3.5e Batman Campaign (2.0)

[Molan]

Spoiler: Spoiler on the Chraal

Show

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."

Spoiler: Damien

Show

Spoiler: No seriously, this is just for Damien.

Show

Spoiler: Okay, you asked for it, spoilers ahead!

Show

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.

Spoiler: Spoiler

Show

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.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

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.

Spoiler: Azrael

Show

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]

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Chaarl: I was there, Read Elvish so I'm gonna roll Arcana (1d20+9)[16]


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]

Spoiler: OOC: Oracle

Show

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.

Spoiler: OOC: Azrael

Show

Make a will save.

Spoiler: OOC: Robin

Show

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.

Spoiler

Show

Detect Thoughts save (1d20+5)[19] Sense motive check (1d20+2)[8]

[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.

Spoiler: Titus

Show

Like 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=

Spoiler: Shipshape, magic cell check

Show

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.

Spoiler: Checking the cell, thanks Jbe, question to Molan

Show

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. ”

Spoiler: Take 10s

Show

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?”

Spoiler: Take 10s (Bluff, Diplomacy)

Show

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=

Spoiler: Will Save to avoid Detecting Thoughts, DC 18

Show

Will Save: (1d20)[18]

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.

Spoiler: More MrAbdiel Prompted Take 10s

Show

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.

“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.”

Spoiler: Done

Show

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."

Spoiler: OOC Stuff!

Show

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...

Spoiler: Secret DM Business.

Show

...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]

Spoiler: Spoiler on the Chraal OOC

Show

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.

Spoiler: Spoiler, Private Interrogation of Raam

Show

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.

Spoiler: Spoiler and Strange, Private Conversation and Dice Rolls

Show

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.

Spoiler: More Spoiler Stuff: Final Roll results

Show

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.

Spoiler: Damien OOC

Show

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]

Spoiler: Shipshape, magic cell check

Show

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.

Spoiler: Bluff feint Damien to make him lose Dexterity, grapple attack roll hug

Show

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) (1d20+8)[12] (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.

Spoiler: Bat Woman, Oracle, Arkham, Corrupt Justiciars, IC

Show

(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?”

Spoiler: Jbe, Feathersnow, corrupt Justiciar details briefly

Show

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.

Spoiler: Downtime (Get an Inn room, disguise, search for Vale, go to Kyle gang territory, tell them about the Merchant showdown, show them Thieves letter, try to rest in their territory, pop back to the Inn for a shower and light meal

Show

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.

Spoiler: OoC

Show

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.

Spoiler: Sneaky Slight of Hand, for Posterity

Show

...But while squirming, he's actually dextrously taking and pocketing...

Spoiler: Secret things.

Show

...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.

Spoiler: Kate

Show

Spoiler: OOC:

Show

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."

Spoiler: Barbara

Show

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."

Spoiler: Spoiler

Show

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.

Spoiler: OOC: Kate and Stephanie only

Show

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.

Spoiler: The Littlest Ninja

Show

Spoiler: Sleight of hand Take 10, for 20, to conceal the action!

Show

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]

Spoiler: The Questor

Show

"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]

Spoiler: Kate and Questor

Show

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]

Spoiler: Downtime continued

Show

“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.”

Spoiler: Rolling Diplomacy and Bluff, because sometimes why not

Show

Diplomacy: (1d20+29)[34]. To get more information.

Bluff on Merchant Guild story: (1d20+15)[18]. 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.

=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.

Spoiler: Knowledge Local, rolling for once

Show

K: Local: (1d20+10)[13]. 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]

Spoiler: Spoiler, at the Opera House

Show

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."

Spoiler: Spoiler's OOC At the Vaults

Show

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]

Spoiler: Downtime continued

Show

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?”

Spoiler: Rolling Sense Motive, because you dice are looking especially lovely today. :)

Show

Sense Motive: (1d20+7)[15]. Vale

[Molan]

Spoiler: Spoiler

Show

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.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

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."

Spoiler: Bluff secret message to Kate and Steph (Autopass DC on take 10)

Show

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.

Spoiler: Rolls

Show

Search:
(1d20+14)[32]

Other Optional Ones that Barabara would be likely to be doing
Listen: (1d20+10)[16]
Decipher Script: (1d20+13)[32]
Spellcraft: (1d20+13)[30]
Arcana: (1d20+9)[13]
Hide: (1d20+11)[22]
Move Silently: (1d20+10)[27]
Architecture and Engineering: (1d20+7)[9]

[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.

Spoiler: Rolls!

Show

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!

SPOT - (1d20+3)[16]
LISTEN - (1d20+5)[24]
SEARCH - (1d20+2)[10]