The Antigrol Tide (IC)

[jkason]

Magyar Rhineholdt, human rogue

Naomi looks to Magyar with big, round eyes. "Can you teach me how to pick locks, Magyar?"

Mag flushes, then says, "Well, picking locks is a lot like juggling: it takes balance and care and patience. You keep working on the juggling, and when we've got that down, maybe you'll be ready for locks."

[/quote]A bit of searching reveals that an iron fitting protecting the back bottom right corner of the chest is loose. It twists aside to reveal...a cleverly concealed keyhole![/QUOTE]

Mag rises up to present his find, smiling a bit pridefully. "It's never all that hard to make something disappear. It's making it re-appear that makes a good vanishing act."

When Colmarr asks Troth to fetch the keys, Mag hops up. "I'll give you a hand," he says.

[sblock=OOC]At one point, I think Malachi had one of the keys to himself. Did he return it to the collection when we took them all, or does he still have that one?

Also, a question about a nonstandard use of a skill: since we have so many keys, I'm wondering if Mag's Open Lock skill might be applicable to narrowing the keys to try? i.e., since he knows about locks, maybe he'd be better at identifying the type of keys that would fit this particular one, so that maybe sorting through them might be a little faster.[/sblock]

 

[Mallak]

Where to Girlfriend?

Karen gives Grondar a grateful look. "I hope you don't mind my claiming you as my boyfriend back there. It was just, he was being very persistent, and if we come home escorted by a guard, Trudy's parents will freak. They'll be upset enough as it is." The last she says in a whisper to Grondar with a nod at Trudy's inebriated state.

"Ahem." The woman on the other side of Trudy clears her throat delicately.

"Oh, where are my manners? Grondar, this is my friend Marcia. Marcia, Grondar." Marcia is tall and slender, with long raven black hair and sharp features. In her tight black dress, she has the look of a hunting cat on the prowl. The look is also in her dark smoldering eyes as they slide over Grondar's muscled physique.

"Charmed, I'm sure." Her voice is low and smokey.

"Uhhhg..." The groan comes from Trudy, propped up between the other two.

"Quick, get her to the alley!" The girls help Trudy into the alley where she drops to her hands and knees and pukes against the base of the wall. Marcia helps hold her up while Karen holds back the girl's hair.

Trudy has dirty blonde hair, and she is shorter and more curvey than the other two women. She is also much, much drunker. "I don't like the food there."

"Some first date, huh?" Karen says to Grondar, flashing him that winning smile.

"C'mon Trudy, we'll get you home and get you cleaned up."

When Trudy has emptied her stomach, the girls get her back on her feet. "So," Karen says, turning to Grondar, "you'll help us get Trudy home?"

***​

Back on the ship, Naomi says to Magyar, "Ok, I'll keep practicing my juggling." Then she follows Denther out of the room and back on deck. "What did you want to talk about, Sir?"

"Here, try this key." Malachi produces the key he got from Dietrich's shop and gives it to Colmarr. To Colmarr's eye, it glows slightly, infused with magic.

[sblock=OOC]jkason, I like your non-standard use of Open Lock, and I approve! I always enjoy innovative skill, feat, and spell use suggestions.[/sblock]

 

[unleashed]

Colmarr Blackrock, Male Gnome Bard

Holding up the key as he examines it, Colmarr says, “Well, this looks a likely choice, considering it has some magic to it... like whatever’s in the chest.” Moving over to the chest, he adds, “Okay, everyone stay back, as I’m not sure if the key is enough on it’s own or whether something else might be required,” before inserting the key in the lock Magyar found and giving it a twist.

 

[Strahd_Von_Zarovich]

When Trudy has emptied her stomach, the girls get her back on her feet. "So," Karen says, turning to Grondar, "you'll help us get Trudy home?"

It will be my honor
Grondar reply and helps Trudy up.

 

[Jdvn1]

Malachi eats a larger meal than usual, having worked up an appetite. "Thank you, Troth." Afterwards, he helps to clean up after the meal and ventures to the Captain's quarters and looks through the... wreckage, so to speak, handing his key to Colmarr.

"Yes, it does look a bit... significant." He largely spends his time looking through paperwork, and the ship's manifest, trying to find out what the ship held, who it was to be sold to, if payment was received, and so on. Assuming he can find all the Captain's paperwork, Malachi will spend some time to decipher the Captain's organization system.

 

[Mallak]

As Colmarr brings the key closer to the chest it begins to resonate with a slight buzzing in his fingers. He inserts the key into the lock and turns and...nothing. It is apparent that this is not the right key for the lock on the chest. In fact, it's not even the right size. It's too small.

Magyar and Troth begin to search through the bucket of keys. Magyar's practiced eye quickly sorts likely keys from unlikely, and Colmarr tries them, one at a time. After a few minutes of tying, one fits! Who's to say if it is the original key for this lock, but it fits, and it turns, and there is a distinctive "click" as somewhere inside the chest, a mechanism unlocks.

From what Malachi can glean from the captain's paperwork, the cargo is made up mainly of northern fur pelts with a small selection of ice peppers and other exotic spices and dried vegetables thrown in. About half the cargo was sold to a merchant by the name of Deegler for five hundred gold pieces. The rest was split between three houses: the Mendants at three hundred gold, the Crems at two hundred gold, and the Olivers at fifty gold. The cargo for the Mendants and Crems was due to be offloaded today, Deegler is scheduled for tomorrow, and the Olivers don't want theirs until next Thursday. There is a handwritten addendum to their order specifiying that the cargo may be offloaded to the public docks warehouses to be held for pickup.

***​

"Unh, who're you?" Trudy mumbles into Grondar's face as he helps her up. Her breath reeks of vomit.

"This is Grondar, Trudy. He's going to help us get home."

"Oh, ok..." Trudy trails off as they begin their trek up the street. The night is mildly chilly, but all of the lamps are lit. They wind through the streets to the north and west, arriving in an area that Grondar recognizes as housing the upper merchant families of Tortila.

"There, this is Trudy's house," says Karen, pointing to a large brick and wood mansion towering three stories above the street. An eight foot masonry wall runs around the house. Tiny metal points poke up along the top of the wall. A locked wrought iron gate is in front flanked by two lit lanterns. A pullchain hangs on the right side of the gate which probably rings a bell inside the house. Narrow alleys run down either side of the property seperating the wall around Trudy's house from the walls of the neighboring houses. The street is quiet; no one is about.

"So," says Karen, looking at Grondar, "do you have any ideas about how to get Trudy home while keeping her out of trouble with her family?"

 

[Strahd_Von_Zarovich]

Grondar

Never brought a drunken lady to her home before and when I was a child my father was the drunken one and I didn't want to be home when he arrived … what about a back yard?

 

[unleashed]

Colmarr Blackrock, Male Gnome Bard

“Hmm, well that was anticlimactic... perhaps this key’s linked to what’s in the chest, as there was a resonance in the magic as it got closer,” Colmarr remarks, slipping the key into a pocket as he finds it doesn’t fit.

Once they’ve found a key that does work however, Colmarr quickly examines the area inside the chest where he saw the magical emination earlier. Waving Magyar over to help, if he can’t see anything obvious immediately.

 

[jkason]

Magyar Rhineholdt, human rogue

“Hmm, well that was anticlimactic... perhaps this key’s linked to what’s in the chest, as there was a resonance in the magic as it got closer,” Colmarr remarks, slipping the key into a pocket as he finds it doesn’t fit.

Once they’ve found a key that does work however, Colmarr quickly examines the area inside the chest where he saw the magical emination earlier. Waving Magyar over to help, if he can’t see anything obvious immediately.

Mag waits semi-patiently, helping if asked but trying not to interfere with the gnome. Colmarr's mention of magic and resonance has his interest even more piqued than when he first found the secret compartment.

 

[Mallak]

Never brought a drunken lady to her home before and when I was a child my father was the drunken one and I didn't want to be home when he arrived … what about a back yard?

Karen looks at Grondar with sympathy in her eyes. "Well, there is a garden in the back, but the wall goes all the way around. Although, if I remember correctly...Trudy, isn't there a gate in the back wall?"

"Nyungh..."

"I'll take that as a yes."

***​

Once the chest is unlocked, Magyar shows Colmarr how to press on the floor of chest near the back edge. The entire floor rotates up revealing a compartment about six inches deep! In it is a washleather coin purse, a small jewelry box, and a larger, dull metal grey box. It is the larger box which is detecting as magical.