Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Carlo-One" data-source="post: 8021436" data-attributes="member: 7015827">The four adventurers – Aerikoth, Darrow, Dermot and Shanni – quickly made themselves ready and headed for the Docks district. Per Queron’s instructions, they found the canal and followed it to the northern end of the district. After spending some time eyeing their surroundings, they were approached by Barakus, who emerged from a nearby doorway. Queron’s agent motioned for them to accompany him and they all entered the house, which turned out to be the former dwelling of Reggius, the deceased Astorians informant.After Dermot and Shanni had been introduced to Barakus, he queried whether they had been told what had happened with Reggius. He then let Darrow explain in more detail to the others how the adventurers’ meeting with Reggius, who had been a promising source of information on Janatha’s kidnapping, had turned into a confrontation. Aerikoth’s sole contribution to the tale was correcting Darrow when the dwarf incorrectly related how the wizard had turned Reggius into a newt; in reality, it had been a toad.Barakus then related how he had managed to capture Valz, an Astorian who had some sort of connection with Reggius, by occupying the house and waiting to see who showed up. Barakus said that between himself and the two guards with him, they had spent several hours just getting Valz to admit that he was an Astorian and had known Reggius. He was hoping the adventurers could do more to get Valz to talk. Cracking his knuckles, Dermot confidently said that he thought they could handle it.At Barakus’ suggestion, they took some time to search the ground floor of the house, while Queron’s agent went down to the basement to check on Valz. Little of interest was found, except for a smudged scrap of paper located by Shanni behind a desk drawer. Unable to decipher what was on it, the group then came up with their game plan for interrogating Valz. Darrow and Dermot would make the situation look bleak for him, then see if Shanni could get something out of him by giving him some hope for the future.The two “heavies” descended the staircase into the basement and were escorted to the room where Valz was being held. Barakus and the two guards then cleared out, although Barakus lingered down the hall within earshot. Dermot took an intimidating tack from the beginning with Valz, backed up by the menacing, helmed form of Darrow. Dermot took out a knife and sharpened it on a whetstone as Darrow explained that they were the “cleaners” and Valz was the “mess” they had come for. Just as Dermot was beginning to get physical with the Astorian, Shanni and Aerikoth arrived and the petite rogue intervened, while the wizard looked on silently from the doorway. (Even though the Order is not pacifist, I would draw back at the prospect of employing violence in such situations, which do not involve battle against our enemies. I understand the point of staging such a scene with the informant, yet what would occur in this scenario if the party's bluff were to be called? I must meditate more on the threat and use of force. --C)At Shanni’s urging, the others departed the room, although not without some further threats from Dermot and Darrow, so that she could speak with Valz like a “reasonable person”. Shanni’s sympathetic act and surreptitious display of a looted Astorians token quickly brought Valz around to being cooperative, although the 300 gold she gave him was probably the deciding factor, with the understanding that he would use it to go far away from Teziir.After the others had been recalled, he told them what he knew about the layout of the Astorians headquarters building and the password for that night, which was “entrails”. He also disclosed the rumored existence of an escape tunnel that led outside from somewhere in the building’s underground level. After some further intimidation and threats assured the adventurers that Valz was telling them all he knew, they left him in the care of Barakus, who promised to release him, but not until noon on the following day.A search of the house's lower level revealed nothing else of use, so the four adventurers and Barakus went back upstairs to discuss their findings. After Shanni passed him the scrap of paper she had discovered, Barakus held it up to a firelight and was able to make out some word fragments: "....vin, 250, Hammer 10" and "...................................................................... vz, 100, Hammer 23". The group thought that this might be part of a ledger, perhaps of gambling debts. Barakus said he would ask Valz if the information meant anything to him and send Queron a note later, if the inquiry bore fruit. He then wished the four adventurers well and went back downstairs, leaving them to begin discussing their plans to assault Astorians headquarters.</blockquote>

Verification