Arius is taken aback by his brother's sudden rush into the room.
Initiative
1d20+1=6
You push through some furnature pressed against the door (as there is no lock) and into the one-room flat which combines all the amenities of a bedroom, a kitchen, and a painter’s studio into one fifteen-foot-square space, leaving little room for much else. A stack of cheese and bread sits on the counter next to several full waterskins, while the easel in the opposite corner holds a half-completed painting of an imp and a pseudodragon fighting atop a church steeple. A single window looks out over the tangled rooftops of the Shingles, while just under it, a woman sleeps in a curled-up position on a low bed.
anyone who doesn't see this by the time I get home in 3 hours from this post time, I'll do the below for them, otherwise you can do it for yourselves: a perception check - beat an eight and you hear
Perception
1d20+4=16
With a glance to confirm that the woman on the bed isn't Trinia, Branahm rushes to the window. His suspicions are confirmed.
"Stop! We're not here to hurt you!"
Branahm starts to clamber out after the fleeing woman.
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Elizabeth follows Branahm into the room, drawing Caress as she does so and looking around the room, alert for danger.
Perception Check. (1d20+7=16)
She hears a noise and her eyes dart towards the window. Swearing softly to herself as Branahm calls out, she begins to speak Arcane Syllables in a quick racing fashion.
She then races out the window after their target, Caress resting comfotably in her hand.
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Elizabeth follows Branahm into the room, drawing Caress as she does so and looking around the room, alert for danger.
Perception Check. (1d20+7=16)
She hears a noise and her eyes dart towards the window. Swearing softly to herself as Branahm calls out, she begins to speak Arcane Syllables in a quick racing fashion.She then races out the window after their target, Caress resting comfotably in her hand.
In the down time we had
Initiative Roll
1d20+4 -> [5,4] = (9)
Perception Check
1d20+8 -> [20,8] = (28)
Anju notices that the woman isn't Trinia and hears the grunt from outside the window. The others react before she does and Anju is left trying to keep up with Liz as she bolts off.
Keth comes up the staris slower than the rest as he is taking in all the sights and sounds of the slums. He nods at Brahnm's assessment and once the door is open his keen hearing takes in the sound of the woman jumping down to the roof below and he shouts "We aren't here to hurt you. but to help you." and runs for the window.
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Elizabeth races over the rooftops like a blur, trying her best to chase down Trinia.
Acrobatics Check. (1d20+4=9)
Perception Check. (1d20+7=12)
She slips on a loose shingle and loses her footing, tumbling over the edge and having to waste tiem regaining her palce in the chase on the roof.
Acrobatics Check to regain the Roof. (1d20+4=6)
After climbing out of the window, Branahm sees Trinia already two rooftops away. He lumbers after her, outpaced by the fleet Liz until she slips.
Grasping his holy symbol as he runs, he chants a prayer to Torag and gestures toward his quarry.
The hold person works, Trina freezes just before jumping to the next rooftop, and is too worked up to build up the resolve to break the spell's hold. You get there and grab her just before the spell wears off.
As soon as Trina can move again she breaks down in tears I'm *sob*
being set up *sniffle*I*sob* didn’t kill the king *sob* don’t want to *sob* die. Ple-Please ddon't give me to the qqqueeeennnn *Sob, wail*
"Just tell us what happened, and we'll try to help you if we can."
Branahm tries to get a feel for whether Trinia's telling the truth.
Sense Motive 1d20+10=22
"Just tell us what happened, and we'll try to help you if we can."
She Sober's up a little at hearing this I don't know whats happening, all I did was paint the king's portrait, just as the Chamberlain paid me to... All I Did was paint the portrait, I Swear!
"I believe you, Trinia. Do you remember anything unusual during your sittings with the King? Something that someone might try to silence you for seeing?"
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"I believe you, Trinia. Do you remember anything unusual during your sittings with the King? Something that someone might try to silence you for seeing?"
After gracefully catching up with the rest of the group Anju sees Branahm questioning Trinia. She looks at the girl curiously "Have you ever painted portraits of other important figures before the King?"
" Do you remember anything unusual during your sittings with the King? Something that someone might try to silence you for seeing?"
No, the king sat with me for hours on end. He was already showing signs of sickness when I first met him. I didn't notice anything extra-ordinary happening.
"Have you ever painted portraits of other important figures before the King?"
I hoped to make my name with this piece. To be truthful, I'm not even sure why the chamberlin picked me to do the king's portrait, although he did ask me to entertain the king with stories and/or songs while painting him, so maybe they wre looking for someone with more than one art skill..
At this time, you hear a rattling from the your left and turn as Rags lands on the roof next to you The crowd has found this place, it's not safe anymore He tells you. Trina turns to you with pleading eyes and asks
Please, hide me, if the mob finds me they'll kill me on the spot.
"Thanks, Rags."
Arius fumbles around in his pack for a moment and pulls out a scroll, which he shoves into a belt pouch.
"If we need to, I can create a mist to conceal our passage, or I can make one or two of us invisible."
"Trinia, stay with us, and we'll try to protect you.
"With all the mobs, we should stay out of the streets. The rooftops? We can meet at Kroft's if we get separated."
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Elizabeth finally makes her way over after having to climb back onto the roof.
She doesn't look happy about falling off, but when she sees how scared the girl is, she softens up a bit.
"Very well girl. We'll take you someplace safe and hide you. Then we can get to the bottom of this mess with the help of an aquaintance of ours who is very interested in speaking with you. She wants to help clear your name." She doesn't mention Kroft's name in case it sets the girl off.
Liz looks around and begins to undo the corset from over her body suit.
She pulls a black mask out of her pouch, the matching piece to her suit and hands both the corset and mask to Trinia. "I expect them back in the condition they are in now We need to try and disguise you though."
Keth had made his way fast yet careful across the rooftops. Had listened to the artists sobs and request for help...his mind trying to figure out why she was targetted but in the end he just couldnt figure it out and with a growl he had lead the way across the rooftops after receiving the alarm from Rags.
"Take her back to the witch's house?"
"If we can find a clear path."
"What about Kr... er, our employer?"
"Let's get to the house. It will buy us--and Trinia--some time."
"Let's get to the house. It will buy us--and Trinia--some time."
You get back to the house easily enough.. not sure what you guys want to do.
"Trinia, we can rest here for a minute. Let's finish disguising you so that we don't have to worry about the mob. As much."
While Alika helps Trinia change her clothing, Branahm says to his companions, "We don't have much time, as I suspect that the Queen has magicians out hunting for her chosen scapegoat. What should be our next step?"
"Are you joking? We need to take her to the Field Marshal. We promised her that we would bring Trinia back safely, and we need to give the magistrates a chance to investigate the truth of her claims."
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Elizabeth takes back her corset and mask from Trinia and makes sure that they are still in good condition. Content, she gets changed back into her dress and replaces the corset in it's rightful place with the revealing blue piece.
She settles Caress into it's home at her hip and is ready to go.
Making sure that Trinia is out of earshot she says, "we should be off as soon as possible. I don't want to keep the Marshall's payment waiting any longer thn is necessary."
Almost as an afterthought she adds, "plus the girl needs to clear her name so she doesn't end up at the end of a hangman's noose for a crime she didn't commit. Noone deserves to be accused of something they didn't do." She says the last bit with an angry tone.
You get to the garrison un-hassled, and are let into the compound on sight. You notice that the guards seem to be particularly uneasy and agitated as you make you way to Field Marshal Kroft's office.
if asked a guard will tell you:
A tall, rail-thin Shoanti man of 60 winters is in Kroft's office when you approach. He leans heavily on a walking stick, the polished femur of some giant beast crowned with a firepelt cougar’s skull. He wears a
shirt decorated with countless jangling animal bones, many painstakingly scrawled with dozens of tiny symbols and glyphs. A bearskin cloak is draped about his bony shoulders, and warpaint in the shape of a skull decorates his face. The Shoanti’s eyes are milky as if he were blind, though he sees better than most men half his age. He is never without his familiar, a regal red-feathered razor crow named Eats-Eyes. He regards you impassively while Cressida introduces him as Thousand Bones, a Way-Keeper for the Skoan-Quah, the Clan of the Skull. Cressida bids the you to sit, tells you about the situation with the mob violence and the dead Shoanti(see spoiler below), then turns the floor over to Thousand Bones. The old shaman speaks with a deep voice, his words carefully chosen but delivered with a barely restrained anger.
"My people have worked hard to understand yours, yet it seems each day we see new examples of how your people work just as hard to foster old hatreds. My grandson is dead, beaten to death by cowards in your city street. I do not blame you, yet still Gaekhen is dead, and my son and his kin are not so forgiving as I. They wish to return to the Skoan-Quah in the Cinderlands, to join with the Sklar-Quah and rally to war against Korvosa. This would be disastrous, for both our peoples. Amends must be made.
“Our ways are not as yours. If a body does not go whole to the fires of the gods, the smoke of a warrior’s spirit cannot rise to the Great Sky. If I could send Gaekhen’s body to the Great Sky with honor and dignity, his father and brothers would listen to me and stay their wrath—the talks of peace between my people and yours can continue. But he was not just murdered.His body was taken from the scene of his death, sold by a
peddler of corpses to a necromancer named Rolth, a criminal to both our people. I have spoken with the spirits, and they have revealed to me that Gaekhen’s body has been taken to a place below your boneyard, a place the spirits call the Dead Warrens.
“With this knowledge, I could surely lead a group of my finest warriors into your boneyard to retrieve Gaekhen’s body, but this would be seen as an act of aggression by your people. No, it falls to you to make amends for what has been done. You must bring me Gaekhen’s body, lest we be forced to recover him ourselves. And although it pains my heart to say it—we will not be gentle if it comes to this.”
Thousand Bones then rises, nods curtly to Cressida, and leaves the room to return to his people to await the delivery of his grandson’s body. Field Marshal Kroft apologizes for the man’s behavior, but to a great extent she agrees with his assessment. Someone tied to Korvosa needs to find the dead Shoanti’s body and return it to his people as a gesture of good will, or things will quickly go from bad to worse. Normally, Kroft would contact the Church of Pharasma to organize an expedition into one of the warrens under the city graveyard, but you have proven capable, and thus were Kroft’s first nomination for the problem. If you can help her, there’s also another 1,000 gp reward in it for you. Cressida would like the PCs to begin immediately, but she can certainly answer a few questions.
Thousand Bones’s mission is anything but easy. A large number of Korvosa’s citizens are prejudiced against the Shoanti and see them as little more than violent barbarians. Curbing and moderating the violence between these racists and the quick-to-anger Shoanti who dwell
in and near Korvosa is a constant battle for the ancient shaman. Thousand Bones’s patience reaches its limit when one of his grandsons, a young warrior named Gaekhen, is murdered by a mob that uses the unrest in Korvosa as a feeble excuse for misplaced vigilantism
"I would be happy to help in averting a war with the Shoanti."
"Who is Rolth?Kroft searches for the right words momentarily He’s long been a thorn in my side. A failed Academae student, Rolth’s a monster of a man whowas expelled after the true nature of his experiments were revealed. He was butchering vagrants, stray animals, and anything else he could get his hands on to try to build some sort of golem from their collected parts. The Academae didn’t press charges because it didn’t want to cause a scene—it just quietly expelled him and the man’s been trouble ever since. We suspect he’s responsible for nearly a dozen slayings, each involving mutilation to the body, but to date we haven’t been able to find him or locate his lair. He might or might not be in the Dead Warrens, but anything you can find there that could lead to his arrest would be greatly appreciated..... Before you ask, Korvosa’s Gray District is riddled with underground chambers,some of these warrens are patrolled and kept clear of monsters by the church of Pharasma, yet the Gray District is a large place and the tunnels below are vast and tangled. The Pharasmen focus on containing the problems with undead and necromancers, but as soon as they wipe out one, it seems as if two are ready to spring up in its place. The problem’s particularly vexing in Potter’s Ward, where the bodies of the poor and homeless are buried. According to Thousand Bones, the Dead Warrens were one of his people’s burial vaults, chambers that lie under Potter’s ward.We have the man who sold Gaekhen’s body to Rolth in custody: a simpleton named Elkaris. He spilled everything when we told him what was going on and how much trouble he was in—in any event, Elkaris says he delivered the body via wheelbarrow to a partially collapsed mausoleum deep in Potter’s Ward, near the southern edge. A toppled and headless statue of a sword-wielding gargoyle lay in the dirt near the mausoleum’s entrance—he was told to leave the body behind the gargoyle. This location matches where Thousand Bones believes the Shoanti burial grounds called the Dead Warrens used to be located, so that’s the best place to start the search. In responce to the cleric's question about the serving girl One of the scribes is bringing the notes on her crimes here for me to review as we speak, I'm told that they took some time to find. I should know more in a day or two.
"Thank you, Field Marshal."
"We may want to pick up some tools for dealing with the undead before we go, such as holy water."
Keth tells the Field Marshal he will assist in stopping a war between the Shoanti and Korvosa, but that Marshal Kroft should try and make sure Trina has a chance to prove her innocence, and not be tried under an asumption that she is guilty....for if that should happen, Keth may just let Korvosa burn...
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Anju looked upon the old man "Thousand Bones" and thought of how similar he was to some of the elders in her village. She studied the clothes he wore and the symbols engraved on them in an attempt to find out more about his culture and customs in hopes that it could help her and the group while they apparently travel through ancient burial grounds.
Knowledge Nature
1d20+6 -> [5+6] = (11)
Knowledge Religion
1d20+3 -> [20+3] = (23)
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Elizabeth looks a little bored while Thousand Bones is talking, but perks up at the mention of a reward.
"Well I personally don't see why they need the body, but I can definately see their need for vengeance. That reward money sounds like it might hit the spot nicely Marshal. Looks like I'll be sticking aroundthis lot a little longer yet."
She turns and give the rest of the party a mischievous wink.
I'm going away for the weekend, feel free to roleplay anything you want to while preparing to go after the body
"Who is Rolth? ... A failed Academae student, Rolth’s a monster of a man who was expelled after the true nature of his experiments were revealed. ... The Academae didn’t press charges because it didn’t want to cause a scene—it just quietly expelled him and the man’s been trouble ever since. ...
Arius says softly, "Expulsion instead of tenure? The Academae must have made an exception from its usual practice."
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Arius says softly, "Expulsion instead of tenure? The Academae must have made an exception from its usual practice."
Elizabeth snorts at this as she thinks of her father, holed up in the stuffy Academae.
So should we head off straight away, or get some sleep and move out in the morning?" She looks around the group for a consensus.
EDIT:
"Hmmm I think it wise to get what tools we will need to deal with the walking dead before going, that and Id prefer going in after them in the morning when the sun is shining."
"Sounds prudent to me, as long as the Field Marshal doesn't think that a Shoanti riot is imminent. I'll get some holy water at Torag's Forge and talk to the more experienced priests about common lesser undead."
Korvosa’s vast graveyard, a place known as the Gray District, is a mournful place even by day. No sign of Gaekhen’s body remains in the area.
DC 15:
under 15:
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Korvosa’s vast graveyard, a place known as the Gray District, is a mournful place even by day. No sign of Gaekhen’s body remains in the area. ** spoiler omitted **
DC 15:** spoiler omitted **
under 15:** spoiler omitted **
Knowledge (Nature)
1d20+6 -> [3+6] = (9)Anju looks down at the tracks on the ground. "By the gods! This graveyard was invaded by a miniature hippo!"
"Tracks?"
Arius looks distracted for a moment...
"He's raiding menageries as well as graves, perhaps. Keth, can you confirm which creature made these?"
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Elizabeth returns from her shopping trip with a new set of tools. She proceeds to swap out her old set for the new one and wraps the old ones in a cloth before storing them in her backpack.
Waking up early the next morning, she to dresses in her body suit, strapping her tool kit to her thigh and making sure Caress is sitting snugly at her hip. She packs her backpack with only the things important for the mission and slides her spare Kukri into a sheathe at her back. Lastly, she hangs her mask from her belt and slides her wand into a slot on her tool kit.
Following the others to the Cemetary, she wastes no time in finding the entrance they are looking for, not overly concerned by the others and their talk of footprints.
Before they descend into the caverns, she will pull out her mask and slip it over her head, hiding her distinctive golden hair and leaving nothing but her eyes. You all get the impression that once in the shadows, her black suited form will be hard to discern.
This large room is supported by four wide pillars of stone. The ceiling above arches in a dome nearly twenty feet high. The walls are lined with skeletons caked into the mud—human bones mostly, but here and there smaller bones might be from halfings, or perhaps children. Fifteen-foot-square pits sit to the east and west, each filled with a large heap of hundreds of bones. To the south, a crude hole has been gouged into the
wall, providing access to a tunnel.