The Long Road - Game Thread

Quote from Guiltysparc >>

Jorin is now intrigued by the zombies, "How would you rate their wrestling skills?" he asks.

Laurel gives a quick demonstration of a zombie putting her in a wresting hold. (The zombie follows her moves but doesn't act on its own, so she has to pull on its arms, and "sell" all the moves.)

"There's no getting out of this one's arm lock!"

Quote from Mingofaust >>

Quillary grits her teeth. "How much to get you to stop talking about the zombies?" she asks putting a gold coin on the counter.

Laurel slides back the coin. "You are willing to buy these 3 zombies? An excellent choice from our selection! But I don't need coins. The price is a little sample from each of you. Normally I'd want 2 samples per zombie, but I'll give you a 5-for-3 sale, for being such happy customers.

"Don't worry, nothing about these samples can be traced back to you. Your samples are anonymous. (These are some of the components we need to make more zombies.) What I need is a snippet of your hair... (looks at Pascal) or a few loose scales from the top of your head

"And a small amount of blood." She pulls out a milking pail (several gallon size), and with some effort, slams it on top of the counter.

She then reaches into the pail, and pulls out hair shears, five small pouches (for the hair/scales), and five clay vials with stoppers (small test-tube size).

(OOC: Pay the price, get 3 zombies, and get her to turn off the sales-pitch?)

Quillary gives her the skeevy eye. “No.”

Quote from Mingofaust >>

Quillary gives her the skeevy eye. “No.”

(Fair enough. Someone write out your character's argument for why Laurel should reveal details of her business dealings with Mugrub, and then make the appropriate skill check. If you alert Drusk to what you are doing, then you can add a d4 from Guidance.

Not sure if you are trying Persuasion, Deception, Intimidation, or something else.)

Quillary is good at none of those things, and wise enough that you'd think she'd know it. You'd be wrong. She turns and leans against the counter, looking at the zombies, then she lolls her head back to look at Laurel. "Look, we're after the key, and on the way we've uncovered a murdering assassin who leaves headless bodies," she flicks her eyes at the zombies, "And those can't even be made into zombies. We just need a lead on the key. You can have this," she pulls the eye out of her pocket and holds it up.

It is unclear if Quillary is trying to be sexy, or actually bartering with the eye, or appealing to Laurel's decency... problem is, Quillary doesn't know either.

Persuasion: 4

Quote from Mingofaust >>

It is unclear if Quillary is trying to be sexy, or actually bartering with the eye, or appealing to Laurel's decency... problem is, Quillary doesn't know either.

Persuasion: 17

Neither does Laurel. In fact, she is starting to be creeped out by Quillary, and wants her to leave as soon as possible. (The unhinged shopkeeper is finding Quillary to be too disturbing.)

"I don't know anything about a key. I was told to give the gold to Mugrub, and to give her an address for Yraxilinith. He... she.. it... the mind flayer has a lair there. Yraxilinith traded in a bunch of valuable items to get that amount of gold, so whatever that key is, must have been important to it. Okay? Please go, now. Right now." Laurel hurriedly writes down a crude map, drawing an arrow at the corner of a building a block east of Skull Square. (Most of the streets in Skullport are unnamed.) She stuffs the note into Jorin's hand. Laurel then has the pirate mummies gently (but firmly) push the party out of the shop, locks the door, and closes the blinds.

Hildigrim smiles up at Quillary. "Hainard's hairy toes, that was brilliant! You're doing all the talking from now on." He begins walking. "Hair and blood," he says to himself, sounding more interested than disgusted. "I wonder what she does with them."

Drusk: "She mentioned a mind-flayer. I still have nightmares about that squid-face that used its foul magic to turn Jorin against us... If we have to face another of those things, I am glad that we are more experienced, stronger."

(OOC: That was something like 3500 posts ago!)

Jorin visibily recoils at the mention of the mindflayer.  "Those foul creatures...they do have betentacled faces, do they not?" Jorin taps his finger on his chin, "Perhaps he wrapped his face around poor Mudgrub and ate her head!"

On the way, Quillary gets filled in on the mind flayer from earlier. "A brain dog? That is interesting. I can't wait to meet this mind flayer. Perhaps they will have the key, and we can stop bartering our way through the underworld." She pockets the eyeball again.

Hildigrim stops walking, jerking his head toward Jorin mid sentence. "You're right!" the halfling exclaims. "Mind flayers do have tentacled heads. But ... do you suppose they're capable of consuming an orc's cranium? I don't recall it having an especially large mouth. Though, I wasn't able to give it a proper examination in the moment. The mind flayer, that is." He puts a finger to his chin, looking almost pleased. "To think. Doing business with a mind flayer. Of course, I've only had dealings with the one, so perhaps there are civil mind flayers. Civility being relative, of course. If we theorize that this mind flayer — Yraxilinith — traded in its goods in order to acquire the funds, why wouldn't it just procure the key itself? Or perhaps it had the items delivered to wherever the items were traded in and the gold provided to Laurel to give to Mugrub. The Dead Man's Corner didn't appear to deal in anything save zombies, so unless Mr. Y was trading in zombies for gold, there's another shop involved. Let me try something." Hildigrim pulls a copper wire out of his component pouch and performs a short incantation and points in the direction of The Dead Man's Corner, his lips moving, but no sound coming out (but the others will get the gist of what he said afterward. "Pardon the magical intrusion, but could you tell me where Yraxilinith's good were traded in for gold? Speak, and I will hear your answer."

Hildigrim looks a bit confused after his silent whisper. ("I know these voices in my head are not real, although this one sounds different than the others. Go away.")

Drusk (to Quillary): "I thought it was a brain-cat, not a brain-dog, but I might be remembering it wrong... And I guess that doesn't make much of a difference, if the thing is trying to kill you."

Pascal raises a hand, “Could also be somethin’ with tentacles and a big mouth. Like a... tentacle lizardfolk or something.”

Drusk: "Wait, why are we talking about it biting people's heads off? Hildigrim, you and Jorin both deduced that the heads were sliced at the neck, with a knife or short sword. If it was a mind flayer, it could be hiding the evidence that it was involved. Or maybe it is something else, getting carry-out food for a mind flayer... Or it might be something with a big mouth and tentacles." Shrugs in confusion.

Looking a bit alarmed, a bit frustrated, and slightly amused, Hildigrim relays his inability to find out more information from Laurel using his communication spell.

"I doubt we will solve this mystery while loitering in the street debating," the halfling finally says. "Let's find this mind flayer."

Jorin blinks at Drusk and says, "Oh, yes.  Hmm, that does put a damper on my theory."

Quillary will go with the others to the new address.

(On the map, brown lines are building walls - brick, wood, plaster, etc. The grey lines are natural stone, even if they have been cut into a regular shape.)

Your group sees one building in that area of the map, and one entrance. (No windows. It is dark all the time, anyways.)

After checking for traps, listening for noises (quiet), and picking the locked door, you enter. The area is an irregularly shaped 20' x 30' shop-and-living space, but completely run down and covered with dust. What little furniture in there has been torn apart by rats and other rodents. It has been abandoned for some time.

Investigation! 18

Quote from DirtyDogP >>

Investigation! 17

Don't find anything out of the ordinary in that room/house. Everything is as you observed the first time.

No back rooms, back doors, trap doors (that are obvious without a roll)?