The long rectangular building -- crenelated as it is with gargoyle-like busts of Shelyn, but a sad or stern Shelyn in a Cenobite style, mithril needles piercing her face and head in perfect columns and rows -- opens in the middle through a massive, two-story tall door. But inside it appears empty.
At first glance, half entering the structure, it appears to be a typical long-building in three 'parts.'
The center part, in which you begin to enter, is a one-story Great Hall with a forty-foot tall ceiling, only haphazardly strewn, broken pews and benches here and there remain. To your left and right the great hall, or main room, extends about 80 feet in each direction, making the total length of the main room greater than 160 feet. There are tiny windows on the exterior front wall but they are high up, 25 feet above the floor, and allow very little "light" (if one could call it light) from the gray outside. The average person can squint for about 30 feet of vision, while those who can see in low light conditions can see about 60 feet.
At least, this is the first two-thirds of this Great Hall.
Directly across from the massive front door, about fifty feet away, is a massive, double-sided fireplace. This fireplace demarcates the great hall as there is another 25 feet or so of space behind it. Presumably, there will be entryways to the other two parts of this structure, the left and right wings of the building.
is an upper-middle class trained opera singer and actor who was pushed into that from her well-meaning Uncle and Aunt trying to do what Sanchia's parents would have wanted (they are tragically gone). But Sanchia Corvus doesn't really want that lifestyle and a young opera singer and actor, the NPC Calseinica, has observed that Sanchia Corvus doesn't want to live that life. Calseinica is apparently friends with Janiven Keyes and brought her to Vizio's Tavern.
A Tiefling taking odd jobs as courier and letter-carrier, she got an assignment to bring a Sealed letter from the HellKnights to a place in the half-abandoned and destitute Parego Dospera -- where she delivered the letter to Shanwen, "Contractor Scriptus of the Temple of Asmodeus." She overheard in the background some wannabe HellKnight 'Armigers' trying to bully a small child who somehow got away from them -- and very stealthily, she even helped the child make good his escape. In the chase the Armigers dropped a very revealing letter which Whisper confiscated.
The letter had both a plan for scapegoating the Temple of Asmodeus from The HellKnights, and mentioned that the Half-Elf owner of Vizio's Tavern, Arael has been captured and worships Iomedae. Pointedly, I have to say it "had" because Whisper destroyed the letter. She did memorize it (Well, without even rolling for an INT or Linguistics check, but--) so I will encourage Whisper to paraphrase the letter on another document to share with the group.
The letter mentions the Armigers should raid Vizio's Tavern (through the owner) which is why Whisper came -- but just to spy or get some insight. She was ready to run away when the scope of what was happening began being discussed around her, but curiosity (according to an NPC named Zora, Whisper's great weakness) and getting past Waldorph, kept her with the group -- once everyone was in the private room and the raid began, she was kinda forced to flee with everyone else.
is the owner of Cobbles, Bobbles & Bows cartography shop nearby, and had an odd visitor early in the day from Aidonis. During this curious encounter an object belonging to one of her old companion's (Bobbles) -- way in the back of her shop -- started affecting the whole place: getting cold and, um, 'Shadowy' -- and when Nita returned to the front of the shop after investigating, the NPC had left with a note that said go to Vizio's. Further, Aidonis also has a connection to the Pathfinder Society -- like Bobbles did years ago -- because the note said he had seen the letter Nita had sent to PFS.
is a Tiefling originally from Parego Dospera who ‘escaped’ Westcrown and is now back several years later. When he was a kid (teen?) he was (peripherally) involved with the current leader of The Bastards of Erebus, Palaveen, and now the young Tiefling NPC, Quirri, who is with the group, is trying to escape from Palaveen the way Cassynder did so long ago.
Apparently, Janiven Keyes knew Quirri was unhappy in gang life and offered her a meeting at Vizio’s Tavern – and Quirri has brought Cassynder along.
is interested in tracking down a centuries-old secret-society/mafia ring (loooong disbanded) called “The Council of Thieves” and thinks maybe the new street gang “The Bastards of Erebus” have a connection with a reemergence of the old-timey secret society. I don’t know if this was his idea or Dragon Cat’s; and I don’t know from where he got his lead though I have a few ideas if I need to create that lead retroactively. Everett went to the art shop of Jacopo di Carni to follow another lead that The Bastards of Erebus were pushing a protection racket in the neighborhood. He gave a child $2 cp (for Carnivean Dirge’s Pastry Shop) for directions to Jacopo di Carni.
Everett specifically mentions Palaveen in front of the group (to Cassynder) regarding two thugs trying to shake-down Jacopo di Carni. Everett also tells the group (*his* thoughts & conclusions) of the Council off Thieves.
This late morning of summer a handful of restless souls converge separately on Vizio's Tavern in Parego Spera, an old public house nestled near the waterfront, a tilting warehouse next door providing a modicum of buffering from the shipyard and salty brackishness beyond.
Vizio's Tavern is a one-story affair, its walls contrast greatly with the eroding, detritus-coated stonework of the warehouse on the eastern side and the other neighborhood structures flanking it -- walls of quietly proud oak, coloured a healthy brown and polished to an almost-mirrored sheen in the late morning sun. Vizio's Tavern is just one of several buildings in this little neighborhood recently restored in the gentrification of the neighborhood.
Only minutes prior the tavern's interior was alive with the chattering of dockhands and other labourers stopping in for a pint in the shade, listening to the blue-haired, Half-Elven flautist.
The crashing interruption from HellKnight Armigers, however routine it may have become, disturbed and soured everyone's day. "ATTENTION, PATRONS OF THIS ESTABLISHMENT MASQUERADING AS A TAVERN! EVERYONE UP AGAINST THE WALL. WE HAVE ALREADY CAPTURED THE SEDITIONIST OWNER OF THIS ESTABLISHMENT -- IF YOU RESIST, IT SHALL BE A WASTE OF YOUR FREEDOM!" Even the blue-haired flautist lost his smile.
But the Armigers were charging through the door to the private room, obviously chasing the handful of restless souls who had, only minutes prior, converged upon Vizio's Tavern individually, and gradually made there way to the private room.
A room with a secret door. With a passage leading to a Portal to The Shadow Plane. One step ahead of the HellKnights.
Inside the main room of Vizio's Tavern, from your vantage point looking from within the private room, five Dottari troops are dead. Lord Iltus Mhartis, the drunk Duxotar of the Dottari has apparently suffered the the full effects of the Fireball blast and looks badly hurt -- and more than a little flat-footed.
The two Dottari officers, young Durotas Savois Tiri looks half dead from the blast, a Staggered, glazed look over her eye. The other Durotas, however, Saria Roccin has apparently taken very little of the Fireball's blast.
The famous opera diva, Baroness Delour Aulamaxa, has fallen prone on the floor from her burns, her partying sycophants look dead on the floor.
You can not see the other customers: the Dwarf tinkerer, or the two young women.
. . . .
From inside the private room you can easily enter the main room of Vizio's Tavern and ready yourselves for Gornych and The Bastards of Erebus -- or Move out the back of Vizio's Tavern and take the "long way' in.
Inside the main room of Vizio's Tavern, from your vantage point looking from within the private room, nothing obvious appears any different except for the brief moment of stunned faces from the customers.
You can see Baroness Delour Aulamaxa and some of her sycophants, mouths agape in a pause as they stare at something or nothing -- interrupted from the operatic diva's singing.
You can see the new Duxotar, Lord Iltus Mhartis and the other Westcrown Dottari, including officers Savois Tiri and Saria Roccin, also briefly interrupted from their revels.
While you don't have line of sight to the fastidiously clean Dwarven tinkerer, Rolan -- or the young, beautiful girls Amaya & Tarvi -- you assume they are still in their tables.
Of course Vizio is likely behind the bar though you don't see him.
It is also possible that young Lord Lodros Mhartis and Harbormaster Casarus Vitallain are still present, talking about the Scion's upcoming campaign to rid the sewers of the Xvart 'king' Whitechin -- though they have probably left a minute ago.
You know Stiglor -- the disgraced Dottari 'Durotas' has left -- as well as Rance Lucca of the Devildrome and Lady Sascar Tilernos have left several minutes ago.
. . . .
Then your gaze shifts to what everyone is looking at on the floor -- presumably what has stunned their party: Haphazardly rolling or tumbling on the floor are several wood-carved coins, each carved with the Holy Symbol of MAMMON, the Arch-Devil.
Presumably, these little wooden coins just manifested in Vizio's Tavern and have fallen to the floor or on tables -- causing everyone in the main room to astonishedly cease their party for a second and look at them.
Out of the corner of your periphery, hard to see from your angle, you see the young girl Tarvi stoop to pick one up for inspection. The Dottari officer Saria Roccin has one in her fingers, having just picked it up. Little coins with the Holy symbol of Mammon, Hell's personification of greed and the lust for gold and gems.
A moment later, as Janiven Key continues talking to Arrus Volso about Lady Felina Imvius, and Renzio Arvanxi listens at the door to the goings on in the main room, all of you can hear a startled expression gasp from the crowd beyond the door.
Immediately after the collective inhalation of shock from those in the main room of Vizio's Tavern, a three-second moment of inertia follows, as complete silence weighs down upon those who, an instant before, were singing together in celebration.
Next to you, Janiven Key sharply whips her head to the closed door in concern at the sudden silence, and takes a step to swing open the door to see what has just happened.
Renzio Arvanxi continues to listen to the goings on in the main room of Vizio's Tavern, through the private room's closed door. Only a minute or so after the boorish Lord Iltus Mhartis, Duxotar of the Westcrown Dottari, publicly fired the officer, Stiglor, and promoted the inexperienced Savois Tiri to his position, Renzio overhears the young Dottari buy a round of ale for those few left in Vizio's Tavern and, only a moment after that, the younger girl asks the famous opera singer, Baroness Delour Aulamaxa, to sing with her for the tavern to hear. Within a moment, Vizio's Tavern is filled with song, as two parties beginning singing aloud together.
The four of you make your way to the private room just out of the main room which has gotten rather loud. Janiven Key lets you know that she will bring in more drinks as soon as she tends to Baroness Delour Aulamaxa's most recent request for drinks, shouldn't be even a minute longer.
You close the door so you can have some privacy, though you can still overhear ambient tavern-noise through the walls. It sounds like Duxotar Iltus Mhartis is publicly berating the Dottari officer, Stiglor.
Tiknesr considers some of the ramifications of joining Lord Lodros Mhartis in his foray into the sewers to strike against 'King' Whitechin the Xvart, not as much from the perspective of helping the young Mhartis scion improve his standing in his House, but what it could mean for the handful of 'free' Ysoki scattered in the Parego Dospera -- and the handful of Ysoki slaves in the Parego Regicona -- on whether they could perhaps come together in at least a bit of a society (or leave Westcrown the way many freed Ysoki do).
.
Meanwhile, it is obvious Arrus is ready to move to a more private room in Vizio's Tavern to discuss your collective objectives.
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For his part, Renzio Arvanxi -- still in his disguise -- turns his head at the arrival of the young Dottari woman, trying to identify her. Based on the Duxotar's reaction to her entrance, she ought to be well known, but she does not look at all familiar to him.
The young Dottari just looks like any other Dottari that one may see throughout the Parego Spera, keeping the Queen's peace on patrol.
But by the tone of the gathering of Dottari, she is about to be praised, or even promoted.
Lady Sascar Tilernos, as the atmosphere in Vizio’s Tavern gets a little louder and her own meeting less fruitful than she had apparently hoped, reveals a façade of obvious disappointment as she finishes her wine and gets up to leave with barely a nod to Rance Lucca, owner of The Devildrome arena, as a departing gesture. For his part, the man apparently intends to finish his own wine more slowly and watch the other customers for a minute before he leaves.
.
Baroness Delour Aulamaxa still enjoys her hangers-on and is obviously getting a little tipsy. But everyone seems pleased, especially the widowed Noble, about the upcoming show at the Nightshade Theater, "The Trials of Larazod."
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Meanwhile, the well-to-do merchants, the Dwarf tinkerer Rolan and the two young women, Amaya and Tarvi, each also seem less enthused about the louder atmosphere – Baroness Delour Aulamaxa and Duxotar Iltus Mhartis – growing into a cacophony. Each may leave soon.
In a nicer section of Westcrown's Parego Spera district (wherein 80%--90% of today's Wiscrani live and work) proudly stands the three-story Vizio's Tavern -- the most popular bar for Nobles outside of the Parego Regicona district, and a drinking hole for upper-class merchants and Dottari officers.
Only a few blocks away from the colossal statue of Aroden, The Arodennama (cracked from shoulder to hip after Aroden's cataclysmic disappearance 100 years ago) -- Vizio's Tavern also gives a commanding view of the Adivian River mouth and the Noble's islet, the Parego Regicona -- and Citadel Arvanxi at the islet's southern tip.
Here, barely three hours before the city gong announces nightfall -- and the curfew -- a small group of Wiscrani have come together to plot and plan and scheme, for they have found that they have a common goal, and common complaint.
There are several NPC customers in Vizio's Tavern in addition to your PCs -- and they are active with their own dialogue and character. But I won't have time to post for them immediately (including a couple Nobles, some Dottari wardens, an influential merchant, and etc., etc.).
If you do post in Gameplay you may want to keep it dialogue and description at the PC table. If it's helpful, the tavern girl is named Janiven Key (and without describing her here, she's neither the dumb-blonde cliche D&D tavern girl hooker, nor a rude bi+ch; Janiven is more like a young waitress or bartender you'd meet in the 21st century at a decent bar & restaurant).
