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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tuerny" data-source="post: 85509" data-attributes="member: 674">Dirigo (Summer Tide) 2, Evening (Part 2)Session 2, Part 2 (of 2)This is the rest of the session. Enjoy and, as always, comments are welcomed.The street was as empty as before as the group ran about, looking for horses or shelter. They were unable to find the horses but they did discover an abandoned building without windows on the first floor. Blackscale immediately used his strength to knock the door down, much to Demetrius’ annoyance. He felt he could have opened it much more efficiently and quickly. They entered into the building and immediately began to settle in, with Blackscale setting Gideon’s unconscious body onto the ground so that Vanya could heal him. Demetrius used his unique skills to force the door back shut. While they were dealing with this Blackscale ran up to the second floor in order to keep an eye out for anyone who happened to approach the building. At this point everyone also noticed Avalon was missing. None were willing to go outside and look for her, however, so they remained inside sitting in silence. A few minutes later both Vanya and Blackscale heard a voice screaming and then suddenly stop. It sounded a lot like Avalon. Vanya told Demetrius of this and he worked to open the door as Blackscale came down. When he saw Blackscale rushing for the door he warned him away until he was finished. Blackscale decided to wait. It took but a few moments for Demetrius to bring the door down. Immediately afterwards they ran down the street looking for her. They stumbled onto her body a few minutes later. Her bird was nowhere to be found. Blackscale picked up her body and quickly retreated back into the house. Once inside they took a moment to examine her further, save for Blackscale who regained his perch on the second floor. Her body was covered with black smudges, but she otherwise appeared unhurt. Gideon noted perceptively that the shadows probably got her. Vanya looked through her body quickly looking for the key that Avalon had grabbed upon fleeing. She found it, and pocketed it. While she was doing this Demetrius took the wand of magic missile and pocketed it himself without anyone else noticing. With the group finished with the body they dragged her over into the corner and covered her with a blanket, and prepared for sleep.Somewhere else in the city a serpent tattooed swordsman awoke with a sudden splitting headache. He was unable to throw it off right away and tossed and turned before going to sleep. The next morning Vanya awoke to find a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach pulling her to the north. Having some idea of what this was, she awoke the others telling them that she had some business to take care of and that she would return later with some food. She then immediately began to prepare a disguise for herself. Her skill with this was great, and even those who watcher her put together her disguise barely were able to recognize her. Demetrius attempted to disguise himself as well, but he was much, much less successful, so Vanya encouraged him to stay there. He, and the rest of them, chose to listen. Before she left though, Demetrius gave her a special knock to use on the door so they would let her in (three knocks, then two knocks, then one knock.)The streets were bright and sunny in contrast to the previous day and there were plenty of vendors out. In short order she was able to gather the food she needed and go where her intuition pointed her. Eventually, she came to the Inn of the Furious Emperor, near the Great Market of the city. Sitting at the table was the serpent-tattooed warrior from the previous night.Luckily, for her, he did not recognize her when she came in and when he noticed her she threw a smile his way and walked over. They engaged in some light conversation where she discovered his name was Tantalus (10). He bragged about his martial skills and how he had kicked ass the previous night in a battle inside another inn in the town. He also took this opportunity to subtly flex his muscles. She took no note of this but eventually thanked him for his time and left the inn, heading back to the place her companions were hiding out.When she returned to their hideout she found that Gideon was sleeping on the floor while the others kept their watches on the first and second floors. She started discussing that she had found who the next person to be imbued with the spark was with Demetrius. They began to discuss what to do about it, with most of Demetrius’ plans centering on either luring him back to the abandoned building and jumping him or Vanya seducing him. She did not like either of them. At this point Gideon woke up and insisted he be told what was going on. She told him about how she was able to sense the other individuals with the spark. He wanted to know how and she explained that Vinus Callus had taught it to her. He insisted that he teach it to her right now, but she refused saying that it had taken years for Vinus Callus to do so. Annoyed, he asked her where the inn was. She related it to him and he walked out the door. Vanya decided it would be best if she get to the inn before him and ran past Gideon. Demetrius and Blackscale chose to follow her. The reaction from the populace was as to be expected. Most of them avoided the lizard man out of fear while others actively ran away screaming. Blackscale decided that wearing a cloak was not worth the effort and ripped it off. Gideon pretended not to know the others. They continued on their way to the inn until they heard the march of Legionary boots down the street. Blackscale and Demetrius immediately looked for hiding places, Vanya pretended to be looking at a cart with merchandise and Gideon stepped back against the wall.  They passed without stopping, or noticing the hidden lizard man or dark-kin, heading in the direction of the abandoned house the group had left.Once the legionaries were out of sight Gideon, Vanya, and Blackscale walked up to the door of the inn while Demetrius decided to hide under a cart near the door.  Upon approaching the door, several patrons began to scream at the sight of Blackscale, and all scattered to either side of the door. Gideon decided that he would rather not be involved in this situation and walked away. On his way he stopped by the hidden Demetrius and whispered that he did not recommend he go in there. On the other side of the inn stood the serpent-tattooed warrior, Tantalus. Vanya quickly rushed over to him, pleading with him to go with them. He looked unconvinced at first, but after some very effective convincing on her part he agreed to go and talk about it in his room. (11) Once there she explained why they needed him to aid them in their quest. He seemed unconvinced until she offered him 100 gold pieces up front and another 100 once they completed their mission. That convinced him. Meanwhile, Demetrius decided that hiding in a nearby alley was a good idea, Gideon similarly retreated a few blocks away, and Blackscale started waving his battle axe around telling everyone to be quiet. This elicited even more screams. The sounds of marching, booted feet emerged from the street. Figuring that this was arriving legionaries, Blackscale pushed a table over to block the door. Scanning the room and thinking much more exceptionally quickly than normal, he ran over and grabbed the innkeeper. Lifting him into the air, Blackscale demanded that he be told where the back entrance was. The innkeeper claimed a lack of knowledge, so Blackscale threw him to the floor.At this point, Vanya and Tantalus came down the stairs into the inn common room. Blackscale warned them of the impending arrival of the legionaries. Tantalus wanted to leave by the door, as they did not want him. Vanya pointed out they probably would now. Tantalus could not argue with the logic in this. The three of them then chose to retreat back into the bedroom in order to discuss things further. Once there, Vanya asked about going through the back door, and Blackscale shared that the innkeeper had said there wasn’t one. Tantalus looked out the window and saw that below them was an alley. They decided that this was the only way to escape, opened the door and tried to get out. Blackscale grabbed Vanya and jumped out the window, suffering some injury from an improper landing. Tantalus just climbed out and escaped okay. In the alley they saw Demetrius. As a group they decided escaping the Legionaries was more important than finding Gideon at the moment so they fled into the depths of the city. From Tantalus they found out how to get to the most run-down section of the city, and headed straight for it.The first place suitable for hiding in this district was the Inn of the Black Hand. After paying for the room, and the innkeeper’s silence, they retreated into its safety, with Demetrius almost immediately informing them that he would be right back. He went downstairs and questioned the innkeeper about any Iron Star cartel activity in the area. He was able to discover the location of an Iron Star drug house in the city (conveniently located a few blocks away) and decided to check it out.After presenting knocking on the door with the secret Iron Star knock, the door opened into a black and dank room that seemed to be filled with the smell of lotus and a variety of people in various states of lotus-induced euphoria. The man who answered the door was emaciated and ugly, with cracked teeth and the purple tinge in his eyes that was a sign of long-term purple lotus use. Demetrius came inside and they shared some quick pleasantries before Demetrius began to question him about getting out of the city. The man said they could do it but it would be expensive. Demetrius asked for Iron Cartel news, and the man shared that the big bosses were going to come through the next day with new instructions. Demetrius inquired as to what those instructions were, but all the man knew was that at least part of it involved some people that the Cartel was looking for. Demetrius thanked the man and returned to the inn.While he was dealing with that, Vanya removed her disguise and decided she wanted to change her clothes. Having the others wait outside was a bad idea in her eyes, so she insisted they turn around. Blackscale did not seem too fully understand why but he did so anyway. Tantalus, for his part, took a peak.When Demetrius arrived back and shared the information he had discovered, Vanya announced that she was going to go get some food and find Gideon. After some discussion it was decided that Tantalus would go with her as he was the least noticeable of the other three, and she would probably need protection in the rougher portions of the city. His presence proved to be fortuitous as many people watched them as they passed, but none of them interfered. Vanya went to find Gideon first, and was lucky enough to discover he had ended up staying at the inn where she had first found Tantalus. She had Tantalus stay outside, as it would not be wise for him to go in where he could be recognized. Inside, the innkeeper was more than happy to relate the location of Gideon’s room. She knocked upon his door and after a moment’s hesitation he inquired who it was, she told him, and he let her in. Vanya shared with him what was going on and said they had a way out of the city. Gideon said he had his own way out of the city (by walking through the front gate. She suggested that they meet a mile to the southwest of the city dawn. He agreed. She bid him farewell and went down to leave with Tantalus. With that completed she purchased some food from the low market, at returned to the inn.Gideon left for the gate almost immediately after Vanya visited him. The guards merely watched him as he left. A few minutes after he had walked through the gate he overheard one of them ask the other if they were supposed to be looking for a Val priest of Nier. The other guard replied they were, but they decided not to pursue it as he had already left the city. Back at the inn, Demetrius decided to go find out how much it would cost to get out of the city that night, and the man, who shared his name as Dimitri, said that he could get them out of the city that night in exchange for 15 gold pieces per person. He agreed and the man said to meet him back at the drug house at midnight. Demetrius returned to the inn and shared this new information with the others and, after some haggling it was determined that everyone would pay for themselves but Blackscale, who would be covered by Vanya, as he had no money. Demetrius, Blackscale, Tantalus, and Vanya arrived at the house on time and found Dimitri and a few other menacing looking fellows in a nearby alley. After they were paid, Dimitri insisted that the group be blindfolded, and the group agreed. They were led through the darkness of the city till they heard the sounds of running water. Each one was pushed into what felt like a wooden contained. A moment later they were each pushed into the water and began bobbing down the river.After what seemed to be a long time the group found that the containers they were in had stopped their endless floating. One by one they were able to escape (though Vanya needed the other’s help), and found that they were on the side of the river opposite of the road. They were unaware of how far they had come down the river, so they chose to follow Vanya’s suggestion of heading back in the direction of the city in order to make sure they had not gone too far and to find some way to cross the river.After traveling for about 10-15 minutes they encountered the dock of a ferry. Demetrius suggested that the others stay put while he checked it out, and attempted to sneak over to it. Unfortunately, the dog on the other side of the river awoke and started barking at Demetrius. The group decided to make a strategic retreat. They continued down the river some more before spotting the unmistakeable figure of Gideon on the other side of the river.  It took a lot of yelling and screaming but they were eventually able to get his attention. They informed him of the ferry and went back over to meet him. When Gideon arrived at the ferry he found an awake and cranky old man who asked Gideon if he had awoken his dog. Gideon denied know anything about it, so the old man asked him if he wanted to be ferried across the river. Gideon confirmed this, so he took him across. On the other side the group had a reunion and decided that it was safer to travel off the road than on. After another hour of traveling everyone had become very tired and they decided that it was time for them set camp. Vanya and Gideon fell asleep almost immediately with Tantalus taking watch and Blackscale hunting. Blackscale was only able to return with a rabbit, which he proceeded to devour the majority of. Tantalus discussed lighting a fire to cook the remainder until Gideon awoke because of their discussion, walked over to the rabbit, called upon the fire aspect of his god to summon a short semicircle of fire to cook the rabbit, and went back to bed. Tantalus ate it quietly and sat out the rest of his watch uneventfully.Demetrius had the next watch and was somewhat surprised when a black haired, black eyes, and black-clothed dwarf with a metal suitcase hailed him and asked if it was ok to come to the fire. Demetrius agreed and quickly kicked Blackscale. Blackscale chose to ignore him. The stranger came over and sat down, asking in a monotone how Demetrius was doing. Demetrius replied that he was fine and asked what the dwarf was doing out at this time. The dwarf introduced himself as Yennek, and said he was looking for a dark-kin, a pretty human woman, a large Ss’ressen, a serpent-tattooed warrior, and a Val cleric of Nier. Demetrius merely smiled and nodded and kicked Blackscale again. Blackscale remained asleep. The dwarf continued with a statement that since this was apparently the one he was looking for he had a message for Demetrius. He was a servant of Lucius val’Borda, an important noble of Pimiris, and that if they ever returned with the lizard man they would all be killed. Demetrius asked how he knew that Yennek was not lying, and Yennek said he had proof in the form of six legionaries that were a mere seventy feet away. He offered to have them come over, but Demetrius declined. Yennek thanked him for his fire and then disappeared into the night.The next morning Demetrius shared what happened in his watch. Gideon was incredulous about what had happened and asked him why he did not wake anyone up. Demetrius claimed he kicked Blackscale twice, but this did not really assuage Gideon’s worries. In annoyance, Gideon declared that he Demetrius was never allowed to keep watch again. With that particular conversation over with, the group began their long trip to the city of Plexus. (10) Tantalus is a level 2 human fighter played by Josh. (11) Josh and Mary decided to resolve their interaction in this segment based on a diplomacy check. She rolled a natural 20 than a 19. (I use critical success rules). So he was a wee bit convinced, yes <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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