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Burning disarm, on the other hand, proves a bit more difficult to procure. Despite Korvosa's ties with Cheliax, the spell is far from common in arcane circles in the city. Eventually, you manage to find the spell at an estate sale: the previous owner perished in the riots, and his spellbook is being auctioned off page by page. He takes it handily: He only has to bid 100 gp. Additionally, the reverse side of the page contains Summon Monster I.
No problem. Pick out a few at market price from the various magic shops around the city.
Unseen servant and Feather Fall are available from the reference spellbooks in the Elvish Embassy in southshore. It takes you a couple days to make full sense of them , but you safely add them to your spellbook. A scroll of knock is likewise easy to procure from the Acadamae . Burning disarm, on the other hand, proves a bit more difficult to procure. Despite Korvosa's ties with Cheliax, the spell is far from common in arcane circles in the city. Eventually, you manage to find the spell at an estate sale: the previous owner perished in the riots, and his spellbook is being auctioned off page by page.
Taras would like to pick up some scrolls and possibly try and get some new spells if he can find someone to share spellbooks. Cool. What's his shopping list?
Actions, folks?
For the record, the bloody arrow is the 20th arrow from the quiver and is no longer magical.
The burlap bags yield 150 gold pieces and twice that many silver pieces. The third contains a haphazard assortment of small gems and jewelry worth a total of 200 gp. (I'm going to assume that you use identify here:)
When you return to the Citadel, the Field Marshal is happy to provide your reward: 100 freshly minted platium crowns. She thanks you for your service. She thanks you for returning (most of) her men alive. This is your opportunity to take a day or two to take care of any business you have in the city, sell/buy gear, that sort of thing.
You manage to find a few short lengths of rope among the animal pens. Probably used to tie or lead animals. It's smelly and worn, but it'll get the job done. Where do you take the prisoners?
Taras will carefully search teh room, then check the contents of the hay cart. You find only stale hay.
The door opens into a storage shack containing nothing but a disused hay cart.
Taemin finds an iron snuffer large enough to extinguish the heavy lamp. (The lamp itself is bolted to the floor and uses a thick rope for a wick in order to produce enough heat to keep the vat boiling.)
The boiling vat is heated by a oil-burning lamp. You find no additional human remains in this area.
The western door opens into the outdoor livestock pen you saw earlier, while casing the location.
A search of the southern pen finds a small hole dug under the water trough, and covered over with loose earth. Inside, you find three small burlap bags. The first two contain reasonable sums of gold and silver, respectively. The third, smaller, bag contains a double handful of various gemstones. You steer clear of the northern pen for now, as the boars within get fairly aggressive if you approach. You hear nothing particularly special at the side door.
Hopefully that will help people see where the doors lead, and thus what they want to do.
Ogre's already running a PbP, so you're free to take over for the rest of the building if you like. P.S. Greetings from Omaha!
It takes some additional prodding, but eventually the sobbing Karralo outlines the guards' 'scheme'. In addition to working for Vancaskerkin, they moonlit as thugs for hire. When they accidentally beat one of their targets to death, Parns decided they'd use the butcher shop operation to dispose of the body.
"You did all this without Vankerskin knowing? Why?" "Parns...he said we'd make it rich."
The dead one. I don't think you know the names of the other two.
Non-lethal crit. He's now unconcious on his side, moaning into his filthy gag.
"Do you not know what your own men have been doing?" Verronax asks Vancaskerkin, doing his best to ignore Karista and her interrogation 'techniques'. "Remember Abadar still sees the truth." "Not this." Vancaskerkin is still under the effects of Abadar's truthtelling and thus cannot lie, though he can still try to mislead while avoiding direct lies. Your and Taemin's Sense Motive checks likewise confirm he isn't trying to be misleading, either.
"Who paid you to do this?" "Parns...set it up. Dunno." He seems to be calming down somewhat.
"Karralo, who were you supposed to rough up?" "I...I dunno. Some guys. We were paid." The other guard speaks up again. "G@!#~&n it, Karralo. Shut up!"
"They...they weren't supposed to die. Just...Just rough 'em up, Parns said. But they died anyway, and...an..we..." Karralo collapses back into sobbing. Vancaskerkin looks incensed, now. "What they hell have you four been up to?"
Karralo begins to speak "We...we...", but is cut off again by the other guard. "Shut your yap. If you say another g*&&&@n word you won't have to worry about these jokers. I'll kill you myself." Vancaskerkin just looks confused.
Stomps away to look for something reasonably clean to wipe off her boots. Karista is able to find a shop rag near the front counter.
"Come Karralo, speak and be absolved. Do not let the forces of chaos consume you." "We...we...we killed them. Gods forgive me."
The man continues to sob violently. "Stop bawling like a little girl, Karralo." says another guard (the one Taemin and Karista brought down from upstairs. "I knew we shouldn't have brought him on."
You are certain it was not a goat.
"Vankerskin, perhaps an easy question for you. There is an unusual cut of meat in the back of your meat storage room. I do not recognize the cut. What sort of animal is that from?" Vancaskerkin looks confused. "It was arranged for cattles and pigs. I think we got a goat yesterday, too. I don't know what else it could be." Another guard, a pale, skinny fellow who had charged in alongside the fellow Karista just killed, vomits and begins to cry.
Vancaskerkin and the surviving guards look like they are fighting off the urge to retch after Karista murders their erstwhile comrade. Vancaskerkin stutters. "I-I don't know."
"What have you got to say, laughing boy?* "Nothing to you, Shoanti b+!&#."
"What exactly was Vimanda's idea, or plan, here? What were you doing for her?" "She said I should take over the shop here. Become sort of a hero to the people." One of the other prisoners (the one who had carried a hammer) snickers just slightly. Vancaskerkin doesn't appear to hear.
"What do you mean, *was* your lover?" "I haven't heard from her in days."
"Who is Vimanda? What was her idea?" "She's a con..frie..argh. She was my lover." He begins to look almost wistful, though it is hard to look wistful with an omnious, ethereal key hanging over your head. "When the King died, she said the unrest was going to hurt a lot of people, especially those who didn't have much to begin with. It...seemed like a good idea at the time."
"Why can't I just shove an arrowhead into his eye, I am sure he will talk fast enough then, this mystic powers never works fast enough."
"What profit does House Arkona see in chaos?" "What? I don't know."
Not too much more, with that roll. But you don't know of any Vimanda in House Arkona. Of course, you might have simply not have heard of her, or maybe the name is for house staff, rather than the family proper. House Arkona also has a bad habit of bringing distant cousins or illegitimate children back from Vudra to join the house, so its also possible Vimanda is a recent arrival. (The fact that the name is Vudran might support this, since the proper descendants of the house have Chelish names.)
Ross, if he makes his save (DC 15), would the key disappear so I would know it wasn't working? Fortunately for you, the ghostly key remains. Vancaskerkin visibly struggles with the enchantment. "I don't serve...argh. It was Vimanda's idea, but I work for myself!"
Alright. Verronax, your spell in prepared. Let the interrogation begin!
It's been a couple minutes, at most. It takes 10 minutes for him to prep, I think? I'm giving the other folks some time to check around.
House Arkona is one of the major noble houses in Korvosa. Their primary source of income is a near monopoly on Vudran imports.
I'm not sure who is up now... Taras is going to investigate the strange cuts... Maybe a heal check? You're off initiative, so there is no 'up.' As far as the heal check, I already rolled the appropraite check. Taras didn't make it. |
