Erik grumbles. "If I was out to get you, I'd have blown your head off when you opened the damn peek hole, you idiot."[/b] He looks behind him. "Must be someone out there waiting for us to make contact..."[/b]
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Erick readies both weapons, and backs up the short halfling.
Erick covers his face for a moment as Armanus tells the hired thugs their true purpose, rather than the cover story they'd been working on. "That's right, now that we know the person behind the slag shipments is doublecrossing our employer, we should absolutely stop his shipments as retaliation for doublecrossing our employer. You know, the nice Gnoll lady in the bar, who's paying us?"
Been a bit, so I want to make sure I have it straight in my head : 1) Our actual employers don't care about Pesh.
Erik nods, rubbing his chin. "Interesting. We might be able to work something out after all. I understand about the eating thing." He turns to look at the rest of the group, trying to include all of them without singling out any one as maybe being the leader, taking on the obvious 'face' roll. "What do you think? They've done a decent job of disrupting the Pesh, think our most recent employer might hire them as adjuncts to guard their shipments?" Then he grins evilly. "After all, they'll soon be out of work, as Mr. Brinagar will soon be unable to pay anymore salaries..."
"I see, so you're just hired help?" Erick rubs the side of his nose. "In that case, busting your skulls isn't really what we were hired to do. We're supposed to find out who is messing with the Pesh. Knocking hired hands around doesn't really do that. So, tell you what, let's come to an understanding. We need information on who hired you, and you need to not get your head busted by our bosses. What say we trade? You tell us who hired you, and we tell our bosses we investigated, and you weren't really involved, but we found some leads that led us to who was. Makes us look good, gets the heat off you. Right?"
Apologies everyone. I need to bring you up to date. So, as you all know, new job. Project is in a very bad spot since mid June. My project lead quit a few weeks ago, and I got to take over. The new guy, is now the project lead. (I'm the only non-contractor on the project, so I'm the lead). I'm working 50-60 hour weeks, and get pulled into 30 minute meetings that take 3-6 hours. Basically, I'm so overloaded that I can't think straight. So, my posting ability may be a bit.. erratic for a month or so. I'll try to keep up. So, as far as I'm concerned, I'm perfectly fine with the GM taking a month off, I could use the break.
Erick moves forward and keeps himself near armanus, keeping an eye out.
Erick raises his eyebrow. "The gentlemen currently trying to recover from drinking Gnoll Liquour is my erstwhile employer." He nods toward Armanus. "And I believe the items you're talking about are the 'medical items' he was wanting to discuss purchasing in bulk for export."
Erick nods. "As you wish, sir." He responds to Armanus, stepping forward. He removes his hands from his weapons, but keeps them near them to make pulling one easier. "My employer is looking for someone who can make a sale of... medications. He is an importer and exporter of medications, and we have heard rumors that this bar is a favored drinking spot for people who sell the medications we are interested in."
Erick follows and takes up a position behind Armanus, canted so he is opposite of Zyrel, and maintaining a watch ahead of and behind Armanus, leaving his back side to the eyes of the elf opposite him. His stance is both deferential to, and protective of, Armanus. One hand rests on his new revolver butt, and the other on the pommel of the 9-ring sword. His eyes slide back and forth over the bar, and rest on the shotgun long enough to make sure the bartender registers it, before raising his eyes to the bartenders.
His expression makes it clear he's not hostile, but will draw and fire if the shotgun leaves the flat surface of the bar. Anyone else in the bar that looks toward Armanus gets a similar stare down.
"Then that leaves me to be the brawn. I shall scowl accordingly, and try to look menacing." He looks to Zyrel. "Shall we be muscly scowly guards together?" Then to Elsa. "Deceptively pretty but dangerous paramour to Kris?"
Erick nods. "Interesting. As you choose, Armanus. As you choose." He shakes his head, putting his gauntlet back on.
"Actually, I have no idea what Armanus's heritage is, other than tiefling. I figure that's not my business unless he tells me. But you're mistaken to think all tieflings are of human heritage. Many tieflings are, but many others are tiefling half-elves, or tiefling elves, or teifling halflings, or teifling hobgoblins, or what have you. The infernal blood tends to override everything else." Erick's manner is more of a professor than anything else, as he corrects Zyrel's misconception about tieflings. "I'd doubt he was halfling or goblin by heritage, due to his height, but it's as likely he's drow or elf as he is human by heritage. I try not to assume that sort of thing. Too easy to make bad assumptions."
Erick tilts his head. "You're supposed to take it in the way I said it, that most humans are too stupid to understand that everyone is different, and that most of them assume tieflings are evil on the spot. As I said, it's a sad commentary on humans. However, if you truly find that insulting, then you can have my gauntlet anytime you want." He responds, rather shocked that Armanus took insult, but not backing down from his statement. He shucks his leather gauntlet off and holds it up for Armanus.
"Seems easy enough. Find someone taking it. Persuade them to tell us who they buy it from. Find that person and persuade them to tell us who they buy it from. Repeat until we find the person at the top of the pyramid, and then persuade that person to stop making it." Erick says, matter of factly. He looks at their group, and then rubs his chin. "Do not take this the wrong way, but Kris, Armanus, you two make the most likely drug users. Mainly because the city is full of humans who assume anyone not human is a criminal. Sad commentary on my species, but it's true. If you're not opposed, having you two try to get some might be the first step?" He turns to the woman. "We'll need some funds to prime the pump, first pretending to buy some, and then pretending we want to sell. Easiest way to find out who the boss is is to infiltrate their business as new sellers, and then insist on a meeting with the boss. Buy a couple of shipments saying we're sending them up the river to another city, and then we can meet the boss. Cheaper in the long run than having it on the streets. Plus we should be able to recoup some of the outlay once we know who the boss is, as he'll have a stash of raw materials and cash. Raw materials for drugs are often medicines in and of themselves, and fetch a good price for their intended use. And cash is cash, obviously."
Zyrel: Erick patiently explains the mathematical formulas used to determine the barrel length, bore diameter, and cartridge lengths. "First owner names the gun. As to this one, as I said, I didn't put any fancy filigre on it as you seemed the type to like a low profile. They are horrible for stealth, I've been trying to figure out something for that, as have a lot of people. A baffle system on the barrel to cut down on the sound or something. You shouldn't be getting heavy flashes on the barrel, I'll have to adjust the mix of the powder, it should all burn in the cartridge, leaving just a bit of light that shines mostly away from you from the barrel tip."
"Nope, you didn't break it. The cartridge just didn't fire. Every once in awhile, you'll get a bad cartridge, sorry about that. If it does misfire, sometimes the bullet will become lodged in the barrel. You'll have to clear the barrel to resolve it. Also, if the cartridge is misaligned with the barrel, sometimes the bullet will get lodged between the cylinder and the barrel, don't fire it again if that happens, or you could blow up the cylinder and your hand or head."
Good to know. At 8th level, Erick will begin being able to cast arcane scrolls without using UMD. Doesn't matter what kind of arcane scroll either, so bard scrolls, sorcerer, wizard, mage, any of them, as if he were a 4th level caster. Kind of nice.
Erick is going to find a Clockwork artisan to make a custom weapon strap. Basically, a coiled cat gut line (like used on a base fiddle) winding around a spring loaded coil. About 4 feet of cat gut (base fiddle string), the spring end attached to his holster, and the end of the line to the ring on his pistol. That way, if he drops his pistol, the coil spring will pull it back up to his holster (won't holster it, obvioulsy, but he won't drop it by accident/on purpose, and it will not trip him up or drag the ground). Also note, his speed loaders are on twin already, so after he reloads, they drop loose and hang 10 inches down.
Erick has replaced his hip holster with a new holster designed for the six shooter on his hip. His original pistol is now strapped to the inside of his voluminous coat, in a concealed holster as a surprise weapon if need be. On his holster belt are rows of shiny brass cartridges, and two speed loaders, for easy access. Kris's revolver rifle is even more ornate, as befits the hyperactive gnome's personality, and features a similar revolver cylinder as Erick's. The shoulder stock and rifle barrel are of course downsized for his slighter frame. Zyrel's Revolver Rifle, built on a pistol cylinder designed for a troll, unlike the other two is matt black with no etchings, and built with dark stained wood. Erick had decided that the archer who preferred to hide would prefer a weapon that wouldn't reflect any light when he was hiding ready to snipe someone. Both men also received a back harness to hold the rifles, similar to the sheaths used to hold bastard and great swords, as well as a bandolier for ammunition.
Erick touches the brim of his hat. "Sounds like you've been getting poor recruits then. Might want to change your background check protocol."
Erick adjusts his hat. "In reverse order. Firearms come in two styles, at least currently. Powder, and Cartridge. There's a third type, called Cap and Ball, that is inbetween the two, but it's about done with as far as usage goes." He tugs his own pistol out. "Powder refers to those that use loose powder." He taps his powder horn. "Every time you load it, you have to measure the powder, tamp down the ball with wadding, and then prime the pan." He touches the flash pan on the side of the barrel. "That means put more powder in the pan. The hammer..." He taps the hammer. "Hits the pan, creates a spark, and the powder in the pan ignites the powder in the barrel, which then explodes. The barrel forces the lead ball to be shot out by the explosion." He taps the tip of the barrel. "Good guns have bored barrels. Doesn't mean they're looking for things to do, means they've had grooves bored into them, in a spiral pattern, along the length. This forces the bullet to 'spin' as it travels down, so it's spinning rapidly when it leaves the barrel. A spinning bullet is much more accurate than a non-spinning bullet." "A cartridge is a brass container, a bit like a cylinder, that fits in the back of the barrel. Think of it as a miniature barrel. The bullet is in the tip, and crimped in place, and the inside of the cartridge has the powder pre-measured and inside it. There's actually multiple types of cartridges, not just one type. You can have alchemical cartridges, or you can have silver bullets, or adamantine bullets, or mithral. When you use a hard metal like silver or adamantine or mithral, you have to coat it with lead, this is called a jacketed round. The lead squishes into the grooves in the barrel, and impart spin. When the metal bullet hits the target, the lead peels off and does additional damage to soft targets, or just creates a lead ring around the hole caused by the harder metal on hardened targets, like dragon scales." "Paper packages are just pre-measured powder, to make it easier than powder horns, and a little faster. The cartridges have 'caps' on the back, little bits of metal and powder that explode if you hit them hard, and set off the powder inside the cartridge. It's cheaper to replace the powder, bullet, and cap for a cartridge than to make a whole new cartridge, which is why I said police your brass, which means always pick them up if you can." "You can make ammunition in the same sizes for different classes of weapon, such as rifle vs pistol, but if you fire the same round in both of those types, either your pistol will crack your wrist and be more innaccurate due to too short a barrel, or your rifle won't have distance and stopping power. Now, we can use the same rounds for my pistols as Kris's rifle, because he'd be using a scaled down rifle round so he can handle it without breaking his shoulder. But your rifle would need to use different rounds, to maintain it's stopping power." "I'd suggest 200 rounds to start with, you'll be surprised how fast you pick up a rifle. Especially a cartridge rifle. It's no harder than a cross-bow, just point and shoot. The skill comes in doing things it wasn't designed to do, like shoot something out of someone's hand, or shoot them in the kneecap, or stuff like that. As to another commission, you buy the parts, and I'll put it together for you. I can help you pick out what you'll need. We'll need a pistol cylinder for a large pistol to make your rifle, and then a good rifle barrel, and I'll have to modify a good quality rifle receiver to handle the large pistol cylinder. Nothing hard."
Erick picks up a large cylinder, used for medium sized pistols, to adapt to a rifle cylinder for Kris's gun, as well as a long barrel and some wood for a good sturdy stock. For himself, he picks up a fine receiver, a long pistol barrel, and fine brass handles with a dragon motif, similar to his existing gun. He also picks up some gear works and brass plate, to make some speed loaders out of.
Erick laughs. "Just get the stuff we need to make ammo, I can make it cheaper than these rip off artists in town are charging. I gotta spend a day making 200 rounds for me and Kris, adding another 100 rounds won't take any longer."
Erick nods. "Yeah, I can do that. You want a rifle?" He thinks, and takes out some paper and begins to sketch on it. "Hmm, maybe meld a custom rotating cylinder to a rifle stock and barrel?"
Erick thumps his forehead. "Speed loaders."
"Yeah, I'll be ready to head out tomorrow. Got to do some shopping." Erick takes his pay stub to the bank, gets gold, and then goes on a small shopping spree. It takes him all afternoon to find all the components he wants. He's very meticulous about which cylinder, which handle, which receiver, and which barrel he chooses at each shop. He also buys a bag of cartridges and components to make powder, and lead to make bullets.
Erick will also do a little snooping around to see if he can find an armorer who knows how to make exotic armors (Kikko Armor).
Ok, so a Revolver would normally be 4,000, and a masterwork one would be 4300. That means that here, we can buy one for 2300, or the parts for 1150 gold. It would take 2 days of work at sea for Erick to create the gun. Unlike other crafting feats, there's no roll involved for the crafting, it's more like magical item crafting (1 day per 1000 gp of the base cost of the gun). Anyone else want Erick to pick up gun parts and craft them at sea? Also, if you're getting a cartridge weapon, you'll want to police your brass, as it's easier for Erick to make new cartridges if you have the spent cartridges. Making cartridges costs 1/2 the base cost, and one day per 1000GP of cartridges. Cartridges cost 15GP to buy each, and 7.5 GP to craft. However, refilling a cartridge only requires a bullet and powder, which is 11 gold, and can be crafted at 10% cost (IE: 1 gold 1 silver per refill of a cartridge). So PLEASE police your brass if you're using cartridges, the get expensive to replace.
I've lost track, does anyone know off the top of their head how much we've earned since the game started? I might buy the parts for a revolver before we leave and assemble it on the ship.
Erick nods. "Very well then, let's load up. After the last two days, it's probably best if we get Kris out of town for a few weeks, in case anyone recognizes him. So let's hit the Trade Wind and go deal with the drug issues first. Then we'll hit Nex, and finally come back and deal with the counterfeiting. Keep Kris' faces out of the lime light for awhile that way." He suggests, raising an eyebrow to the others.
Erick frowns. "The drug seems higher priority than counterfeiting. The former costs reputation, money and lives, while the latter costs reputation and money." He grins and thumbs his sword's rings, making them chime. "Plus it'd feel pretty good to deal with something like drug dealers, there's almost always a bounty on their heads, so you get to do something good for the people, and get paid a handsome bonus to do it."
Erick suddenly grunts. "Oh, what you said earlier." He nods, muttering under his breath about 'reaction times' and 'no wonder caught' and such.
Ah, I was wondering where Kris's comment came from. Within the timeline in the game, it's like he reacted 2 hours after the comment was made. :P
Erick looks at Kris as if he sprouted a horn from his nose at the apparent non sequitur. "A new face?" He asks, sounding somewhat bewildered.
Erick shrugs. "You've heard my concerns, and my limitations. I have no issues doing an honest day's pay for an honest day's wage, provided the people employing me are honest. Or at least as honest as can be, given the way the world works. I'm not a paladin, so I'm not worried about good, just ethical. I've found ethics to be better than morality. Morality is slippery. Ethics are much firmer. As to continuing as a group..." He shrugs. "I've found this group is, for the most part, above the average, so I'll defer to the group as a whole. If some want to continue, and others not, I'll decide for myself which way to go. If the rest wish to continue, I'll abide by that."
Erick hands her the rest of the papers, and folds up the one letter sheet and the invoice separately, and secrets them on his person, hidden in amongst the other four dozen pieces of scrap paper he has on his person at any given time. "Yes, don't care how flashy you do it, as long as you don't set the place on fire, and you don't leave anything legible to be traced back to us." He shakes his head. "To one it is a sound plan, to the other it sounds like a plan. I'm beginning to think I'm surrounded by wannabe bards."
"Hmmm..." Erick frowns. "Something here in this letter. Much as I hate to say it, might want to let our new boss see it. May have something to do with business. Not sure I like the idea of a shipping company holding up other people's packages for a third party. If you're paid to transship something, you took their coin, you do the job." He waves at the rest of the papers. "Those we can burn, just business records, and we don't want to be caught with them. This last page we'll turn over to our employer for more information. Can't say I'd lose any sleep over a transshipper losing business if it gets out they delay shipments for competitors. Elsa, you and Armanus and I will go pick up the package this morning. Probably a good idea for Zyrel to keep an eye on Kris as he keeps a low profile." He raises an eyebrow at the other two, and hands Kris the letter page with the information about packages being delayed. "Why don't you see what our employer has to say about this while the rest of us get that package."
Erick looks unhappier still. "Well, better than just taking the one we wanted, since you got spotted. Let me see, I'll look through them. If there's anything illegal going on that needs to be brought to the attention of the city guard, I'll make a few notes and turn it over to my local chapterhouse, so it can make it's way to someone who deals with illegal stuff. If not, we can just burn the excess."
Erick growls under his breath. "Could have gone better, could have gone much worse. Let's hope they don't connect the dots tomorrow." The man is obviously not a fan of this type of work.
"Fine, we'll be back in the morning, bright and early!" Erick yells through the door, and walks off in a huff. When they are all back together later, he shakes his head. "Kris, I think you need to keep a low profile tomorrow, take the day off, enjoy some pastries at the local pastry shop."
Outside:
Erick scowls, and nods. "Yeah, don't let anything happen to that shipment." He says, letting concern show now, allowing him to drop the bluff. Real concern is better anyway, and it appears the original bluff worked.
Once the man turns and goes back in, he turns to the side and whispers into the spell. "Kris, get out now. Dive through the office window if you have to, and drop the paper where Elsa can pick it up as you run off. Do not kill the guards, not only are they doing their job, but they're on the city payroll, meaning we'd be getting the entire watch after us. Zyrel, get off that roof now and evade. Do not engage, repeat, do not engage."
"Do I know anything about what?" He looks around. Then he narrows his eyes at the man. "What is this? Are you trying to get out of giving me the package? This some sort of scam? Maybe I should call the city guard, and have them go through your warehouse with a fine tooth comb. I'm sure you don't have anything questionable in there." He turns to Armanus. "Get this guy? Trying to weasel out of giving us our package. Where was the city guard? Let's call them in, since there's something going on." He rolls his eyes, his voice dripping sarcasm. "I'm sure they'd love to go through the warehouse and every crate in it, see what's going on in there, don't you?" Erick bets on the fact that if they have that many guards, there's contraband in there. Even the best warehouses usually don't want the city guards mucking about with their inventories, just in case something isn't what's on the label.
Using the opportunity to warn Kris, Erick wills the whisper spell to pass on his words as he speaks them aloud. "No need to be upset, sirrah. While I'm sure your office is much nicer than the doorway, I'm certain I'll find the paper if you'll give me a moment, I will try to hurry up though since you're in a hurry to get to your office. Please do be patient."
Erick frowns at Armanus. "Now now, watch that piece of paper! It's one half of an explosive runes trap, and if you look at it and the other half at the same time, we'll all be center of a fireball the size of this warehouse." Erick grumbles in his best grumbly voice, snatching a scrap of paper from Armanus that has an old grocery list of his written in draconic on it.
Erick grumbles. "Give me a minute, had a paper somewhere." He begins sorting through his pockets, pulling bits and pieces of paper he's collected over the years. His particular order, the order of the Book, collects paper like most Cavaliers collect sword and bullet scars, only more so.
"Recipe for Plomleek Stew... Fourteen curse words in Somorian to never use unless you want to fight... Map to the treasure of Salvarian the Lesser... How to make a Harvey Wallhammer... Dwarven drink, take the back of your head off..." And those are just the papers in his first pocket.
"My boss..." "...has a package here, and he's sent me and my companion..." He nods toward Armanus, since the halfling vanished. "...to pick it up. It should have been sent to him already, but instead it's still waiting in the warehouse. So rather than wait another 3 weeks to get it, he sent us down to pick it up, since apparently someone can't coordinate handing it to a delivery person." Erick keeps his voice in his 'annoyed' range, which isn't hard, since he's rather annoyed at this sort of rigamarole in the first place. It should keep the interior guards that were patrolling listening in from the other side, and thus distracting them from Kris.
Erick takes his sword and uses the handle to rap loudly on the door. "Hey, open up, I'm here to pick up my bosses package!" He bellows when Kris indicates he's ready to go to work. The rings on the sword add to the clatter he's making at the door, the one far from where Kris is working. "I don't have time for whoever's inside to put away the cards and whiskey, I don't care if you're idling your bosses money away instead of standing watch. I just need my package." He bangs on the door again with the hilt of his sword. He holds the sword by the blade, so that if someone opens the door, it's obvious he's using it as a door knocker, and not wielding it.
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