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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Xardion" data-source="post: 7820013" data-attributes="member: 6744">So after the drama at the Shortest Straw died down, and the crew had settled into doing various odd jobs around the city, the disaster at Elturel and subsequent flood of refugees resulted in the characters being conscripted by the Flaming Fist, along with basically every other able-bodied person in the city with nothing better to do.  They had to seal the city to stem the tide, and tensions between commoners wanting to leave, refugees trying to get in, and the guards at the gates were reaching a fever pitch.It's at this point that Captain Zodge sent word that the crew was wanted at the Basilisk Gate.  They arrived, and after watching Zodge and his men (i.e. gang of thugs) deal with a small uprising of commoners wanting to leave the city, he waved them over and got down to business.  He explained how the growing fear that Baldur's Gate might suffer the same fate as Elturel was making the common folk extra restless, and the Hellriders blaming Baldur's Gate for their troubles were only fanning the flames.  They've dealt with it by arresting Hellriders on sight, but that combined with the daily riots at the gates have left them short-handed to deal with a serious problem: followers of the Dead Three had been committing murder sprees across the city, and he needed the crew to handle it.After a bit of back-and-forth about some specifics about what their being deputized entailed (Tenshi was reluctant to accept a badge for some obscure reason, but the group convinced her it might come in handy, and besides, it was only temporary), they accepted the mission and Zodge sent them off to the Elfsong Tavern to talk to Tarina, who apparently had some information about the Dead Three followers that might be useful.  So they headed off to the tavern post haste.After arriving at the tavern, Voragine and Ronus headed to the bar to talk to the proprietor about Tarina, while Tenshi proceeded to annoy the patrons by asking if they knew Tarina.  Eldon found this very amusing and was trying not to laugh too much, and Qira didn't say much, as usual.  Tarina was actually moderately successful, eliciting some fingers pointing at the stairs.  Most of the patrons were too startled by the sudden entrance of so many short people at one time to do anything but try to not choke on their drinks with chuckles.  Voragine and Ronus were also successful, with Ronus getting a drink and the proprietor telling Voragine that Tarina was upstairs playing bones with some other locals.  So they all headed upstairs, and something approaching normalcy returned for the folks downstairs.Finding Tarina was easy, she and her fellow gamblers (two of them) were occupying a large table in the back meant for eight.  The group took the unoccupied seats, and after watching Tarina win a couple games (nobody noticed her cheating), Voragine and Tenshi asked if they could play too.  Tarina, realizing that her pool of possible winnings just dramatically increased, happily agreed, and let them ante up.  They played a round, in which Tarina didn't actually cheat, but she won fair and square.  Her previous rubes realized their luck had run out, and their pockets were depressingly light, so they withdrew, much to her dismay.  Tarina debated leaving the table with them but alas, it was not to be.  Voragine flashed her badge, said that Zodge had sent them, and asked what she knew about the Dead Three followers.  Realizing she had an opportunity here, Tarina told them about her dilemma, that some old comrades of hers were out for her blood over a disagreement over some loot, and that rumor had it they were on their way there to kill her. She'd intended to make a rooftop escape while they wasted time looking for her in the tavern, but she had a better idea.  If the crew would help her handle them (they were dirty murderous pirates, so they needn't be concerned about killing them), she'd tell them what they wanted to know.The crew somewhat reluctantly agreed, and while they discussed how they wanted to handle the pirates when they showed up, Tenshi snuck away.  She went outside to lie in wait for the pirates to arrive.  Meanwhile, the namesake ghost of the Elfsong Tavern made her "appearance", and instead of singing her usual song of a love lost at sea, she sang a different song about Elturel, the Hellriders, and the Companion.  Qira translated the lyrics for the group, and Eldon recalled what he knew about the Hellriders and the Companion, which the crew and Tarina found interesting... but not very relevant to their current situation. Soon after the song finished, Dead-Eye and his crew showed up.When Dead-Eye and his scabrous band sauntered into the Elfsong, Tenshi very skillfully shadowed them inside, sidling around to the booth in the southeast corner.  While his crew meandered around the tables, Dead-Eye went to the bar, slapped down some coin, held up some fingers, and the tavernkeep filled four tankards.  Taking two tankards in each hand, Dead-Eye bellowed, "We're here for... an old-friend.  Heard she goes by 'Tarina'.  She's a thief and cheats at Baldur's Bones, and I've got a tankard for anyone who points her out".  Four hands shot up, pointing at the stairs, and Dead-Eye plonked the tankards on their tables.  He nodded to the crew, and waved two of them toward the door.  They took their position, with unconcerned bouncers on either side of them, while Dead-Eye and the rest of the crew took to the stairs, drawing weapons.With the pirates now focused on their quarry, Tenshi decided to strike.  With practiced accuracy, she hurled a dart at Dead-Eye's exposed back... only to have it bounce harmlessly off a stud in his armor.  With a curse, he whipped around and returned the favor with a thrown dagger, which gave her an ugly scratch as she dove away.  A few of his men started to move towards her as she flew back into the booth and dove out of the window.  "Leave her!" he grunted, and they charged up the stairs.  Qira let loose with arrows at the pirate captain and his men, missing some and marking others, while the patrons at the other table ducked and ran for cover.  The pirates leapt onto the table, and laid into the crew with scimitars flashing, mostly causing pandemonium, but a few of the group were battered a bit and some blood was drawn.  Ronus defended Tarina, fighting off two attackers, while Dead-Eye edged around the room to get at her, which he did, marking her good.  Eldon laid into their captain with a brilliant blast of radiant energy, leaving him limned with golden sparks.  He also sent rays of healing light to invigorate his friends and staunch their wounds.Meanwhile, Tenshi, disappointed that nobody gave chase, climbed back into the window and made her way to the men blocking the door, eager to test her mettle.  They attempted to fight her off... but the tiny slip of white fury made brutally short work of them, a blur of knees, elbows and spinning Emei daggers.  Skoona, the half-ogre bouncer watching the fight from just a few feet away, nodded her head approvingly, and simply said, "Nice."  Klank, the animated suit of armor that served as Skoona's counterpart, unsurprisingly said nothing.Upstairs, things began to look grim for our stalwart band of miniature heroes.  Eldon, after liberally pounding the captain with multiple bolts of pure force, had been hemmed in by a rather filthy lout who took issue with his arcane barrage, forcing him to defend himself with a dagger. Qira was equally pressed, and things may have turned very dark, if not for Voragine.  Hammering back her attacker, she unleashed an invective-laced tirade at the captain, the likes of which had never been heard by anyone present, punctuating her insults with assaults on his psyche. Swinging her hammer wildly to keep the brutes at bay, she questioned his parentage, the shoddiness of his beard, his malodorous breath, his revolting stink, and even the size of his manhood.  Interspersed with this unending verbal assault on Dead-Eye's person, she offered encouragement to her motley crew, and they responded with glee. Eldon and Qira were able to fend off the brigands accosting them, and Ronus scored a brutal strike on the pirate captain, slamming his axe into Dead-Eye's side while the man made wild, ineffective swings with his scimitar at Tarina and Ronus.  Voragine violently crushed the skull of the man trying to silence her vicious insults against his captain, who suddenly succumbed with a shudder, unable to weather the unending barrage of truth that Voragine was inflicting upon him, though blood loss from the gaping axe wound in his side may have played a part as well.  With an arrow from Qira's bow plunging through the eye of the last man standing, the fight was truly over.After gathering themselves, Tarina and the group went downstairs to find Tenshi nonchalantly waiting at the bar, having a drink, her conquests lying in a dead heap by the door.  With the party's help, the bouncers tossed the dead pirates unceremoniously into the alley (though not before the group went through all their pockets), and the tavernkeep's assistants mopped up the blood.  Tarina thanked the group for their help, and gladly gave them the information they sought, informing them that Dead Three followers had been seen coming and going from a bathhouse several blocks northeast, and she'd been told there was a secret door within that lead to a dungeon that the killers were operating out of.Highlights: Tenshi is a bad-ass, Qira is a damn good shot, Eldon is... Eldon, Ronus keeps the ladies safe, and Voragine can kill you with harsh words or a hammer to the skull, your choice.</blockquote>

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