The Antigrol Tide (IC)

[Drowned Hero]

Troth Half-elf Barbarian

Naomi fiddles with the false nose, swinging her bare feet through the air as she sits on the bench next to Troth. She continues to stare at the prosthetic between her fingers as she slowly begins to speak in a small, frightened voice.

"Troth, what would you do if I told you there were others like me, and if I told you where to find them? What if I told you about the people--" Here she breaks off for a moment. "The evil people, how would you punish them?" She looks up at Troth, and her eyes glisten with barely restrained tears.

Troth gets surprised as the girl gives him a frighten look and that she almost cries, he swallows as he has something in his throat that don't want to go away... he feels his hearth pumping hard as the little girl touches his sensitivity 'Li-ssa please tell me where they are, imagine that other children are going trough what you escaped from' he again looks around bothered that his image of fearless barbarian so easily is crumbled down by a little girl 'they are sure in pain and torment Lissa, you know better then all of us what happens in that place' he bites his nails for a few seconds as he think and feels the anger building up 'now... these adults' 'I think the best we can do is handing them over to the authorities, I wont fool you Lissa, these kind of persons don't give up that easily and fighting is sure happening' 'I just hope we can put the other children's out of harms way first, and then hand over the scum that hold you in their custody to the law' 'that if the authorities are not corrupt...' 'Lissa you must tell me where to find the children, where and who the adults are' 'how did you escape by the way? Maybe we can use the same way to rescue the children?' Troth closes his fist and crunches it in his other hand 'are all the adults evil persons Lissa? Are there any adult that cares for the children and don't takes advantage of them?'

 

[jkason]

Magyar Rhineholdt, human rogue

Mac's face goes ashen for a moment. "Ol' Captain Ben. I figured someone'd be along lookin' for him eventually. I tried to warn him, but...well, it's not my place." He looks up at the three men. "Look, I'm real sorry, but I think the body they pulled out of here last night was your captain."

After the initial shock has worn off, Mac continues. "Where we're standing right now used to be a seperate room off the main tavern. I stored a few things in here and occasionally rented it out to the odd group wanting a bit more...privacy. Last night, your captain was here with a group of men, real shifty looking fellows." The man's face breaks into a broad grin. "Of course, I suppose that could be said of a lot of my clientele." His grin slips, then, and he glances around at the ashes. "Well, former clientele. I can't say what they were talking about in here, and I don't know exactly what happened, but I'd say it's a safe bet that somehow this," and here he bends down and picks up the broken lantern, "got knocked over. Folks were sitting around drinking, having a grand ol' time listening to Tami sing when the door here burst open and Dietrich comes running out hollering about a fire. Well, it didn't take long to empty out the tavern after that." Mac pauses for a moment. "You know, Captain Ben wouldn't've just laid down in the middle of the fire unless he had help gettin' that way."

Magyar whips his attention back around from the big man to Mac as he relates the tale, eyes narrowing.

"Would we be able to speak with Deitrich, perhaps?" he asks, his tone neutral. "And these other men, would you happen to remember their names and what they look like? If that was the captain in the room, I'd assume they left with the rest, or is--was there a back door to that room?"

[sblock=OOC]+3 Gather Information, +4 Diplomacy, +5 Sense Motive. Mag's not only trying to get more details, but trying to feel out Mac for how honest and forthcoming his story may or may not be.[/sblock]

 

[mps42]

[sblock=OOC] I have lost track of where denther is... [/sblock]

 

[unleashed]

[SBLOCK=OOC]Braer and Denther are relaxing in an alleyway across from the burned tavern.[/SBLOCK]

 

[unleashed]

Colmarr Blackrock, Male Gnome Bard

The large man takes Magyar's wave as an invitation and saunters over to join the group. "Good morning." His voice is deep and rumbling, like distant thunder heard underground.

"Gentlement, meet Branson, my first born." There is pride in the old man's voice.

Colmarr wonders on Mac’s conclusion as he continues to speak, as both Grondar and Troth got close enough to get a look at the man lying there...

“Yes, I thought I saw a resemblance, good morning to you too Branson,” Colmarr says, looking up at the younger man and offering his hand. “So you think it was Captain Turion’s body they brought out Mac. Hmm, did either of you see everyone that came out of the room after the fire started?” he asks optimistically.

 

[Jdvn1]

Shocked by the news of his captain, Malachi gives a little prayer. <I hope Adonai was with him>

"... Wait, you said you think it was the captain. Forgive me for being too optimistic, but do you know who took it and to where? I'd like to see if we could confirm that it was our captain."

 

[mps42]

[sblock=ooc]

OOC: Braer and Denther are relaxing in an alleyway across from the burned tavern.

OOC: Okay. What are we doing there?[/sblock]

 

[unleashed]

[SBLOCK=OOC]Trying to find the captain, as this is the last place we know he went...Denther though is just waiting for those of us doing the questioning of the owner and his son to return (as is everyone else except Maygar, Malachi and Colmarr).[/SBLOCK]

 

[Mallak]

[sblock=OOC]Let's keep the OOC chat in sblocks, like this, or (preferably) in the OOC thread.

Quick Recap: At the Three-Penny Inn, the crew learned that Captain Ben was there last night, but he received a message about a meeting at the Arrow in the Bull tavern, so he left, presumably headed there. The crew followed in his tracks. It turned out that the Arrow in the Bull tavern was the one that burned down last night. When the crew reached the location, two men were poking through the ashes. One turned out the be the tavernkeeper, Mac, and the other was his son, Branson. Not wishing to alarm the man or his muscular son, the crew did not all approach him at once. Grondar and Wakil took up positions up and down the street, Brear and Denther ducked into an alley across the street, and Troth and Naomi took a seat on a nearby bench. Colmarr, Magyar, and Malachi approached the tavernkeeper.

Since then, Wakil has also casually moved up to the remains of the tavern.

Mac told the three crew members that the captain died in the fire last night, probably in part due to foul play. The captain was in the back room meeting with several men before the fire started, and after the fire a dead body was pulled from that part of the tavern. (Remember also that when the crew came through the same burning building on the previous night, Troth and Grondar saw a man lying face down on the floor of that room.) One of the men in the room was called Dietrich. The three crew members are currently questioning Mac further. That's where we're at right now.

Did I miss anything important?
[/sblock]

 

[Mallak]

'Li-ssa please tell me where they are, imagine that other children are going trough what you escaped from' he again looks around bothered that his image of fearless barbarian so easily is crumbled down by a little girl 'they are sure in pain and torment Lissa, you know better then all of us what happens in that place' he bites his nails for a few seconds as he think and feels the anger building up 'now... these adults' 'I think the best we can do is handing them over to the authorities, I wont fool you Lissa, these kind of persons don't give up that easily and fighting is sure happening' 'I just hope we can put the other children's out of harms way first, and then hand over the scum that hold you in their custody to the law' 'that if the authorities are not corrupt...' 'Lissa you must tell me where to find the children, where and who the adults are' 'how did you escape by the way? Maybe we can use the same way to rescue the children?' Troth closes his fist and crunches it in his other hand 'are all the adults evil persons Lissa? Are there any adult that cares for the children and don't takes advantage of them?'

Naomi looks hesitantly at Troth for a moment, absorbing what he's saying, then she glances across to where Magyar, Colmarr, and Malachi are talking with Mac. She looks up and down the busy street, then hops off the bench and grabs Troth by the hand, attempting to pull him up. "C'mon, Troth, I'll show you where they are right now! C'mon!" If he allows her to, Naomi will pull Troth down the street and around the corner of the building into an alley. Only Grondar sees them go.

A man dressed in rags wanders towards Braer and Denther from the opposite end of the alley. He smells of a lifetime of sea, sewer, and sadness.

"Spare a coppa', counci'men?"


Back at the burned out inn, Colmarr, Magyar, and Malachi are trying to get more information from Mac and his son.

"... Wait, you said you think it was the captain. Forgive me for being too optimistic, but do you know who took it and to where? I'd like to see if we could confirm that it was our captain."

"Oh, the city guard would have taken the body. There's a worker's morgue down on the docks. They take the dead there and keep 'em for a day, and if nobody claims 'em, they'll take 'em out and bury 'em at sea. I don't suppose Captain Ben's got any family or the like around here, so that's probably what'll happen to him. You can go take a look at him if you like, but I'll warn ya, I saw the body when they brought it out, and it's not a pretty sight."

"He was very badly burned. The worst I've ever seen."

“...good morning to you too Branson,” Colmarr says, looking up at the younger man and offering his hand.

The big man's hand engulfs the gnome's. His hands are rough and scarred, but his grip is gentle.

“So you think it was Captain Turion’s body they brought out Mac. Hmm, did either of you see everyone that came out of the room after the fire started?”

"Well, actually, no." The older man scratches his balding head with one finger. "We were really busy last night (Tami's very popular), and once Dietrich yelled fire, all hell broke loose."

"Would we be able to speak with Deitrich, perhaps?" he asks, his tone neutral. "And these other men, would you happen to remember their names and what they look like? If that was the captain in the room, I'd assume they left with the rest, or is--was there a back door to that room?"

"No, there was no back door out of that room, although there was a back door near the bar. As for who they were, I don't know. Their coin was good, and that's all that matters to me." He looks around. "Or at least it was."

"The three men, one was a foreigner. He was the leader, the other two were fighters, his bodyguards. They were hired muscle, though I did not recognize them, but he was different. He wore a dark green cloak, almost black, with a deep hood pulled well forward, and he spoke with a strange accent I have never heard in Tortila before."

"I hope someone gets the bastards that did this to my place. Well, at least we know one of 'em got his. I'm staying with Kam over at the Seaman's Rest, and his wife found a body floating in the bay this morning. I got a good look at 'im, and blimey if it wasn't one of those goons from last night. Guess he didn't get far, eh?" Mac chuckles to himself for a moment before he looks over the crew members again and sighs. "Look, if I knew more, I'd tell you. It's not like I have anything to hide anymore. You should try talking to Dietrich. He's what you might call a professional middleman around here. He runs a pawn shop up on Holly and Wall street, but his real commodity is information. No doubt, he set up the meeting between your captain and those other three. It's not uncommon when someone has something 'special' that they'll go through Dietrich to find a buyer. I guess this meeting just went south. Dietrich won't like that, you know. He tries to keep a clean record."

Magyar's gut tells him that these men aren't hiding anything; they're telling what they know.