Scott's Bluff (one-shot DnD 3.5)

[Lobo Lurker]

"Excuse me, Threendle, if you could wait a moment before going." Mardin stands tall(er) and looks straight at the tall gentleman. "Pardon, but I am not here for a monopoly. It is true that I am a smith and that your business has hurt my family's, but my family is still profitable. I am not here to discuss business, though, but to meet you and to seek your expertise. My name is Mardin." He holds out a hand in greeting, "My companions and I have come across some weapons I was hoping you could tell me about. They are made of obsidian, which is not a common stone to work with."

The 'man' looks taken aback. "My pardons good sir. It's just that we've been pestered by the dwarven caravan outside the town every hour on the hour for the past three days."

"My name is Yoren Brightsteel and this," he says gesturing to the great foundry behind him. "...is my great, great, great grandfather's foundry." He smiles. "The old man still tends the central furnace himself you know."

"Obsidian weapons you say? Well lets have a look at them." After Mardin hands him an example of the weapons he turns them over and examines them thouroughly. "Most of the obsidian weaponry around here comes from the Red Wood to the south but these... I do believe that we crafted these ones."

Yoren leads you into the building behind the armory stand and opens a side room with one of the keys in his pocket. All round you glass, crystal, obsidian, ruby, emerald, sapphire, other crystaline weapons are on display. There's even a suit of chainmail wrought entirely from rubies and platinum. Yoren opens a cabinet and pulls out an obsidian battle axe, twin to the two you captured in battle. "Yes, yes... see the workmanship? These take quite a bit of skill to create. One mistake an the entire thing shatters. Where, may I ask, did you get these?"

EDIT: Forging ahead to answer the obvious questions...

"Heh, a rather curvaceous young woman, is she not? Most striking... most delectable." He chuckles, "Oh yes, I've met her. She actually lives here... well, not here but in the town I mean. She purchased these weapons not 3 fortnights ago with that big priest, Father Garren. The purchase, I should note, was considerably more than these weapons though."

"You can find her at her brothel, about 3 blocks south of the Randy Boatswain. Grey house, two stories, door painted scarlet. She is out around town a lot though. Lady Karina, she calls herself. Though I sincerely doubt that a real Lady would spend so much time on her back." he chuckles again. "She's rumored to be quite friendly with the priest and the priest is oft seen with the Mayor; tutor's his children even. I'd think twice about confronting her in a public place... you're outsiders and she's well-established."

 

[Jdvn1]

Relieved Yoren isn't a huge jerk, Mardin relaxes. "An intriguing foundry it is. Not a single flame anywhere!"

ooc: What sorts of weapons would I know about with my crafting and appraise skills? Do so many crystalline weapons surprise me?
Mardin looks around the sideroom, "These weapons were use by some... Ghost Bears? Some barbaric sorts of people being."
ooc: Anyone else here, feel free to input

 

[Lobo Lurker]

_{OOC: I added about 40% to the post above, sorry.
With your crafting skills you know plenty about metallic weapons. But these are different. You'd know how to make them in principal, but without ranks in gemcrafting/gemcutting you'd likely ruin a whole lot of product before you made something servicable. Any smith worth is iron knows that gems are much too brittle to make weapons out of... they tend to shatter.}

"I'm afraid I don't know much, if anything, about the wild human tribes to the south. ...other than the fact that they make extensive use of obsidian & weirwood weapons. I honestly have no idea what Lady Karina would be doing with a group of barbarians. That's not like her at all."
So yes, so many crystalline weapons is surprising. You'd guess that they're mainly novelty items though.

 

[Scotley]

Arvad

Looking to his companions after the encounter with the mayor, "A years' indentured servitude? Can we get more work out of them than we put in as food?" He shakes his head, "could we turn them over to the village for community service for a year?"

 

[Lobo Lurker]

Looking to his companions after the encounter with the mayor, "A years' indentured servitude? Can we get more work out of them than we put in as food?" He shakes his head, "could we turn them over to the village for community service for a year?"

A nearby clerk, busy transcribing one document to another says, "It is the official policy of the Scott's Bluff Administration to hold no slaves or indentured servants. If we didn't take a strong stance on that the Jakartans and the Thracians would be at eachother's throats."

 

[Lord_Raven88]

The Town Hall:

After being forced to wait 1/2 an hour due to a meeting, you are approched by the assistant who begins questioning you about who you are and what you're doing with prisoners. Midway through the conversation a white-haired man in a violet & gold suit stops to listen. At the conclusion of your story he says, "Well, seeing as how thier robbery failed and as thier friends are dead, I don't see any real need to punish them. If they ARE Ghost Bears, then by thier heathen laws they owe you a year of intentured servitude." Without waiting for a reply, the man moves on down the hall

Not even getting a chance to reply to the quickly disappearing Mayor, Marcus turns a speculative eye to the two raiders (OOC: Marcus uses his Detect Evil then Detect Thoughts spell-like abilities), noting their surprised looks as Marcus address them in their native tongue Marcus can't help but smile "It seems the Mayor of this town, is in a generous mood and willing to forget your past transgressions, I however am not so kindly disposed towards to you, by your own traditions you owe a year of service to me and my companions" Marcus then waits to see what there reply is, both verbally and mentally.

OOC:Assuming this tradition is true and they intend on following it, then Marcus will release then from the manacles and order them to follow him while he goes to meet his companions at the foundry.

On they way out Marcus quickly scans both the mayor and the Dwarf he is talking to with his activate Detect Evil and Detect Thoughts ability.

In regards to the loot, Marcus will take his share of the money (40gps) and suggests to sell the rest other than the Amber Gem, which he isn't interested in using.

 

[Lord_Raven88]

After meeting up with his companions "What did you find out about Arcanite" after listening to their responses and learning about this woman and priest. "We need to discuss what we should do about this in private, how about we meet with this Thracian Lord first though, maybe all of this is connected somehow" Marcus then asks a local for directions to the address of the Thracian Lord.

 

[Tinner]

Scavatach takes his time getting his gear "city-ready."
This involves tucking his coin purse carefully inside his shirt, and making sure small items are well secured and difficult to "accidently" remove.
Once he's satisfied that he's as thief-proff as possible, he heads over to the Randy Boatswain for food and ale.

 

[Lobo Lurker]

The Foundry: As Mardin and Threednle take thier leave of the Foundy, Yoren comments that if they want to peruse the 'good stuff' in the private collections, just send him messenger and he'll set you up with an appointment.

You make your way to the Town Hall. As you approach you see that it easily dwarfs the buildings beside it. People are milling about in the streets, craftsmen, farmers, fisherwives, bakers, hobgoblin versions of the same, young boys and girls in white livery calling out the news (and acting as guides & messengers for a small fee) halflings are seen as well selling their wares and going about live as usual.

<continued below>

The Town Hall:

Marcus calls upon his ability to Detect Evil. There's plenty of evil in the area, all of it is the faint sort of everyday evil though. You'd guess that maybe a third of the people present are evil to a minor degree. Specifically, however, both Hakko & and the Mayor are evil.

Using his ability to Detect Thoughts...
Hakko: *failed save* "When will these sheep lovers give us some real work to do? You don't keep slaves locked in chains! What the hell are we doing in this monstrosity of stone and wood anyhow?"
Aggo: *failed save* "I'm soo bored. Our new masters don't seem to realize that we are honor-bound to obey them... <sigh> they know nothing. And this oaf... of all who had to die why couldn't it have been him?" It it quite clear that Aggo dislikes Hakko.
Mayor: *made save*
Dwarf: *made save*

Marcus releases thier manacles and both of the wildmen mutter thier thanks (you assume).

Your group makes it's way downstairs in the wake of the Mayor you spot Mardin and Threednle making thier way across the plaza toward you. As you come together to exchange information you hear the mayor call out a greeting and you turn to see him embraced by singularly curvaceous and ludicrously overendowed woman wearing an expensive gown cut to accentuate her endowments. This time, her long black hair is plaited, braided, and set with moonstones to match her white gown and pale blue stole. Hakko nudges Aggo and nods in her direction. The clothes are different, but this is the curvy woman you faced a few nights ago.

She is currently talking to the mayor and thier easy banter suggests that they might know eachother far more intimately than they let on. Her companions are equally as interesting as she is. What looks to be a jester, dressed all in red, gold, & green motley and what looks to be a very tall golden-haired halfling in a jade-green woolen gown.

Based on reactions from passer's-by, the men tend to give her an appreciative glance while the women, most of them anyway, look like they've swallowed something distasteful.

 

[Scotley]

Arvad Half-Elven Rogue/Fighter

Arvad's hand reflexively strays to his sword at the sight of his enemy, but he contols himself. To his companions he says softly, "Steady gentlemen, I fear the demoness has powerful friends, we must tread softly until we can get her on ground that is to our advantage." He nods to the exit, "Let's get out of here and find our Thracian Lord."