Joe grunts with pain and disgust as the filthy creature bites him, then leaps straight up into the air and brings his sword down in a huge overhand chop.
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Joe grimaces in disgust at the sight of the grotesque being, but reacts quickly and unhesitatingly as it passes overhead, leaping up and swinging with all his strength at its exposed underbelly. Allowing the force of his swing to turn him around, he keeps his eyes on the creature as it settles on the roof. His gaze narrows as he thinks about what happened to Madam Larua. He hadn't particularly liked the old woman, but she hadn't deserved to die like that. And he was not going to let it get away. With a yell of rage he charges towards it and chops directly at one of its ugly faces.
Joe spins around at the explosion of noise, instinctively drawing his sword as he moves quickly into the room. Taking in the broken window, he plows through it to find the source of the attack, and do as much damage as possible to the perpetrators.
Joseph takes one brief look inside, and decides he's better off not risking testing the load bearing capacity of the floor inside. Instead he stands just outside the door, keeping an eye out to see if anyone seems to be paying undue attention to Madam Larua's place of business.
Joe chuckled deeply as he gave a great stretch, standing on his toes and reaching towards the sky. As he settled back down, he shook his head briefly. "This whole town stinks, ESPECIALLY the watch. I doubt they'd notice if we had a whiff of sewer about us. Hells, whiff of sewer might as well be the town motto. Not to mention that I doubt the door leads directly into a flowing river of sludge. And, don't forget, we have a bit of a time limit, so I still think exploring the closest clues first makes the most sense. But if the consensus is the fortune teller, I'll bow to the group wisdom."
Joe looks at Tania for a second, thinking about what she said. "Well, the way I see it, none of us are advocating tromping around the sewers for hours at the moment. But we have a key, and we have a nearby entrance that's close to where Bill lived. Maybe we'll find a pile of child skeletons? Maybe we'll find a wall full of bloody hand prints? Maybe we'll find nothing at all? We pop our heads in, look for anything that might be related. I'm thinking an hour, tops, if we don't find anything. But we're still very much flying blind, so why not check out whatever potential clues are closest to where we are at the moment? If nothing pans out sewer wise, we head to the fortune teller's, and then the bar."
Joe sighed inwardly at the thought of going into the sewers. It would hardly be his first time, but he much preferred just about anywhere else. He glanced at the rest of the group. "Well, I suppose unless anyone has any better ideas, the sewers it is. Can't say I'm happy about it, but can't really say I'm surprised either."
Joe grimaced in disgust when he saw the inside of the cart. His face settled into a thoughtful expression as he listened to Fiterri. "I wonder if it wasn't an entity at the time, but an actual child, and perhaps he was engaged in child trafficking of some kind. Because that cart looks like a great way to sneak kidnapped children through the city. If so, what happened to him could have been the vengeful spirit of one of his victims. And if that is the case, I feel we should be trying to help that spirit find more people who were involved, not stop it from killing again."
Joe raised an eyebrow as he listened to the old man's story. "So Bill was hired to fix a gear, but left his cart with all of his tools here, then never showed up looking for them, the things that allowed him to make his livelihood? That strike anyone else as more than just a mite strange?" Joe shook his head in bemusement and turned back to Everett. "Do you happen to remember where Eustus pawned the tools?"
Joe gives his friendliest smile, letting the others take the lead, hoping that something of substance will come of this.
Joe inhaled deeply from his pipe, and shrugged resignedly at the lack of useful information. "Well, if it was going to be that easy, Muncy wouldn't have called us in. Maybe we should go find out about the gear first, since that's right around the corner. Who wants to take point when we get there? Gnitt and Tania perhaps?"
Joe nods in agreement with Gnitt. "I'd say that about sums it up." He glances at Fiterri and waggles his fingers in his general direction. "Should you maybe check the gear to see if there's anything unusual about it? And I'd say maybe we each take a different neighbor or two to save time, and then head over to Grindlylow's, but maybe only a couple of us actually go inside. And the Queen's Own probably won't have anyone worthwhile 'til this evening, so hopefully something else will turn up between the neighbors and the gear."
Joe watched the inspector hurry off, thinking that if they were going to be doing the inspector's job for him, maybe they should ask for an inspector's pay. Shrugging, he thought to himself that if the inspector didn't know anything, there must be someone still alive who'd worked on that case. Aloud, he said "Well, since Muncy is just full of helpful information today, does anyone want to head over to the Queen's Own with me? It's a bar that's a favorite of the watch. There's bound to be someone there who worked on the previous case, or knows someone who did."
Joe felt the remnants of his good mood drain away as he took in the scene. He was no stranger to blood and death, but this was something else entirely. At least he could be sure there would be no conflict with the guild on this. Something this messy would draw entirely too much of the wrong sort of attention, and get the populace riled up. Not good for business. They'd want the culprit found just as much as the watch did. He studied everyone examining the room and body, and felt he wouldn't contribute much more to the search here. "I'm going to go check up on the roof. It's possible that whoever or whatever did this wasn't working alone, and up high would be the best place to keep watch. If that was the case, there might be something up there." Joe steps outside and nods to Muncy before pointing up at the roof. He looks around for the best place to clamber up.
Joe suppressed a sigh as he stood in the shadows across the street,
"What brings one of the watch's finest to my door at this hour?" He felt a smirk trying to form on his face as the constable explained.
Joe nodded noncommittally to everyone present as he lit his own pipe,
Joe mentally steeled himself as he prepared to follow everyone inside.
Fiterri - I think I would readily help to try and disguise the provenance of certain items of doubtful origin. Also, if you ever possibly acted as a fence, my frequent sailing trips might provide an opportunity to get rid of certain small high value items that are too hot to stay in the city. Tania - it seems likely the Golden Dice is the sort of place I would have frequented. Perhaps Jared and I were friends, and I even helped you hunt down a couple of thugs you were having trouble locating? Lucetta - perhaps we've encountered each other roaming the streets at night on our respective errands? And while not exactly friends, we also know we're not exactly working at cross purposes. Gnitt - perhaps we've known each other as acquaintances for years, as my family sells discounted bread to the orphanage? As for combat, I'm pretty much planning to prioritize attacking no armored, light armored, medium armored, and heavily armored opponents in that order. The idea being that I can move anywhere, through and past enemies to get to my target, and that the most dangerous spell casters usually follow that priority of armoring. So Fiterri might be more of a primary front liner than you think, as I'll hopefully be behind their line. It'll be interesting to see if this actually works out like I hope, because 5th is the level at which, in theory, I can get sneak attack damage every round without help. I will be doing A LOT of acrobatics checks every combat, that's for sure.
Sure. No problems with any tinkering you want to do with your characters. Oh, well, I meant the unchained rogue class feature finesse training. I wouldn't want to just replace a class feature without some input from you. Though my current ideas for appropriateness would be fleet, medium armor proficiency, or a skill enhancing feat. Let me know what you think.
Good point. I actually think I have a couple of adjustments to maybe make based on this being a one shot. DmVotV - would you consider letting me swap out finesse training for something actually useful to me? It's the only thing I dislike about the unchained rogue, it feels like they're really forcing dex based rogues.
Copy that! I'll trash bluff and profession gambler to keep baker/sailor. I'm now really bad at any form of gambling. Heh. Though, if it won't affect your odds of selecting me, I'd like to wait to deal with the minutiae of gear that costs less than 50gp 'til after I know if I've been selected. Same with languages.
Oh one gear related question, would you consider using the cost of living rules? I've always found it a nice way to not have to track how many blankets and candles I've got in my flat. And also background skills? It's tough to allocate skill points to professions otherwise.
Submitting a character adapted from one created a long while ago for Riddleport, but never really got to play. Details in the profile, though the gear list needs to be updated. His skill set probably works even better for this setting. why: As for why I'm interested, I am not familiar with Pett's work, but I prefer to play skill monkeys, and gritty urban settings are where they really get a chance to shine. And honestly, most game worlds are a little too bright and airy. Real medieval style places and times were not nearly so pleasant as some place like Golarion seems to be.
DM Camris, or anyone close to Joe:
Joe grins in genuine delight as he greets Lil. Despite his best efforts, he has always been trusting of anyone who makes an effort to be nice to him. "Lil! I'm glad you ladies showed up, this might have gotten out of hand otherwise." In a low voice, he then proceeds to tell her all about the incident with Smeed and what he found in his records and the machine in his office.
At the same time, Joe is having a few drinks, and circulating through the crowd, looking for and touching base with anyone he knows to find out what they know, and keeping an eye out for any local players, and/or anyone up to no good.
Joe grins happily as he hears Maelorn's plan. "Sounds great to me. And I'll go ahead and selflessly volunteer myself to be the one to sacrifice for the sake of realism. I'll actually drink a lot so everyone thinks we're legit."
Joe spends some time asking around town to people he knows if anyone has any idea what Boss Croat is up to.
Joe spends a few hours a day both dealing cards and observing the crowds. He also seems surprisingly interested in the details of the loan transactions he took from Smeed. He definitely enjoys the drinking and chatting, and is obviously fascinated by the gambling, but he also spends some time trying to convince Saul that it would be worth branching out into loans, and that approaching people that show a good payment history with offers of lower interest rates could make the casino even more money.
"I would really like to look through this, see if there's anything relevant to us. It'll probably take most of a day though. Also, anyone know someone who can open that safe? I'm trying to think if I know anyone with the requisite skills..." Joe goes silent as he continues looking through paperwork, and tries to think if he knows anyone.
As Joe walks back in the room, he gives Smeed a halfhearted kick as he walks by him. "You are such an ass," he mutters, before beginning a thorough search of the room.
Joe snaps his fingers and points at Bron. "That is a really excellent point." He then walks over to the shutters and has a look out at the street before drawing them closed. He then jogs downstairs.
Joe stands up, sword in hand, and looks down at Smeed. "Damn, that bastard can hit hard." He then walks around to the opposite side of Smeed to make sure he's surrounded, and makes sure to kick the scimitar out of Smeed's reach. "Anyone bring any rope?"
for dm camris, joe's action on his initiative:
Joe takes a mighty swing at the ape thing (or smeed). to hit (24 against smeed)
Joe inserts the crowbar into the crack between door and frame just above the lock, and then he and Bron give a strong pull.
Joe motions everyone to get out of direct line of fire from the door as he takes out his trusty crowbar. As he positions himself just to the side of the door frame and positions the crowbar to pry the door open, he looks back at everyone. "Any objections?"
Joe gives a grin of his own as he sees the rest of the group coming up the stairs, and then strides over to have a closer look at the door. perception roll
perception roll
DM Camris:
DM Camris:
DM Camris: Joe bends over and picks up the coin. He examines it for a moment then looks up at Smeed. "How much help should I tell him you need?"
Joe moves forward to where he can see the side of the building, looking for windows that are big enough for a person to slip through. "Guys, I think I should keep an eye on the front door for a minute. If they are around back, we don't want Smeed slipping out the front while we're all back there. I'll yell if anything happens, and you guys let me know what's going on back there." Joe moves closer to the front door, trying to get an idea if maybe he could force it open with the help of his trusty crowbar.
Joe eased his greatsword out of its sheath as he glanced around warily. "Looks like our cojunior partners already had a less than friendly negotiation with Smeed. He was known for keeping dogs, so I assume these are his. Also, Saul was right about Smeed working for Boss Croat, so we really need to watch our backs. Who knows if he has some way to call for help in there." Joe grinned slightly as he kept an eye on the front of the building. He'd missed a fight, but it looked like things were happening, and he wasn't too far behind events for once. So far, today was not boring.
Smeed, eh? Joe mused to himself as they left the casino. He seemed to recall having heard something about him recently. He searched his memory, trying to bring it to mind.
Joe eyed his new companions as he sipped Saul's wine and slid his money into his money belt. He grinned a bit at the sight of Bron. He strongly suspected this was the first time they'd ever been in the same room together where neither of them was drunk. Joe didn't know him that well, but had heard nothing about him that was bad, and several things that were good. The woman he gave a long searching look. There was definitely something odd about her, even discounting her weird looking dog. But she looked damn strong, and he suspected her dog would be for more than just decoration if a fight broke out. He drained his glass of wine and shifted his greatsword into a more comfortable position. "Well, my new future cojunior partners, shall we go see what sort of trouble our other future cojunior partners may be in?"
"Joe!" I swung around and saw Hans Ulfen walking with a couple of people that looked familiar. Dammit, not only did Hans know my parents quite well (he was a bit overly fond of apple pastries), I really should have noticed him long before he yelled at my across a busy street. I really needed to work on that. "What!" I snarled around my pipe. I saw his eyes narrow slightly. Sigh. I really did not intend for it to sound so combative. Yet another thing I needed to work on. Luckily I'd known Hans for quite a while, and he'd never shown much inclination to take offense at me being a bit of a jerk. Of course, he was probably helped in this by having been in several bar brawls with me, and I doubted he particularly wanted to be on the receiving end. We stared at each other a few moments, each silently flexing while trying not to look like that's what we were doing. I won, of course. "Joe, I've got a bit of a business proposition for you. You may have heard I'm at the Golden Goblin now, and to keep it short, we need some dealers and bouncers." He grinned at me for a second and then continued, "I've told Mr. Feldin here, who's in charge of hiring, that you're a bit of an ass, but as strong as you are ugly, and about as trustworthy as anyone can expect for someone from here." Ah, that's why they looked familiar. I'd at least seen most of the people involved in organized gambling in this town. Feldin had been quite visible around town lately what with the Golden Goblin coming back and advertising their big event. A cushy casino job sounded pretty good, actually. I blew a small smoke ring before replying, mostly because I knew it irritates most people. Like I said, I really need to work on that. "Count me in. Only issue is I've contracted for a sailing gig. I leave the day you've scheduled your big event, and will probably be gone about 4 days, maybe 5." I knew Hans was aware it was probably a smuggling trip. Hell, Feldin no doubt knew it to. I saw Hans glance over at him, waiting for a decision. Feldin looked at me, checking out my muscles in a way I probably should have found a bit creepy, if it wasn't pretty much the intended effect once I'd decided to take my most salient feature and run with it. "You'll do. Come by tomorrow night." Hans threw me a thumbs up and they trudged off. *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** ******* I stared at Saul Vancaskerin as he caught me up on all that had happened while I'd been out at sea. I'd come straight to the casino after the rumors I'd heard in the port, and was now being presented with this. He leaned against the mantle with a glass of wine and finished up "...and now they're out looking for Larur. Young man, I've heard good things about you, and seen that you were competent on the nights you worked here. I have no doubt that had you been here those nights, you would yourself be a junior partner right now. You know the town well, and, I think, have a slightly more realistic attitude than most of my current junior partners. Accompany them, keep them alive, and you'll be a junior partner yourself." He stared at me expectantly. I closed my eyes for a moment WHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHY DID I ALWAYS MISS THE FUN STUFF! Gah. Five days at sea on that stupid boat with not a damn thing happening, and only the most interesting things to happen in this town, pretty much ever, happens while I'm away. Two years ago I'd have said it out loud. Luckily I'd managed to learn some self control, as I doubt Saul would have quite the same view of fun that I did. And junior partner? Sounded tasty, and hopefully would give me a chance to check out the casino's books. I had a few ideas it seemed to me a place like this could accomplish with moving money around. So I simply opened my eyes and looked at him. "I'll do it."
lvl 2 rogue, swashbuckler archetype. i can't actually take the scout archetype til level 4, but my plan is to remain a single classed rogue through whatever level this takes us to with both those archetypes, so i just listed them both. i'll clean up the way i've noted it a little bit.
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