Jack Falco - Ptolus - Entry #7 |
Navigation |
|
11/10/06 (Real world) 5th, 6th, and 7th day of Bloom (Ptolus) Perspective: Jack Falco (Mark Cronan) Dramatis Personae: .The next morning we met up to find the fence named Ammel Dar. Yerrick gave us a queer look the next morning, the kind that said he had to see a man about a horse. We didn’t ask any questions. Down a man, we sought out our long-missing romantic friend, Luscious. It’s not that Luscious is that hard to find – just ask the bartender, or the nearest beautiful lass. Unfortunately the later often results in a return-message conveyed in the universal language of jilted lovers - a slap to the face. A small price to pay for finding a friend, but I preferred the bartender. Sure enough, Luscious was easily located late afternoon sipping ale and talking up a fine serving wench doing her best to ignore his overtures while still coaxing a worthy tip from the lad. She had the experience over my friend and looked to be winning that game, so I rescued him in the nick of time. Can you believe he wasn’t even thankful for my valiant efforts? We suited up and headed out to the warehouse a couple of hours north of dusk; stitching up our mental map and strategy during the short walk over to that rundown establishment. Most of us took up hidden positions in the front, across the street. Luscious and Luford went around back and did the same. A two front attack seemed like the way to go – hoping that splitting up the party wasn’t making us easy pickings for anyone who detected our positions. Since it was still before dusk, and the warehouse remained active, Glüg decided to saunter on up and do a quick reconnaissance of the interior. Maybe people took Glüg’s intimidating size as a sure sign it was a fellow warehouse worker new on the job, or more likely that same size persuaded folks to leave the questions left unsaid. Whatever the case, Glüg was able to get a lay of the land and report back. “Boxes, platform in back, no food, no drink, no fight. Boring.” A succinct report, as usual. A half hour later, they closet up shop and left for the night. We made a count and tried to compare the number leaving to the number Glüg had counted inside, but given Glüg’s ability and desire to count that didn’t help much. The joint did seem pretty empty, however. We waited. The meeting was supposed to take place at dusk, and it we had to stick it out at least until then. Right around an hour before dusk, out of the corner of my eye, I managed to spot someone climbing along the roof of the warehouse. I signaled the others, but by the time I got their attention my target was out of sight. Maybe they were heading into the building, or maybe they were just watching it from above. Either way, it meant increased danger. About 10 minutes later, the front door creaked slightly open from the inside. In all likelihood that meant my climbing friend had slipped on inside to let his compatriots in, but I couldn’t be sure. I decided to keep an eye on the ceiling while inside, just in case of a counter-ambush. You can never be too careful when dealing with thieves. Two hours past dusk, and we hadn’t seen anything more. Glüg decided enough was enough, blew a whistle, and the raid was on! On first sight the interior was much like Glüg had described. Lots of stacked crates and boxes, with a small path around the stacks leading to the back of the building. In the back stood a platform with some office area likely for the foreman. I took a gander at the ceiling, but could neither see nor sense any danger from that front. Luford also decided to keep an eye on the roof and ceiling, just in case. Our foes were composed of two rough-looking gentlemen, and their nasty guard dog. Not the crowd I expected, but I preferred a more intimate meeting myself anyway. From the back Yarl moved in and sent a devastating blast of smoke and fire through a thug with a bow on the platform, and down he went just like that. The odds seemed with us on this one. While Riven began playing “eat my blast of fire” with the dog, Luscious decided the odds were so much in our favor that an early surrender and return to drinking and wenching was still possible. So hopeful was he that rather than strike at the exposed remaining attacker, he instead demanded a surrender and held him at sword point. Yarl meanwhile was trying to shake the dog biting at his leg while trying to get in a blast at the remaining humanoid foe, while Riven continued to try to feed the deadly yapper with blazing gouts of fire and brimstone. Unfortunately for Luscious and the rest of us, our foe seemed dead set against the idea of calling the whole thing off. Drawing his sword, he began a deft dance of chops and swings at the disappointed Luscious. Yarl decided to take a shot at him for this, but sadly the dog decided to take a taste of him right at that moment, and in the flurry of teeth and growls Yarl was dragged down to the ground, his shot going wide. Leave it to a dog to ruin it. I moved in with my trusty spear and tried to draw its attention away from Yarl’s leg. I missed, but seemed to get the buggers attention for a moment. It was around this time that Luford moved in and started zapping the foe with two legs with magical missiles. At least someone was hitting him! Riven continued to blast away, but that darn guard dog was tiny and fast, and he couldn’t seem to land a shot. Glüg decided to get into the fray, and got a bite to the leg and trip to the ground for its trouble. Luscious wasn’t fairing any better, having taken an ugly sword cut across the chest and falling back, perhaps in unconsciousness. I couldn’t let our vivacious friend go without an assist, and moved in to draw away the lad with the sword, flanking him with Luford. Glüg finally had enough with the snarling four-legged foe and really went off on the nasty creature. Bellowing something about seeing how it liked being bitten, Glüg thumped the little creature with a tremendous crash, sending it skidding across the floor unconscious. Two down, and one to go. Or so I thought. While Luford backed up and began firing his crossbow at our foe, I noticed just in time that our first humanoid attacked had just managed to get to his feet again. Bleeding and shaken, it seemed he wasn’t quite down for the fight like we thought he was. That was a short lived plan for him. I switched targets and ran him through with a spearhead. I felt some momentary sympathy for the guy – but the thought of all the people he had assassinated, and his attempted killing of myself and my friends, ended that line of thinking pretty darn quickly. Glüg tried to get back to the fight by plowing directly at our remaining attacker, but seemed to get caught on some barrels in the process and missed so badly that I had to look away for fear Glüg would think I was laughing. Ah well Glüg – try having a couple of ceilings fall on your head if you think that was bad. Yarl, ever vigilant for fallen friends, managed to get to Luscious’s side and pray to his deity for the gift of healing. His prayers were granted, and I saw Luscious’s eyes open, ready to get back into the fight. Luford, apparently thinking that we needed to take our foe alive, decided to trying and wrestle him to the ground. He got a sword swipe to the shoulder for his efforts, and it seemed our foe was simply too deadly to take down without further violence. Glüg did our parts. As I moved in and put a hole in his shoulder with my spear, Glüg swung with an axe and took our foes head right off. Can’t say we didn’t try to take him alive… Yarl was quick on the uptake, and leaped to the side of the foe I had dropped earlier. He was still alive, barely, and Yarl was able to bind his wounds and stabilize him before tying him up. At least we had someone to question. A quick check of the warehouse revealed no remaining threats. We closed the front door, and started the slow task of removing precious valuables from our fallen foes and searching the place. The fellow missing the head had a lot of nice equipment, likely masterwork in quality. This included some chainmail, a heavy steel shield, a longsword, and a composite longbow that looked rather similar to my own in pull strength. He also had some ordinary items such as 20 arrows, 21 gold pieces, 15 silver pieces, and 4 copper. Our captured foe was less well-equipped. He did have a nice looking set of studded leather armor, and a short sword to match it. Of the ordinary type he also had 20 arrows, a short bow, a set of thieves tools, a golden ring worth an estimated 50 gold pieces, and 19 pieces of silver. A quick check of the warehouse didn’t reveal anything of note. Some clay mugs, plates, bolts of cloth, and that sort of normal warehousing items. It seemed likely the place was legitimate, and our opponents had simply done a bit of breaking and entering to use it as a meeting spot. Our captive being unlikely to come around any time soon, we brought him along with our departed foe across the way to the temple of Lothian. They agreed to help us in the morning with the interrogation. Back to the Minstrel we went, Riven and the two dwarves watching the captive all night. He never came around from the deep sleep my spear had sent him to, which was all well and good as far as I was concerned. Brother Fabator was again available at the Temple the next morning. Bringing around our prisoner, however, didn’t make him any more talkative. No matter how many spells the dear brother cast against the pugnacious ruffian, he wouldn’t spill the beans. Nor did Phone recognize either of the two fallen thugs. Well, if the living won’t talk, how about the dead. We still had the head that Glüg had so aptly removed from it’s previous owner, and asked if the good Brother would mind summoning a soul for some interrogation. Fabator didn’t miss a beat. Lothian’s followers were not foreign to communication with the here-after, and it didn’t take long before the rituals and rites had been set up, and we finally had some answers. “Why did you hire someone to kill Phon?” we inquired at first. “We were paid to”, the head croaked. “Where can we find the one who paid you?” “Nar.” Nar? That rang a bell. Where was Nar? I left it to another time, and went on with the questioning. “Who is the one who paid you?” “Tor…an” the head groaned, gurgling a bit in the middle and muddling the name. That was it from the head. It went back with it’s former body, to join its still-living former comrade with the town guard that the Brother summoned. “Nar. Where is Nar?” I asked. “You mean the street?” asked Phon. Of course! Nar wasn’t a building or a country, but a street. Just two streets over in fact. Dumb Jack – thinking too big again and not paying attention to where you are. We had a destination, and went to work. It took most of the day, but eventually I had a name. Toraden Kran was the name we were looking for. He was an up and coming crime boss, but still small-time. Where he could be found exactly remained unknown, but we were getting closer. It took most of the next day, but eventually I had an address. End of Nar street, on a turn, an abandoned house nearby. The only occupied house there was where our man Kran lived, down in Longbottom, Midtown district. It was too late in the day for a proper expedition, and we wanted to try and find Yerrick before proceeding. Besides, Luscious was thirsty. So back to the Minstrel we went. Kran wasn’t going anywhere, and we finally had another piece to the puzzle. <200 experience points each party member who was there > Total XP so Far:
|
JD's Campaign
Ptolus - logs Todd's CampaignEvenstar - logs Mark's CampaignOther |