fisher
Morthos (AC 15; 34/34, DC 15 Reflex vs 5 electricity)
> Lidya (AC 19)
Riddle of Nowhere (AC 19; 19/19)
Red Seaborn Fisher
Green Seaborn Fisher
Zisiro (AC 19/20; 20/20)
Port Peril Bar Fight (1 area disabled)
|
|
Hezrioux narrows her eyes as Fane disappears and the bar patrons begin to advance upon the party. Unwilling as yet to draw her weapon, she assumes a defensive posture.
◆) Raise Buckler
◆◆) Trace Rune w/ Ranshu vs Green Seaborn Fisher
↺) Shield Block
With a few graceful gestures of calligraphy, she traces her fingers with the likeness quillstrokes, zig-zagging a pattern that appears with a violet coloration between her and the nearest knife-wielding fisherman: a bolt of lightning! The symbol brands on the would-be assailant, threatening menace should he continue his intended path.
Requirements: You have a hand free or are holding an artisan’s toolkit.
Your fingers dance, glowing light leaving behind the image of a rune. You apply one rune to an adjacent target matching the rune’s Usage description. The rune remains until the end of your next turn. If you spend 2 actions to Trace a Rune, you draw the rune in the air and it appears on a target within 30 feet. You can have any number of runes applied in this way.
[primal]
Usage: drawn on a creature or object
This vertical rune is often carved on tall towers to draw lightning and shield the buildings below it. If the bearer does not take a move action at least once on its turn, lightning finds it at the end of its turn, dealing 1d4 electricity damage.
Invocation: The preliminary streaks of lightning braid together into a powerful bolt. The rune-bearer takes 2d6 electricity damage, with a basic Fortitude save.
Level (+2): The damage increases by 1, and the damage of the invocation increases by 2d6
Tirx moves up and viciously stabs one of the fishers. He doesn't collapse, but he's already breathing heavy and looking a little unfocused. That might be the booze, though.
"They're violent types, huh?" says one of the fishers, drawing a knife of his own and throwing more lightning at the Pathfinders.
Morthos and Riddle's turns.
Initiative:
Herkemer (AC 18; 14/16)
Blue Seaborn Fisher
Tirx (AC 18/20; 20/20)
Hezrioux (AC 18/19; 17/17)
Yellow Seaborn Fisher
Morthos (AC 15; 32/34, DC 15 Ref vs 5 electricity)
> Lidya (AC 19)
Riddle of Nowhere (AC 19; 19/19, DC 15 Ref vs 5 electricity)
Red Seaborn Fisher
Green Seaborn Fisher (-8, bloodied; Ranshu, rune of thunder)
Zisiro (AC 19/20; 20/20)
Port Peril Bar Fight (1 area disabled)
Lidya slinks away from her brother as some amount of his occult energy comes to rest in her being. Traversing the nearby steps she arrives opposite riddle, closing in on the nearest fisher-person.
Her twin blades slash down at them in her signature "X" pattern. One is wrapped in flame, and the other is a simpler, spectral dagger.
Riddle cuts into the elf, but it's not quite enough to take her down. Close, by the look of it. She has no time to respond to Morthos's incredulity before Lidya sends her to the floor.
The fisher in green, compelled to move the sparking rune, circles around Tirx as he draws the dagger. "What is this??" he asks as he swipes at the goblin.
Zisiro's turn. Herkemer can go too, I'll just resolve the hazard after if you get to it before me.
Initiative:
Herkemer (AC 18; 14/16)
Blue Seaborn Fisher
Tirx (AC 18/20; 20/20)
Hezrioux (AC 18/19; 17/17)
Yellow Seaborn Fisher
Morthos (AC 15; 27/34)
> Lidya (AC 19)
Riddle of Nowhere (AC 19; 14/19)
Green Seaborn Fisher (-8, bloodied; Ranshu, rune of thunder)
Zisiro (AC 19/20; 20/20)
Port Peril Bar Fight (1 area disabled)
The fisher in the blue hat laughs as Zisiro tries to scratch her, but the other sees the red gash he draws across her shoulder and gets out of the way.
Most of the Pathfinders and their foes are in the area Herkemer's cleared of other brawlers, but a few are still in some danger. A heavy tankard whizzes by, narrowly missing the fisher with the yellow scarf. A tankard does bonk Zisiro on the head. Someone shoves a chair, which misses its intended target but hits Lidya as it tumbles down the stairs next to her.
A barrel of fish also smashes against the stairs, though on the other side way from Lidya. It bursts open, spraying fish and sauce everywhere.
Even in Port Peril, lethal bar brawls are considered a little too much. Yet that's hardly the Pathfinders' fault--it was the fishers who first drew knives and started slinging dangerous spells, after all. However, the fallen fisher's would be lethal wounds suddenly close with a blaze of magical light.
A fish-like humanoid sits off to the side, the others avoiding them even among the drunken chaos. A healer. They aren't getting people back into the fight, but they're magically stabilizing anyone who goes down. No need to worry then!
Herkemer's turn. The blue square is grease, DC 15.
Initiative:
Herkemer (AC 18; 14/16)
Blue Seaborn Fisher (-4)
Tirx (AC 18/20; 20/20)
Hezrioux (AC 18/19; 17/17)
Yellow Seaborn Fisher
Morthos (AC 15; 27/34)
> Lidya (AC 19)
Riddle of Nowhere (AC 19; 14/19)
Green Seaborn Fisher (-8, bloodied; Ranshu, rune of thunder)
Zisiro (AC 19/20; 20/20)
Port Peril Bar Fight (1 area disabled)
The fisher never sees Herkemer coming.
Tirx and Hezrioux's turns.
Initiative:
Herkemer (AC 18; 14/16, one action)
Tirx (AC 18/20; 20/20)
[b]Hezrioux[b] (AC 18/19; 17/17)
Yellow Seaborn Fisher
Morthos (AC 15; 27/34)
> Lidya (AC 19)
Riddle of Nowhere (AC 19; 14/19)
Green Seaborn Fisher (-8, bloodied; Ranshu, rune of thunder)
Zisiro (AC 19/20; 20/20)
Port Peril Bar Fight (1 area disabled)
|
|
Hezrioux opens her hands wide, and duplicates the symbol on the (green) fisherman onto another (yellow) across the room.
◆◆) Trace Rune w/ Ranshu vs Yellow Seaborn Fisher
◆) Invoke (2) Runes
With a final punctuation, she presses with a special hand motion, and the runes arc together in a clap of thunder!
And all traces of what they were disappear...
[primal]
Usage: drawn on a creature or object
This vertical rune is often carved on tall towers to draw lightning and shield the buildings below it. If the bearer does not take a move action at least once on its turn, lightning finds it at the end of its turn, dealing 1d4 electricity damage.
Invocation: The preliminary streaks of lightning braid together into a powerful bolt. The rune-bearer takes 2d6 electricity damage, with a basic Fortitude save.
Level (+2): The damage increases by 1, and the damage of the invocation increases by 2d6
(◆)
You utter the name of one or more of your runes within 30 feet. The rune blazes with power, applying the effect in its Invocation entry. The rune then fades away, its task completed. You can invoke any number of runes with a single Invoke Rune action, but creatures that would be affected by multiple copies of the same specific rune are affected only once, as normal for duplicate effects.
The fisher in green, already injured, collapses into a smoking heap as the lightning strikes him. The other hands on for the moment.
Hezrioux's turn.
Initiative:
Herkemer (AC 18; 14/16, one action)
Tirx (AC 18/20; 20/20)
Hezrioux (AC 18/19; 17/17)
Yellow Seaborn Fisher (-7, bloodied)
Morthos (AC 15; 27/34)
> Lidya (AC 19)
Riddle of Nowhere (AC 19; 14/19)
Zisiro (AC 19/20; 20/20)
Port Peril Bar Fight (1 area disabled)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Tirx... gives the healer a lot of work to do.
Without anyone (directly) opposing them, the Pathfinders are able to get out of the bar with no trouble. They find Hlar’s boat near the docks. The old diver is upset at having to row them back out so soon after just arriving in town, but agrees with the that’s it’s probably best to leave after being involved in a brawl of that size. She navigates the party back to the sandbar she originally picked them up at, leaving them with some dried squid and a jar of fresh water. A day later, another commissioned ship picks them up for the transport back to Absalom. There, they present Stella Fane’s contract to Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin, notifying him that she’s agreed to aid the Society with passage through the blockade, and that the way to Vidrian is open. In gratitude for their service, Valsin presents the Pathfinders with an archaic wayfinder.