The Abyss Staring Back's page

Seeing the half elf yelling and approaching them armed the tieflings take one look before grabbing what they can giving the stall owner another swift kick to the groin before legging it at speed away from the scene.

The rest of the group keep quiet as they hear the constant background din of the life of the city start to fade and then completely disappear and with it the tension goes away as new anxieties start to form. For those whose entire life has been spent with that background noise as the theme of their lives the feeling is unsettling. A feeling made worse when a quick peek outside shows not the dimly lit streets but a pitch black countryside with tiny pinpoints of light in the distance indicating farmsteads and villas on the outskirts of town. The coachman's singing, as soporific as it is seems an eerie contrast to the alien sounds of the hills beyond.

After about 45 minutes the coach pulls off to the side of the road and the silent revelry and not so silent verbal jabs are interrupted by a sharp knocking on the side of the coach door.

I dunno where would be most inconvenient for pollux to be? Let's just say the coach's pillows have consumed you and you havent had a reason to fight against this comfy fate until now.

As dusk arrives and the sky goes from it's unreasonably cheery blue to an eerie blood red the large hairy coachman wearing a domino mask seemingly more for theatrics than disguise doesn't seem to notice the blood or the injuries and laughs as everyone piles into the soft coach and slams the door.

"Quite a crowd tonight. Please keep your rambunctiousness to a minimum until we stop. It becomes much more difficult to drive with the coach rocking back and forth!"

Starting to hum a jolly tune deep with the overtones of nostalgic romance. The soft interior of the coach has been enhanced by a large pile of various soft to somewhat stiff pillows in various shapes and sizes and a thick aroma of lavender and good wine. A strange juxtaposition between what you were just doing. The tengu sister settles into the pillows before looking around and processing the interior.

"Am I being rescued or wooed?"

is everyone going for the carriage or are some of us trying to blend back into city life?

Without hesistation the tengu springs away catching themselves on some nails but the adrenaline and fear numbs the painful injury.

Seeing the blur of movement and smelling the fear the dog before merelda and litsy is triggered from caution into instinct breaking into a furious attack on the closest target, that being Litsy.

1d20 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (6) + 3 = 9

With a savage blow to the dog Variel knocks the wind out of it before making his way away from it.

Whistles heard in the distance marks an escalation of danger and quickly slipping grasp of remaining time.

Merelda spooks the dog who lets out a low threatening growl before it slowly backs away. Backing off to what can be presumed to be it's resting area it seems intent at staying away but most definitely ready to attack.

1d20 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11

On the other side the dog gets a clear smack to the face and responds in kind with a less than accurate bite to Variels throat.

The tengu recognizes you but in her exhaustion and terror doesn't yet move.

intimidate will work like handle animal with penalties.sorry for slow response. Lots going on.

Muttering under their tored breathes how bs it is that sleep lasts a minute per level the resting guards barely stir as the fabulous beorn arms himself to slay.

if you wanr to use food to try and placate or otherwise lure the dogs away from your objective youll need to give a handle animal check.

Still in combat.

Though her wound is comparatively tiny compared to the elf's riposte it is no less lethal the man simply slumps over his halberd clattering to the ground as he slides off the rapier into the water. The last one joins the Beorn cuddle pile as the bard awakens with a rat doing questionable things to his head from underneath a pile of sweaty men.

The dogs continue. The turn is yours.

1d20 - 3 ⇒ (16) - 3 = 13 so close so very very close

He's asleep so go ahead and resolve what needs to be resolved and ill finish tommorrow.

1d20 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7 Halberd
1d10 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12 Halberd?

Save? 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (11) - 1 = 10

Things progres saves are failed and the battle to the north turns in favor of the elven priestess as she answers the mans attack in kind.

11
17
8
1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 12

Init: 12

1d20 + 0 ⇒ (13) + 0 = 13
1d20 + 0 ⇒ (4) + 0 = 4
1d20 + 2 ⇒ (20) + 2 = 22
1d20 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 2 = 12

Init 12.75

Bad guys win the 1st round

Surprise actions do go off. Sadly Merelda is just shy of knocking her target on his ass.

1d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19 HALBERD STRIKE!
1d10 + 3 ⇒ (8) + 3 = 11 HALBERD STAB!

The guards move quickly calling out alarms. Merelda manages to land her whip but the mans sheer mass fouls her pull as she tries t o pull back for another attempt the man charges in and drives the point of his halberd into her side.

The other guard moves towards the group to the south blowing on a whistle as he moves in. The dogs pull on their chains and bark wanting to get involved in the excitement but limited in their movement.

Everyone else is up.

1d20 - 1 ⇒ (5) - 1 = 4

Other guard is now unconscious.

Roll initiative if you havent already.

sadly our friends are 1hd a piece so beorn and his new friends all have to make the nap time roll.

1d20 - 1 ⇒ (19) - 1 = 18
1d20 - 1 ⇒ (2) - 1 = 1

Results pending beorn joining the cuddle pile or not.

The guards rush up to Beorn addressing the crowd as the dozen or so with Beorn join in on the chorus notes.

Having had quite enough one of the guards prods Beorn hard in the gut with the blunt end of his polearm.

"Enough of that! Enough! Get out of here before we citizens arrest you and put you in the doghouse as well!"

Some of the guards talk amongst each other and look up at the sky before they call out to one another across the pond.

Two of the guards back up onto the pathway while two more come round the pond to flank the performanc holding their halberds out threateningly.

"Disperse! Get out of here dogs! This place is occupied by the CCG for the dispersement of justice!"

If everyone is ready I just need a perform check from Beorn and we are good to go.

Showed you as already controlling it. I reset it so you can try and see if it works now.

Yup. No Map link yet? I searched and you said something in the past about direct messages?

Thought I put one up. Theres one posted in discussion by Litsy. Just make a message in the roll20 chat so i can give you token control.

Ill post the map in the campaign details.

Ill get everyone priperly moving saturday if you can position yourself on the map roughly where you want to be or give a brief description if not on the map at all. If you still cant control your token note it in the roll20 chat ao i can remedy that.

I was hoping pay the carriage driver to meet us a block or two away in an alley from the activity so he can be nearby if needed, but not in immediate danger himself. That way I can help directly with the rescue.

So hes waiting just a block or teo away, got it.

so to double check.

Litsy variel and pollux will arrive sometime before curfew to get into position.

Merelda will either go with the above 3 or meet up with their ride to secure an exit.

Beorn will take a crew of miscreants and protest the excruciation at or past curfew to draw some of the guards away while the other three or four enact vwngeance. Is that right?

The old mans breath catches in his throat as his wife looks over his shoulder and frowns. While he is frozen into conpliance she will have none of it.

"WE'VE BEEN HAD! GET OUT!"

Somewhere off to the west of the armory there's a sudden scramble as two other people in the armory take cover.

Alone. To scout it out before evening.

Try it later and if its not working by tommprrow ill see what i can do.

The sister is not locked or chained up in any real way, but the guards ait at the walkways and pond surrounds on all sides. Its clear to litsy that no matter what the sister would get a halberd to her face.

The sister is being held on the lily pond at southern aria park. Very open, very public as is the style. The pagoda was once a stage for public singing. Now, like many such places, it serves a more sinister purpose. The dogs, as well as the victime are kept in the middle of the pond and the ccg watches over it savagely beating anyone who does more than pass by or heed their orders to move along.

GM:
** spoiler omitted **

Sense Motives!

1d20 + 7 ⇒ (9) + 7 = 16
1d20 + 6 ⇒ (17) + 6 = 23
1d20 + 5 ⇒ (18) + 5 = 23

Getting down to business as you start working out how to deal with the letter, your injured teams and considerations towards a larger, more easily defended hideout, Merelda, Castor, and Litsy get to work narrowing down the suspects of the letter sender.

Merelda's intentions are pretty clear from the outset and between this, a lack of desire to get too rough just yet, a lack of knowledge about the group, and a splitting of duties between quietly gaining support for the Ravens and trying to weed out the mole she doesn't luck out in finding anyone particularly suspicious.

Litsy and Castor however do run into some luck. One of the mercenaries, a one Morghar Manthai seems to stand out from the rest. While with his brethren he's just as loud, surly, and dangerous. But when things quiet down or he's alone on some assignment or another he acts differently. Castor has caught him on more than one occasion squatted over large rathole discovered when Reed was killed. Each time he simply stares for a moment too long down the hole before stiffly getting back up and getting on with business. In Litsy's case when she asks about places he's seen in the city things don't quite add up. For example when he talks about getting close to the castle just so he could get a feel for the task ahead of him he didn't seem able to recall any of the buildings or streets and especially notable landmarks between. When pressed on this he seems confused and plays it off as simply bad memory or just being lost in his own thoughts and missing the streets for the destination.

At the insistence of Rexus, he suggests to the sisters that they should investigate a few of the burned buildings from the night of ashes. They return indicating three of the buildings may be of interest to the group if they choose to go.

As for the city, Barzillai has revealed what the dogs were for. As, believe it or not, public executions are not the norm. Thrune prefers quite public and effective humiliations and tortures in often creative and painful ways. This new form of torment is called doghousing.

The victim is placed inside a wooden doghouse with various nails driven through. The result is they can't properly sit or lie down and are in constant danger of being painfully stabbed by a sharp nail. Twice a day they are allowed out of the doghouse to eat. That is if they can get it from the two large chained dogs where the doghouse is just out of reach of. If they wait, the dogs will just eat all the food. If they try to get the food, they'll be lucky not to come away without a few bites for their trouble. To date no one has officially been "doghoused" but it seems the Chelaxian Citizens Group has decided to make use of this new form of torment for themselves.

In this case, one of the tengu sisters was doing a rare thing and simply purchasing some food for themselves when a group of the armbanded thugs cornered them, accused them of stealing and doghoused her themselves. The other two sisters are beside themselves with anger and fear and while they are usually very professional and quiet in such matters it may very well get out of hand if they decide to take care of the problem themselves.

Remember that recruiting supporters eats 40 gold out of your treasury. If you maintain 30 supporters into next week you'll be rank five.

You hear foot steps enter the mainhall and the gates slowly creak shut. They movr quietly but unskillfully your sharp and ready eara picking out their positions without much in the way of effort. They whisper among themselves as they creep along the walls.

I'm taking all these actions into account.

I need yall to go ahead and make your loyalty roll and check attrition.

Also assign mereleda a role if she has one yet, take your rebellion actions for week 4.

Also Vendalfek allows the rebellion to take the Spread Disinformation
action even if it doesn’t have rumormongers, agitators, or cognoscenti. If the rebellion does have a team that grants this action, Vendalfek grants a +4 bonus on all Secrecy checks to Spread Disinformation

Need to go back aways and reread aome things as its been a bit but i should be finiahing the week out today and moving into thw next.

As the cains fall away the door creaks open just enough to allow some shadowy figures inside. Betraying no noise but nonetheless making enough that max can track the four silhouettes progress as they make their way slowly across the westerly wall.

A piece of the wall comes away and slides inward revealing a dark staircase and the musky odor of a storm drain. A few steps down and around the corner you come out into a long hallway that opens up to a reservoir of dark water standing in the middle of the reservoir covered to her knees in water and to her torso in thick green algae is a rober and concealed depiction of the goddess Calistria holding a dagger before her point downward. Standing out in this hallway carrying their weapons and conversing quietly until you appear are the tengu sisters and two of the varisian mercenaries who nod in greeting as you approach but eye the newcomer with naked suapicion. The rest of the mercenaries are playing cards in the bunk room and don't look up from there game save the one watching the door who looks on apprehensively as you pass through but otherwiae sounds no alarm or acknowledgement.

Time passes and the sun sets. Before long the struggle becomes not so much as maintaining vigilance but remaining awake. Max and Alessandra's harts start to race and their ears perk up as the first signs of life come from the front gate. The sounds of someone fiddling with a lock and a chain coming undone as the door starts to shatter the silence with the creak of it opening.

I can't select my icon for movement. Does it require rights of sorts?

Alessandra hides just behind the corner in the G2 in the southeast.
Below what appears to be a table at the other side of the wall.

[dice=Stealth]1d20+4
[dice=Perception]1d20+8

You should have control now. Just put you in the requested spot for the moment.

"Oh I'm here purely for the entertainment value. Though it seems to me no matter where you go you'll simply be bringing the dottari with you until your affairs are in order."

The wasps nest with the statue is under the longroads coffeehouse Through the hidden entrance in the cellar Laria was gesturing towards.

The vomit possum lair is another place under some abandoned stables. Possibly haunted.

Poor Beorns the stress is harming his memory mightily.

"No, you wouldn't. Which is why this is funny." Vendalfek's voice calls from the roof of the cellar.

"By now? Probably the trash. It's enough for the duxotar at the castle to have received it to note it in their massive ledgers but I'm serious when I say they get anonymous accusations all the time. Jealous boyfriends, angry wives, s@!%ty rich kids trying for an early inheritance. If they kept all the paperwork they'd be drowning in it by the end of the year. Your little pissant probably didn't expect it to stick the first time because of that." Getting up Laria gestures to the wall across the cellar and starts moving upstairs. "I'm gonna close the shop and start cleaning up the mess. If anyone asks you why you stayed the night come up with a fun story, like I dunno, strip harrow or something after the kids asleep. Show your new friend around I think Rexus has been stuck in the office getting eye strain all day."

"Look, it's not my place to tell you how to clean your own house but I have a lot of people who rely on this place remaining open and secret. If the network doesn't get back in touch with me ill eventually get back in touch with them. If that goes to s+++ than getting downriver for them is going to be harder. Not to mention al the other not so law friendly things that go on down there. The dottari get enough false reports that they'll probably toss it in the trash and move on. But if a second, or Desna forbid, a third comes along you can bet they're going to be a much more thorough in their questioning."

"surprisingly it has little to directly do with you" she says.

"Rather, someone sent then a rather interesting letter. Anonymous, of course. It details a group of seedy individuals plotting with vile dissidents and malcontents. Conspiring to spread propaganda and lies about the new lord mayor, and trying to ruin good order by releasing convicted criminals and killing servants of the state. I didnt catch enough details he was only dumb enough to let me see the letter not keep it."

Laria looks at Merelda quietly for a moment before turning to the others to read their reactions. Apparently satisfied with what she seessh3 shakes her head and throws her arms up.

"Well maybe you can get your goddess to bless you with some sense because if you haven't noticed many peiple have gone missing or dead for doing far less than proclaiming themselves a foreign agent of a hostile power in a town where the new lord mayor is justifying his tyranny with that very reason. Have you tried claiming to be kuthonian? Spikes and black leather and i doubt anyone would bat an eyelash nor try to get into your private life."

"Speaking of sense, do you want to guess how the Dottari suspected I was harboring criminals here? And how lucky I am that I know exactly how the watch commander likes his coffee and would rather be beating drunks and beggars out of this part of town than raid a reputable establishment?"

Check to make sure you have control of your token so you can place them on the map where you plan to wait and lemme know if you can't.

The armoury as it has been described to you is more like a museum than a weapons storage. Lined along the walls, displayed on racks, and scattered throughout in plain view are dozens of trophies donated or otherwise acquired from the retired veterans of longacre. Nidalese ranseurs lay in racks next to mwangi jungle spears, while army issued cavalry sabers hang on the wall next to embossed cutlasses taken from defeated shackles pirates. It would be a museum worthy to show Cheliax's numerous minor victories and achievements if the bulk of it wasn't broken, rusted or otherwise of no real use. At the back of the mainhall is a particularly impressive display of a ship ballista appearing fully functional and with three of its accompanying bolts hanging on the wall behind it.

The quartmaster himself is an older house guard with one eye and one leg. After some brief and curt questions he leaves you to it while he dilligently checks and rechecks every lock and bar before he himself locks you in as the sun starts to set andalong with it boredom.

The cellar appears much like the kitchen, sacks of flour and sygar tossed around intermixed with bags of coffee beans of various origins. To your relief it looks like the entrance to the hideout itself remains unmolested likely overlooked in the dottaris search.

Once all are inside and Laria bolts the door she visibly slumps and uncharacteristically sits on the stair case her face changing drom one of barely contained panic to quiet fury.

"ok, you first." She points at calloused finger at Merelda. "Who the hell is that and why is she comfortable proclaiming herself an enemy of the state in the middle of my respectable and law abiding coffeehouse?

To clarify the shop is empty. But it's not closed, nor is it dofficult for someone to listen from say a door or a window or just qalk on with nad toming.

Vendalfek doesn't respond indicating either the fairy dragon got distracted and wandered off, is keeping quiet, or is otherwise not present

For her part Laria seems panicky and is speaking rapidly in an attwmpt to stifle conversation and lead you to somewhere more private.

"INVISIBLE FRIENDS WHAT AN ACTIVE INAGINATION! NOW LETS CONTINUE THIS PERFORMANCE IN PRIVATE SO WE DON'T DISTURB ANY CUSTOMERS! NEVERMIND THE KITCHEN THE MESS IN THE CELLAR IS MUCH MORE SERIOUS! Laria practically vibrates as she tries to pull people away from the kitchen and towards the cellar below.

Laria's face stiffens as Merelda casually introduces herself takong a quick glance behind you she exclaims a bit more loudly than before.

"It's always wonderful to receive visits from your opera friends Beorn! Though I think the subject of her improv performance may have been in poor timing given our recent scandals with the good dottari! What's that? You want to pay for your drinks by helping clean up the mess? Absolutely! "

Motioning for you to follow she leads you to the cellar storeroom. Along the way you see much of thw kitchen and backroom to be in disarray with various baking and brewing tools scattered on the floor along with patches of flour, sugar, and spilled coffee beans.

Getting to the cellar door she opens it and motiona for you inside with all the grim ceremony of a sacrifice being led to the altar.