3.5e Batman Campaign (2.0)

[Molan]

CHAPTER ONE: OF SINS AND SHADOWS

The five of you find yourselves on a dark, gloomy dock just north of the Narrows Bridge in Midtown, Gotham City. Gotham is an old, ancient, sprawling and congested city. It's the dark, menacing pearl of the Empire, as valued and coveted as it is vile and cursed. For as long as anyone can remember, the city has been in a state of decay. Street drunks and doomsayers wail that it's drowning in it's addiction to Arcane Magic, and the Arcana Industry that it depends on for sustenance. Others say it has more mundane enemies; be it the ineptitude of it's high lords or the insatiable avarice of it's noble houses, each vying for a piece of an ever shrinking pie. You stopped asking yourself high minded political questions a long time ago; Gotham is a place where the only thing separating you from a the corpses in the gutters is a full purse -- and perhaps a sharp blade at your side.

You knew how to find this place without needing to be told; The Merchant's Guild Docks have run business out of this part of town for more than a hundred years. Yet now that you've finally arrived, you feel surer than ever that the dark, looming city behind you is getting ready to swallow these docks up at any moment; or perhaps push them into the river.

The Merchant's Guild was once the principle mercantile property of House Wayne; the former Lords of Gotham. The Waynes founded the city and ruled over it for hundreds of years. Though Lord Thomas Wayne, the last "Lord Wayne of Gotham" died only a little more than twenty years ago, it feels like their once mighty house has been gone for a century or more. The Merchant's Guild has found itself besieged on all sides by the other Houses and their own businesses (or, when business failed, their armed men). It's assets have shrunk ever narrower. Now, the Guild Docks is the last territory this once mighty institution has left; and from the looks of things, the docks won't last much longer either.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d2/b5/bd/d2b5bda0955842c122b1b7b792d6e870.jpg

It's around 10 at night. There are a few ships and boats docked at the harbor, but almost all of the workers have gone home, and only a few, sputtering torches light the walkways. You find that you have an easier time navigating by starlight (or your Darkvision) than you do by the dock's lanterns. You've been walking along the docks for nearly twenty minutes and so far you haven't seen any armed guards, and leaving merchandise and valuable goods lying around without armed protection is something no Gotham merchant in their right mind would ever do. You imagine it's a miracle the place hasn't already been cleaned out.

To your left, lying on a few crates and piles of tarps and fishing nets, is a guild worker. If he has a home to go to, he's clearly decided it would be preferable to stay out here with the bilge rats, getting blasted on rum and Devilweed. Up ahead, you can see the Guild House. It's a ratty, miserable looking thing; it's as if the entire building is sort of sagging from exhaustion. On the bright side, it's the only part of the docks that's well lit. The assembled torchlight glows in the darkness, calling you like a moth is called to a flame. Nearby you can see a few other guilders, a couple of them guards and a few more workers, milling about or lounging. This is where the bounty notice has directed you; presumably the Guild Master, Lucius Fox, should be waiting for you inside.

And that, of course, is the reason you're all here. The Merchant's Guild has put out a call to handle a job; the notice was a bit light on details -- you're not sure if it's an investigation or simple mercenary work. Either way, you only need to worry about getting the job done and getting paid. For all you know, the Guild won't be here tomorrow -- but as long as you've collected your fee before then, it doesn't really matter.

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?637689-3-5e-Batman-OOC-(2-0)&p=25237543#post25237543

[Feathersnow]

A menacing figure plods towards the guild in matte enamel red and black fullplate armor, covered with spikes. Far above their head is a giant axehead on a pike.

How far we have fallen. Was this what I was fighting for?
Never matter, everything starts somewhere. You can't clean things without touching filth.

The high pitched voice is the only hint that the figure is female as she calls out, "I've come to see Master Fox."

[JoyWonderLove]

“Rum and Devilweed. Classic.” Certain to stand an easy ten feet off the inebriated soul, a heatless torch came to life in her hands; an isle of light created off the coast of the well-lit Guild. The lithesome figure was all black leather armour that only retreated at a purple pair of gloves, matching utility belt, and blonde hair. Stephanie let the stranger absorb her appearance, ignoring the looming Guild House and its workers up ahead, only too aware his drug of choice enhanced strength but rattled nerves. It all broke her promise to keep to the shadows and observe a little, at least until she was sure enough hands had made it to the Merchant’s Guild. The better to turn back without witnesses if she didn’t like their odds. No one wanted to die protecting Bruce Wayne's investments.

But what’s a promise worth if it costs you helping others?

“Used to sell the same stuff, actually. Devilweed, I mean. Rum’s a little too hardcore for me.”

Stephanie offered a weak smile to the man laying in filth, in spite of her half-mask covering it. Her stomach tensed from the guilt that sat in it like a seashell, small, but distinct to the touch. She had left behind anything drug related over a year ago, her family aside, but it was hard to pretend people like her hadn’t done this to someone’s brother or son or father. She titled the light to herself briefly.

“Name’s Spoiler. Sorta like what you stick on a train to keep it from crashing. What’s yours?”

Take 10 Diplomacy, result of 28 to try and make a friend. Or at least keep him as far from hostility as possible.

[JbeJ275]

Through the half light came a slim figure, taking slow patient steps over the soaked cobblestones that covered this street. She was dressed in simple clothes, with no sign of bulky armour, or any possesions larger than the small tome kept carefully in a sealed pouch at her side. Her clothes were a dark blue, just a hair of a shade off being black, long sleeves, tall boots, leggings and gloves covering every inch of skin below her neck. A long cape, runes etched into the outer lining flowed away from her back. Her hair was covered by a cowl, and the top half of her face by a carefully made mask, the ebony contrasting with the pale skin of her chin and cheeks, and the mask hiding what thoughts could possibly be going on behind it.

Well, this was a terrible idea.

The thought ran through Barabara's (no, Oracle's, like this she had to be oracle) mind as she stepped forward slowly. She'd confronted enough filth both literal and ethical early in her campaign to look over the justiciar's but this sort of pragmatic mercenary work was still new to her, and the level of filth they displayed to anyone walking by was too. Still, of all those still putting contracts out the Merchant's guild was one of the few organisations that wasn't swimming in the sea of filth that coated the corrupt Justiciars and so if she wanted the resources to further her campaign this was the best place to dip her toes into the water.

Wow, Mixing metaphor's this much already. Get your head in the game Oracle.

Neuroses aside, she was here now and knew what she had to do. Coolly regarding the two other figures here she continued on her forward path. She gave look to the poor soul slumped over and drunk, but moved her eyes away from them quickly. She instead first looked to the other mercenaries moving in with her and then to one of the guildmembers who resembled guards. She looked to them as she approached the guild-house, and sent Julius, her familiar off from his position huddled at her side to flitter around the guild hall and keep an ear out for danger. Then, assuming no guards objected, she pushed open the door and entered, scanning the room for any sign of Lucius Fox.

[Molan]

When the party approached the Guild House, none of the men outside paid you much mind. As Kate and Barbara entered the Guildhouse, they came face to face with Lord Fox; he was dressed in high quality but well-used and utilitarian clothes; a heavy coat to keep out the cold, a thick layered tunic, sturdy breaches and strong boots. He was clearly highborn; he carried himself nobly and moved with the relaxed ease of a person who's used to owning the ground he walks on. And yet he's also sort of worn down and tired; thick laugh lines crease his face, his hair is gray and his hands looked rough and weathered. Highborn or not, this is a man who's been through his fair share of troubles.

Despite the drab and unpleasant surroundings and his tired looking mannerisms, he greeted the party with something approaching a wry smile and a cunning gleam in his eye.

"Ah, thank the True Twelve, company's here." he said as Kate's armored form occupied the doorway. He was busy pouring tea into an old brass cup on his desk. "I'd almost given up hope."

He quickly turned back towards the doorway towards Barbara.

"And hello to you as well my dear; apologies but do my old eyes deceive me? Has Lady Gordon herself come to visit our humble guild house? To what do we owe the pleasure?"

Having delivered the formality of addressing the daughter of the Marshall of the Justicars directly, the Guildmaster leaned back against a long desk which faced the entryway. The desk was about two yards inside from the entryway, and the party was still standing more or less in the threshold of the door. Fox didn't you to come in or take a seat, so the exchange felt a bit awkward, even tense. His manner left the impression that he didn't fully trust his new visitors, at least not yet..

And yet despite that sense of latent tension, Fox seems amiable, even sympathetic; you can't really trust anyone in Gotham, and judging from the sorry state of affairs you found the docklands to be in, Master Fox seems just as vulnerable to being robbed by his hired help as he would be from the thugs and brigands he's paying you to stop.

Since the rest of the team presumably walked to the Guildhouse, I'll finish you out here.

The dock drunkard lights up when you approached, a bit dazed and confused but pleased all the same. He's delirious from the substances he'd been abusing but seems either happy to view a friendly face or surprised that a beautiful woman appeared out of nowhere in front of him on a night like this.

He slurs his words, but you're able to mostly make out: "Ho! Name's Mulk lass. Wassa fine piece like you doin' at the docks after moonrise?"

You are all entitled to spot and listen checks.

[JbeJ275]

"Well, that's an hour of my life making this ridiculous costume I'm never going to get back."

Answered Barbara, pulling back her cowl and letting her distinctive long red hair unfurl a little, though it remained pinned up.

"I'm here for the same reason others are, I should imagine. The posting about some form of investigation or mercenary work. For all the issues the Guild has faced both in terms of its enemies and its absent sponsor it's one of the last reputable places in the city. If you're the one's offering money I'll have little reason to fear that I might regret taking it. What is this job anyway?"


Spot: [roll0]
Listen: [roll1]

[Feathersnow]

Kate tries to hide her surprise that someone she knew being here.
"I've come to clean up."

[hand ax ranger]

The one wearing the high quality chain shirt a dark red helm finally spoke up, having trailed behind a bit to let the two expose any ambush so that he could counter it. On his belt hung tow masterfully made war-hammers, an odd choice for one who skulks about in the shadows only until they see the Red hood fight. He crouches on on the the crate which he's leap up on and looks down at the three.

"I've honestly got nothing more to add to what she said except that I second it. What's the job then?"

[JoyWonderLove]

Stephanie's eyes glittered for her mirth, unsurprised he couldn’t piece together the obvious as smoke wafted off the cigarette, ambivalent in the wind. She made no attempt to draw his attention to the weaponry at her hips. “It’s a mystery.” Her shrug came easy as two others strolled by, both armed and purposefully masked. That makes three. Throw in the guards, and the odds are ours. Taking a look around the dock to spot and listen out for any nearby dock worker she could enlist to help Mulk to his feet, she offered her hand all the same, palm up. Less a handshake as an invitation to rise.

“But while I’m around, Mulk, I’ve heard a nasty little rumour the Guild Master really should hear. Says a hit’s coming tonight. Care to walk a girl to safety?”

Take 10 on both for now. Result of 16 for both.

[Molan]

**INSIDE THE GUILDHOUSE**

Lucius claps his hands and rubs them together.

"Alright, excellent. Allow me to explain. To make a long story short, we've been having some trouble down at the docks. Shipments have gone missing, workers have been harassed, and last month one of our guards disappeared. I can't stay in business if I can't keep the docks secure at night, and I can't get sellswords to work here in the evenings anymore."

Lucius shakes his head. "These slums didn't always used to be this bad; back when the Waynes were in power they took good care of Fort Clinton. But these days, folks are getting desperate. The Justicars are usually out in force during the day...but at night..." he shakes his head again.

"Anyway, here's the job. I need you all to patrol the docks at night. You're not just here as a deterrent though; I need people here who are either tough, stupid or crazy enough to actually go looking for trouble. There's next to zero chance that the folks who've been harassing our operation are done with us. I need you to find the people who're doing this. I need you to stop them. But! Most important of all, I need you to find out who's been behind the attacks.

If you walk the docks at night, it's only a matter of time before our attackers show back up. Could be today, could be next week. When they do, it's not enough that you chase them off; I need to know who's been giving the orders to attack the Merchant's guild. There's money in it for you; a hundred gold for every thief you capture...or I suppose...scalp you take, if it comes to that. Plus a hundred gold per night, split four ways just for your time."

Lucius tosses a coin pouch to Barbara as he speaks, to pay them and also to underscore the point.

"If of course you do find the evidence I need to figure out who's been ordering the attacks on the docks, I'll pay you four thousand to split, plus potentially an opportunity for a second contract after after that, if you're up for it."

Having made his pitch, Lucius stood up and strolled around his desk, sitting down behind it and looking over his papers.

"Now I've got to tell you, times have been tough for us. This is all the money I can afford to pay you for this job, so I'm not going to be able to negotiate. But if you all pull this off and our shipments are able to move in and out of the docks unmolested again, there'll be plenty more where this came from. So."

He leans back in his chair and fixes you with an even stare. "Do we have a deal?"

So, I forgot. Anyone who's walked into the guildhouse can retroactively make a trapfinding check. Sorry I forgot to bring that up.

You're also free to toss out any Knowledge or Sense Motive checks you'd like. Otherwise, Lucius awaits your response.

Spot:You do not spot anything out of the ordinary.
Listen: Besides the conversation with Lucius, you can hear the gentle lapping of water under the docks beneath the Guild House. Outside, you can hear the two Merchant Guild guards who were watching the front door having a low conversation; "...Old Fox really think he can buy his way out of this one?" "No one's gonna risk they're necks for this dump when Zucco's boys show up." "You think when this falls through Fox'll wise up and get the hell out of here?" "Hell no man. He thinks the Dark Knight's gonna come save him." They both snicker.

Spot:The Guild House is a long building, and though most of the lanterns are no longer lit, you can see that it stretches back more than fifty yards from the doorway. It's filled with bookshelves packed with scrolls and ledges, and various crates, barrels and boxes fill the empty corners of the space, along with a series of desks where the Guild's ledger men clearly work.

Off to the right, behind one of the bookshelves, you can see the shadowy outline of a slender figure leaning against the corner of the shelf and the wall. Whoever it is is deathly still and the corner the figure occupies is so dark you barely noticed them hiding there at all. The figure is humanoid, and whoever it is isn't crouching or lurking but sort of casually blending into the gloom. You can't tell if they're watching you, but they're definitely listening.

Behind Master Fox, lying on the desk he's leaning on, you can see what looks like an elaborate light repeating crossbow, covered in eldritch runes. A tool for self defense, perhaps? Most of the rest of the items on the desk are papers and books, but there are two other heavier objects besides the crossbow; a lit candlestick and a black marble statuette of a knight.

Listen: Besides the conversation with Lucius, you can hear the gentle lapping of water under the docks beneath the Guild House. Outside, you can hear the two Merchant Guild guards who were watching the front door having a low conversation; "...Old Fox really think he can buy his way out of this one?" "No one's gonna risk they're necks for this dump when Zucco's boys show up." "You think when this falls through Fox'll wise up and get the hell out of here?" "Hell no man. He thinks the Dark Knight's gonna come save him." They both snicker.

Mulk shakes his head. "Thassa pass fer me lass. E'rybody says Zucco's got it out for Old Fox. Only thing I'm here t'do is drink n'smoke till morning shift. By the time the new bosses take over, hopefully they'll still need dock hands 'round here. Hangin' out w' Fox's friends just mean I'll be dead or out of work by that time. But, if'n ye've got any sense, yer free to stay here and drink w'old Mulk. Keep us both out of trouble then eh?"

Mulk takes another long drag of devilweed, holding it in his chest for a few moments before letting a noxious green cloud sputter out of his nostrils. He continues to lean back on his makeshift seat, apparently without a care in the world.

Listen: You don't hear anything out of the ordinary other than some muttering from the guards near the Guildhouse and the light lapping of the water against the docks.

Spot: You don't detect anything out of the ordinary.

[JbeJ275]

Barbara waits for a few moments, tuned into her empethatic bond and feeling for any sign of panic or things being drastically wrong in one way or another from her familiar as it finishes scanning the outside of the warehouse and flitters back to her side. Assuming this gives her no reason to panic, she checks the contents of the pouch assuming that too is above board she replies.

"Straightforward, I appreciate it. I'll take this offer. What kind of evidence would you be looking for? Is divining the thoughts from those we capture enough or are you looking for more physical evidence?"


Trapfinding: [roll0]

For my familiar stuff bat's have the following:

Blindsense (Ex)

A bat notices and locates creatures within 20 feet. Opponents still have 100% concealment against a creature with blindsense.

Though any information would have to be filtered through the general spectrum of empethatic bond if an army of criminals is currently surrounding the place that should still flag as danger and give me some warning.

[Molan]

The bag is not suspect; it appears to be a down payment, with 500gp inside.

Lucius nodded. "Fair question. You take a patrol down these docks you'll see all kinds of strange and unsavory folk clambering about. But I'm being cryptic; the people who are out to bring down our organization are casing the docks constantly. There's a million ways in and out of this area. If they find any of our College cargo, it's over. And that's all assuming they don't figure out how poorly manned I am at night.

If you find informants to question out on the docks, we'll have a way better idea of who we're up against, and what to do about it. But if you find anyone trying to lift our products...all the better. Anyway, you can try using magic or other means to skim surface thoughts but I'm willing to be you won't find the goods I need. We need information we can bring to the Justicars...or at least a specific enemy we can lash out at.

Either way, I'm confident you'll find something."

Julius returns to you, generally calm. There's no one and nothing surrounding the building, though you can tell he managed to snack on a few unfortunate bugs on his way around the guildhouse. He's contented, and that makes you feel a bit better.

Trapfinding: The room is trapped. The entire entryway inside the door is actually a trapdoor; it's about 10' wide and 15' long, and it appears to separate in the middle. All four of you are standing on the trap door; it appears to be some sort of defensive arrangement. If the trap is triggered, any unwelcome intruders standing in the threshold will likely be dumped straight into the Gotham River beneath the docks. You cannot see any obvious mechanisms to activate or disarm the trap, though you suspect it could potentially be jammed shut if you were able to shove something in between the two sides of the door, given how tight the seams are. But with Lucius staring directly at you, there's no way to surreptitiously attempt to manipulate or sabotage the device.

[Feathersnow]

"I stand ready. Tell me, though, some of your men seem to think it is 'Zucco'. Can you tell me anything about this personage?"

[JoyWonderLove]

Ew.

“Tempting.” Stephanie withdrew her hand reluctantly. Her gaze swept over the battered front of the sagging Guild House again, reminded then it wasn't simply a massive legal fence for everyday goods, as one of the few ways a Gothamite could still stay out of the total control of local crime lords. The brooding clouds overhead barely revealed the tip of a crescent moon, a dagger yet fully revealed. She reconsidered the dock hand coolly.

“Tell ya what, Mulk. You’re not the only one that needs a day job, and even most Watchmen are already in someone else’s pocket. Smart money says the Baron already has a few insiders to help the transaction along, right? You point one out to me, and I’ll see if I can maybe get in on the action tonight. Then we’ll have plenty of time to safely make plans tomorrow. ”

Take 10 on Bluff that I’m interested in taking any job, like helping Zucco take over. Result 24.

Take 10 on K:Local so I can confirm I know things about Zucco...and didn't just metagame that he's called the Baron. :smalltongue:

Also, there was a Gather Information check I "so totally did" in the hours before this to try and piece together who's attacking tonight/how. Result 25. But like I said then, if the result cuts down on the fun of it all, then we'll say it didn't give any useful info other than "yes, an attack is coming specifically tonight".

[Molan]

**INSIDE THE GUILDHOUSE**

Lucius smiled. "Ah, you mean "Baron" Zucco. He's the current Boss of the Dark Market. Interesting idea, that the Market might be trying to push in on us. See, the Dark Market primarily deal in contraband, drug trafficking, prostitution, fencing and smuggling. They're a real class act. They have a huge network of fences and street thugs running protection rackets. Thing is, few years back, the Dark Knight actually apprehended Zucco and turned him over to the Justicars -- he was supposed to be rotting in the Dungeons under Blackgate Fortress for thirty years."

The guildmaster sighed, taking a long sip of his tea and leaning back in his old wooden chair.

"At least, that shoulda been what happened. No, instead a few of the other noble houses started angling for advantages after most of the Dents were killed off. It's impolite to say this, but a lot of folks believe that more than a few of our high lords have business dealings on the wrong side of the Justicars. Anyway, long story short, Zucco was released, and he's back in charge of the Market. But, in his absence, the Market lost most of their territory in Midtown. The Bards say the Dark Knight cleared em out; House James says it was the Justicars. But most of my informants tell me the majority of their territory in Midtown was taken over by the Thieves Guild."

Lucius shrugged walking back around the table.

"So. Could Zucco be after this next shipment? Maybe. Maybe taking me out's how he sees himself getting back into Midtown. Or, maybe it's got nothing to do with Zucco and all and all that was just a rumor. There's only one way to find out -- we need to track down some of the bastards who're spying on my docks, robbing my ships and disappearing my men, and squeeze em for answers."

Gather Information reveals a swirl of rumors about the docks. Lots of people in the Fort Clinton slums around the docks have competing speculation around who's been targeting them, but the extra noise and chatter has made it difficult for you to determine which lead to follow. Some people say it's the Dark Market trying to push back into Midtown, other say the Thieves Guild was paid off to cause trouble for Fox and his people. You can't be sure, but one factoid stands out; Zucco has only been out of the dungeons fairly recently after the Dark Knight put him away and cost him his territories in Midtown. Some people wonder if he'd have the stones to try something risky again so soon. The experience was said to have rattled him.

However, you were able to confirm one thing; their is a hit coming -- and it's coming tonight. People have been talking about staying away from the docks. Apparently, whatever Lucius' men have been loading onto their last few ships is incredibly valuable, and tomorrow morning, that precious cargo will have sailed off onto the Gotham River and away towards the sea. Whoever's coming has to make their move today.

Mulk chuckles a bit, nodding his head and smiling as though the two of you are now in on a little secret. Over near the Guildhouse, two of the guards are still playing cards, but two others have begun to wander off. One heads southeast, the other, northwest.

Mulk points at the northwest guard as he slowly fades into the night.

"Iunno about Zucco," he stuttered. "But Garrel there used to do night patrols with this old retired knight named Torraine. Two days ago Garrel came back."

Mulk begins to trail off to sleep, the rum finally beginning to get the better of him.

"But Torraine didn't. Garrel never said....whahappened....t.......Torraine...."

After that, the only sound Mulk made were snores.

[JoyWonderLove]

So it’s Zucco or the Thieves Guild tonight, but Zucco might be too rattled to try anything. Maybe the good Baron hired some help? If anyone has an idea…

Gently easing the cigarette spewing green from Mulk’s limp fingers, Stephanie casually flicked it into the nearby waters from the wooden boardwalk. Eyeing her target in the distance, she still half dragged a tarp over the dockhand for a makeshift blanket. That had been her entire vendetta against the drug trade so far: the most miniscule of wins, the barest of warmth, but the body of the matter remained unmoved. With a sigh the torch light went out, and she started to refocus on the guard doing the northwest nightly patrol. Not liking the idea of disappearing like the old knight did, or getting mistaken for a thief just yet, she instead tailed after Garrel from a distance.

Unsurprisingly, I follow Garret quietly. Both have results of 24.

[JbeJ275]

Barabara nods breifly at the last words from the guildmaster then raises her hood and lowers her mask once more.

"That can be done, I hope to have some raather informative good news to share when we next meet."

"As for you two." she said turning to the other two mercenaries. "I'll be waiting outside for you to finish your own questions, we'll make our way there together when we're done. And I'd appreciate any indiscretions that occured tonight spread no further than they need to.

With that said she slips just out of the entryway, remaining disguised outside and mentally going through her own information on relevant details to this case.



What does Barabara know about the normal modus operandi of such harrasers and thieves. Do they send a lot of goons or a few elites, are they heavily armoured brutes or more specialists, will they normally have a leader, do they normally stick around in fights or leave in the face of serious resistance stuff like that which could have been picked up from Justicar reports.

Knowledge (Local) (I also have history and Nobility if those fit better): [roll0]
(I don't think you can normally take ten on knowledge, tell me if that's different in this campaign but for now I'll roll for the sake of it)

[Molan]

Having consented to the Guildmaster's terms, the three of you head out into the night and begin the task of patrolling the docklands as Lord Fox had asked.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5a/c3/5a/5ac35a70280c91f268bc6ca2e05b9503.jpg


Barbara stepped back out into the night, and eventually the rest of the party followed suit. There were only a few men left outside the Guildhouse, even a couple of the last few guards appeared to have wandered off. Looking around, you saw no sign of the woman named "Spoiler" who'd also shown up to take the bounty. Lacking any other good options, you decide to head out without her.

As the evening wears on, and you find yourselves the only souls left on the long, winding warren of the Merchant's Guild docks. As far as mercenary work goes, you can't help but feel a little disappointed. The docks are as quiet as the grave and it's hard not to feel like a job that could just as easily be conducted by a squad of Justicar recruits is beneath you.

The docks are not a straight, uniform row of piers but instead a jagged, winding and byzantine path along the Gotham River. Some of the piers are long, wide, deep water docks tethering large sailing ships, while others are much smaller. Some of the piers stand taller out of the water than others. In some places, artificial inlets connect the Gotham River's waters to the city's interior and you have to cross short bridges to reach the next section, and everywhere large stacks of barrels or crates obstruct your view, and some parts of the waters edge forms bays and inlets so you can't see very far ahead in most areas as the city juts out in front of you. There are occasional small buildings, shacks, and storage sheds and in several places boats are suspended in dry dock. The entire place is a maze; the only way for you to navigate your way through it is to keep the water on your left so you know you haven't gotten lost.

You keep a weather eye out for any signs that something is out of place, and pay special attention to docked ships, closed warehouses, deeper shadows and dark alleyways, looking for any important clues or signs of shenanigans.

Feel free to come up with a strategy or marching order for exploring the docs. You can make checks here at will, and work together to try to track down signs of trouble. A good way to think of this area at this time of night is kind of like an outdoor dungeon.

Hit me up in the OOC thread if you guys have any additional questions or concerns about what to do here.
The kind of danger you're going to run into depends a lot on who your adversaries are and what they're up to. The Dark Market and Thieves Guild are known for having plenty of sneak thieves and street toughs, but their Captains and Underbosses are usually much tougher, not to be trifled with, and they're more than happy to work alongside magic users or other unsavory types of the opportunity presents itself. Unfortunately, you don't know enough about who's raiding the docks and who might be leading them to be sure what you're up against. You just hope to yourself that it's some low level goons.


You found it easy to trail the guard as he meandered away into the night. He wasn't trying to be particularly quiet or inconspicuous -- he may have just been headed home, but no one was out here to see him anyway, as far as he knew. You kept a moderate but consistent tail, never once arousing his suspicions.

The docks are not a straight, uniform row of piers but instead a jagged, winding and byzantine path along the Gotham River. Some of the piers are long, wide, deep water docks tethering large sailing ships, while others are much smaller. Some of the piers stand taller out of the water than others. Everywhere large stacks of barrels or crates obstruct your view, and some parts of the waters edge forms bays and inlets so you can't see very far ahead in most areas as the city juts out in front of you. There are occasional small buildings, shacks, and storage sheds and in several places boats are suspended in dry dock. The entire place is a maze; the only way for you to navigate your way through it is to keep your eyes on the departing Guard, since he clearly knows the area better than you do.

He walks for some time, and you begin to get frustrated. Just when you were about ready to give up and head back towards the way you came -- paydirt. He stopped about 20 or so yards up ahead of you, and began to talk to an unidentifiable figure, leaning out of the shadows and smoking some kind of cigar. The men's voices are low, but not too low. If you get a bit closer you ought to be able to hear them.

It's best to think of the area you're in as essentially a kind of outdoor dungeon at this time of night. Normal trappings of civilization are absent, everyone's either asleep or up to no good, and danger lurks around every corner.

You can make a listen check here, or inch a bit closer with move silently then try for an added bonus. Instead of following the path he took you could also Search/Spot for other angles to get a look at him and the person he's talking to. Any other checks you want to take here are okay as well.

[JoyWonderLove]

Stephanie felt her head clear for the salty air, willing it to steal away whatever stink the Devilweed had inflicted as she remained Garrel’s midnight shadow. He unintentionally guided her around the barrels and inlets and shacks like a backalley Sherpa. But when the only thing she didn’t start to doubt was that whoever designed the place had obviously done so purely to crank up costs for its construction, he started speaking to a silhouette. She glanced from behind a barrel for a place she could circle around and see who the guard was speaking to, and to better hear.





Take 10
When your character is not being threatened or distracted, you may choose to take 10.

As much as skills are the one thing a natural 1 don’t autofail (unless we’re homebrewing it, which can be fun, but please give me a heads up first?), I’ve now wandered into an unfamiliar dungeon solo like any wise player would, and you did say it feels like danger lurks around every corner. And that doesn’t sound like a relaxing experience, so I think I have to roll for once.

Search for a place to see their face: [roll0]
Move Silently to hear what they’re saying better: [roll1]
Listen to what they’re saying (idk what the modifiers are so nothing extra added yet) : [roll2]
Knowledge: Local. Is the person Garrel is speaking to a local ‘personality’ I would know? [roll3]

Also on unrelated notes I bought items that would fit in a utility belt.

[JbeJ275]

Barbara intially attempts to find a choke point that any potential thieves would have to pass through to continue, but is holding out little hope given the twisting weaving nature of the docks. Instead she sends out Juluis to hunt and calls for him to report back if any humanoids other than the present company enter the protected area of the docks, she has some spells to let her locate people but only if they're already known to be present in one form or another.

As they arrive she talks with the others. "So... either of you have any tricks for stakeouts like this? Or do we just stay quiet, keep eyes and ears open and wait until someone takes the bait.

[Feathersnow]

"I really have nothing, sorry. I can hide and move better than you would think, though."

[Molan]

You deftly, gracefully moved down a short pathway that the guard had walked before marking his position and cutting around a stack of barrels and ropes and approaching him from a different angle. The shadows cling to you like you were born to them, and you deftly step over puddles and debris to avoid making any sound. After observing the two for a moment, you spot an opportunity; nearby is a huge cargo wagon, uncovered but partially filled with crates. You are able to approach them from behind the wagon, and peering around it you can make out the faces of both men.

The man that Garrel is talking to is wearing basic commoner's clothes, but he looks burly and dirty and sports several ugly scars. His arms are bare, and covered in tattoos. One of them stands out to you from the rest; a key topped with a skull. You don't recognize the man, but you'd know his marking anywhere: it's the sigil of the Thieves Guild.

You're having a bit of trouble hearing them, but you were able to get pretty close, so it's not too hard.

"...you sure?" said Garrel.

"Yea man.....Raam and the.....are already on deck. It's happening.....the hell are you so worried...out?" the Thieves Guild man replied.

You weren't able to capture every word, but the jist seemed pretty clear.

"Listen. Fox has brought in....I'm not sure how many but.....They're all armed. At least one of 'em's a wizard."

The Thieves Guilder tossed the cigar on the ground and stomped it out.

"Where are they...."

"They were with the old.....I left. They'll be snooping.....ocks by now."



Your party has wound it's way through the warrens and the lights from the Guildhall have long since faded behind you. It's difficult to see much around you; several small boat masts and a few different piles of barrels and debris block a lot of your vision. Ahead of you, you can continue traveling west down the docks in between two rows of staged barrels. To the right, another path opens up along the cobblestones, running in between a nearby warehouse and a few other buildings beyond.

A row of different buildings run along the north side of the docks, opposite the water. They're ramshackle, sometimes lopsided, and all of different heights, but they're jammed together so close it would be fairly easy to move from one rooftop to the other, if necessary.

Up ahead, the docks branch out into the river again and several large multi-pronged piers spread out into the water, and you can see a few different sized ships moored there. The docks are similarly laded with piles of crates and barrels and there are occasional storage sheds puncturing the landscape both on land and over the water. About a hundred yards west, another large warehouse looms right where the river cuts back north, obscuring your view of the next pier. Several other piles of supplies near that warehouse create a sort of choke point before you will be able to round the next bend.

Finally, in between the two warehouses are several tight paths with lots of looming shadows and odd angles; the place is messy to the point of seeming more like a maze then a well ordered industrial center. You don't see any signs of movement -- yet. There's plenty of places to hide.

As you make your way forward, there's the slightest, almost imperceptible flutter and Julius flapped back to Barbara from the dark sky above.

Julius seems happy -- or, maybe not happy, perhaps excited is a better word. You can't tell exactly what he means, but you're certain he's found people up ahead -- and he knows where they are. His eagerness seems to radiate from having accomplished what you asked of him. He snuggles his ugly bat head against your hood and the faint sound of his subsonic chirping hums in your ear.

[hand ax ranger]

Jason looks to Barbra and shakes his head. "Nothing fancy. I was going to find the highest vantage point as try and see them as they crept in, possibly proving overwatch. other than that I ten dot be more proactive. Pulling guard detail isn't really me speed."

With that said he does just that, searching out the best vantage point and scaling up to it.



Spot: [roll0]

Climb: [roll1]



Assuming this works he'll look out from there and ready his crossbow for the potential to shoot something tonight....

[JoyWonderLove]

Stephanie smiled tightly as the thrill of vindication shot through her even as she crouched – before she looked at her way out. It was the same jumbled pathway of piers and shacks and barrels. The scarred bruiser looked annoyed enough to move his timescale forward long before she could warn anyone, and hunkering down to empty a crossbow quiver into his back when they made their move risked that she wouldn’t get taken out by any hidden thugs the Thieves Guild sometimes had crawling around their operations. Her brow furrowed for better options. She sighed softly.

Laying her left hand flat over black leather at her chest, the tiniest pinch of a silver hearth answered. Hey, Estanna? See, what I’m about to pull, I swear is to keep that crapshack of a Guild’s Hall in business, okay? So if honest work for Gotham’s families is a thing, or even just getting ya girl back home safe again is, please give me all the protection you can spare. For hearth and home. Prayer done, she unfurled to her full height with a little stretch and a grunt. Ducking and darting through shadows was nothing but stiff legs and tight spaces. She preferred the confidence game for a reason.

“Perhaps we can make a deal,” Stephanie smiled congenially as she half presented herself from behind the wagon, her concealed hand holding a leather back.

“Before you ask, Garrel led me here. Anyway, two of the mercenaries you’re worried about? They’re with me. We trickled in separately to stay low profile. The shipment tomorrow is juicy enough even the wizard wanted in. But right now, we all have the exact same problem. That big stupid knight is definitely not apart of the plan; we didn’t dream old man Fox still had the chops to call in that kind of support.” She offered a knowing smirk at the slender guard. “But rumour has it dear Garrel here knows how to make a knight disappear. So here’s the corner of it: The wizard has eyes on me. Safety precaution. You agree to give us,” she squinted through her pause then, seemingly gauging the two men.

“Si – seven percent of the cut, with a guaranteed in for me and Red to join the Thieves Guild afterwards. Then we can easily arrange for Red and Garrel to go on patrol with that knight. We confirm our friend has done his best impression of an anchor, I quickly press a knife to the Lord geriatric’s neck, and whatever guards pass for his carers realize it’s a great time to reconsider prospects. You handle heavy lifting, my wizard does appraisals. Simple. Smooth. Solid?”

She arched her brow.





I tried to make the whole Bluff as believable as possible.

Bluff: [roll0]

[JbeJ275]

As Juluis returns, Barbara smiles softly and turns to the other two figures.

"I've got a hit that I'm going to check out, keep eyes on me. If I do this." She says holding up the pinky and ring finder of her right hand. "It means these are the sort of people we need to deal with, so you two should follow me over and put them down once I've disabled them. If there's a flash of golden light it means trouble has started ans you should hurry.

With that Barabara begins moving slowly towards the direction her bat indicated, trying to keep out of line of sight from them and move quietly enough to get within range for here to hear them. Ready to divine further details if her initial look pays dividends.


Rolling Move Silently as this seems high pressure in that department
MS: [roll0]
Listen, gonna take 18. That's enough to hear people whispering at 30ft or a regular thug walking at 80ft.
Hide if I an't stay out of line of sight: [roll1]

If there seem to be at least four people there and they are genuinly suspicious I'm gonna cast detect thoughts on the group. DC17

[Feathersnow]

"I'll get ready" whispers Kate. She manifests "concealing amorpha" and "urban strider" then readies her dorje to give herself a shield.

[Molan]

Jason climbed up a nearby supply shed, effortlessly bounding up as though it was almost no effort. From the top of the stack, he could make out what he thought were lights in the distance, but they were further off. It was hard to know what the woman's bat pet had warned them about, and he didn't think it had flown quite that far. Whatever he was looking for must have been closer, but if there were people there he couldn't see them.

Barbara snuck forward, going around and to the side of the shed that Jason had climbed, looking for any signs or disturbances. She didn't hear any loud conversations, but around the next bend she was absolutely sure she could hear at least two people whispering. Someone coughed, quietly enough that they appeared to try to stifle it, but she was sure what she'd heard.

Pleased with what she'd discovered, Barbara cast detect thoughts, pinching a copper piece between two fingers with one hand and drawing invisible arcane symbols with the other, all the while chanting the ancient words that would bring the spell forth.

As she focused the spell, she heard a gruff, male voice speak up at normal volume.

"Hey, someone's over there."

You get a surprise round of the spell off even before one of your targets figured out you were nearby. You can get through the second round before they walk over and find you, but reaching the third round of the spell will require them to become distracted and look somewhere else.

The first round confirms that their are sentient thoughts in the area.

The second round shows five individual minds are in the spell's area of effect.

I'll leave the decision of whether to keep channeling to round three up to you.

The two men are startled and agitated. Garrell's hand is on the head of the handax at his belt, and the thieves guild bruiser puts his own hand behind his back, but they don't attack you right out of the gates.

"How the fug did you follow me here!?" Garrell hissed.

"Shut up," The bruiser snapped. "That doesn't matter. You guys are trying to get in on the cut, and turn over Old Man Fox? Does Raam know about you? I haven't seen you around Fort Clinton before."

Stephanie's hooks were in. She'd need to do a bit more to sell the scam, but the two men hadn't turned and attacked her outright. She just needed to get them to trust her.

[JbeJ275]

As Barbara heard the gruff voice she slowly began to retreat, she’d not yet had time to reach the interesting details of these thought processes but if they were heading towards someone out here rather than leaving to avoid trouble it was good reason to be suspicious.

Wordlessly, she repeated the earlier gesture with her left hand, signalling her companions while taking a small strip of leather from her belt and pressing it to her shoulder, watching as it transformed into insubstantial Mage Armour.

Then she began to quietly back away, looking for a spot that couldn’t be approached without any enemies bunching close to each other, and preferably one with cover from where they’re emerging now.

[JoyWonderLove]

A nod answered the questions on payment and the guild master. Stephanie slowly revealed her hidden hand to help sooth tensions, and shook the little leather bag innocently. “A small cut, and one that might well fit into this if we don’t attend to details, as you’re wisely trying to hash out. Raam isn’t aware of me, no – an introduction would help ensure there’s no extra complications tonight.” To his point on Fort Clifton, she shrugged non-committally. “Sometimes, it pays not to stand out too much.”

It was then Stephanie finally stepped out from behind the wagon more fully, but made no effort to approach. “Anyway, you’re both right to be angry. For whatever its worth, I only followed Garrel because I banked heavily he had the expertise and connections needed to pull off something like tonight. So far, you’re both exactly what I expected. Name’s Spoiler.”





I’m guessing as a level 4, even with the Thieves Guild and House Kyle occasionally clashing, the Thieves Guild seem to have a lot of enemies, so it’s incredibly unlikely he’ll match the alias up. Now, if this were a narrows Rogue, maybe I’d skip the whole alias thing….

Diplomacy: [roll0]

[hand ax ranger]

From his rooftop vantage point he will peer out and attempt to see through the night to discern what's out there, keeping his crossbow ready to unleasha bolt into the first intruder he see with intent to wound for capture.


[roll0]

[Molan]

Barbara crept back into a nook between the shed and the barrels piled next to it, so that Jason was perched slightly above her, Kate standing at the ready behind and off to her left, and the man coming her direction was coming from the front, around the side of the shed. Jason was unable to see the thug until the last second, when he rounded the corner.

The man was a half orc; he sported long black hair, had a light wooden spiked shield strapped to one arm and a handaxe readied in the other. He wore rough looking hide armor, and was covered in angry looking, crude tattoos.

But when he came around the side of the shed, he didn't see anyone. He peered out, looking curious and suspicious into the night, but he failed to notice Barbara, only a few feet to his left, or Kate, just ahead of him but tucked behind cover, or Jason, who loomed unseen above him from the roof of the shed.

From somewhere behind him, a voice called out in a strained "whisper".

"Yo Dench, what is it? Anyone out there?"

You can take any actions you want, but you're entitled to one additional round of spot and listen checks at this time.

The thugs still look nervous, maybe even hostile...but their guard is lowering. Garrel sighs and holds out his hand, prompting Spoiler to toss the coin purse into it. As he does so, the other man asks, tentatively but interested; "You can show us where the other mercs are? Help us bring the armored one to Raam, we'll cut you in."

[JoyWonderLove]

Stephanie’s blue eyes sparkled with mischief, but instead wagged a finger with the hand that gently clutched the bag. “Uh-uh. You’re supposed to be making me richer, remember?” She lowered her hand to slowly replace the contents into the side of the purple utility deftly, making sure not to rattle the would-be coin purse. The more you doubt the story, the more they’ll doubt the story. Cyrrus’ words gonged in her head like the Gotham Clock Tower, but ignored it. They started to trust her, and she always had the acid test to cinch it later.

“Yeah, no big.” The mercenary answered the guy in charge, and jerked her head back to indicate the way they came. She half turned to see if they intended to follow. The farther out of this warren she could get them, the greater the likelihood they wouldn’t get away. “Though the whole thing would be a lot faster if one of you leads the way instead. But, boss, if you’re coming with, you probably wanna wear something a little more...appropriate to the workplace.” She pointed at his exposed skull and key tattoo.




It was implied in the last text they’re keen to meet the other mercenaries, or something. So I’m guessing I don’t need to actually roll anything special to get us moving. But...

Knowledge: Local to see if I know any customs/traditions for the Fort Clinton/Thieves Guild area. Specifically some that might help ease the obvious Guilder a little more. The Diplomacy check got them neutral (?) so now it’s the old fashioned way of building trust with little things. [roll0]

[Molan]

Garrel withdraws his hand in with a sour expression on his face and shrugs at both of you.

Fine. Let's just go to the water. You lead us to the other mercs we'll lead you to Raam and the crew."

The second man followed him, looking at Spoiler with a smirk in his face and seeming to flex his bicep a bit so that he brandished the illicit guild tattoo even more. It seemed like gangland posturing, as if to say, "The law's got nothing on me, this is my town."

But to Stephanie, all he said was, "Take your time, eh toots?"

The two of them started walking along with Spoiler back towards the waterline.
The Thieves Guild is a massive, far flung organization with chapters all throughout the Empire and beyond. The individual thieves guild chapters are largely independent of each other and have their own territories and operations, but they share some universal customs and avoid infighting with each other where possible. Gotham's Thieves Guild is said to operate on every island, but their presence is strongest in Midtown, where you are now.

Midtown is the centermost of Gotham's three largest, principle islands, and it's divided into a number of neighborhoods. Fort Clinton, the neighborhood where the Merchant's Guild docks are located, is a poor slum, and therefore dangerous and a prime territory for a criminal organization like the Thieves Guild.

The Gotham City Thieves Guild chapter has a Boss, who's name and identity is a mystery to most people. You never got far enough in with them to learn who he is. What you do know is that under the boss are as many as 6-7 underbosses who cut up the rest of the massive metropolis, mostly by Island. Below the Underbosses are the Captains, and each Captain runs either a crew or a "store", hideaways used to store goods, conduct planning and operations, relax, and most of all, buy and sell stolen and illegal goods.

Raam is the thieves guild captain of Fort Clinton. His Underboss is a man named Kysel.

But perhaps most significant of all is your knowledge of thieves guild customs, and it's about to save your life. There is a loose, casual, "in-crowd" call and response custom between Thieves Guild members and their associates. The greeting goes:

"Take your time." and the required response is, "Steal them blind."

Responding to the call words is generally a way to let a guilder know you're "cool", and can at least be somewhat assumed to be trustworthy. It's not a perfect system; the call and response is widely known in places where the Guild operates. But failing to reply correctly, even or especially if the call is given in the casual, offhand manner the guilder just used it, means that you are absolutely *not* cool, and the guilder would likely react with extreme hostility.

[Feathersnow]

Kate channels her psionic powers and attempts to daze the lone orc!

[JoyWonderLove]

“Steal ‘em blind,” Stephanie replied breezily, interlinking her fingers in an overhead stretch. She owed Haley and her entire web of whispers whatever they wanted when she got back. “Really, boss. Here I take the time to stalk your man through the dark to your secret meet and cut a last-second deal on a job you worked over a week to make air-tight, and suddenly you act like you don’t trust me.” She tsked.

Can’t claim it’s all roses on my end, either.

Stephanie mindfully walked beside one of them on their trek back, but always on the out skirt and never between the two. The con was going well, given she was operating solo and had thought through the long term of it about as a well as a Narrow rogue. The nearby stink of a pile of rotting fish made her near nostalgic for the Devilweed she had left behind.

“Look, I get it. My...initiative...isn’t everyone’s style, and the last thing Raam needs is some nobody trying to get in on a delicate operation. But if you grow up on the streets like I have, then you have to decide between risk or remorse. Steal or starve. We all have.” She cracked her neck. It turned out that manipulating potentially violent criminals made her more tense that she initially realized. “How long have you guys been doing this kind of thing? Any plans for your cut at the end of this one? ”





:smalleek:!

Really Glad that score was so ridiculously high….and that I actually read it before replying.

Also, I’m loving how in depth you made the whole setting, Molan. It makes it more fun to have options to try out. :smallbiggrin:

[Molan]

The half-orc "Dench" walks out from behind the shed, and Barbara slinks back into the shadows of the crates and barrels near the shed. Jason looms, unseen overhead, and not far away Kate stands ready to pounce.

Barbara's spell slowly reaches its conclusion, scraping off the surface thoughts of Dench and the other men nearby. Dench snorted, shaking his head, and began to move like he was going to walk back towards his group.

Before he could turn back, Kate stepped out from her hiding spot. Tension built in the air, and the party could feel a sense of vertigo as Kate surged with wild, intense psionic energy. There was a slight "popping" sensation and the psionic power struck Dench, dazing him and knocking him still.


1. Before Kate stepped out and knocked him temporarily senseless, Dench was irritated, but suspicious. He'd been dwelling on himself and his boredom until he'd heard Barbara chanting. He was frustrated that he and his crew had been put on guard duty when the rest of Raam's crew were aboard the "Chraal".

2. A second man was also sulking about being put on guard duty, and was board. But this man also doesn't trust his compatriots very much either, and think's "Raam" is an idiot for keeping them around.

3. A third man has been uncomfortably waiting for a while, out of sight of his comrades. After they heard your chanting, he stayed quiet and out of sight, waiting to see if any potential victims came through their chokepoint. He was eager to hurt someone, and unlike his fellows, hoped that someone would come by to hurt. When they heard your chanting, he hoped Dench failed to come back; you get chills from this man's mind. He doesn't appear to feel emotions the way you do, and is more obsessively interested in seeing things bleed -- whether or not those things are his fellows.

4. There's a fourth mind too, and this one was particularly agitated. He didn't want to be there but wasn't particularly interested in helping Raam or the other men out with their task. He was mostly just cold, and was obsessed with finding a way to turn Raam's raid into profit and benefit for himself. He'd sell his compatriots down river in a heartbeat, and was actively considering ways to do so.

[hand ax ranger]

Red hood will watch form his vantage point to see if this escalates further. assuming more poured out fo the woodwork he'd put a bolt in one and go after the rest with the hammers.

[Feathersnow]

Kate steps out and attempts to wallop the half-orc with the side of her poleaxe.

[roll0] to hit
this counts both the -4 for doing subdual damage with a lethal weapon and the +2 for the Wilder surge

if successfull [roll1] damage

[Molan]

Garrel growled, and replied in an overly deadpan manner.

"Don't know what you mean, I'm an upstanding professional docks guard working for the Guild of Merchants."

The thieves guild tough walking with the snorted in laughter.

"Garrel here's a bit pissy because he's spent too much time working for losers and highborns and he can't get accepted into any legitimate organizations."

"Pfffft. Yea, because squeezing old ladies for their life savings and knocking over House Tetch gold wagons is so fuggin' glamorous."

The guilder chuckled, unperturbed.

"And yet here you are, helpin' us pinch old Fox's last pennies out of this place before we dump his body in a river."

Garrel shrugged.

"I gotta get paid somehow. Plus I'm not goin' out like Torraine."

"I don't you man, that wasn't us."

"Right, sure. I forgot. He was eaten by a giant 'bat monster'."

"Look man, you can crap talk it all you want, but I'm telling you that thing is out there."

"Right. Right. For years some lunatic noble in black armor and bat sigils runs around the city cutting up morons like you, and now a mysterious, hideous bat-looking monster is swooping around at night gobbling folks. It's definitely not just the bloody Dark Knight."

"You can naysay it all you want," the guilder replied. "But you and I both know Torraine wasn't dirty. We tried to flip him against Fox a dozen of times. Dimble and Gohl even went to his apartment. But he never flipped. The Dark Knight only attacks criminals. Face it bud; something killed him, and it wasn't him."

As the two finished their impromptu conversation, you near the waterfront. Somewhere nearby, you thought you hear someone whispering...or chanting.

Make spot and listen checks. Your move!

[Molan]

Kate's halberd smacks Dench across the side of the head; neither his shield nor any reflexes he might have had avail him, being ambushed like that. The halberd strikes true but fails to knock the half orc out.

[JoyWonderLove]

Stephanie hide her intrigue behind half bored glances when they started talking about the missing knight, but didn’t catch herself from an eye roll when they mentioned a giant bat monster. The single dumbest alibi I have ever heard in my entire life. A flock of bats screeched their protest from far across the night sky, wheeling towards Uptown, but even at a squint, none of them looked the size of a wagon with wings, and she had never seen a single dire bat despite stealing in Gotham her entire life. Just let them keep talking. The less I have to say, the more this hustle works. Then they stopped but a quiet muttering carried on into the quiet. Memories of the Mage’s College made her tense, and she scanned her surroundings suspiciously.





There’s at least one wizard, and I would prefer not to get hit by a spell.

Total defence AC, if possible: 23 (with uncanny dodge and +2 from Tumble).

Otherwise, back near the waterfront and out of the outside dungeon? It’s time for Take 10. :smallsmile:
Take 10 Spot: 16.
Take 10 Listen: 16.

[JbeJ275]

Barabara springs forward from her crouching position, trying to move to surround the half orc and bring her sap down over his head.


Hit: [roll0]
(-2AC for me)
Damage: [roll1]

[Molan]

Barbara's swing missed; the half orc was too big and his shield side was facing Barbara, giving her a difficult angle to strike his head. He blinked, staggered and hurt, as he tried to recover from the daze.

Around the corner you can hear someone suddenly say, "What the hell was that?" followed by the sound of footsteps.

Stephanie hears a noise from over the next stack of crates, nearer to the water. Garrel and the thief heard it too. Abruptly, someone calls out, "What the hell was that?"

Garrel draws his handaxe, and the thief draws a long knife from his belt.

"That's Renk and Dench."

"Sounds like trouble." Garrel replied.

"Come on," the thief snarled. He looked at Stephanie. "You too. Let's go see what's going on."

You've already got your listen result. Spot check failed to reveal anything pertinent.

[JbeJ275]

Barabara moves forward past the dazed half orc to the corner, and readies a handful of dyed powders in her off hand, preparing to unleash a Colour Spray on the thugs as they round this corner to buy time for those behind her to finish off their previous oponent.



Will save DC 17, effect is HD dependent found here: https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/colorSpray.htm

[Molan]

Two more thugs round the corner. One's a human carrying a pair of punching daggers at the ready, and not far behind him is a half elf wearing brigantine and carrying a bow.

They barely had time to register Kate's dark, looming armored presence before they were blasted with a burst of color from Barbara's spell. A prismatic cone splashed outward from the shadows where she was hiding, catching Dench at one extreme limit of it's reach and the half elf at the other, with the human caught in the middle.

The spell is a spectacular success -- none of the thugs manage to resist it. Their weapons clattered to the ground, and they cursed and yelped and wretched as the arcane energy stunned and blinded them. In a flash, Barbara had temporarily incapacitated the entire group.

[Feathersnow]

Kate realizes they are probably not going to be able to end this the easy way and uses the opportunity to activate her dorje.
A fluttering bat of ectoplasm emerges, acting as a shield.

[JbeJ275]

We've got maybe twenty seconds to put them down, then we need to look for the Chraal. That's where there boss is, strike fast as you can. One more guy was with them, but he might have fled.

While quickly passing information on to her teammates Barabara reached once more for her sap, charging at the human, judging a bow easier to kick aside than daggers if it came down to it.

Sap:
[roll1d20+3[/roll]
[roll0] Nonlethal

[Feathersnow]

Kate begins a grapple of the helpless half-orc.

[roll0]

[JoyWonderLove]

Stephanie nodded sharply at the order, knowing it had to be the thieves tussling with Fox’s forces. Popping a gloved hand into the front of her belt, she indulged in the smooth stone between her fingers. She would attempt salvaging the con long enough to disrupt the Thieves Guild across all Midtown, or ensure someone got an earful for screwing it up. The two thugs advance ahead of her, only to be completely engulfed in a twisting psychedelia cone of light and noise. They were left on the floor groaning and disorientated. Her jaw gapped at the power display.

No thunderstone did that.

“Big picture, people! Big. Picture.” Spoiler poked her head around the corner, putting the little pebble away to stab her sai accusingly at the back of the muscular, scarred man first, his axe wielding associate second, then herself finally. “He’s our contact, Garrel’s a guard, and I got us a meet with the big guy running all Middtown! Raam’s here, and damn sure leaves if we off his crew!”



DC 15 gets a basic message across. DC 20 a complex one. But we’re technically in combat now, so I can’t just take 10, although I’m guaranteed to get a basic message across at least.

Bluff: [roll0]

Simple Message: Thieves Guild guy, Garrel’s guilty, Raam elusive.

Complex Message: We can completely disrupt the Thieves Guild in all Middtown, tonight, if we let them lead us to Raam.

You three basically just won the fight, so it’s kinda in your hands what you want. :smallbiggrin:

[JbeJ275]

With the interruption, Barbara turned on her heel towards the new face. Then quickly stilled as new secretive information was carefully and quickly decoded. While sliding over to pick up the dropped weapons from the stunned thugs she retorted at the new figure.

I know Raam doesn't have the most professional outfit on this coast, but if this is who you spoke about working with we're gonna have our share of issues. Sulky brats and rabid dogs, I hope whoever we're meeting next isn't the sort to end up blind, divested of thier weapons and smelling faintly of urine within ten seconds of a fight starting or this is gonna be more work than most of this type can afford. But you've been competent enough so far so I'll let you lead the way.

Speaking of which.... Selavish Nayta Pyrin.
Barbara intones in time with the blindness fading, hopefully giving an impression of much more skill with the arcane than she currently possesses.

[Feathersnow]

Without missing a beat, Kate drops Dench and falls into line behind Barbara.

[hand ax ranger]

Jason will move in on Barbara seeing as they solved the issue thus far, having no further comment on the situation. He does remain ready for more of the punks to pop out so he could put theses hammers to work.

[JoyWonderLove]

Oh, she’s good.

Relief registered on the vigilante’s face when they agreed, before Spoiler’s brows furrowed at how the slender woman in a bat mask took to the con like a knife to an artery. The capped costume might even have looked cute if she wasn’t strolling about the disabled thugs and collecting their weapons like an annoyed older sister cleaning up after her bratty little brothers. The towering mountain of steel fell in line with the mage, silent, the pike in his hand a silent promise of violence.

Really good. See, this is exactly why people join gangs. I was so busy conning the Thieves Guild I didn’t think who I’d actually need to clinch it. Cyrrus, I’ll never doubt you again.

Spoiler took dainty steps around the site of the skirmish. She faced the two men that had went ahead of her. “Boss, sorry about this huge screw up. We heard the Kyle gang might make a move tonight, so everyone’s on edge. Hard to tell who the hell is who in the dark.” She turned briefly to the dark steel mountain, and her left hand deliberately rubbed the sheathed edge of her dagger and stared directly into the visor. Glancing down where the taken weapons were not too long ago, she continued calmly. “Not sure why Sir Knight has thrown in with us, but it's still going to plan. Batgirl getting up her loins aside. Anyway, we just made a **** ton of noise, and Garrel's the only one that has sway with the other guards. You think you can put them at ease? My crew can make up for this. Do the heavy lifting.”

Spoiler had no idea what it was like being in the middle of that rainbow burst, but she didn’t envy the three that went through it. She frowned at the tattooed man despite it being covered by the mask. “Even take a smaller cut than mentioned. We still good for Raam?” Every hustle had its risks.



1) Move action to stand before Garrel/Thief Guild Guy. Preferably between the muscly guy and our mage, just in case. I can technically draw a sai during.

2) Free action ask Garrel to both cover for us and relax playing cards with the guards. Keep the alarm low.

3) Standard action total defence. AC 23.

Bluff to Knight in Brooding Armor: A 15 is guaranteed, so I’ll Simple Message this: Hidden danger. They want you.

Sense Motive Knight in Brooding Armor: [roll0]
Sense Motive Dangerous Girl In Cute Mask: [roll1]

[JbeJ275]

Barbara continued letting her bored expression saturate her face as these new arrivals filtered in and found their feet. Waiting for her divinations to reveal all they could rather than risking anything by opening her mouth too early. Still, knowing at least one more of these thugs was out there she sent a mental signal to her familar. Find the one that's missing. Then refocused on those in front of her.

She and I have an accord on this and she's always played it straight before. She said her eyes indicating Spoiler as the relevant target of her trust. Though learning that this... miscommunication was allowed in hardly endearing, she still speaks for me in this place. So then, shall we go speak to Raam and try not to waste to much more of tonight on needless confusion. Where re we heading off to?





Taking 10 on bluff to pass to Kate.

This one (Spoiler) is on the same side as us. Are you capable of some careful deciet?

[Feathersnow]

The grim figure nods once and gestures for the others to lead the way.

[Molan]

Garrel looked eager to leave. Whatever the thieves had been doing waiting along the docks, this whole thing had turned into more of a mess then he'd been interested in signing up for.

"I'll go make sure no one heads over this way," he mumbled. "just uh...try to keep it the fug down will you?"

The thief who'd walked there with Garrel and Stephanie sucked in air over his teeth and shook his head.

"You're useless you know that?"

Garrel snorted. "I don't need this crap. Good luck idiots."

Garrel marched back east towards the Guildhouse.

Meanwhile, the energies from Barbara's spell began to wear off on the three thieves who'd been unfortunate enough to get caught up in it. They were, unsurprisingly, furious.

"What the fuggin' hell is this!?" Dench snarled.

The man who'd been carrying punching daggers worked to pick himself up off of the ground.

"Rickus, why the hell haven't you stabbed any of these scumrats? And who the hell is this!?" he gestured to Stephanie.

"Rickus" waved a hand at him, seeming unimpressed.

"You know you morons are about as useful as Garrel? How the hell did you get bushwacked by a bunch of mercs anyway? Your whole job was to bushwhack them when they came by. Anyway you're in luck. Fox hired these footpads to break up the raid, but they'd rather get paid then wind up in a gutter. And now that I'm here, they won't kill you for getting in their way. Probably."

They dusted themselves off, and glared at Barbara, who was standing between them and their weapons. Rickus has clearly bought Stephanie's line, but the thieves who'd been attacked weren't so sure.

"The fug are you all anyway?" Dench growled.

"You gonna give us our weapons back?" the human added.

The half elf who'd carried the bow didn't say anything, but he looked cagey and suspicious, though he didn't challenge what his fellow thugs were saying.

Rickus turned his eyes to Kate, and his expression soured.

"And uh, what about you, huh big guy? You decided to join the winning team too?"

There was something about the way Rickus spoke that seemed to be a signal to the other thieves. The three of them turned to glare at Kate at the same time.

Julius takes flight, flitting off into the night to look for the missing thief. You can feel his eagerness, but after a couple of minutes go by he still hasn't returned. Even as the distance between you lengthens, you can still feel his dogged persistence as he tries to satisfy your request.

Detect Thoughts

All of the thieves you stunned are angry, startled, and apprehensive. Their thoughts come to you in a rush as they're propelled around their heads bg adrenaline.

Dench: He'd prefer to just deck you and take his weapons back. He's big and powerful and he sees you as a small, weak victim, if only he had the opportunity. You get the sense that he's solved most of his problems in life through violence, and it's hard for him to see other alternatives. But he's generally afraid that Kate will hack him open if he tries. He was planning on ambushing whoever came along the docks from the direction of the Guildhouse; Raam had sent him out here with his crew for exactly that purpose, so being ambushed himself has left him feeling vulnerable. He gets angry when he's vulnerable.

Rickus seems to have thrown him off, though. The human thief implied he'd failed his task and embarrassed himself. That makes Dench much more cagey. Reputation is everything in the thieves guild (and on the streets of Gotham more generally), and the idea that he might now be seen as weak has paralyzed his thoughts. He's not spending much time or effort considering whether the explanation that you all are turncoats makes sense.

"Daggers": the human who's follows Dench into your trap is similarly furious, but more so at Dench then at you. He immediately started feeling like their predicament was Dench's fault, not just because they got ambushed but because they were on guard duty in the first place. "daggers" is sure that the thieves who got to join Raam on the docks or even just guarding Pier 42 are going to get an unfair cut of the spoils.

"Half-Elf": He shares a lot of Dench and "Daggers":s feelings, but he's squirrlier and scares more easily and wants desperately to get out of this situation. He doesn't like any fight that isn't unfair and would prefer to rob defenseless victims than ones who fight back. But more than that, he's preoccupied with someone named "Holt". Specifically "Where the fug is Holt? Where'd he go??"

Rickus: His thoughts are only now just beginning to bubble to the surface, but you can't read them. Seeing him you can feel that his consciousness is present, but it is shrouded from you completely.

[Feathersnow]

"That'd be redundant. Whatever team I'm on is the winning team. Lucky for you, I pick wisely."

Kate says this matter of factly, ignoring the act they all thought "she" was a "he." That they now probably know better might put them off balance and sell the intimidation, or it might make them doubt her. Either way, it was of minor importance. They'd take her to the thieves guild, one way or the other.

[roll0] Intimidate

[Molan]

Rickus looks appropriately impressed, and the half elf is downright cowed, backing away towards the edge of the brackish water beneath the docks, putting every inch of space between himself and Kate as possible.

But Dench and the Punching Daggers Human just look angry, if a bit surprised.

" You're a woman?" the half orc snarls. "Grummsh's eye. You don't scare me hag."

He stares at Barbara, fuming but fundamentally helpless given his missing gear and Kate's nearby halberd.

"You stupid fairies were lucky you caught us by surprise. You wouldn't last two minutes against Raam."

"Twelve above who fuggin' cares." Rickus sighed. "You idiots got handled. Deal with it. This night's already turning into a way bigger pain in the arse than I ever woulda thought. We did what we needed to do -- Fox's mercs aren't going to disrupt the job. Let's just go find Raam and the others and see what he wants to do."

Rickus looks pointedly at Stephanie.

"Who knows, maybe he'll cut you in for helping us out." he said. "Or maybe he'll split you open and hang your corpses from the mainmast so Old Fox finally gets the fuggin' message. Let's go find out."

With that, Rickus turns and walks off, putting his back towards the assembled thieves and adventurers.

" Pier's this way." he calls back.

Julius returns, his subsonic chirping ticking the back of your neck. He doesnt land though; you can hear him chittering as he flutters up above you but he seems to feel too urgently to settle back down. You get the distinct sense that he found what you were looking for, but he's eager, earnest, and perhaps even frustrated. He wants to go back and watch whoever it is. You get a flash of instinct, as though Julius was insisting "[B]He's going that way! Julius wants you to follow him west.

[JbeJ275]

"More fool you then if you're stupid as well as weak. And fair fights are for princesses and castles, so go play with fairies of your own if you think that whining is going to help you here. With that she met Dench's eyes, smiling with an unusually vulpine grin. For a few long seconds, Barabara waits to see if he responds.


"Anyway, you all have bigger problems for the moment. If we're going to find Raam, I'm going to swing by and pick up that Holt cur on the way, you're welcome to come with if you think Raam would like a coward and a turncoat to nail to the wall."


Trying to provoke Garret into attacking without support if possible, giving us an excuse to knock out a thug before we leave. Do I need to rol anything for that?

Taking all out defense.



"They're not wrong you know. Though in this case the class of opposition might have a little bit more to do with her good odds, while I take care of the finer arts it's good to have actual competent fighters at your back. With that she met Dench's eyes, smiling with an unusually vulpine grin. For a few long seconds, Barabara waits to see if he responds.


"Anyway, you all have bigger problems for the moment. Which one of you thugs is Holt? And what does the Dark Market give to turncoats these days?


Trying to provoke Garret into attacking without support if possible, giving us an excuse to knock out a thug before we leave. Do I need to rol anything for that?

Taking all out defense.

[JoyWonderLove]

Stephanie watched Garrel stomp off with triumph in her heart, concealed by looking away from the awkward confrontation. Luckily the downed goons were soon roused and soon berating the people that beat humility into them. She winked when the downed human asked of her, but Rickus coordinated his unarmed thugs with another coded message – this one against the knight. Before there was need to speak up, the knight – a woman – voiced the subtlest hint of a threat. It was clearly not wise to press their luck here; the half elf and Rickus appreciated that differently.

A stand-off happened then, with the woman knight and Batgirl on one end, and the emasculated and disarmed thieves on the other. Her two impromptu partners were safe. A stab of sympathy for the fearful half elf had Stephanie sidle nearby him. Watching the drama unfold between the four of them, she spoke in a whisper of elven, standing sidelong next to the unarmed archer.

“Listen carefully. You’re not getting that bow back. You’re not getting calmer around the knight. And you’re not getting any sympathy from the captain when Rickus won’t even tell strangers not to finish you. Raam seems a little less understanding than that. This evening isn’t over for you; Midtown is. Unless...you know who your friends are.” She handed the half-elf a stone when the half-orc accused the odd female duo as fairies. “Thunderstone. Ten feet radius. You nail the next guy to take a swing at me, when I’ve made some room, and I’ll pull strings so you get a better gig than ambushes and abuse.”

Stephanie took a deliberate step away from the half-elf then, looking as unassuming as a dock crate. Rickus was halfway through his rant, and blue eyes refocused on the vruiser fully when he finally spoke to her directly. Her crew of would-be thieves would either get a cut of the spoils, or be cut open. The Thieves Guild were a lot more cut-throat than House Kyle, that much was obvious. She nodded slowly, before following after Rickus, the wizard saying something about a Holt.

“Boss, we leave those four starring into each others eyes all night long, they’ll get handsy again before midnight, or too distracted to do anything useful. It’ll screw up the job either way.” She tapped her dagger helpfully, and nodded at the human that had lost his own to the unknownable Batgirl. “Let me give the baby back his buy-in. The sooner he stops crying, the sooner we all go home richer. What’s his name?”



Take 10 on Diplomacy to the half elf. Result 28. He should at least be friendly now? So I hope that ‘chuck this rock at whoever is a jerk to me when I give space’ counts as limited help.

Asked Rickus what Dagger Human Guy’s name is.

Take 10 on K: Local. Do I know anything about Raam? Preferably his fighting style, but whatever really. Result 20.

[Molan]

The man flipped, and hurled into a series of curses and threats at Barbara. But he refrained from trying to strike her -- he was still well inside the reach of Kate's halberd. The half orc snarled at him, clearly eager to find their compatriots and move on.

"Shut up. They're not worth it. Let Raam sort them out. he nodded at the party. "His name is Renk. And there was no one else here with us, so I don't know what you're talking about. Are we good here?"

With that, the half-orc started off after Rictus and Renk and the half elf eventually followed suit. The party shared a brief look between each other, as if to say, "Whelp, we're in it now." Before following the thieves down the docks.

Some thieves guild captains are run of the mill mobsters. Others are accomplished footpads and sneak thieves or experienced con men. Raam is none of those things. He's a violent half-giant bruiser who runs the Fort Clinton Slums through fear, intimidation and protection rackets. It's rumored that he carries a huge exotic sword, and some rumors even claim that he's psychic.

Dench is actively hoping that when you reach Pier 42, someone named "Ghol" will decide to kill you and bring your corpses to Raam rather than cutting you in, but he's not willing to put himself at risk to that end. Ghol is guarding the end of the pier with 3 other thugs; apparently one of them is a mage and a bit of a sociopath.

Renk hopes the same but his animosity is split between you and Dench for putting him in this situation. But he trusts Rictus; if Rictus says you're cool he's less concerned about getting killed. By you, at least.

The half elf feels better now that Spoiler calmed him down. He's hoping once you meet Ghol and the thieves outnumber you again he'll feel better, but he clutches the Thunderstone Spoiler gave him tightly in his fist, ready to chuck it and run if things go south. If it comes to a fight, he's more likely to be a hindrance to his friends than you at this point.

Rictus' mind remains closed to you, and you lost the missing mind completely.

Julius however is not. At the edge of your empathic link you can feel him chasing his target. The missing thief is moving the same direction as you, west, but he's ahead of you. At this rate he'll reach Ghol and the others at the end of the pier first.

As the party marches forward, you can see the market about fifty yards or more ahead marking your destination. Pier 42. Somewhere off in the water to your left, the Chraal is docked, and Raam and his thieves are almost certainly aboard. You still have some time before you reach the pier, but not much. If you have Any checks or prep you want to do before you arrive, now's the time.

[JbeJ275]

Barbara looks derisively at the half orcs insistence as she continues on, and looks meaningfully towards both Kate and the Red Masked Mercenary with a more hesitant one to Spoiler as well. While walking she continues shooting scarely vieled barbs at the previous thugs, and when they next express irritation uses that as cover for the next part of her organising.

"Well, if the children can't abide some harsh judgements, I wouldn't want to expose them to any more unkindness. Let me just confer with the proper people more privately."


With that she sidled up closer to Kate, and now with an excuse, and her eyes locked on the thugs to further distract attention reached up to whisper into her ear.

"Same mark as earlier, hit those few who are still armed first then it'll be our job to get clear of the scene before any reinforcements show up. Gonnna have red over there draw them out, then we hit the depleted guard after. You ready for this?"

Such was followed only by waiting for any reply and chuckling at the half orc again before she went to the red masked merc and repeated her scheme.

"Gonna take them out before they group up, same hand sign as earlier. Once we've dropped any with weapons can you get the rest moving away from the pier with enough noise to draw others out from there then get them lost in the city? You seem capable enough. Ready to play that game."

Once recieving a reply there she finally silded up to Stephanie, pulling her just a few steps away from the criminal she was walking beside before passing on. "Time to show your colours, I'll point with thumb and pinky when it's time to drop anyone still armed. With the names and details we got we can talk our way in amongst the pier guards, especially once some have been drawn off. You ready?"


Once they've all had due chance to object she waits until they're the right distnce from the docks, needling the initial thugs while she does. Hoping to provoke an outburst and an excuse to thin the herd early. Deliberatey ensuring Kate was not between her and he unarmed thug, in the hope that this slight reduction in fear would allow his bravado to win and using what she read from his thoughts to further refine her taunts.


Diplomacy: Now over an appropriate time frame: [roll0]


If that succeeds, this is the readied action.

Failing that, she simply waits until they're in the appropriate place, then strides forward to strike Rickus over the head with a sap.

[roll1]
[roll2]

[Feathersnow]

As Barbara begins the escalation, Kate uses her dorje a second time.

Finally. Something I'm good at.

[JoyWonderLove]

=On the walk to the pier=

Stephanie looked nonchalant when Rickus kept them moving, and picked a pace to fall in line with the two strangers that had a personal vendetta against the knight and wizard pair she had thrown in with. She smiled as innocently at them as the sheathed sap and dagger at her hips allowed.

“Renk. Dench,” the vigilante started amiably. “They call me Spoiler. Look, sorry for not telling the others to lay off sooner. We could have avoided the whole thing if I had hashed out details quicker and saved everyone a headache. ” She grimaced at the admittance. “Like yourselves, I’m a professional at acquiring excess goods. But as much as I want into the Guild, too much has gone wrong tonight to run my mouth about a cut. Raam will know who deserves what.”

Stephanie gave an unimpressed glance at Rickus’ back as he led the way, and the wizard that kept provoking them. She had to at least appear on the side of the thugs. “Still, I don’t know why the boss calls you two idiots all the time; it’s pretty street smart going for an ambush. Never mind brave, if you’re still throwing barbs when you ain’t even armed. You must be among Rickus’ best men.” She paused, letting the lapping of the tide, the flitter of distant bat wings, and the lightest crackle of torch flames better sell the soothing point for her.

She lowered her voice noticeably, keeping it within earshot of Renk and Dench. “So – why’d he have no prob letting strangers decide if we gut you like seabass or not? I don’t care that he pissed off our major in with the guards tonight; only you two can tell me if that puts this whole damn operation in jeopardy or not. But my big concern is to get in, and only you two know Rickus and the captain well. He’s not gonna blame all the screw ups tonight on us if we don’t hash this out before the Chraal, right?”



On the walk to the pier, kind of like earlier when it was Garrel and Rickus talking, only I’m trying to add spices to the pot. Obviously attempt winning them to my ‘side’ and redirect their anger against Rickus/preferably away from Batgirl/Her Knight In Mate Armour.

Take 10 Bluff: 24
Take 10 Diplomacy: 28.



=Near to pier 42=

They arrived close to pier 42, and Stephanie felt herself tightening up. Knowing herself well enough, it was time to give the two strangers an out of her schemes if they wanted it, and consider if she didn’t want out herself. They had the Thieves' location, and that was a fair place to cut the con. The uncanny wizard and quiet knight were ahead of her on that. When Batgirl came close and explained escalating the situation, she nodded non-committally, as if only the mundane was said. She drew her sai – the least threatening weapon on her person – and started needling it softly into her neck like an impromptu neck massager. Meeting a Thieves’ Guild captain was stressful even without first starting a fight outside of his place of operations alongside total strangers.

[Molan]

As the party neared Pier 42 and Barbara and Stephanie continued to cajole and taunt the thieves back and forth, the situation finally deteriorated beyond repair.

"You know what? That's about enough." Renk snarled. He turned and hurled a fist at Barbara's head.

Rictus turned around, drawing his dagger, a confused look on his face. "The fug'r you morons doing!" He demanded. But he'd lost control of the room too. Dench spat in his directly and wound up a haymaker for his boss. Renk's fist swung wide of Barbara's face, but the half-orcs meating fist slammed straight into Rictus' nose, prompting a howl of anger and a fountain of blood.

The thieves had turned on each other -- they were too confused, scared (of their boss and the party both, it seemed) and angry to think clearly. The half elf saw everything going south and promptly bolted, not towards Pier 42 but back towards the city, away from the docks.

The red helmed mercenary that'd been traveling with them nodded at Barbara and took off, not after the half elf, but after their missing thief. It wasn't long before the party could hear some shouting a couple dozen yards away from them, along with the barking of an angry dog. Whatever the red helmed man did now, they'd have to hope for the best.

With only three thieves and three party members left, the numbers of the fight were about even, but the odds were far from it. Jason had bought the group some time to avoid being noticed, but they had to down the three thieves before they sounded an alarm. However Dench and Renk were unarmed, and not especially trained to fight with their fists against armed opponents, and they'd turned on Rictus, who wore no armor and carried only a dagger.

There was a window, but it was a narrow one.

Same initiative order, you guys go first. Thieves got a surprise round. Go!

[Feathersnow]

Kate uses daze on Renk, over-channeling to provide a boost for combat in the next round, even though the brute probably doesn't need it.


Daze cast at effective power 3 for 1 pp

[roll0] need 11 or higher to avoid enervation

Either way, Renk suffers the effect of Psionic daze if he is 6HD or lower unless he succeds a DC 14 will save

[JoyWonderLove]

=Fight, round 1=

Stephanie quickly darted behind the bulky leader. “I’m with ya, Dench!” she cheered the half-orc on, and swung her sai at the back of Rickus’ head. “Kick his ass.”



Because you gave us initiative, a sneak attack damage is certain (thankfully). But first:

1, Move action behind Rickus to ideally block any chance of running away, but also flank preferably with the half-orc (and/or Oracle) for the next round.

2, Standard action attack.

Attack accuracy: [roll0] (+9 normally, +2 with flank)
Sai damage: [roll1]
Sneak attack damage: [roll2]

[Molan]

Rickus hit the docks like a sack of bricks, knocked completely out cold. Dench's fist had smacked his head backwards and straight into Oracle's sap. He staggered forward and Spoiler struck him one last time, sending him face down into the boards.

There was another burst of odd tension in the air and, for the second time in less than an hour, Kate blasted one of the thieves with a psychic thrust, Dazing Renk and preventing him from taking any further swings, at least for a brief moment.

Dench looked around, still breathing heavily, his blood pumping, and took in the situation. He was unarmed and suddenly surrounded. Spoiler had done a good job acting as an ally, and she'd been pretty convincing. But the night had more or less gone tits up for him, and things were starting to look pretty dire. He glared at Spoiler.

"You really want in? Prove it. Help me bring these dregs in front of Raam so he can rip them up."

With that, he wound up a really heavy, reckless swing and swung his fist at Barbara, smashing it straight into her chest.

Woof. That worked better than I thought, sorry JB lol. You take 10 nonlethal damage from Dench's punch.

[JoyWonderLove]

=Fight, round 2=

Winching at the wizard taking a blow right to the breast, Stephanie moved up behind the half orc. “Or – we become his new crew to replace you three.” She aimed her sai at the shoulder blade of his dominant hand.




1, Move action behind Dench to flank with Oracle before she does anything?

2, Standard action attack.

Attack accuracy: [roll0] (+9 normally, +2 with flank)
Sai damage: [roll1]
Sneak attack damage: [roll2]

[Molan]

Spoiler's sai slid straight through the thick layer of muscle covering Dench's shoulder blade and landed home, ripping a nasty hole in his back. He snarled in agony, clutching in vain for a wound he couldn't reach. He stumbled a bit; Barbara and Kate had already landed a few decent blows to his head not too long ago, and the combined punishment looked like it was beggining to catch up to him.

[JbeJ275]

Barbara withdraws 30ft away from the fight, wheezing and spluttering.

[Feathersnow]

Kate attempts to take down Renk, the last standing thief, by wallopping him on the side of his head with a pole are.

To hit (-4 for using a weapon for subdual, +2 for euporia) [roll0]
If successful [roll1]

Kate then takes a 5 foot step closer so the thief will provoke if he runs.

[Molan]

Kate's swing misses, though Renk is still dazed.

Dench was struggling, but he wasn't out yet. He swung around and tried decking Spoiler the same way he'd slammed Oracle, with a nasty haymaker.

Spoiler'd done well avoiding trouble up to that point, but once the big half orc swung around, there was nowhere to hide. His fist smashed the side of her face, staggering her back towards the water.

Whoof. Sorry guys. That's two high attack rolls in a row. Stephanie takes 10 nonlethal damage. Kate would have torn Renk up pretty good, but her halberd missed.

[JbeJ275]

Still winded but more on her feet than before, Barbara steps forward, pulls a crossbow and shoots at the raging half orc.

Attack: [roll0]
Damage: [roll1]+ [roll2]

[JoyWonderLove]

=Fight, round 3=

Diamonds dancing around her gaze, copper to the taste, and the twang and sloosh of a bolt gone wide sounding somewhere behind, Stephanie dimly noted the water behind her back. The occupied knight and wizard with a crossbow – a universal sign in all arcana that she was empty. “Estanna,” the Gothamite girl intoned quietly, then sprung up and forward, pressed down unto Dench’s shoulders like a rickety podium, and somersaulted over his thick head. Landing heavier than she liked, she darted forward to flank the human the knight duelled.



HP: 24 max. 10 nonlethal damage.
AC: 17.

Tumble: [roll0] (15 and above means it all goes well)

1, Move action to ‘tumble’ away from the half orc and flank the dazed human. Flank with knight so we both get an accuracy boost and I can sneak attack again.

2, Standard action attack the human.

Attack accuracy: [roll1] (+9 normally, +2 with flank)
Sai damage: [roll2]
Sneak attack damage: [roll3]

[Feathersnow]

Kate steps back and tries again to club the man with the side of her poleaxe.


[roll0] (+1 euphoria, +2 flanking, -4 subdual)
[roll1] If successful

Note- I misread the euphoria feature. It is a +1 for two rounds, not a +2 for one round. This mistake seems to have had no effect on game play, but I am correcting it going forward.

[Molan]

Dench had had enough. Spoiler's sai rammed into his back a second time, opening another bleeding wound. He groaned, staggered forward, and jumped -- or, perhaps more accurately, fell -- into the dark water below.

Renk took the blow from Kate's halberd hard. The effects from her psionic attack wore off, and Renk spat blood and shook his head, overwhelmed from the repeated attacks. He looked around, saw that he was alone and surrounded, and dropped to a knee, holding his hands up.

"Alright, alright! I give up! Just don't hurt me. The hell is wrong with you skags."

[Feathersnow]

"Nothing wrong. Fox hired me to take down the Thieves' Guild and requested prisoners instead of corpses. You are just lucky enough to be at the front of the line."

She tosses minty cream potions to the others.

[JbeJ275]

Barbara nods gratefully at Kate, then drinks the minty potion, then withdraws a length of Silken Rope from her belt and passes a length to Stephanie.

"You look like you know how to use this more than I do, make sure they can't move and then we'll get them the right distance from the pier."

She then turns to Kate and continues.

"Maybe help me fish the swimmer out of the water? I doubt I could do it under my own strength but you seem much more capable and it'd be a shame to lose track of one. Then once we've got them tied we can figure out how to approach the next group. We probaly know enough now to convince them long enough to get in the best position to start bringing them down, maybe seperate them somewhat as well."

If Kate is ammenable she'll go over to the waters edge, and offer the swimming man a rope up if he'd take it, and a vauge gesture with her crossbow to indicate what would happen if he didn't.

[Molan]

There was a tug on the rope, and from out of the murky darkness in the water below, Dench reemerged, now shivering, near unconsciousness and utterly defeated. He was incredibly heavy. Without Kate's help Oracle would never have been able to pull him out.

Once the soggy half orc was back on the dock, he and Renk stayed down. Renk had given up any attempts to resist, Rickus was still unconscious and Dench was teetering on the edge of passing out himself. Whatever else had just happened with the Red Hood down at Pier 42 aside, the immediate danger to the party was over.

The three women stood over their vanquished foes. Kate stood calmly and undaunted as ever, while Spoiler and Oracle were both still partially recovering from the brutal strikes Dench had given them before he'd fallen in the water.

Out of the darkness of the evening, there was an almost imperceptible flutter of wings. Julius returned, and landed on Oracle's shoulder.

Julius seems happy, even excited. You don't know exactly what he "saw", or more accurately heard, over at Pier 42, but his positive mood lifts your spirits. You're sure that the thief you sent him to find is not lost -- though whether that's because he stopped moving or was defeated by the Red Hood, you have no idea. He's seen some other's too, and you get the sense he knows they're hostile, but he's still relieved. There was some danger, some priority threat over at Pier 42 that had scared the little bat, and whoever or whatever it was is now apparently gone or moved on.

[JoyWonderLove]

Seeing the half orc stagger after using his body for a gymnastic prop, Stephanie knew then her weight had been too taxing for him after all his injuries. He dropped off into the waves below. Thinking him surely dead, his friend immediately surrendered. An aching jaw and taste of blood lingered in sharp reminder why she had made a habit of avoiding brawls. Catching the green elixir pulled her from her thoughts, but she coyly delayed drinking until seeing the others do it themselves. After a surreptitious sniff at the odourless content, she turned herself enough away to allow herself to swish the healing potion in her stinging mouth before downing blood and potion in one. The mask was fully replaced when she turned back.

“Thanks for that. Did House Kane hook you up with a squire to help hold the fort as well?”

The con artist otherwise went uncharacteristically quiet when the second stranger asked her to tie them up, and she grasped the silken rope as the hand of a cheating spouse. Had the wizard not then tossed a line in an attempt to save the half-orc’s life, she would have listened to a quiet doubting voice saying the three thieves had been divided and unarmed, and still gave a strong reply. They weren’t taking Raam in a fair fight at all. She nodded approvingly when they somehow retrieved the exhausted half orc. Adrenaline fading, she reluctantly went to the unconscious man first, knelt down, and made two identical loops for Rickus’ hands at his back. Overlapping, looping, tightening, doubts softened as the handcuff knot formed. Two overhand knots finished it.

Stephanie moved over to dejected man second slowly, dagger to cut the rope in one hand, silken thread in the other. If they get arrested, they either fill some Justiciar’s palm to get out early, or we hope they’re so poor enough they’re easy targets to be beaten down for failing Raam later. That little helps anyone. She made a showing of circling and kneeling down in front of the human.

“Fox can get all the info he needs from Rickus’, the closest medical care for your buddy is with the Merchants, and working through Gotham’s gauntlet in your state is craving a knife to the kidneys.” She didn’t know how else to describe the lawless twisting nether of gangs that took over the nightlife at ground level every evening. Even for a Midtown thief, it was dangerous for Renk to limp around in his state. Only rooftops were mostly safe.

“You’ve got nothing if the knight hauls you in. But you get to Fox on your own two feet, sell Garrel to that old man like a dull knife to a haemophiliac, and warn about the Chraal? You got a solid shot at getting Dench the care he needs right now, and an easy bargain for Lord Fox’s protection. Anything less, and you’re done.”

Stephanie fixed the Midtown man with a steady gaze. Whatever else she made of most nobles in Gotham, no one that knew Lucius’ decades long record could question that the lesser lord knew how to protect his assets and thrive in the face of Raam.

“Meanwhile, we could use any details you can give us about the Chraal. Crew size, traps, any hostages? That kinda thing.”



Result 28.

There’s probably important stuff to ask but I’m feeling OOC tired. I’m guessing for now that K: Local could at least tell me that the knight with the bat sigil is from house Kane. If not I’ll edit out later.

[Molan]

Renk shook his head, looking miserable.

"Look, it was supposed to be a quick smash and grab, okay? Garrel told Rickus that Fox was trying to move mage-paper overnight, so Raam took the whole crew out to pick it clean. That crap's stupid expensive, double so on the streets. Once we moved it we'd all have been set for life, and Fox'd be out of business for good.

The only thing is, we knew Fox knew people would be gunning for this haul. So they blend the mage-paper crates in with the rest of the regular cargo. Takes time to find all the right boxes. So Raam sent me, Dench, Holt and Esken to ambush anyone who came over this way. Then he sent Ghol and his buddies to guard the entrance to the pier. They're the ones you gotta worry about. Eberk'll know you're coming from at least a dozen yards off -- he likes to set trip wires up so they'll know if anyone's coming, and that dog of his can usually smell you before you see em. Plus Aust is a real piece of work; I've seen him burn people's homes down when they didn't pay protection.

Anyway, even if you got past them, that leaves Raam and six of his men on the Chraal finishing up the job. It's too many for you three. No offense."

It occurs to you that the Chraal is likely a standard mid-sized deep sea shipping holk. It's a custom for Gothamite nobles to name their personal vessels after demons; chances are you've seen plenty such ships of that exact make and size.

Aust is a wizard, and is fairly infamous in Fort Clinton for being a particularly unscrupulous thieves guild enforcer. You've known Ghol to be one of the frequent names of mid level thieves that frequent the Slim's brothels, but little else.

Mage-paper is street slang referring to the various parchments, inks and special instruments required to write arcane spells into spellbooks. A shipment with multiple cases of "paper" would be worth a ludicrous amount of money. No wonder there's so much commotion over this shipment.

[JbeJ275]

I can add to some of this. Holt. The one who did a runner? He was headed that way, but then stopped so either red got them or he's with that lot now. Need to cover that as we get close, the mage is really messed up, once we're in close disabling them is top priority, they're not gonna hold back, but I don't think this one knows how to be creative enough with their magic. I still have enough tricks up my sleeve to bust out some magic, but the more I do that the fewer tricks I have to spare for the Charl. If they're in the habit of stealing aetheric gear though we might be able to repurpose some of that once we gain access to their stockpiles, but we probably need to move at a decent speed if we want in before red hood's finished his job. If you've got a story to tell Spoiler, feel free to tell it to these thugs. Though while we're talking, no names with these type in the room OK? No need to make trouble.

[Feathersnow]

Kate grunts at the implication she is obviously affiliated with House Kane, and gestures assent for Stephanie's plan.

She then moves forward towards the pier, trying her level best to be stealthy and observant...

[JoyWonderLove]

While Renk talked, Stephanie worked behind him with the silk rope to fashion a matching pair of a handcuff knot, if only to appease their wizard. But she eyed Fox’s chosen mercenaries carefully when the blabbing thief divulged what the payload actually was. Whatever the Guild Master was offering them to risk their lives was likely copper change compared to what the spellbooks and scrolls were worth. But then, smart money says only the little rogue girl didn’t know. Merchant’s Guild, Mage College, House Kane – they’re all in on some kind of deal. She pulled a face behind the mask sporting the slightest crack where she had been punched. She pat Renk on the back when she was done, only a little before he claimed them incapable of stopping the theft.

“See, that’s where you ain’t quite right, Renk. Tactician. Mastermind. Loveable rogue.” She pointed confidently at the knight, the wizard, and gave a wink herself. “Throw in Red’s ability to put faces through floorboard, and we got this.” She rose with an aplomb she didn’t fully feel, but had to maintain. “Now walk your ass to the Merchant’s Guild and take my advice to heart. Fox really is the only guy in Midtown that can give you what you need short term, and long.”

The wizard started sharing informing, and whatever relief at hearing there was still juice in the magical tank was short-lived for casually revealing her identity. A confused brow was arched while Stephanie’s heart raced. Questions. I asked too many damn questions trying to pin down who was pulling off tonight. Great. She ratted out Holt about Zucco – double bluff? The Baron can’t have the mage-papers, so hired her to run interference? Who is this? An uncaring shrug came next.

“I have no idea who that is,” Stephanie lied effortlessly. “But you two got Uptown spraypainted on, so let me name actual names. Raam’s whole shtick is keeping Fort Clinton’s primary exports of kneecaps and shakedowns at a premium. Half Giant, huge sword, but being psychic is pure Tetch territory. Speculation, not certainty. Meanwhile, Ghol’s a mid-level enforcer and a leach, while Aust as a wizard is exactly as principled he sounds. We win those two to our angle, or ambush our way through this. Fair fights won’t win us Midtown. Now, while we’re moving to check up on Red, this gig doesn’t exactly scream extra credit or banners and glory. You two mind telling who you are?”



I’m guessing we can’t both move silently/hide while trying to move quickly enough to check that Red’s ok. But I’m still Searching for traps on the way there.

Listen: [roll0]
Spot: [roll1]
Use Rope to constrain Rickus hands/feet and Renk’s hands, Take 10: 34. (+10 bonus, +2 Silk Rope, +12 baseline, +10 Taking).
Search for traps on the way to Red, Take 10: 20.

[JbeJ275]

Barabara, looked back making sure any thugs were left behind before she spoke, and mentally called Juluis bck to her rather than having him continue flitting around their enemies. Then swallowing she came to a decision.

You've heard inside her head and she's played ball so far, if I can't trust her I'm already screwed. Besides, the others know already.

You're far off on that one, I'm not an uptown kid. From West Side to Columbia Point, that's where I roamed growing up. And I'm just in it for money that I can take and then still feel good about.

With that she pulls back her hood and slides up her mask for just a second.

I'm Barbara Gordon, heir to Justicar's keep. You wanna share your life story or move onto these thugs?


Listen:
Spot: [roll[1d20+2
Search: [roll[1d20+13[/roll]

[Feathersnow]

"Katelyn Kane of House Kane, chevaliesse of the realm, formerly of the Marine Corps, at your service"

[Molan]

It would be difficult for any three citizens of Gotham, surrounded by danger and subterfuge at every moment, threatened by cutthroats and worse in the dark, to form any kind of bond. But against all odds, these three women had. "Barbara", who called herself Oracle, was incredibly cunning and her magical prowess had already paid them dividends. "Stephanie", who's street name was Spoiler, was clearly as persuasive as Barbara was intelligent. The way Spoiler had worked over the thieves had opened doorways to them that otherwise would have been paid in pain and blood. And Katherine, silent, brooding, armor clad Katherine, had proven one trait above all -- steadfastness. Nothing moved her, she had been a small island made of iron this entire evening, and both Oracle and Spoiler would be counting on her going forward, despite having never seen her face.

The party's newfound bonds were spiriting, but also came on the heels of dark news.

They approached Pier 42 to find it well defended.

Part of it was obscured, but she could see a larger-to-medium sized merchant vessel tied up at the end of it. It's hard to see what kind of activity is occurring at the end of it, but based on the description it was mostly likely the Chraal. At the entrance to the pier was a large warehouse, and the front side of the warehouse was covered by a large wooden awning. The awning was supported by two large wooden beams at the front end, and connected to the warehouse itself on the back. At least two large stacks of crates and barrels obscured the area under the awning from the party's view. There were at least three or four different approaches to get under the awning, and a couple of other paths to get from the over-crowded, maze-like docks onto the pier itself, but she had no way of knowing for sure what, or who, might be waiting for them behind those crates.

You can all hear the sounds of tense shouting. Someone has come through here recently, and he caused some chaos and bloodshed before he left. At least two, maybe three of the people guarding Pier 42 sound like they've run off chasing him, though you're not sure. Another appears to be incapacitated; two theives are arguing over what to do with his corpse.

Several trip wires can bee seen, by both Spoiler and Oracle, on your way to the pier. They seem designed to alert the defenders to your presence. Along the pier, you can see multiple random barrels filled with unidentifiable substances. They appear to have Alchemist Guild warnings on them.

[Molan]

The three women moved into positions atop some of the crates at the edge of the large overhanging awning, to gain better vantage of what was happening beyond.

The scene below was chaotic. Three men stood in a semi-circle around a figure lying on the ground. The figure was wearing leather armor and had carried a short sword, but he'd been struck on the head and was bleeding. It was hard to tell if he was dead or alive.

One of the men was human, he carried a longsword at his hip and had a small shield strapped to his arm, and wore a long studded leather cuirass. He looked like a professional fighter. Next to him stood a gnome, wearing similar armor, carrying a small longspear. Sitting about ten feet behind them on top of some boxes was an elf wearing a long tunic, his head covered in a cowl. He had a book in front of him and several scattered pieces of paper nearby; he was working on something, and seemed irritated that he was being distracted by the violence that had gone on nearby.

"Should one of us go tell them?" the gnome said.

"Fug no. What's wrong with you? Raam's not going to give a goblin's arse about fuggin' Holt. Come on."

"I know that, idiot. But whoever that was could have friends."

"Don't worry about it. Eberk and his dog'll bring him down."

"Yea, no s#$t! That's not the point! If Holt's hear and there are mercs crawling around the dock, what are the odds that Dench and his moron friends are still drawing breath? They could have men coming this way right now."

"You're drunk." the elf snapped, "And loud. Lucius Fox can't afford to recruit a housecat to help him now, much less an entire band of sellswords. Now shut up for fug's sake, if I have to start this over one more time I'm lighting one of you on fire."

"He's right Dimble. Don't worry about it. This job is a done deal."

The thieves still have no idea that the party is nearby. So far, no one's moved.

[Feathersnow]

Kate activates her combat buffs, then signals.

Fingers to forehead pointing to the elf, then pointing at him with her poleaxe. I daze him, then charge.


[roll0] need an 11 or better.
DC 14 will save if I succeed.

[JbeJ275]

Barabara's eyes scanned over the arcanist suppllies and mundane goods as well as the rest of the pier, her mind slowly turning over as she attempted to formulate a plan, stuggling against her relative inexpierience in direct combat, indeccision waring against impulsiveness. Much of this was rendered irrelevant though, when the armoured figure began the assult.

'No, no that one. Most likely to resist the arcane and most likely to be subdued quickly...' was perhaps a generous description of the thoughts passing through Barbara's mind in terms of clarity, but she didn't speak. Instead she brought her crossbow up to her shoulder and fired at the human in front of her.


Arcana to check for potential oppurtunities with supplies around the dockyward.
[roll0]

To Hit: [roll1]
Damage: [roll2]+[roll3]

[JoyWonderLove]

=On the stroll to pier 42= (unimportant chatting/questions)

The vigilante laughed softly – face awash in open relieve. It was the first unguarded act Stephanie had done all night long, she realized. Perhaps in weeks, since Robyn went to ground and she started to question her place in her gang. She mirrored the redhead by undoing her mask by the ear, revealing an unapologetic grin. An excess of courage was a bad call when operating solo.

“Estanna above, Barb, wanna spook me a little harder next time? I thought you were Zucco’s pet beguiler tailing me for earlier. Not fun.”

She hummed to herself thoughtfully as she checked out the wizard again with newly relieved eyes, the still helmed knight offered only a cursory look. “Absolutely loving the bat hat, by the by. Very Gotham ballroom chic. All I really expected were your codenames, though. What’d’ya go by now? Batgirl? Jurist? Barbwire? You could completely pull off Barbwire.”

A purple leather folder from the back of her belt was produced while Stephanie waxed casual. “Oh, hey, so, when we get to the pier, leave the tripwire to me. But if you could confirm there’s no magic on or around them, that’d be huge. I’ll need your help on how to get around if so. Magic is tetchy enough without tripwire and long knives involved.”

Stephanie started off at a hurried stroll, one now lacking any masked tension, finding herself unsurprised full plates and mealy mouths didn’t fit. “What’s a defender of the realm doing in the docks, besides? Fox call in last ditch favours, or is this all justice?”

Stephanie scanned from waist level to ground with a practised eye. She slowed mid-stride on spotting moonlight tiptoeing on one several feet off, as subtly as a pickpocket working a crowd. Another tripwire was seen several strides after that. The sound of arguing and several Alchemist Guild cannisters further ahead marked the area as not altogether friendly. Having to second guess throwing up one of many silent sequences picked up in House Kyle, she held up an upright hand to suggest a stop. Using the ring and thumb fingers of her hands, she pantomimed pulling drawing two lines in the air. One in front of her and repeating the same motion further in front of her.

Two tripwires.

=Arriving around pier 42= (minor stuff, Disable Device on tripwire)

Kneeling next to the first trip wire, the purple leather folder was unfurled parallel the trap, showcasing a collection of tools of the freelance entering trade. After checking what it was connected to without touching anything, a quick snip and attaching the much shorter wire to two bricks she brought over kept any would-be alarm quiet and the wider swath of their approach silent. The crates and barrels were approached grudgingly at a signal to move closer to eavesdrop.

=Surprise round= (?)

Stephanie sighed silently to herself when the knight motioned for a strike. Putting aside whims of working the crowd to her ends from atop her perch on the crate, the sights of the hand crossbow were aimed down at the bookish elf that had terrorized many of Gotham’s families. The trigger was squeezed when the lady in steel moved for an attack.



HP: 24 max.
AC: 17.

1, Surprise round standard action attack the elf.

Attack accuracy: [roll0] (+9 normally, +1 with elevation)
Hand Crossbow damage: [roll1]
Sneak attack damage: [roll2]

[Molan]

The thieves never saw them coming.

The still of the night was broken by a burst of psychic force which washed past the man and the gnome and smacked into the elf. The burst ruffled some of the papers he'd been working on but washed over him as it struck his body, causing his eyes to glow for the briefest moment but taking on no other ill effect. The crossbow bolt that followed it fared much better however, slamming into his shoulder and yielding a burst of blood. A second crossbow bolt struck the human's chest but at a poor angle, and it bounced off of his brigandine, clattering harmlessly onto the docs. The thieves reacted angrily, readying their weapons, while the elf drew a wand from his belt.

1. Roll for initiative. I'll hold this order for the rest of the "dungeon".
2. Great hit on the elf, good damage. He nailed his will save though.
3. Barbara notices several cannisters in the piles around the thieves. One near the elf is filled with a substance called "Molodone", which when mixed with water creates an effect like an obscuring mist spell. Another is filled with "Gellermix", which creates a 20ft grease effect; this canister is sitting nearer to the dock edge near you. Finally, on the far side of the area, several barrels are marked with angry red gnomish lettering clearly meant to denote "danger", and the barrels are painted red. One of them is plainly containing a substance you know to be "pixiewart", which creates a glitterdust effect when exposed to electricity. The second barrel though you're not sure what it does.

[JoyWonderLove]

=First round=

Red bloomed heavy where the bolt landed, but the elf barely gave a grunt. Stephanie felt no mercy as another bolt was clicked into the flight groove and she looked down her sights again at the arsonist, intent on making Gotham safer than the night before.



HP: 24 max.
AC: 17.

1, Move action reload the hand crossbow.
2, Standard action attack the elf.

Attack accuracy: [roll0] (+9 normally, +1 with elevation)
Hand Crossbow damage: [roll1]
Sneak attack damage: [roll2]

[Molan]

Spoiler's second crossbow bolt hurled out from her hiding spot and struck the elf in his chest. He dropped to the docks, bleeding out all over the boards.

The human who'd been talking to the gnome brandished his longsword and charged Kate, swinging it in a powerful downward stroke. As he swung it down on her, the psychic amorpha protecting her rippled and his sword caught nothing but air.

Kate's concealing amorpha takes the day.

She's up now, then Barbara.

[Feathersnow]

Kate takes a step back and then swings down with her poleaxe!! She is too angry and does not soften her blows.


[roll0] to hit
[roll1] damage

[JbeJ275]

From her current position Barbara casts a shroud of Sleep, rose petals from her pouch seeming to burn then reconstitute themselves as the flickered. Her hope is to keep the centre closer to the gnome than the man but to catch both with its confines. While she hadn’t shied away from using her crossbow in it’s full lethality it would do the justices plenty more good to have one of these made men alive to interrogate.


DC 17 will save for enemies until 4HD of enemies are asleep or any more dropping would put it over 4HD.

[Molan]

Kate's halberd slammed into the human, carving through his studded leather armor and drawing vastly more blood than his own strike had done. He howled in anger and held his shield up to defend himself, realizing he'd perhaps bitten off more than he could chew.

[Molan]

Arcane magic washed out into the area from Barbara's hands, and both the human and gnome's eyes rolled into the back of their heads before their eyelids shut. They both hit the docks hard, temporarily sound asleep.

[JoyWonderLove]

The instance the duo hit the floor, unconscious, Stephanie leapt down from her perch, grunting as she rolled into a little ball to take the impact. She was quickly on the two of them, tying them up with her own unsurprisingly trademark purple silk rope. First the hands, then the legs, for both the human and then the gnome. When that was done, she went over to the elf, and grimaced at her bloody work. Careful to step around the blood pooling about him, she simply cut pieces of clothe off with the elf; particularly the non-bloody parts, and went back to his living cohorts. Only when the pieces were tied into their mouths did she straight again fully, shaking her head.

“Done. Now I say we stash these two away, and try tracking Red and his suitor; maybe we hit him from behind. Then, regrouped, see what we can do about Raam. Unless someone has a better idea like rigging a trap up with all the Alchemist cannisters?”



Use Rope to constrain Ghol and Dimble. (+10 bonus, +2 Silk Rope, +12 baseline, +10 Taking).

Human: [roll0]
Gnome: [roll1]

[JbeJ275]

Better to move on the boat now before anyone checks on our freinds here. Barabara says, looking through the equipment of these newly defeated enemies, taking anything sufficiently interesting and divesting them of any weapons or small blades they could use to free themselves.

With a minute or two I could rig up some of those alchemiccal devices into useful equipment. Then if I locate to room on the ship where this meeting is happening we could ensure anyone inside reieves quite the unpleasant suprise.

[Molan]

Spoiler hogtied the two thieves with the surgical expertise of someone who'd tied people up many times before, which was a little alarming, if anything. But before long she'd rendered both men muffled and helpless, and Spoiler and Oracle managed to box the two of them in and out of sight with some of the crates nearby.

The alchemical barrels scattered around the area were heavy, but not so much so that they couldnt move them. Before long they'd assembled three containers of molodone, another of Gellermix, two barrels of pixiewart, and one red barrel with angry gnomish lettering, still unidentified.

Perhaps a hundred yards or so south of them, the Chraal loomed at the end of the docks. A couple of dim lights could be seen from the edge of it's deck as though someone was walking around with torches. Otherwise the long wide dock was quiet and abandoned, with scattered piles of crates breaking up an otherwise straightforward path to their destination.

Neither Ghol not Fumble are going anywhere, Aust is still bleeding out.

Barbara secures the following items from the two thieves:
- a pair of acid flasks
- 2 longswords
- a composite longbow (SR1)
- A grease potion
- an unidentified, used wand
- a potion of endure elements
- a potion of blur
- three magical scrolls (Aust had apparently been working on more but the others were unfinished) -- hold person, heroism and enlarge person.
- a small longspear
- a light wooden shield
- 450 gp
- 270 sp
- 2 gems of inditerminate value
- 500 gp worth of arcane spell scroll writing equipment
- A sealed letter with what looks like a cypher scrawled on it -- possibly some kind of thieves guild code or key
-

[JoyWonderLove]

“Spoils wise, the armoury worth of weapons and endless potions mean a lot more to the Justiciars and House Kane than it’ll ever mean to me roaming solo.” Stephanie liked the noble heiress’ practical intelligence and knight’s bravery, but she wasn’t ready to mention her longstanding associations yet. “Throw the gems and letter my way. Travelling light is one of the few ways not to get robbed at night.”

As though to showcase her point, Stephanie pulled the head of her purple rope through the tail end of a silver grappling hook, one of her many belt items. She started backpeddling away from the awning she was under, eyes squinting as she gauged the distance. Going to the opposite side of the crates, gaining a small bit of cover from any eyes on the ship, she started twirling the hook in hand.

“But you two need to clue me in on the meeting. You’re saying the Thieves Guild are not only fleecing Fox for his most valuable shipment in who-knows-how-long, but they’re holding a pow-wow on the theft, on-site, on the very night it’s being done? Before they’ve gotten away?”

Even speaking conversationally, the incredulousness in the vigilante’s voice only built. Stephanie silently hoped everyone stopped claiming House Kyle were too presumptuous when this news was finally spread around. The claws of the hook leapt up and out of gloved hands at a final twirl, and seemingly grabbed the edge of the building with a reassuring clink. A few distrustful tugs confirmed it. She had fallen a few too many times not to question her handiwork with hemp.

“Headin’ up.”



Use Rope with grappling hook to throw a secure line to the warehouse roof. Result 24. (+10 Taking, +2 Silk Rope, +12 baseline).

Take 10 to Climb it easily (DC should be 5, given the rope and a wall to brace against).

Take 10 Spot/Listen from rooftop, trying to stay low so her figure doesn’t stand out. Result 16 for both.

[Feathersnow]

Kate remains silent to avoid admitting she showed up to this blind and is completely out of her depth.

[Molan]

Perched atop the warehouse awning, Stephanie was rewarded with a breathtaking view as the maze like clutter of the docks gave way to an uninterrupted panorama of the docklands, the Gotham River and the rest of the city behind.

Behind her, the tenement houses of the Fort Clinton Slums say hunched in a messy warren, but behind them, the looming towers, palisades, and stone walls of the great halls of Midtown looked down on her like grim dark mountains. In the distance she could see the lonely, dark sillouette of the Merchant's Guild Tower, now mostly abandoned, the great worn "W" sigil of the Guild still visible in the moonlight on its face.

To the south, she could see almost all of Downtown. The island was lit up with all manner of torches, lamps and faerie fires, still bustling even at this time of night. Stretching before her into the Gotham River was pier 42, a huge long deep water dock set up to load and unload ocean faring cargo ships that stopped at this port. At the end of the pier was the Chraal, a squat, sturdy looking Holk, and she could clearly see at least two torches lit on its upper deck. In addition to the ship itself she could see the area around it's gangplank had at least one stack of crates nearby, and in the water behind it were tied several rowboats.

But perhaps most intriguingly of all, she realized that the pier was lined with a number of simple wooden cantilevered cranes, spaced out so that if the pier were full each could serve a different ship. One was hanging slightly above the Chraal, it's cargo platform empty and connected to the crane by four ropes at it's corners, which were attached to the crane's hook.

Squinting closely, she could make out four figures on the weather deck, and two guarding the gangplank, for a total of six.

[JoyWonderLove]

Taking time to admire the view from the rooftop, Stephanie fought her first impulse to stare off into the faerie and torch lights, wondering how that queer island treated Robyn. It was one of the few places she was safe, if because most other Gothamites weren’t. A good look was taken at the Chraal next. She found herself smirking at the layout before turning away. But the brooding W in the Midtown distance made an unfortunate reminder of who benefited from halting Raam tonight. Not only him. We just have to break the last little bit of this heist up, then Fox has all he needs to revitalise his Guild. He’ll need people, they’ll need jobs, and families will thrive. Even if Wayne is one of them. Thoughts of that lecherous drunk were happily whisked away as she slide speedily down the secure rope, although it took finesse to free it from the floor level.

“Great news.” Stephanie said while disconnecting and rewinding the rope. She moved over to the writing equipment, ripping out a page of what she presumed was the back, pointedly ignoring the two bleeding nearby. She had little clue how to patch wounds and less to do so for the same elf she plugged twice. A rough sketch featuring the holk, the crane, gangplank, and approximate location of each guard, was done in pencil for Barbara and Kate.

“I personally recommend making the workplace nice and accident prone.” She tapped the gangplank thrice. “I’d need to get closer to confirm, but I might be able to sneak around to rig the gangplank to collapse under weight. When we make enough noise to draw attention up top, they move up, it collapses. Pain aside, they’ll probably have to decide between their weapons or air. Win-win either way. Which brings us to at least one other way to board, regardless.”

She drew her index finger over to the crane, tracing it’s giraffe neck to the platform. “Whether you’re for me tweaking the gangplank or just want to try another approach, as long as it’s all calm and quiet, this is my entrance to the Chraal. There’s enough elevation that safety and accuracy are obviously on our side. We can rain down as many bolts as we like, let alone all the goodies you’re whipping up down here.” A cheesy smile and hostess-esque wave of her hand indicated all the barrels with enough chemicals inside them to throw a week-long rave. The oddest tinge of melancholy rolled through her at not having been to one in over a month, let alone setting up an underground performance for the slums.

If the Bard’s Guild don’t get off Rob’s back soon...

“Anyway, brownie points if either of you can daze or hit Raam with that rainbow cone while he’s under it.” She shrugged. “A girl has a right to dream.”

I like the idea of sabotaging our way through this, but in the interest of expediency, I don’t care that much about trying to ambush the two guarding the gangplank instead. I’ll leave that part to democracy. The only thing I really want is to sneak up the crane neck to the platform at least. +1 accuracy and safety works for me.

[Feathersnow]

"I can try to daze him. It usually works. How about I get big with my power stone and take the center, then you two flank?"

[JbeJ275]

"If that does what I think it does one of these thugs had a scrolls to achieve a similiar effect for longer. Just give me the word and I'll hit you with it."

While barabara is talking, she places the two longswords in the Pixiewart barrel such that they're not touching, then carefully places one of the acid vials such that a sudden impact would smash it. She then begins moving that barrel and a barrel of Gellermix towards the base of the crane. A barrel of Molodone was left near the water edge a ways further down the pier to cover any neccesary retreat.

"Very well Steph. You sabotage the drawbridge, and get on top of the crane arm. I'll be getting these in position below on the hook. Once these guards taking a plunge gets any others from downstais up on the topdecks, we can drop a suprise on their heads that's quite entertaining. I'll try and get to the controls unseen but if I don't we let the drawbridge do its work early.


Any rolls needed for operating the crane or the like?

[Molan]

The party had to move carefully. Any missteps while they prepared their attack would alert the thieves guild thugs, and they were badly outnumbered this time. The maneuvered down the pier, staying close to the piles of crates and barrels to avoid being noticed. Oracle staged her molodone barrel to cover their escape, and found the pulleys and leavers needed to slowly draw the crane over to her, place her concoction on it's hook and slowly working the cumbersome wooden crane back into position.

Spoiler crept up as close as she could to the gangplank, crouching behind a pair of barrels near the two thugs guarding it. One of them was another half orc, this one carrying a greatclub. Next to him was a dwarf, armed with a club and a heavy wooden shield. They'd be tough obstacles if she engaged them directly. She could hear them talking, but they weren't saying much anything of interest, mostly just complaining about other guilders and gothamites they didn't like.

She could also hear some other voices coming from the deck, but it was difficult to hear what they were saying. Somewhere up above her she heard a soft *thunk* sound, like something heavy touching the deck.

No checks required to operate the crane, it's fairly simple machinery.

I order to disable the gangplank, you'll need to either distract the guards or successfully move silently past them. Rigging the gangplank itself will require a low DC disable device check.

[JoyWonderLove]

Sorry, I have the time, it’s just focusing and motivating myself after thinking through how to implement the idea.


After a brief chat on how best to implement the idea, Stephanie popped into the warehouse, scanned a list of itinerary luckily on a table nearby the entrance, and went searching. Borrowing the empty wooden barrel with a side tap built in, she used her small crowbar to reopen the Molodone and pour the blue liquid gently into the open would-be beer casket. Ignoring a hazy memory of helping her mother create a bootleg beer when her father was first locked away for years, the mercenary tapped the lid back into place securely. Moving behind as much cover as the pier allowed, she carefully put the filled casket on its side, wedging it between two thick tomes that were well thumbed. The casket tap was turned until drops conspired one after another to turn the waters into mist. When it started to engulf her area, she tiptoed around the area to work with screwdriver in hand.


Move Silently: [roll0]
Disable Device: [roll1]

Then sneak back to the crane to see if we can't board that way.

[Molan]

The Chraal

https://c4.wallpaperflare.com/wallpaper/535/233/225/stars-night-fantasy-art-moon-wallpaper-thumb.jpg

Stephanie slunk through the creeping mists as they enveloped the docks around the Chraal. The thieves standing at the bottom of the gangplank continued to talk idly as though unbothered by the fog. The ruse to portray the molodone mist as natural appeared to have worked. Spoiler was able to disable to gangplank and render it dangerous, and no one heard her creep forward or back. Above her, she heard more idle chatter, but no one said anything interesting or appeared alarmed by the sudden fog.

When she returned from her work, Barbara and Kate were waiting for her near the base of the crane. Oracle had managed to place her glitterdust "bomb" on the crane's cargo platform, with the other, gnomish-marked red-painted barrel still sitting unused nearby.

"We can use this crane to get the surprise above the deck of the Chraal. We can move at least two of us above them too, but someone would have to stay down here to pull the ropes to get the beam into position. Unless of course we can figure out a way to manipulate the ropes from the platform. But if the gangplank is trapped, we won't want to take that way up. I wonder if one of us shouldn't stay down here to lure the thieves off of the deck and onto the bad plank? The other two could get up on the platform."

[Feathersnow]

"funny enough, I have a spell for that. It gives me peternatural balance and leaping prowess, even in this armor. And I'm still the worst at climbing. "

[JbeJ275]

Once the other two begin going up, Barbara begins navigating the crane so it’s closer to the correct position. Once it’s as close as it can get without alerting the guards below, she moves quietly away from the controls and throws a palmed stone at the Charl to lure the men there out of position.

[Molan]

Barbara labored to slowly move the old wooden cargo crane back over the ship. As she did so, the cargo platform creaked and groaned but held, lofting Kate and Stephanie overtop the thieves on the Chraal, where they were finally able to get a better vantage point. Between them, Barbara's makeshift bomb and the red gnomish-script barrel sat, waiting to be deployed.

Down below on the ship, they could get a much better view of what was happening. On the deck were four humans, all of whom had the look and bearing of thieves guilders; they looked lowbrow and common born, but carried weapons and light armor that marked them as a bit above -- or at least more dangerous than -- simple slum peasants.

One man stood near the rigging in between the ship's helm and the center of the vessel. He cradled a heavy crossbow, and periodically looked back and forth over the mists that had surrounded the ship, mostly keeping his eye on the gangplank. This was clearly one of their lookouts. One of them stood at the top of the gangplank, just off to the side, with a halberd slung over his shoulder. If the party had needed any more indications, the fact that this guilders felt confident walking around with heavy military weapons really underscored how aloof and untouchable they all seemed to feel.

Sitting on a couple of barrels and chatting with the halberdier was a think looking man with a bunch of knives cut into the leather lined armor on his chest. He twirled one knife end over end while he spoke. In the center of the ship, a large open cargo hatch yawned below them, revealing little but inky blackness beneath. It was surrounded by a number of boxes, and sitting on a couple of them was a fourth man, this one carrying apparently no weapons of any kind, his arms crossed over his chest. He was talking too, but it wasn't obvious from their vantage point who he was addressing.

As the two women watched, something appeared from inside the cargo hatch; a large crate, marked with the sigil of the Mage's College.

"How many more?" the unarmed man called.

A deep, intimidating garbling voice replied; "At least two."

What was strange was that the box seemed to move on it's own; the party couldn't see ropes or hands moving it. It settled itself on the deck of the ship near another one with the same marking.

The night erupted once again as Barbara's thunderstone exploded on it's targets.

Both the dwarf and half orc howled and shook their heads, but managed to avoid the worst of the stone's effects.

The men atop the deck quickly sprang to the alarm. The man with the heavy crossbow stayed where he was, panning his weapon along the docks, but the other three quickly made a run for the gangplank. The gangplank wobbled, and promptly crashed into the water below. The man with the halberd quickly disappeared below the docks, but the throwing knife and unarmed man each made a leap for the edge, their reflexes clearly a bit quicker than his. They both failed, hitting the dock edge before falling between it and the boat and splashing into the water below.

A voice roared from inside the ship. That struggle for the Chraal, and the future of the Merchant's Guild, was on.

Spoiler goes first, then Kate, then some NPCs. That being said, Barbara make a hide check if you want to stay hidden from the half orc and the dwarf on the dock with you (the fog should help.)

[JoyWonderLove]

Stephanie made a show of checking her crossbow was loaded and the sight was clear when the suggestion came up of drawing those up top, down the gangplank. She doubted her ability to evade that many over merely dropped their payloads on them, and didn’t want to end up disappearing like Red besides. So her eyes widened when Oracle volunteered herself for her own idea.

“Thunderstone,” Stephanie said simply, before folding it into Barbara’s hand. The bookworm likely knew more about one than the rogue did arcana.

Stephanie moved unto the platform besides the knight then, and the straining platform was lifted into position. The wizard disappeared off into the unnatural mist. In the quiet she was strangely reassured by the unorthodox knight’s presence.

The wooden red container was tapped lightly with the side of Stepahnie’s foot as they waited for the signal, pointed down at the crossbowman, and made a fist that exploded and folded back at each finger. The crossbowman and explosives are a bad mix, the warning went. She aimed her weapon down through the platform at where he roughly was, her next target obvious. The knight was pointed at and the crossbow acted as an imaginary kettle pouring into a cupped hand before the hand became a another fist, palm down, that suddenly opened up. Say when you want the payloads to drop. Interest in charades momentarily exhausted, she listened for thunder to know when to rain bolts.

I don’t know what your plan is, but I’m guessing you intend to jump down eventually, so it’d probably be a good idea if you decided the best time to drop the payload(s), as it could potentially impact you the most.

=First round=

A thunderclap obligingly shattered the peace, and much movement answered below. The crossbow was aimed downwards at the only one still on the weatherdeck in the open.



HP: 24 max.
AC: 17.

1, Move action reload the hand crossbow.
2, Standard action attack the weatherdeck crossbowman.

Attack accuracy: [roll0] (+9 normally, +1 with elevation)
Hand Crossbow damage: [roll1]
Sneak attack damage: [roll2]

[Feathersnow]

Kate gestures to drop as a prelude to her charging in, then she activates her shield

[Molan]

Down on the docks, the dwarf with the shield swung his club through the mists, trying to see and well aware that they were under attack. But the club hit nothing but air as he wandered blind, Barbara's position hidden from him. Below, the thieves who'd been dunked into the Gotham could still be heard splashing and yelling, but none of them appeared back above the docks.

Spoiler's crossbow bolt flew down from her perch and smacked into the overwatch thief with the heavy crossbow, causing him to scream in agony as blood poured from his shoulder. He fired back at her, but given the damage done to his shoulder and her superior elevation, the heavy bolt flew by, harmlessly. He limped away from where he'd been shot, looking for cover.

Feather, is Kate's motion to activate her armor a free action or was that your first turn? I just want to know if I should have dropped you onto the deck already or not.

It's now Barbara's turn. Two dangerous adversaries sharing the dock with you, but neither of whom can currently see you. There's a shooter up above but he's 100% focused on Spoiler right now, and in his mind he's losing (actually in everyone's mind he's losing, still not the point.

Spoiler JUST barely managed to land her shot after appling flat-footed to the ambushed crossbowman and he *just* barely missed -- but a hit is a hit and a miss is a miss, lol.

So yea, Jbre, you're up, once you go I'll start moving the other pieces.

[JbeJ275]

Barbara crept around further from where the thunderstone impacted, carefully sanning the dwarf and half orc on the quayside for any sign of ranged weapons on either of thier sides. Then scampered up vertically looking for some ledge or outcropping that would give leess than a foot of room to manuever to the thugs, denying them any easy pursuit and balaning the odds should they chase her.

With such a position found, she weighs her odds, deciding she has time to defeat the two up here in detail. Thus she instead fires her own crossbow towards the crossbowman on the ship.


[roll0] for [roll1]+[roll2]

[Molan]

Barbara's crossbow struck the crossbow in his other arm, drawing another cry of pain. From inside the cargo hatch, Spoiler and Kate could see movement, and before their eyes, a large, scarred half-giant appeared to levitate straight out of the hold of the ship, slowly hovering upwards until his feet were over the deck, then landing gently on the surface of the ship. He looked furious, his arms ripped with dangerous might, and he carried a massive curved sword; it looked kind of like a two handed scimitar, but it was made from a strange, dark, deep purple crystalline substance instead of silvery steel.

As the half-giant looked around the deck, the expression of anger on his face mixed with confusion; he didn't immediately grasp where the attack was coming from.

"Gex! Horan! The fug're you idiots!?"

Across the ship, the wounded crossbowmen waived to get his attention.

"Raam! Up high, on the crane!"

The half giant looked up and scowled at the two women on the platform, and his eyes glowed purple.

Down on the docks, the half orc screamed and began beating his chest, bursting into a fit of violent rage. He began to charge around the general area of the dock, swinging his heavy club through the mist, but striking nothing.

Man you guys are doing *so* much better with this than my last party lol.

Stephanie is up next, then Kate.

[JoyWonderLove]

=Second round=

The astonishment of a shot harrying the crossbowman over the two that stalked Barbara below, the troubling groan of the platform as yet more weight joined them, and all the yelling below, Stephanie’s nerves sizzling as the mountain of psychic violence rose from the abyss of the ship’s darker depths. She tuned out all else. Cupping the manageable brown wooden barrel with all the anticipation and care of an aunt holding her sister’s newborn, she turned expectantly to the edge of platform, and with all the care of an absentee father, let go before anyone could react.

Stephanie then fell prone to distribute weight more evenly across the platform, but her eyes were locked on the man huddling wounded away from Raam. She stared down the sights of her own handheld crossbow promisingly as she internally willed him to take a swim instead.

Us or the ocean.



HP: 24 max.
AC: 17. +4 VS crossbow / ranged attack due to being prone.

1, Move action to drop the glitterbomb on Raam.
2, Move action to reload crossbow but I did that last round I don’t know what to do with this action.

[Molan]

The barrelbomb exploded, spreading golden, glittering flakes all over the deck of the Chraal. Raam howled in anger, but seemed to manage to shake most of the particulate off of his face.

It's Kate's turn. Not sure if Feather was holding off for some reason.

[Molan]

Kate clutched her halberd tightly but remained on the platform, refusing to jump down into the fray just yet. Down in the fog, the dwarf continued to flail around in vain, still not comprehending where his aggressors had come from. He shouted up to Raam on the boat, calling for instruction. The half-giant called back;

"They're on the crane you fuggin' idiots!"

As Barbara watched, she could see the Dwarf stop what he was doing and squint skyward, looking for her through the mist.

Down on the ship, the man with the crossbow continued to inch backwards towards the stern, but took aim and launched another crossbow at Kate. The heavy bolt caused her ectoplasmic defenses to ripple somewhat but otherwise fell away harmlessly; it was too wide to get a direct hit on her armor anyway and her psychic defenses were more than enough to keep her safe. The shooter cursed, panicked, and abandoned reloading his weapon, making instead for the tail of the ship, turning his back to the party.

Okay, Kate takes a ready action. Heavy crossbowman fires and fails miserably, his morale is in the toilet and he's bailing as quick as his bloody shoes can carry him. Still no sign of the guys who hit the river.

You've worked your list of enemies down from 7 to 3. That's the good news. The bad news is, the dwarf is tanky and Raam and the Half Orc both look like they could dispense some serious damage. So you need to keep thinking ahead of them or if they get on a role they could chop you up pretty bad.

You still have one bomb-looking item, but as Spoiler pointed out, you'll want to think carefully about how you use it. The other barrels you've seen so far have all replicated a spell of some kind when they were set off. Other tip I'll leave gently is, even though you don't know what the red barrel is, all of the other barrels have required a reagent -- water, electricity, ect. in order to produce their effects. The exception being the acid barrel, though Barbara rather cleverly managed to turn that into a battery anyway.

It's Barbara's turn now, then Raam gets to go. Make it count.

[JbeJ275]

Barbara looks with an amused grin at the two thugs on the docks and the boss thug on the decks before reaching into her pouch for a scrap of shimmering spidersilk. With a few ancient words she flings the silvery web into the air, where it races along the rigging, the deck and the land side of the pier, wrapping around the various foes as it expanded into a vast mass of binding threads.


Cast Web spell, basically they're all entangled. Those who fail a DC 18 reflex save are totally incapable of moving without devoting actions to it. Description is here. https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/web.htm

Target area is blue circle on roll 20

[Molan]

The dwarf, slow, cumbersome and heavily laden as he was, found himself stuck firm to the docks below, helpless. Raam and the half orc were a bit quicker on their feet, and managed to avoid becoming completely ensnared. Ram looked up at the crane and his eyes flashed a deep violet. He begins to levitate away from the webs, moving twenty feet straight up in the air, his dark purple crystal scimitar flashing in the moonlight. He still had another forty or fifty feet to go before he reached the top of the crane, but he was on his way.

The half orc howled in frustration and fought his way towards the ship. He used his incredible, rage-induced strength to fight and tear against the webs, forcing himself up the side of the entangled ship and slowly hauling himself up, nearing the edge of the balustrade.

Turn order is Stephanie, then Kate. Raam manifested Levitate to move out of the webs and towards your position, the half orc is slowly climbing the side of the ship. The shooter is fleeing and the dwarf is stuck pat in place.

[JoyWonderLove]

=Third round=

Stephanie clenched her stomach in an attempt to keep her panic from rising as the muscle-bound, levitating mountain radiating purple menance into the air floated up towards their platform. Lying prone, she needed only tilt her head down to watch the threat get even closer.

“Hookay,” she exhaled fearfully while her hands feverishly pulled purple rope and a grappling hook from her back, through with her teeth, and secured it to the side of the platform beside her. The rope was then flung easily over the side. She then stared irritably behind Raam and stabbed a finger twice at him, gesturing to imaginary allies on the weatherdeck. The flared wings of the crossbow reappeared and she shot at the floating captain.



HP: 24 max.
AC: 17. +4 VS crossbow / ranged attack due to being prone.



1, Move action to tie a rope through the grappling hook. This, like securing a grappling hook, is normally a DC 10 Use Rope for both. I beat those automatically.

2, Free action to drop the rope over the side (preferably opposite of the side where Raam is floating up, as you can drop an item into an adjacent square as a free action).

3,
Bluff to distract:
Hide behind cover of the platform (relative to Raam): [roll1d20+14

3, Standard action to fire the crossbow to keep Raam focused on the prize above him, and not the random piece of rope that was cut up earlier to tie up the human and gnome, so is probably 35 feet.

Attack accuracy: [roll0] (+9 normally, +1 with elevation)
Hand Crossbow damage: [roll1]
Sneak attack damage: [roll2]

[Molan]

Raam's face wrinkled with anger, then concern, and he turned back to see where Spoiler was pointing, and was struck in the back by her crossbow bolt. He howled in anger and turned back to face her, but she was hidden again, and his focus was broken. He fell back down and smacked into the deck, caving it in ever so slightly and becoming re-enmeshed into the spiderwebs.

He was hurt, prone, and covered in webs, temporarily immobilized and now at a huge disadvantage relative to the party.

Above him, Kate swelled to a massive size as psionic power coursed through her, matching and then exceeding the half giant's mass.

Wow that was pretty great. Huge rolls in OOC, overcame Raam's saves and checks. He falls 20 ft. and takes 2d6 fall damage, plus Stephanie's attack...AND failed second save against the Web Spell so now he's really stuck.

Kate's up -- you're already enlarged, Feather, and it's your turn.

[Feathersnow]

Kate attempts to daze the dwarf, interfering with his(?) ability to scale the rope and giving her a rush of competency!

1d100 need 11 or better for daze cast as a level 3 manifester for 1 pp

[Molan]

Kate released a psychic burst and stunned her target. Near the stern of the ship, the bleeding archer made it to the edge and jumped off, splashing into the cold waters of the Gotham below and disappearing from view.

[JbeJ275]

Barbara stops casting spells for a moment, choosing instead to take the more direct approach of firing a crossbow bolt dows towards Raam where he was stuck below.

[Molan]

Barbara's bolt punctured the half giant's armor, but just barely. He growled in anger and struggled to get free, but remained stuck. Nearly reaching the weather deck, the half orc was struck by Kate's psychic attack and fell into the water, joining his unfortunate compatriots in the dark below.

The dwarf struggled mightily to move but barely managed to get a few feet through the webbing.

NGL next time I'm gonna need to pop another wizard into the encounter, my rolls are failing me and Barbara's and Kate's magical/psionic attacks have just been devastating this encounter lol.

Anyway, Raam's still dangerous but at this point the scales are tipping more demonstratively in your favor. Stephanie is up, then Kate, then Raam/dwarf then Barbara.

[JoyWonderLove]

=Fourth round=

The half orc disappeared beneath the waves at the flash of a psychic flare, the crossbowman had thrown himself overboard the same, and Raam was embedded in the weatherdeck like an ugly discarded ship figurehead. Another bolt was popped into the crossbow almost mechanically.

“I’ve got smokesticks, a tanglefoot bag, and one more thunderstone.” Again a bolt flew down at the besieged captain before she flicked her head sideways at the red barrel inches away from her. “You guys wanna set off some fireworks back at Raam’s place after this?”



HP: 24 max.
AC: 17. +4 VS crossbow / ranged attack due to being prone.

1, Move action to reload.

2, Standard action to fire the crossbow at Raam again. The only more interesting thing I could do means standing up first which means no crossbow shooting. So, crossbow shooting.

Attack accuracy: [roll0] (+9 normally, +1 with elevation)
Hand Crossbow damage: [roll1]
Sneak attack damage: [roll2]

[Feathersnow]

Kate jumps off the ledge and moves towards the enemy!

[Molan]

Kate leapt off the crane platform and onto the deck of the ship, but her leap was off, and her halberd smashed into the deck beside Raam, severing some of the strands of Barbara's web and sending splinters flying through the air.

Raam yanked and tore at the webs, slowly working himself free, but still failed to right himself.

Down on the docks, the dwarf finally struggled loose, and began pushing himself towards the edge of the web in order to escape it's grasp.

[JbeJ275]

=Fourth round=

The half orc disappeared beneath the waves at the flash of a psychic flare, the crossbowman had thrown himself overboard the same, and Raam was embedded in the weatherdeck like an ugly discarded ship figurehead. Another bolt was popped into the crossbow almost mechanically.

“I’ve got smokesticks, a tanglefoot bag, and one more thunderstone.” Again a bolt flew down at the besieged captain before she flicked her head sideways at the red barrel inches away from her. “You guys wanna set off some fireworks back at Raam’s place after this?”


“Eh I don’t know. It’ll get the Justicars sure but not the right kind. Let me fetch the right kind then we’ll throw a party.”

“Hey! Ugly! You want to surrender now? Shooting you is getting pretty tedious.”

With that said she waits a second to check if the thug is considering it, and if not she unleashes another bolt towards Raam.”

[roll0] (+1 for elevation so 14)
[roll1]+ [roll2]

[Molan]

“Eh I don’t know. It’ll get the Justicars sure but not the right kind. Let me fetch the right kind then we’ll throw a party.”

“Hey! Ugly! You want to surrender now? Shooting you is getting pretty tedious.”

With that said she waits a second to check if the thug is considering it, and if not she unleashes another bolt towards Raam.”

[roll0] (+1 for elevation so 14)
[roll1]+ [roll2]

Raam howls in pain, and for a while he continues to fight angrily against the webs...but he's now bleeding all over the webbing and the deck, and his minions are all either gone or almost gone, with his dwarf companion down on the docks struggling to get away. After a while the half giant finally groaned, rolling his head back against the deck before letting out a long sigh and relinquishing his grip on his massive crystalline great scimitar.

"You fuggin' &itches are gonna pay for this. You think this is over? Old Man Fox can't protect you. NO one crosses the Thieves Guild and gets away with it."

[JbeJ275]

"Well, no-one's crossed us and gotten away with it just yet. I guess I'll see whose record breaks first." Responds Barbara as she walks down the arm of the crane. Hopping onto the ship she retrieves the weapon, and mesures out some silken rope. Though looking to he other two as the more physically capable and likely to succeed in tying the brute up.

She shoots some unimpressed side eye at the dwarf but given that she seems to have a while yet before he can run she's instead testing whether aa sufficiently unimpressed eyebrow raise can induce surrender when masked.

"So, once we've got this one tied shall we give the place a once over? It looks pretty tempting honestly. Oh and we should split the other stuff before we head back.

[JoyWonderLove]

=Fifth round=


“So,” the masked vigilante drawled to herself as she stared at the Kate sized dent in the deck. “Never piss that one off.”

Any woman willing to take a sixty foot leap in armour heavier than all the kit Stephanie carried on a standard breaking and entering was exactly the kind of crazy better left content. Shaking her head in disbelief, Barbara pushed some sanity into the situation by mention of hand-picked Justiciars to help secure Midtown. The confidence artist gave a tight smile. It seemed Oracle was not only already aware how bloated her little army was with more traitors than turn-keys, but had identified a handful that weren’t liabilities. She always was better at homework than me. Good. An example was set when the wizard got Raam to give up, and Brabara started climbing down.

Stephanie stood up finally, eyes roaming to the armoured dwarf stuck on the docks. A brazen clutter of foreign consonants emerged from deep in her throat. “Your heist is bust, your crew broken, your captain captured!” She had always been self-conscious about her Dwarven, but trusted that the thug fighting against the sticky web like a proverbial fly was a little too preoccupied to notice. “Surrender!”



HP: 24 max.
AC: 17. +4 VS crossbow / ranged attack due to being prone.

1, Move action to stand up. Crossbow still empty.

2, Standard action to diplomacy roll the dwarf into surrender, -10 because it’s done in a single combat round, instead of outside of combat.

Diplomacy: [roll0]

Honestly, I’m about as interested in saying ‘I shoot the Dwarf’ as you are in reading it, so I tried to write something slightly more interesting. If he gets away or surrenders, I don’t care too much. We have Raam already, so everything else is gravy.

[Molan]

The dwarf cursed back at Stephanie in dwarven, angrily giving himself one last heave before breaking the perimeter of the web. He made it about ten more feat down the dock, at this point rasping and breathing heavily after his bitter struggle with Barbara's spell. He turned back to look at the vigilantes' and their prize, then looked back out across the docklands. In the distance, the feint sound of a ringing bell chimed across the warf.

He seemed to think about it for a moment, then rattled off a series of oaths in dwarven before trundling over to a stack of crates on the dock and plopping down, defeated.

[Feathersnow]

Kate smirks beneath her helmet at the threat of retaliation from the Thieves Guild.

"Oh, you misunderstood. This isn't about Fox or being paid. I am after the Guild. Let them come, it will save us both time." She raises her giant axe and shouts!
"Run away, rats and vultures! The Bat will clean up this city, and I am his bannerwoman!"
[roll0] intimidate

Kate actually has only vague ideas of if Bruce Wayne is alive and less if he cares enough to show up like an Arthurian legend. But... that's what she knows. What everyone else know is is she seems pretty sure and that should strike caution in the hearts of evildoers

[JoyWonderLove]

Stephanie giggled into her mask, allowing herself to indulge for being out of everyone’s immediate earshot. “Wait, I what with a squid?” She grinned to herself, seeing that not having every little nuance of Dwarven wasn’t the worst fate in Gotham, although the wind had carried away some of the cursing aimed her way. The short thug in heavy armour hauled himself out of the webbing after rejecting her demands, only to collapse several feet later in a puddle of exhausted rage. He wore himself out, Oracle plopped herself on the docks again, and Batwoman warned the Thieves Guild she aspired to gift them all nooses. But that was the end of it – no more bolts flew, no further spells rearranged landscapes. A calm cradled the carnage below.

Seeing the matter settled, a crescent moon shamelessly revealed itself then. The southerly wind blew cool and gentle off the sea, and the platform rocked only with the light reassurance of a mother’s arms. Gathering up her grappling hook, Stephanie contemplatively started pulling the purple rope up and looping it between her elbow and hand. Merchant’s Guild have secured their shipment, Thieves Guild are bloodied more than they ever guessed, and families in Midtown will thrive for all of it. Now what? Securing the rope to her belt, she climbed down the neck of the crane, much the same as their Oracle did a little before.

Back on the wooden docks again, Stephanie experimentally tugged at the control panels until the crane bowed its head first beside her, where she removed the red barrel gingerly from the mechanical giraffe, and then set the platform unto the ship. No chance was she leaving explosives in the eyesight of that vengeful, telekinetic half-giant. Those two can easily deal with the rest. I could just grab the gems and go. Maybe practice my knots before heading off? But that didn’t help Gotham families any further at all, a city already drowning in its own gang violence, daughter against daughter, father versus son, endlessly. She would never have come close to taking down this hit solo. The half-orc that single-handedly used her mouth as a punching bag altogether proved it. It was hard not to know the truth of it when she turned the corner to see where dying mist had been replaced by artificial webbing. Somehow Oracle wasn’t herself tired from all the arcane weaving.


"So, once we've got this one tied shall we give the place a once over? It looks pretty tempting honestly. Oh and we should split the other stuff before we head back.

“After kissing floorboards and humping rope all night, yeah, a stroll sounds good. Really, all I want for certain are the gems and letter. Even just a copy of it. Anything else basically goes into rent, food and tasteful bondage lessons.” Sometimes, it was a good idea to throw others far off the truth, or test where their line was. Especially when you wanted to call that person a friend. “And before I forget, thanks. For when you tried to take the heat off with that half-orc playing patty-cake with my face. But, anyway, dwarf first.”



Jbe, I’m not totally sure what you think we might find, or if you were going to Search the place or not, but you and Feathersnow more than earned a second pair of eyes or an Aid Another, and we have a few minutes before the webbing disappears ‘atm’. That should give us time to snoop around more if you like. I automatically succeed at giving you a +2 to Search if you want it.


Tying the exhausted dwarf’s hands behind his back proved itself easy once Stephanie promised the knife was for cutting the rope, not his neck. “We’re done. And to get practice in on my alibis from now, I’m not a fan of seafood.”

***

Using the grappling hook and her ever shortening purple rope to find herself back on the weatherdeck of the Chraal, the blonde clasped her gloved hands before her demurely, as though she hadn’t intentionally shot bolts into his arteries only minutes ago. She altogether ignored the still weeping wounds, crimson covering his indigo tattoos and long healed scars.

“Captain Raam, I understand this must be completely new to you, so please allow me to explain a few of the finer details. You should know that this is a knight of an independent House, acting on their behalf, and with full acknowledgement from Lord Fox. That grants them rights to pits and gallows. If she or Lord Fox so chooses, they could place you almost totally outside of the Justiciar’s reach, behind muffled stone walls, in some gruesome hole, under guard from only their loyalists. All legally at that.” Her eyes registered genuine disgust.

“But that’s only one cruel trick nobles can pull on those like us, nevermind a Mage College lackey. Now that you've surrendered, it’s important someone informed is present to ensure abuse doesn’t happen further. The better to know what options you truly have, as a man that’s graced an impressive position on the most wanted list. If you’ll allow me, I’ll need to secure your hands behind you, before we can escort you back to the Guild Hall. From there we can gain clarity on the next best step forward.”



Use Rope to constrain Dwarf and Raam, Take 10: 34 on each. (+10 bonus, +2 Silk Rope, +12 baseline, +10 Taking).

Knowledge: Local on laws, Take 10: 20. I don’t expect much to come out of it, just an excuse to say ‘oh I totally know about Gotham law and didn’t just make up pits and gallows’.

Diplomacy on Raam, Take 10: 28. Surprisingly, that officially would take him from Hostile to Indifferent, going by rules. This should make him more open to getting tied up to march to the Guild Hall.
Bluff on Raam, Take 10: 24. Pretending to be more on Raam’s side than Kate’s. Or to cover if I’m accidentally making up the pits and gallows thing (maybe that doesn’t exist anymore in Gotham, or maybe it never did, who knows, it’s a place with nobles everywhere).

[JbeJ275]

Baraba walks quickly down to the inside of the ship, her eyes closing and a white glow emerging from beneath her mask as she scans the interior of the entire ship in a few moments, checking for any further contraband, hidden smuggling hatches, hiding criminals, incriminating documents or otherwise interesting activity. With this accomplished inside a few seconds she returns to the top decks and smiles at Stephanie, inches from blushing at some of what the dwarf said. Her dwarven tutors had never broken out that particular kind of language, though she could put all too much of it together.


Using Detect Magic and Spontaneous Search to conduct a quick search of the hold below decks for a 25 result with Stephanie's help.



For all the scares, and as relieved as she was to have not found herself in the hopeless position of going toe to toe with some of these thugs Barbara felt good about tonight. Less revenue for organised crime in this city meant less money for the dirty justicars, and the force multiplying magical components ending up in law-abiding hands was a nudge on the scales in the right direction.

Speaking of those fighting on the side of good she moved towards Stephanie and Kate, while her cheeks went almost as red as her hair upon overhearing one of Stephanie's comments she wasn't deterred from slipping them each a pouch of coin, with 284GP each, as well as a paper of ciphers for Stephanie. The rest was kept for her with 125GP kept aside for their employer to put into the other vigilante's hands. Then, as they made to terrify these two, she ducked away, looking for a Justicar she knew she could plausibly trust to find this scene before other thieves or corrupt justicars did, and planning to meet up with the others near the guild hall.

[Molan]

Raam and the dwarf complied, after Kate's threats and Stephanie's work at diplomacy. After Stephanie and Barbara were done sweeping the Chraal, the two thieves followed Stephanie and Kate along the long, humiliating walk back to the Merchant's Guild Hall.

Pits and Gallows is awesome and totally works with the setting, we're keeping it.

In addition to the cases that Raam had placed on the deck, the Merchant's Guild also had one other case of spell-book-writing material down in the hold. Magic wise, that wasn't all. Your detect magic spell locates two mostly full spellbooks, an unidentified cutlass, an unidentified ring, an unidentified lantern, five unidentified spell scrolls, and two unidentified wands.

The captain's quarters was filled with a series of maps and charts and merchant's guild letters, but with Stephanie's help Barbara locates a secret compartment in one of the drawers with two sealed letters and a bag carrying six sapphires.

You could loot this stuff -- and you'd probably get away with it, but the contents do belong to men who technically work for Fox. Something to consider.

The crew's quarters are mostly filled with booze and worthless items of clothing, but you do also find six unidentified potions. There's two heavy chests with high quality locks, one in the cargo hold and one in the captain's quarters, which you could try to crack. There's a lockbox in the brig with a poor quality lock.

After Kate and Spoiler began walking the two thugs back towards the Guildhall, Barbara set off into the night. The closest Justicar outpost in Fort Clinton was the Olive Street Stronghouse, but it was also wildly and hopelessly corrupt -- Barbara would have been better off delivering Raam straight to Kysel himself.

Instead, Barbara had to move eight blocks west to the Saint Mary's Park Watchtower; it was staffed with Gordon loyalists and several of them were even knights. It was impossible to find any hints of dawn in the sky but it was already getting slightly easier to see through the otherwise black streets of the slums. It was going to take a long time to get where she needed to be, but fortunately she was able to find a for-hire carriage driver drinking some stale-smelling coffee along a street corner not far from the docklands.

Okay so, Jbre it's only 4cp to get to the St. Mary's Park Watchtower, once youv'e secured Justicar help they can ride you back to the docks.

Let me know if you guys want to take any additional actions IC before I fasttravel you back to the Merchant's Guild Hall; I need to know because when we get there I get to open up with the new PCs.

[JbeJ275]

Before leaving the hold Barabara opens up the secret compartment and stares at it with a critical eye. Such compartments make some amount of sense as a security mesure against thieves, but more as a mesure to allow illegal smuggling, and this ship was a large one to be taken in so quietly by the thieves guild. Was there orruption inside the guild the captain was responsible for? Or was Fox himself forced into smaller scale criminality in the light of ramping pressure. Carefully Barabra peeled back the seal and read the contents of both papers, before hurriedly returning them to the seret compartment and going to fetch those local justicars she thought trustworthy.

[JoyWonderLove]

“If we’re casing the place after the fact, I’m guessing you’re checking for evidence of the inside job? Big heists normally prefer plants, and we already know Garrel was bought off, so best to double-check the rot isn’t all the way through. Or am I way off?”

That there was more than one way to bribe a Justiciar was well known in Gotham, but Stephanie doubted Merchants were much more expensive, and too few people were beyond the going rate for mage papers anyway. They found themselves searching inside the captain’s quarters. Oracle busied herself with tearing open sealed letters inside the secretive captain’s desk compartment. But it was the six sapphires that unashamedly held the light from the eternal torch in Spoiler’s hand that drew her. The ambivalent House Kyle rogue barely suppressed her grin. Hello, good graces. Only after making a showing of glancing at maps did she pluck up a sapphire to appraise the gem by eye, expression even. It was rare to find three kinds of gems in one night out.



Take 10 Appraisal: 15. (+2 Demon’s Head, +3 Intelligence, +10 Taking)

If the captain seems corrupt based on the letter evidence, and later what I might find in the chests, then I will liberate the shiny sapphires. I’m not above using a Bluff to distract certain PCs to do it, either. >:)

If the captain seems innocent, and there’s no obvious sentimental reason the Merchant would want them (evidence it’s for a fiance, needed for a spell to heal someone), I’ll ‘pay’ at a rate that favours the captain for the sapphires, based on my Appraisal check. Come here, little beauties.

After the gems and two heavy chests I'm happy to move on to Fox.


Stephanie made an intrigued noise at spying the heavy chest across the room, beside the wooden bed. She waltzed over to it only after a preliminary glance at the charts on the shelves, aware of present company. Nobles rarely enjoyed seeing expensive locks easily undone. “This chest could be hiding the valuable evidence you need to further break the Thieves’ hold on Midtown. I might even be able to finesse it, given a few minutes. But I’m more a concerned Gothamite helping make the odd citizen’s arrest against dangerous criminals; potentially damaging the property of family men isn’t really a hobby of mine.”

Alibis were a habit that her shifty elf friend had massaged into her skull over the years, and they had saved Stephanie from jail and the grave on more times than she cared to consider. However respectable a front she had insisted on showing everyone at the Mage College, the blonde had still spent the evening armed and kitted to traipse freely around private property, far past curfew, and without any care for the Guild Master’s opinion or approval. Never mind the dead arsonist. A witness capable of puzzling out practical alchemy, linguistics and arcana, Barbara would know how little Spoiler cared for laws. But people, and plausible deniability, were entirely different.

“I’d really need a nod from someone in the know.” She unfolded her purple leather case of tools tantalisingly, but looked over at Oracle innocently. “Do you think the Justiciar’s would understand?”



Search: Take 10. Just confirming that, yknow, it’s safe. I’m pretty sure it is, but no one needs a trap to ruin our day.

Open Lock: It normally takes 1 round (6 secs), so Take 20 takes two minutes. So four minutes total per heavy chest (one in captain's quarter, one in crew quarter). Result 32 for both (+10 baseline, +20 Taking, +2 Masterwork kit).

Take 10 on K: Local. 20 The Cat. I can’t remember if I’m completely making it up, read it in a wiki page, or if it’s confirmed, but does The Cat actually likes gemstones? :smallconfused:

Basically, I’m collecting gems that could be sold at worse, or grant me a little more sway with House Kyle at best later on, maybe. But stealing is only okay when it’s from morally dubious people. :smallsmile:


After the gems and two heavy chests I'm happy to move on to Fox.

[JbeJ275]

"It goes without saying that as the largely unaffiliated though unperecuted merenary spellcaster 'Oracle' I have no particular insights into what the Justicars would or would not understand, much less any power to sway them should my assumption be incorrect." Replied Barbara with a knowing smirk.

"However, where I to make an unfounded speculation as to the potential feelings of ... say the heir to justicar's keep, or others with some understand of the pracctices of the justicars, I'd guess that cracking open safes in locations that up until only a few minutes ago were held by ambitious and violent members of organised crime comes close to standard pracctice, and certainly has the potential to be overlooked as long as they're just examined and not say, picked entirely clean.

[Molan]

Before leaving the hold Barabara opens up the secret compartment and stares at it with a critical eye. Such compartments make some amount of sense as a security mesure against thieves, but more as a mesure to allow illegal smuggling, and this ship was a large one to be taken in so quietly by the thieves guild. Was there orruption inside the guild the captain was responsible for? Or was Fox himself forced into smaller scale criminality in the light of ramping pressure. Carefully Barabra peeled back the seal and read the contents of both papers, before hurriedly returning them to the seret compartment and going to fetch those local justicars she thought trustworthy.

Barbara took a look at the back of the envelopes. One was sealed with green wax, the other in dark blue. Her eyes widened (Know Nobility: Take 10 for 18) when she saw the green seal; it was embossed with the strange serpentine, question mark sigil of House Nigma.

The second letter was graced with a spade, which she didn't recognize. Fortunately, her companion did.

"That's the emblem of the Dark Market," Spoiler whispered. "I'd heard some chatter that they might be trying to edge back into Midtown, but I ruled it out once we started picking off the Thieves Guild. Seems I wasn't completely wrong after all."

Nodding, Barbara coaxed the envelopes open, careful to avoid actually breaking the wax seals. "That was easy enough." she commented offhand in Spoiler's direction. "Yea, that's because these have already been opened and resealed." the thief replied.

She read each letter aloud, to speed things along.

The House Nigma Letter
" The letter starts out addressed to 'Your Noble Captainship', and the entire first page appears to be a series of riddles, written in scrawling green ink.

Weight in my belly, Trees on my back, Nails in my ribs, Feet I do lack. What am I?

Directly below the riddle, written in a much shakier, blank-inked hand, is a single word: SHIP. The "S" in Ship was underlined.

I'm in the book, but not on any leaf; I'm in the mouth, but not in lip or teeth; I'm in the atmosphere, but never in the air; I wait on every one, but never on a pair; I am with you wherever you may go; And every thing you do I'm sure to know; Though when you did it I should not be there, Yet when 'twas done, you'd find me in the chair. What am I?"

Once again, below this new riddle, the second 'writer' has added his answer: "Letter O". This time the "O" was underlined..

The House Nigma letter goes on like that. Riddle after riddle crosses the page...at several points, the person answering the puzzles appears to have gotten frustrated and crossed out his answer more than once. Barbara turned the large parchment over, and felt a chill run down her spine. There was a single message written in back in green, and the letters that had been underlined on the previous page had been assembled in black ink below them.

I know you're growing impatient, my seaworthy friend. But don't worry. Once Fox is gone, you'll have a new master, and I will no longer have need of your services. Until I have what I want, you'll continue to pass information to my couriers as requested. In the meantime, assemble the clues I've been leaving you. The next -- and last -- letter will lead you to your precious Verena. Aren't family reunions just grand?

-- L.E.N.

Below the green paragraph, the recipient of the letter -- presumably the captain -- had spelled out the first major letter in each one of the riddle's answers: S O U C H A N I S L."

Barbara shook her head. She was reading an overly-complicated ransom note. Apparently the Captain of the Chraal was passing along information about the Merchant's Guild in order to spare (or reclaim?) someone named Verena.

She looked at the second note. This one was much simpler.
The Dark Market Letter

"Don't think I didn't notice you trying to give us the slip last week. Don't fug around with us Benson; this doesn't have to be a difficult relationship.

Your payment is in the gem pouch. All you have to do is perform your normal run. Once you've offloaded your cargo, our boys at the port will load your return shipment up no problem. All you have to do is keep our -- special barrels -- off of your manifest. We'll keep you compensated, you just return to port and deliver your merchandise.

Who knows, you keep doing us proud, we might even be able to help you out with your...other problem.

Don't forget; before long the Merchants' Guild is gonna be history and you'll be looking for new employers. Don't be an idiot -- look out for yourself, and your family. You've got a bright future.

- I"

If nothing else, they'd discovered what the Sapphires were about.



“If we’re casing the place after the fact, I’m guessing you’re checking for evidence of the inside job? Big heists normally prefer plants, and we already know Garrel was bought off, so best to double-check the rot isn’t all the way through. Or am I way off?”

That there was more than one way to bribe a Justiciar was well known in Gotham, but Stephanie doubted Merchants were much more expensive, and too few people were beyond the going rate for mage papers anyway. They found themselves searching inside the captain’s quarters. Oracle busied herself with tearing open sealed letters inside the secretive captain’s desk compartment. But it was the six sapphires that unashamedly held the light from the eternal torch in Spoiler’s hand that drew her. The ambivalent House Kyle rogue barely suppressed her grin. Hello, good graces. Only after making a showing of glancing at maps did she pluck up a sapphire to appraise the gem by eye, expression even. It was rare to find three kinds of gems in one night out.



Take 10 Appraisal: 15. (+2 Demon’s Head, +3 Intelligence, +10 Taking)

If the captain seems corrupt based on the letter evidence, and later what I might find in the chests, then I will liberate the shiny sapphires. I’m not above using a Bluff to distract certain PCs to do it, either. >:)

If the captain seems innocent, and there’s no obvious sentimental reason the Merchant would want them (evidence it’s for a fiance, needed for a spell to heal someone), I’ll ‘pay’ at a rate that favours the captain for the sapphires, based on my Appraisal check. Come here, little beauties.

After the gems and two heavy chests I'm happy to move on to Fox.


Stephanie made an intrigued noise at spying the heavy chest across the room, beside the wooden bed. She waltzed over to it only after a preliminary glance at the charts on the shelves, aware of present company. Nobles rarely enjoyed seeing expensive locks easily undone. “This chest could be hiding the valuable evidence you need to further break the Thieves’ hold on Midtown. I might even be able to finesse it, given a few minutes. But I’m more a concerned Gothamite helping make the odd citizen’s arrest against dangerous criminals; potentially damaging the property of family men isn’t really a hobby of mine.”

Alibis were a habit that her shifty elf friend had massaged into her skull over the years, and they had saved Stephanie from jail and the grave on more times than she cared to consider. However respectable a front she had insisted on showing everyone at the Mage College, the blonde had still spent the evening armed and kitted to traipse freely around private property, far past curfew, and without any care for the Guild Master’s opinion or approval. Never mind the dead arsonist. A witness capable of puzzling out practical alchemy, linguistics and arcana, Barbara would know how little Spoiler cared for laws. But people, and plausible deniability, were entirely different.

“I’d really need a nod from someone in the know.” She unfolded her purple leather case of tools tantalisingly, but looked over at Oracle innocently. “Do you think the Justiciar’s would understand?”



Search: Take 10. Just confirming that, yknow, it’s safe. I’m pretty sure it is, but no one needs a trap to ruin our day.

Open Lock: It normally takes 1 round (6 secs), so Take 20 takes two minutes. So four minutes total per heavy chest (one in captain's quarter, one in crew quarter). Result 32 for both (+10 baseline, +20 Taking, +2 Masterwork kit).

Take 10 on K: Local. 20 The Cat. I can’t remember if I’m completely making it up, read it in a wiki page, or if it’s confirmed, but does The Cat actually likes gemstones? :smallconfused:

Basically, I’m collecting gems that could be sold at worse, or grant me a little more sway with House Kyle at best later on, maybe. But stealing is only okay when it’s from morally dubious people. :smallsmile:


After the gems and two heavy chests I'm happy to move on to Fox.


Barbara began to reseal the two envelopes, and Stephanie got to work on the chests.

Are you skipping the lockbox in the brig?

She managed to open both of them with just a little patience and effort. The Captain's chest included, among other things, multiple bottoms of rum and whisky, an assortment of fine clothes, crucial letters of marque that licensed the Chraal for it's trade as a ship of the Merchant's Guild, 4,500 gold pieces, an unidentified spyglass, and three unidentified potions.

The ship in the crew quarters was more dubious; an unidentified cutlass and an unidentified dagger, an unidentified suit of leather armor, to unidentified potions, 550 silver pieces, 1,200 copper pieces, 20 Gold pieces, two pieces of what looked like stolen artistic statues, several bottles of rum...and what to Spoiler's eyes was unmistakably a healthy-sized stash of hard drugs. There were also several sets of commoner's clothes.


"It goes without saying that as the largely unaffiliated though unperecuted merenary spellcaster 'Oracle' I have no particular insights into what the Justicars would or would not understand, much less any power to sway them should my assumption be incorrect." Replied Barbara with a knowing smirk.

"However, where I to make an unfounded speculation as to the potential feelings of ... say the heir to justicar's keep, or others with some understand of the pracctices of the justicars, I'd guess that cracking open safes in locations that up until only a few minutes ago were held by ambitious and violent members of organised crime comes close to standard pracctice, and certainly has the potential to be overlooked as long as they're just examined and not say, picked entirely clean.

[Molan]

CHAPTER TWO: THE LORDS OF HEAVEN AND EARTH

https://www.thecowl.com/files/2017/11/warehouse-1x9li4g.jpg

Kate and Stephanie returned with their thieves in tow as dawn began to slowly break in the east. It took a long, long time for the sun's rays to reach the docks, blocked as they were first by the Bludhaven Mountains and then by the looming sides of the city itself. Still, a pinkish hue was beginning to find it's way through the sky when they returned to the Guild Hall.

They kept the thieves tied up near one of the large moorings on the docks and made their way inside.

Things here were a bit brighter when they walked in than they'd been the prior evening. For one thing, more of the hall's interior lanterns were lit, illuminating a room that had once been cast in deep shadows. Second, there were more people here. Fox was leaning against a bookshelf, sipping what smelled like freshly brewed tea. He was accompanied by two of his employees, a man-at-arms you didn't recognize and a bookkeeper with an insignia over his heart that denoted a fairly high rank in the Merchant's Guild, for whatever that was worth.

But that wasn't all he had with him. Two other figures now greeted the women as they entered the hall.

The first was an older man -- not too old to be completely out of his prime, but steadily working his way to the darker side of middle-aged. His hair and slight beard were silver, and he wore a long brown leather coat, over what appeared to be an exquisitely crafted suit of brigandine armor. He had tall dark boots and a belt festooned with pouches and various tools of his trade. A crossbow bolt quiver sat on one hip and a long sword on the other, and a heavy, magically enchanted repeating crossbow was slung over his back -- Stephanie eventually realized it was the one that had been sitting on Fox's desk the night before. He wore a silver shield badge over his left breast, with a heraldry embossed on it that neither of them recognized.

Standing next to him was a much younger looking lad. He had dark, charming features and wore a self-confident grin, along with a dark red tunic and a deep black cloak, lined in gold (the color not the metal). He also wore an insignia on his chest the ladies didn't recognize.

"Ah! You've made it! And relatively unscathed, I see!" Fox exclaimed. "Though I have to express some concern. I seem to remember sending four of you out last night."

"Oracle's coming back with the Justicar's from Saint Mary's Tower," Stephanie assured him. "The other fellow ran off though. Provided us with one hell of a distraction. Not sure if he made it out, but if he did we'll try to track him down for you."

"Ah, I see." Fox replied cautiously. "Made it out...so I take it you all found some trouble last night."

Kate and Spoiler regaled Fox and his guests with the short version of their mission; Raam and his Thieves had gone after the Chraal, and they'd been definitively stopped.

"We've got a whole batch of presents for you and the Justicars outside. Unfortunately not as many as we'd hoped -- we lost a good number of them in the Gotham." (Meaning, of course, the River.)

Fox leaned outside to see Raam and his remaining, miserable looking compatriots tied up to the moorning.

"Well I'll be damned." he shook his head. "Is that Captain Raam, the half-giant of the Fort Clinton Thieves Guild?"

"Oh yea. That's him." Kate confirmed.

Fox just shook his head and laughed.

"Well Alfred, seems you were right. This might just be the bunch we were hoping to find."

"Come Lucius. I'm always right." The two men shared a knowing laugh, before Fox seemed to remember himself.

"Ah, my apologies ladies. I almost forgot. Please, allow me to introduce my two companions here. This gentleman in the long coat is Sir Alfred Pennyworth, a knight in the service of House Wayne, our one-time benefactors. And this young lad here is Damian Wayne, Lord Bruce's squire."

I hope I didn't speak to much for you. I'm going to leave this here and let you take the wheel for your characters. Also it's none of my business but I'm going to imagine that for the time being Damian may want to explain his last name by claiming he's adopted -- but you do you, Abdiel.

Your introduction is coming up, I would just like to not 100% railroad the others before moving on. I'm going to give Kate/Damian/Stephanie all a chance to speak and then I'll bring you both (back) in. Jbre you're also not seen since you're just now on your way back with the Justicars.

[MrAbdiel]

He visibly tenses at being introduced as a young lad. Not for any good visible reason; he is both young, and a lad; and both undeniably. But he turns gunmetal grey eyes on Kate and Stephanie, and rakes them over with a stare that offers none of the contagious joy of youth that children in their best aspect exude. It's a look of distant displeasure; standing at best four and a half feet tall, but managing to look down at them. It's almost a patrician stare; almost distant because of the aristocratic aspect of his being. But it's more than that; the kind of look a clerk gives a ledger full of red ink. It evokes a sensation of being looked over, catalogued by part, and filed away in some dark cabinet stored behind those gunmetal eyes.

He cannot be more than ten years old.

"I must object again, Fox. Impressive as small successes might feel at this stage, I do not think it wise to rest so much of the estate's interests on such..."

That such does a lot of work, for a moment; holding the sentence open like the jaws of some beast dwelling in the tension, striving to snap shut on the pensive silence.

"...Hobbyists."

The child seems to settle on the word which, while insulting, seems to be an act of restraint on his part. The sharpness of his mind demonstrated in these few moments must enabled the grasping of much less kind instruments than that, and nothing about him suggests that he has been frontloaded with respect for either of the women before him. But he speaks again, in that fine, high voice of a child for whom mental maturity has come early and easy, while physical maturity languishes years away in delivery.

"Still. I am sure that incapacitating Raam's operation for the moment releases some tensions we are under; and that much deserves commendation. So..." With his left hand at rest on the pommel of what seems like a mostly ceremonial short sword on his left hip, the right comes up with a loose, splayed-finger roll of the wrist, as if scattering feed to pigeons. "I commend you." Like the previous appellation he bestowed upon him, this gesture comes with a manner that suggests he does not consider it as wildly insulting as it might otherwise be taken. Whatever pretence he is operating under, his commendation has dubious value regardless of how insincerely given it is, or is not. And the fact remains, as towering and brute as the boy is small and slim, that he is a child, and it is difficult to take him seriously.

https://i.ibb.co/DGhNQQt/Damien.jpg

[Feathersnow]

Kate nods gravely. She was career military. This is about the level of respect she got from civilian leaders, and about the level she would give to vigilantes.

"It is but a start. A seed, if you will.

I let them know, in no uncertain terms, House Kane stood beside House Wayne, and, together, we were going after them.

I am beyond gratified that a member of the ruling house came to ratify my actions and I apologize for any presumption"

[I]still though, a kid? Really? They didn't have anyone else?l/i]

[JoyWonderLove]

=Holk=



Literally takes 6 seconds to pop that poor lock, so may as well.





“My words are law, though my spelling be divine. I wear a mask, for I can be no figurehead. I leave not tracks, but will riddle his ass with my boot. What am I?”

Stephanie intoned sardonically before shaking her head in dismay. “How sick do you have to be to kidnap someone’s loved one, and then send obtuse and trying riddles to further torment the people that just want to see them back healthy and whole again?”

“The captain is the lynchpin here. He obviously doesn’t want to work with Zucco, but will if that’s his best angle at getting Verena back. We save her, and the Black Market loses a vital connection. Benson might let us attempt an ambush on Zucco after if we’re savvy. Unless I’m seeing things wrong here. Can you think of another approach?”

The single sapphire that had been taken was placed back, to better match the supposedly undisturbed letters. It was then she went over to the captain’s chest and found a knowing smirk and legalise of the highest caveats answering the question of consent. She didn’t fight the grin that bubbled up, for all the odd guilt at it when Robyn was still stuck on that island.

“Well, pfft, yeah. Of course I wouldn’t pick the place entirely clean. Everyone knows you go high end or go home.” With no care to hint any further at House Kyle connections, Stephanie laid down her stainless steel tools that all were snugly set in the purple leather case. She sat before the captain’s chest and eyed the cylinder hungrily. The lockpick in the left hand and tension wrench in the right only aided how obviously she relished the challenge over the earlier violence. It was a look she had never fully disguised when in College classes.

“But still: Standard practice! Who knew you could crack whatever safes you want as long as a few crooks own it? That is completely my thing!”

Much of the conversation soon was composed of an annoyed grunt here and frustrated sigh there while Stephanie tested various picks that matched the keyway. Concentration covered her face like mascara, but her hands worked in diligent unison until a satisfying click announced her triumph. She rested on her haunches as she savoured the difficult yet ultimately quick success.




=Chapter 2=

“Oh, but Lord Damian is really very correct, uh huh.” The blonde bobbed her head along with a yokel’s refinement that didn’t quite agree with her skintight suit or utility belt or weaponry. “I’m every inch the, uh, hobbyist – this was my first time assisting with a real citizen’s arrest.” She appeared to beam.

This – would be so much easier in a different disguise.

“I was so lucky House Kane and the Mage College lead with its finest.” Stephanie hesitated after, knowing better than to correct Fox that she had been present when he doled out assignments hours earlier. He was either saving face before his peers, or else was entirely too stressed to have recalled who had been present during.

“Although – while the Dame directed us back here safely – Captain Raam seemed particularly concerned what would happen to him. Something to do with his high profile, and gallows, or pits, or ladders, or – who knows, but he opened to me some because I’m nowhere near as important as anyone else here.” Blue eyes tracked in wonderment from the captain of industry, settling on the little lordling second, and finally the silver haired knight. “I wouldn’t pry in the plans of my betters, of course, if you’d rather not mention what you belief I could help in. But would my Lords dismiss me instead?”

The rogue shifted her weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other, letting the actual unease coiling around her stomach drive the movement. Lingering in the presence of nobles that conspired to drag yet another peasant into shadowy schemes was a fine way to end up a scapegoat or worse, she was willing to bet. It had been a fatigued sense of camaraderie and worry that even dour Kate wouldn’t have been safe escorting the thugs solo that had brought to the Merchant’s Guild Hall. With Barbara off to find the five whole trustworthy Justiciars in all Gotham, and the Thieves Guild nearly secured, she only wanted to poke the last bit of important information out of Raam before considering her next moves. The Dark Market needed to be humbled again, and the ship captain deserved a way out, but it was easier playing up the peasant if those details came from Oracle.

“The sooner I can reassure Raam that fair treatment is ensured by the same lord that’s kept honest and noble commerce alive and thriving in Midtown all this time, the swifter he might even share some more information. Did you ever hear that odd rumour Raam might not be in charge of the Midtown Guild?” She added cautiously, hanging the implication like bait, the sooner to be given leave of this meeting of nobles with obscure schemes.



Take 10 Bluff on the many lies, like playing into being a peasant hobbyist that tagged along behind the dour knight, highly intelligent oracle, and hulking Red. 24

Take 10 Diplomacy on Fox in particular. Mostly want him receptive to not calling on his right to pits and gallows, and mostly letting me have a chat with Raam. I doubt I need the Diplomacy but he is technically in charge of this entire area, so it’s easier and less suspect with his say so. 28

Take 10 Local Knowledge on Damien and Pennyworth. 20 each. That done, I get it if you don’t want to give me a ton of info for instead leaning on Local so much when K: Nobility is a thing.

And yes, I think there’s a shot at maybe getting information out of Raam. Who knows what my chances are, but I can try?

[Molan]

Instant success, lockbox came open and the lid clanged to the deck. Inside, Spoiler several crystals. One had a core, large crystal with two smaller ones arranged around it, attached by silver wire. Three of them were elongated crystals between 8 and 10 inches long, with runes carved down their sides. The third stone was approximately thumb sized, and glows with it's own inner light. Stephanie found the contents odd; she looked around for an indication of their purpose. Upon closer inspection, she noticed the brig was designed somewhat strangely. There were three standard cells, and two that looked very different. One was marked with runes that looked similar in style and design to the runes on the stones in the lockbox, and was made from a deep black metal she couldn't identify. The other was lined with what looked like elven or arcane writing, and appeared to have plates of led both at the top and the bottom of the cell. Other than the lockbox, there was no outward explanation for the two strange looking cells.

-Inside the Guild Hall-

Lucius nodded. "Go ahead, see if you can get anything else out of him. The more we know about the rest of his cronies, the better, but as long as him and his boys are off the street, things are already looking up." With Fox's permission, Spoiler headed outside to talk to Raam.

"You'll have to pardon Master Damien's attitude," Sir Pennyworth said somewhat wryly. "Gets a bit lonely out on Wayne Castle. Hard for a ten year old squire to know much about things like decorum and manners when most of his friends are empty suits of armor."

Damien blanched in defiant opposition, but Sir Pennyworth was clearly in charge, at least here, and he quieted the boy's protests with a knowing look. Damien just rolled his eyes and sighed, ignoring the older knight.

"Well now, first order of business, my Lady, I'm sure has got to be your bounty." Fox continued. "Stopping Raam's raid was no small thing. We owe you a debt of gratitude. I'm throwing in an extra thousand gold pieces for your trouble. Now, I see here we've got Raam, plus....I count seven captive thieves guilders. Oh, and who was it you said you killed?"

"Some elf named 'Aust'." Kate answered flatly.

Fox snorted.

"Holy fug you all are serious. Aust is one of the most famous murderers in Fort Clinton. I really did draw the lottery with you all. Okay so Raam, Aust, seven other captives, that makes 900 gp per our deal, plus 100 gp for the night, as promised. Since you figured out who was targeting my ships, that's the four thousand, and the thousand gold bonus brings you to six thousand gold total. Sound fair?"

Kate nodded, and one of Fox's attendants prepared a bag of gold and handed it to her.

"You'll make sure the rest of the team gets their cut, yes?"

Kate nodded again.

"Alright great. Well I hope that's not enough for the bunch of you to retire on, because I've got your next job, if you're up for it."

Fox leaned back on his desk, sipping his tea.

"Okay, here's how it is. Ever since Gotham City joined the Empire, House Wayne has commanded incredibly powerful financial positions at the Futures Exchange. It's all a bit complicated -- involves lots of minutiae about grain yields, promissory and speculative notes, and all sorts of other such nonsense. But the bottom line is that by holding those assets, the Waynes -- and by extension, the Merchants' Guild, were always about to frontload massive purchases of Arcana from the College that would have been prohibitively expensive to procure otherwise."

"There isn't actually enough Gold in the Empire to directly fund everything the College makes," Pennyworth added. "Gotham's banks are one of the reasons the trade exists at all."

"Exactly right." said Fox. "So, essentially, we've always had access to troves of Arcana that the most powerful buyers in the Empire -- including the Imperial Army -- have ever wanted before those orders even get made. But once our position in the city started collapsing, our ability to move that Arcana collapsed with it. When the Chraal departs tomorrow afternoon, that will give us a lifeline, but the real game is just beginning. Now, House Wayne was never a wizard house. They were all warriors. But they knew controlling the Mage's College was the key to controlling the city, so for a very long time they invested heavily in anti-magic resources. Our whole horde is currently in cold storage in the Void Vaults, right here in Fort Clinton, Midtown. The Void Vaults are essentially impregnable, but they have to be sealed tight in order to function. Thing is, once the seal is opened, they're vulnerable, and once we actually start moving our goods from the Vaults to the docks, they're way to easy to ambush."

Lucius took another swig of his tea, then panned his eyes around the room to make sure he still had everyone's attention.

"Now. There's some good news and some bad news. The good news is that due to all the interference with the Arcana trade and the corruption in the city writ large, and in no small part thanks to the war with the orcs, demand for Arcana has never been higher. The bad news is, the notes backing all of our assets are coming due, before the end of the year. If we can't start moving that merch in order to cash in, the Guild is doomed. Worse, the note holders will all wind up getting access to the Vaults for coppers. Now that Raam's out of commission, we have a window. It's a short one; his buddies in the Midtown Thieves Guild are gonna be looking for vengeance, but if I can start moving those goods out of the vaults and into the markets again, our fortunes will pretty much reverse over night. We can even start buying our own Justicars, just like everybody else." Fox chuckled, and the guard captain standing next to him snorted.

"In order to do that, I need to convince my men it's safe to go back there and start moving the Arcana again. Then Captain Mathias and his men here can start emptying the Vaults and get us back on our feet."

The captain nodded.

"The men were afraid of the Thieves Guild and the other noble houses, but there've also been a lot of monster sightings near the Vaults recently." he added. "We need you to go over there tomorrow night -- tonight really, I guess -- and make sure the area is quiet. You'll need to sweep the interior of the Vault's too, so they know it's safe inside."

"Each one of the vaults is like a giant metal warehouse," Fox said. "It'll require a magical key to get in them. Needless to say, a lot of people's fates rest on this key not falling into the wrong hands. I need to know I can trust you."

"You can," Kate promised. "We've got no interest in selling you out now. I fought alongside of the others out on the docks -- they did well for themselves."

"Good." said Lucius. "If you all can handle this operation, it'll be the beginning of a new day in Gotham."

"And that's where I come in." Damien interjected with a fiendish grin. "Can't leave an operation this high stakes to a bunch of amateurs now can we?"

Fox laughed, and Pennyworth sighed, but neither of them directly disagreed with him.

"As it happens, yes." Said Pennyworth. "If it's not too much trouble, we'd actually like you to take young Master Damien along with you. I know what you're thinking -- not usually business for a child. But Damien is a squire to Lord Bruce Wayne, and I've personally helped oversee a good bit of his training myself. I can assure you; he'll be far more help than hinderance. Which in all truth is why we'd prefer to have him tag along."

"If we can pull this off, the reward will be quite a bit more substantial than last time," Fox added. "And I won't dilute your shares with young Lord Wayne here's presence. Deal?"

Kate nodded, and the pact was sealed.

"Now, one other thing, if I may." Said Pennyworth.

"When you're out there, in one of the Vaults, there's a special item I've been looking for. I'm fairly confident it's been in the Wayne family possession for some time, but it hasn't been worth looking for till now, and frankly by the time I found myself needing it, the Merchant's Guild was already in their present day pickle. While you're in the Vaults, look for a box painted all in white. Inside, you'll find a book -- a very strange, very rare, very powerful book."

"How will we know it's the right one?" said Kate.

"You truly cannot miss it," Sir Pennyworth replied. "You'll know it as soon as you open the box. It's a book bound in gold, with pages made of strange blue crystal. It's bound in a platinum chain, locked behind a cryptex seal made of mithril. If you have the capacity to look, you'll detect both divine and arcane magic flowing out of it. it's easily the most ostentatious object imaginable, hence the storage in the white painted crate. No one knows what it was originally called, but ancient scholars refer to it as the 'Codex Sanctus Celestialis.' If you find the Codex, I swear by all the gods I shall make it worth your while."

Before Kate could answer, there was a commotion outside, and the people inside the guild hall emptied out to investigate.

Stephanie was there, still crouched down in front of Raam, and an armored prisoner wagon had shown up, bearing the sigil of the Justicars. Riding on the wagon were four Justicar Watchmen, and sitting next to the Watchman driving the carriage was Oracle. They were flanked by three Lawmen mounted on horseback, and they began to dismount to round up the Thieves Guilders.

As they did so, a second convoy appeared, from the opposite direction. This crew also had an armored prisoner carriage, but that was about where their similarities ended. The second group was vastly more sinister. The carriage driver was hooded and dressed in black, and four riders rode in front of him; two of them wore long coats and carried insignias marking them as Holy Inquisitors of the Imperial Church and Witch Hunters of House Arkham. The third was dressed similarly, but was marked as a Hunter from House Quinzel.

The fourth man was a tall, brooding human, dressed in half-plate and carrying a falchion on his hip. All of them wore deep, condescending scowls, and they dismounted from their horses almost as one.

"That'll be enough, thank you." the lead inquisitor said.

He was a tall, lean, gaunt man, with a face that looked like a piece of fruit had been dried out in the sun. He seemed to be essentially dismissing the Justicars who'd just arrived.

"Excuse me," Fox demanded. "But on who's authority?"

Without blinking, the Inquisitor held out a scrawled piece of parchment as though Fox should have been ashamed to even ask.

"Our authority derives from the divine mandate of the Gods, of their Holy Imperial Church, and of the Emperor himself, Guildmaster."

"I beg to differ my friend," Fox shot back. "I may not be one to argue with the gods, but these men were captured stealing from me. That means I get to decide who's dungeons they rot in."

"Incorrect." said the inquisitor. "We rode here after hearing word from our informants that their might be witchery at work at your docks, Lord Fox. We appear to have found it."

He walked forward, looking the thieves up and down.

"This is Raam, notable half-giant deviant and notorious criminal, is it not?"

For the first time since the party had seen the great Guild Captain, even since they had beaten him on the Chraal, they saw the first hint of fear flash across the huge man's face.

"And I was also led to believe that this deviant had brought his elf lackey Aust, also another infamous criminal, and illegal and unlicensed magic user with him to these docks. Tell me, where is the witch?"

"Aust is dead." Oracle snarled. "His soul at least is beyond your reach."

"Is that so? Then you have done him and the city a great service, whatever-your-name-is. Death may not be the most humane way to reform a witch -- but it is often quite a bit less painful than the alternative."

He turned to Fox.

"In addition to being a rampant criminal this half-giant is a psychic, which by the laws of the Imperial Church is a deviation and a mutation that must be curbed and sterilized. By associating with this mutant, his men have also been tainted. The Imperial Writ gives us cause to bring these men back to the Arkham Witch's Asylum, where they can be reformed. And...purified."

Neither the Justicars, nor the captive Thieves Guilders nor the Merchants Guild members looked particularly pleased about this, but after some argument and deliberation, eventually the lead Justicar gave in.

"They've got jurisdiction," he eventually admitted, sounding defeated. "Church writ says the Inquisition -- and by extension, their servant houses -- get dibs on rogue mages, psychics and anyone else they declare deviant. Including their associates. I'm sorry, Lord Fox."

Fox sighed, and eventually nodded.

"Very well, Inquisitor," he said while looking queasy. "Take them away."

The lead inquisitor turned to one of his associates.

"Inquisitor Strange, escort these men to the wagon."

With that, the Arkham men began to round up the Party's captives. Once they'd been locked inside the metal carriage, Fox crossed his arms and tapped his foot.

"We about done here?" he huffed. "Not that I haven't enjoyed your visit...Inquisitor."

"Hardly." the inquisitor snapped back. "These mercenaries you've assembled, they're protecting your interests now, Guildmaster?"

"Not that it's any of your business, but yes. Yes I suppose they are." said Fox.

"Very well. Since that wagon is now holding approximately half of Raam's crew, I can only assume you'll be sending them after your Vaults next."

"No offense, Inquisitor, but that's really none of your damn business."

"Any magical activity that happens in this city is my business, Guildmaster. Of that I can assure you. Either way, it doesn't matter whether you admit it or not. It's an open secret that the one and final chance for your Guild's survival rests on paying off your arcana calls, or this Guild will crumble and you with it. Now that Raam is behind bars you'll have no choice but to try to move your merchandise."

"You're not getting into those Vaults, Inquisitor."

"No, of course not. But you are, Lord Fox. Or at least, your hired swords will be visiting them. And that currently represents a problem for the Inquisition."

"Really, and what's that, exactly?"

"We've heard the rumors of monster sightings near your Vaults. You know as well as I do the most likely cause is rampant magic pollution, possibly even seepage from your own wares. We must know what's happening near the Vaults in Fort Clinton, so our agent will be joining your hired help."

The inquisitor turned to his companions, and gestured towards the armored man still sitting on his horse. He climbed down, and paced towards Fox and the party, his face set with grim fierceness.

"This holy warrior had a different birth name than the one he uses now, but that's not information you need burden yourself with. You can refer to him simply as; Azrael. He is one of our holy agents, and I am sending him along with your hired thugs to investigate these Vaults. He will report back to us if any malfeasance is discovered. And rest assured, if it is, the Inquisition will be returning to claim it's due."

"I see. And if I refuse?"

The inquisitor stepped in close, till his fetid breath was palpable for the whole party.

"Then the next time I return to these wretched docks, you insolent dog, I will not be greeting you with words. And I will do so at the head of a small army. You will not stand in the way of the Church, Lucius Fox. Do not mistake me for some common thieves guilder. That would be sorely misguided."

"Okay, Inquisitor." Fox said coolly. "I suppose that's clear enough."

No one other than Alfred, Bruce and maybe Fox officially knows this, but you are in fact the bastard child of Bruce Wayne and Talia Al'Ghul. After his parents died, Bruce Wayne famously left Gotham, though most Gothamites don't know what he was up to once he departed. In fact, he became an adventurer, and found a world full of injustice that needed righting. This is how he first came in contact with Raz A'Ghul and the League of Shadows; they'd claimed to him that they wanted to rid the world of evil just like he did. During his exploits and training with the League of Shadows, Bruce had fallen in love with Talia, a union that, years later, would eventually lead to you.

Bruce fell out with the League, well before he wound up returning to Gotham. When he returned, he found that they'd set up shop in it's underground sewer network, and had intended to destroy the Mage's College and with it, the city. The Dark Knight had stopped them, and Raz Al'Ghul was killed. Bruce left his battles with them with your younger self in tow, and had you raised at Wayne Castle as his semi-son and protégé.

This is all relevant because it means you know things the others don't. For one, you actually do know the Dark Knight's identity; most everyone else is mostly speculating. In addition, you know why Sir Alfred Pennyworth is after the Codez Sanctus Celestialis. About six months ago, Bruce had left Gotham to do battle with a powerful vampiric monster in a far away castle. He'd slain the beast, despite being badly wounded, and Alfred and Bruce had both believed that a grave threat to Gotham had been repulsed.

That was, until a very similar if not identical monster started attacking people in Gotham at night. Either the other beast wasn't truly dead, or it had friends or relatives who followed Bruce back. Whichever it was, Bruce and Alfred are determined to destroy it, and after a great deal of research they discovered that this magical book might just be the ticket that will finish it for good. Both the Dark Knight and Sir Pennyworth have been scouring the city at night for the beast, trying to prevent it from killing more innocents. You've been assigned to follow the mercenaries and find the Codex now that Fox is able to open the Void Vaults. The trick is, you've been ordered not to mention any of this to your new companions at this time. They will have no idea this thing is out there.

Bluff passes, Diplomacy on Fox passes. Diplomacy on Raam passes; what did you want to ask him? K. Local for Pennyworth and Damien reveals almost nothing; Pennyworth is vaguely associated with the Waynes but you don't know anything else.

Everyone feel free to take any of the following checks, 10's allowed: Listen, Spot, Diplomacy, Sense Motive, Intimidate, or Knowledge. I'll answer whatever you want to know. Floor is open to RP. Sorry if anyone got steamrolled, we can always go back and patch things.

It makes the Arkham inquisitors deeply uncomfortable that the Merchant's Guild moves arcana at all, but their trade is technically not illegal. Still, they have the MAXIMUM disdain for everyone here who's not them. The other Inquisitors are: Inquisitor Hugo Strange, Inquisitor Rhalgo Hex, and Inquisitor Mannfred Quinzel. They've got spies inside the Merchants' guild just like everyone else, and they've watched Fox's efforts to stay afloat/alive. One such spies captured a man named Garrell earlier tonight, which is how they knew to show up right at this moment. They're not actually so much interested in the Vaults as they are what they think you might find inside -- there is a sacred book they want you to look for in the Vaults, and return to them: the Codex Sanctus Celestialis. They're expecting to reconvene at the outskirts of the block the Vaults sit on and wait for the party to return, after which you will help them hold up and arrest the party and seize the book. If you can dig up any dirt inside the Vaults that they can use to shut Fox down, the better.

[JbeJ275]

Chaarl: I was there, Read Elvish so I'm gonna roll Arcana [roll0]


Just Gonna Take 10s

Listen: 20
Spot: 12
Sense Motive: 15
Knowledge (Nobility): 18. When did that wastrel idiot Wayne pick up an (illegitimate???) son? Is this known or rumoured in the city? Also what's known abot the Pennyworths?
Knowledge (Arcana): Codex Sanctus Celestialis? And uses therof.: 19
Knowledge (Local): 21 How absolute is the authority of the inquisition and how much can either Oracle, a random Mercenary or Young Lady Gordon heir to a noble house get away with... monitoring them.


"Well, that was a delight." Oracle says, her voice rich with sarcasm and far behind the backs of the leaving inquisitors, choosing instead to commiserate with the Justicars she had brought. "They met a psychic once so they all go to the psycho and corpse factory. Into a building where his magic is the only type that's still worth a damn. It's a passwall prison, I'm telling you."

With this, and other apologies and commiserations Oracle shows the assembled justicars away, and regarding Azrael and the others as far from trustworthy takes the oppurtunity of being out the room to reshape her final magics into a divination of Detect Thoughts (DC 18). Following this she takes her time returning to the meeting, walking in slowly and deliberately.

So, that was... awkward. Hi Fox, i trust from that you at least got some of the good news, though there are a few concerns about your man Captain Benson you might want to be kept abrest of that have made themselves known. Sir Pennyworth, I assume you have some intrest in this matter from the Waynes, and um... who's the kid?"

The last at least is said with a look that coud be described as fundamentally unimpressed, the whole 'patricians stare' thing was something noble heir got used too after a while and while the kid was winning the junior leagues he couldn't hope to compete with some of the adults in this city.

[Molan]

Knowledge (Arcana): The the cells are treated to contain special prisoners; the one with elf script is plainly designed as an anti-magic spell; it's sheer proximity made your skin crawl, as if there was a hole in the middle of the ship. The other one is more of a mystery, but based on what you've seen so far you can guess it's purpose; the crystaline implements appear to be psionic tools. That, combined with the arcane cell across from it, would suggest the purpose of the second cage.

Listen: Nothing notable, other than panicked whispers among the thieves when they find out they're going to Arkham instead of a justicar jail or Blackgate.

Spot: Nothing significant.

Sense Motive: No unique hunches or insights, other than the obvious that the Inquisitors are generally not there for anyone's well being other than their own.

Knowledge (Nobility): Bruce Wayne does not have a son, bastard or otherwise, that anyone knows about. He has been rumored to have picked up a squire, but Damien's surname appears to be adoptive. Why Bruce chose to adopt this boy over any other is a mystery, since Wayne does not actively participate in public life among the nobility, any such adoption has not received any formal recognition. There have been rumors of him acting like a playboy and even rumors he was dating one fling or another, but it all sounds like gossip to your ears.

Knowledge (Arcana): The Codex Sanctus Celestialis is essentially a legend, like Excalibur. In this world, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist, just that it's really all rumors. It's fundamentally a divine item, said to contain the most powerful spells imaginable. Their primary purpose being the destruction / expulsion of evil.

Knowledge (Local): The Inquisition is one of those organizations that is untouchably powerful on paper, but not as much in real life. Essentially they are an arm of the church and have multiple sworn "lay houses" that serve underneath them. Since the church always gets to pull the "god" card on paper their will is unquestionable. In practice however their ability to toss around their influence is dependent on the same politics and power calculations as every other noble house in the Empire, so if they overextend themselves there's nothing necessarily stopping an unrestrained noble house from stomping their men out and blaming it on someone else. So really their power is circumstantial -- right now, in this moment, they're very powerful, and they're very powerful when they're visible or at Arkham. But their reach is not absolute -- if you wanted to start spying on them or even pushing back, there are ways to do so. It's all about building power.

Make a will save.

Make a will save.

Sir Pennyworth smiled.

"Ah, to a certain extent miss. I just finished telling Lord Fox and your comrade here that I'm looking for a magical book. She's agreed to fetch it for me. And this here is young Master Damien Wayne, Squire to Lord Bruce."

Fox nodded.

"Quite a bit of good news, actually. We're getting affairs in order for your next assignment. But what's this about Captain Benson? I hope you're not about to tell me he's unavailable; the Chraal needs to sail tomorrow and Benson's the most reliable captain I've got!"

[ebarde]

Azreal sizes up his newfound companions, eyes trained over the group looking for any hint of deception or sin.

"Greetings." he said, not breaking eye contact.

Detect Thoughts save [roll0] Sense motive check [roll1]

[MrAbdiel]

Damien's gunmetal eyes watch Stephanie with that unpleasant, analytical focus. His impressively full eyebrows furrow a little as she performs, and he cannot completely shake the sensation that he is being mocked; but his instinctive underestimation of the "hobbyists" is a sly ally to Stephanie's ruse, and a moment later his gaze slides away, content in its misjudgement. Kate's phlegmatic acceptance earns a short nod from the short squire, his eyes darting briefly to Pennyworth and back; but it doesn't take much cunning to discern from his silence on that matter that he knows little about the relationship between House Wayne any other, and is attempting to triangulate an appropriate posture from the elders in the room without directly expressing his weakness. It's Pennyworth's "attitude" comment that comes closest to cracking his composure. Minimal as he is, the young master does not appear to enjoy being minimized, and it sets him to pacing.

As Fox and Pennyworth run down the coming plan, he stalks about the room with hands clasped behind his back; his noble attire, stylized as dark leather with brass chasing, uncreaking or gleaming as he goes - revealing it to be merely stiffened cloth to affect the design of armor, popular among nobles who desire the appearance of rugged soldierhood without the perils. He seems to grow bored quickly as the details unfold, and finally injects himself into the conversation.


"Good." said Lucius. "If you all can handle this operation, it'll be the beginning of a new day in Gotham."

"And that's where I come in." Damien interjected with a fiendish grin. "Can't leave an operation this high stakes to a bunch of amateurs now can we?"

It's the first naked emotion he has shown, pushed to the surface of his countenance by impatience: a child's desire to be invited to play, alloyed to what might easily be sadism... or, more generously, a more mature thirst for purposeful action. But when the commotion begins, he lapses back into stoic silence, taking a position on the extreme left of the group as the interaction with the Inquisition unfolds. His disdain for them is indistinguishable from his general aura of disdain. He waits until the unwelcome guests are escorted away, and they are left with just Azrael representing their arcane interests, before raking over the new operative with the same disassemble-and-archive look he gives everyone at first glance. "Azrael, then. I hope you are more subtle than you look. What skills do you possess, that will offset the liability you present here?"


And then, without waiting for an answer, he turns to the side and lets out a short, sharp whistle.

The response to this whistle manifests about ten seconds later (perhaps during Azrael's response, or as Barbara reacts to Pennyworth's introduction of the squire), and overrides the attention he otherwise would have given to asking a needling question of Oracle. With a clickety-skittering of claws on courtyard tiles, massive hound; jet black fur short and brushed glossy. The beast is massive - pony sized, more than dog sized - and for those familiar, seems to be one of the hardy breeds that halflings historically breed for riding, hauling, and mounted racing. The short stature of the boy, and the manner that the beast pads finally to a halt beside him flank-first, maps their visual array easily as master and rider. He moves to the front of the dog, takes the big, black, jowelly head in his palms, and addresses it like an equal.

"We shall be working with these, Titus. Go ahead, and get your sniffs in now." This, and a clicking of the tongue that seems to be the actual command, has the effect of taking the handsome creature off attention and into a more relaxed state, in which he quite naturally detects the lack of hostility his pack has for those present, and goes about getting his sniffs in.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8a/b2/da/8ab2da104cabe102f63a702ed299c67d.jpgLike this, but the size of a small horse.

Titus will wander in turn to Kate, Steph, Barbara, and Jean-Paul, sniffing and assessing. He's a quiet and somehow professional riding dog who will be content with a chance to familiarize himself with the general scent of each, but will respond in proportion to affection he receives - approving panting for pats, perhaps even a big ol' lick on the cheek for enthusiastic scruffling of the neck and face.

[Feathersnow]

An Inquisitor! Just what I need." These days, the Church took a more enlightened view of women of her persuasion, her time in the military exempted her from laws regulating her psychic powers, and her diabolic ancestry came through a legitimate wedding and was thus technically not suspect...

None of that really stopped her feeling that things had gone down hill fast. At least, with all the nobility represented in her group, it was unlikely she would disappear into some dark vault somewhere without comment.

[JbeJ275]

Sir Pennyworth smiled.

"Ah, to a certain extent miss. I just finished telling Lord Fox and your comrade here that I'm looking for a magical book. She's agreed to fetch it for me. And this here is young Master Damien Wayne, Squire to Lord Bruce."

Fox nodded.

"Quite a bit of good news, actually. We're getting affairs in order for your next assignment. But what's this about Captain Benson? I hope you're not about to tell me he's unavailable; the Chraal needs to sail tomorrow and Benson's the most reliable captain I've got!"

"Well in this city, I'm afraid pressures can be applied to the most reliable and least deserving of men. Tell me, do you know if the captain has a Verena in his life? A wife or daughter perhaps?"

As Oracle says this she hands over the pilfered letters from Nigma and the Dark Market for Fox to look over.

She also sruffles Titus' neck as he comes close once she's handed off the letter. And lets Juluis her bat familiar pop out of his position in an internal pocket to climb out onto her shoulder, and look down at the dog below, staying out of its reach but letting it get a sniff in.

[Molan]

A deep frown crossed Fox's face as he read the letters.

"My my, we really are in a pickle aren't we?" he handed the letters to Alfred, which was odd, since Pennyworth didn't really work for the Merchant's Guild.

"Zucco's using your ships for drug running again," he observed. "thought we'd nipped that in the bud already."

"We had," said Fox, "But then Zucco's lousy arse got back out of prison. This was only a matter of time. At any rate, that's not really what concerns me. It's the Nigma letter."

He turned to towards Barbara, his demeanor now serious. "Verena is Captain Benson's daughter. The Nigma's are one of the Banker Houses -- a bunch of rotten and corrupt aristocrats as you'll ever meet. The Bankers had quite a lot to do with our misfortune once the Wayne's were gone, so Nigmas sniffing around our affairs doesn't necessarily surprise me. But if Verena's been taken captive, that's a major escalation. And a crisis, not to put too fine a point on it."

[JoyWonderLove]

=Holk=



When the nature of the brig was demystified, Stephanie quite deliberately strolled up to the threshold for the cell identified to be dangerous to arcana users. Taking a small steadying breathe, she stepped past the open door into the cell, and blew it out slowly. The interior of the small cell was eyed warily, for the little there was to see. But she searched internally for something deeper, the sweet lilting connection that had been there since she had become close friends with Robyn. Her eyes closed, all else shut out. After a moment she removed herself from the cell.

“Needed to check something. See if a cage is enough to stop...” The eighteen year old placed her hand over her heart, where the symbol of Estanna stayed hidden beneath it all. Finally, she shrugged. “Anyway, we found a ton of drugs and proof of blackmail. Plenty for an investigation, if that’s what you want. But it’s not exactly clear who’s taking Zucco’s orders at port, so I’d rather not mess with belongings yet.”

With that, she was finally ready to leave the ship.




Jbe, thanks for the arcana check. I wouldn’t have guessed the brigs were built to hold magic users, but it was bothering me I couldn’t guess the real reason.

Molan, does the Exalted feat Nymph’s Kiss still work in the anti magic cell? Might very well get involved with Arkham someday, so better to know ahead of time.



=Chapter 2, pre inquisition=

Stephanie let her tiredness seep through when she walked outside the Guild Hall into the ever lightening pink birth of a new day, pausing before the captain only long enough to get her own fables clear. She grimaced at the line of criminals tied next to the moorings before beginning.

“Fox is considering the gallows. Says he doesn’t trust the Midtown Justiciars any, but he’s not in love with the PR for being a Merchant of Death either. His Guild needs to at least appear more respectable than the Black Market to avoid bard tales of ledgers running red. The Wayne brat is goading him to hang you all regardless, but the dame is arguing her House can hold half. All said, no one’s opinion actually matters beyond Fox himself. His Guild, his call.”

Spoiler shook her head before she knelt. “Raam, everyone says you’ve got hooks in the Lawmen; but they’re clueless how deep. Ya need to give up enough to make Lord geriatric look good, and have false security. At least one high up Midtown Justiciar has got to get thrown under the horse here. If you can pad it with a few lesser Lawmen, great; but that’s your best bet to slip the neckties they’re considering. At least then you’ll probably get picked up by a bunch of Justiciars outside Midtown influence while the Gordons take a week or whatever to think they cleaned up here. Then it’s all easy when everything's calm. Bust out on your own, or else get your remaining Midtown Lawmen to put in a few requests to transfer captives back into their newly reformed prison system. Then waltz out the front door for all I care. ”


Bluff (25) and Sense Motive (17) to Raam.

Both are with level 5 in rogue.


=Chapter 2, enter the inquisition=

After the conversation with the Thieves Guild members, the first armoured carriage pulled up flanked by Lawmen aplenty. Stephanie stood up then, and calmly stepped back. Rather than their taking charge of anything, however, the second carriage of some of the cruellest thugs in Gotham appeared instead. No way. How?! Who tipped them off? The gaunt, lead inquisition asserted himself and Spoiler faded into the background as Fox argued. Even with the verbal skirmish careening back and forth, there were entirely too many witnesses doing entirely too much from too many different groups. Merchant dockhands, Justiciar Lawmen, nobles of several strips. Even those she did see could have been bribed off by another group. Sneaking around, loosening the ropes, rigging the cages’ locks to give way; helping these thugs escape the torture ahead of them was no easy ask. Someone would notice, so she opted for edging towards inquisitor Strange instead.

“Seven above, you really are real inquisitors?” At some point during the endless ongoing arguments, the solid silver hearth symbol of Estanna had appeared outwards her black leather armour. “Sir, I don’t wish to bother your Gods given work, but I might never again have the chance to thank those helping purify Gotham, one deviant at a time. Something like this must take so much patience and understanding.”

She glanced over the jailed thieves like a child might zoo animals. “Hearth-tender willing, they’ll return to their families as better men. How long does it take to heal them? May I pass a message on to encourage their loved ones in the meanwhile?”


Diplomacy (29) Inquisitor Strange, because he’s the one loading them on the wagon.
Bluff (25) to lie, and also pass complex secret message to Raam. Who do I tell to help bust you out?
Sense Motive (17) on Raam to ensure it’s hopefully not a set up.

Both are improved with level 5 in rogue.


=Chapter 2, Vault-sniffing hounds=


Will Save: [roll0]


Stephanie gave a small wave when the inquisition’s leftovers gave what passed for a greeting, but a short, sharp whistle punctured any reply she would have offered. A midnight black hound the size of a pony came along from wheresoever it had been resting. The glossy coat showed the boy loved his pet deeply, to say nothing of Damien holding its jowelly head in hands affectionately. Nothing shy of cute, until the presumption she would allow the animal to sniff at her like contraband.

Yeah, about letting the little lordlings’ hunting dog get my scent now, so he might track me later? Not today, Heironeous. Not today.

“Aww, he wants sniffs! Lemme do ya one better.” A distinctly black stick appeared in her hand, which she wagged in the air with an enthusiastic and surprisingly authentic grin while she eyed the pet. She backed away from the face high hound to gain room to throw. “Oh! Ya want da stick, boy? Lez go get da stick. Fe–”

The stick suddenly snapped in Spoiler’s hand in an explosion of smoke, and she feigned a few coughs as the immediate area around her filled with the black soot. When the thick cover started to lesson, she was still at the center of it, batting and swatting at the dusky air to disperse it.


Bluff (25).

Break the Smokestick in my own hand to temporarily flood the immediate vicinity in, well, smoke. Titus and I should obviously be unharmed regardless, but it gives SOME kind of protection from doggie getting (accurate?) sniffs in. Not that us completely lawful, totally-not-House-Kyle-associated PCs have anything against mr hunting hound getting our scent. Not at all. :smallsmile:


“Okay. So.” Doused mercifully in what made an effective smoke cover in most situations, the woman offered one final cough. “Maybe no stick. Sorry, Titus.”


Yay end of post.

[MrAbdiel]

Damien sighs with open derision at Spoiler's display of totally legit incompetence; Titus skittering back from the smoke blast and going into a fit of dog sneezes. The child-who-would-be-Wayne gives Fox and Pennyworth a look that can openly be read as something that translates to this bodes poorly, before trotting over and reaching up for a chance to look at the letters himself.

"Then we have two objectives for the day, and a third shortly after. We must secure the Void Vaults at night, including the seizure of the aforementioned tome. Additionally, if we plan for the Chraal to leave on schedule with a captain who is even moderately reliable for our interests, we need to find and free Verena. Since our night is likely to be given over to the Vaults, that leaves us the late afternoon to resolve that problem, since I suppose you all need to sleep, too."

Naturally, Damien's attempt to take charge and set the agenda here is purely IC. Since he's neither recognized as a legitimate child of the Wayne family nor a legitimized bastard, he has no formal power in this situation (or any other!); so feel free to appeal to Fox over him, or bullrush past his bossy-boot conjecturing. As the neckbeards say, I'm just roleplaying my character.

Molan! 1. Damien is trying to catch a peek at those letters. I assume he'll be permitted to see them, but I thought I'd make sure.

2. Now that I know a bit more of the secret spoilery stuff that Damien knows, I wonder if I might be permitted to use some of my unspent gold on a few light purchases that Damien is likely to have made with such knowledge? Nothing crazy, just...

...Potions, mainly. Damien is flat boned fighting undead unless he can find a way around their immunity to sneak attack, so I'm hoping he could have purchased some potions of Grave Strike. They'd be 50 gold for a level 1 spell potion, and it would mean he spends fifty GP and an action to set him up to potentially Sudden Strike an undead on the next action. Burning gold for a radical contingency plan seems a very Wayne thing to do. Plus, he'd like some Hide from Undead potions. He'd have bought a bunch intending to be for his own use, but I'd like to bring enough for the whole class. Call it... 5*Grave Strike Potions and 5*Hide From Undead Potions, for a total of 500GP worth of undead-fighting alchemy. Let me know!

[ebarde]

Azreal looked down at the child. "If I wasn't capable of dealing out death, I wouldn't have received this task. Is that enough reassurance?"

The holy warrior then notices the animal sniffing on him, and sighs in contempt, realizing this was gonna be a long night. But no matter, he had a duty to uphold and the will of the gods will not be denied.

[Molan]

Great question. Nyph's Kiss does work against anti-magic zones, so you're clear in that respect. I could drag out a detailed explanation for my thinking but if you're happy with "because I said so" then you can enjoy using the feat and we can leave it at that. Love that you're using Exalted stuff frankly it's an underappreciated source book.

Raam folds, somewhat.

"Listen, you don't understand. I only run Fort Clinton. There are three other Captains in Midtown besides me in the Thieves Guild alone. If you start picking off bought Justicars in Midtown, it's not me you're going to have to worry about, it's Kysel Velnire. He's the Underboss of Midtown -- he answers directly to Boss Falcone himself. You've been on the streets long enough to know that if Velnire comes down on you, there's not gonna be any place you can hide."

Stephanie persisted, and as the carriages began to near the docks, the sound of horseshoes clopping against the cobblestones growing ever louder, Raam broke down a bit further.

"Listen, I can't tell you who all of Velnire's Justicars are, but I can tell you where to look, alright? Gordon's house is full of traitors; if you really wanna find out why the Thieves Guild rules Midtown, you really don't need to look farther than Justicar's Keep. Gordon's got that drunk Bullock in command of every Bloodhound in the city; why do you think none of Gotham's murders ever get solved? Bullock's primary beat is Columbia Point; most of Gordon's actual loyalists are in Red Hook and the West Side. Lot of former Dent holdouts there too, those neighborhoods are pretty clean. The watch commanders in Fort Clinton and the Village are stationed in the Olive Street Stronghouse and the Colgate Motte. Honestly, that's all I can tell you."

It wasn't much, but Spoiler could tell that at the very least, the half-giant wasn't lying. He was focused more now on his own preservation than anything else, something she could always count on the thieves to do when their chips were down. The implications of what he'd said were ugly, however. (K. Local: 10) The Bloodhounds were the Justicar's investigators and manhunters; they were some of the few members of the organization who had an actual reputation for ruthlessness, bravery and efficacy. Unfortunately, Raam's insinuation was that the Bloodhound Commander, "Bullock", was corrupt and running the neighborhood that Justicar's Keep sat in. Not great news.

If Red Hook and the West Side were still under the control of Dent and Gordon loyalists then she could at least scratch those off as places to look for bad Justicars. It wasn't then hard to imagine that the garrison commanders in the Village and Fort Clinton were at least as rotten as Bullock was. Maybe if she worked alongside the others, they could gather a bit more intelligence and bring those commanders down.

Then again, the conversation did leave her with a sinking feeling in her stomach. If they were going to clean up the Midtown Justicars, then Raam was right; their path would lead them on a collision course with Kysel Velnire. This had the potential to get very, very ugly.

The big, grim looking man's dour visage broke into a wide, unnerving grin as Stephanie spoke. "Ah, a loyal Maiden of Estanna. How positively innocent. It is good, child, that you let your faith guide you so." he looked over at the captured thieves, a wicked gleam in his eye.

"Curing deviants like these will take quite a long while, I'm afraid. Especially this big one," he leaned down so that his face was hovering just above Stephanie's own, and she could feel his breath on her cheek. "You see, we don't actually know everything that we'd like to about the powers that afflict him, or the effects it may have on his compatriots. So while we work on their...rehabilitation...we shall also need to study them, as well. In any case I much doubt that these men actually have any families to report back to. But..."

He looked out over the attendant captives, his eyes eventually landing on the dwarf and gnome at the end of the line.

"If any of those demi-humans' kin in the dwarf quarter were willing to make some donations to the Witch Hunters, we might eventually see a way to transfer those two to Blackgate. The dwarves tend to be less susceptible to magical corruption, and the gnomes have the good sense to keep their activities within the letters of the law. There's quite a bit of gold in the Dwarf Quarter, of course. But what we most require are magical and alchemical devices. So if you truly serve the faith, you could pass that message along."

Inquisitor Strange did an incredibly poor job masking both his general malice and his greed. The influence of the dwarves and gnomes made downtown one of the richest metropolises in the entire Empire, even without the rest of the city. He clearly saw his two diminutive captives to be more useful as bargaining chips then inmates in need of rehabilitation. That being said, it didn't seem like he had much interest in rehabilitating Raam or the rest of his men, either.

Raam had used up most of his psionic power during the fight on the Chraal, but his eyes flashed one last time before his powers abandoned him, and Spoiler experienced a sudden jolt as a single thought passed through her skull.

+FIND VALE+

The thought thundered through her cerebrum with the force of the half-giant's panic. Spoiler still had no idea how the Inquisition had been tipped off about the docks, but it was clear that Raam had been just as shocked by their arrival as she was. The only difference, he and his men were the ones being carted away.

Boy oh boy have you been busy.

Okay so Titus likes you, but he definitely does not have your scent. It's pretty obvious from their expressions that Damien and Azrael trust you about as far as they could throw you, but despite that your ruse appears to have worked, and Damien doesn't force the issue with Titus any further.

Fox listened to what Damien had to say, and though he didn't brush him off completely, he seemed to ponder for a minute before shaking his head.

"That's a bold idea, Master Wayne, but I don't think we should be so hasty just yet. The Chraal leaves this afternoon, and it has to leave on time if we're going to keep this Guild afloat. There's not enough time to find and rescue Verena and sleep and secure the Void Vaults, which I also desperately need, if I might be so blunt. The way I see it, right now Benson doesn't know that we're onto him. Sure, the Nigma's are spying on us and sure, he's about to haul a bunch of Dark Market contraband back into port when he returns, but those are problems we can handle two weeks from now when he actually pulls back into port. In the meantime, we need to secure those vaults and start moving the rest of our fleet out with this arcana so we can pay off those calls. Let's let Benson think he hasn't been discovered, for now. We can find Verena while he's gone and then seize the Market's goods when the Chraal returns."

"You're not gonna punish him?" the guard captain asked.

"No. Maybe. Ah hell, I don't know. You know just as well as I do how hard it can be to stay afloat in this city once men like Zucco or Lord Nigma get their claws into you. Benson and I will have to have a long, hard chat when he gets back, but I'd like to have that chat after we can see his daughter returned safely to his arms. Let's focus on that, for now at least."

Alfred smiled.

"For what it's worth Master Wayne, I think Lord Fox here is right. Still, it's a good thing we found these letters. Now that we know what's afoot, you and our new friends here can work on putting this mess right."

Damien sighed.

"Fine, I guess. Can I at least grab a look at those letters, then?"

Fox nodded at Alfred, and Alfred handed both notes over to Damien to peruse at his leisure.

Yes, go ahead and spend the gold and add the items to your inventory. You'd have done it earlier if you'd known better so there's nothing stopping us from going back and retconning stuff that didn't actually happen IC for the benefit of the game/story, especially if you've got the coin to burn. Spend it up!

As Damien read over the letters, Azrael dismissively assured the boy of his lethal capabilities. As the inquisition warrior spoke, Barbara, Kate and Stephanie all eyed him with a fair bit of malice. He held out his hand, and Titus sniffed it, before a low growl echoed from deep in the riding dog's throat. He didn't attack however, instead glowered at Azrael and slowly paced back to his young master.

Finally, the lead inquisitor seemed satisfied that his will had been properly asserted.

"Very well, Lord Fox, Sir Pennyworth," he looked out at the rest of the group, now huddled near the entrance of the Guild Hall as the Justicar carriage rolled away back towards St. Mary's Park. "It looks as if everything is in order. Azrael will stay by your mercenaries' sides for the remainder of this day and tonight, until the business at the Vaults is finished. He will report everything you see and do back to us, and we shall visit you again in twenty four hours to review his findings."

No one replied, but Azrael bowed his head in deference to the inquisitors. They got on their horses and galloped away into the early morning, the carriage with the Thieves Guilders trailing behind them. Eventually light -- real light -- began to creep over the docks. The sky was gray and pallid, as if the city itself was in a foul mood.

"Well then, ladies and gentlemen. If that's everything I'll be off," Sir Pennyworth said. "I shall return tomorrow night to collect young Master Wayne here, and hopefully the Codex. Lucius." he nodded toward Fox, before turning to fetch his horse.

"Alfred." Fox nodded back.

Sir Pennyworth prodded his steed and galloped off into the city, reducing the gathering to the party, Fox and his two guild members. Around the docks, dockworkers began to show up for the morning shift. The Merchant's Guild would cling to life another day.

"Alright then. Is there anything else I can do for you all? I'm sure you've got some business you'll now need to attend to in the city, but I hope you'll all at least endeavor to get some rest before tonight's mission. I'll meet you at the corner of East 14th Street and Olive tonight, and I can hand you the Void Keys. then. Let's say, 7 o'clock. If you all need to get some rest, there's a halfway decent inn not too far away from here, down on Penny Street. Let me know if there's anything else you need, otherwise I'll go ahead and get back to work."

[MrAbdiel]

Damien makes a noise of disagreement, but once again doesn’t expose himself to a more direct stonewalling than the gentle one Fox had offered his hyperactive schedule. The gunmetal eyes skim across the Nigma letter.

“Very well, Fox. I am confined to your schedule. As for what else we’ll need… for tomorrow, we’ll need discreet passage to South Channel Island. It’s forested and not we’ll patrolled, so there’s plenty of places to hide a body - but not many to hide a hostage, whom one must tend with browscratching goons. Only the two parks, really; though we don’t need to find her as much as find a House Nigma agent and compel their tongue.”

[Molan]

Damien makes a noise of disagreement, but once again doesn’t expose himself to a more direct stonewalling than the gentle one Fox had offered his hyperactive schedule. The gunmetal eyes skim across the Nigma letter.

“Very well, Fox. I am confined to your schedule. As for what else we’ll need… for tomorrow, we’ll need discreet passage to South Channel Island. It’s forested and not we’ll patrolled, so there’s plenty of places to hide a body - but not many to hide a hostage, whom one must tend with browscratching goons. Only the two parks, really; though we don’t need to find her as much as find a House Nigma agent and compel their tongue.”

"That's true," said Fox. "The Nigmas don't like to be loud and messy. Their household guard is restricted to protecting Nigma Manor and the Commerce Bank -- you won't find anyone walking around town wearing their sigil. But they do have spies and informants everywhere, and that's the basis of their power. I'm not sure exactly where you should start, but I'll bet you a fistful of silver that if you can track down one or more of their spies, you'll be able to follow the breadcrumbs to Verena. Just be careful; the Bankers are dangerous. The Nigmas aren't the only banker house in this city, and you've already started racking up enemies. Just...be careful. Anyway, I'll go ahead and get a boat ready to take you over to South Chanel Island tomorrow; I'll try to find something quiet. Just make sure you make our rendezvous at seven so we can secure these vaults."

[MrAbdiel]

“I’ll be ready. Quite frankly, I’ve been ready for some time.”

He gives Titus an emancipating chin rub that the dog correctly interprets as an opportunity to bound off around the corner he emerged from, leaving the boy to peer up at the inquisitor; arms behind his back, eyes bright with an interrogation of his own brewing behind them.

“Tell me, Azrael: what is your position on the immortality of the soul?”

[JoyWonderLove]

Didn’t think it would work, really pleased it does. Thank you!



=Chapter 2, The Wise Question a Fox, The Foolish Hug A Bat=

“Because these are your fancy Vaults, Mister Lord Fox, can you please bring any schematics or maybe a map or two of however many floors are in there? Obviously, knowing key features could be life saving; trap mechanisms and how to avoid them, animate constructs and power words to deactivate, where the magic seepage might be worse and precautions to safeguard. There’s plenty of time to fish up details before our meet at seven. Otherwise I can easily ask around about, uh, monsters in the area,” Garrel’s idiotic tale of a giant man bat sprung to mind immediately, but she internally swatted it away. “Locals aren’t going to be closed to those details if it helps them.”

After listening to Fox’s answer, Spoiler nodded agreeably. “One final thing: you’ve been really generous with us today, and I’d love to spend this hard won coin to further benefit your Guild. But equipment is incredibly pricey and choosing between it and food or shelter can really wreck our results tonight. Do you know where we can buy from the Merchant’s with a teensy discount?” She leaned forward with hopeful want.

(bluff 25, really just looking for a discount, but ya don’t ask...)

Waiting until it was clear that no more questions where being asked and answered, Spoiler noted the short black haired noble trying to stir soulful conversation with the armour bound inquisitor after while Kate and Oracle started heading off.

“Nice to meet you Azrael; I look forward to helping you protect the families of Midtown from monste – Lord Damien, is that a Dire bat?” she asked, pointing at the tail end of a flock of bats fleeing the sunlight strangely late in the early day distance.



Purely because I’m not convinced I can just….hug Damien….of his own free will. But I don’t think he’s quite mean enough to violently reject someone ‘incompetent but well-intentioned’. Maybe. He let the Fido fiasco go easily enough aka carpe diem let’s roll dice don’t cry for me Argentinaaa!

1, Bluff feint (25) to make him lose dexterity aka be easier to attack roll
2, Surprise single round grapple hug. Some would say that provokes an optional AoO that, if used and it hits, stops the attempted grapple hug entirely. I encourage you to ignore those people. (AC 17) [roll0] (Weapon Finesse covers unarmed ‘attacks’).

If it lands, “Whoops-just-a-hug!”


***

Whatever the case, Stephanie tries to catch up with the other two after, mentioning important news about jobs in law enforcement to encourage them to slow down.



(feel free to skip to the end for the juicy corrupt Justiciar details if you want)

“Hey, I know we only have to play nice with Wayne junior and mister congeniality for one night, but if either of you get an invite to Arkham, and your Houses are a little too law-abiding, understand I know people. They’ll be happy to let you go unnoticed for a bit.

“Anyway, on a more cherry note: Raam told me all about the corruption of the Justiciars. Wanna walk me over to the Penny Street Inn while I fill you in?”



Actually please read the ‘Spoiler, Private Interrogation of Raam’ Molan spoiler earlier instead. Presume all those important Justiciar and Thieves Guild details were passed to you.







Vale,

1, There’s item purchases to make, but in particular, I want to get a disguise kit. Buy stuff/replenish supply. Get whatever passes for the most secure/nicest room at the Penny Street Inn.

2, Take 20 Disguise (34) which takes an hour. +5 Minor changes. +2 Disguise check from kit (down to 9/10 uses). +7 basic. Bulky unstylish black shades, padded black armour, blue trousers, and a loosely buttoned and baggy brown overcoat that is a little too large (can you say, ‘conceals in the dagger, tanglefoot bag, thunderstone, two smokesticks) with the handle of her sai poking out of an external pocket. Her trademark purple is completely absent (gloves of dexterity). Leave stuff in room or preferably a chest (why don’t I trust those any more?).

The Thieves Guild and House Kyle are outright hostile (I think), and the potential for someone recognizing the black-and-purple Spoiler alias, in full costume, in a Thieves neighbourhood, is an unnecessary risk. Let’s keep it semi-subtle.

3, Sneak in the crowd (Bluff For Diversions, Hide to Blend In) purely to avoid a tail on my way out. K: Local (20) take 10 to see if Thieves Guild Vale is known to speed the search.

4, Search for Vale, whoever he or she is, first in Fort Clinton (Raam’s power base). Using my Urban Tracker feat makes the search not take all day, but only an hour. Gather Information (26) take 10. If I find Vale, obviously tell them about Captain Raam stuck in an Arkham carriage with his crew. If pushed why she was at the docks, claim she saw the Justiciar and Arkham carriages and got curious. Raam must have noticed she was disgusted because the message popped in her head after.

House Kyle,

1, Sneak on my way out (Bluff For Diversions, Hide to Blend In) to avoid a tail. Despite making herself a little scarce the past few weeks, Spoiler shows up casually enough before House Kyle. Any questions about where she’s been are answered the same; languages lessons, side hustles, so on.

2, Tell preferably Haley/the Squirrel about Spoiler’s selective highlights in the Thieves-Merchant Guild showdown; Zucco trying to push back into Midtown, mage papers shipped out so soon there’s not a whole lot the House can do, Aust dead, Ghol and Raam and others hauled off to Arkham, and getting paid a first ever ‘mercenary’ gig to weaken the Thieves. Her unhappiness about Arkham isn’t hidden; Spoiler never agreed with torture despite past activities.

3, Gives them (again, preferably Haley, but Cyrrus is also great) a copy of the Thieves Guild letter she got. Spoiler preferably keeps the real thing for herself. She mentions that with Raam’s position decimated and Midtown down one captain, now’s a half decent time to slip spies in at least. Those positions have to get replace by someone. Better, if the Thieves’ many enemies can be nudged against them for seeing a window of weakness. (the more distracted the Thieves, less position they’re in to retaliate against Fox).

House Kyle is small, and their thing is big heists, so I’m guessing they appreciate leverage when it’s an option. Really throwing little things out there and seeing what sticks….if anything.

4, Ask to crash/sleep in one of their safe houses.

Penny Street Inn

1, Sneak when I’m out of Kyle gang territory (Bluff For Diversions, Hide to Blend In) purely to avoid a tail on my way back to the Inn.

2, Get whatever passes for a shower or hygiene. Have a light meal. Put on Spoiler costume again, presuming nothing’s been stolen.

[Feathersnow]

Kate takes out the money, and out shares each to Barbara and Stephanie after her distraction fades.
"Our earnings. "

"I will be... elsewhere... until the appointed time." She turns and goes, using her power reserve to get away clean from the inquisitor. Stephanie manages to catch up and relay her message, though.

After that, Kate buys a new powerstone of expansion and four potions of cure light wounds from the same vendors she got the originals from. She quietly asks around about getting her heavy poleaxe enhanced to due subdual damage.


She vaguely wonders The Questor is up to, but trying to find her with the Inquisition sniffing around, well it just isn't done. Which is especially annoying, given her history with House Nigma.

Then again, Renée is also a member of the clergy, and having a cleric from a different order might help if the Inquisitor decides to make a nuisance of himself.


I am taking the liberty of inserting the medieval-verse version of Renée Montoya, The Questor, a Cleric/Rogue who is part of a different, more liberal order charged with witnessing to mundane criminals and protecting the Church from them.
The inspiration for this was that "Questor" sounds like "Question" but actually means "monk authorized to give absolution." And, learning that, applying the title to Renée gave the general description above. Especially since it is the closest Medieval equivalent to a police detective.
That said, I hope the party learns to work together and that no need to pit rival schisms of the Church ever comes up, and I am more than happy to stick to NPCs generated by the DM if it is any kind of issue.

[MrAbdiel]

“A dire- hey!”

The scion is seized, bewildered by what seems to be a hard turn towards cheerful affection. He furrows his dark eyebrows in an attempt to look commanding and wrath, and succeeds only in looking cute - puglike, in his displeasure. He squirms.

“Y- wh-! Unhand me, knave! You’re covered in smoke powder!”

The squirming continues, fruitlessly.

...But while squirming, he's actually dextrously taking and pocketing......Spoiler's Masterwork Sap. After she's gone, he looks it over with dull bemusement. A very finely crafted bludgeon for such a twinkle-eyed bumpkin, a-hyuk a hyuk golly gosh. Cleverer than she pretends to be; not as clever as she thinks she is - certainly not as clever as he.

[JoyWonderLove]

Taking the liberty of a single squeeze as she held him in mid-air, Stephanie lowered the little lord contently soon after, the yokel act secure. Even with his knight and hunting dog absent, it was a foolish breed of commoner that would lay hands on a newly met noble, let alone before multiple high-born witnesses. But she saw the obvious Damien didn’t: he was a child. Abandoning him to strangers, tasked with securing a hazardous vault, one filled with the waste that turned the wildlife monstrous, it was cruel. An unguarded look of pity lasted little longer than a blink. The elder Wayne was a womanizing lush, but it was surprising he also found time to be a negligent father.

Damien would have been better off with Haley – at least our House cares.

A sloppy hand slapped her chest, with no sign of the finesse that had tickled open locks worthy of the Merchant’s Guild, or rope work sturdy enough to hold a half giant. “As you command, or such.” Yawning long as she turned away, the mask taking care of the need to shield her mouth, her shoulders slumped after for lack of sleep.

“Anyway, have fun you two. See ya at seven.”

She then caught up to the knight and wizard duo.

[Molan]

After a brief hug-***-struggle with Damien, Stephanie waltzed off to face the morning in Gotham, trailing not too far behind Kate and Barbara.

Azrael eventually sighed, and, making a note of Fox's plan for the coming evening, made his way to the Penny Street Inn, which he discovered was called "Penny's Nickel", whatever that meant. Seeing no other options, Damien followed him there.

Oooooh, bit of a curveball, didn't think I'd have to write a new character in. But I dig it. Let's see how I do lol.Kate walked away from the docks and eventually found the 34th Street Arcane Railway. The Midtown central line was underground, but unlike some of the seedier and more poorly maintained arcane rail lines, this one was heavily trafficked, and wasn't in nearly as poor shape as some of the underground trains. As she boarded, she saw a trio of bards standing near the center car, playing their instruments slowly. The few peasants and merchants who got on all obligatorily walked over to them and dropped coins in an overturned hat, the bards smiling slyly at them as they did so. But when Kate walked on, the bards avoided eye contact, and she stomped past them without making any "donations".

The conductor activated the complex magical devices in the lead car and Kate heard the feint hint of music before magic thrummed through the rails, propelling the cars forward. Before long, they came to a stop and a singsong voice echoed through the train, announcing Kate's street.

When she disembarked, it was only a short walk to the Wandering Eye. The city was waking up, and before long the early morning shops and vendors were opening and filling the streets. Everyone who saw her though, avoided her. She was a towering black suit of armor in a street of commoners, and everyone gave her her space. She passed down a small turn into a narrow alley filled with small cafes, and spotted the foggy stained glass windows of the Eye.

When she walked inside, Tallie popped up from behind the counter, her strange, psychedelic, star-studded robes flowing over her diminutive frame and a pair of huge spectacles making her eyes seem much larger than they were until they drooped down her nose. The costume was mostly an act; an affect put on to convince regulars and passersby that she was just some crock medium. Kate however, knew the truth.

"Might as well take off the metal hat dear, you're not scaring anyone in here." the gnome piped.

Kate nodded and took off her helm, revealing her gothic visage.

"There's the Dame Kane we know and love. Now tell me deary what can I fetch you today? Your aura feels tired; had a lively night have we?"

"Just the usual, Tallie," Kate said, forking over the necessary coin. "I just need to replenish some of my consumables." Kate quickly went over what she needed, and Tallie completed her purchse with no fuss or questions needed.

"Oh, perhaps it wasn't too lively of a night, that order wasn't so bad."

Kate shrugged.

"I've been wondering, Tallie. I want to get the poleaxe imbued. Do you think you know anyone who could help?"

"I could probably manage that for you deary, if the order isn't too outrageous."

"No no, nothing crazy. I just need to be able to knock folks out without splitting them open."

"Ah yes, that's manageable," Tallie replied. "But it's pricey. Nearly 800 platinum, if I had to guess. I don't mean to gouge you love, but orders like that take work."

"It's no problem," Kate replied. "I just want to know where and when I can manage it, once I've got the coin. Don't worry, I'll be back. I just wanted the lay of the land."

Kate left, and meandered her way back to Kane Manor, weariness finally seeping in. The great dark manse was silent and mostly still, and when she found her chambers, she was grateful for the solitude. She needed to get some rest before tomorrow. With any luck after she slept she could track down the temple of St. Cuthbert and see if anyone there had encountered Renee.

She woke up around four thirty, rearmored herself, and made her way back out into the streets. The temples in the Village all sat near Colgate Park; the Temple of the True Twelve took up an obnoxious amount of prominence in the center of the square, but temples to Fharlanghn, Heironeous, Pelor, St. Cuthbert, Ayailla, Estanna, Phieran, and Urbanus sat in a semi-circle around the central building.

The Temple of St. Cuthbert was surrounded by poor petitioners and beggars, and nuns managed bread and grain tables outside, or inspected children for bugs and sickness, all in service to the city's poor. Kate took care not to bump into anyone as she strode up the temple steps, into the humble but brooding building at the top.

Inside the temple was mostly quiet; there were no services being held that day, and she mostly saw individuals knelt in prayer or in conversations with the clergy or their neighbors. Kate quietly made her way through the center of the Temple, reaching the raised area around the altar. It took her a moment, but finally she saw a familiar figure; Renee was dressed in a long dark gray robe, almost black, and her face was mostly covered by a hood. She handed a man in armor something before he bowed and made his way out of a back entrance. Kate softly cleared her throat, and Questor caught her eye, quietly walking up to her as though she was just another parishioner, seeking blessings.

"Well well, if it isn't Dame Kane," she whispered. "I honestly wasn't expecting to run into you; from the sounds of it you've been quite busy down at the docklands, unless that was some other tall woman in black armor I was hearing about. Thought you'd be busy elsewhere."

Barbara took off from the docks and took an arcane rail to the center of the city. Though the Merchant's Guild Tower was mostly abandoned, the nexus hub of the rails sat at it's base; a massive, cavernous area now operated and owned exclusively by the Bards' Guild, who sent the rail cars to each end of the city and back again from their massive hub. The place was full of activity, even this early in the morning, bards and criers hawking news and Gotham Heralds and practicing their arcane, musical arts, as well as merchants and commoners bustling to and fro, all heading to whatever work they did during the daylight hours.

Barbara knew the path well. She got on the north line, and quickly found herself whisked away to Columbia Point, at the northernmost tip of Midtown. The rail actually stopped a couple of blocks from Justicar's Keep, and she kept her cowl up and her mask over her face as she approached her father's fortress.

The Keep was a massive, bustling place night and day. An artificial moat surrounded it's inner workings, which was itself ensconced by a towering curtain wall. The outermost gate was always open, as people and Justicars of every stripe moved in and out of the great keep, all of them carrying some kind of business with the law. She stopped short at the outter gate as two cage wagons rumbled past, filled with vagrants and criminals that had been rounded up the night before. As she watched, a catch of unseemly looking fellows was escorted back out of the keep, on foot.

"Always with the revolving door, this place." she muttered.

Inside the curtain wall and the moat was the great keep, a huge structure that doubled as a fortification and a massive office-building-***-jail, where the core of the Justicar Order performed their work and received their instructions. Up near the highest windows, she could see the telltale kite-shaped portal that Lord Gordon's office looked out of. He'd be up there, even now, trying his best to hold the city together.

The area in between the moat and the great keep was a combination of a stockyard, meeting place and drill yard, and it was a hive of activity. Because this area was open to the public, it was fairly easy to post up unnoticed, leaning against one of the nearby carriages, and cast her spell.

It took around 20 seconds for the spell to fully kick in, and she was bombarded with a rush of stray thoughts from all the passers by. But, with focus, she was able to eventually start picking out specific ones.

On the whole, it was worse than she'd feared. At least half of the blue-tabarded men she scanned were either nakedly corrupt, desperate to the point of corruption, or had been badly blackmailed. The other half were decent; the Lawmen and Bloodhounds were doing a bit better than the Watchmen, writ large. But it was clear the force was deeply compromised. She heard a familiar voice, and turned the focus of her spell as a gang of Bloodhounds walked towards her.

Bloodhounds were different than the uniformed Watchmen and Lawmen of the Justicar Order. Distinguishable only by black iron shields pendants they carried with them, they typically wore simple, rough, adventurer's clothes and armor, and carried any variety and assortment of weapons. Their job was investigating crimes, identifying criminals, and bringing cases against them for the Imperial Court; they were best known, however, for their role in hunting down escaped targets and bringing them in to justice. It was an elite cadre, but even they had proven vulnerable to Gotham's endemic corruption. Leading them was a large, portly looking half-orc Barbara recognized all too well -- Bullock.

He and his coterie stopped short of her position, and he gave a series of orders to a trio of Bloodhounds on his right.

"Listen Hadren, I'm counting on you here. The nobles are losing their sh!t over Sionis; it's not like when the Dent's collapsed. This is worse."

"Yea," one woman snorted. "It's worse because Dent didn't actually come for their homes."

"Quiet!" Bullock hissed. "I told ya, Lord James doesn't want that bit getting out any more. Listen, just find out what they're up to, and report back to me. No offense to anybody but you're about all I can count on here."

"Hadren" nodded, and he and two other Bloodhounds took off for the main gate, ignoring Barbara completely.

She could feel Bullock's mind racing. He wasn't lying about anything he'd just said; something had happened recently that had angered the high lords of Gotham; Bullock was far more unhappy about their wrath than he was about whatever the crime was that had been committed. But he trusted the Hounds he'd sent out; if they found out what he needed, he knew Lord Gordon would bring an army down on whoever they were hunting.

"You really think they're gonna find him?" one of the remaining Hounds sniggered.

"Who cares," Bullock blustered. "Alright here's the score." he mumbled.

He then began to whisper, and Barbara struggled but couldn't make out what he was saying. She could read his and the other Bloodhounds' minds easily enough though. These few were all corrupt, and Bullock was eagerly giving them instructions on how to line his -- and their -- pockets. While Hadren and his compatriots would be hunting some dangerous criminal, Bullock and his cronies would be running a racket and waiting.

Eventually, she felt like she'd seen enough, and was running out of time. She took off and hit the railway back south before finding her way back to her townhouse, further south in Midtown. It was a drab, gloomy place, but Barbara liked it. Justicar banners still hung from the street-facing walls, a vestige of the time when Lord Gordon had been forced out of Justicar's keep and had been seconded to the sidelines. It was always a raw deal; but the Dents hadn't really deserved what had happened to them, either. Still, all that death had at least come to some good. It'd given Barbara her own place in the city, and an ideal location for her lab and observatory.

The top story of the townhouse was half glass and steel, and was filled with bookshelves and tables where she performed her arcane work. She finished up the spells she'd been working on, sitting at her primary desk and looking out over the dreary city as sunlight began to cascade over it. Finally finished, she collapsed into her bed in the corner, ready to rest and prepare herself for a new round of festivities that night.

When she awoke, the sun was already starting to go down, and faerie fire and oil lamps began to pop up all across town. Barbara rolled out of bed, stretched, dressed and prepared herself for another challenging evening.

She made her way back to Fort Clinton, and eventually found the lit street corner she was looking for; beneath the flickering lamp, Fox was waiting, along with Damien, Azrael and a whole coterie of Merchants' Guild guards.

"Good evening madam," Fox said with a smile. "Another fine night to be out on the streets of Gotham."

Stephanie found her way easily enough to Penny's Nickel, which smelled of stale beer and was fairly dead this early in the morning. A youngish girl was cleaning up tables downstairs when Stephanie walked in, and for a small bit of copper she was able to lock up some basic accommodations and a locked door. Good enough.

What she really needed wasn't to be found here, though. She quickly ducked back out again, and as the merchant stalls began to open up, she found a Bard's Guild sanctioned clothier that seemed like it'd have what she needed. She picked up the supplies necessary to put on a bit of a face, then spent an hour back at the Nickel getting into character.

When she came back out again, the city had livened up. Though it was early in the morning, before long she was able to spot an establishment seedy enough for her purposes; it was a bar called "Harper's Key", but carved into one of the supporting pillars on the side of the doorway was a rather brazen mark of the Thieves Guild; a crude skull atop a key.

Spoiler made her way inside and found the lowlifes who frequented the place were already busy drinking and smoking the new day away. But while they did that, they traded -- whispers and secrets, drugs, fenced goods, and all sorts of dirty business was being exchanged. Stephanie made the rounds, buying a beer here, picking up a trinket for sale there, and eventually getting into some conversation with a few of the regulars.

"It's all fugged man. No one's seen Raam since last night. I talked to Mixen and she said Kysel's asking about the Chraal. Heads are gonna roll."

"Bibs saw Eberk down in Red Hook. Said he chased some guy out of the docks last night, blighter wound up clubbing his dog. Ain't nobody seen the dwarf since."

"Eberk'l lay low if he's smart. Ronnie found Gex passed out down by the fishery; they brought him to Kysel. Apparently Raam's missing along with half his crew. Anybody who was down there yesterday's getting a talking to."

The first man blew air into his mug.

"That's not the way you want to take it," he chuckled. "I don't feel bad though. Never liked Gex anyway."

The second man chuckled. "No one did."

The conversation continued to meander, and Spoiler was careful to manage her gossip with the street toughs without giving away that she was overly curious. Offhandedly, she finally managed to drop in her hook;

"Anyway Raam'd better show up. I took a job from him only a days back to get to some blighter named Vale. Been all around the guild, haven't met anybody by that name. Takin' me forever. If I finally find the bastard, Raam'd better be around to pay me up."

One of the men shook his head.

"That's a bum rap that is. I dunno if I've ever heard of a Vale in Fort Clinton."

"Nah man," said the second. "I've lived here my whole life, there's never been any "Vale" in this neighborhood."

As they spoke, a serving wench with a fairly blatant Guild Tattoo above her left collarbone came by to swap out their flagons. She had a rolled up scroll under her arm. Stephanie'd watched her the last hour -- this was a clever one. She perused the tables, insuring the libations kept flowing, but grazing on secrets and rumors from each table as she went. She was smart, this one. And she'd been listening to their conversation too.

"Yea-hep. Bost's right, I dunno anybody named Vale here either," she said as she bent down, distracting the other thugs with the hem of her shirt while she swapped out their empty mugs for full ones. "Except we see this lady's name quite a fuggin' lot."

Before she stepped away, she held the mug tray up with one hand and removed the scroll from the crook of her arm with the other, and tossed it onto the table. As she did so, the scroll opened up, revealing that day's edition of the Gotham Herald.

"LORD JAMES TO SPEAK ON RECENT ATTACK", began one headline. "JUSTICARS HELPLESS TO FIND LEADS IN FOOLS' GUILD MASSACRE" read another. Then near the center of the page, one article took prominence:

"THE SEARCH FOR LORD DENT CONTINUES -- HOUSE COBBLEPOTT DOUBLES PREVIOUS REWARD". Directly below the headline, in elegant, scrawling script, Spoiler finally saw it:

"~~ Story by Victoria Vale, Noble Crier"

"Well fug me silly," Spoiler whispered, not completely out of earshot for the rest of the table. "Vale is a Bard...why the hell did he ask for a Bard?"

Her work done, Stephanie made her way back out of the bar into the light of day. Now she had a bit of a pickle to deal with. She still had time, but her plan of action was now pulling her in two different directions...sort of. The Opera House was in the same general direction as the Narrows, but she had two completely different errands to run in those two places, and only so much time to do it. The Opera House was the Bard's Guild headquarters; dollars to donuts, that's where she'd find "Noble Crier Victoria Vale".

The Narrows, on the other hand, were where her true friends would lie -- if she could be said to have any such thing as true friends. Shrugging, she decided she'd try to have it all, and quickly hopped onto a passing grain carriage to run herself further south.

She did a fairly good job keeping herself blended in with the crowds as she passed, first to the Nickel, then the clothiers, then through Fort Clinton. She occasionally looked over her shoulder to make sure she wasn't being followed, but she was clean. Things were going well.

The Opera House was a massive, overwrought structure, it's outer walls held aloft by massive steel Gothic statues of ancient dead titans. Like everything the Bards owned, it served a variety of purposes; they did in fact put on plays and operas for Gotham's nobility here. But this place was so much more than that. It was the center of their operations, the command center for one of the most powerful organizations in Gotham. It was also where they wrote and created the Herald, sending flurries of copies out across the city every morning like so many sparrows. As she approached the great old building, it was impossible not to run into scores of bloody Bards. Some sang, some danced, most gossiped with one another, and still many more came and went, conducting whatever business they had pressing them. Spoiler wasn't a Bard, but she was cleverly enough to look like she belonged in the throngs and eventually made her way inside.

The front half of the building was essentially for the nobles; it was a full theatre, and since there were no shows on this week, it was also completely empty. But there were large side entrances to, and the one she found led her to the large, bustling offices nearer to the Guild's base of operations. She continued to just look like she belonged there, winding her way through the bustling, cavernous space until eventually she saw the woman she was looking for.

Victoria Vale had the look of a classically successful, high ranking Bard. Long, white-blonde hair cascaded off of her shoulders framing bright green eyes and a blemish-free face. She was tall and well shaped but wore an elegant and tasteful outfit underneath a surprising suit of studded leather armor which was, if Spoiler's instincts weren't too far off, enchanted.

She was standing around a coterie of lesser bardic apprentices, and all of them were writing as she spoke.

"Listen, okay? It's just not good enough." her voice was elegant and perfectly measured, even as she scolded her apprentices. "Lord James thinks he can keep a lid on this Sionis thing while doing crap-all about the Fool's Guild attacks on our institution. The Choirmaster isn't going to have it, you understand? I need somebody, anybody to get me close Sionis Manor! Or, lacking that, just put the squeeze on a Justicar or two -- I want to know what that pompous dolt is hiding."

As she spoke to her team, her head suddenly snapped in Spoiler's direction as she appeared to realize she was being watched.

"Dear god please tell me you're not another apprentice." she sighed.

Spoiler managed to convince Vale to talk to her in private, and Vale led her to her office, where she put her tall-booted feet up on her desk and held her hands out wide. What did Stephanie want with her, anyway?

Stephanie told Vale that she'd received a psychic message from Raam, and that she'd gone searching to try and find her. She muddled through her excuse about why she was at the docks easily enough (roll to bluff) and though Vale's eyes narrowed as she spoke, she more or less seemed to buy it.

"So Raam's finally gotten himself snatched up by someone he can't bully." Vale mused aloud, seeming unphased. "Well that's new, at least. Still though, it's odd. The Witch Hunters' have never shown any interest in the Thieves before, why now? It can't just be because Raam has psionic powers that's the worst kept secret in Midtown."

Sighing, lost in thought, she took her feet off the table and began writing down some notes on a piece of parchment.

"I still don't get it," Stephanie pressed. "Why you? Why would a Thieves Guild captain send me to find a Bard?"

Vale smirked somewhat self assuredly.

"Because Bards get things done, sister. Our guild has our thumb on every pulse in this city. Including the Thieves. I can get under the Inquisition's skin...not a lot of other folks can do that."

"Uh huh. That's great. But why you? You're a high ranking Crier for the Bards' Guild, what are you doing getting mixed up with some slumlord in the first place?"

Again, Vale smiled, but she didn't break.

"Sorry sister, but this is the information business. You want answers like that, you're going to have to pay extra. Still though, I think I might be able to try and help Raam out. He did a good job finding someone with an appropriately low opinion of the Arkhams, if nothing else."

----------------------

After Spoiler had left the Opera House, she made her way back towards the narrows, once again working to blend in with the crowds. The city tended to change once you entered the Narrows. It was always a dangerous, dingy place but the Narrows were something all to themselves. One of the smallest islands in Gotham, sandwiched between the Downtown and Midtown islands, the Narrows were poverty stacked on poverty, a miserable shanty city growing atop itself over and over again like a cancer. The absolute dregs of society lived here, and arcane pollution was rampant. Still, as she crossed the bridge, Stephanie couldn't help but smile.

She was home.


She eventually found the area she was looking for, and broke out some cured meats from her pack, waiting for the inevitable. Before long, a Narrows cat wandered up to her, purring and rubbing up against her legs. She tossed out a piece of the jerky, and eventually more cats started showing up. She broke up the rest of the meet in her first and tossed it to them, one at a time.

While she was busy, she noticed a small boy, no older than Damien had been, "casually" wander over to "play" on the opposing street corner. She looked up, and caught his eye.

"Hey." the young ragged boy said quietly.

"Hey," Spoiler smiled back.

"What're you lookin' for?" he asked. It was an important question; answering wrong would send the orphan scampering off, and wouldn't talk to anyone she needed to see.

"Either Haley or Squirrel, doesn't matter. I've got something for the House."

He smiled, and ran off, and Spoiler crossed her fingers that things hadn't changed too much since she'd been back. But before too long she heard a whistle from one of the side alleyways, and she left the cats behind to follow it. When she got into the alley she kept walking, stepping past puddles of dung, before she heard a voice behind her, and somehow also above her.

"You bought me a present?" the girl said.

Stephanie stopped, and slowly turned around before looking up, and seeing Haley's round face smiling back at her from a plank above her, which was positioned to run between two buildings.

"I did yea," she replied coyly. "If you're still into that sort of thing."

Haley led her away from the streets, up a rickety wooden fire escape along the side of a slumping building before the two reached the rooftops. The Narrows rooftops were an unknowable warren to those who didn't live there, incredibly easy to get lost, even at the top of the neighborhood. But Haley knew the place like the back of her hand, and before she knew it, Stephanie was climbing over a rickety wooden ladder extended seven stories above street level, slowly making her way into the House Kyle safehouse.

The Squirrel was waiting for her inside, along with a couple of other Kyle Rogues. They caroused for most of the afternoon, and Stephanie was able to share what she was willing about her highlights from the previous evening. She handed them a copy of the Thieves guild cypher, and Haley's eyes lit up with glee.

"This is fantastic, she purred. The boss is gonna die!"

"No kidding, this is huge," added Cyrrus. "With Raam in the slammer we can use this to start breaking into Fort Clinton!"

"Bingo. Don't forget Aust is dead too, so that's one less problem to worry about. But Zucco's pushing back in -- tell..."the Boss"...you guys need to hurry. Window won't stay open forever."

"This is amazing," said Haley. "I don't know how to thank you. Fort Clinton is huge, we're gonna be eating like kings."

"No big deal, for now. Do you guys have a safe house I could crash in for the rest of the day? I haven't slept in almost two and I gotta go meet Fox at the Vaults at seven."

"Fox eh? You working for him full time now?" said Cyrrus, only half mocking.

"I'm getting paid cash money to gut the bloody Thieves Guild, is what I'm doing. You guys should get in on this, it feels amazing."

They laughed, and parted ways. Haley led Spoiler to another quiet shack of a room/home atop an already overcrowded apartment building. It wasn't much, but it was quiet, isolated, and safe. She passed out almost right away.

As the sun began to go down again, Spoiler dragged herself out of bed and quietly and carefully made her way back out of the Narrows before returning to the Nickel. She managed to avoid being tailed the entire day, which was one fewer potential problem for them to deal with. She changed into her "night clothes" and took off again, this time headed for the Vaults.


So, once again life has conspired against me so I hope this post does you guys justice, but I got really tired and I just wanted to make sure I posted come hell or high water. So with any luck this wasn't all hot garbage.

Anyway, both of you have unfinished dialogues you'll need to wayback machine to lol. I was hoping to not do that to you but given what the two of you tried to accomplish, I couldn't quite get you through those chats without some input from you, the players. So just put spoiler tags around your past tense stuff and we can resolve those conversations simultaneously with the new action.

- The Vaults: 34th and Olive, Fort Clinton Slums, 7pm -

The party met again under a flickering faerie fire lamp in Fort Clinton. Fox was waiting, along with Azrael, Damien, Titus and a cadre of armed guards. As the party reassembled, Fox reminded everyone of the plan.

He'd brought along an old map of the vaults that he'd marked with points of interest. They weren't much, but they showed six buildings covering three city blocks, altogether.

"Alright now listen, this is key. You've got two jobs tonight. One, unlock the first vault, sweep it for signs of trouble, then get out. Make sure you get an accurate headcount -- you don't want anyone stuck behind -- then seal the vault with the key when you're done. Then rinse/repeat until you've cleared all six. If you find the white box with the magic book Sir Pennyworth is looking for, bring that too.

Now, one thing to keep in mind. These things are nearly impregnable when they're sealed, but they're also huge; once the Key breaks the Void Seal, other scan potentially break into the vaults as well. Don't open any vaults that you're not immediately ready to sweep, and don't forget to reseal them once you're done."

He reached into his cloak, then took out a long item that looked like a strange wand, handing it to Oracle.

"The keyhole on each vault is marked on that map there. I'm trusting you to bring this back to me in one piece. We're all counting on you."

[MrAbdiel]

Damien is there with bells on. Or, more correctly, with all the bells off. Gone is the garb of a young noble scion; in its place is a light and close-fitting suit of black cotton fabric, with no hint of leather to creak or silk to gleam in the dark. The black is broken up with tabard of next-to-black grey, and intermittent accents of dull brown. Forearms and the backs of his hands are covered in gauntlets, metal core with fabric exterior to mask their shine; a straight sword, long for him but on the long side of short for a grown man, is scabbarded on his back beneath a neat little backpack of the same innocuous black. His tabard is loose enough to suggest concealed pockets and a host of hidden items.

"Excellent. Let's waste no time - better to move swiftly enough to ambush anything that might have thought to ambush us."

He confers with Titus for a moment, taking the dog's jowely face in his hands and speaking to it in quiet direct tones again: "You stay here, Titus; in case we need to give swift chase. But these vaults are no place for a dog, brave or not." A scruffling on the cheeks and ears, and he leaves Titus in the care of Fox.

His second preparation he performs with a modicum of discretion, turning away from the group and taking a few moments to fiddle with his tabard.

https://www.dccomics.com/sites/default/files/video/SoBat_Thug_thumb_535b093329f034.50904924.jpg
Damien is activating his Ring of the Poisoner, creating some Drow Poison (Maybe "League of Shadows Poison" of some kind?) and applying it to a couple of shuriken. Theoretically he can create a cubit foot of that poison with the ring once per day, but that seems wildly exploitative; so I thought I'd go with "make enough for four shuriken" and see if that didn't feel too bad. Let me know, DM! As an expert poisoner from being a ninja and with sufficient ranks in the craft poison skill, he's able to create and apply this poison with no trouble. Then he'll stow the shuriken to be drawn later - sometime in the next hour before the poison demanifests! He also has some other shuriken that have "real" drow poison on them - those he'll use if he doesn't want the risk of a target waking up when the spell to fabricate the poison wakes up, but it costs a painful 75gp per dose of poison. Thus the ring! :D

[Feathersnow]

"I don't know if its good or bad you heard about that. But it's you, it would be your job to know..."

"I threw the gauntlet to the Thieves' guild. That's not what scares me. The Inquisition knew before we even got back, and made sure they could silence our prisoners..."

"If you don't hear back from me in a few days, I'd be worried things are even worse at Arkham than we know they are."

"One of them is with us on a job for Fox. I'm pretty sure he's as clean as that kind get, but that doesn't mean as much as it should if he's taking bad orders."

"The Thieves Guild might make a move, too, but you'd hear about that pretty quick.

Kate finishes their conversation with a piece of love poetry in Celestial, which no one will understand and could be willfully misrepresented if it somehow were


Kate nodded through the presentation of their job, but gives no comments.

[JbeJ275]

Barbara reluctantly returns Fox's smile. Truth be told even though she understands academically that having a lazy reveller control the city's fortunes is better than the active criminals that control it now she's still not happy about working to fill Wayne's purse, especially when he threw in the towel in the fight her parents gave thier lives for, and now she had a few more confirmed targets for her own fight. But she could take this sort of work and still feel good about herself, and the early plans she'd drawn up to take down Bullock would be much easier with the money and contacts provided by the last job so a few more of these were unlikely to hurt..

Shaken out of her thoughts by the speech beginning Barabara played close attention, taking the key in hand and keeping a firm grip on as she tucket her hand beneath the side of her cloak and scanned up and down the street for anything suspicious.


"Do we know how large the vualts are and how long it will take to manually survey each of them? I have several useful divinations but only a few of them last long enough for me to be ready to start casting them now."

As she talked with the others she also brought Juluis up from where he'd been tucked away, mentally communing with her familiar as it readied iself for it's own scouting duties.

[Molan]

Renee smiled, and casually walked over to some of the chairs near the altar, out of earshot of the other people in the temple. She gently held Kate's hand by the wrist to bring her along, and as the two sat together in hushed conversation she gave off the air of a clergy member simply counseling a parishioner.

"There's a lot of rancor among the Thieves Guild today; Raam was supposed to bring in as much as 120,000 gold pieces in his raid against the Waynes, but now he's disappeared and his crew is missing from Fort Clinton. You've stirred a hornets nest, but even the Thieves are only as powerful as people think they are. You've exposed a nerve -- you should expect retribution, but their position has weakened all the same. You've got to make sure the Justicars start to reassert themselves in the Slums...or barring that, make sure that old coot Fox starts hiring from the area. The people need hope, and they need food. Pry them away from Velnire's thugs, and things may finally begin to change."

She fished out a holy signet from under her robes, pressing it into Kate's hand.

"There is a way to visit the Witch's Asylum without drawing the Arkhams' ire. The chiefmost cleric of the Imperial Church can sign a writ, and with a bit of disguising and my official sigil of St. Cuthbert, you can enter the Asylum on a missionary pretense. The Inquisition is powerful but they still have to answer direct orders from ranking members of the church.

Now, the trick here is, getting Father Macoy to sign the writ for you. The way I see it, you can always find him and threaten him, bribe him, or wait outside the Penny Street Brothel and blackmail him, but whichever way you go, he'll want guarantees that the Witch Hunters won't come knocking on his door later demanding answers about your visit. You'll have to be clever, Kate."

They finished their conversation and Kate whispered her poem to Renee in Celestial. The Questor replied in kind, sharing a sweet blessing of St. Cuthbert intended to well-wish a loved one.

Armed with Questor's signet and a least some idea of how to get into the Asylum, Kate marched back out into the fading sunlight, prepared and inspired for her next mission.

Fox nodded, pouring over the map and making some basic observations for the group.

"Each vault takes up about half a block. Now, inside you'll find they're really just very elegant seeming warehouses, most segmented into multiple chambers. The ceilings look like glass, but don't try bothering to break them -- they're not. Whatever material the old Wayne's forged these things out of is beyond our understanding now. They're each three stories, but the top to stories are partial and full mezzanines, so most of the inventory is at the bottom. My guess, if you work together, should take about a half an hour, maybe forty five minutes to sweep each one. Once you're done, you've got to seal that vault and move onto the next one.

Now, if you run into any trouble, you'll see it come from one of a couple of quarters. For one thing, it's hard to know if someone else has broken into the Vault while it's unsealed until you run right into them -- these places are stacked sky high with goods. So keep your wits about you. For another, magical creatures and undead *can* manifest in places like this if there are any containment breaches, but I doubt that's likely.

Finally, the goods inside the vault are all encased in shielded, lead-lined packaging. That means that Detect Magic will work inside the Vaults while they're unsealed, provided you don't start emptying crates. If too much arcana is on the floor you're just gonna be overwhelmed with interference. I say this because if there *is* a magical breach, then a spell like that will help you see it before you walk into it.

Now, there's little to no lighting in there - that's what the skylights are for. So you'll need to bring your own illumination tonight. Once the last vault is sealed, head back towards the docks. I'll be waiting there with a few hundred volunteers -- with any luck, future employees. We'll begin to move the goods."

Fox stepped back, letting Barbara observe the map, and then suddenly gasped.

"Oh, one more thing, I almost forgot. You're going to see these bronze W-shaped Merchant's Guild sigils on the walls and pillars all throughout each vault. If the sigil is painted red, use extreme caution in that area. It means there are traps present. Nobody other than specially authorized guild members know about the traps, they just know those areas are restricted. So, if you see one, tread very lightly in whatever room you're in."

[JoyWonderLove]

“Sis, please, when you stonewall me like this, aren’t you the only one that pays?” she asked beseechingly. “I saw the drama go down in Fort Clinton about two hours ago. Two hours, going on little more than a hastily thought last name, and a hefty dose of psychic panic, in a city the size of Gotham. Now I’m standing before you when one of those hours was sent running other errands.” She shrugged unapologetically. “Clothes emergency. Anyway, your articles definitely helped narrow the tracks a tad, but you have more than enough empty-headed apprentices to know speedy results aren’t exactly common. I’ve done more in two half-distracted hours than some can on a good day.”

It was her turn to smile self-assuredly. “Those are the type of results I can provide a fellow information aficionado, even one fighting with fools and dolts, but it has to come with a little basic trust,” urged the blonde as she adjusted the black shades. “Why does Raam think so highly of you? Your Sionis Manor is clearly my Arkham, so a swap is au natural. But what’s the interest there? It sounded important.”


Diplomacy: [roll0]. To get more information.

Bluff on Merchant Guild story: [roll1]. Vale already seems like she has too much information and influence, before the whole not trusting strangers thing. Especially as she seems linked to a lot of surprisingly different people. I 100% didn’t expect a Bard, though. :smallbiggrin:




=Chapter 2, pre-Vaults powwow=

“Evening all. How’s it going?”

Spoiler, all purple gloves and boots to her black mask and form fitting leather armour and tights, said remarkably little assembled alongside the others. She plucked an elastic band out of her yellow belt and threw her hair into a long ponytail while she observed the black gi covered child with open interest. All that attention was turned to the Guild Master once he started talking.


K: Local: [roll2]. What kind of group/who in Gotham even trains people dressed like Damien? Mage College, Bard’s Guild, Justiciars, these are all high profile groups that have their own distinctive look. Ninjas seem (ironically) a little more exotic in fantasy Gotham.

[Molan]

Vale's lip curled up into a smile, and she shrugged and sighed.

"Alright fine. You're a persistent bugger aren't you. What'd you say your name was again?"

She continued,

"Alright listen, I'm not supposed to be contracting out to freelancers, so keep this between us. There's a bit of a feud that's flared up between the Bard's Guild and our good and feeble Lord James."

She shoves aside a bunch of papers on her desk, revealing a Herald edition from a few days ago. These copies must not be the self-disintegrating kind, apparently. Splayed across the top of the Herald scroll was a screaming headline:

"MASSACRE AT WEST SIDE STATION! HALF A DOZEN BARDS MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD!"

Below the main headline was a subheading:

"Bodies and blood splayed out in visceral fashion. Fool's Guild Likely to Blame."

The article went on to excoriate the Justicars and House James' apparently lack of an adequate response. In the article, a quote from Lord Gordon's spokesperson argued that the Fool's Guild couldn't have been involved, because the Dark Knight had captured The Jester years ago, and he was safely locked up in the Asylum. Another even more maligned quote came from House James; apparently Lord James' son and heir insinuated that the attack was the Bards' own fault.

"So someone attacked you? What does this have to do with House Sionis?" asked Stephanie.

"Well now, that is a fun question. See, we're tasked, by the will of the College and the authority of the Lords of Gotham, with running...I don't know. Everything. The Bards control the Arcane Rails, we control the messaging system, we spread news through the Herald and through street criers. But we're also in control of any and all entertainment in this city -- theatre, music, opera, you name it, we run it. You can't hum a tune in this town without approval from the Bard's Guild. And a few years back, some people started to take issue with that.

Spoiler rolled her eyes.

"Oh, gee. I can't imagine why."

"They called themselves the Fool's Guild; just a bunch of degenerates and out of work circus and small time theatre performers. Hacks, really. But they tried to organize an alternative mandate to our control. I have to be honest with you -- the Guild leaders...weren't kind about it. The Bards leaned on the College and the Lords to regulate and tax the Fools out of existence, and when that wasn't enough, they turned to more direct intimidation. People died. But, eventually, the remaining circus freaks rallied around this maniac called The Jester -- he killed the last choirmaster in front of the entire nobility, right here in this building. The city pretty much panicked, and The Jester led a reign of terror. But the Dark Knight showed up and whipped the Fools and threw the Jester into the Witch's Asylum, and things have been calm ever since."

"So you think the Jester's behind this new attack?"

"Do I? No, not really. The city insists The Jester is still in Arkham's custody and no one has seen him since the Dark Knight tossed away the key. I think someone who has beef with the Bards is using the appearance of the Fools' Guild to try and scare us. But it doesn't really matter who's behind the attacks; whoever it is, they managed to take down six of our brothers and sisters and get away unseen. We can't have that. We need the city to act."

"Okay, so you want to pressure the high lords. Fair enough. But what does that have to do with House Sionis?"

Vale smiled wide, and practically licked her lips with anticipation.

"Ah, well, that's the juicy part -- we don't really know. House Sionis controlled a huge industrial empire in Gotham courtesy of their control of the Craftsman's Guild. But recently, people reported seeing smoke coming from their manor Uptown. The multiple city blocks -- all fortified manors and small keeps, mind you -- has been cordoned off by Blackgate and Cobblepott soldiers. Something's happened there, there's no doubt. Thing is, we've now started hearing rumors that another small noble family was recently destroyed, and some people are saying the Sionis' are involved. I wouldn't have thought anything of it, but when we asked the James' about it, they denied anything had happened."

Spoiler smiled.

"Which means something definitely did."

"Exactly. And old lord fuddle-duddle and that crotchety letcher the Penguin appear to have a vested interest in covering it up, whatever it is. I need to know what happened to House Sionis, and I need to know if any other noble houses have fallen down with them."

"You want to use the information as leverage. Cobblepott and James have to help you with your 'Fools Guild' problem or you'll publish whatever they're trying to hide."

"Very good." Vale confirmed.

"Okay fine, that works for me," said Spoiler. "Then help me out. How is it that you know Raam. Can you help me out?"

"The Thieves and the Bards have an...understanding." Vale said slowly. "We don't publish much about their...exploits. In return, they feed us information from the streets...lots, and lots of information. Raam and I have had, shall we say, a bit of a working relationship in that regard."

"So can you help him?" Stephanie asked. "Why did he tell me to go find you?"

"I actually don't know if I can help him or not," she admitted. "But I do know why he told you to find me. He was bartering."

It took Stephanie a couple of seconds to piece together what she was saying.

"...he has something you need. He thinks he can leverage whatever that is to compel you to help him."

"You're almost there, sweetie." Vale said, grinning. "Bring it home."

"...Raam..." she snapped her fingers. "Raam knows what happened to House Sionis!"

"Raam knows what what happened to House Sionis." Vale repeated. "You are clever...you sure you're not a Bard? Anyway, I had told him I'd make it worth his while to feed me info on the scandal, and he was mulling over terms. But, it sounds like he got pinched before he could get back to me. Now I have to figure out what to do about all that."

Unfortunately, you have no idea who would dress or train Damien in such a manner. There's no organizations in Gotham that you've heard of that dress that way, or that train small boys to run around like professional adventurers at night, for that matter.

[JoyWonderLove]

After a moments deliberation, Stephanie offered her alias by way of a name before the conversation covered more topics than she anticipated when first starting out. She mulled over everything and her own concerns on the torture and simple mistreatment of freelance performers, on plots to blackmail the highest realms of power and supplanting those significantly less influential.

“Then, as someone that loves a good singer myself, allow me to help slice this particular Gordian knot. Grant me a week to pinpoint exactly what is going on in the Sionis Manor and beyond, and I’ll take the information to you before anyone else. You’ll have the power to persuade both the High Lord of all Gotham and his wealthy banking friend.” Behind her plastered smile she wondered if it wasn’t better to let the Bards bloody themselves in a quiet war with Lord James, the better for Robyn and her like to be left free and unhindered.

Let alone anyone desperate or scared enough to join the Fool’s Guild for protection...

“But we’re both savvy women. Leaving you to figure out how to pull strings to free one of your own sources of information, while I provide a stop gap, isn’t exactly an even trade. Raam and his crew nestling in Arkham is more a moral hazard for me; getting him out isn’t my business, but leaving him in isn’t my style. Ideally, I’d ask him transferred out to Red Point or West Side. Let those Justiciars deal with him. Those this side of the Gotham can’t protect a Choirmaster; I wouldn’t trust them to hold hand my hand, let alone a half giant.” She shook her head.

“More, if I pull off what you want, I’d ask you pencil in the time to re-examine your previous understandings. There are more palatable groups in Gotham that would gladly give you the same information the Thieves offer, if not at a higher quality. ” She straightened in her oversized overcoat on the spot, having never been offered a seat before. “A solid deal, sis?”





Sense Motive: [roll0]. Vale

[Molan]

Vale shook her head.

"Listen sweetie, you seem nice. Really. But we just met and there's no way I can trust you right now. I have a better idea. Why don't you give me a week to see what I can do to help you free the half-giant, since you're so concerned. You get him out, I get the scoop on what went down Uptown, and you can transfer him to Blackgate or West Side Watch or wherever the hell else you want. As far as cutting off business ties with the Thieves Guild...that's a big ask. But hey, anything in Gotham's negotiable. Why don't you spend the week thinking about how you can make it worth my while; if you can find another, better source for me...well...maybe we can work something out."

Armed with Fox's instructions and the map of the Vaults, the party set out. This particular section of Fort Clinton was particularly dead at night; there were almost no torches or lanterns, bathing the entire area in deep shadows, and they barely heard or saw even the hint of another living soul wandering this section of the streets. The entire area was mostly industrial warehouses; no residences or retail establishments in sight. The place had a deathly stillness to it, like a forest growing quiet right before a predator made it's kill. Their nerves were on edge, but they pressed forward to the Vaults, determined to complete their mission, if all for their own reasons.

When they reached the first Vault, it took a moment to take in it's vastness. The vaults were technically three stories each, but they seemed to stand much, much taller than that. Huge windows, ten feet tall, reached up from each successive level, and the vaults were built with the kind of archaic, gothic architecture the city was known for, with great metal statues and grinning gargoyles staring back down at them from the night sky. The windows seemed to glow with an inner light, strong enough to notice but not quite strong enough to actually shed any illumination into the surrounding alleyways.

The entrance the vault was covered by what looked like a huge iron door with a circular device in the center. Barbara entered the key and manipulated it, and a series of runes carved into the mechanism began to glow, and the various parts of the lock began to turn and shift, until all of the runes aligned. She removed the key and the entire "door" slunk downwards, into the ground with a great rumbling sound, revealing a second, ornate metal door beyond it. As the seal came away, the "inner" light shining on the windows dimmed and faded to nothing; the Void Vault was unsealed. The inner door was covered in ghoulish frescos depicting legendary battles, but despite being covered by the Vault's lock looked heavily green and oxidized. Barbara pushed on the handle, and with some effort, the cavernous door creaked open, allowing access to the great hall within.

The room beyond was filled with crates and stacks of supplies, all themselves covered in their own runes of warding. The bottom floor looked to be partitioned into multiple chambers, and a second set of iron doors revealed the centermost, and largest chamber of the vault. This chamber was also filled with almost dangerously-high stacks of presumably arcane goods. In the middle of the room, a pair of great stairs ascended up to a stone landing, then two other staircases shot off to the left and right, reaching the second level, which was a partial mezzanine. Above that, through the opening in the ceiling, they could see the third level, itself a full mezzanine, ringing the top layer of the vault, and beyond that, transparent "glass" skylights forming the vault's roof.

There was virtually no light sources inside the Vault, and Barbara almost walked passed one of the iron Merchant Guild "W" icons Fox had told her about before stopping herself. She looked close and saw that it wasn't painted red -- well, this one wasn't, at any rate. Still, the party needed to keep their eyes peeled.

"According to the map, there are multiple chambers along the bottom floor; top floor's going to need searching too, it's a maze with all these bloody boxes in here. Should we run through together or split up?"

"Don't forget we need to look for the book." added Kate.

Everyone should make search checks. In addition, you can take 10 on spot, listen, decipher script, spellcraft, Knowledge Arcana, Hide, Move Silently, Knowledge Architecture and Engineering, and Appraise, but these are all optional.

Basically just decide how you want to cut up searching through the vault, and I'll move you through checks and the next point of interest. You can take any actions you want other than the ones prescribed in Fox's mission, if you so choose, but don't have to. I will add a basic layout map in Roll20 that will (crudely) give you a basic layout of the place, but I won't be able to do that till probably later tonight, if that's alright.

[JbeJ275]

"Very good, picking up the book is very important given it's potential importance. And we were all told about the dangers that might lurk inside such a place, or outside if anyone else in Fox's chain of communication anywhere has been suborned. I don't love the idea of anyone heading in here alone and unsuprted in case some creature here is capable fo ambush, but urking in here for too long is asking for trouble. Maybe spliting into two groups is wisest?" Maybe Kate and our guest from the church as they're best equipped to fight off such an ambush and me and Spoiler with the little Lord here as we're more likely to sneak around something ambushing us. In such a case I'd recommend us starting from the top and working down while you start down here and work up."


Damien and Azrael not excluded as potential sources of ambush. Keep and eye on them.


Even as she Spoke Barbara began looking over the surrounding inventory, keeping a careful ear out and examining each facet of the building as she went.


Search:
[roll0]

Other Optional Ones that Barabara would be likely to be doing
Listen: [roll1]
Decipher Script: [roll2]
Spellcraft: [roll3]
Arcana: [roll4]
Hide: [roll5]
Move Silently: [roll6]
Architecture and Engineering: [roll7]

[MrAbdiel]

"I'm going to the top," Damien pronounces with no consultation. He casually produces a carved, black-wood rod from his backpack, manipulates it with a flick of his wrist, and slips his hand through the leather loop that sprouts from the bottom just as four hooks bloom from the top. "Bulk supplies that move often will be nearest to the door. Specialized items that rarely need transport will be isolated in the upper levels. If I find anything hostile, I'll come back and we'll set up an ambush for it. And if anything attacks you first, rest assured I'll join the fray shortly. You only need to hold out for a ten or twelve seconds."

Before any argument can be made, the littlest ninja produces something in his free hand - a finely weighted, masterwork-sap, extremely familiar to Spoiler. He tosses it at her, chin height, forcing her to lean back inelegantly to catch it (or else display unusual dexterity to snatch it from the air.) He eyes the purple scoundrel with a contained smugness that borders on outright malicious glee. "Try to keep your eyes open, uh huh, uh huh." He apes Steph's performance from the preceding day with heaps of childish duhhh duhhh irony, eyes wide with feigned stupid wonder. Then, as if afraid that humor was to sophisticated, he places the thumb of his now empty hand to his nose, wiggles his fingers upright in the air, and blows a loud raspberry at her.

With the spirit of juvenile vengeance exorcised for the moment, without looking away, his grip adjusts on the black wood baton resting on his shoulder. With a muted hsss!, the hook launches dramatically over his shoulder, trailing a narrow black cord connected to the rod and continuing up and up. With an almost imperceptible twist of his wrist, the rope goes slack and hooks over the railing on the third floor - and then begins retracting with haste, dragging the child into the air. Damien rotates with practised ease in the motion as he goes, black cotton fluttering briefly as he is launched into the moonlit upper floor.

Damien is using his Rod of Ropes to -zoop- up to the top floor. He'll immediately hide, and then spend a turn or two just listening and adjusting to the darkness. I figure the upper floor will get the most exterior light, so it's the best place for a little lad with no darkvision and no wish to carry a light source to start. Even if he can't search for the book just yet, he's in a good position to try to detect any unusual movement, atleast!

Take Tens:

Hide at 27.
Move silently at 25.

The other skills - specifically Search, Spot, Listen - are not so heavily invested in points that it's more fun rolling and hoping for a good result!

[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]

[JoyWonderLove]

A sigh. “Here I stumble into your office, only to steal precious time prattling of transferring crooks out of situations they might well deserve. To say little of those murdered. That deserves far better than James’ silence; let alone my neglect.” A frown formed plainly while she reached for sai in her pocket like a child would a stuffed animal, only to find it completely missing. She groaned irritably at herself for expecting any better after rummaging for rumours in Thieves Guild territory.

“For however many coppers its worth, I know someone that would be interested to hear all this. Let’s see if your Sinois issue isn’t lock and key to both our troubles.” She buttoned up the top button of her bulky overcoat unnecessarily.

“Thank you for your time, Miss Vale.”


BARBRAAAAAAAAAAAA. WE NEED TO TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALK.



Stepping into the room filled with endless stacked crates covered in runes, Spoiler breathed deep the surprisingly not stale air of a sealed vault, and breathed out loudly, exhilarated.

“This is it. This is the real closer for last night. Six vaults and a few hours making the undead take a dust nap, then we’ll open up opportunities for hundreds of people. That’s possibly thousands of families that won’t have to turn to crime for coin!” She grinned. “Can you even imagine how many lives that could improve? Even outright save?! The library book is nothing compared to that.”

Oracle offered up the idea of splitting between the sleek footed and strong armed, but it was the implied potential to ambush the inquisitor or bossy little boy that made Spoiler pause. Barb always does her homework. What the hell did she even dig up on these two last night? When due process was lower on the priorities of the heir to the Justiciars than a potential jump and dump, the noble and inquisitor had to both be viciously guilty of ugly past-times. The rogue nodded.

“Really love the top down approach, Oracle, and I’m with you to make this mission happen. But I already told ya last night; that’s not my name.” She reminded breezily. “Although, funny thing you mention our guest from the church. You remember when I spoke to Inquisitor Strange yesterday, before any mention of their army? He told me enough gold might make things move, but it’s suspect if even holy warriors give too much of themselves. It reminded me of that parable about the foxes, as biblical as that gets.”

Anything major happens to Azrael, the subtle message hinted to Kate and Barbara went, and we trigger an army marching to steal Fox’s wealth. No matter what questionable declarations the holy man made about what The Merchant’s Guild did inside its vaults, it was better to let Azreal waltz safely through the night unblemished. Spoiler couldn’t rightly claim she wanted to harm a child tied up in criminality, either. The younger the mind, the more time they had for improvement. But she had seen Oracle render hardened criminals helpless if unharmed, and strong ones at that.

“Still, like I said, I’m with ya.”

The boy’s lithesome little form produced the sai she thought had ended up serving some Fort Clinton low life, and she laughed, her good cheer returned. It certainly wasn’t the first time a sticky-finger child had gotten the best of her – she had lived too long in the Narrows for that – and she had done similar in good spirit before. But then Damien went from mocking sarcasm to antics refreshingly fitting his age, not trusting her to understand certain basic nuance. Ah, but if he thinks me so foolish, I made an obvious mark yet. Truly a shocker, the hug being too much.

When he tossed it at an awkward angle, Spoiler sprang back comfortably to snag her sai midair, entire weight carrying end over end, and the splayed fingers of a single hand meeting the floor expectantly, before catapulting her body backwards into an upright stance. Unable to hide her pleasure at the one handed back handspring, she found the receding form of the noble already swiftly shooting off into the air attached to a mechanized grappling hook she had never known existed. This she eyed wistfully, before touching the black leather hiding the silver symbol.

“Estanna, if you ever wanna give your girl something nice for helping keep the Merchant’s on their feet...” she muttered this before finally climbing the stairs up.



Dunno if you’d find it boring to “split up” while ebard is AFK, Feathersnow, so it’s not like it’s wrong to stay with us (only if you want to) instead. I personally want to go to the top floor because I think that’s where the mezzaine (dungeon?) is; if we go there asap, the rest is probably easy. But go where you like. A paladin is probably the safest person to be beside in her.



Take 10s,

Tumble/Perform: Weapon Drill (24/16) to catch sai and tumble with it.
Move Silently: (25)
Hide: (25)

Rolling,

Search: [roll0]
Spot: [roll1]
Listen: [roll2]
Appraise: [roll3]

[JbeJ275]

"Goddam Idiot Waynes." Murmurred Barbara as she raised one arm, letting Juluis fly from it with instructions to follow Damien and return to her if anything like fighting started. She then began to follow Spoiler up the stairs warily, checking any writings on the stairs describing contest as she went up. Occasionally breaking from doing so to talk with Spoiler.

"Umm Spoiler, sorry for messing up with the calls. I'm still new to this sort of... getting my hands dirty I guess. I've got way more expierience with the intruige where everyone's sitting behind desks and I just have to figure out whose corrupt with some magic and some searching and then kick it up the chain. The whole... mask.. cape.. weapons and lies and criminal conspiracies I actually have to runn through the night with I'm really still figuring out."

[JoyWonderLove]

“Oh, no big. Really, it’s actually a great sign. Like a pedigree puppy making peace with some stray cat.” Spoiler giggled into her mask. “Besides, wouldn’t it be way more worrying if all the lying and masks and stuff was actually second nature to you? Like, if I don’t have integrity, I can still spend the rest of my life fleecing low lives and making bank. Maybe even buy off the Bard’s Guild so me and Robyn can pick up right where we dropped off. But if you don’t have integrity?”

Spoiler put away her sai after a preliminary check Damien hadn’t damaged it, and drew her dagger as they approached nearer the top of the stairwell. “The wolves get their pick of the slaughter. There’s little point turning to Watchmen when even the House holding the reigns is about as trustworthy as your local crimelord. It wouldn’t take long before most realize real justice is only a dagger’s throw away, and night starts bleeding into day. And I could make it in that world, too, I think, just fine. But I know too many that can’t, Oracle. So I don’t envy you going against your own nature, just to get the basic resources you need, to do the things you should have been able to do in the first place. But I’m happy to nudge a few pieces into place if it help you keep the boat from capsizing.” She stopped suddenly, looking behind to the wizard.

“Speaking of things going down. House Sionis: What do you know about it? What about its Manor?”

[Feathersnow]

Kate, stoic as always, watches the less encumbered members of the group climb with ease that she could only replicate with psionics, if even then...

She trundles forward, sure to not go ahead of the group.

[Molan]

As Spoiler turned to walk out, Vale smiled and nodded.

"Sure thing sweetie. Any time. Feel free to walk through the front door next time if you find anything you think I might be interested in. Stay safe out there."

She smiled and winked as Stephanie left, and then walked away, turning back to admonish her apprentices some more.

Damien grappled up to the top level of the vault, and the party slowly began to work their way through the cavernous space.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57a909329de4bb9ac1936f5b/1470700784585-M23GOWJXSLFPFD24O3I4/4.jpeg?format=2500w

Please remember we have a new roll20 map up so once you've read through this prompt I encourage you to reference the map to help guide your exploration / decision making.

The place was dark, dusty, and gloomy. Moonlight shone in weak, ragged shafts from the skylight, cascading gently over the stacked crates and moldering walls. The Vaults were very much products of Gotham; ornate pillars held it's ceiling and higher stories aloft and great iron statues appeared to hold up some of the largest and most important balustrades. As the party worked their way through the first vault, they searched for all the promised dangers and wonders that Fox had advertised; signs of monsters, arcane energy outbreaks, traps, and/or treasure.

Damien's decision to reach the topmost level was rewarded. The highest tier mezzanine only covered the very outermost ring of the building, adjacent to the walls on each side, with a wide open chasm in the middle looking down on the lower levels. The middle-most floor had large openings too, but it had a much larger surface area, with long sections that crossed from one side of the great old warehouse to the other. The bottommost floor was the largest, but from his high vantage, Damien could see that it was bifurcated into multiple rooms; by staring down from the top floor, he could see into some of the rooms that the rest of the party couldn't, but still others were closed from his sight. They'd have to search those manually.

He'd been right for another reason; the moonlight was strongest at the top level, and as he found time to adjust his gaze, he eventually began to take in his surroundings. He was perfectly well hidden from his perch, and was able to carefully make his way along the top level without making a sound. Finally, he'd been right about it's contents; down below the crates might have held run-of-the-mill magical weapons with weak enchantments, or low level spell scrolls or wands. But the horde up top was much more valuable. Here he saw a table, coated in dust, with an ornate golden pair of demons reaching up from it's center. Resting in their outstretched golden wings was a magical looking wizard's rod.

There, he saw a long display case, covered in some kind of crystalline glass cover, inside of which were several incredibly ornate magical rings, a wand, and a device he couldn't recognize. Some of the walls were covered in bookshelves, but the bookshelves held precious few books, and each of them was physically clasped in magical steel locks, and their spines crawled with latent arcane runes. In another area, he found a full alchemy lab (which was strange -- wasn't this cold storage?) and a series of incredibly expensive, rare looking potions and elixers. It went on like that; the top level was a mountain of platinum in waiting.

He didn't find much from his vantage on the floors below him, however. And he didn't hear anyone else moving around, besides his own party.

While she spoke with Stephanie, Barbara searched high and low, the two brooding nights walking behind them as they scrubbed the vault. The first room they found themselves was more like an atrium, filled with boxes containing basic magical materiel, like wand components. There were a whopping five doors leading out of it. They ignored most of them, pushing through the large metal doors in the center, and found themselves in what had to be the central great room of the vault. Two sweeping stone stairs went up around ten feet to a pedestal, before turning right and left another ten feet to reach the first mezzanine level. Somewhere up above them, Damien was probably still lurking, watching, but he was out of sight now.

They searched as they chatted, slowly making their way up the stairs to the second floor. Barbara had an easy time reading a lot of the magical writing on the items stored here; the second level held finished wands, blank spellbooks, crates of scrolls, magical arms and more. She combed through the area searching for the white crate Fox had mentioned, but came up with nothing. Eventually in one of the back corners they found some of the red "W" sigils Fox had warned them about. The area was trapped, and at multiple points Barbara managed to spot well hidden but telltale runes in place to trigger spells if any of them passed through their radius. Inside the trapped area was a pair of locked chests and a locked bookshelf.

Spoiler found another trapped area on the bottom most floor, but here, upon careful inspection, she discovered that the traps weren't blocking the crates that had been stacked up in their perimeter, but a secret iron door behind the crates. The door unlocked from the inside, and when they opened it, they found that it released into the alley next to the Vault. Barbara closely inspected the area around the door, and found the same sealing mechanism that had previously closed the main entrance to the vault shut.

Stephanie and Barbara searched while they spoke. Barbara did a particularly excellent job identifying several magical run traps that even she herself had almost missed. Some of the traps were guarding clearly high valued magical treasure, Spoiler was able to determine that another set of traps was guarding a secret exit to the Vault. Barbara searched the area and confirmed the side door sealed when the rest of the Vault did. Still, it was an interesting inclusion.

The place was loaded with loot though -- her head began to spin at how many hundreds of thousands of gold pieces this place might be worth. Still though, she stayed focused on her mission. There was too much at stake to get distracted now.

The party pressed up through the main hall of the Vault onto the second floor. The place was huge, and packed with magical goods. After a good deal of searching though, they didn't find any trouble, and eventually Damien swooped down from the top floor to share as much with the team on the second level. Eventually they made their way back downstairs, clearing all of the side rooms before finally making their way back out again.

"Well that was uneventful." Spoiler quipped.

Barbara turned back towards the main iron doors of the vault, ensuring they were sealed tight, then turned a mechanical ring on the Void Key. Doing so brought the Void Seals back into position over the door, and she entered the key once more, turning it, and causing the strange mechanical sequence of arcane locks to repeat itself just as it had when she'd opened the vault, only this time in reverse. The "inner light" shining on the Vault's windows came back on, and the Void Vault was shut.

They repeated this process two more times, and each with no further eye opening discoveries. Both the Codex and trouble remained elusive, though each Vault brought a new surprise. For one thing, the layout in each Vault was similar...but not identical. In some places there were different arrangements of walls, where a wall from a previous vault would be missing or a new one would show up where none had been prior. The general layout -- the floors, the support pillars, the glass-like roofs -- this all remained static, but each vault was slightly unique.

Working off of their discovery from the first Vault, Barbara, Stephanie and Damien continued to look for -- and find -- traps. These trapped areas too were in different places and rooms each time, leaving no two Vaults the same. They also found that there were sometimes one, two or three secret exits to each vault, accessible only once the Void Key had cracked the building's outer seal. Each time they entered a new chamber, they found ever more incomprehensible treasures. Some of the artifacts they came across looked like they'd be enough to buy a small castle, all on their own.

In the fourth Vault, things got a little stranger. Damien noticed the rank smell first, and after entering Barbara's awareness of spellcraft helped identify that some of the physics in the place were...off. She picked a book off a stack and threw it into the air, where it hovered a long time before eventually slowly making it's way back down to the ground.

Ultimately, it was Damien that found the corpses. Several dead and partially decayed displacer beasts were rotting up at the top level. He reported it, and the party came running.

"Bloody things must have found some way in by accident." Oracle speculated, shaking her head.

"Wasn't that supposed to be impossible?" said Spoiler.

""Supposed to." Damien quipped.

Eventually, further searching found signs of ectoplasmic residue in another area of the fourth vault -- evidence, Oracle pointed out -- that there may have been some undead manifestations long ago. But whatever it was that had caused the mess, it was long gone now. Eventually they finished their sweep and resealed the Fourth Vault.

The fifth Vault passed without a commotion too, and the mission was beginning to look like the easiest stack of money they'd ever made. That was, of course, until they broke the seal on the final Vault.

Oracle immediately noticed a problem; some sort of strange, sticky, glowing substance was seeping out of the edges of the iron doors behind the seal. She investigated it as best she could but couldn't determine the substances' exact nature.

"What does it mean?" Stephanie asked.

"It means this place was contaminated. The reports about arcane leakage here weren't complete BS after all. Be on your guards in there."

The party entered the sixth and final Vault. Here too, they found a very similar -- but still "off" -- structure, slightly different than each place that'd come before it, and here too they found it filled to the brim with arcana. In the main atrium, several glowing blue puddles pooled around similar stacks of supplies, and they made care to step around them.

"I wonder if Fox knew." Spoiler wondered aloud.

"Knew what?" said Kate.

"I wonder if he knew what order we'd search the Vaults in."

"Hard to imagine how he could have. Why?"

"What, weren't you all counting?" said Spoiler. She looked out and received blank stares in response.

"The secret exits, dummies. The first Vault had one exit that we could find. Second had two. There were three in the third one."

"Wait a minute..."

"Are you saying there may be as many as six alternate entrances to this Vault, now that we've unsealed it?"

"All's I'm saying, Red, is that if you wanna bet on it, starting bid is 500 gold. There's gonna be more than a few alternate entry points to this sucker."

Oracle shook her head.

"We need to move quickly, then."

The party was standing in the sixth Vault's atrium. Here, there were five separate doors, just as before; two on the right, two on the left, one straight ahead. Experience at this point told them there would be stairs leading to the second floor beyond the door in front of them, but multiple rooms that needed searching to their left and right.

Okay, so I pushed us forward a good bit for the sake of keeping us on track, but if anyone wants to take any actions during the search of the previous five vaults, you can create a Spoiler tab in your reply to do so. I'm keeping your take ten and rolled results from your checks, those have all been reflected in your IC discoveries and actions. I didn't have you take anything from the vaults, but if someone feels their fingers getting sticky just say so.

We're still not in turn order, but go ahead and roll for initiative now, just so that I've got it for reference when the time eventually comes. Let me know if I missed anything.

First move is to pick a door.

[MrAbdiel]

The child Damien is fairly unimpressed by the displacer beast carcasses; but the ectoplasm seems to bother him more. With a heavy sigh, he takes off his backpack, and fishes out a vial; a slim glass vessel filled with an opaque orange fluid, and a tiny word identifying it on the cork - 'Ghostblind'.

"If there are spirit-predators in the area, we can't afford for someone to be possessed. These are good for ten minutes until you go hostile, or start casting. Keeps dead eyes from seeing you, and dead ears from hearing. I recommend hanging onto it until it looks like we have trouble with something that doesn't breathe." He gives the vial to Azrael. And then produces another, and another, and two more; enough for the whole party, evenly distributed, tucking his own into a fold in his gi. "...And I want them back if it doesn't turn out that way," he appends, as if fearful of appearing thoughtful or generous.

"Clear the side rooms first. Can't afford to have some gutter-mage who has been squatting in these vaults and gearing up on supreme arcana come squeezing off fireballs from behind us, when we move into the main vault."

And with that, Damien moves to the closest door to himself - the one on the far right, and takes a moment to listen at its surface. If that yields nothing, he'll delicately try the handle, quiet as he can, and crack the door open enough to peek inside.


[roll1]
[roll2]
[ROLL=Maybe Sleight of Hand to open the door quietly and discreetly?]1d20+10

[Feathersnow]

Kate, being the muscle who barely even knows how to look for things, or what things to look for, steps behind Damien, ready to chop at anything that charges him.

[roll0]

[ebarde]

Azreal takes a step forward, going into a ready stance as he prepares for a possible fight. His eyes then glow in divine light, as he uses detect evil on the doors.


1d20-1

[JoyWonderLove]

@Jbe, Feather, the first part is the only one relevant to you. I’m basically mentioning the Sionis Manor and (more important) The Thieves Guild. It’s a request to coordinate against them by nudging institutions, and basically asking what you guys suggest for that? I’m worried they’ll target us if we don’t keep them off balance now. Let alone just beat them down?

@Molan, I mentioned that “Okay, any of you see a half decent looking dagger or piece of armour around, give it here? Fox wants these Vaults completely safe for volunteers later, and there’s no reason we can’t quality check a few goodies at the same time. Win-win, right? I’ll hand it back when Oracle does the key.”

You mentioned that if we’re interested in nabbing something we should speak up, but I’m settling for a middle ground approach? I’m basically rolling the dice that MAYBE I can get a rental on better equipment to help with the Vaults, but I kind of get it if that’s a little much for a player to put out there. Otherwise, gems! I’m fine liberating a shiny or three. :smallsmile:



=Chapter 2, going from Vault to Vault=

“The way of it is,” the conversation continued in Vault one after they found what would become their only secret exit, while Oracle and Batwoman was near. “A source I met recently mentioned something worth hiding is going down at Sionis Manor. I’m not exactly suggesting it’s worth either of your time to chase rumours and hearsay with me when there’s bigger issues; Velnire – the Midtown Underboss? – he’s pissed about last night. No surprise; but we have to be known by now. Aliases, appearances, the like.”

No attempt was made to hide the worry in her voice, smooth the crease around her eyes. “I’ve already nudged a few people. If we’re lucky, they’ll deliver a nice gut punch to the Guild sometime soon. Keep them reeling, right? But I can’t promise anything actually comes of it, and a bunch of mercenaries are easy targets if we’re not careful, and the Thieves Guild aren’t kept busy.” The rough cool stone beneath her hand revealed no loose stones or false bricks, so the blonde turned away for lack of access to any secret door she could find.

“That’s why I’m going to check out Sinois Manor after all this. There’s huge potential for someone paying up for whatever details are dug up. I’m good with company with either of you are in, but I get it if you have better plans or ideas in mind. I’m not the knightly tactician or savvy diviner here. Any ideas on keeping the Thieves Guild occupied?”

***

Before Vault two’s gigantic metallic front door, Spoiler spoke up as the interlocking mechanisms clicked and ranked its way open after Oracle turned the key. “Okay, any of you see a half decent looking dagger or piece of armour around, give it here? Fox wants these Vaults completely safe for volunteers later, and there’s no reason we can’t quality check a few goodies at the same time. Win-win, right? I’ll hand it back when Oracle does the key.”

***

“So, seriously, do you actually work for Batman himself?” Spoiler asked in Vault four when she found Kate out of anyone’s earshot while they swept an empty chamber on the bottom floor. “How did you even get that kind of job? Were you bumping boots before that, or did’ja bust the same place and get to talking or?”

***

By the halfway point of the fifth Vault, Spoiler had accepted the entire evening was going to be effortless. “Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. I’m just a hobbyist uh-huh. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. A simple commoner duh. Oh, the Wayne’s ain’t got **** on me uh-huh! Never-mind Gotham City itself-uh! When’ve you last been relevant, huh? Sometime, past a decade!”

***

On the bottom floor of the sixth Vault, there was an odd tension in the air that hadn’t been found in all the previous sweeps. As Damien inched up to a door, Spoiler cleared her throat quickly as a subtle request to hold. Slapping a bolt into the hand crossbow and hopping up on the crate beside the inquisitor, she quickly crouched behind yet another rune covered crate before her. Staring down the middle of the crossbow to the door beyond, she gave the lightest whistle to indicate readiness.



Initiative: [roll0]

[Molan]

Azrael stalked around the main atrium, working his way in between the stacks of boxes, and the blue glow in his eyes scanned each one of the five doors in turn. After he passed the first one, furthest to the right, he rapped his knuckles on it.

"This one's clear."

The first door has no evil aura's behind it, but the second to the right door does; standing near it you can detect one faint evil aura. The centermost door is clearly filled with enemies, but whoever they are, they're standing at the very edge of your spell's range; you have to get right up to the door, but you can detect at least five separate auras, all of them faint.

The next door over is not compromised, but the final door, to the far left, contains something. This aura is moderate in power, and it's hiding only a few feet from the door.

Damien edged up to the door and manipulated it's handle. Locked. He took out a couple of objects from his belt and began to fiddle with it, before being rewarded with a satisfying *click* sound and earning a mixed look of amusement and admiration from Spoiler.

You're able to pick the lock with little effort. You slide inside the room silently and find it's about 30 ft. wide and 30 ft. deep, and mostly just filled with more arcana supplies. However, you do find two chests in here, each with high quality locks. One of the chest's appears to be trapped.

***In the Fourth Vault***

After scanning around the first floor, Barbara read some of the arcane script on one of the cases and pried it open, revealing a stack of scrolls within. She took a handful out and the party moved up to the second level to search it. Eventually, Oracle found several weapon and armor racks and called Spoiler over to them.

"Would this do?" she asked, proferring what looked like an elf-made dagger in an elegant sheath. Spoiler inspected it, and it was clearly enchanted, but also unidentified, and she didn't have any means of solving for that.

"I mean, maybe?"

Barbara just smiled, and took out one of the scrolls she'd secured from the bottom floor.

"I can't imagine Fox can afford to part with too many of these, but there are literally like a hundred of them down there."

She held the scroll aloft, holding her hand outstretched in the direction of the dagger, and read the arcane words. Spoiler could feel a familiar sickening feeling as arcane magic swelled invisibly in the air, and several white glowing runes appeared in the air in front of her as the page slowly disintegrated in her hands.

"Holy crap!" Barbara blurted, covering her own mouth as the exclamation spilled out. "Listen to this!"

The Dagger Barbara identified is a breathtaking Mithril Blurstrike Dagger of Deadly Precision, +2. In addition to the powerful enhancement bonus and special materials, this weapon causes an enemy to be flatfooted the first time you strike him with the weapon each round, up to 10 times per day. Any successful sneak attacks do a whopping extra 2d6 points of damage. The item is, neatly put, priceless, and a quick appraise check marks it at around 73,000 gold pieces retail.

"You sure you wanna lift that? Fox is definitely going to notice."

Spoiler grinned sheepishly. "Well, I mean, I was going to give it back..."

But they both stood there for a moment longer, considering the breathtaking amount of wealth Stephanie was holding in her palm, and what the implications were for the total contents of the rest of the vaults.

Azrael began to gesture towards the other doors.

"Trouble here," he said, pointing towards the second door to the right. "And here...and...here." he pointed in turn towards the middle door, which concealed the main hall, and the leftmost door. Only the rightmost door and the middle left door apparently did not contain danger. The paladin drew his sword.

"Does anyone have a preference?"

[Feathersnow]

Kate says "turn around, and hold on a second..." she gets out her dorje and uses shield once Azrael either averts his eyes or makes it clear he won't.

"I don't actually know Batman personally, no. I just feel inspired by him. And implying I am with him makes me scarier. And fear keeps people honest."

The fact she blushed at the implications the follow-up question was hidden by her helmet...

"As for that, no... I haven't met Batman, but he isn't really my type. If you understand my meaning. And I'm seeing someone. Anyway...

No, I just retired my commission and realized I was in a position to help.

[MrAbdiel]

Damien has a moment to spare while the inquisitor does his determinations; so he puts his tools to work on the non-trapped chest in the little room.

Once he’s done there, he emerges and hears Azrael’s report and, once again assuming unearned authority, gestures to Kate and Azrael, and then to the remaining unopened door on the right; before flattening himself against the wall beside it.

Take 10 for 18 picking the lock (forgot my masterwork tools last time!)

And then take 10 for a 27 to hide, awaiting the platies to open the door to dangertown USA.

[JbeJ275]

“The way of it is,” the conversation continued in Vault one after they found what would become their only secret exit, while Oracle and Batwoman was near. “A source I met recently mentioned something worth hiding is going down at Sionis Manor. I’m not exactly suggesting it’s worth either of your time to chase rumours and hearsay with me when there’s bigger issues; Velnire – the Midtown Underboss? – he’s pissed about last night. No surprise; but we have to be known by now. Aliases, appearances, the like.”

No attempt was made to hide the worry in her voice, smooth the crease around her eyes. “I’ve already nudged a few people. If we’re lucky, they’ll deliver a nice gut punch to the Guild sometime soon. Keep them reeling, right? But I can’t promise anything actually comes of it, and a bunch of mercenaries are easy targets if we’re not careful, and the Thieves Guild aren’t kept busy.” The rough cool stone beneath her hand revealed no loose stones or false bricks, so the blonde turned away for lack of access to any secret door she could find.

“That’s why I’m going to check out Sinois Manor after all this. There’s huge potential for someone paying up for whatever details are dug up. I’m good with company with either of you are in, but I get it if you have better plans or ideas in mind. I’m not the knightly tactician or savvy diviner here. Any ideas on keeping the Thieves Guild occupied?”

"The issue is, the city shoudn't be relying on strikes by well meaning mercanries and vigilantes just to do the day to day job of keeping criminals on the back foot. But the people who shoud do that, the justicars are corrupt, or crippled by corruption from below, beside and above. Corruption we can't excise without proof or other corrupt organisations will stop anything getting done and ramp up the bloodshed for a while for winding them up. But... I can't get the proof I need alone. I'll do this job with you if you promise to help me secure the evidence I need to oust Bullock in another one later."



"Smart." Says Barbara after seeing what Kate's doing, as she then weaves Mage Armour around her own form. Staying perhaps ten feet behind the armoured forms opening the door, but ensuring she can see within when they open it up.

[Feathersnow]

After everyone is ready, the heavily armored woman opens the latch, steps back, and pushed the door open with her poleaxe.

[Molan]

The chest contained what looked like the material components to build wands and rods, or perhaps all of the components were simply the materials required for spellcasting. Damien couldn't be sure, but he find several small bags of gems, 500 gold pieces, several silver and golden rods, and several bundles of enchanted threads, amongs a large assortment of junk.

Kate opened the door, revealing the next chamber beyond. It was a long, rectangular room, once again mostly cluttered with Guild goods. The room contained several prominent looking locked chests. At one end, several old archery targets made of rotten wood, straw, and leather strips laid in poor repair. A large weapon rack rested on the far wall. Several weapons were still in it, including a guisarme, a longspear, a greatsword, and a net. The weapons were clearly enchanted.


Assuming that you're still running with your search result from the beginning of the mission, which I think is only fair, the following occurs:

You notice a ring of what look like very feint carvings on the ground in the middle of the chamber, outlining a 10ft by 15ft area of the floor, in the general vicinity of where an archer using the practice targets would have stood. The carvings are covered in dust and almost imperceptible, but you've been on your game tonight and managed to pick out what's clearly a magical trap. You can move around the trap without triggering it either by moving along the far wall in front of the weapon rack, or by crawling over a pile of barrels on the wall closest to you.

Roll for Spot, but hide your result.

[JoyWonderLove]

Sorry if any of this comes across as a bit much; this will be my last long comment in the Vaults on the Thieves Guild. I wrote this to highlight +I presume+ there’s a real threat if we allow the Thieves Guild to have breathing room, but also to understand how you two feel about tackling them with Downtime. If you answer like ‘I’m still in a planning stage/the justiciars really are the answer/trust me I have an even bigger problem’, that’s a 100% perfect response and I’ll otherwise drop it entirely. Knowing ahead of time who’s helping me nip at them piranha style, and who’s focusing elsewhere, is useful and good characterization. :smallbiggrin:

Spoiler’s head bobbed sideways as she regarded Oracle quietly. “Bullock – is a well-wedged bolder. Getting him out would safeguard Gotham’s families from threats above, and below. But maybe that’s besides your point? I’ll help you with Bullock any day you ask, so long as Robyn doesn’t need me more at the time. No trade needed or charge asked.” She folded her hands then and leaned back on the dark stone wall she had checked moments ago for secret entrances. “But your approach is like a chess player thinking four moves forward, and my peeking into the Manor is little more snakes and ladders. The dragon on our ass might well breathe hot either way. More immediate options would be great to get us to that long game.”

Spoiler tilted her head upwards, staring at the unknowable glass sealing, as though peering through and past it would reveal the answer. She gradually came to regard what was before her again, more focused. “Oracle, the Mage College has every noble family worth talking to in student, and faculty. The Thieves Guild also have their biggest stakes in Midtown and Uptown, and they’re thankfully too stupid not to piss where they play. Do you know any powerful nobles they stole from? Diviners with aspirations of becoming Bloodhounds? Abjurers with wounded self-worth for thieves getting past their barriers? Anyone we can bribe, barter or begrudge into bloodying the Thieves Guild would work here. I’m more than happy if you want to gamble with me on what’s going on over at the Sionis Manor. But I can’t promise it’ll help our self-preservation. Only that the information might be worthwhile.”

Ocean blue eyes flicked over to the armoured dame. “Batwoman? I missed the Herald article on what the armies of House Kane are looking like nowadays, but I’m guessing a military vet would never declare war on anyone lightly, let alone a big criminal organisation like this one.” Her expression eased for the obvious realization that Kate and her House were a force unto themselves, professional and strategic. “It’d be great if you could hint if you have any haymakers winding up for them, or to know if you need help gathering information to figure out where their safehouses or weaknesses might be to strike at. I’m not saying dish sensitive details when we met, what, a whole day ago? But there’s strength and security in numbers, and I’m hoping you’re not in the habit of turning down reserves.”

=Chapter 2, trouble unlocked=


Spoiler silently swung the weapon at hand and levelled it at the new door as Kate nudged it open, only for it to reveal absolutely nothing threatening. Rotten archery targets. A bunch of locked chest. Enchanted but untouched weapons. The blonde stared at the inquisitor, unimpressed. Sighing loudly to release unnecessary nerves, she pointed her crossbow up at the ceiling. The rotten strawman with a frown made of black thread looked dead at her with two brown button eyes, daring her to aim at his bullseye covered chest. She rolled her shoulders to help flush the tension from them.

“So, anyone else think we should double time this and be done with it? We’re not gonna find anything in here. Those displacer beasts earlier probably just starved and attacked each other for nothing else to gnaw on, and whatever ghosts are around obviously don’t like the living.” With that, Spoiler reattached the crossbow to the back sling she unsurprisingly dyed purple, and hopped off the crate with ease. The endlessly enchanted dagger she would have to return eventually was dragged from its sheath on her right, the old one snug on the left. “We can give a solid final search for the book after we’ve sealed all the secret doors and confirmed our only company is Cobblepot level wealth. Anyone that wants to, speak up or get into position now.”

Short of a sharp and strong demand not to, Spoiler strolled over to the leftmost chamber door that supposedly had trouble behind it as well, but adopted a wary stance despite herself. Years of surviving Gotham’s nightlife meant care and precaution, even when not strictly needed. She attempted to open the door.

So there’s five doors in this room, three detected some kind of evil by the paladin. I’m guessing we just opened the second door to the right and all that’s around us are evil items, so I’m going to the leftmost door to check. Open Lock is a 20 with Take 10. Total defensive action (+6 AC thanks to investing in Tumble ranks) if possible before opening the door, or at least fight defensively (+3 AC thanks to Tumble ranks).

[MrAbdiel]

Damien hears everything Spoiler says. And impatient as he is, he might agree with her; but his total lack of response suggests that either he didn't hear her, or he's obnoxiously omitting to respond to anyone's thoughts but his own. Once Batwoman nudges the door open and a quick scan shows no occupants visible, the black-clad child skulks swiftly between her legs, into the room proper, and gives it a sneaking patrol to make sure there's nothing hiding in a corner they missed. If there's nothing, he'll check over the door at the far end of the room - searching it swiftly for traps, then checking the lock - though not picking it, just yet.

Search for Traps: [roll0]
Spot for Hiding Enemies: [roll1]

[JbeJ275]

Super no worries about doing this, it is great fun. But I'm not sure how much downtime really will achieve here, the thieves guild is a big organisation and it goes against the spirit of batanning for us to really have too many forces besides ourselves to call on. I'm up for helping you nip at them but don't think I can funnel assets your way the way you described.


"I hate to tell you this, and maybe I've missed something you would have seen but the city isn't like this because the good guys are sitting on a pile of men, connections and other assets that they've just forgotten to use until now. If we get a new mage or noble in the fight against the thieves guild it'll be because we paid dearly for it, because we won it in a hard fought campaign or because we're taking them off of some other front we have to fight on."

"The way I see it there are four kinds of people in this city, the criminals and their corrupt lackeys, that's about a third of the justicars and the same number of low mages, plus houses Cobblepot, Nigma, Lawton, the New Dents and probably the Cranes too. Then there are those who know the first sort could have their families drinking seawater by the end of the week if they don't go along another half of each the wizards and justicars, plus more or less every other house out there, the third consists of... the people in this room, the batman, my parents, and a half dozen other justicars mages or guildmasters each. The forth kind consists of people who have either left this city or are saving for a ticket out as we speak. Frankly, they're the only one's I'm more than fifty perent sure are sane. Maybe you've got a better picture than me, and from the sounds of things your muuch better at getting the first kind of people to pick fights among themselves, but I don't have an army waiting in the wings to swoop in and take the pressure off everytime we pull something. Not until we can make one, and as you've said, that means breaking some boulders. Unil then, you've got me and if you'll back me, I'll back you.


"I wish Spoiler, this place is trapped to the hells and back, see these carvings? It's a magical trap of one kind or another, old stuff too. You might be right to move on but let me check this out first, if it's keyed as a seal or a containment trap it could give us some hints about what else is in here, and we'll need to mark it off if the workers are going to be in here anyway."

She then moves around the trap, and picks up and considers the net, aware she hasn't the training to use it well but considering it's possible enchantments.


Gonna cast Read Magic, swapping out my detect to look over the nature of the trap, with a 23 spellcraft if needed.


She then takes a similiar position to the erlier one, facing the door that's next to be opened.

[Molan]

Damien brushed past Kate, Azrael and Barbara and slunk through the room. When he passed over the area near the weapon rack, a ring of runes, previously undetectable under the dust, began to glow in a 10x15ft square around him, and a burst of invisible magical energy erupted in the room, causing the party's stomachs to perform backflips while their hairs stood on end.

To the group's collective horror, as the magical trap was triggered, the weapon rack near Damien appeared to spontaneously grow a long tentacle, gripping the guisarme that had been hanging on it and sweeping it outwards, hooking at the boy's feet. Luckily, the trip attempt missed, but as the party watched in horror, the "weapon rack" began to grow several new appendages, wrapping them around the other enchanted weapons hanging there.

Make a Will Save.

Spoiler entered the room and found it also full of large boxes, however there were a couple of magical looking metal chests stacked in one corner. As she panned around the room, she felt a strange tingling sensation, and she became acutely aware that the room felt deeply cold. She suddenly couldn't shake the feeling that she was not alone. It started seem almost as though the shadows in the room were growing longer, or perhaps that the walls were bleeding - she couldn't tell whether it was a trick of her imagination. She stood immobile as the very thing they'd been worried about running into began to manifest in front of her; the long dead spirit of a man or a woman -- she couldn't really be sure. Whoever it was hadn't died well -- their neck looked ripped open and their eyes were gouged in the shape of stars.

The ghost lunged at her, and Spoiler braced herself.

Make a Will Save.

It's a Confusion trap; it's existence appears to be independent of the Mimic that camped out next to it, meaning the trap was installed before the Mimic showed up. DC is ***18 :-/

[MrAbdiel]

He never did learn to mind his surroundings. The child now and often in a warring state of lethal, cold blooded skill and oscillating, juvenile curiousity, he had permitted the latter to gain power over the former. Just from the corner of his eye, he saw the rack move and the polearm lash for his ankles. From the ankles he springs and the weapon sings through the air beneath him - but the monstrosity that reveals itself is a thing to behold...

Go ninja go ninja go ninja GO: [roll0]

[JoyWonderLove]

Will: [roll0]

[Molan]

The trap's magic seemed to wash over Damien and he winced for a moment as he struggled against it's pull, but as the spell's attack dissipated, he blinked a few times and remained more or less unharmed and unaffected.

Azrael get's to go first, we're in combat now so turn order is up (you should be able to see the turn counter on roll20 as well if you're looking for a neat snapshot). If I don't hear from ebarde after a reasonable amount of time I'll autopilot him.

Meanwhile, Spoiler stepped back out of the far left room, having apparently found it empty, and began to make her way back towards the sound of all of the commotion.

[Feathersnow]

Kate curses in Celestial, which is barely possible, and uses her psionics to attempt to change the initiative order so she can charge the abomination before it eats young master Wayne.

[roll0]
On a 10 or lower, I fail and suffer enveration.

If I succeed, I charge the mimic
[roll1] to hit
[Roll]2d6+4[=roll] damage if I hit

[Molan]

Psionic energy swirled and time seemed briefly disjointed as Kate lurched -- or perhaps skipped -- ahead, past Azreal and into the room, where she appeared in front of the "weapon rack" and hacked down, center of mass, cleaving a bloody track of destruction and eliciting a howl of monstrous pain from the beast. Purple ichor-like blood splattered out onto the ground, covering some of the still-glowing runes on the floor.

[Molan]

Azreal eagerly burst into the room right after Kate, swinging his falchion high over his head and bringing it down in a brutal chop, putting his full weight into the swing. The blade glowed as he swung and as the sword cut into the mimic it unleashed a burst of holy energy. He unleashed a fresh new gout of ichor and the strange alien beast howled in anger.

As Azreal had leapt in, the glowing spear lowered from the rack to impale him but the tentacle holding it was too slow and he'd managed to duck underneath it. A third tentacle swung the glowing great sword at Azreal but that one missed as well. It began to seem as though the monsters injuries were affecting it's prowess. Along the top of the weapon rack, several yellow eyes glared at him in malice and pain.

[MrAbdiel]

Suddenly, the air was filled with deadly blades- but at least they weren't all aimed at him. Azrael and Batwoman lashed the morphing creature before him, and the way was open for Damien to lay in too - but his skills were wasted in direct conflict, and he knew it. With a blur of speed, one hand vanishes into a fold of his gi then whips down at the ground, releasing a pinch of what seems to be sand before it roils up in a plume of black smoke engulfing him, vanishing a second later - and with it, the young scion.

Unseen now, Damien makes a quick adjustment: he ducks out of the combat, steps light and unseen up onto the crates beside with a hop, and with matching movements of both hands, draws and whips forth a pair of tiny, dark steel stars not much larger than a silver coin. It's a hasty effort - normally he aims and targets carefully, and only with his good hand; but he's embarrassed, and angry, and desperate to avenge himself on the creature.

Damien uses a swift action to spend a Ki point and ghost step, going invisible. He moves over on top of the crates nearby (he can make the jump without a roll), and whips two shuriken at the mimic, targeting the rearmost square to avoid the allies in combat penalty.

Attack with regular shuriken is +10. Up to +12 because he's invisible while making the attacks. Dual wielding light weapons goes down by -8 and -4, for a +4 and +8 respectively!

[ROLL=Damage]1+3d6
[ROLL=Damage]1+3d6

Damien remains invisible until this time next turn; so even if he hits, folks might not he contributed at all! :D

[JbeJ275]

Seeing the impressive work the more martial among them is doing breaking down this creature, Barbara reaches into a pouch at her side and casts Enlarge Person from a scroll targetting Kate, then keeping her distance as the whirl of blades inreases in volume and speed.

[Molan]

As Kate began to grow and Barbara's spell swirled around her, the "weapon rack" in front of her and Azrael abruptly collapsed, pools of ichor spilling out all around it. The weapons it'd been carrying clattered to the floor, and for a moment the scene seemed safe.

Or at least it was, right up until the chest on the opposite side of the room suddenly grew tentacles, eyes, and fangs, and letting out a guttural howl, charged after Kate.

One of it's tentacles whipped out at Kate and lashed against her, drawing blood.

Kate takes 8 damage (is your miss chance up? I may have missed that). It's Kate's turn.

[Feathersnow]

Kate lashes around, takes a step back onto the slime of the first dead enemy, and smashes down with her poleaxe!

[roll0] to hit
[roll1] damage

[Molan]

Kate went to slam apart the angry treasure chest with her polearm, but suddenly jerked as she found it was still stuck -- on the weapon rack. Worse, when she looked down at her torso, she saw the treasure chest's tentacle had adhered itself to her and was wrapping around her body.

Outside the room with the mimics, Oracle stood in the doorway, watching the fight unfold. She was so absorbed by the unfolding combat, she didn't notice Spoiler return from the far left room. She also didn't notice as she drew her newly acquired magical knife from under her cloak and jammed it into her back.

Azreal turned away from the weapon rack and charged the chest, but his swing came up short, scraping across the beast's hide but doing no damage. The mimic responded by continuing to grapple with Kate, it's incredible strength crushing her in it's tentacle.

Whelp I'll admit it I am a bit dissapointed with how the weapon rack mimic turned out but things are turning around bebyyyy!!!!

Don't panic I'm sure you guys will get it together.

Okay so Kate you take an additional 11 damage from the tentacle but you can now make a grapple check to break free from the Mimic. That brings you to a total of -19 for the fight so far. I updated the HP in roll20 just to keep track.

I had Azreal go after the mimic again but no dice on the second swing.

Barbara unfortunately is doing a good bit worse. She takes a whopping 19 damage dropping her to only 4 HP. Someone might want to go give her a hand.

It's Damien's turn.

[MrAbdiel]

"What are you doing!?" The scion cries out as Batgirl's gasp of pain cranks his attention away from the mimic combat and to the doorway betrayal. He doesn't have the information to assume spectral interference yet - though the thought is in his mind, as are questions of Spoiler's general loyalty. Springing from the crates, he rushes toward the doorway, leading with one gauntleted hand defensively, the other hand tucked away in a fold of his gi, discretely smearing oil-black toxin onto the concealed shuriken.

If I remember my 3.5 movement and distance correctly, every second diagonal square is 10ft, so Damien should be out of range of the mimic if he's smart. He moves towards Batgirl and Spoiler trying to figure out what the hell is happening, and spends his action applying drow poison to a shuriken.

[Molan]

Spoilers eyes were wide and manic behind her mask. Damien couldn't see anything in her expression other than hate and murder. Strangely, she managed to rasp a reply.

"Le...LEFT me!! Behind! You'll...you'll all stay behind n..now...."

It's Barbara's turn.

[JbeJ275]

Gah!! Cries Barbara as she's stabbed through from behind, she staggers a few feet forward from her unexpected assailant then reaches again into the folds of her robe, drawing a scroll of Protection from Evil and reciting it's arcane words to try and expel the spirit from Spoiler.

[Molan]

Spoiler's dagger arm swiped after Oracle as she stumbled backwards, but the dagger ate nothing but air. Oracle was bleeding all over her clothes, but she whipped out a spell scroll, quickly rattled off the finishing words of the spell on the scroll and several runes appeared glowing in the air before gentle blew energy blew out from the scroll, washing over Spoiler's body, and the scroll glowed bright blue before disintegrating.

Spoiler's body jerked and shook, her arms briefly forming strange angles and her torso bending, as the magic washed over her body, she moaned and groaned, and with a sudden *pop!*, the spirit occupying her body was abruptly forced out.

The ghost was transparent but visible, ragged and angry looking, the edges of it's form fading into nothingness, and it didn't appear to have any legs, and it's eyes looked as though they'd been gouged out. It's "face" was a violent rictus of pain and anguish, and it's hands ended in sharp looking claws. Damien and Oracle looked upon it with a feeling of dread and horror, and as Spoiler was released from it's grip, she fell to one knee and started gagging, the magical dagger still gripped in her hand, still dripping with Oracle's viscera.

The ghost shrieked an otherworldly howl.

"L....LEFT ME!! LEFT ....ME...BEHIND!" it twisted and contorted in the air, and made a strange, gutteral, choking noise in it's "throat". "You'll stay b...behind too..."

It is extremely difficult not to think of the term "batman wizard" every time Barbara pulls a new trick out of her cowl, lol! Well done.

In case anyone's wondering about the mechanics, Ghost gets to make a will save against the spell but I rolled a 5...so, that's that lol.

It's Kate's turn. Feather, you'll need to make a strength check to remove your halberd from the weapon rack, but you ought to be able to count that as a move action and whack the new monster with a standard action if you can get it out.

[Feathersnow]

Only very stupid enemies attempted to engulf prey covered with spikes. Unfortunately, perhaps, mimics were quite stupid.


[roll0] base grapple
[roll1] free spike damage
Kate will attempt to overpower and pin the mimic

[Molan]

Kate's body spikes sank into the Mimic, and it's blood began to pour out around her. She lunged back against the beast, the two of them wrestling against each other's prodigious, mighty forms. She tried pinning it but it fought back, and their bloody contest continued. In the melee, Azreal was able to swing at the beast as it rolled forward to wrangle with Kate. He very nearly got his own weapon stuck against the beast's slime as he did so, but he pried the blade free successfully, leaving a bloody gash along the side of the "treasure chest".

Mimic's grapple prompts an AOO from Azreal as I had to move it into Kate's space. Kate's attempt to pin the mimic fails (this time), but it takes automatic spike damage from her body. (No, they're not *that* bright).

It's now Spoiler's turn, and she's ghost-free!

[JoyWonderLove]

=Spoiler’s first real round=

Flung aside by a storm of rage and desperation, fear and regret, clarity finally dawned in Spoiler’s eyes. A wellspring of pure, bright gratitude and weighty guilt warred as Spoiler looked up at the masked Barbara that might well have saved her life, if not more. The tortured shriek behind her right shoulder sent her pulse spiking as the spirit wailed of being abandoned, of wanting others to share her hell. The insipid cold within the rogue was eaten by a rising anger, grip on bloody dagger tightened. But she quickly tapped a small squishy coin pouch on her belt and then her right wrist, blue eyes banking hard to the right of the boy ninja and heiress wizard, where their allies could be heard in the room beyond, fighting in the previously empty place. Buying time. Help them..

“We can free you!” Spoiler declared, even while she drew a smokestick. “Recover your remains, bless your body, bury you fairly!” A billowing black filled the air all around Spoiler and Oracle both.



HP: 24 max.
AC: 18. +2 Protection from Evil.

1, Move action to draw smokestick. (I assume I’m standing already, not prone or whatever)

2, Standard action to ignite a smokestick. Then Hide (free action).

Hide: [roll0]





I literally cannot sneak attack this ghost without a flank, according to Lightbringer Rogue, which means that the Deadly Precision weapon won’t work either. Even with a Blurstrike. :smalleek:

So my choices are either to

a) attack the ghost for 5 damage at absolute best when she has a 50% chance to dodge it anyway, or wait until I have a flank partner to have a shot at real damage. Not great.

b) personally thirty foot run away and help flank and sneak attack the mimic. Which is okay, except the ghost acts before Oracle, and I’m not about to do that when she just saved me. So no.

c) smokescreen to buy time so Damien at least can flank/attack/help remove the mimic so the entire party is free to then tackle this ghost problem together. This is what I’m gambling on, as even Damien can’t hurt the ghost with sudden strike regardless. The smoke also protects/covers Barbara so she can make a judgement call on whether to run into the room or not.

Not great, but this is the way right now.

[Molan]

Spoiler's smokestick broke and a burst of black cloud engulfed the immediate area, covering the ghost, Spoiler, Oracle and Damien all, partially but not completely obscuring everyone.

Inside the room, Azreal lurched his falchion overhead and slammed it down with all of his might on the mimic chest. He ripped out a huge cash of the creature's tissue, but as he recovered from his own strike the falchion got stuck in the creature's goo, leaving him disarmed, temporarily at least.

Outside the ghost released a terrifying moaning sound, and as the three adventurer's looked upon it's horrific visage, and listened to it's terrifying wail, they felt waves of dread cascading over them. As this happened, the mimic clenched it's grip on Kate, continuing to try to break her with it's grip.

Okay, it's Damien's turn.

Damien, Spoiler and Oracle all need to make both Will and fortitude saves. Ghosts be scary AF.

Kate, you take 7 damage -- it would be nine but I'm including your DR.

Azreal got a solid chop in and the second mimic is not doing great -- BUT Azreal's been disarmed and will need a strength check to retrieve his weapon.

Good luck!

[MrAbdiel]

Butts.

You can't destroy me! I'm too beloved!

https://media.giphy.com/media/kzrMVpWHo4SGHIUYbo/giphy.gif

[roll0]
[roll1]

I am gonna HOPE that means Damien is not fried and panicked, so I'll post as if I'm friggen invincible. I'll alter if it turns out Damien wets himself and runs.

The ghost reveals its hideous nature, all distorted features and grotesquery and nightmare; and its mournful howl ripples through the vault with a sound that could peel paint.

And incredibly, bizarrely, the ten year old's gunmetal grey eyes flash with intense fascination.

"You should have stayed dead, spirit!"

With apparent fearlessness, he snaps into motion, handily sliding between Batgirl's feet through the doorway and springing forth into the smoke, ending alongside Spoiler and forming another length in the wall protecting the bleeding and injured Barbara. His hands lash out at the spirit immediately as he slips and weaves, middle and index fingers hooked inside the gauntlets into rigid claws. He is a familiar, if obscured silhouette beside Spoiler in the smoke now; not quite able to get into a flanking position, but up in the incorporeal fray, all the same.

Damien attacks, but he can do no damage with his mundane gauntlets. But for fun, I'll roll in the OOC. Mainly he's attacking to activate his Expertise so the ghost will have a harder time laying a hand on him. Move to move, action to attack, turn done. Next!

[JbeJ275]

Barbara’s mind is racing in the seconds after her ghostly assumptions were confirmed. Most of what comes out are the choicest swears of a dozen justicar precincts and a great deal of unkind thoughts towards her teammates and the Barbara’s of two weeks ago for purchasing only a single scroll. Then she recalls what little she knows of the undead and limps away from the ghost and into the other room, firing her crossbow at the mimic opposite their uninvited guest from the inquisition as she calls out to him.

"Hey! Tall dark and religious! We have a ghost in the other room can you help at all with that? Undead is church business right?"


Crossbow: [roll0]
For: [roll1]+ [roll2]

[Molan]

The mimic howls and heaves as Barbara's bolt strikes home. I'ts bleeding badly now, ichor is pouring out all over Kate's armor and spikes, pooling in a lake with it's fellow's near on the floor, covering the still glowing runes.

Kate's turn.

[Feathersnow]

Kate continues to try to impale the creature on her quills!!

[roll0]

[Molan]

Kate checks the mimic against the ground, pinning it and driving her enlarged spikes into it's body. The mimic choked and gagged, ichor pouring out of it's open "mouth". After a moment of being ground down by Kate's spikes, it eventually spasmed, and died.

Azreal managed to wrench his sword from the second mimic and rushed out of the room, finding the chaos in the foyer. He held up his holy symbol and began praying, and for a moment radiant holy energy poured out from him. The ghost seemed to writhe for a minute but then shook the effect off -- the paladin's attempt had failed.

The specter retaliated by swiping an ethereal, clawed hand at Azreal, but missed.

Kate successfully hugs the mimic to death. Spoiler is still panicked, and Azreal's turn effect failed because he's still on auto-pilot and I rolled a nat 1. Good news is he's immune to fear so we don't have to deal with that little wrinkle.

[MrAbdiel]

With Spoiler struck by supernatural compulsion to flee, Damien's eyes track to where the borrowed dagger clatters on the tiles just as Azrael rounds the corner and fills the gap. He can hear Batwoman thrashing against one of the mimic creatures in the other room - but all the scion can do is trust that's under control, and work in tandem with the churchman to his right to deal with this spectral threat. And even though he had been tempted to scold Spoiler for taking it earlier, all of his ability to contribute hinged on that very blade. "Steel your spirit, inquisitor. And keep it occupied!"

He hops back a step, leaving the paladin duelling with the ghost, and slips a thumb into another discreet pocket of his gi. The withdrawn digit is dusted with golden powder, quickly licked up by the scion and contributing a golden flash briefly in his eyes.

5ft Step Backwards behind Azrael. Move action to draw a Potion of Gravestrike. Action to 'drink' it. Next turn, if all goes well, Damien is lined up to scoop the dagger, vanish, and then sudden strike with it... Desperately hoping the ghostly miss-chance doesn't screw it all up!
:D

[JbeJ275]

With few options availible to her, given the surrounding of the ghost by her allies, her lack of single target spells that interact with ethereal undead and the massive knife wound in her back, Barbara forgoes direct combat instead taking a few desperate second to gulp down one of her healing potions, hoping to at least somewhat lessen the chance that one more blow sends her down.


With few options availible to her, given the surrounding of the ghost by her allies, her lack of single target spells that interact with ethereal undead and the massive knife wound in her back, Barbara forgoes direct combat with the ghost, instead searching this storeroom now that the mimcs have been removed for any magical weapons or other useful equipment to bring to bear against the ghost.


[roll0]

[Feathersnow]

Kate realizes, reluctantly, she has few options to deal with the crisis on the other side of the door. So she takes one of her healing potions.

[roll0]

[Molan]

Spoiler, still panicking, bolted out of the front door of the vault, falling to her knees just outside on the street, panting, out of breath, but slowly regaining control of her faculties once more.

Inside the Vault, Azreal continued to chant and pray, and this time, the effect seemed to work; the ghost abruptly shrieked, bolting away from him and passing through the large stacks of crates and boxes as fast as it could to get away from him. The trouble appeared to be, for a moment, over.

Damien's turn.

[MrAbdiel]

Damien growls as the the ghost flees, and takes off after it; running alongside the crates on their front side, scooping up the magic dagger as he breaks into that run. Seething for reasons he doesn't completely understand, he whips a puff of flash powder at his feet mid stride, vanishes from view, and...

OOC: This is the action he'll take if, at the end of his movement, he can see any amount of the ghost that makes a viable target. If not go to option 2.

...and flings the dagger at its incorporeal back!

Let's see. It's 20 ft away, so that's a range band penalty of 2. It's also a dagger sized for a medium creature, so that's another 2. Damien's invisible, so that's a bonus of 2. And it's a +2 dagger! So it's a net roll of flat versus the ghost's touch AC. If it can see invisibility, this is all pretty moot anyway!

[roll0] to hit. If it hits, with the bonus for the dagger's sneak damage, it deals a potential [roll1] (minimum 1) plus [roll2] sudden strike damage, after which Grave Strike fades. Naturally, the ghost gets its incorporeality chance to ignore it all! Edit: Oh yeah, and 2 more damage because it's a +2 dagger.

OOC: This is the action he'll take if at the end of his movement he cannot see any amount of the ghost sufficient to make a viable target. If he can, go to option 1.

...and pushing himself further, sprints around to the direct opposite side of the crates and lies in wait, dagger in hand, planning to ambush the ghost when it flees!

No rolls in this case - it's just moving into a position, invisibly, where he hopes he'll get a chance to make an opportunity attack when it flees past him.


After that's 'resolved' for now and the spectre is out of reach, Damien retrieves the dagger again, wipes any remaining blood and ectoplasm from it, and stows it in his pack.

"I'll find her," he presumes, dashing off out the door after the retreated Spoiler to seek her shellshocked self.

[Molan]

Damien's dagger flies home and, despite the fleeing ghost's incorporeal form, the magic blade lands in it's back, causing a huge rent in it's shivering figure. The ghost screams in agony -- it appears "wounded", as much as it can be under the circumstances.

[JbeJ275]

No longer in quite as much danger as she was, but still I’ll prepared to chase down a ghost Barbara makes an effort to search the room Spoiler had entered previously, hoping to find some clue as to why the ghost had chosen that room in particular to haunt.

Search: [roll0]

[Molan]

No longer in quite as much danger as she was, but still I’ll prepared to chase down a ghost Barbara makes an effort to search the room Spoiler had entered previously, hoping to find some clue as to why the ghost had chosen that room in particular to haunt.

Search: [roll0]

It took a while, but eventually Oracle found the large iron boxes that had originally caught Spoiler's eye, and with a fair bit of effort, managed to move them to the side, revealing some of the space behind them. There she found a dessicated corpse, mostly a skeleton, huddled up behind the crates in the fetal position. Further inspect found a few remaining dusty, rusted and broken items on the body -- a coin purse full of 200 cp and 75 sp, a knife, worn and decaying commoner's clothing, a thief's kit, and a small metal key, gripped in one hand, topped with a skull. Several vials are located nearby, which looked like they might have once been potions...but the long-dead body had appeared to have drank them, perhaps out of desperation.

[Feathersnow]

The magically enlarged woman secures her poleaxe and awkwardly, slowly, crawls out of the room.

[JbeJ275]

Barabara winces as she sees the body, while she can't say this thief would her favouriate person around right now, having stabbed her moments ago no one deserves to go out like this, much less be trapped there for years afterwards. Taking the key, but leaving the rest of the items at least for the moment she called out to the others in the vualt.


"Hey!! Ummm... do any of you guys know how to lay a dead body to rest? I think we might need to do that. Or at least get it out of here."

[JoyWonderLove]

The terror had finally started to fade once Spoiler was outside again, away from that which was an endlessly hateful, cruel, twisted soul. The crickets creaked and chirped their odd start stop serenade to the forest, the subtle hum of an area safe.
Bats squeaked and screeched reliably beneath the spread of diamonds carelessly scattered across the clear night sky like a hustle gone wrong, and an owl hooted from somewhere beyond the oak treeline a good twenty paces off to her right. Life. The simple con artist was surrounded by uncompromising life again, and even as her heart slowed and gasping for comforting air faded, the shuddering started. She would never have let go. Not until I starved. Wanted everyone to stay and suffer. If Barbara didn't free me...

Spoiler endured another round of shakes between taking in mouthfuls of air. whipped away drying tears with the back of her gloves, finding the material coarser than she remembered. Despite the Gothic city beckoning in the distance, she knew she had to go back down. Oracle was still in there. Batwoman as well. Her burning lunges would little allow her to sprint back to their side immediately, nor did she truly care to, but whether either of them wanted her back after that themselves, whether either would ever forgive it, that was all the more reason not to leave them down there. They were the closest thing to a crew she had that wasn't entirely steeped in criminality or desperation, and they had both risked their lives for her in two days near as many times her parents had in her lifetime. She couldn't abandon them. That was exactly what rotted the soul of the same woman that took her hostage, to make it all worse.

The undisguised patter of quiet, small steps came from entirely the wrong direction and Spoiler tensed unbidden. Not from the direction of the forest as some innocent animal, but emerging out of the mouth of the tomb with seven ways in. Spoiler dropped her hand on Estanna's favourite weapon almost noncommittally, as though she still might not defend herself even if the boy were a predator too confident to hide it's approach. She turned her head reluctantly to the gi clad child. Her breathing still came in rough gulps through her mouth, and she suddenly felt a complete novice, running jobs beyond her credibility or understanding.

Why wasn't he affected by that monstorsity? How?

"You won. That's good."

It took a moment for Spoiler to find her voice, and when she did, it was distant, and tired, but held a lucid certainty. There was no question hanging or implication unchecked. Damien was entirely too calm to be the newfound victim of possession, and too filled with the delusion of youthful immortality to avoid danger. That much was obvious. He would be in the crypt below were there still a fight to be found. The spirit was banished, however temporarily. But the little lordling had taken to being her mark poorly before, so what mercy could she expect for allowing complacency to overcome common sense now? For plain cowardice in the face of extreme danger? Few nobles in Gotham were capable of empathy, let alone prone to use it.

Spoiler turned around with all the enthusiasm of facing a hangman. She eyed the entrance behind the child with gloomy longing, then considered the unkind first obstacle in her way. Far too late to whip away all evidence of crying; both for the blind fear of the abyss that had started into her, as the grief of a life ended in a way she wouldn't wish on her own worse enemies. She wanted to ask Damien after Oracle's state, but doubted any answer at it wouldn't be venom filled. That any reply at all wasn't aiming at her neck. She straightened instead, a small deviant act. When she spoke again, she sounded no less tired, but a great deal more stubborn.

"Make your dumb taunts, claim your stuck up quips, but I'm not going away, Damien, and I'm not giving up. Too many families need this to happen. Even if I can't do all this without looking like some incompetent coward, I can still damn sure do it caring every step of the way."

Whatever the case obviously I re-enter and try to find Oracle/BW again. Let's get this Vault solved.

[MrAbdiel]

Damien stands a few feet away, eying Spoiler as she composes herself. He anticipates the questions that she refuses to ask, and when she doesn't ask them, the child is left overprepared for a scenario that does not manifest, prolonging his silence. But when she castigates him, lashing out like a cornered creature, he processes the resolve and bitterness she is marshalling and his prominent eyebrows crowd together in an expression of dense bewilderment. He squints at her, moving slightly toward her and pausing to second guess the action; but then follows through; stepping swiftly into her zone, and hugging her around the waist.

It's not a particularly warm hug. Honestly, it's not a particularly good hug. In truth, it's barely a hug by conventional definitions. Damien dispenses the hug as a doctor at his wits end dispenses an experimental medicine or, even better, like a travelling scholar tries to ape the dances and sounds of an encountered tribe to attempt to curry favor. It's an anthropologist's hug. It persists for exactly five seconds, before he releases and hops neatly back to a distance of five feet, one dark brow raised high and eyes keen as he measures the outcome of his sociological effort. The gesture offered proves, at least, that he is attempting to connect with her at some level other than the scorn-casting one she had anticipated (and which he had previously showcased). Perhaps that's worth something.

"She's alright. And the Inquisitor rebuked the spirit, and it fled. It might come back, but they're working on a longer solution in there."

Initially, he had thought to give her back the dagger and (admittedly) pontificate about how she ought to return it. But giving her the weapon she was forced to use to stab a friend seems a little socially clumsy; so he hangs onto it for now. Instead, he turns back toward the vault entrance, and produces his Rod of Ropes. He snaps out the grappling hook, shoots it high to connect to the lip of the roof, and then glances back over his shoulder.

"And my taunts are excellent."

Then he's whizzing away, drawn toward the vault and into the air, detaching and retracting the rope partway to complete an entirely unnecessary somersault in the air and forward roll through the door to rejoin the other scene.

[JoyWonderLove]

=A world above=

Spoiler’s eyebrows furrowed and she froze like a rabbit stuck in a snare when little arms closed about her waist. Too unsure this wasn’t some half-elaborate hustle to tie together the unwanted hug of the morning into the failures of the night, Damien had already leapt back like a baby panther when she realized he was genuine. Her eyes started to well up again, but for sheer gratitude and relief. By the time he had explained that Oracle was still well and the spirit somehow sent fleeing, she had unhooked her mask to showcase a smile, fragile and small but heartfelt.

“Thank you,” she croaked quietly.

Then the boy was off, swinging with a grace and ease only accomplished through training and discipline. After a moment, Spoiler suspiciously started patting herself down to ensure everything was actually in place. All found, she allowed herself another smile, a stronger smile, before reattaching her mask, and trudging back into the final Vault, and down into the chambers.

=Down below=

“Even in the Narrows...there’s a saying. A chest ain’t worth a coffin. It’s pretty common. But whatever horror stories you hear – you never actually think you’ll be the one to have to deal with it. One job or the other.”

Spoiler spoke haltingly, and went no further than the door frame of the leftmost room itself, only too aware the ghost had yet to be truly banished. She only stared over at where the iron boxes were. Whatever had drawn that banshee to this particular room, there were some things that simply didn’t need to be seen by the living. The blonde planned on sleeping sometime this week. Reluctantly she considered Oracle’s gait and trousers, but for her relieve at a lack of limping or further bleeding, the blonde couldn’t bring herself to fully meet the other woman’s eyes. The warning to go slow had been heard but brushed off.

“I didn’t catch her name. But I can tell ya it was a smash and grab gone wrong. They didn’t plan anything. Just saw their mark, and moved. When the vault started to close up, that’s when she found out just how much thief’s honour was worth.”

Finally a self-depreciating, bitter little smile was given to Barbara as she finally met her eyes.

“Guess you could say she’s in good company, huh?”

Spoiler wandered over to the centre of the room, shaking her head glacially, unsure how putting herself on the Thieves Guild most wanted and securing Vaults had become her life. It didn't help stop the drugs trade, or turn around the poverty burdened Narrows. I’m helping families in Gotham, at least. That counts. It means something to them, to Estanna. I don’t know what, anymore, exactly. But something. When even the inquisitor was silent on solutions to the trapped spirit, she guessed she would have to jury-rig one up for her fallen, hostile sister. Sure, just chuck it unto the pile. I can't even get Raam out of the torture joint I helped toss him into. Should have finished it when I had the shot. At least he wouldn't suffer then.

Unhinging the crossbow, Spoiler shook her head again, and found a spot with line of sight on the next door. Doing what she could to find a place to hide, no attempt was made to see what lurked beyond the last door Azrael pointed out. She was done opening doors until she was out of there.


Ready whenever to shoot bad guys/relax in the background.

[JbeJ275]

Soon after Spoiler met her eyes, Barbara fliched away before replying. "Yeah, I guess. Look, don't worry about it. I do trust you and everything, but if I hadn't had that scroll or if the spirit had held on.... well it's not usually that direct but you're never the only one who's in danger of being hurt when you take a risk like going off on your own in here. Be more careful okay?"

Inside she was somewhat trown by what had just happened, on one hand obviouly Spoiler hadn't been the one to do that. But when the being that did wore her face and struck with her hand it wasn't gonna be easy to forget. It was also not a slight concern that she'd been overwhelmed so quietly in the short time they were seperated, she'd presumed Kate and Spoiler could be trusted to have her back mostly from what she'd divined of their thoughts but it was clear that might not be enough divinations on its own.

With that in mind, and with the primitive divinations of the paladin in need of further confiration she approached the door the others had crowded around.

"I'm just going to check on these rooms again, to give us some idea what they're facing. Maybe more if they happen to be intelligent.

Barbara wove the spell of Detect Thoughts once again, but was careful to take a long moment with the cone cast over Damien and Spoiler first, just to make sure the ghost had not possesed either of them as they re-entered, and being prudent enough to check for other trecherous intentions while she did so. Then she swung the same magic over the rest of the unopened rooms.

[JbeJ275]

Once she’s taken in the results of her casting she’ll also move over to the body. She seems unsettled by the whole idea, but little was ever done without trying something, and if the gloat returned… we’ll that didn’t bear thinking about.

Thus she emptied out one of the larger chests, and placed the body inside before taking said body outside m, in a remote spot where it’s unlikely to be disturbed before they can take care of it properly. Hoping to calm the spirits’ fears of being trapped she recites a short blessing over it.

“May you be trapped never again, but receive the mercy of Ayailla, and be free evermore to send your spirit into the sky above and the light beyond.”

This rather short and direct blessing done, Barabar cracks the container lid just a crack to let and spirits within out, then returns to the group.

[Molan]

Barbara cast her spell and calmly began scanning the vault as information began to pour in. As she did so, Azreal recast his Detect Evil prayer, and the two began assessing their surroundings.

The first round revealed the presence of thoughts behind the door.

The second revealed how intelligent each creature was; Spoiler was whip-smart (16), but she found three average/sub average intellects behind the door -- 9, 10 and 10. One figure, however, at the very edge of the spell's range, was vastly smarter than all of them (20).

Finally, thoughts began to flow in.

Oracle was disappointed to find no returns from Damien. She couldn't be tell if he was uniquely warded against her spell or if his mind was considerably more powerful than she'd expected. Either way, the young "Wayne" remained a mystery.

Spoiler however was an open book. Her mind was devastated, even shattered, and wracked with trauma. Getting caught out by the Ghost had been scary enough, but getting possessed had been an actual nightmare, and Spoiler was still obsessing over the horrific sequence of events, the feeling of having her body hijacked by a spirit that malevolent and twisted. Worse still, she was wracked with guilt, fear, shame, and self recrimination.

She'd been too cocky after the ladies' successful battle at the Docks the night before, and she'd been extremely pleased with the work that she'd done out on the streets in the interim. She'd begun to expect that the Vaults mission was going to be a cakewalk, and her overconfidence cost her. She felt mortified and sick over having stabbed Barbara in the back, and hated herself for running away near the end of the encounter. She was genuinely warming up to their crew, though. Save Azreal, her opinion of Barbara, Kate and even Damien was currently very high.

Behind the door, things seemed more ominous. It was clear that the three regular intellects and the smarter one were not friends. The smart one was feeling chagrinned at being caught, urgent about escaping and concerned that his mission to help his friend might fail.

The three regular minds were all wondering if and when their boss would order them to kill the smart one, and their greed was intense; they were constantly musing about what other kinds of powerful valuables they could clear out of the vault.

[JbeJ275]

As information began flowing in from the spell barbara pursed her lips in focus and deliberation. Then she began to speak.

"OK, it's intelligent beings behind that door and criminals too, likely humanoids but hard to know for certain. I don't know how or when they got in but they're holding someone there. Probably a wizard from the guild, maybe the one who left a way in here open but not the one who got the others in... or at least not honestly. He got caught there. The others seem like basic thugs but they're working for a boss who's on site as well... or at least he's actively communicating with them.

Everyone get in position." She continued, edging her way around the door to face it openly. "We can breach it now and I'll blind everyone I can on the otherside, or we can try and sneak a little nearer to be in the best position to spring an ambush, right now they're about sixty feet away so if you can't cover it before they get their heads up ... on the other hand while I'm not getting anyone on guard duty they could well be facing the door, or have others on guard duty further out. Spoiler, what's your read on this?"

[Feathersnow]

Kate readies her shield and amorpha. "I'm not going anywhere very fast, but I leave the call to you"

[Molan]

I believe we're just waiting on a response from Joy, correct?

[MrAbdiel]

Damien returns from the side room, having discovered the ladder, in time to hear Barbara's tactical rundown of the other side of the door. Once all their allies are in quiet earshot, he draws in a breath through his nose as he looks over them - a thoughtful, generalissimo's sense of measured judgement in the gesture - and then begins commanding again, as if he's in a position to command, even cutting in before Spoiler has a chance to respond.

"We ought not engage with them on open terms when we can force them into ours. There's a ladder back there that leads up to the mezzanine. Spoiler and I will sneak in and take the high ground. We'll try to separate them and bait one or more of them close enough to the door that Batwoman and Azrael can rush them." He looks to Kate and Azrael in turn, lifting fore and middle finger in a loose fork and a swirling back-and-forth indication of each of them personally. "You'll have to wait on Batgirl to call it, since she's the one with the magic that reads intelligent presence at distance through walls. There's a side door in the mimic room that looks like it opens into the main hall too. Batgirl, engage from this doorway and, if they come at you, fall back and loop around to that one. If it's all the same to you, I intent us to leave here upright, and you've already bled enough today. If the spell lapses or it seems like we're in trouble, use your judgement; but barring calamity, we should be able to rope them into combat with our duelists and give the precisionists freedom to operate to maximum effect." He pauses only to throw back another potion - this one a small, square flask of silver fluid - and slips the empty bottle back into his pack over his shoulder with onehanded ease.

"Let's go."

Then he's off, moving towards the ladder - swifter than before, swift enough to keep up with the grown-ups - apparently expecting that to be the sum total discussion on the matter.

Damien blathers self importantly but with a not-too-bad plan, drinks a potion of Longstrider, and runs off to sneaky-climb-hide-move-silently. Take tens at 27 Hide and 25 Move Silently!

[JoyWonderLove]

The brooding Spoiler answered Oracle with a glassy eyed look, like an exhausted student wholly unprepared for the teacher’s test. It was an intended kindness, the con artist realized dimly, that Barbara even asked her opinion; especially after the betrayal. But the slight head shake admitted she simply wasn’t in a place to evaluate anything. She only wanted to do whatever was yet necessary, and get out. Damien thankfully talked over her after; the one time she might ever be grateful for it. His plan was aggressive but decisive. She openly tried to read the only one among them who had actual military training and experience, but the matte red and black steel and sigils hid all tells.

“Unless Batwoman or Oracle see a flaw...” Spoiler hedged hesitantly as she trailed off, not overly concerned with the inquisitor that was nowhere to be seen when she had stared down the banshee. She then leapt atop the barrel before her with a grunted effort, and hopped down again to pad quietly after their self-appointed little commando officer.


Follow Damien, obviously, crossbow as current weapon.

Take 10 Hide and Move Silently. 25 each!



Is this mild prep for Damien potentially becoming a Dread Commando (https://dnd.arkalseif.info/classes/dread-commando/index.html)? Or am I reading too much into this?

[JbeJ275]

Barbara shoots a concerned look at Spoiler, but doesn’t let it linger. Instead she nods to Damien and begins considering the locations of the thoughts on the other side of the wall, getting ready to go if one of them seems to be getting within 30ft or if thoughts reveal they’re about to do something drastic. She also draws a thin metal knife, shaped with ornamental bat wings from her component pouch and redoes herself to cash Cloud of Knives should one of the thugs start heading in their direction.

[Molan]

Damien and Spoiler cut through the fourth door and into the storage room beyond, finding the ladder and moving silently up to the mezzanine level on the second floor.

When they reached it, they were able to see into the chamber beyond, illuminating what had been hidden behind the third door. There were two large openings in the second floor; one near the rear of the vault, and one directly over the center. Above them, fiendish gargoyle-headed metal pillars held up the third floor mezzanine, and the moon showed brightly down through the skylight beyond it. The second floor was packed with arcana just like all of the times before, but they had relatively open sight lines from where they were perched.

In the center most opening, they could see the same large stone stair structure at the center of every vault was here as well. Two large broad stone staircases, one facing South and one facing North, occupied the middle of the room, ascending to a stone plinth in the center before branching into two new, east-west stairways that ascended up to the second floor where Spoiler and Damien now lurked. The ornate design seemed intended for workers to move large amounts of items up and down through the Vaults, but it served a secondary effect of breaking up the room on the first floor and blocking line of sight between the north and south halves of the room.

The large piles of boxes filling up the space helped enhance that effect.

The center area around the great stair was mostly empty and vacant. As a result, when Spoiler and Damien observed Azreal push open the door to the central room, no one else noticed him enter. Oracle followed closely behind, and Batwoman, still enlarged from her spell, crawled in after them.

The second opening in the 2nd floor showed the back half of the room. In previous vaults, this was a completely separate chamber, but the design of each vault was oh-so-slightly different, and here the north wall has apparently been removed, creating one great, long Hall of a room. It was through that second opening that Damien spotted trouble.

He gestures rapidly for Spoiler to join him to watch, even as their comrades slowly entered and began advancing below and behind them.

At the far north end of the hall, a gathering had assembled in front of a second staircase, this one a grand ramp with stairs stretching out left and right, leading up to the 2nd floor. Behind the staircase was a great arching stained glass window, looking out on the city beyond. At the base of the staircase was an assembly of more than half a dozen armed men, standing in a very loose ring around two central objects. One of those objects was a stark white crate, which had been ripped open, and hay and white linen splayed out of it where the thugs had removed the packaging to observe the box's contents.

Inside, half obscured, looks like the cover of a golden book, it's surface carved with geometric patterns.

The second "object" in the middle of the gathering is Sir Alfred Pennyworth. He's on his knees, and his heavy, magical repeating crossbow is sitting on the ground just in front of him. He's clearly been cornered and captured.

The thugs look a lot more dangerous than any the party had encountered on the Merchant's Guild Docks. They're all extremely heavily armed and wearing armor as light as studded leather and as heavy as half plate, with an assortment in between. They're packing axes, swords, hammers and even a heavy flail. Most curious though is what they're holding in their hands. All but one are carrying heavy crossbows with steel limbs, and each one is loaded with a strange looking bolt. The bolts are like a regular crossbow round until the shaft reaches the head, where it's broken by what looks like a vial of glass filled with some sort of liquid. The liquid on each thug's loaded round is different, but each had a steel tip on the other end of the vial. They have bolt quivers on their hips, and half of the fletching in the quivers us black, while the other half are fletched bolts of various colors. The colors seem somewhat random.

What truly stands out though is the way the thugs' clothes and armor are painted. Each and every one of them have painted half of their armor, clothes, hoods, helms and the like black, so that one half of their body is almost completely black. The other half they appear to have painted whatever color they preferred -- one is half white, another gray, then blue, red, purple, ect. Anyone who's spent enough time in Gotham would recognize the bifurcated, bichrome look as a kind of gang affiliation.

Standing near the box, looking down on Alfred, was a...unique...looking trio. Standing behind the man who was clearly the leader, was a pair of women, each bearing a holy symbol draped around their necks. The woman to his left (party's right) had a platinum cross of St. Cuthbert draped around her neck on a silver chain, and she was covered in elegant white cleric's robes that have been cut to look a bit more evocative than most priests of St. Cuthbert would normally sport. She also had completely Stark white hair falling around her shoulders and dazzling blue eyes.

The second woman was nearly the complete opposite. Her symbol was an ebony icon of Wee-Jas, drapes on a black iron chain, and her own scandalous robes were black, and her eyes were a deep violet.

While the thugs' attention was on Alfred or their surroundings, the two women only had eyes for the figure standing in between them -- plainly the leader of the crew. His appearance was shocking enough that even Damien nearly gasped.

The right half of his body (party's left) was completely normal, if not regal and sacrosanct. He wore beautiful white brigandine studded with polished steel and had a silvered colored bracer with angelic wings carved into it, ending in a closed fist. He carried a strange looking rod or scepter on his right hip, also silver. His face (on the right side) was incredibly handsome; a piercing blue eye, a shock of smooth blonde hair, a chiseled jawline.

But the left half of his body was all wrong. The brigandine suit was burnt black; his left bracer was also black but was carved with hellish imagery of demons and hellfire, he carried a black mace topped with a howling skull.

All that might not have been so terrible, if it wasn't for his face. The left half of his face looked like it belonged to a zombie or another kind of animated corpse. It was charred, ruined, and rotting looking. Bone showed through at places, and far, far too much of his eyeball was showing in it's socket. His lips had been burned or peeled away revealing all of his teeth, running back through his mouth. When he spoke, Damien and Spoiler could see his tongue and mouth muscles move inside his face. His voice sounded like a strange mix of grinding bone and smooth, confident baritone.

"Be honest with us Pennyworth, did Fox put you up to this, or was it that brat you work for?"

"That 'brat' is your rightful liege lord, Lord Dent."

The scarred man laughed.

"Liege Lord, grow up Pennyworth." he scoffed. "You act like that actually means something. Now stop stalling and answer our question. Who sent you after the book?"

Make spot checks, reroll initiative in advance. Sorry for asking but I lost the order lol.

Barbara's Detect Thoughts spell reveals more of the same from the thugs as the spells radius catches the rest of the assembled group. Alfred's mind remains a steel trap, as does the "Boss's".

As of right now, Oracle, Kate and Azreal are hidden from sight due to all of the obstructions in the room and no one has passed a listen check to notice them -- yet.

[MrAbdiel]

Damien drinks in the scene from their hiding position, lip curling, eyes glaring, with the pure, miniaturized contempt of an agitated chihuahua. "The old fool's gotten himself caught... But he's going to be important in the fight to come. But we can't initiate a fight with that firing squad right there. You're the tricky one - if you can draw their attention in a way that doesn't provoke the combat right away, get them to move to you over there..." He indicates the area infront of the visual blind where their allies are hiding, "Then the others can rush right in and deprive them of good shots with those weapons; maybe put a few down quickly. I'll free Pennyworth, and before they realize it, we'll have them surrounded instead of the other way around. They might even plead mercy." With the combat coming, he takes a few additional seconds to produce a pair more shuriken, and slick them in the black grease poison he had done earlier - hidden from Spoiler the first time, in plain view now.

[Molan]

Down below, the scene continued to unfold.

"Perhaps I wasn't after the book, Harvey. Perhaps I was just looking for you."

"You've been holed up on that island doing the idiot princeling's bidding for years. What does Wayne want with the Codex?"


"What do you want with the Codex Dent? You're sitting in the middle of a treasure trove worth of riches and you sought out this book specifically? What could you and your little trolls possibly want with it?"

The half-ghoul, half-angel man chuckled, his voice sounding both melodic and simultaneously carrying the low grumble of skulls rolling down a hill.

"You don't even know what this thing is, do you Pennyworth? There are some things in this world even a city full of wizards doesn't fully understand. We need the book for reasons that wouldn't occur to you. Don't worry. It'll be a lot more effective in our hands than on Fox's auction block."

"Listen, Dent, you and I both know damn well that Fox would never sell the Codex. And you'll definitely never get it's worth on the black market. Moreover, it's a celestial text -- there's no conceivable way you can use it for crimes. Whatever you're planning -- it's not worth it."

"Lord Harvey Dent" chuckled, shaking his head.

"We're sure you're very concerned for our well being," as he spoke, the rest of his thugs and minions began laughing as well. "But we're not going to waste time bickering with some Wayne toady until the Dark Knight finally shows up to cause more headaches. So what will your fate be, hmmm?"

"Well, I guess if you're asking, you should probably release me and send me back to suffer serving under an idiot princeling."

Dent laughed, but shook his head. He opened his clenched white fist, revealing a coin held in his palm.

"Nice try Pennyworth. We'll choose the same way we choose everything."

As he said that, his men started laughing again. Dent began to roll the coin around over his knuckles, smirking in anticipation.

The area to the left of thug's 1 and 2 is trapped; this is another magical trap, with very feint runes on the ground. There was another trap on the other side of the chamber but either Dent or one of his thugs appears to have disarmed it. The door to the right behind Thug 7 is open.

[JbeJ275]

Oracle indicates to the others she's with to remain silent, and quietly relays what she has gleaned of the situation regarding traps and the likely coming actions of their allies upstairs that could be divined from Spoiler's thoughts. She then waits for the pair upstairs to start moving into action then conjoures her Cloud of Knives.

[MrAbdiel]

Damn! Dent was gloating about what he was about to do with a heavy implication of lethality in it. No time to break the group up at all; and short of superior supplies, not much that can be done about that. The time has come for calculated risk.

"Scrap it; no time. Cover me."

And then, with yet another unilateral tactical decision, he breaks off from her position and doubles back thirty feet so he's less likely to draw direct attention to her, producing the smooth black rod as he does, thumbing another button on the thing that produces hooks from both ends. He settles in a position that, with a quick shoulder check, gives him a nice supply of heavy crates behind him and the distant staircase infront; then raises the rod up above his head, and depresses the button again. At once, both ends fire away with their quiet mutual hisses, the one behind Tnk!ing off the wall behind the crates, the one infront sailing all the way across the room to do the same on the far wall, both ropes ceasing to spool after the impact; and with a third press of the button, the ropes retract and snag; the one behind hooking on the heavy-stacked goods, the one infront on the edge of the far stairs, and the rope between snaps taut at a downward slope, starting at about 15ft above the battlefield where Damien holds it, to about 5ft off the ground where it hooks the curl of the stairs.

I figure it's about this point that the goons might look up and see small ninja, and combat might begin!