I'm still here too... waiting for the return of Fawkes :)
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Just glad to see you're still with us... ewww.. finals.. I am SO glad I'm not in school any more... lol. I remember the stress and sleepless nights. My sympathies.
Torr scowls slightly as he hears Rekkart's words. "So great adventurers tried to deal with Mord's spirit in the past and failed? We are out of our depth here, unless there is more to this than meets the eye. Perhaps dealing directly with Mord is not the answer, but instead it lies in ferreting out truths that have not been addressed?" He moves off as if to follow Fawkes. "Perhaps you all should stay here in the courtroom."
"I had a vision... of a hulking figure..." He shakes his head trying to dislodge the unpleasant vision again. "Does the name 'Sashrala' mean anything to any of you?" He watches their faces as he mentions the name for any sign of recognition.
Torr shakes off the aftereffects of the vision and blinks to clear his eyes. With grim determination, he turns to the original jurors. "Can you describe this Mord fellow to me as he was in life? Was his wife elven?" Perhaps knowing if he was a large hulking man, and if what I just saw was a vision of the crime, would at least give me a starting point to consider who might have done this horrid thing. Either he did it and his ghost haunts this place out of evil, or he was innocent and his ghost seeks redress for the wrong of his execution. I guess it is up to us to prove the right of one side or the other. Maybe that will end the haunting here.
Sorry - I thought this was just a small one-room court building... so does that mean we can access other rooms without leaving the building? we don't want to piss off the ghost. lol
"Do be careful, I have a feeling leaving the building might be a fatal mistake." He smiles at the two ladies slightly, keeping his head down slightly so his hair hides the worst of his scars. "As for keeping an eye on the ladies, I'd be honored, if they will allow me to do so."
Torr smiles and turns to wink at the dwarf when he changes from 'with ya' to 'right behind ya' and then nods to Fawkes. "Aye the attic... I hope the access doesn't require that we go out that door." he nods toward the door the half-orc took. "Surely there's got to be a way up to the attic from inside the building here." He looks around for stairs, ladder, trap door in the ceiling, anything that might be access to the attic.
Torr reenters the jury room after Fawkes and looks at the jurors. How I wish I could read minds right about now. Which ones are guilty of this travesty of justice, if that is truly what occurred here? He examines each of their faces as if looking for some clue there...
"You're likely right about that, my friend, but who is truly to blame here?... and how do we get him, or them, to confess?" Torr turns his gaze on the other jurors.
Torr slips into the side room and examines the writing in the book, looks back at Fawkes. "Seems we are dealing perhaps with a vengeful spirit, one that was wronged by the actions taken in this very courtroom. Don't know what we can do to set things right. But I don't want to meet that poor fellow's fate just cuz we're posing as two of the jurors."
Torr cocks his head to one side, curious as to Fawkes' intent here. What good with a large sword do here?? We seem to be trapped in this courthouse until our task, whatever it might be, is done. "Perhaps we need to investigate the apartment where the crime took place? and perhaps that is done through the other doorway - the one that doesn't leave the building?" Torr moves and opens the other door but doesn't move through it - just gazes through to see where it might go.
mostly family obligations here... i've been afk for 2 days and likely will be til monday as today is filled with obligations as well. sorry.
yay!! and happy thanksgiving too!
Oooh, that bites - I hate when that happens - well we'll just play at your pace then, no problems.:)
"Seems this spirit has more resources at hand than just tryin' to scare us. Since it missed, I suspect it has more in mind than simply killing you all... us all... whatever." He turns and whispers to Fawkes. "Do you think Binns knew what he was doing when he sent us here, or just maybe controlled by this vengeful ghost? Either way it took some grand planning and coordination to get us here with the others. Not to mention getting the others here as well. What do you think?" Torr sighs and examines the blood-stained axe closely without touching it.
"Fawkes, we may have a little problem here... like a vengeful spirit looking to right a wrong. Not sure how the drugs and all that were arranged by a spirit, but here's the deal. The executioner for this very courtroom, Jarbin Mord, was found guilty by this very jury of murdering his wife and child with an axe. He was executed the next day, but he might not have been guilty. He might have been framed. It's rumored he haunts this very building looking for that wrong to be corrected. Perhaps that is our purpose here, maybe just to get the jury to see the wrong in what they did, maybe to catch the person who framed him and see justice done, I don't know. But there is a mystery here..." Torr concludes his uncharacteristically verbose speech and grows silent again, looking out over the other jurors, wishing he could read minds. Did they all convict unknowingly or was one (or more?) of them 'in on it' and aware that Mord was framed? Who framed him and why? Was it because he was the executioner here? Did he execute someone who was in fact innocent like himself? WAS he even innocent? Aaaah, too much! Stop!
Almost 24 hours? how long were we knocked out by the drug? This place is ancient and falling apart... Where are we and why the hell are we here?
Torr listens quietly to the exchanges and contemplates that very question... why are we here? Binns set us up for this for some reason, what could it be? was an injustice of some kind done? does someone want to avenge that perhaps?
Torr shrugs and looks at Fawkes with the same sort of confused look. "Seems we are part of something ongoing..." He turns to one of the others and tries to get their attention. "What did he mean 'ten years to the day?'... Has this happened to you before? I'm sorry to question you, but this is my first time. What's going on, exactly?"
"What the... ?? Drugged?" Torr looks around the room at the surroundings and the others in the room with them then over at Fawkes. "Whatever it is we've gotten into, I fear it's not good... I'm sorry I got you into this." Torr struggles to his feet and stands swaying as he shakes off the effects of the drug as much as he can... His first thought is to look for exits, as well as at the other eight people.
Torr looks down at himself as if unsure of who he is as well as where he is... He slowly looks around at the others in the juror's box before turning his attention to the larger scene around him, those things that lie outside the box. Who and what am I sharing the box with and how did I get here? They all look like they are wakening from a dream, same as myself... What's going on here? I am ... was... somewhere else, doing something else... and now I'm here in a jury box? Am I still dreaming? Is this just another phantom vision?
sorry - for some reason the thread has not been updating for me... i missed that there were posts.
"So, who's polite?" He helps himself to a drink without waiting for others to arrive. He pours some wine for Fawkes as well as his own ale. "Taste away... Didn't expect we'd be the first here. No reason ta waste any time waitin' though."
"An ale then," he growls out at the halfling, since 'Caius' encouraged him to order. "Nice, warm, yeah, could get useta a place like this." He admits even to himself, This place isn't near as bad as I was expecting from the surroundings. It's warm and inviting inside. A little out of our way, but I'll have to remember it. Could be handy to have someplace else to go besides the usual local tavern. He takes a moment to look around at the other patrons, not exactly taking the time to size them up exactly, just getting a general impression.
Once inside the tavern, Torr turns a glare on the halfling for a second, licks his lips for a second as if tempted by the offer of a drink, then softens his expression. "Ain't been in here before. We've come for a private-like meetin'" He turns his gaze for a brief second to the patrons around him before turning back to the halfling at the bar.
Torr dresses in as nondescript a fashion as he can, in brown clothes, not too clean, typical for the area. He wears a hooded cloak, keeping the hood up to hide his scars as much as possible. Before leaving the apartment, he'll bring up a salient point. "Perhaps it would be best if Caius did most of the talking, since you seem to have a gift for it. Doesn't mean I won't talk, just if there's more to do than just listen, you should speak up. I got the impression from Binns our job is to listen and remember what we hear, but there might be a little talking required." Once he's outside and on the way, he'll try to 'get into character' as Jake Blacklee, a local lowlife and nothing more. He will keep his mind on the task at hand and put the events of the past day behind him for the time being.
"I think we should keep to selling finished products... there isn't a lot of profit in selling the components, especially not around here. Just have to have time to make the finished product, that's the only issue. Some things I may have to gather myself, since I have no apprentice, but others are simply easier to purchase. Except for the most expensive things, which Pedrach took with him, we're pretty well stocked with a lot of things. And a lot of finished products don't require those expensive components. So hopefully, there should be enough here to make at least one or two month's rent off sales of product and still have enough left to buy what we need to make more. I will probably need to take a complete inventory to be sure of course. But that can wait til tomorrow or whenever there's time." Torr looks around at the now-organized shop and workroom and sighs. "I hope I'm up to this. I know I know this stuff, but I've never had to run the shop by myself before. Well... I guess you never know until you try, eh, Fawkes?" He manages a smile, then shrugs. He peers outside, and notes the position of the sun. "It's getting later in the day. Maybe we should change and get ready for this meeting we need to attend. I don't know about you, but I'm going to change into something more... I dunno... non-descript?"
"Sounds good... I can teach you a few basics while we reorganize and we can go from there... Somehow I think you could sell swampwater to a goblin if you set your mind to it." He chuckles. "Well, these are reagents and they go over here. You can tell what they are by these marks here. You don't really need to know what the marks mean unless you're really interested, of course. These over here are catalysts and are marked this way... They go over here. Important not to mix them up... This is where we put finished items like alchemist's fires, and sunrods and the like... I see he didn't leave much of anything, but that's okay... simple things like that I can make and they are the staple goods." Torr goes about moving things around with Fawkes' help, putting them in the right places, which Binn's boys probably didn't know or care about.
"Guess that makes you Caius, nice ta meet you as well. Guess we have somewhere to be and a time to be there now... that's somewhat reassuring. Guess we have the rest of the day to relax. Wanna do anything special? If not, I have a shop to put in order again. But I'm willing to do whatever if you've somewhat else in mind," Torr says after reading the note.
"There isn't much to see... " says Torr as he enters the shambles that was an alchemist's lab and shop. "This is the shop, and this area the laboratory and workshop. Probably best lock the door while we're inside, to discourage potential customers for the day. I should put up a sign to say we're closed for a few days. I'll get to that later." He does lock the door though from the inside. "The stairs are over here. They lead up to the living area." He goes up the stairs into a small apartment with two separate bedrooms. "Well, this is it... the grand salon." He chuckles softly as if at some private joke. "Your room is over here. Binns said Pedrach left in a hurry, so he probably didn't take ALL his things.. We should move the last of them out so you can move in and call it your own. My room is over there." He waves over toward the other door as he enters the room he called Fawkes'. He moves over to a small dresser and starts going through drawers, taking out anything that belonged to Pedrach, doing the same from the wardrobe. "Of course if you want any of these things, you are welcome to them. If not, I will distribute them to the poor I guess. I have no use for them."
He looks over at Fawkes and gives a shrug. "This is pretty much it. What do you think" He probably think 'what the hell have I gotten myself into for an ill-conceived 'favor' and a share of 80 gold a month?'
"Ah well, that answers that question then. He'll tell us what we need to know later." Torr stays out of the way as the men move the contents of the shop back in, watching from the side of the doorway. Now and then he pokes his head in through the door and peers in to see how much of a disaster they are making of the place.
Torr listens to Fawkes and breaks into a grin, then a laugh. He gets to the point in a very pointed way, though harsh for one short on humor. He observes Binns to see how he will react to the bard's rant, ready to step in and be deprecating to soothe the man's ego if it's been damaged.
So sorry - was in a RL pathfinder game for 10 hours today and have d&d tomorrow for about 8 hours... I will post as soon as I can... have to go to bed now, I'm beat.
Torr nods toward Fawkes and then to Binns. "I accept the offer. What are the details? Where do we go? What do we do exactly?" Torr asks directly. "Whatever this is, we get in, get the information the man needs and get out. Sounds too easy for 160 gp, but that's not our problem.... or is it?
Torr looks from Fawkes to Binns and waits for the landlord's answer to Fawkes quite reasonable questions... Once answer is given, regardless of the response, he will bring up the contents of the shop again. "It stands to reason that if we make good on the rent by doing this 'favor', there is no reason to confiscate the contents of the shop. If we agree to your offer of a favor in exchange for our services, I would ask you to leave the contents of the shop for my use, as they will no longer be necessary to offset your losses. "
"I can try to run the shop and pay you what Pedrach owes, but not if you dismantle and take it all. Either you can take a one time partial payment by selling it all off at a reduced value, or you can leave it and let me pay you back the full amount over a little time. Though in truth I don't think I'm legally obligated, there is a morality issue here and I'd like to pay Pedrach's debt. However without a source of income, I have no way to pay you." He looks at the contents that are left and shakes his head slowly. "So what would you have, Binns... partial satisfaction now, or full satisfaction in time? I can't do both." I wish I had Fawkes' gift for words, I'm sure he could have stated this better...
Torr sighs, unable to even to thank the young lady before she disappears, then shows Fawkes the note while he orders a couple of drinks. "We deserve these... " and he hands one of the ales to Fawkes, while the bard reads the note. "I wish we'd seen this before we ran into Binns. Might have changed the nature of our dealings with him. I don't know what you were doing back there, but you did manage to distract him and his men long enough for me to slip away. Thanks for that. I wasn't ready for a confrontation with him. I guess now I am, and we'll have to be there in the morning to prevent him from taking everything. I can't run a shop with no shop to run." Torr scowls slightly, tightening the scars on his face into a particularly gruesome display. 'Course I don't know that I'm that much better of a businessman than Pedrach was. I don't know anything about running a shop by myself. And I don't know what he means about me outstripping his knowledge soon.. I still have so much to learn." Then he laughs bitterly, "Not to mention, he took some of the most expensive and hard-to-replace items. I will have my work cut out for me, eh, young Fawkes? Well, drink up, my new friend, tomorrow is another day, as they say. At least, now, you get your own room, until we end up needing to sublet again. And, while I don't have a lot to move, it would be silly to move my things, so you get Pedrach's room, which is the larger and nicer of the two." He stashes the note in a belt pouch, as proof to show Binn's in the morning.
Torr, around the corner in an alley scowls at the amount of rent Binns is charging. it seems exorbitant for such shabby lodgings, but the shop is probably worth that much easily. I could make enough to pay the rent just selling a few alchemist fires or tanglefoot bags a month, not to mention more smaller items like tindertwigs and the like. Could I do this alone, and still have a life? Get some sleep now and again? Maybe. But wait, no.. they are going to take everything? How can I run the shop with nothing there? Oh WHY did you disappear, Pedrach? When the conversation with Binns is over, he doesn't come back out of the alley... when he sees Fawkes walk by, he takes a wild guess that the bard will head toward their previous planned destination. Torr heads hurriedly back to the tavern by another route.
Torr blinks stupidly for a moment at Fawkes and Binns and slowly it dawns on him that no one is paying attention to him, and that Fawkes seems to be doing this intentionally. He takes a couple of steps back away from the encounter and especially away from Binn's hired muscle. I don't really want to fight and perhaps kill a couple of blokes who are just hired thugs. Nor do I want to get my kneecaps busted because I didn't pay Pedrach's debt. But as long as they don't seem to be paying any attention to me, I'll slip back here in the shadows and hopefully Fawkes can smooth this over with Binns. If he can't, I won't be TOO far away. He slips into the shadows and waits for Fawkes and Binns to conclude their business. If it looks like he's noticed, he doesn't go far. If it seems they don't notice him at all, he slips away and around a corner, listening to the conversation in case it goes sour for Fawkes, he can return quickly.
Torr keeps his mouth shut and lets Fawkes talk, since he obviously has a silver tongue and the wit to use it well. He tries to appear abashed by being labeled unable to pay and unscrupulous. unscrupulous? heh... he knows as well as I that I'm as much a victim as he is... I wonder though, do I know enough to run the shop myself? I maybe can't make more advanced alchemical concoctions, but I'm fully capable of making simple items for sale. Pedrach certainly left enough for me to set up shop myself, and he certainly could have taken more if he'd wanted to... I wonder if he did that intentionally. Ah, I will need to think more on this - maybe talk to Fawkes about it. I wonder what the rent actually IS on the shop and apartment. After being lost in thought for a moment, he turns his attention back to Fawkes and Binns.
"No rest then, aye, heading back to the tavern sounds like a good place to start... but I should lock up before we go." Torr goes back inside and gives the place a final quick once-over to see if Pedrach left a note or any indication as to what happened.
haha!!! Whiskey in the Jar is one of my favorite folk songs!!!
Torr walks downstairs a bit deflated in attitude. He looks at Fawkes with a helpless shrug. "I'm afraid he might be right... some of Pedrach's personal things and clothes are gone. Along with the more valuable equipment and reagents. He was so casual in the tavern, like nothing was wrong... it's not like him... Something might have happened, but I can't imagine what. Then again, how do I know what's 'like him'. It's not like I've known him THAT long. I don't know about you, Fawkes, but I doubt I can come up with four weeks rent on a shop, not even if we sold everything in the shop to cover it, and we'd still be in a bad way - I can't run the shop by myself, I haven't the skills yet, so I couldn't afford it." He looks over at the landlord and pulls Fawkes aside away from Binns and whispers to him. Subtlety is not his forte, but he tries. "I don't know about you, but I think we need to find new lodgings. Perhaps the landlord will allow us to stay one more night so we only need to worry about tomorrow... think you can charm him into allowing us to stay a bit to settle our affairs? I don't have a lot but I'd like to pack up what little I own, and ... he lowers his voice a bit more, "maybe a few minor salable objects that we can use to get a stake on a new place." He sighs and considers the worst alternative, which would be to return home, tail between his legs and become an unwelcome presence there. Many far less onerous opportunities were out there in the world. Something would turn up, he was sure of it, especially with a magical bard at his side. Though in truth, he wasn't sure if Fawkes would want to stay with a thrice cursed barbarian wannabe alchemist. "Besides that, there might be more to this than meets the eye. I'd like to find Pedrach... perhaps something more sinister than him simply 'running out on the rent' has occurred. He could even be in some kind of trouble. Still the matter of our lodgings has come up, and is the more pressing." He nods towards Binns and lofts a brow at Fawkes as if to encourage him to deal with the landlord.
With some doubt in his voice, as if even he isn't sure of what he's saying, one way or the other, "Maybe he was robbed? There's definitely stuff missing, valuable equipment and ingredients." Even while speaking he starts heading for the stairs to check the living area, to see if Pedrach actually moved out of there. Under his breath he whispers, "Fool old man as likely left the door unlocked as moved out... but if he left me here owing back rent, I'll find him, I swear I will."
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