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"Murder bird's got it in one." Pava sidles up to stand at Shrike's shoulder. "Citadel's only secure if the guard or their masters actually want you locked up and squawking. You feeling tip-top secure in that then? And that even if they did, that they'd let us know what she had to say? Or even Kroft?"
Oh rad, I didn't want to just start stuff, but those are some shared concerns.
"Might be worth considering who exactly recommended that jester to your employ, innit?"
"Might be I was too hard on your poet, Mme. Lostling. If the bloody jester here isn't driven by madness, I don't know that I want to understand further." Pava briskly and without undue gentleness, goes through the sniper's belongings, disarming of her of everything that seems like tools or talismans. "Acadamae, want to turn a mage eye on what she's carrying? Make sure I don't miss something important?"
Pava purses their lips, trying not to laugh as they dive over the side right after her. "She's got a bit of a point there, Odds."
But their voice is grim again by the time they land. "If she's with Lamm she doesn't escape, not even into death."
Pava hustles up the stairs, flinging themself across the landing to trap the murderous harlequin! "Bit rude not to introduce yourself there chit," Pava continues with a razor smile. "Par exemple, I'm Pava of Old Korvosa, and this is most certainly my pleasure." If they'd been 5' closer...: Pava hustles up the stairs, flinging themself from the top of the stairs past Audria, caroming off the wall to catch the murderous harlequin by surprise!
"Bit rude not to introduce yourself there chit," Pava continues with a razor smile. "Par exemple, I'm Pava of Old Korvosa, and this is most certainly my pleasure."
lol I somehow missed that. Pava would actually make acrobatics checks to avoid AoOs if the deadheads aren't flatfooted... and would feint one to guarantee flat-footedness if somehow they all beat them in init.
Pava weaves through the room, faster than the undead can react. Planting themself in the center of the room, they beckon their foes on while the zombie they carved up along the way collapses behind them.
Pava's on Shrike's heels, holding up their unarmed hand, mouthing along as their fingers count down: Three
"Let's keep moving while we can still pick them off in easy groups."
Damn! I missed that that was happening yesterday, an international blackout is wild
b"Good points," Pava allows as they continue to explore, their cut-down klar held in front of their neck.
"Probably posed after, but look at the wounds, yeah? Nothing looks like a struggle there to me." Pava shrugs, "Least there's blades to block instead of just more plagues catching."
Just playing Pava's non-existent Knowledge (arcana) :-p There are 8 zombies described, but I only see 4 on the map (which I believe are all dead). Are there more that should be visible?
Pava gets an oil similar to Elric's ready in one hand, their cut-down klar at the ready in the other. "Probably they're not all vampires though? Sixteen would... That might properly be too many for us, yeah?"
"Harp says alive to you? Only says moving to me."
"Yeah yeah, not too split up, keep everyone in sight, eh? Just helps us maybe get the drop once or twice if we don't all clank up as one." Pava swigs down an antiplague before heading in. "It'd be better if we could bathe in the stuff, but at least before splashing about in whatever this is, eh?" I'd feel a titch better with Murder Bird or myself on point they think, but they keep their mouth shut rather than reopen wounds only recently closed. "I've got your back then, Odds."
Tsk - just noticed that I forgot to actually notate some shopping here in-thread - cool with Pava having tracked down a belt of dexterity +2, Harrow? Pava's also continuing to spend ~10% of their share on their organization - even if right now Old Korvosa is less accessible!
"Terror at Theumanexus? I'm, ah, afraid I've had other things on my mind recently." "Right, we'll keep you alive then." *** Pava's expression gets a little forced when Kandru brings up Verses in Scarlet. "Errm well, I liked the mystery fine, the clues and all, but his motivation just being madness seemed a bit like a cheat. And the poetry was good, but wouldn't they have been dry by the time Colt got to it? Though I'll allow Tercets in Taupe wouldn't have exactly made for a cracking title." They glance over to make certain their honesty hasn't been too unwelcome, adding "Lina loved it though. It's why she dug through your back catalogue in the first place, and- Ah, here we are." Pava sizes up the building with an undisguised distaste for its finery. "So, without adopting the pretense that everything's gone well in there, how should we handle things? I figure Murder Bird and," they pause almost imperceptibly, "Odds, and I can sneak about a corner ahead in hallways, we all huddle up for doors. Oh, Soldier Boy, will you be plying your bow this time? Wouldn't want you to get written up for knocking over a vase with your hammer."
We aren't dealing with a lot of other Shoanti at the moment, so it probably wouldn't come up, but just wanted to provide a link to the deal with Pava/Nips at Heels/Ayotah's names
Pava raises an eyebrow at Cressida's explanation before refocusing their eyes on Kandru with all the warmth and charm of a drill bit. "Services on loan from the First Vault, eh? Hope you can cover the vig, Kroft." Pava is tall, the top of their close-shaved head more than a foot above Audria's, but with none of the bulk common to their Shoanti forebears. Staring at Kandru sideface on, they present a profile that would give a duelist fits. Faint silver tattoos of rain run down their face, whorls of wind down their limbs, but their clothing, a snug vest and baggy trousers both warmly dyed doesn't suggest the same traditions. They don't seem heavily armed, but for a curious weapon strapped to one hand. It's something like a Shoanti klar, but trimmed and smoothed down to better function in an alleyway brawl. And then they smile. Carefully hidden fatigue tugs at their eyes even as a spark of warmth appears. "Hang on a drip. Kandru Lostling? The Kandru Lostling? Horror in the Heights? Corian Colt? You know what it takes for me to read a skycursed guard story? My fian- My... It's complicated: My Lina hadn't handed them to me with great gusto, never would've given 'em a try, and..." They trail off. "Hold up, you want to go into the house of plague-y murders? Well I guess that's one person we'll make sure gets out in one piece. Unless- You haven't finished up with Terror in Theumanexus yet, right?"
"Statue'd be right nice though, eh? There's already some very anatomically imaginative graffiti of me down by the docks, but that was over an, err, personal affair. Still, not the worst beginning." A cloud comes over their face as they muse. "'Course, it really does all depend on who passed around the cap for the statue..."
Since Pava has also been established as an avid reader of penny dreadfuls and other lurid fiction, I feel I should ask: does Kandru publish under a pseudonym?
That seems spot on to me!
"So Acadamae, you had to make an actual deal with a devil to graduate, yeah? Can't help but feel that being a welcome and frequent caller on the bleeding Field Marshal's a sign that things have truly taken a turn in my life."
Pava deadpans in repsonse to Audria's gloom, "Look on the bright side, Odds. There's all sorts of bad things that take much less than three days to get you all the way to a gruesome end. This might not've been one of 'em."
Welcome Kandru! Looking forward to playing with you :-D
Pava bares their teeth in something close to a smile as they try to find some amusement in these dark days. "Why, oh why, are the nobs always putting on parties in the middle of plagues and bloody fluxes?" "Right, so, whether this was just a spectacularly dreadful notion, or actually seeded by our pallid pals, there's a good chance they've stuck their noses in where we can give them a tweak, and maybe even follow things back" Their focus is fully back as they conclude. "If luck's with us, we might even save some of the people they damned."
I think Ethelinda and Mavis are ahead by a nose for me, mostly 'cause I think the cloistered Abadaran might get a little... scandalized in a way that a Chaldiran definitely won't, and an Iomedan who very pointedly never could have been a paladin probably won't so much either.
Despite one or two of us having some rough edges, it's a pretty heroic crew
All good Shane, but I appreciate the catch :-)
Happy to roll for it
EDIT - Even happier now :-p
I'll go ahead and grab 'em then - thanks! I dunno if Shane wants to do a practice run on the boat, where there's a... pretty clear flaw in the plan that Pava lacks the Know. (arcana) to see coming Spoiler:
Unless I'm failing my Know. (arcana), Invisibility Sphere won't work on the boat itself since it only affects creatures I think that we've got a couple good places to investigate only, I could have missed something, but do we have reason to suspect that we'd find something untoward yet? Pava's deeply mistrustful of the crown, but gathering the sick in specific buildings doesn't inherently ring alarm bells to me.
Pava smiles, sharply. "I could swim it if that was enough to help, but the swim back's not particularly appealing with half a dozen family members handing from my neck, yeah? Ghosting the boat's a good notion though."
Pava puts their head down, time split between running down leads or keeping knives out of Odds' back, and their work within their community - busy at the best of times, and now completely overloaded. Often their breaks come when there's simply nothing left to give; no one else left to ask. Back and forth across the city, back and forth looking for something or someone at the heart of the plague, looking for things to help them all survive it. They don't know if they've been exposed yet, but they know they've had more chances then their family. They spend most nights at Zellara's, just in case. Until one morning that's their only option. Endrin Isle is cut off. Old Korvosa, their parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, their fian- whatever she was- Gone.
"So who's gonna find me a boat?"
Not impossible that it's taking some time - even friendly eyes and ears are usually less willing to throw themselves into danger than PCs :-p
"You can barely see my horns at all now!"
I'd imagine that this would be something handled by some analogy to a tort claim, but Korvosa might consider fraud in matters of public health to legitimately be a crime against the state instead of just a matter between private parties.
Pava studies Kroft's response to Odds' question carefully, but doesn't weigh in - yet, not wanting to let their expectations spoil any surprises.
"Abella!" Pava lights up with a wicked smile. "Not too lonely back here all on your own in the ghost house?" They take the update on the samples with as much patience as they can muster. "Yeah yeah, well, don't let us keep you then love; sooner you're back to your beakers and all the sooner we can maybe get a night off again..." ***
"And here you were looking all knackered even before the bad news," Pava greets the Captain with technically detectable notes of sympathy. "Acadamae's right though, apparently the plague's not the only thing catching."
I'm mainly pegging Pava's level of understanding of care a good bit below that.
If a disease is too lethal and too catching... You hope the spirits are feeling helpful.
Yeah, it wasn't meant to be a workable solution :-p Pava is honestly more than a bit out of their depth with 'stop an epidemic,' but is also bad at doing nothing.
"We should see if the house drakes wouldn't mind dropping things off. The Queen's not to be trusted here, but..." Pava scratches the back of their neck. "Plagues do spread. Can't just let them starve, of course, but... plenty of good ways to get them help, yeah?"
"Tactics seem pretty clear to me: they came here to start a fight." They consider the efficient blockade and sharp swords. "And finish one."
How fully kettled/blocked in are the demonstrators? And if there's not a good way out there, how many Maidens and Guards are we talking here? Pava won't just get themself killed, but they will cause themself long-term problems rather than watch a massacre.
"That how you get more of them?!" Pava asks Shane with a shudder. "Here I thought they were what happened when you let a cat jump over an unblessed body... No one got nicked though, yeah? So we're clear?" They're much happier to help find a cart among the shopkeep's things then they are to help actually manhandling the rotting corpse. "S'pose the Grey's just about the only place where you might get a thank you for dragging a smell like this right at them..."
I have scattered fondness for the films, and for the drinking game I used to play with the book :-p
Pava threads the stake through the vampire's ribs, cursing again as the tip breaks off. Was that deep enough? But there's no time to confirm, Pava steps over to the vampire who's definitely up and wriggling, raking her with the blessed-silver blades bolted onto what remains of their ancestral klar.
Sky and bloody soil! Pava curses as they scrape their boot against a rung. As is their habit when faced with uncertainty or doubt, they lunge, heading for the shifting coffin with a stake at the ready.
Maybe with Agile Maneuvers, dex to attack, and dex to damage when using stakes, Pava will be able to roll dex here? :fingers crossed:
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