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Tippi suffers a pang of regret as she thinks of Churtle, but if she goes back into the depths of the Lotus Dragons' lair now, she's likely never to get back out. She makes a dash for the door and the ladder beyond that leads back into the sewer.
"She said she wouldn't just let us leave and demanded we pay for killing her people," Felos explains. "That was an opening offer!" Tippi replies angrily. "We negotiate from there to a point where we do something for her and she looks the other way when we take out Vanthus! Now you've paid with their lives!" She looks over Felos's shoulder into the room where Jacinth and Festa are fallen among a crowd of enemies. "Run!" she advises the catfolk, taking her own advice by retreating down the hallway and around the corner the way they came in. DM:
"What were you thinking?" Tippi hisses in Felos's ear, as she moves up behind him and tries to angle around him to trip up the Lotus Dragon he's fighting.
"Felos! We were negotiating!" Tippi protests, horrified. Quickly totaling up the odds, with a hefty bonus for the dragon directly across the room from her, she does what she can for Festa, attempting to trip the nearest Lotus Dragon to his back, and then hurries back into the corridor.
"It's what you meant," Tippi whispers back with a smile.
"My feline colleague rightfully points out that if Vanthus is a threat on the horizon you're already making plans to deal with, we, who outwitted Vanthus, are surely four times the threat. Whom will you task with killing us, when we've outlived our usefulness?"
"What my colleague means to say is that, as nice as your headquarters are -- I think you were wise not to use those other tunnels, by the way; very damp -- I think it's a bit too small to hold both us and the man who tried to kill us. I really don't see how we could work alongside Vanthus. Where is he, by the way? The worg said you'd know."
"Little enough, madame," Tippi replies with a half-curtsey, "We wouldn't trouble you at all, save that we are trying to locate, as you say, Vanthus Vanderboren, and the information we could uncover led us here. May I ask if the present whereabouts of a former associate named Penkus might be of interest to you?"
"No, I don't think so," Tippi replies without moving. "With all your men between us and the exit, that's tantamount to being taken prisoner. If we're going to have to fight our way out if negotiations fail, I'd rather fight now without seven of you at my back. But it's up to you: If you're all ready to die now to make things more convenient for Mistress Kellani...." She shrugs politely and gives them a bright smile.
"Oh, excellent," Tippi replies with a smile. "We'd like to speak to her as well. Will one of you be going to fetch her then?" She doesn't make a move further into the room.
"Maybe you should ask her when we get back," Tippi suggests with a wink. "Just to be sure."
"Of course you are," she says soothingly to the catfolk. "One is rarely at one's most charming when one has just been drenched in boiling liquid. By the same token," she goes on, turning to Festa, "several of the Lotus Dragons might be delightful company in other circumstances when they're not trying to kill us. If they started trooping through the halls opening doors at random uninvited at Vanderboren Manor, we probably wouldn't be the most gracious of hosts either."
"Here, now," she flicks Festa lightly with the tip of her whip, "she offered to be my personal assistant. Let Lavinia hire her own staff; I'm not her procurer." She listens at the door, figuring that if anyone has entered the dining room, it will have stirred up any remaining birds again.
"I'm more worried about being caught between Rowyn and them," Tippi says grimly. "Knowing the nearest exit doesn't help much when you have to fight your way to it. But we don't seem to have many options." Considering her three weapons, she decides on keeping her whip in hand.
"There's a zombie. Forgot about that because it's new. Rowyn just got it a couple days ago." Xanthippe arches her brows at the others. "Anyone we know, I wonder?" "Do you need a new personal assistant? Rowyn will probably be angry at me now, so I'll need a new job. I'm an excellent cook and poison-maker, and I never get the two mixed up." She leans over a little, resting her hands on her knees so she doesn't tower so far over the kobold. "Churtle, I would be delighted. Our employer has a cook but not a single poison-maker! Stay out of trouble until we're ready to go, and you're welcome to walk out of here with us. Start out by feeding the worg so he doesn't get all hungry and agitated." She turns to the others with a sigh. "A spider and a drake. Why couldn't it have been a pseudodragon? Any thoughts on getting in to see Rowyn?"
"Right, well, answer a few more questions for us, and you can go feed the worg," Tippi assures her. "How many Lotus Dragons are there down here usually? And are there any other surprises other than the worg, the spider, and the drake? Oh, and what's your name?"
"I've already said we're not killing anyone who doesn't force us to defend ourselves," she reassures the kobold, "although you probably would have been safer if you hadn't drenched the cat. What does the worg eat? And where is its food kept? Do you have to go to Rowyn's office to get it?"
"Right, well, I haven't the slightest intention of killing a bunch of people merely because they're in the same organization as Vanthus Vanderboren, not when it's likely he's been as duplicitous to them as he has been to us. How might we get in to speak with Rowyn peacefully?" she asks the kobold. "Oh, and do you feed the worg? He says he's hungry."
"Here I thought the dragon was Brissa's," Tippi muses. "I'm getting names wrong all around. Do you know Brissa Santos?" she asks the kobold. "What about Penkus? Is that name familiar?"
"A spider ... and a dragon? Surely he doesn't just sit back there indefinitely. Doesn't he come out for meals and things?"
"Oh. And where might we find Rowyn?"
"Really you needn't," Tippi puts in over the catfolk's drenched and blistered shoulder. "We're not here to kill you or arrest you. We're just looking for Vanthus Vanderboren, is all. Is he here? Do you know where we might find him?"
Tippi takes a brief moment to examine the fur-covered face with its needle-sharp teeth and the dancing firelight reflecting eerily in its glowing eyes. "Undoubtedly," she replies before turning her key.
Tippi twists her key once more to open the hatch on the bird cage. "The more chaos, the better," she remarks, stepping into the kitchen. "Now, let's block the door with the table and try these doors."
"Retreat where?" Tippi asks. "They're between us and the door, near as I can tell. And we'll never get back in here again. The worg suggested we ask Rowyn where we can find Vanthus. Since it associated her with its meals, I'm assuming that's the kitchen help who sounded the alarm. Which way did she go, Festa?"
"Very well," Tippi replies. "Pardon the intrusion, and thanks for your help." With a half-curtsey, she closes the worg's door. Festa and Felos: Apparently, we should ask Rowyn where to find Vanthus. And we're to tell her the beast is hungry, so she's probably that poor cook Festa scared the daylights out of. How far are you? Is Jacinth with you? Meet back in the dining room?
"Rowyn," she repeats. "Excellent. Shall I close your door again?" she holds her key up obligingly. "Or were you just going out?"
"As am I," she murmurs.
"Yes," she replies vaguely, "there was some sort of ruckus going on back there in the dining room. Vanthus wasn't there, though. Do you know where I might find him?" She toys idly with the key in her hand. Festa & Felos:
Found a worg who knows Vanthus. Stay out of sight, but be ready to charge in like the Taldan Horse.
Taking a wild stab in the dark, she tries, "Penkus sent me for Vanthus Vanderboren."
Finding the room empty, Tippi retreats to the eastern corridor and takes a peek around the corner.
Tippi steps into the sleeping quarters. If she finds no enemies, she uses her cantrip to open the western door.
"Then go," Tippi tells them. "I'll watch the back and see if these guys were carrying anything useful. Stay together!"
"Quick! Check the bodies," Tippi urges. "Anything useful on them? There's a bedroom or something in there where they might keep their stuff, but there's at least one Lotus Dragon still on his feet that way." She keeps her brass key and her rapier at the ready, trying to watch the doors and the the newly-revealed corridor.
Tippi hangs her whip back at her belt, grabs her brass key, and gives it another twist, slamming the door in Lotus Dragon #3's face once again. "Mind your toes! Festa, go help them on the other end! Jacinth, this way!"
"Third time's the charm," Tippi murmurs to herself, recoiling her whip and flicking it past Festa to the Lotus Dragon in the room. "Or not," she sighs. Rapidly running out of options, she reaches around Festa and attempts to open the door next to him.
Recoiling her whip expertly, Tippi turns to the north and tries again, this time trying to trip the Lotus Dragon who just cut Jacinth. Seeing that the Sarenite has no room to bring his spear to bear, she quickly retreats to the corner to allow him to step back. "There's certainly a lot of them, aren't there?" she calls to Festa encouragingly.
Unwilling to put Festa at any more risk if there is danger behind the door, Tippi advances, drawing her whip, and tries to flick it between Felos and wall to catch the nearest Lotus Dragon's ankle. Unfortunately, she manages only to slap it against the stone wall.
Tippi tries the door behind her the old-fashioned way....
Festa & Felos: Festa? she whispers through her arcane conduit. We've got some more company down here.
Tippi moves to peek around the southeast corner; if she sees nothing unusual or alarming, she takes up a defensive stance.
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