Archie pockets one of the bottles and then takes a cheeky swing from the other. Starting to sprint she swings around the banister and boulders her way up the stairs knocking people left and right as she goes. She comes to a screeching halt near Virro and Roo, knocking back another swig and greeting them with a nod and a friendly "hello there."
As Archie dashes past and Wilfred then follows, everyone files out of the now starting to sink Low Lantern Tavern, you manage to drag the unconscious Amrik onto the street. All the other patrons that were day drinking in the tavern have long since split and all that remain is the party, the bouncers, the owner and Amrik.
The owner stares hard at the six of you, clearly seething with anger. “Give me one reason. Give me one reason why I should waste you all right here right now. It would be so easy to do.” Noting the note of meaning in their bosses voice, the bouncers start getting behind her, looking to one another, unsure what to do and also worried that they no longer have a job now that the building was gone.
Before you get a chance to answer, a chance to defend yourselves or not, you notice that a crowd has started a form, brought on by the flaming ship, though no one steps forward to help. Someone does step towards the now formed two groups however…
A cloaked figure approaches, tentatively, noting the tension between the two groups and the bleeding man on the ground. The armor worn clanks with each step, one gloved hand rests on the hilt of a longsword. The other hand pulls back a cowl to reveal the face of a teenager with brown skin, red hair, and a haunting gaze.
Corlith looks to the owner with sympathy. "What happened is regrettable, and was not at all our intention. However we are here on Flaming Fist business", he says and shows his badge.
"This one", he continues nudging Amrik with his foot, "Is wanted for questioning and decided to resist quite forcefully, which is what caused this debacle".
At this point he notices the newcomer with the haunting gaze, and frowns as he tries to work out what her motive for approaching them is.
"Can we help you? We are in the middle of something here", he asks her a little abruptly.
Archie stands at the edge of the dock watching the ship go down, the flames reflecting off her armour. She tries to hide in the crowd as much as possible, but clanks when she moves and stands a good foot taller than the rest of the rabble. She takes another swig from the bottle and pours a little out into the harbour for the loss of the chance she had to touch the devil.
The owner stares at Corlith and as he talks and shows his badge, she seems to be understanding, until she sees Archie out of the corner of her eye pouring some liquor out into the harbor.
She stalks towards the suit of armor, "YOU!! You were the one that set my ship afire, weren't you! Don't deny it! How are you going to pay for this? YOU OWE ME A NEW TAVERN!!"
As the owner berates Archie, the newcomer looks at Corlith, and responds, "I don't mean to impose, but now that the tavern is gone, I need to ask before all of my leads are gone." She looks down at the halfling and raises an eyebrow, "I'm sorry, I don't know an Archie. Well, you see, I'm looking for Amrik Vanthampur." She looks down at the unconscious man Reed is pointing at and back at Reed, "Is that him?"
"hey hey hey now! I saw the fire and did a quick risk assessment, I got my ass out of there, and I made sure you got out alive too. I didn't set any fire, and you can't prove anything! I was trying to put out the fire!" Archie opens her visor and reveals the flames within the armour, "you think just because I'm made of fire in here that I caused this? I knew your tavern was a piece of sh*t but I never knew it was owned by such a damned racist! And you lot are just ok with this? Huh?" Archie looks around all the bouncers too as she yells back at the owner, the group discussing things with the newcomer on the other side of the crowd.
Reed has started to get used to Archie's outbursts and doesn't even glance her way when he hears the angry shouting. He suspects if she needs any help the outburst will be slightly more explosive.
He keeps his attention on the newcomer, making sure she doesn't take off with their new captive.
While waiting for more details on what she wants with them, Reed starts going through Amrik's pockets.
"I'll give you a reason." Roo says to the owner of the Low Lantern, stepping off of Glory of Morning's back and onto Amrik's chest. His feathers fluff up, and then he scratches his feet over Amrik. "You and your crap bouncers did a completely shit job of wasting anything but breath inside that shitshack that's sinking. Buck. If you think I have a any issue with killing you and your team of halfasses, fella, just say so, and we can give you a burial at sea with your ship. Now back away from Archie before I help her kill you."
His attention shifts as the young featherless one walks up, and his head cocks quickly from side to side as he listens and assesses the threat to his party and their prisoner.
"Buc buc. Don't come any closer." He warns the newcomer, puffing up his feathers. "This is indeed Amrik, but he is our prisoner for now. We too have questions. When we are done with him, you can say or do whatever you want to him. For now, though, he owes me an explanation, as well as an explanation to my friends for the lie he told them before we showed him his place in the world. Flat on his back with a Gallus standing on his chest."
Corlith massages his temples with the middle fingers of each hand and takes a deep calming breath in. He hadn't seen what had happened on the deck below in the ship, so could not speak as to whether Archie had set the ship on fire or not, but she certainly sounded sure she hadn't. Either way, the owner had every right to question her, she had lost her home and livelihood in one fell swoop.
Roo getting involved shouldn't surprise him, and he almost tries to explain to Roo that the lady was upset, just as he would have been had his whole life burned down. That thought turns his attention to Wilfred, who this might well resonate with more than most. He looks over to their bands elder statesman, to see how he is doing, before releasing his held breath and muttering an incantation as he turns back to the chaos with renewed focus.
"Right, that's enough. We have what we came here for, I do not wish to fight any more. If you wish recompense, you will not find it with us, we simply do not have it. I suggest you take this up with the Vanthampur family or the Flaming Fists, your choice", he says to the owner.
Turning to the newcomer, he looks her up and down, taking note of her attire and weapons. "If you are looking for him", he says pointing at Amrik, "I have no doubt it is due to him having wronged you in some way. If that is so, as my Gallus companion says you may have whatever is left once we are done. You may come along if you wish".
Looking to his companions he adds, "Grab that unconscious fool and let's get out of this crowd to somewhere more private".
Virro walks (limps) forward to see who this newcomer is, and listen to the discussion. He literally looks like shit. Large bruises are appearing on his body, he has a large hematoma on the back of his head, and he spits out some dark blood from his mouth, and alas, one of his few properly aligned teeth. “What the hell. You blame us? That place was so unsafe, unbelievable! No safety features for an establishment. No clearly marked fire exits or safety equipment. That place was a death trap. And then there were the mace swinging goons.” He walks over to Amrik, kicking his foot aside so that he can walk closer, “We need to have a chat with him. You can come with us, if you wish. What is your name, and why do you want to speak to him?” As he’s saying this, Virro is massaging his jaw, spitting another glob of blood out. He pulls aside the fold in his cloak to reveal the flaming fist button pinned to his chain shirt underneath and gives her an awful looking smile.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
The girl smiles back at Reed and takes the halfling's hand to shake it. "Well met, I am Reya, Reya Mantlemorn. What happened here?" She looks over at the fully engulfed ship of flames.
While Reed is finishing his introduction, it is drowned out by a loud CRACK and the mast that gave Wilfred so much trouble falls, and lands on top of Bouncer (B)'s head, knocking him to the ground. The couple of other bouncers around him, gladly take the opportunity to grab hold of the poor man and drag him away, presumably to get medical help.
When Archie unleashes at the owner, she backs down a bit, listening to the girl and then rubs the back of her neck as Archie calls her and her group racists. The bouncers left around her look at their feet, the sky, the crowd, anywhere but at the Iron Maiden. The woman steels her resolve a bit and responds, "Now hold on there, I am no racist. Whether you're made of flame or not, you were just the one down there when I hit the bottom of the stairs. Any reasonable person would have made the same assumption. So you didn't? How in the nine hells did it happen then?" She looks around as if waiting for someone to answer her, but does step back a bit from Archie.
As Roo 'Stor saunters up and adds his lovely commentary, she raises her hands in a sort of surrender and walks towards her group, "At least I was able to save my spellbook" she mumbles as her shoulders slump and she watches as her ship sinks.
Reya raises an eyebrow as Roo tells her the situation with Amrik. "Flat on his back with a Gallus standing on his chest? That's one I haven't heard, I'm assuming that you, sir are a Gallus?"
The words of Corlith and Virro kind of wash over the owner. She doesn't acknowledge them or turn around to face them, just watches as the wreckage of her home, her livelihood disappears below the water.
Reya notices Corlith's taking assessment of her and sticking out her bottom lip, blows away a lock of hair off her forehead. "Wronged me? I've never met the man, I am just looking for information and I have been told he might have it." She takes her hand off her pommel, "I can join you? That sounds good."she seems to breathe a sigh of relief.
But as Virro reveals his Flaming Fist badge, Reya immediately draws her longsword and points it at the party. Eyes wide with new panic her voice seems to have raised in octave as well, "You're... you're part of the Flaming Fist?!"
Reed looks up from his perusal of Amrik's pockets, taking a couple of daggers and what appears to be a smoke bomb out of the pockets. He also flips 2GP to each of the party.
When Reya draws her sword, Reed holds his hands up.
"Reya, we're not Flaming Fist," Reed says. "More Flaming Fist adjacent. I for one was not given a choice. It was either carry their shiny badge or spend my days as a guest of their dungeon."
He looks at the others.
"Independent contractors, maybe? We're good at dealing with cults and obnoxiously wealthy families," Reed says. After a pause and a look to the air beside him he adds. "No we did not take advantage of innocent pirates."
Wilfred let's those that are better with words do the talking. When the owner starts accusing Archie of starting the fire, Wilfred tightens his grip on his glaive, ready to shove her into the sea. However, Archie handles it herself. Then, the damn mast falls. As it strikes bouncer B, Wilfred starts laughing! "He should have left well enough alone. Hahaha!"
In response to Corlith "Hmm, you know, in pretty sure Old Bertie lives around here. Yea, definitely. I helped her out a few months back with some corrupt Flaming Fist. She can give us a private place to lay low and make sure we aren't disturbed." Wilfred will start leading the way if the others don't object.
Archie crosses her arms at the owner and refuses to speak, merely walking away once the party are ready, and following them along to the suggested place.
Reya lowers her sword and looks confused, "So... you aren't part of the Flaming Fists? You're independent contractors?" She slowly puts her sword away as others seem uninterested and scratches her head. "What does independent contractors even mean? Oh, and I believe you about the join up or join the dungeon part, that's for sure."
Reed waves Reya to follow along as they drag Amrik through the streets to where ever this Bertie lives.
"We were dealing with the three dead whiners cult," Reed says as they walk. "We visited a pub that we didn't burn down, had a spa day, then ended up at this tavern that did burn down."
Reed spends as much time talking as he does taking stalk of Reya and whether she intends the group any harm.
"I am indeed a Gallus." Roo says to Reya, holding his arms out and making a little bow before ruffling his feathers again. "My name is Roo' Stor, and this foul featherless cur Amrik has information about the murder of one of my own, by the name of Fog' Horn. What information is it that you seek from this beast?"
Roo hops down and reaches into his beltline, pulling out the manacles he had procured in the depths of the Dungeon of the Dead Three and cuffing Amrik behind his back before rolling him over. He then produces a short section of rope and begins to tie his ankles, making sure to keep the knot in front where it would be very hard to reach it while cuffed. Once that is done, he starts to wrestle Amrik up and over Glory of Morning's saddle as the possum stands there panting and not looking the slightest bit ashamed for fainting at the last conceivable moment of battle.
"It doesn't matter what we are." Roo says as he takes Glory of Morning's reins in his hand and begins to lead her after Wilfred toward Old Bertie's. "We have something you want, apparently, and we're not interested in you. Do with that information what you will."
Archie pockets one of the bottles and then takes a cheeky swing from the other. Starting to sprint she swings around the banister and boulders her way up the stairs knocking people left and right as she goes. She comes to a screeching halt near Virro and Roo, knocking back another swig and greeting them with a nod and a friendly "hello there."
As Archie dashes past and Wilfred then follows, everyone files out of the now starting to sink Low Lantern Tavern, you manage to drag the unconscious Amrik onto the street. All the other patrons that were day drinking in the tavern have long since split and all that remain is the party, the bouncers, the owner and Amrik.
The owner stares hard at the six of you, clearly seething with anger. “Give me one reason. Give me one reason why I should waste you all right here right now. It would be so easy to do.” Noting the note of meaning in their bosses voice, the bouncers start getting behind her, looking to one another, unsure what to do and also worried that they no longer have a job now that the building was gone.
Before you get a chance to answer, a chance to defend yourselves or not, you notice that a crowd has started a form, brought on by the flaming ship, though no one steps forward to help. Someone does step towards the now formed two groups however…
A cloaked figure approaches, tentatively, noting the tension between the two groups and the bleeding man on the ground. The armor worn clanks with each step, one gloved hand rests on the hilt of a longsword. The other hand pulls back a cowl to reveal the face of a teenager with brown skin, red hair, and a haunting gaze.
Corlith looks to the owner with sympathy. "What happened is regrettable, and was not at all our intention. However we are here on Flaming Fist business", he says and shows his badge.
"This one", he continues nudging Amrik with his foot, "Is wanted for questioning and decided to resist quite forcefully, which is what caused this debacle".
At this point he notices the newcomer with the haunting gaze, and frowns as he tries to work out what her motive for approaching them is.
"Can we help you? We are in the middle of something here", he asks her a little abruptly.
Archie stands at the edge of the dock watching the ship go down, the flames reflecting off her armour. She tries to hide in the crowd as much as possible, but clanks when she moves and stands a good foot taller than the rest of the rabble. She takes another swig from the bottle and pours a little out into the harbour for the loss of the chance she had to touch the devil.
Reed whistles a lively lilt as the ship goes up in flames then down to the bottom.
"Collateral damage," Reed says to the owner of the Low Lantern, pointing from Amrik to the burnt/sunk ship.
He then turns at the arrival of the teen in armor with the sword.
"This one a friend of yours, Archie?" Reed says.
Reed smiles up at the teen.
"Hi. We got this one fair and square, so he's ours now," Reeds says, pointing own at Amrik. "But you can have one of the others if you like."
The owner stares at Corlith and as he talks and shows his badge, she seems to be understanding, until she sees Archie out of the corner of her eye pouring some liquor out into the harbor.
She stalks towards the suit of armor, "YOU!! You were the one that set my ship afire, weren't you! Don't deny it! How are you going to pay for this? YOU OWE ME A NEW TAVERN!!"
As the owner berates Archie, the newcomer looks at Corlith, and responds, "I don't mean to impose, but now that the tavern is gone, I need to ask before all of my leads are gone." She looks down at the halfling and raises an eyebrow, "I'm sorry, I don't know an Archie. Well, you see, I'm looking for Amrik Vanthampur." She looks down at the unconscious man Reed is pointing at and back at Reed, "Is that him?"
Reed smiles up at the teen.
"Yes but only look with your eyes. No touching. We have questions for him," Reed says. Then he holds out his hand. "I'm Reed. We're, we're . . ."
After a long pause, as Reed takes in the group, he continues.
"We're technically Flaming Fist, but really more of an independent problem solving group providing some assistance to the Flaming Fist."
"hey hey hey now! I saw the fire and did a quick risk assessment, I got my ass out of there, and I made sure you got out alive too. I didn't set any fire, and you can't prove anything! I was trying to put out the fire!" Archie opens her visor and reveals the flames within the armour, "you think just because I'm made of fire in here that I caused this? I knew your tavern was a piece of sh*t but I never knew it was owned by such a damned racist! And you lot are just ok with this? Huh?" Archie looks around all the bouncers too as she yells back at the owner, the group discussing things with the newcomer on the other side of the crowd.
(Deception, Nat 20 babey!!)
Reed has started to get used to Archie's outbursts and doesn't even glance her way when he hears the angry shouting. He suspects if she needs any help the outburst will be slightly more explosive.
He keeps his attention on the newcomer, making sure she doesn't take off with their new captive.
While waiting for more details on what she wants with them, Reed starts going through Amrik's pockets.
"I'll give you a reason." Roo says to the owner of the Low Lantern, stepping off of Glory of Morning's back and onto Amrik's chest. His feathers fluff up, and then he scratches his feet over Amrik. "You and your crap bouncers did a completely shit job of wasting anything but breath inside that shitshack that's sinking. Buck. If you think I have a any issue with killing you and your team of halfasses, fella, just say so, and we can give you a burial at sea with your ship. Now back away from Archie before I help her kill you."
His attention shifts as the young featherless one walks up, and his head cocks quickly from side to side as he listens and assesses the threat to his party and their prisoner.
"Buc buc. Don't come any closer." He warns the newcomer, puffing up his feathers. "This is indeed Amrik, but he is our prisoner for now. We too have questions. When we are done with him, you can say or do whatever you want to him. For now, though, he owes me an explanation, as well as an explanation to my friends for the lie he told them before we showed him his place in the world. Flat on his back with a Gallus standing on his chest."
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
Corlith massages his temples with the middle fingers of each hand and takes a deep calming breath in. He hadn't seen what had happened on the deck below in the ship, so could not speak as to whether Archie had set the ship on fire or not, but she certainly sounded sure she hadn't. Either way, the owner had every right to question her, she had lost her home and livelihood in one fell swoop.
Roo getting involved shouldn't surprise him, and he almost tries to explain to Roo that the lady was upset, just as he would have been had his whole life burned down. That thought turns his attention to Wilfred, who this might well resonate with more than most. He looks over to their bands elder statesman, to see how he is doing, before releasing his held breath and muttering an incantation as he turns back to the chaos with renewed focus.
"Right, that's enough. We have what we came here for, I do not wish to fight any more. If you wish recompense, you will not find it with us, we simply do not have it. I suggest you take this up with the Vanthampur family or the Flaming Fists, your choice", he says to the owner.
Turning to the newcomer, he looks her up and down, taking note of her attire and weapons. "If you are looking for him", he says pointing at Amrik, "I have no doubt it is due to him having wronged you in some way. If that is so, as my Gallus companion says you may have whatever is left once we are done. You may come along if you wish".
Looking to his companions he adds, "Grab that unconscious fool and let's get out of this crowd to somewhere more private".
Special: Concentration Guidance 1 minutes.
Virro walks (limps) forward to see who this newcomer is, and listen to the discussion. He literally looks like shit. Large bruises are appearing on his body, he has a large hematoma on the back of his head, and he spits out some dark blood from his mouth, and alas, one of his few properly aligned teeth. “What the hell. You blame us? That place was so unsafe, unbelievable! No safety features for an establishment. No clearly marked fire exits or safety equipment. That place was a death trap. And then there were the mace swinging goons.” He walks over to Amrik, kicking his foot aside so that he can walk closer, “We need to have a chat with him. You can come with us, if you wish. What is your name, and why do you want to speak to him?” As he’s saying this, Virro is massaging his jaw, spitting another glob of blood out. He pulls aside the fold in his cloak to reveal the flaming fist button pinned to his chain shirt underneath and gives her an awful looking smile.
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
The girl smiles back at Reed and takes the halfling's hand to shake it. "Well met, I am Reya, Reya Mantlemorn. What happened here?" She looks over at the fully engulfed ship of flames.
While Reed is finishing his introduction, it is drowned out by a loud CRACK and the mast that gave Wilfred so much trouble falls, and lands on top of Bouncer (B)'s head, knocking him to the ground. The couple of other bouncers around him, gladly take the opportunity to grab hold of the poor man and drag him away, presumably to get medical help.
When Archie unleashes at the owner, she backs down a bit, listening to the girl and then rubs the back of her neck as Archie calls her and her group racists. The bouncers left around her look at their feet, the sky, the crowd, anywhere but at the Iron Maiden. The woman steels her resolve a bit and responds, "Now hold on there, I am no racist. Whether you're made of flame or not, you were just the one down there when I hit the bottom of the stairs. Any reasonable person would have made the same assumption. So you didn't? How in the nine hells did it happen then?" She looks around as if waiting for someone to answer her, but does step back a bit from Archie.
As Roo 'Stor saunters up and adds his lovely commentary, she raises her hands in a sort of surrender and walks towards her group, "At least I was able to save my spellbook" she mumbles as her shoulders slump and she watches as her ship sinks.
Reya raises an eyebrow as Roo tells her the situation with Amrik. "Flat on his back with a Gallus standing on his chest? That's one I haven't heard, I'm assuming that you, sir are a Gallus?"
The words of Corlith and Virro kind of wash over the owner. She doesn't acknowledge them or turn around to face them, just watches as the wreckage of her home, her livelihood disappears below the water.
Reya notices Corlith's taking assessment of her and sticking out her bottom lip, blows away a lock of hair off her forehead. "Wronged me? I've never met the man, I am just looking for information and I have been told he might have it." She takes her hand off her pommel, "I can join you? That sounds good." she seems to breathe a sigh of relief.
But as Virro reveals his Flaming Fist badge, Reya immediately draws her longsword and points it at the party. Eyes wide with new panic her voice seems to have raised in octave as well, "You're... you're part of the Flaming Fist?!"
Reed looks up from his perusal of Amrik's pockets, taking a couple of daggers and what appears to be a smoke bomb out of the pockets. He also flips 2GP to each of the party.
When Reya draws her sword, Reed holds his hands up.
"Reya, we're not Flaming Fist," Reed says. "More Flaming Fist adjacent. I for one was not given a choice. It was either carry their shiny badge or spend my days as a guest of their dungeon."
He looks at the others.
"Independent contractors, maybe? We're good at dealing with cults and obnoxiously wealthy families," Reed says. After a pause and a look to the air beside him he adds. "No we did not take advantage of innocent pirates."
Wilfred let's those that are better with words do the talking. When the owner starts accusing Archie of starting the fire, Wilfred tightens his grip on his glaive, ready to shove her into the sea. However, Archie handles it herself. Then, the damn mast falls. As it strikes bouncer B, Wilfred starts laughing! "He should have left well enough alone. Hahaha!"
In response to Corlith "Hmm, you know, in pretty sure Old Bertie lives around here. Yea, definitely. I helped her out a few months back with some corrupt Flaming Fist. She can give us a private place to lay low and make sure we aren't disturbed." Wilfred will start leading the way if the others don't object.
Corlith, fed up of fighting people unrelated to their actual purpose, doesn't react to Reya drawing her sword.
"If that's a no, you don't want to come along, so be it. Makes no difference to me", he says to her.
"Old Bertie's sounds perfect Wilfred, lead the way".
With that said, he will hopefully leave the sinking Low Lantern behind.
Special: Concentration Guidance 45 seconds-ish
Archie crosses her arms at the owner and refuses to speak, merely walking away once the party are ready, and following them along to the suggested place.
Reya lowers her sword and looks confused, "So... you aren't part of the Flaming Fists? You're independent contractors?" She slowly puts her sword away as others seem uninterested and scratches her head. "What does independent contractors even mean? Oh, and I believe you about the join up or join the dungeon part, that's for sure."
Reed waves Reya to follow along as they drag Amrik through the streets to where ever this Bertie lives.
"We were dealing with the three dead whiners cult," Reed says as they walk. "We visited a pub that we didn't burn down, had a spa day, then ended up at this tavern that did burn down."
Reed spends as much time talking as he does taking stalk of Reya and whether she intends the group any harm.
Insight: (8+5) = 13
"I am indeed a Gallus." Roo says to Reya, holding his arms out and making a little bow before ruffling his feathers again. "My name is Roo' Stor, and this foul featherless cur Amrik has information about the murder of one of my own, by the name of Fog' Horn. What information is it that you seek from this beast?"
Roo hops down and reaches into his beltline, pulling out the manacles he had procured in the depths of the Dungeon of the Dead Three and cuffing Amrik behind his back before rolling him over. He then produces a short section of rope and begins to tie his ankles, making sure to keep the knot in front where it would be very hard to reach it while cuffed. Once that is done, he starts to wrestle Amrik up and over Glory of Morning's saddle as the possum stands there panting and not looking the slightest bit ashamed for fainting at the last conceivable moment of battle.
"It doesn't matter what we are." Roo says as he takes Glory of Morning's reins in his hand and begins to lead her after Wilfred toward Old Bertie's. "We have something you want, apparently, and we're not interested in you. Do with that information what you will."
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York