Tempers rose and cooled, but the evening's prey, the crimeboss Gaedren Lamm, is still not found. Nor is his escaped ally, the bathrobe-wearing Yargin. Once the children are safely accounted for, the group reconnoiters, determining that Yargin must be through the door at the top of the wooden catwalk, as he didn't pass the observant Lambs down below.
Heading back up that way, they prepare to enter. No traps are found on the wooden door which appears badly in need of a paint job. Listening intently at the door, Devan well-trained ears hear something from within, but none of the rest of you can pick it up.
Devan holds his hand up to hush the rest of the group, eyes squinting in concentration. After a few seconds, the young bard gets a satisfied look, pulling away from the door slightly. He whispers to the others, "Our friend Yargin, I believe, is beyond that door, trying to get his 'boss' to open a portal of some sort. Let's go reacquaint ourselves." The Varisian smiled grimly, getting ready to enter the room and eliminate another of Lamm's toadies.
Mirela braces her feet and gets ready to shoot through the door once it is opened.
When Nargun tries the door, it is apparently locked from the inside.
Atticus bends down and takes his lockpicks. "Maybe one of our clerics can grant me a bit of blessing?"
"Lady Desna, grant me a bit of luck!
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Twilight raises her hand slightly and takes a little breath as if ready to do something then pauses and raises an eyebrow as Atticus calls upon Desna for assistance. She then gently exhales and lowers her hand with a very slight shrug and patiently watches Atticus continue.
Mirela holds her hand over Atticus' head.
Bless this endeavor that the evil men do pay for their crimes.
Devan leaned down as the Professor fiddled about with his lockpicks. The bard was rather amused to see the bookish man going at the lock like some common burglar, even with their quarry on the other side of the door. After Mirela touches Atticus, presumably to instill some divine favor upon him, the young man bends down to get a closer look at what Atticus is doing. He had never done lock-picking himself...he had preferred the tried and true method of knocking out a window with a rock or brick. But he had seen others do it, and offered the little insight he had.
"Professor, do you think that pick is right...maybe that one with the kinks right there. Possibly rattle it one more time? I'll hold that one in place so you can get the rest of the tumblers..."
In cases where the skill restricts who can achieve certain results, such as trying to open a lock using Disable Device, you can't aid another to grant a bonus to a task that your character couldn't achieve alone.
Atticus tries his new found lockpicks on the office door, and even is granted a small blessing by Mirela, after Twilight demurs. The professor's inexperience shows however, and despite the divine assistance, he just can't get the lock to trip. From inside, you hear the sounds of something moving. "What, who's there! Stay out, I tel you! Stay away!" the voice rises in pitch and volume, until it's almost a scream.
As the Professor indicates his inability to have success with this particular lock, the bard scowled with impatience. He looked at Nargun, then pointedly to the dwarf's axe. Judging by the hysteria of the man's voice inside, he'd be shrieking like a woman by the time the fierce barbarian blasted the door apart. Devan stepped aside to give Nargun plenty of room to work.
Atticus moves away and waves his hand toward the door, indicating that he is aware that it is time for brute force.
"Nargun, I am afraid now it is time for your key!"
Twilight holds up a hand gesturing to Nargun to wait just one more moment as she speaks through the door.
"Yargin is it? There is a dwarf out here that is going to come through that door and there is nothing you can do to stop him. I told you before, we are here for Lamm. I don't really care who you are other then the fact that you are in my way. Why don't you do yourself a favour and let us in. Making it easier on all of us might calm the dwarf a little."
There is the briefest moment of silence as the man stops screeching and you can almost visualize him contemplating Twilight's honeyed words.
"The dwarf will spare me? You'll let me go? Swear it! Swear on your faith!" he cries again with the whinny voice. "I can't betray him without your vow! He'll skin me alive or worse!" The voice seems to be coming from right beside the door now.
"I vow by Calistria's unquenchable passions that the dwarf will not lay a hand on you and my companions will let you pass freely"
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The musician motioned Aleira to follow him, holding a finger up to his lips, then proceeded to go to the door directly opposite the entrance they had fought in, testing the knob on the off chance it was open.
Aleira, who has remained silently watching the rest of the group as they've been making their way through the dilapidated building stands a short distance back from the others as they negotiate through the door with Yargin, Cat nestled in the crook of her arm and an angry, determined look on her face.
Again, the man behind the locked door is silent for a moment. You can almost see his hand on the doorknob, ready to open. But then you hear his footsteps receding from the door. "Lamm will kill me if I let you in. I don't trust you. I'll take my chances with him."
Devan (and Aleira if she chooses to accompany) depart, heading for what the bard thinks might be an alternative entrance to this room. As they leave the footsteps in the locked room are heard once again followed by a bang from a door closing.
When Devan and Aleira (?) get to the other door, they also hear the door closing with a bang. The door off the front room is old and stained. It is closed at present.
Hearing another door that isn't this door bang, Devan quickly attempts the handle of the stained door. Yeah, it's likely that the man would have locked both of this was indeed another access point, but it never hurt to try.
If the portal proves to be locked, the bard shrugs, heading back yo the others to wait out Nargun's inevitable process of turning the offending door into kindling.
Devan and Aleira get to the door back in the front room only to hear a different door close. Almost hopeless, Devan nonchalantly tries the door, and is almost taken aback when it is not locked. The bard pushes the door open, but it bangs into something heavy only staying open about a foot or less, leaving a space that would have to be squeezed through. From the impact, something clatters to the floor inside.
From behind the crack, and with some magical illumination provided by the witch, Devan can see the door has banged into a wooden desk which sits in the corner of the room, its side preventing the door from opening fully. The desk is heaped with dozens of slate boards covered with chalk scrawls, a few now fallen to the floor with the impact of the door.. A tall wooden cabinet slouches against the east wall. No signs of current inhabitants are present.
Mirela says softly:
Open it Nargun.
Nargun gives the door a scratch
Devan hissed in annoyance as he tried to squeeze his thin frame through the door, only managing a leg and arm. Try as he might, he couldn't get his center mass through. He finally shrugs to Aleira, ready to join the others when he hears the loud thwack of Nargun's axe hitting the other door. He quickly rushes back to the others, longsword in hand. "There was another entryway, but it was blocked by a desk or something. I believe our quarry slipped out through another exit." Then the bard stands, anxious for Nargun to blast the door apart and the chase to commence again.
Twilight starts getting visibly impatient as the door continues to bar the way. She begins to fidget with her holy symbol and shift her weight from foot to foot.
"The exterior doors are nailed shut, right? He shouldn't be able to get very far, but lets not get distracted. Yargin was trying to get Lamm to open up and let him in, so it sounds like our way to Lamm is through another locked door inside this room."
The Professir and I done jammed our three doors.
Devan shook his head, embarrassed as he shares a brief glance with Aleira. "The walkway was about to collapse under our weight, so we did not secure the door."
Nargun gives the door a scratch
After several hacks of his axe, Nargun is eventually able to batter the door to bits, allowing egress by the rest of the group. You can a wooden desk which sits in the corner of the room, its side preventing the other door from opening fully. The desk is heaped with dozens of slate boards covered with chalk scrawls, a few now fallen to the floor. A tall wooden cabinet slouches against the east wall. No signs of current inhabitants are present.
There is an exterior door on the south wall.
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Aleira frowns. "Its probably too late to catch him," she says, bitterly "but Lamm's the one I want! We can deal with the other one if we see him again. He'd do well to stay out of our way."
Maybe 'e went out the front and around the side?
Mirela heads out and peaks out the open front doors to see if she can get a glimpse of Yargin.
Mirela does not see Yargin out the front doors. Nor any sign of his passage.
She does see something odd out the door that looks back over Midland and along The Heights. There seem to be several fires burning across the city. Not small campfires, but large easily visible fires illuminating the night sky. The fires are not close or dangerous to the Fishery, but still, that seems odd.
Odd, fire is always bad in the city. I wonder what is 'appening?
Mirela returns to the group.
No sign of 'im out front. Either 'e run or 'e went back by the ship.
Twilght casts about the room, the tablets and stuff can wait for later. Right now there is a more pressing concern to attend to.
"Where is this door he was trying to get Lamm to open up?"
Twilight looks around the room for a secret or hidden door.
Devan joins the Calistrian in the room, helping to search for another point of egress besides the obvious outside door. He cares little for the blonde-haired bathrobe connoisseur, his focus on finding Lamm.
Atticus join in, rapier at the ready and looks around.
Always tense, Nargun looks around, seeking his prey, his axe still thirsty for Lamm"s blood
None of the group see anything in the room outside of what has already been described.
"He must have taken the outside door. Do you think he's gone to the ship? Or just ran off?" Devan does not like the idea of going back on the shaky planks that provided access to the shabby dock area behind the fishery. Regardless, he opens the door to the outside, looking and listening for sounds from Yargin. The walkway hadn't been in the least sturdy, so the bard figured it would announce Lamm's henchman like a trumpet call to arms.
Even in the dark, Devan's keen eyes are able to spot a fresh set of footprints on the damp and moldy boards headed out to what remains of the ship moored to the end of the dock.
There is also a bloody hand-print on the wall outside the Fishery, where whoever fled must have leaned against the wall to get their balance back.
The walkway outside is very rickety and decrepit, more so than the rest of the building. It is also very wet and covered with greenish mold that looks quite slippery.
Twilight gets frustrated as she searches around the room and finds no door leading to Lamm.
"What was he trying to get Lamm to open if there is no door in this room?"
Seeing Devan looking out the exterior door Twilight joins him and looks outside.
"That walkway doesn't look like its been used in ages, you don't really think they went down and met with Lamm or dragged kids down to Lamm across these rotted boards, do you? There must be an easier way to get to him, but this does look like the way Yargin went. You suppose Lamm is holed up in the half sunk ship out back?"
Devan glances at the Calistrian, offering a shrug. "It could be. Often times the greatest thieves will hide their treasures in the most unlikely of places. We must be careful, though...the whole thing felt like it would fall apart under mine and Aleira's weight. Perhaps it will fare better with just one traveler?"
Aleira eyes the walkway warily. "That looks even worse than the one at the front - and it was about to collapse under the weight of just me and Devan. I guess he could be in the other room we haven't checked yet - but the boat seems more likely, at least if there's a way to get there. I can't see Lamm using those boards very often."
Not to distract you, but:
Mirela keeps watch inside listening to the others discuss the path of the escaped man.
There was a door we locked at the back of the building and down some stairs over on the other side.
Devan focused on the task at hand, shaking his head at Mirela's comment, "I believe Aleira is correct...the boat seems to be where our quarry headed. Perhaps if we go one at a time? The walkway held up under this Yargin's weight..." The musician paced back and forth before the door. If no one offers to go first, Devan will ask Aleira to cast a magical light upon his longsword, then proceed himself.
Atticus will prepare to go next.
Wow! did you hear that? Seems something is exploding in the city.. What the heck is happening? Let's find our prey first, we'll bother about that later. At least no one will check on Lamm's screams of agony.
Nargun refocuses on his vengeance
Aleira smiles gingerly at Devan's request, nods and casts light on his sword before preparing to follow the others.
Wait, Really? I saw some big fires our the front door. Something big must be 'appening in the city.
But let's get our prey. I'll go second I guess, to cover the musician.
As soon as Devan is 15 feet ahead of her,Mirela steps out and heads down the dock, arrow knocked so she can shoot anything that attacks the bard.
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Twilight looks up momentarily and scans the city skyline for a few moments before turning back to the task at hand, her features hardened with resolve.
"Let the Korvosan guard sort it out. They need something to do when they aren't ignoring murderers and letting the likes of Lamm do as they please." she says, not even trying to mask the bitterness of her words.
Even as she speaks a quick prayer and calls upon aid to help Devan across the treacherous looking walkway she has a nagging thought.
"Oh Calistria how you test me. Whatever is going on it is the common people that are going to get caught in the middle of it and suffer the most. I want to help, but I've been given so much for this moment and already compromised once on its outcome. I can't make any more concessions. I have dedicated myself to this path now and it must be my first priority, to do anything else would be an affront to The Lady and an unforgivable failure on my part."
The wooden walkway is as slippery and decrepit as it appears. Moving carefully and slowly, and keeping distance between each other, Devan is able to make it out to what remains of the ship. It is obvious, however, that if you had to hurry along this walkway, or fight a combat here, it would be quite dangerous to risk falling off. Additionally, as any of you get too close together (within 5') the boards groan and creak ominously. Once they even slip from mooring along the old fishery, but stay intact by some miracle.
Devan, using his longsword to light the way, can read the barely legible ship's name still stenciled on the side -- Kraken's Folly. The rotten deck of the ancient sailing-ship seems to be barely intact; its hull is worn and thick with seaweed and barnacles. The ship is held to together primarily by the layers of old rope that lash it securely to the pilings that support the fishery and the nearby boardwalk. The rickety walkway leads along the ship's starboard, a foot below its railing. A single wooden door leading into the aft cabin bears a crude painting of a red fish on its surface.
Once her attention is drawn to the sounds of the explosions Aleira stands looking back at the city, her lips used and her expression worried. "I don't like this" she says to the others "the city feels,... unsettled."
The young woman remains watching the city as the others begin making their way towards the boat, before she too ventures onto the rickety walkway.