More Charisma Than a Roomful of Nymphs (finished, link to full SH in last post)

[haiiro]

I'm off to Salt Lake City for about a week, so here's a quick post just in case I can't update from the road (darn that whole "not owning a laptop" thing). Enjoy!

Suspecting that his bee might have missed its mark, Jaehn finished up a second summoning spell -- this time calling into being a shining white celestial monkey. This monkey appeared on the roof and immediately began chasing after the blue-robed figure, its wild shrieks sounding like a cross between monkey howls and a choir of monks. Faced with a wide gap between two buildings, it somersaulted into the air -- De'lea and Tuggle spotted it from the street, tiny sparkling halo and all -- and disappeared from sight. Blinking, De'lea said to no one in particular, "I think I just saw a monkey of Sune run across the roof."

Inside Tarayn's shop, Talishmere opened the inner door with a vague premonition of dread. In the small room beyond was a bulky dwarf wearing some sort of armor cobbled together from leather and various bits of metal plate. He was staring, aghast, at a smoking puddle on the glass-strewn floor in front of him. Tal said, "Are you open for business? I tried to knock."

His eyes still wide, the dwarf responded, "Get that armored apron from the bench behind you." When Tal had found the apron, the dwarf said, "Put it on." After waiting for Tal to do so, he continued: "Now lay on the puddle."

Tal replied, "How about if I just lay it over the puddle?" This done, the dwarf stepped carefully around the spill -- trying to tread on the apron as little as possible -- and made it through the door, which he slammed shut. Leaning against the door, he gave Tal an appraising look and said, "You're pretty sharp, for a human."

A brief discussion ensued, during which Tal learned that Tarayn last saw Martooth that morning, and that he couldn't understand why any self-respecting drakesmith would want to keep regular hours. Things headed south when Tal told the dwarf that there had been people up on his roof, and got steadily worse once he mentioned that his friends were in fact up there right now. Meaning to head up to the roof, Tarayn demanded Tal's sword -- Tal refused -- and the dwarf wound things up by ejecting him from the shop.

Outside, Jaehn's bee had vanished -- leaving Vicktor somewhat confused -- and Artemis, his fear having worn off, had returned to the group. When Jaehn felt the bee pop out of existence, De'lea lowered her bow and the Follies moved completely out of combat mode.

As there were now small crowds of people watching them from one street over, Tuggle bowed and announced loudly, "And thus ends our performance!"

While De'lea waited nearby, Artemis, Jaehn and Tuggle gathered around the door to Martooth's shop. On the roof above, Vicktor found a rope-wrapped glass jug of wine and a few crumbs where Tal first saw the robed figure. Speculating that perhaps it had just been a wino after all, he walked over to the edge of the roof facing the street to tell the other Follies what was on the roof.

At this moment, his failed attempt at diplomacy complete, Tal emerged from Tarayn's shop. Spotting him, Vicktor shouted down a description of what he found -- and then dropped the wine bottle. Making to catch it with his heavy steel gauntlet, Tal naturally wound up drenched in wine when the bottle shattered over his upraised hand.

 

[Broccli_Head]

hey...this is all deja vu....

haven't I seen this somewhere before?

can't wait to re-read the dockside battle...loved it.

 

[haiiro]

hey...this is all deja vu....

haven't I seen this somewhere before?

can't wait to re-read the dockside battle...loved it.

I was hoping you'd stop in, Broccli! It's good to see you, and I'm glad you still enjoy the SH.

I re-edited (past tense is your friend), cleaned up the format a bit, and decided to start it up again. Not long to go until the dockside battle (one of my favorites as well).

 

[haiiro]

I just discovered that there's no way I'll be able to update from Salt Lake, since I left the current edit of the next couple of posts at home...

I get back to Michigan on Wednesday night, and I'm going to be very busy -- but I'll do my best to update on 8/11 or 8/12!

 

[haiiro]

I'm back from SLC -- as promised, here's the update!

Martooth's Shop

By then, Artemis had already picked Martooth's lock and let himself in with Tuggle and Jaehn in tow. They were joined shortly thereafter by Vicktor and a rather pungent Talishmere, who was the subject of some ridicule. The Follies found the interior of the shop to be much like the exterior: haphazard and disorganized.

The lower floor was mostly taken up by a large table and benches, a small stairway that corkscrewed up into the ceiling, and shelves on every wall. These shelves were cluttered with all manner of containers, from heavy earthenware jugs to delicate glass boxes, and in combination with the marked absence of a bell or blockhole this made it look like Martooth might just be in the container business.

While De'lea waited outside, the rest of the Follies searched Martooth's shop from top to bottom. They turned up two items of interest, one inside and one out.

Upstairs, they found a small painting depicting an unusual scene. The left half of the work was taken up by a wall and doorframe, while the right half depicted a rather nondescript street at night. Centered in the right half, as if observed by someone peering around the doorframe, was a shimmering humanoid figure -- more faded and redder in color than the one the Follies encountered on Rauthauvyr's Road, but in exactly the same "looking for something" pose. A brief discussion established that they weren't going to steal the painting, and Jaehn ascertained that it wasn't magical before returning it to the shelf.

Downstairs, Vicktor was called over to identify a symbol that had been scratched into the lower right corner of the front door. It consisted of three dots or circles, and to the left of the top two circles were two small triangles. Drawing on his carnie background, Vicktor related to the Follies that this was thiefsign: each circle represented a time that someone had entered Martooth's shop, and each triangle stood for an occasion on which they stole something from him. Before they all regrouped on the street in front of Martooth's shop, Artemis took a moment and re-locked the door behind them.

Meanwhile

After taking a few minutes to share information and speculate as to who -- if anyone -- the blue-robed being had been watching, the Follies began walking in the general direction of the river. Jaehn, however, split off from the group and headed back towards Farry's Port. His intention was to send out empathic signals to Drake, his silver raven familiar, until he got within a mile of the inn and was able to receive a reply. Once Drake had joined him, he'd make his own way to the Cup and meet the others there.

Meanwhile, Cupric had been making some discoveries of his own. Deftly gathering information from a variety of Selgaunt natives and other passersby, he had been researching the music business while the other Follies were at Martooth's shop. He learned that there were two music districts in the Bazaar: the first was in the Southspur district, adjacent to the city wall some distance East of the Trade Gate.

This was one of three gates into Selgaunt -- the other two being the Statue Gate, which the Follies came through last night, and Sailor's Arch, to the South. In Southspur was a very large and exclusive shop called Mazendria's, which was said to be frequented by the High City's best musicians. As people laughingly informed Cupric, it cost twenty gold pieces simply to set foot in the door -- and so a cluster of less pricey shops has arisen around Mazendria's, catering to those who couldn't afford it but wished they could.

The other district of note was called the Strings, and consisted of a street packed with cubbyhole shops each devoted to a particular instrument, or part of an instrument. The Strings was quietly tucked in behind Red Cobbles, a service market that bordered the Arkhen just South of the Davisson Bridge. Instrument-wise, nearly anything could be had in the Strings, but quality varied and most shops were too small to have much on hand -- instead, one had to wait for an instrument to be crafted to order.

A bit more asking around also determined one other significant fact about both of these districts: they were too far away for Cupric to make it there, shop around, and still be at the Copper Cup by noon. Intending to seek them out later, Cupric instead turned his talents to finding out where the Cup was located -- and once he had done so, began making his way towards the docks.

Off on his own, Jaehn had made contact with Drake. As the raven took flight, Jaehn turned around and began giving directions to Drake while he walked towards the river. After making inquiries into the whereabouts of the Copper Cup, he changed direction slightly and began heading directly for it. Still in his customary disguise -- a portly human of completely unremarkable appearance -- Jaehn moved through the busy streets as he listened to Drake describe what he saw at Farry's Port. Only one thing stood out: a group of bears that were led up and down the street in front of the inn a few times, after which they disappeared and did not show up again.

After receiving this information, Jaehn posted Drake in the rooftops around Martooth's shop -- with instructions to keep an eye out for anyone in blue or red robes, and for non-gnomes entering the shop itself.

 

[haiiro]

En Route to the Copper Cup

Not wanting to draw undue attention to himself, Vicktor hung back about fifty feet from the other Follies as they walked through Selgaunt's busy streets. Of the Follies, only Cupric had been to Selgaunt before -- the others all had experience with cities, but none so large or busy as Selgaunt.

The winding streets were jammed with people, nearly all of whom seemed to be carrying ravens. It was difficult for anyone to take it all in, but the Follies also caught sight of myriad wine sellers, raven hawkers (carrying tall poles draped with cages full of rooks), messengers flitting from place to place, halflings selling sweetmeats, swarthy fruit merchants, and beggars showing off their ailments. All of these people combined make it difficult for Vicktor to keep the Follies in sight, so he moved a bit closer to the main party as they walked.

Taking immediate notice of the beggars, Talishmere began handing out iron rations. He gave a day's rations to each beggar that he saw, and while they thanked him he tried to find out the location of the Copper Cup. As always, De'lea had her eye out for flowers -- but after several minutes she had not seen a single flower-seller. Settling instead on scarves, she had no problem spotting a number of outlandish cloth merchants.

Each appeared to have donned an entire closet before leaving the house, and they were swaddled and draped about with all manner of brightly colored clothing. Flashing a gold coin, De'lea was able to buy several handfuls of scarves from one such merchant, and she began handing these out to attractive (and apparently unattached) men as she encountered them.

Coupled with her radiant beauty and innocent comments -- "Love is free if you look hard enough" -- this practice quickly drew an entourage around her. Tal and Tuggle kept a watchful eye on her as the crowd of hangers-on continued to grow, and Tuggle had to suppress a smirk when someone commented loudly, "I've never seen a hooker in armor before!" De'lea seemed unaffected by this, and continued handing out scarves even as Tal was handing out rations.

Vicktor, who had been watching all of this transpire as he moved through the crowd, was suddenly distracted when he made eye contact with a peculiar figure off to his right. He appeared to be an elf, but the ugliest elf Vicktor had ever seen. He was completely bald, and his face and head were covered in scars and pockmarks. The scarred elf didn't break eye contact as he shouldered his way through the crowd and stepped up to Vicktor, who had stopped to wait for him.

Observing this from further down the street, Artemis remarked, "Ahh! Carnie elves!"

 

[haiiro]

In a gravelly, accented voice, the elf said, "You look like a man who's good with his fists." Vicktor grunted in assent. "How'd you like to come fight for me?" Vicktor made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat. The elf continued, "Name's Orkrur," and stuck out his hand. Noticing that his knuckles were scarred and bruised, Vicktor shook Orkrur's hand and told him his name.

Cracking a joke about how hard it was to obtain a license to fight within the city, Orkrur went on to explain that he ran a fighting ship, the Bloody Barge, and that he'd like Vicktor come do some boxing for him. He told Vicktor that the Barge moored just South of the city most of the time, but would be tied up at the largest pier in the bay for Rook's Night. He intimated that Vicktor would have a chance to make several hundred gold pieces, which caught Vicktor's interest.

Still deadpan, Vicktor agreed to come fight for Orkrur, at which the elf handed him a wooden ring. As Vicktor looked it over -- its dark surface stained with blood and sweat -- the elf explained that this token would get him onto the Barge. With a wink, he bade Vicktor farewell and faded back into the moving crowd.

The rest of their walk to the docks passed without incident, and the Follies (or at least, most of the Follies) at last arrived at the Arkhen. Between them and the river were the tidiest -- and by far the largest -- docks any of them had ever laid eyes on.

From end to end, the whole dockside area must have been at least a mile long, and the shoreline swarmed with people. The broad river was no less busy, jammed with every imaginable type of boat along its entire length. Looking out towards the bay, the party saw only a thicket -- or more aptly, several forests -- of masts, bobbing and weaving every which way as galleys, sloops, traders and ships of the line headed up and down the Arkhen.

Across the river, high white marble walls ran the entire length of the shoreline: the Follies had caught their first glimpse of the High City. A few towers could be seen protruding above the vast walls, and one tower in particular caught their collective eye. This edifice jutted at least a hundred feet higher than the wall, and from its apex they saw massive cables stretching down and across the river -- into the Low City -- in three different directions.

Once their attention returned to the stretch of impossibly busy docks ahead of them, the Follies continued making for the Copper Cup. As they avoided bales, beams, lines and clutches of dockworkers, they noticed that there didn't seem to be very many guards on the docks -- and those that they did see were mainly orcs and half-orcs. This went for most of the dockworkers as well. Continuing down the docks, the Follies were once again struck by how clean and orderly the area appeared to be.

As they approached from the North, Cupric had already gone into the Cup and begun making inquiries about Martooth Battlebrow. At the same time as Cupric was finding out that no one at the Cup had heard of Martooth, Jaehn was one street away to the South, walking down a narrow road that ran parallel to the Cup.

At this point, everyone in the party -- and on the docks around the Copper Cup -- heard the same thing: an inhuman roar loud enough to wake the dead.

 

[haiiro]

Welcome back for a post-hurricane update! With a bit of luck I'll be able to continue the dockside battle posts fron GenCon.

A Lot Can Happen in Sixty Seconds

In full view of the main group of Follies, a section of deck on a large ship moored at the dock exploded upwards in a shower of planking and splinters. A massive, hulking figure smashed its way out of the wreckage and began hauling itself ashore -- and although only its upper half was visible, it was clearly at least ten feet tall.

In that frozen moment, the Follies had time to observe that the creature was roughly humanoid in appearance, but lacked any sort of defined musculature -- instead, it looked like a mass of guts and ropy muscles jammed into a mottled, giant-shaped skin. The monstrosity howled again, and suddenly everyone was in motion.

As the dozens of dock workers, pedestrians and onlookers began to flee from the river's edge, a second creature -- clearly of the same type, although not identical -- smashed through a different section of the ship's deck and leaped ashore. As the ship's masts thrashed wildly and sailors were tossed into the river, Artemis was already speeding towards the second creature.

He drew his rapier as he ran, nimbly dodging coiled lines, barrels and other impediments while building up speed. Knowing that the giant's great reach would allow it to strike him before he could skewer it, Artemis dodged to one side as he came within striking distance -- but not quickly enough.

The behemoth's barrel-sized fist caught Artemis in the ribs, snapping several and sending jolts of pain through his body. Undeterred, he continued his lunge and aimed his rapier for the giant's chest. The blow struck true, and Artemis watched in horror as the slender blade bent to a right angle and completely faild to penetrate its thick hide armor.

While this was going on, the first beast smashed through a pallet of barrels arranged by the dock, crushing some to splinters while flinging others aside like toys. As the crowd around the Copper Cup finally had a chance to fully react to the situation, their screams became loud enough to drown out the tormented roars of the rampaging giant.

Jaehn poked his head out from between two buildings not far from the Copper Cup, and saw a third giant emerging from the swaying ship behind the first two. He sized up the situation and decided to see if he could distract the trio of giants -- and with this in mind, he created a minor image of two more giants, right in the thick of things.

To make it clear to his companions that these were their giants, he added huge scars on the backs of their heads in the shape of his mage rune. Knowing that any physical interaction with the real giants would make it fairly easy for them to disbelieve his illusion, Jaehn concentrated on making them swing and miss, while avoiding the blows their foes aimed at them.

The giant facing Artemis clasped its hands together and brought its paired fists down on the slender man like a piledriver. As Artemis reeled, the beast followed up with a swift kick that nearly drove him to the ground. Trying to roll with the blow, Artemis began to set himself up for a quick escape from this fearsome melee -- he was seriously wounded.

The other giant, meanwhile, had focused its attention on the beast that first broke out of the ship -- a punch was followed by the same paired-fist attack that nearly felled Artemis, and both blows hit the other giant like falling tree trunks. Not so for De'lea's arrow and Tuggle's magic missiles, however, nor Tal's crossbow bolt. The arrow sank into the wounded giant's hide armor with no effect, while Tal's bolt went wide. Only Tuggle's tattoo needles found their mark -- but the giant didn't even seem to notice their impact.

As the Follies began attacking the giants in earnest, nearly all of the people on the dockside had fled from the scene, including De'lea's entourage. Two carts with chocks under their wheels -- with two wild-eyed, neighing horses hitched to each of them -- and a few cowering pedestrians were all that remained.

Finding himself suddenly alone in the Cup -- the other patrons having fled out the rear door when they caught a glimpse of the giants -- Cupric assessed the situation through one of the windowframes. Hearing a shrill whistle blast cut through the bedlam, he tried to see whether or not the rampaging giant bore the same control nails in the back of its head as the war-ogre they had fought the night before.

Between the giant's frenzied movements, the scattered people on the docks and the clouds of grain erupting from the barrels the creature was destroying, he couldn't tell for sure -- but he spotted what could be glints of metal studding the back of its head. Hoping for a repeat of his earlier success, he stepped out of the Cup and sent a wave of Tasha's hideous laughter washing over the wounded giant. It doubled over with laughter, pounding a barrel to splinters in the process.

Just then, several of the Follies heard another whistle -- this one much lower in tone than the first, and coming from a different direction.

 

[thedangerranger]

A short intermission.

This commercial break brought to you by Allied Van Lines.
The official movers of haiiro to Salt Lake City, Utah.
A soon as haiiro has internet capability again, expect to see more update.
mmm... good stuff on the way, including thrilling moments like...shopping and chopping stuff in half.
Expect to see more updates in about a week.
-tdr-

 

[haiiro]

Woo-hoo! I'm now once again lapping at the sweet, sweet nectar of the internet -- and I've been itching to post this update. Sorry for the delay, and thanks to TDR for the explanation. The dockside battle continues...

At this point, it seemed as though everything was happening at once. The wounded giant was laughing and roaring in pain all at the same time, and stood rooted to the cobbles. Near death, Artemis tumbled away from the knot of giants, avoiding one last swipe that was aimed at him as he retreated. Tuggle had slipped down an empty alleyway, entered a small storehouse, and found a window from which to rain magic missiles on the giants. Vicktor, who had been crouched behind one of the horse-carts (now creaking wildly as the horses struggled to escape) from the start, had begun trying to pinpoint the source of the high-pitched whistle. Jaehn had stayed put, and continued to try and keep two of the giants occupied on the shoreline. Cupric bellowed out a joke about the closest giant's mother at the top of his lungs -- and it glared at him with its fist-sized eyes and roared back, "I ate my mother!" De'lea bobbed and weaved to avoid obstacles as she kept loosing arrows from her bow. Tal moved to intercept Artemis, loading his crossbow as his heavy boots clattered across the cobbles.

Hoping that the frenzied horses might do some damage the giants, Tuggle called up a mage hand and began worrying free one of the tethering pins on the nearest cart. As he got the pin loose, that horse bolted straight for De'lea -- and as if on cue, all three of the other horses also broke free of their burdens.

One trampled a cowering halfling under its hooves, mashing him to a pulp and splashing blood on his companion -- also a halfling who hand't fled fast enough. The other two horses bolted off at top speed: one headed straight for the river, and the other straight for the Cup. De'lea avoided being run down only by blind luck, as she hit the ground and the horse's hooves struck the cobbles all around her. Seconds later, two of the horses had tumbled headfirst into the river (after maddened attempts to halt their forward movement), and the others had bolted off into the city.

Both whistles had been heard again amidst the chaos, and Vicktor was finally able to determine the direction of the high-pitched one. Crouching low, he scooted away from the mayhem, heading further up the shoreline. At the same time, Tal suffused Artemis with Torm's blessing, mending bones and stanching blood with curative magic.

Throughout the past several seconds, Tuggle had launched missiles at the giants as often as he could cast the spell. Even though they didn't seem to have had any effect, he knew that they must be doing damage, a little bit at a time. Noting that the low whistle made the two pursuing giants look around, Cupric used ghost sound and his knack for vocal performance to mimic it perfectly, and caused it to emanate from a point right in the midst of the giants.

The nearest one didn't appear to notice, but the giant that had been attacking Artemis perked up and turned towards the sound. As he began moving towards the source of the phantom whistle, however, all three of the misshapen creatures were distracted by the appearance of a squad of humans and half-orcs wearing the grey of Gurrom's Wheels, who burst onto the scene from the South. Although as yet unnoticed by the Follies, a squad of Baric's Pikemen had also arrived, and was making its way down the alley behind Tuggle's hidey-hole.

Several of the Follies were visibly relieved when the Wheels showed up, clad in chainmail and armed with shortswords, and led by a whipcord-thin bald man with the bearing of a veteran. The Wheels all came to an abrupt halt, clearly trying to take in the chaos before them: three hideous giants, two of them wounded (and one of those laughing hysterically); a sinking ship moored to the dock; the trampled halfling; smashed barrel-staves and planking scattered everywhere; and the armed and armored Follies in the middle of it all.

Their leader shouted, "Gurrom will kill us if we try!" -- although his words were all but lost in the noise of the battle. At the same time, three of the half-orcs in his squad charged the nearest giant. One of them set his sword just right and rammed it into the giant's chest up to the hilt -- and in response, the giant reared to its full height and swatted the guard's head off with a single blow.

Following through, the giant staved in the next guard's sternum in a shower of bright blood -- and in the same movement, threw one leg out in a powerful mule kick that tore one of the third half-orc's arms clean off. The momentum carried the guard spinning to the ground, and he was dead from shock before his blood had finished spattering to the cobbles.

In the same moment, the Follies at last felled the first giant, who continued laughing uproariously even as blood clogged his throat and gurgled messily from his wounds. As he crashed to the ground like an avalanche, Tal, Cupric and De'lea headed into the thick of things -- traipsing through his innards in the process -- and wound up among the remaining Wheels. This group had still not acted, and they were caught completely off-guard when the Wheel-slaying giant plowed into one of them, breaking bones and driving him back with one massive shoulder.