Neronius chuckles to himself. "This is all very interesting, but I am missing a meal, even if I'm not sure which one. Now, wasn't one of you brave fellows going to see about access to the roof and our rescue?"
Halgrak stays seated; “I am going to just wait here. There isn’t anything in here that can hurt me… unless those paintings come to life and fly off the wall.”
“What did the prisoner who was about to be executed say when the hangman ran out of rope?” … “No noose is good news!” Ebin begins to laugh at his joke. “He had nothing to say because he knew he had nothing to stand on and that he was found out! The cat had his tongue.” Ebin seems to be proud of his self-perceived wittiness.
Madge’s eyes lock onto the other halfling and she fixes her topknot and a smile comes across her pouty lips. “Mord is gone, it’s his own fault that he hung if he was innocent. Not saying a thing caused his death.”
- 2 Heavy Crossbows with 2 quivers of 25 bolts
- 4 Longswords with belt sheaths
- 4 daggers with belt sheaths
- 4 sets of Chainmail
- 4 Light Steel Shields
- 8 Potions of Cure Light Wounds
- 5 sets of manacles
- 2 Tanglefoot bags
- 2 Smokesticks
- Masterworked Throwing Axe
Well, I'll just stay here with as well for a while. Since there were zombies in closets one can never be too careful. Trevor checks out the paintings. Where did you live? If the worst happens, I will make sure they are provided for.
"Er, I'm pretty sure that the hanging caused his death, not his silence," Zinli tuts and shakes her finger at Madge. "So let's not bury the guy too quickly!" she smiles widely at her own pun.
If we got nothing better to do, how 'bout we go fetch the half-orc and move up to the next level?"
Carrie sighs, "Yes, better to press forward than wait around for that damn clock to ring again and somethin' bad to happen."
"Don't wanna stick around with that zombie corpse, either," she adds as she strides toward the door.
The group in the Baliff’s room make their way back through the narrow hallway. Arriving at the first set of stairs; “Zinli, do we want to go up this way first or the one in the main entry?” Killian ask, but you can hear talking in the main lobby of this level.
Walking in you see Trevor and Halgrak sitting on the floor talking.
“We live here in the bluff. I am a blacksmith here…” Halgrak looks turns and sees the group come through the door and he stands up; “the others are here.”
Rakkart walks up to the conference table; “What have we found so far that might give us an answer?”
- 2 Heavy Crossbows with 2 quivers of 25 bolts
- 4 Longswords with belt sheaths
- 4 daggers with belt sheaths
- 4 sets of Chainmail
- 4 Light Steel Shields
- 8 Potions of Cure Light Wounds
- 5 sets of manacles
- 2 Tanglefoot bags
- 2 Smokesticks
- Masterworked Throwing Axe
"Honestly, guys, I just go for whichever way happens to be right next to me," Zinli answers straightforwardly. "Not sure if that's the right way to go, but here we are."
Rakkart walks up to the conference table; “What have we found so far that might give us an answer?”
"That this whole trial was shady as f$%!, and some jury were not completely honest?" Zinli turns to Neronius hopefully. The guy seemed to have figured out some things better.
Neronius nods at Zinli and speaks to the gathered group. "My new gnomish associate has mastered understatement. Indeed, as with a week-old trout left under the pillow, something smells fishy about this case. I confess to knowing little about matters . . . ahem, spiritual . . . but having learned a little of the esoteric and occult, I speculate that a full verbal confession would ease a restless soul's preoccupation with vengeance."
Trevor looks at the others when they are here. We have some more urgency to solve this matter. Halgrak's family is currently without him and so we should get this matter sorted out right away.
Neronius nods at Zinli and speaks to the gathered group. "My new gnomish associate has mastered understatement. Indeed, as with a week-old trout left under the pillow, something smells fishy about this case. I confess to knowing little about matters . . . ahem, spiritual . . . but having learned a little of the esoteric and occult, I speculate that a full verbal confession would ease a restless soul's preoccupation with vengeance."
"Gnome-ish? Full gnome, if you please!"
"Well, you heard my standoff-ish friend. Who wants to spill the beans first?"
"Come'n, don't be shy, this is a safe space and we're not judging!... I mean, the guy's dead anyway, so it's not like we could have a second trial."
Carrie crosses her arms and leans against one of the chairs, "Maybe if you admit you made a mistake, the ghost'll let us go. The longer you wait, the less lenient your punishment'll be. And wouldja rather get outta here and face the law, or stay here and deal with a vengeful dead guy?"
She cracks her knuckles, "I know what I'd pick."
Halgrak, who has been distant, takes a few strides and sits down on the couch. Dust comes out from the couch that hadn’t been sat on in a decade. He begins speaking softly “Things were… are tight. Business had slowed down and I couldn’t feed my family. I borrowed money from Wade… I shouldn’t have. I knew if things stayed the same I couldn’t repay him.” He looks up and tears are in his eyes; “I needed to feed my family.” he pulls the jar out of his bag, rolling it from one hand to another. Watching the toes within floating around. “Wade hired Malgrim as a debt collector and him and his gang caught me alone… held me down… and cut off my toes.” he launches the jar across the room and it hits the jar and his toes thump on the ground across the room.
He is now a crying mess and his head in his hands. “I thought things were fine for the moment until he returned. Malgrim told me that I would be on the jury and that I would be making a guilty vote…” he looks up broken and ashamed; “I would be fine if I was cut on more, but he said it wouldn’t be me that would be harmed… but my children.”
The half-orc slumps back in the couch and goes silent as he cries.
The other jury members are taken back by what was just said, except Rekkart. “By the gods…” he walks over and puts a hand on his shoulder.
Zinli listens to the whole story patiently - but shows little sign of emotion. "Well, that explains a lot," she concludes, and moves next to the half-orc to pat his back affectionately. "There, there. Not your proudest moment, no doubt, but it's all in the past - and at least Malgrim's not here to bother you anymore."
She turns to the rest of the jury. "Alright. So Halgrak lied on his vote - even if he was not the one pulling the strings. And so far Malgrim's the only one who was straight up killed." She studies their faces one by one, particularly settling on Rekkart's. "That leaves all of you."
"I don't have if it's Mord's ghost, or whoever, who got us here - but so far whatever 'retribution' is going on has been pretty fair. So if you're not innocents, what did you do?"
"We're not gonna be able to leave until we get to the bottom of this. What is it exactly that created a grudge?"
Carrie cracks a sly grin at Rekkart as if to silently say 'I told you so', but gradually becomes more and more solemn as the half-orc tells his story, "I'm... Sorry to hear that."
Trevor sighs. A father who just wanted to keep his children safe. Harsh judgement on Malgrim, but perhaps fitting.
Tolbold looks at the group of jurors and says "So who got the necklace of fire opals?"
Patrissa gasp at what Halgrak revealed. She clinches her robe tight as if it will protect her from the news; “That poor man. We killed that poor, poor man!” She move and hides her face in Rekkart’s chest.
“While I do understand why you voted how you did, if I would have known the vote would have never went how it did. I wish I could remember more about that week, but it all seems a bit cloudy to me as I try to look back.” Rekkart says as he attempts to sooth Patrissa. “Why would Malgrim want the executioner dead? He is just a criminal, no honor among thieves.”
"F@#* if I know, but Malgrim did seem like the type who could have ended up at the end of a noose," Zinli shrugs. "Probably Mord's death served his interests in some way.
[b]"I doubt he was the brains, though - the man was more cut for petty bullying than elaborate schemes."
"Workin' for some bureaucrat in the courthouse probably had more benefits than just money for Malgrim..." Carrie begins pacing back and forth across the room as she vocalizes her thoughts, one hand behind her back and the other scratching her chin, "Maybe Wade was keepin' Malgrim's ass outta the fire for his own crimes in exchange for doin' his biddin'? Seems to me that Wade's the one who wanted Mord outta the way and Malgrim was just one of the tools for the job."
Trevor listens intently to determine if people are telling the truth.
Listening to those that are chiming in, you fully believe that they are telling the truth.
-Halgrak’s brokenness around the threat against his kids, and you remembering that he had a slight limp when he walked makes you believe that his bought vote was for nothing else but to save his kids.
-Rekkart, as a Paladin of Iomedae, would not send an innocent man to the gallows. He fully believes Mord was guilty, but the cloudiness might have something more to it.
-Patrissa seems to be a rich woman who was part of a trial and is now continually clinging to the strongest male in the group, which happens to be Rekkart.
-Ebin seems to not only be a terrible jester but terrible in this nightmare of a situation.
-Killian has been awfully quite, taking in everything as intently as you have.
“Time is not stopping for us and it seems we need to find a way out or a way to deal with this cursed place.” pointing to the stairs in this room or down the hallway that the party just came from. “Which way next?”
"Up! Up! Up!" Zinli chants enthusiastically.
Neronius walks to the base of the stairs and looks up. The steep climb only cements his belief that, barring a dire emergency, some ascents are best left to those with strong legs but weak minds.
He turns away and decides to make the best of a bad situation. Carefully removing a partially-melted platinum ring from his pocket, he looks at it intently. It still bears a barely visible inscription written in an ancient tongue: in arcanum omnium, potentia illimata. Said to have been worn by the famous wizard Nex on the day he created the legendary Crux of Nex (and cast aside after having been burnt out), some flickers of arcane power remain . . . A satisfied smile creases Neronius' face as he uses the ring to create a thin flat disk of pure, glowing energy hovering in the air!
"Now to find profit where others meet only peril," he says to himself, as he starts to stack paintings, rare books, and other collectors' items on the disk.
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Trevor rolls his eyes at Neronius and follows everyone upwards.
Killian nods at Zinli’s choice to go up here as he waves a hand for others to lead.
Climbing the narrow spiral staircase reveals a room in shambles. A simple double bed is hacked to splinters, the mattress eviscerated of its stuffing and is caked in dried blood. No attempt to clean up the slaughter that transpired here was made in the hurried trial of Mord and the flight of all staff from the courthouse. An eerie menagerie of blood-darkened wooden toys in the shapes of carriages, horses, knights, and wizards are strewn near a dark stain on the floor beneath a broken table.
Your vision goes black and everything goes silent when a terrifying laugh rings in your ears as the cloaked figure raises a fist to strike the woman, still seated in her rocking chair. Before he can strike, however, she stands defiantly and lashes out with her knitting needle. The cloaked figure raises a gloved hand to its cheek. The glove comes away bloody, and then the figure reaches for a wood axe hung above the hearth as the woman recoils in horror.
The sights and sounds of your new companions entering this small bedroom returns. It appears no one else experienced what you just have.
"I guess this is Mord's bedroom, eh?" Zinli looks around, and her gaze rests on the bloodied toys. "Why was there a kid in this place? Was the family living in the courthouse?"
A feeling of unease washes over Carrie as she looks around the ruined room, focusing upon the wooden toys; a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, not helped by the metallic scent of dried blood.
"People livin' in the same buildin' as their job ain't all that weird. I mean, my family lives in our inn. Probably not the best example, but..."
Trevor staggers when he enters the room and clutches his head. He then looks around in confusion and speaks.My vision went black and everything goes silent when a terrifying laugh rang in my ears as the cloaked figure raises a fist to strike the woman, still seated in her rocking chair. Before he can strike, however, she stands defiantly and lashes out with her knitting needle. The cloaked figure raises a gloved hand to its cheek. The glove comes away bloody, and then the figure reaches for a wood axe hung above the hearth as the woman recoils in horror.
I think I saw a scene from a murder.
Tobold moves up the steps toward the room. After hearing Trevor he says "Others have had similar visions of other parts of this murder as well."
As Trevor, Zinli, Carrie, take the lead into this room (Tolbold & Rekkart waiting on the stairs), the lights flicker off the belongings in this… home? You know that Mord and his family lived in the courthouse to guard the facilities as part of his job, but this room is no home.
The lights of your spells or torches cause the shadows of this room to flicker and twist. Your eyes seem to be playing a trick on you when the shadows stir and a shadow of a dark woman appears. Her hourglass figure wrapped only in scant red veils. She steps forward into the middle of this room, appearing to move through the furniture and debris on the floor. Her jet-black eyes stir your soul with desire. She begins to dance and twirl, veils floating and wrapping around her.
As she continues to dance towards her, her head slowly splits at the seam of what would be an axe blow. She cries out but continues to dance. The slanted chop opens her skull crosswise from the temple to jawbone. Her cry turns into a gurgling of fluids that spews forth from her has she dances her Varisian twirl. Another unseen hack happens as her hands fall from her arms leaving bloody stumps. Her graceful hands and fingers still work in time with her dance.
Initiative: Round 1
Shadow
All of You
Initiative
.
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"That's new," Zinli comments, quite unfazed despite the weirdness of the situation. She looks down at Baby in a pensive way, for the first time quite unsure of whether or not her gun will be useful.
Which doesn't stop her from trying.
The bullet hits the woman square where her head should be.
Whn the shadowy woman appears, Trevor jolts. Oh no! Is she like that body in the closet? Trevor sees if he can identify the woman.
Neronius starts for a second, hearing the ungodly loud noise of Zinli's firearm going off upstairs. He shakes his head at the folly of youth and continues whistling as he piles paintings and curios on his floating disk.
Nonetheless . . . bravery has value in the right circumstances, and a business such as mine does include certain risks, as poor Goodwyn discovered . . . Perhaps I could hire them as bodyguards?
Carrie tenses up as the shadows begin coalescing into the shadowy woman. Her eyes widen as the woman begins screaming, shivering with a chill down her spine as the screaming devolves into visceral gurgling.
Though still trembling, she raises her arms in a defensive position, ready to strike should the shadow try to attack.
Zinli takes aim with her and pulls the trigger. The thunderclap reverberates off the walls of this small room and it leaves everyone’s ears ringing for a few moments. The bullet flies from the barrel and rips through the shadow and makes a hole in the wall exposing the outside. The hole in the wall seems to heal itself, closing off the access to the outside, like fingers interlocking together until it looks like the rest of the walls again.
The bullet that should have been lethal seems to have passed through it without harm.
Trevor doesn’t know who the woman is based on looks, but based on location and what happened to her right before Zinli shot at her it could only be one woman. Malene Mord, the murdered wife of Jarbin Mord.
Carrie readies an attack against the creature if it tries to attack.
Neronius continues to pillage the paintings off the walls.
Initiative: Round 1
Shadow
All of You
Zinli puts her gun back in the holster. "Can't do shit to it. Probably we'd need magic."
"Unless someone knows any offensive spells, I suggest heading back downstairs, ladies and gents..."
Tolbold looks around in the stair well there was nothing he could do here and nowhere to go. Hearing Zinli says they should head back down, he does just that.
That must be Malene Mord, wife of Jarbin Mord! I say that considering the revelations we have learned tonight, we might be able to lay her to rest by revealing that justice is being done. No doubt the late Malgrim had something to do with this.
Neronius sees Tolbold come back down the stairs just seconds after going up. "Ah, my diminutive friend. Judging by the gunshot and your rapid return, am I take to take it that no escape from above is available?"
Zinli follows downstairs after everyone has left. "Yep!" she answers Neronius' question herself (granted, 'diminutive friend' was a bit ambiguous). "Only a ghost."
"That must be Malene Mord, wife of Jarbin Mord! I say that considering the revelations we have learned tonight, we might be able to lay her to rest by revealing that justice is being done. No doubt the late Malgrim had something to do with this."
"Eh, you're the one who gets mysteries solved," Zinli shrugs. "If I can't lay that lady to rest with my bullets, let's do it your way and get some actual results to show her."
"Down the hallway it is, then!"
Trevor hold his hands up to the shadow in a hopefully peaceful manner. Malene Mord? I don't know if he was the one that killed you, but Malgrim is dead, hanging in the front hall by his own spiked chain. We want to make sure justice is done so you can rest. Please don't attack so we can talk.
Carrie doesn't have to be told twice to retreat from the horrific shadow. She arcs an eyebrow when she hears Trevor trying to talk to the spirit up above.
"I don't think the ghost's in the mood to talk!" she calls up to him, pondering for a moment before adding, "Or, like, able to talk at all."
"He can try. We didn't. Maybe it'll work!" Zinli is a strong supporter of the "f@#* around and find out" approach to problems.
As everyone makes their way down the stairs, Rekkart draws his blade and stays on the stairs watching Trevor engage with this ghost.
As Trevor talks to the shadow of Malene Mord, its head gash begins to writher back together reforming her head. Jawbone forming her jawline and feminine face. Dancing her way towards the man, silken scarfs twirling, she plants her feet firm before Trevor as her head once again falls apart and a howling comes from her as her stumped arms beat down on Trevor.
Even though her arms passed through his clothing, armor and belongings… her attack misses the curious man.
Rekkart shouts; “Run! Move behind me. I will cover your retreat!”
Initiative: Round 2
Shadow
All of You
Zinli makes a face as shouting is heard from upstairs. "Looks like talking to it hasn't done the trick. Oh well."
She pokes her head around the staircase. ""
Trevor withdraws down the stairs.
As Trevor retreats, Rekkart follows behind not turning his back on the ghost. As everyone is back in the main room on this level you realize that she is not following you from the living quarters.
Heading towards the stairs the smell of crisp fresh sea air comes from above. As you climb the stair you are met with a weather rotted bolted entry hatch. The metal latch and hinges are rusted, but the wood is easy to break through.
A salt wind blows through this cold, openair tower. An old rust-covered bell hangs from rotting wood beams above, obstinate against the wind’s caress. The tower offers a rare vantage of Beldrin’s Bluff’s desolate environs.
To the south, the cliff ends abruptly mid-block, a few sagging inns and shops still desperately clutching to the edge of the rock. The old Absalom arboretum stands to the west, now an overgrown tangle of wild twisted trees, slithering vines, rank blankets of pulsating mold, and dark recesses from where alien eyes peek and then vanish only to appear elsewhere.
The area of the ward beyond the arboretum is flooded with the sea’s backwash and old sewer water, and many of the buildings there have surrendered to water-rot. The sea churns in the distance and one lonesome gull cries against the night.
Zinli pats Trevor's elbow comfortingly. "Maybe she just didn't wanna talk," she suggests. "Onwards, then?"
If no one stops her, she takes the time to reload her pistol, and then lead the way down the hallway, humming a cheerful tune all the while.
The gnome looks up at the huge bell hanging overhead. "That looks like it could fall," she says matter-of-factly. "Or worse, ring - like that godawful clock."