(IC) DND 3.5 Enter Planescape

[Brendan Byrd]

(Aril notes Mr. Black heading toward Bimble and Wawaate with food in hand, and approaches them and says quietly)

“It is clear that, to a greater or lesser extent, you three are cagestruck.
In this place (Allesha’s Pantry) you can get food and shelter if you need it. Allesha bakes the bedding, so you won’t likely pick up any bugs or parasites.
We’re in the Hive Ward, the worst of the six wards, and home to Sigil’s stupidest murderers.
My last bit of advice: before you jump through any portal, cast, or have someone you trust cast the spell Analyse Portal. You don’t want to find yourself in a slave pit in one of the lower planes.
I have to leave now, or I will be late for my appointment with the Sensates. They want to copy my memory and experience of Sundsvall’s destruction by the Doomsday Device. I survived that, and the week that followed, when there was no magic at all anywhere in the world.
I hope you will survive as well.
Good luck to you, and farewell.”

(Aril leaves through the kitchen, casting a Create Water for Allesha on the way.)

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Spoiler: Mr. Black (mini-sheet)

Mr. Black Perception: 0 Sense Motive: 4 Search: 6	AC: 14; FF: 13; Touch: 11	Spell Slots" 0: [X] [X] [] [] [] 1st: [X] [x] [] []
HP: 8 Init: 1	Fort: 2 Ref: 1 Will: 2	Buffs: none

---

Mr. Black doesn't really know what in the nine hells the guy is talking about but he does note the blatant insult. It's pretty clear that whatever Aril is going on about that it's nothing more than an excuse to split.

Aril being a Cager, has probably put some details together that the others haven't. He's realizing how dangerous the job is and probably can't take the heat, so he's getting out while the gettin's good. Local or not, Aril doesn't seem like a fellow who grew up on the streets - he seems a little too...refined. Soft even. Even though he talks a good talk.

Not even six hour ago, Mr. Black was murdering lizard men to steal their loot. He'd grown up in the slums. Cagestruck or not, despite these being the worst slums one's nightmares could conjure, Mr. Black is no lost merchant. This was how he made a living. Despite the alien environment there is a lot similarities to home. A strange familiarity. It vaguely occurs to him that maybe his string of bad decisions in life might be that he subconsciously enjoys the danger.

"Sure, whatever Cutter. Thanks for the tip. Believe well."

As Aril walks away he says to the gnome, "I guess you and your pup are uninvited to his kip. Seems in keeping with the local hospitality."

As Mr. Black walks away from the congregation, before he gets associated with them and, as he leaves, he starts putting some things together....Cagestruck.... He starts thinking about what the Dwarf said earlier....

Spoiler: OOC

I have some internal dialogue stuff I want to post later. But I'll wait until @Steve Gorak posts.

Happy trails, @Brendan Byrd . Sorry to see you go.

 

[Brendan Byrd]

CODA

(It’s at moments like this Aril misses his family’s Bard-in-a-Box⁽¹⁾, destroyed years ago during the week without magic.
He sighs, grins wryly, and steps out into the street while quietly singing It’s Raining Again by SuperDamp⁽²⁾.)

Spoiler: (1)(2)

(1) Brandon’s Bard-in-a-Box. The Book of Wondrous Inventions (AC11), Pg. 17.

(2) It's Raining Again - Wikipedia

**************
FINIS
**************​

 

[Steve Gorak]

Bimble.

Bimple definitely had trouble adapting to the alien surroundings. Cagestruck. That was a good term. Fortunately, he was sitting on Rao, who followed the others. A dead man with red hair, six weird skinny tall folk, and now this place where there was food, but they served rodents! Rodents are friends, not food! Still is his shocked reverie, he grabbed some food offered by Mr. Black. He stayed clear of any meat, but looked the other way when Rao ate.

 

[OneCrappy DM]

Alleesha's Pantry

Luke
Working the crowds other than the information of the night market you learn that he hasn't been seen in ten to twenty days.

Wawaate
"Barmies aren't missed much, you may have passed hundreds on your way here did you ask any their name? If someone does care its the Bleakers."

 

[Neurotic]

Once the group re-assembles Luke summarizes

"So, what we’ve really peeled from this mess is this..."
he counts off four points
"One: the berk was last spied lurkin’ ’round the Gate night market.
Two: it’s been a fair bit since he showed his mug there.
Three: he ain’t the only sod to go missin’.
And four: I’m thinkin’ Aril decided to walk his own path. Didn’t give a word, just up and scarpered without tellin’ a soul.

So… maybe that’s the dark of it?"

OOC: This is two hours after we arrive at the pantry, right?

 

[Steve Gorak]

Once the group re-assembles Luke summarizes

"So, what we’ve really peeled from this mess is this..."
he counts off four points
"One: the berk was last spied lurkin’ ’round the Gate night market.
Two: it’s been a fair bit since he showed his mug there.
Three: he ain’t the only sod to go missin’.
And four: I’m thinkin’ Aril decided to walk his own path. Didn’t give a word, just up and scarpered without tellin’ a soul.

So… maybe that’s the dark of it?"

OOC: This is two hours after we arrive at the pantry, right?

Bimble ventures, "not that's it's much help now, but it would be good to get a posession of his, so Rao could recognize his smell and track him."

 

[OneCrappy DM]

Alleesha's Pantry
After two hours of gathering information ((D4+1)) regrouping at a table you make out your points. Eliath has been missing for two weeks ((weeks in sigil are 5-10 days long)) or at least that's the last time anyone you talked to has seen him. The only people who may care if he has gone missing are the Bleakers, also known as the Black Cabal. While making inquiries in the pantry you are met with hard stares from four grimy laborers.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Spoiler: Mr. Black (mini-sheet)

Mr. Black Perception: 0 Sense Motive: 4 Search: 6	AC: 14; FF: 13; Touch: 11	Spell Slots" 0: [X] [X] [] [] [] 1st: [X] [x] [] []
HP: 8 Init: 1	Fort: 2 Ref: 1 Will: 2	Buffs: none

---

Curious, Mr. Black speaks in coded thieve's cant to see if any of his companions know. To the untrained ear, it sounds like he's asking them the weather.

When none of them respond in a satisfying way, he whispers,

"Four Berks have taken note of our questioning. I say we approach them or follow them to see where they go next. In any case, we should be careful they don't jump us in the street."

Mr. Black thinks he's putting things together. The tout could easily afford to pay someone local (and more professional) to investigate Eliath's disappearance but whoever was hiding the bubbler would notice someone with a local reputation sniffing around which would warrant a level of escalation that dwarf probably wanted to avoid.

Instead, the tout was investing some money in a few desperate local nobodies and cagestruck. People who were expendable. They would hardly be a blip on the radar and, it was likely some low-level thugs could easily murder them. No need for Eliath's kidnappers to escalate things. But all this poking around would make just enough of a splash to cause ripples. Ripples they could track. He wouldn't be surprised if they were being watched by the tout's people.

But that's what Mr. Black wanted to do now: follow the ripples. See where those thugs were going to go next and who they were going to tell about what they saw.