Erekose's Savage Tide - Act 1: There is No Honour

[Rystil Arden]

[SBLOCK=Alix]Indeed. In fact, that's even better by a longshot! Even if he is denied access, when he checks the ledger with all the registered sign-ins in it, he'll get to see if his hunch that Vanthus stole the other ring and has been trying to acces the vault was right. Heck, if he'd known that already, he would have gone there first instead of talking to Rowyn. Also, he has the signet and high interaction skills, so the truthful statement of 'I am an emissary of Lavinia Vanderboren' should easily get him past. If there are traps, hopefully Alix will find them on this scouting mission so that he can keep Lavinia safe from them tomorrow.[/SBLOCK]

 

[Erekose13]

[sblock=Alix]Do you head there in the middle of the night?

ooc: I'll probably roll a nice diplomacy roll to see how far you get and sum it up in one post to keep the game from stalling on split party stuff again.[/sblock]

 

[Rystil Arden]

[SBLOCK=Alix]If they aren't open now, he'll wait until dawn to go there. I'm not seeing how they wouldn't let him in, though--he has the signet, a letter from Lavinia, and a very high Diplomacy. Don't worry--I won't be long, unless it's a gigantic dungeon with tons and tons of rooms in it..[/SBLOCK]

 

[Erekose13]

[sblock=Alix]Early in the morning Alix travels to Castle Teraknian. The castle sits alone on an island near the noble district. Once catapults lined the towers to protect the bay from intruders trying to enter the port. Now the castle is little more than an icon for the nobility of Sassarine. Alix takes a ferry over to the small dock at the base of the castle. There a bleary eyed youth in the livery of the castle itself ties off his boat not paying much head to the young noble. Once past the bailie, Alix can see that the castle grounds have been kept in shape, but show the wear of an unused castle.

The door to the main keep is open for the morning and a bored looking guard in the same livery as the page stands guard, his polearm leaning against the castle wall. He looks up as Alix makes his way forward but does nothing to stop the self-assured young man. Alix must look like he knows where he is going.

Inside the decore of the main room has been kept up to some degree. No longer are there any evidence of the finery that would accompany the lord of a city as grand as Sassarine, but the carpets and lanterns are all well kept. Two score paces into the room a grand desk (of Olman teak) sits ready to welcome the nobles of the city. Behind it a studious scribe works away at a small pile of papers. What might keep the skinny man so busy is beyond Alix as he knows that the castle is not visited very often.

Approaching Alix is met with a wry grin as the man draws a sip from a hot cup of coffee sitting beside him on the desk. Introduced as Eron Cebran, the scribe is the magistrate of the castle ensuring that the nobles who enter follow the protocol set up in the ages past. A return to the old ways is important to the middle aged man whom Alix can tell purposely differentiates himself from the way things used to run with the Scarlet Brotherhood in charge of the city.

Sweet talking his way through the opening meeting Alix gets a look at the registry and sees the name Vanthus Vanderboren dated only a week ago. It certainly does look like the young errant noble has attempted to access the vault. Upon questioning the scribe about Vanthus though, Alix finds out that Vanthus was unable to descend into the vaults because he lacked a signet ring. Vanthus apparently was quite upset at this and the guard had to come and forcibly escort the man from the castle. Foiled once, he hasnt been seen again.

Though reluctant to allow Alix down into the lower recesses of the keep, Alix manages to pave the way with his sweet tongue. Escorted by Eron down a spiral staircase into a large circular chamber, Alix is lead deeper into the castle. Over a dozen five-foot-wide hallways radiate out from the central vault chamber, each of these halls is ten feet long and ends at a single iron door - the entrance to the family vault. The clerk leaves Alix here.

The short passageway ends at a solid-looking iron door. The portal is emblazoned with a simple rune - an eight-pointed star. Above the door, inscribed in flowing script on a polished silver plaque, is the name "Vanderboren". A single handle protrudes from the door, just below a circular depression bearing the mark of the Vanderboren signet.

Alix presses the signet to the door and nothing happens... Trying again and again, and checking for other triggers meets with little success. Frustrated he returns to Eron's desk. At which point he is informed rather belatedly that there was good reason Eron had been reluctant. Only one bearing the bloodline of the noble house as well as the signet ring will be able to pass the doors of Castle Teraknian's vault.

ooc: yes it really is written into the module that you need bloodline and ring.[/sblock]

[sblock=the rest]Jerrell slowly but surely manages to navigate the craft out of the bay and around to the whaler's wharf. There they anchor not too far off shore. Without the harbourmaster around, it'd be difficult to find berth at this time of the night. By morning Alix has not returned. Julian rises on his own though he is quite injured still. Once Nathan has had the chance to prey, he can heal Julian.[/sblock]

 

[Velmont]

Jerrell looks at the raising sun. Having spend the remianing of the night on teh boat have make him feel more at ease. He still feels the memory of the wounds his opponent have given him. It was the second time this month he has been on the edge of getting killed. He wondered a moment if that style of life was for him. He had heard of many adventurers with famous lives, but how many was forgotten, how many died in a dark place far from any mourn for each of these hero. He remember the kids who was playing yesterday with there fake sword.

"Where is Alix?" asks the sailor to the others as the sun have taken his place in the blue sky.

 

[Rystil Arden]

[SBLOCK=Alix]'Okay, this is very very good. That means he will come to me because he needs me and the ring to open the way. I need to sneak Lavinia in under a second entry of my name without anyone recognising her so that we can remove the treasure first. Then I send word to Rowyn that I want to meet Vanthus at the Castle Teraknian vault, and that I have the ring and the combination to the safe deeper in the vault (which is both true and necessary lest he try to kill me at the entrance). The others will be lying in wait to ambush good old Vanthus, hopefully with traps and guardians to aid us. This is the perfect mousetrap.'

*With that set out, he heads back to the others and then to go see Lavinia.*
[/SBLOCK]

 

[Manzanita]

Julian awakes, pleased to be alive, but grumpy at his injuries.

After the other fill him in on what happened, he sighs. "What a dangerous fight. We are lucky to be alive. But it turned out rather well. Looks like Vark's sailors were afraid of that monster loose underneath the deck. That's probably more of an explanation of why they ran than our attack. Still, we helped. We got Lavinia's ring back. We're done, really. Or almost. Alix set off alone did he? With the ring. Got lots of ideas, that chap does."

Julian is content to wait a while for Alix. If he doens't return the next day, though, he's inclined to go find their employer. He'll hit up Ayden for some healing in the meanwhile.

 

[Erekose13]

It doesn't take too long for Alix to find the Blue Nixie in the whaler's wharf or rather just off shore. Jerrell must not have wanted to try to bring her to dock in the middle of the night with a small crew. A quick conversation and a copper gets him a ferry out to his companions aboard the ship.

 

[Rystil Arden]

"Greetings and salutations, my friends. Your actions of yestereve were valiant, and they proved that you are all mighty indeed. Julian, even though you may have fallen early in the fight, your words of inspiration stuck with us for the rest of the battle, and they were crucial, I believe, to our eventual victory."

"Early this morning, I found compelling evidence that Vanthus Vanderboren killed his parents in an attempt to steal their fortune. He has not yet succeeded, however. But I have a plan to trap him that will put me in great danger but will probably work. But first we need to go see Lavinia."

[SBLOCK=Don't read this]
First, we need to sneak Lavinia with us to the vault--we don't want her to go there openly for several reasons, her own safety paramount. I would simply allow her to stay while we checked the treasure if not for an unfortunate requirement that a blooded Vanderboren be present to open the vault. Of course, that requirement will aid us immensely on phase two."

"Getting to the treasure should be trivial with the ring, and the scrap of parchment is probably used to find the path through a maze or the combination of a vault at the end, so that should also be no problem. Once we remove all the treasure for Lavinia clandestinely, we move on to phase two."

"In phase two, you all will stay in the vault and ready an ambush. I will then contact Vanthus through Rowyn and tell him that I found the ring to open the vault but I need a blooded Vanderboren also to open it. I will tell Rowyn that my offer is to split the treasure 50% to me, 50% to her and Vanthus (and if she quibbles, I will fight hard but maybe eventually let her go to a 40/60 split. I will also mention that I know a secret combination (which will be true at that point, hopefully) that they need at the end, so that way they don't kill me after the door is opened. Then, we ambush Vanthus. That should be all of it."[/SBLOCK]

 

[Manzanita]

"Well, this could turn out to be quite an adventure. Lavinia only asked us to return the ring, and you still have that, don't you, Alix? That will net us 200 gold. Beyond that, she has not asked for our help. Let's go see her, by all means. And why don't you tell us what else you know and how you know it." says Julian.