Returning from the Other Side

shilsen wrote:

"What is it?"

"We have your ghost" says Yatagan brusquely.

Mallus wrote:

"We have your ghost" says Yatagan brusquely.

"What? Where?" Star looks around, her tone simultaneously curious, surprised and disbelieving. Until Yatagan produces the bag and lets out Pit.

"Star! I'm back!" says Pit, hurling himself at the startled young woman and passing right through her before he skids to a stop. Star emits the beginnings of a scream before she cuts herself off with a tremendous effort and spins around to face Pit. She stares at him open-mouthed while he bobs up and down in mid-air, beaming from ear to ear. Finally she says, in a surprisingly calm tone, "I ... see. We need to ... talk to Claris- Ms. Glossop about this." Some of the adventurers can make out that despite the outward facade, she is badly shocked.

"Yes!" says Pit, his grin growing if possible even wider. "I can't wait to show the old ...." He pauses and looks at those watching and says, "I mean, er ... yes, we should."

Star lets the group in and leads them up the stairs, Pit half-walking and half-floating beside her. He keeps throwing glances at her pale, set face and at the adventurers, but says nothing. When the group eventually reaches the door to Ms. Glossop's chambers, Star says brusquely, "Wait here. You too, Pit." She then enters and shuts the door behind her. Pit makes a motion forward and then remains where he is with a sulky frown on his face.

When the door opens a few minutes later, it reveals Ms. Glossop in the same position as before, dressed almost exactly as she was on the previous occasion. The first thing she says is "Hello, Pit," as the ghost hurries towards her, showing no signs of alarm, though a bony old hand twitches slightly.

"Hello, Ms. Glossop," says Pit enthusiastically, "I'm so glad to be home! I have so much to tell you." He glances back at the adventurers, a mischievous expression on his face before looking back to the old lady. "Privately, of course."

Clarissa Glossop searches his transparent face and then nods slowly. "Yes. I see we have much to discuss." She reaches across to her table, where a box rests. It's clearly heavy, since she has a little trouble lifting it till Star helps her. And, at a gesture, hands it to Yatagan.

"Thank you for your services," says Clarissa Glossop. "They have been most satisfactory. I shall be happy to give you a recommendation if you ever desire." She then turns to Star. "See them out please, my dear." Star simply nods and then moves to the door to lead the group out.

"Well, that's that," says Odanais, only half curious what's in the box. "One supposes that we should make haste with booking a theater tomorrow."

shilsen wrote:

"They have been most satisfactory. I shall be happy to give you a recommendation if you ever desire."

"Most gracious of you Madame. It was an... experience aiding you in this endeavor. Good night."

gridley wrote:

"One supposes that we should make haste with booking a theater tomorrow."

"Quite so. We need secure the venue, see to costumes, destroy Hans Pitir utterly, and write the play."

Once outside the mansion and in a position to check the payment, the adventurers find that Clarissa Glossop has given them 3000 gp in gold coins.

With the money (and a dark creeper in a bag of holding), they make their weary way back to the Hall. Unfortunately, it seems there really is no rest for them. There are a fair number of lights on at the Hall, and a dozen people present, most of them members of the slowly growing church of the Pig. They are clustered around a couple of tables, talking worriedly amongst themselves, while Asarlai is snoring quietly at a nearby table.

When the adventurers enter, there is a babble of voices, which causes the old warlock to awaken, yelling "Yaah! Murder!" and fire a blast from his walking stick which barely misses Vox.

Agenbite, hopping up on the bar at their entrance, shouts, "Everybody SHUT UP!" Then, looking at the new arrivals, he adds, "And he ain't fucking kidding. We got big trouble! Come and look."

The others present hang around in the background while Agenbite leads the group into the next room, where there is a pile of sacking propped up against the wall. Which he whips off to reveal L.

Or what remains of L. The dwarf is naked, has had his beard roughly cut off in chunks, and is missing both arms and legs above the knee and elbow. He is also quite clearly dead. A dead rat lies by him.

"He'd gone out for a while. No idea where. We found him," says Agenbite, "Like that, stuck in a sack and propped up outside the back door. With that bloody thing," he indicates the dead rodent, "Shoved in his damn mouth." The halfling looks up and around at the group, and growls worriedly, "What are you guys gonna do?"

shilsen wrote:

The dwarf is naked, has had his beard roughly cut off in chunks, and is missing both arms and legs above the knee and elbow.

"Plagiarists" spits Yatagan. "Wait, is our pig okay?"

Quote :

"What are you guys gonna do?"

"Have a glass of Pernod, I should think, then sleep. Tomorrow we'll rise early, find Hans Pitir, kill those who stand with him, and take him alive.

"Then we shall have constructed, in the manner of the Magna Publica Machina of old, a machine of such cold and total depravity as to stagger even our minds, with which we'll pull Hans Pitir apart bone by individual bone."

"Now be so good as to fetch me that drink, Agenbite."

Penelope feels strange for thinking the site to be grotesque. After all, she's done worse to people without getting affected by it. The seeming cognitive dissonance, she figures, stems from actually working with the often silent dwarf.

Better him than me, she finally reasons, frowning at the remains of L. "Maybe you guys should bury him? Or... do something. This seems a little undignified, to leave a fallen... ah, comrade, like this..." She shrugs.

"Does anyone even know what god he worshipped?" asks Odanais, staring down at the taciturn cleric. "Perhaps we should allow Treasure to deal with his remains in her own blessed way?"

gridley wrote:

"Does anyone even know what god he worshipped?"

"One of the dour, vengeance-minded ones, I think... it's odd, for a priest he didn't talk much about religion."

Quote :

"Perhaps, we should allow Treasure to deal with his remains in her own blessed way?"

"Splendid idea, Mr. Dare. That should substantially increase his odds of being reborn in another form."

Yatagan pulls out one of his journals, momentarily unsure if he is holding the notes for the Porcine Gospels or the play. Coming to some decision, he records this grim moment for posterity.

"Ah, for the life of me I can't recall his deities name. I'll just put Treasure. Why, he can be her first saint and martyr, Little El! His will be a name for the ages."

Mallus wrote:

"Plagiarists" spits Yatagan. "Wait, is our pig okay?"

"Yeah, Treasure's just fine. She's the reason we realized something was wrong. She got up and started shoving me towards the back door. I thought the damn pig was about to eat me or something! But she just wanted me to check, and after we brought this poor bastard in, she went back to sleep. Weird."

Quote :

"Have a glass of Pernod, I should think, then sleep. Tomorrow we'll rise early, find Hans Pitir, kill those who stand with him, and take him alive.

"Then we shall have constructed, in the manner of the Magna Publica Machina of old, a machine of such cold and total depravity as to stagger even our minds, with which we'll pull Hans Pitir apart bone by individual bone."

"Now be so good as to fetch me that drink, Agenbite."

Agenbite listens to Yatagan with mouth slightly open and then says, "Of course, your lordship!" He turns and walks off, making the gargling sound he makes before producing one of his large and usually well-aimed loogies. If memory serves, he often made that sound when fetching Artichoke a drink.

Penelope wrote:

Better him than me, she finally reasons, frowning at the remains of L. "Maybe you guys should bury him? Or... do something. This seems a little undignified, to leave a fallen... ah, comrade, like this..." She shrugs.

gridley wrote:

"Perhaps we should allow Treasure to deal with his remains in her own blessed way?"

Any attempt to feed L to the divine garbage disposal that is Treasure fails miserably. She emits what seems like a porcine grunt of disgust and ignores the remains of the priest.

gridley wrote:

"Does anyone even know what god he worshipped?" asks Odanais, staring down at the taciturn cleric.

Mallus wrote:

"One of the dour, vengeance-minded ones, I think... it's odd, for a priest he didn't talk much about religion."

The most that anyone can recall about the priest's religion is that he never named what deity he worshipped and that he claimed to have been gifted some sort of note or document which let him kill someone by writing their name on it (and only those who deserved it, of course). Not that anyone ever saw any real proof of it happening, even though L was often scribbling names down on his paper.

shilsen wrote:

Any attempt to feed L to the divine garbage disposal that is Treasure fails miserably.

"It's seems poor El is unworthy of transubstantiation. He shall have an honorable burial then --and public service-- as befits the first Saint of Treasure."

Penelope hangs her head, visibly frustrated. She counts to ten in an attempt to gain a calm... well, to somehow become calm, and only manages to not sound out-right threatening. "We won't try to feed anyone to Treasure ever again. Okay?"

"First... saint..." The archer sighs. "If you really want to pretend L is Treasure's first saint, you can get one of the idiots that worship her to put together a service. Unfortunately for L, we have other things to attend to. Like sleep. And Hans Pitir, as well as our damn play..."

Penelope wrote:

Unfortunately for L, we have other things to attend to. Like sleep. And Hans Pitir, as well as our damn play..."

OOC: There's one more thing you guys have to take care of. What are you planning to do with the dark creeper?

Quote :

OOC: There's one more thing you guys have to take care of. What are you planning to do with the dark creeper?

Shoot it in the head?

shilsen wrote:

What are you planning to do with the dark creeper?

After taking a long swallow from his drink, Yatagan removes the prisoner from the bag and dangles him in front of El's corpse.

"I've lost a friend tonight. I'm in no mood. Answer my questions truthfully or we'll do worse to you. Much worse." For emphasis Yatagan swings him around to face the murderous gleam in Penelope's eye.

"Let's start with: why did you ambush us?"

OOC: Intimidate: 7+13=20 - does Penelope's visible intent to kill count as Aid Another?

The member 'Mallus' has done the following action : Dice Roller

'd20' : 7

(Sorry for the silence. It's been a week. One of THOSE weeks.)

"Just as well your pig is so fastidious," Vox observes. "No way of telling if they've poisoned the poor bastard, or infected him with something nasty. Damned rodents."

He kneels down next to L and lowers his head. He mutters something inaudible, and traces a symbol in the air above the dwarf's head. "Go in peace, and go easily." Pulling a few coins from a pouch, he narrows his eyes and concentrates until they evaporates into its own shadow.

"Every little bit helps," he says with a sigh as he gets to his feet.

*****

"We could always sell him to Feldspar," Vox suggests, moving to stand next to Yatigan. "I doubt that he's seen blood like this before. There's sure to be a call for it, although I'm not sure how much of a bottle he'd fill."

(Bluff: 26 to aid Yatigan.)

The member 'Rolzup' has done the following action : Dice Roller

'd20' : 16

Mallus wrote:

OOC: Intimidate: 7+13=20 - does Penelope's visible intent to kill count as Aid Another?

A circumstance bonus to Intimidate from Penelope's presence? Heh! Why not?

Quote :

After taking a long swallow from his drink, Yatagan removes the prisoner from the bag and dangles him in front of El's corpse.

"I've lost a friend tonight. I'm in no mood. Answer my questions truthfully or we'll do worse to you. Much worse." For emphasis Yatagan swings him around to face the murderous gleam in Penelope's eye.

"Let's start with: why did you ambush us?"

Once revived, the creature looks around wildly and struggles for a moment, grabbing (unless tied) at its throat as if it can't breathe. "The air! Too thin," it wheezes in heavily accented Common, and it takes a few seconds for its breathing to stabilize. While it does so, it continues to look around wildly, but Yatagan's threat and Penelope's expression cause it to cease.

The dark creeper hangs limp in the dragonborn's grasp and its gray, creased face twists in what seems to be a combination of fear and anger. "Not my fault!" it grumbles, "I didn't want to. We was just scouting. Then we saw you come out of the trees and smelled that you was outworlders. That fool Modra said nobody cares if some outworlders get killed in the Shadowfell and we should rob you. And I saw him run and leave me! Bastard!"

Rolzup wrote:

"We could always sell him to Feldspar," Vox suggests, moving to stand next to Yatigan. "I doubt that he's seen blood like this before. There's sure to be a call for it, although I'm not sure how much of a bottle he'd fill."

The creature looks seriously alarmed, the yellow eyes widening. "No! Mustn't sell me to ... to ... whoever. Sell me to warlord Sarshan. Corday ... er, valuable warrior. Sarshan pay, um ... big money for Corday!"

It's fairly evident that the creature is lying. And, from the odor, has wet itself.


OOC: The only worthwhile things you find among its belongings are about 50 gp in coin and a single dose of the poison it used in the attack (Stormclaw Scorpion venom). It costs 250 gp a dose and has the following effect:

(Level 5 poison) +5 vs. Fortitude; ongoing 5 poison damage and immobilizes (save ends both). Aftereffect: The target is immobilized (save ends).

shilsen wrote:

That fool Modra said nobody cares if some outworlders get killed in the Shadowfell and we should rob you.

"I'm hurt. I admit to assuming someone sent you to kill us. But you're nothing more than common thieves and would-be murderers."

Quote :

And, from the odor, has wet itself.

"You pants speak volumes of falsehood" says Yatagan seriously. "Does anyone have more questions before we pass judgment?"

Quote :

(Level 5 poison) +5 vs. Fortitude; ongoing 5 poison damage and immobilizes (save ends both). Aftereffect: The target is immobilized (save ends).

OOC: that should come in handy against Pitir.

Heyoka says to Yatagan, with all earnestness: "Does that mean we're going to chop his arms and legs off and throw him through a window, like we did to the last one?"

He turns to the creeper. "Your limbs will grow back, right?"

Mallus wrote:

"You pants speak volumes of falsehood" says Yatagan seriously. "Does anyone have more questions before we pass judgment?"

"No," says Odanais, opening the box from Glossop. "Judge away."

Does Vox recognize either of those names? Modra or Sarshan?

Yeah, probably not with a Streetwise check of 12.

The member 'Rolzup' has done the following action : Dice Roller

'd20' : 2

Atlatl wrote:

Heyoka says to Yatagan, with all earnestness: "Does that mean we're going to chop his arms and legs off and throw him through a window, like we did to the last one?"

"That's up to Ms. Pindar. It's lady's choice."

After Odanais finishes speaking Yatagan looks the prisoner in the eye "You're guilty. Any last words?" Turning to Penelope he says "Do as you wish. Will you require help setting up the wheel?"

OOC: Intimidate 20+13=33, Insight 20+9=29 -- Yatagan's looking for honest repentance in the creeper's words, if he's able to speak any.