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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Teneb" data-source="post: 1370633" data-attributes="member: 3572">A Pox Upon Half-Orcs    Things quieted down fairly quickly.  I was locked back in my cell as a “precaution”, but the guards realized it was going to be hard to hold someone who could become a squirrel at will.  The would-be assassin was unceremoniously dumped in another cell and left in unconscious bliss.  Surprisingly, the mayor soon made an appearance and explained to us that he had deduced Katra was a fraud.  He was very concerned about the apparent abundance of trained killers in town and asked us to investigate matters.  To aid us, he agreed to spread the rumor that the monk was successful in killing us before himself being overcome by town guards.  The mayor also deputized us, giving us some official investigative powers; obviously somewhat limited since we’re “dead”.    The mayor feared his household had been infiltrated by a spy, due to the quickness in which our capture was followed by our attempted murder.  His personal secretary, Padris, has been delivering the mayor's decrees but the mayor vouches for Padris’ loyalty.  All the same, we decided to follow Padris on his next message delivery (which incidentally was to the local church of Suldane, asking to come pick up our corpses).  Perhaps Padris isn’t a spy but is being followed or otherwise intercepted.    We left the jail incognito, and soon hooked up with Gruck and Tarrick who were waiting outside to find out what happened to us.  Sam kicked Gruck in the shin to get his attention (which nearly got Sam killed for real) and the whole group moved towards Edward's manor.  Unfortunately, said manor was currently besieged by Prime guards.  Gruck, Narissa, and Tarrick used our newly acquired badges to get into the manor to apprise Edward of what was going on, as well as pick up Linder who was tousling the maids.  Narissa decided her attention was better spent researching the Taint and elected to stay behind at Edwards to do so.  (OOC: Narissa’s player has started taking classes and won’t be playing for a good long while; ergo we’ve lost our sorceress.  Ouch.)    We decided to split up in order to follow Padris from the mayor’s house to the church of Suldane.  Tarrick would tail the courier on the ground while I followed from the air in raven form.  The others would station themselves along Padris’ most likely route and watch for anyone following him.  Padris set out and headed directly for the church.  Unexpectedly, he walked into Tavik’s Tavern on the way, going several blocks off the most direct path to the church to do so.  Tarrick followed the mayor’s man into the tavern, joined by Gruck who was stationed nearby.  I flew to the roof of the building and watched the rear.  Soon Padris, sans Gruck and Tarrick, emerged.  Thinking my two compatriots on the ground had whatever was in the tavern taken care of, I followed Padris the rest of the way to the temple, as well as back to the mayor’s house.  The rest of the journey was uneventful.    Eventually, we all meet back at the inn we had purchased rooms at.  Tarrick and Gruck had been slipped a sleeping potion in the tavern, and were non-sensical for a period of time.  Before dozing off, the two were able to overhear Padris meeting with a strange older woman, who told him “You have done well for Suldane and your country Padris”.  The woman left through a door marked “Staff only” and that’s all the human and half-orc could remember.  We rested for the remainder of the day and went back to Tavik’s to try and discover who the woman was and who she worked for.    A large half-orc guarded the “Staff” door and refused entry when Gruck asked to go past.  I wildshaped into a ferret and secretly explored the off-limits area of the tavern.  The kitchen and storage rooms were quite mundane, but a sturdy closed door piqued my curiosity.  From the sounds coming from the other side, I presumed there was some sort of gambling going on, though I couldn’t confirm it (I wish ferrets had opposable thumbs!).    After reporting back to Gruck, he and Tarrick tried to fast-talk their way past the half-orc guard, whose name was Groth.  Apparently all half-orc names need to sound like a form of hacking cough.  At any rate, Groth was having none of their chatter and firmly told the duo the back rooms were off limits.  Tarrick then hit upon the idea to get Groth drunk.  After some initial reluctance (he wasn’t supposed to drink on duty), Groth was fairly well toasted.  Linder even tried to help get the brute to move by spreading rumors with the many Prime guards in the establishment that Groth thought they were a bunch of pansies.  Several of the guards moved closer to the half-orc while we watched gleefully.  Sadly, after seeing Groth’s immense broadsword, the Primers sobered up and backed off.    We were all getting a bit frustrated with the door guard’s obstinacy.  Linder cast invisibility on Tarrick in preparation for some sort of clandestine entry into the gambling room.  However, fortune smiled upon us (or not) as someone outside shouted something about seeing Ianthe.  The tavern promptly emptied of everyone except our party, Groth, and the bartender.  With the riff-raff gone, things got interesting mighty quick.    The bartender started singing a song about a sheriff poking around in affairs that were too big for him; catchy little tune, but it didn’t lessen my desire to punch his face in.  Unseen by us below, a gnome stepped onto the balcony above and dropped a fireball on all of us.  We’re getting really tired of gnomes.  It was a pitiful little fireball and no one was injured badly, but the fight was clearly on.  Feeling the wizard was the greater threat, Oskar used a spiritual weapon on him while I conjured a thunderstorm in the building and fired a lightning bolt at him; this is fast becoming a favorite spell of mine.  Sam raced up the stairs and also sighted on the mage.  A barmaid, presumably the person who yelled about Ianthe, stepped through the front door.  She raised a shortbow, a most un-ladylike weapon, and feathered Gruck twice.    Oskar raised his voice, beseeching Suldane for assistance against these apparent evildoers.  His prayer was answered and our spirits were buoyed by Suldane’s grace.  Linder began a song of his own detailing Tavrik’s parentage, which was not flattering.  I directed another lightning bolt at the wizard while Gruck laid into the bard/bartender with his double axe.  Sam took the mage out of the fight with a sweep kick that dropped the little gnome on his arse.    Things were going fairly well for us at this point.  The mage was down, the bard wasn’t really doing anything, the barmaid was annoying (but I was heading for her...can you say “bear”?), and Groth was conflicted and not attacking.  We should have realized the other shoe was going to drop.  Another assailant came into view as she reached around Oskar’s shoulder and jammed a knife under his chin (OOC Invisible assassin NPC who had been observing Oskar for the first three rounds of combat - save or die attack.  Bleh).  He crumpled to the floor lifeless and things got a lot more interesting from there.    In desperation, I gave up going after the bowman and instead flamestruck her and the newly visible assassin, doing very little damage.  Both the bard and Groth engaged Gruck, dealing a fair bit of hurt to our half-orc.  The bowman continued firing at Gruck as well, while the assassin struck at me, grazing my tail.  I scurried over to Gruck, who by this time had taken a royal beating at the hands of the bowman and Groth, and healed him a bit.  Gruck stepped back from the fray long enough to quaff a healing potion as well.  Above, Sam finished off the hapless wizard and prepared to leap down into the battle on the main floor.    Linder broke into a ditty on how humans are inferior fighters to half-orcs, which got Groth chuckling uncontrollably.  This eased the pressure on Gruck, who was able to score a number of hits on the bard.  Tarrick, better late than never, returned from his search of the back room in time to make use of his invisible state: he finished off the bowman with a well placed sword-thrust .  In return, the bard directed a song at him that sent Tarrick into convulsions of laughter.  Meanwhile, the female assassin flashed her cloak as a distraction, and everyone lost sight of her.  I caught a glimpse and directed a lightning bolt at her.  Homing in on that strike, Gruck landed a solid blow and the assassin went down.  Gruck hammered on the bard a few more times, and Sam smashed down on him from above, knocking him cold.  We gathered around Oskar's limp form and wondered aloud what to do next.</blockquote>

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