5e Game by me [IC]

[Gluteus_Maximus]

Our story begins in the capitol of the Wentworth Kingdom, the city of Clapbury. Clapbury is a large city in a clearing of a forest, where most of you probably grew up.
You stand before King Wentworth the 11th, who is sitting on his throne wearing red velvet and leopard pelts. At his side is his daughter, Princess Clarissa. The king speaks to you:
I have called you here for an important job. As you may know, my daughter is going to be married to a prince from the neighboring nation.

[Hyperbolic sine]

In front of the king was a dwarf, bowing with a knee to the ground. Clad in well kept, though not particularly shiny, armour, he appeared to be carrying an arsenal - unless, of course, weapons were requisitioned before entering the throne hall.

"Aye, Majesty." he confirmed. "I, Barik of the Highhammer clan, am at your service. What is it that you need done?"

Is there going to be an OOC thread, too?

[Aardvark 001]

Aris, the wood elf monk, stands stock still, waiting for the King to continue. His demeanour may be calm but he's having trouble maintaining it. He'd never been good with other people and the courtly graces of the others made him uncomfortable.

[theasl]

Krul glares up at the king and his daughter, thoroughly unimpressed by the royal chambers. He does not interject, though, waiting for the King to finish his thought first.

[Gluteus_Maximus]

Well, as she is getting married to the prince of the neighboring kingdom of Frederick, there is undoubtedly going to be an attempt to ruin the wedding.

[Hyperbolic sine]

"I see." Barik replied, nodding once. "Are we to watch over the wedding, or personally guard the Princess?"

[Aardvark 001]

'I'll need a sword...' the elf grumbles with his usual lack of tact. 'What do you want us to do?'

[theasl]

Seriously, are we going to have a OOC thread?

[Gluteus_Maximus]

You will be protecting the wedding. I will not have the aristocrats have to look upon violence.

ooc: I will have an OOC up soon

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Understood. Is there anything else, Majesty?"

[Gluteus_Maximus]

You will have 2 days to prevent any schemes and machinations. The day after will be the wedding, which will take place in a town 6 hours in a carriage east.
His guards come and guide you out of the castle. You are now on main street, which curves around the entire city and branching to everywhere. From where you are, you can see a blacksmith's, an inn, and a library.

OOC thread: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?524405-5e-game-by-me-OOC&p=21995467#post21995467

[Hyperbolic sine]

"...Well. Ideas, anyone?" Barik asked the others as soon as they were out of the castle. "Grab a street thug and bea- I mean, gently ask if they heard something?"

[Aardvark 001]

'How about we try the inn first?' Aris grumbles. 'That's the best place to pick up some gossip. Or so I've heard.'

[Hyperbolic sine]

Barik shrugged. "Trying can't hurt, let's go." he said, and started to head for the inn.

[theasl]

Krul is glad to be out of the royal palace, he didn't like the pretentiousness of it all. Protecting the princess's wedding, hm? He wonders why the king would have any reason to suspect anything's wrong. Anyways, he agrees with the suggestion to go to the inn, though he's not sure what can be gained.

[Gluteus_Maximus]

The inn, known as the Lonely Eagle, has a statue of a bald eagle perched on the sign outside.
Three humanoid silhouettes sit around a corner table in a dark corner.
Inside the inn, the barman, a large man with a large bushy mustache, calls out to you. "Greetings, adventurers! What information do you need today?"

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Well, since you're offering...overheard anything strange about the impending royal wedding?" Barik asked, approaching the counter. "Also, one mead, please." he added, raining one finger.

[Gluteus_Maximus]

He glances over to the people in the corner nervously before turning to get your mead.
"I haven't heard of any plans in that sort of area. If someone wanted to try that, they would be insane."

[theasl]

Krul chuckles at the bartender's response, and replies, "Yes, well, there are plenty of insane people in the world. I'm hoping they just don't live here."

[Aardvark 001]

Another mead, Aris says gruffly. He runs slightly to look at the shadowy figures. Who are those guys?

[Gluteus_Maximus]

He gulps, glancing down below the bar, then over to the shady figures.
"Customers... Who else?"

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Yeah, who else?"

After gulping down half tankard all at once, Barik approached the shady figures.

"Hey, you. Want a round of drinks? It's on me."

[Gluteus_Maximus]

Before you even notice, in a blink of an eye, one of them disappears and reappears behind you. You feel on the back of your neck a metallic cylinder press in. You hear a clicking sound.
"It won't be my first time to kill a man, mister. When I pull this lever your head flies away. Now leave his establishment, you're obviously bothering him."
The man has black hair and a single pitch-black eye. Over the other is an eyepatch with a scar crossing under it. He wears a black cloak. To everyone else, he is holding what looks like a metal tube attached to a sphere, which has a handle and some sort of mechanism.

[theasl]

Krul looks over, still slightly amused. Suspicious...

[Gluteus_Maximus]

One of the others stands up, revealing a tall, blond haired man with strands of gray. He holds up the same contraption.
"If they think they're big shots now, then we'd better give them a- Hehe -demonstration.
He puts a metal cube on the table, about 3" on each edge.
"See here, kids? This is the hardest metal around right now: Steel. This little machine here uses this flammable material causes a chain reaction to create an explosive amount of force- like a wizard's fireball. You adventurers would know about that, wouldn't you?"
He points the machine's cylinder at the cylinder and pulls the "lever".
BOOM!
All of your ears start ringing. Before you know it, all that you can see on the table is a pile of dust.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Moradin's bones.

A drop of cold sweat trailed down Barik's neck.

"Woah, woah. If you were that opposed to alcohol, you could have just said no." he said, trying to defuse the situation - they were clearly at a disadvantage. "We're not here to cause problems, ok?"

Persuasion [roll0]

[Gluteus_Maximus]

The man behind Barik removes the machine from Barik's neck, then he moves to stand to his left and puts his arm loosely around his neck, with the machine in his left hand. It felt like it was in his right when he was behind you, but it didn't look like he physically moved it from hand to hand.
"Oh, nothing like that. We just wanted to protect our old innkeeper boss here from being at the end of his nerves, you know what I mean?" He turns his head and blinks twice at the innkeeper. Shocked, the innkeeper nods, and says,
"Yes! L-Leave immediately, please, adventurers... I-I've told you what I know. You're disturbing the peace."

[theasl]

"Alrighty then. Let's go." The smile has left Krul's face, though his tone still slightly betrays his amusement. Much as he'd like to fight it out with these folks, it's probably best that they not all get themselves killed.

[Hyperbolic sine]

"I just asked for gossip. Not my fault he jumped to conclusions." Barik replied, assuming a sulking expression, then gulped down the rest of his mead before leaving the tankard on the counter and heading for the door. "Can't even enjoy a drink in peace." he muttered.

[Gluteus_Maximus]

Commoners had gathered outside the inn, having heard the sound of the explosion. Seeing you two walk out, they approach you. A man begins to speak:
"What... happened in there? Are you behind the killings- Oof!" Another hits him in the face, silencing him. "Shush! Obviously not! See, they don't have those mechanisms! Quickly, someone call Jerma... She'll want to get a good look at them and the people inside."

[theasl]

"Well, that wasn't suspicious at all. I guess the King was right to be worried." To the first man, he says, "Killings, eh? Can you tell us more about those?"

[Gluteus_Maximus]

One of them steps forward, and the others whisper amongst themselves: "I heard it was the king's men", "Those assassins should march through Tartarus!", "They don't follow the tradition of 'Hired Arm'..."
"Every few nights for the last three weeks there's been a killing. The first night the whole house burned down. Every time it's been a rich man in town, all found the same way: As a pile of dust."
Then, another commoner steps forward.
"And just a couple nights ago, there was an attempted killing! Jerma Carrington was coming up to bed for the night when she caught a masked man pointing one of those machines at her husband, but she chased him away! But..."

[Hyperbolic sine]

Oh boy. What a mess we stumbled into.

"She...chased him away?" Barik asked, incredulous. What stopped the assassin from simply killing her too? It deserved investigating. "Good man, can you bring us to this Jerma?"

[Gluteus_Maximus]

"Wait, here she comes now with her daughter!" Someone shouts, and everyone turns their heads. You see a gray-haired woman n her late 60's with green eyes and wearing red silk robes. She is about 5'4" tall and standing next to her, just a little taller than 'Jerma' is a girl in her early twenties with long blond hair and blue eyes wearing a large skirt, helping them walk along. The gray-haired woman only has one leg.
"See, that's what happened. She startled the assassin and before they could get a clean shot at her they fired at her knee, blowing her whole leg off. The shockwave also sent them flying out the window over the city walls... We don't even know if the killer is alive."
Another man chimes in: "Oh, come on, you think that one man could survive a 100-foot fall from the aristocratic highlands?"
The old woman, Jerma, approaches Barik with her daughter being her second leg.

[Hyperbolic sine]

The...shockwave?

There had been no sign of any shockwave in the inn before - not anything powerful enough to defenestrate the device's wielder, at the very least. And if the shooter was going to shoot anyway, how did he intend to deal with such a powerful knockback? There was something that didn't add up.

"Sorry for your leg, ma'am. Forgive me for asking you to relive such painful moments, but could you go over what happened once again?" Barik politely asked Jerma. First thing was getting the full story, even if not necessarily the true version.

[Gluteus_Maximus]

She thinks for a moment, then says
"I came back from the bath and was almost up to bed to sleep. I usually sleep across the hall from Malcer--That's my husband--And I heard a commotion in his room, so I came in. First thing I saw was a dark figure holding something long, I think it may have been a weapon, and Malcer by the throat! I screamed, and that man turned to see the source of the sound, and I saw a long scar over his eye and a pitch-dark hole. He was wearing a hood and mask over his mouth, so I couldn't tell you anything else about him. When he turned he pointed the weapon at me but it seems he lost control of it and shot my leg. After that I started to fall unconscious, but before I was out I saw him fall out the window... We live next to the city walls, so he couldn't have gotten away in the city. Malcer told the city guard to watch out for any approaches so he couldn't have gotten back in... could he?"

[theasl]

"Well...that sounds like the first man who threatened us back in there. There's got to be some strange magic at play here...and I wonder if there's some sort of pattern with the murders beyond just being rich people", Krul thinks out loud.

[Gluteus_Maximus]

Hearing the commotion, the man comes out from the inn.
"Hey, what's going on here? The innkeeper's at the end of his nerves..."
He pauses, seeing that he's being stared at. A man tackles him to the ground.
"You match the description she gave of her assassin!"

[theasl]

Krul doesn't visibly react to the commotion yet, but readies to draw a weapon in case something bad starts happening.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Apologies for going AWOL. It's been a busy week.

Barik moved between the now grappled man and Jerma, to shield her and her daugther from harm - just in case. "Careful! He's not alone!"

[Gluteus_Maximus]

The eyepatched man kicks the man who tackled him off. He pulls out the mechanism and holds it pointed upwards.
"I only sell these things, okay? If some guy came up to me one day and wanted to buy one for a considerable price, then I give it to him."
Someone near him starts to talk, but he interrupts.
"Don't give me any of that 'selling one of those is as bad as pulling the trigger' ****. If that's true then my supplier of powder is just as bad."
As someone starts to attack him again, Jerma steps forward.
"This is not the assassin. The man was taller, and he also didn't wear an eyepatch."

[theasl]

"Well, the assassin was in there with him - some sort of magician I'd say, from the way he moved. And there was another as well - tall blonde man?" Krul glances uneasily at the door, showing signs of being rattled by the whole affair for the first time.

[Gluteus_Maximus]

[OOC] This guy is the "guy who's some sort of magician by how he moved".

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Oh yeah? Then you won't mind giving the authorities a description of the buyer." Barik asked. Well, stated. "Or are you going to point that thing at me again?" he added, gripping his hammer to make clear that he wasn't going to go down without a fight.

[theasl]

Something clicks in Krul's mind and he finally recognizes the man in front of him as the same one who'd threatened Barik inside. He addresses Jerma: "Are you sure? He could have put the eyepatch on after returning to the city - and he did tell us inside that he'd killed before."

[Gluteus_Maximus]

Jerma shakes her head and says,
"This man has a straight scar behind his eyepatch. He couldn't be the one. Also, this one's shorter. Also, if he was, the city guard would have caught him. My husband told them to be thorough."
The man puts the device in a container on his belt, where it snugly fits.
"Okay, i'll tell you. In the past week or so there's been six guys through here all mysterious-looking. They all bought these things from me, most of 'em from the small town of Albet to the west. Apparently, they have a dealer there too but the dealer got lynched by the town militia. 'no powder, no killing' they'd say. **** Hypocrites. Anyhoo, they bought all my little hand weapons and when the sixth guy came through here he asked for one but of course I was all out. I had an experimental one and he took it just as quickly as the others. Seem's I gotta work on the recoil"

[theasl]

Krul's amused face has returned. "Did they by any chance say what they wanted to use them for? I mean, we know they were killing rich people, but any specifics?"

[Gluteus_Maximus]

"When you're in this business as long as I have been you know you never ask what's going to be done with the devices. Most often it's self defense, or they want to use it to get back at someone, or kill their parents' murderer, something like that. Always a motive behind it. If there's something you want done without purpose you get some swordsmith."
Jerma's daughter pulls Krul away. Jerma speaks.
"It is obvious that we will not get anything from being here. You may investigate my home, as much as you like."

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Hmm."

Well, he's right...you can't blame the smith if someone kills with his swords.

"Yes. If you'd kindly lead us there..." Barik replied to Jerma, nodding.

Then, the moment they got far enough from the crowd, so that there would be no prying ears, he said what he had been musing about since he was told about the faild murder. "Milady, if I may...I won't pretend we're anything other than warriors. We'll try, but I doubt we'll be able to find much by investigating. However, I believe the assassin will try again: if you'll allow us to stand guard at your house, we can lay a trap for him."

[theasl]

Krul isn't pleased to be taken away, but it sounds like the dwarf has got a plan, so he follows along. Investigating the house further doesn't seem like a bad idea, either.