Murder, She Rolled (5e D&D) - Ep II

Vella nodded, giggling a little bit at Ripley's antics. "Yes we are, sir! Don't worry, we'll keep an eye on her until Daren gets back. Speaking of which, do you guys know when he's gonna get back? I saw him briefly and now he's gone," she stated,

The eyes looked puzzled at Vella as she said that. No one in particular seemed to want to explain that to her.

"So, I, uhh...will be at the office if you need me." Fennis led the others out of the alley to the HQ.

Everyone took their turns to leave, and Ander took a moment to take a big concerned hug on Adelaide before leaving.

"You better not get killed, you guys. I know I'll try. I talked to Miron and confirmed the signs of battle here indicate evocation magic and silence spells just by the proximity. This grease should be long gone, too. There is bound to be dedicated spellcasters between Daren's kidnapers."

"C'mom, fancy pants!" Peri screamed from the distance.

"COMING!" Ander shouted back. "The Crooked Tooth might know something about these tattoo signs, too. Best of luck for us." He then left with a staged bow, and you are left with ourselves and the gruesome scene.

"Very well," Ellen said. "Where should we head first? This tavern you were staying at seems to be a solid lead."

"But it's too early to get drunk!" Ripley complained. "Takes all the fun out of going there..."

"Yes, but if we hurry we may be able to talk to the local drunks before they drink themselves unintelligible," Ellen replied. "We'll have to rely on the regulars and the staff to find out things that happened days ago, and in either case they might be more helpful before the dinner rush."

"The nightmare never ends on this city... Dark Elves? Spying on us for days? While we fought in sewers and recovered the book and dumb skull?" says Adelaide with a grunt... letting out a little sigh "At least they are spellcasters. Those are squishy when you hit them... let us get going then"

A few moments of walking later, The adventurers found themselves back at the familiar sight of the Western District, at least for the ones who knew them.

The new visitors could discern a never-ending wave of the poor and sickly people walking and gathering in circles, and sometimes even blocking streets too thin for two people to walk side-by-side in the shortcuts that Daren taught them. The smells varied from smoke from the blacksmiths and other numerous shops, including rotten fruit vendors, always mixed with the perpetual sewage that ran in open streets. The shouting and bustling of a market area could be heard with a little more exaggeration, as if pleading or announcing at the top of their lungs helped the locals part with their few coins for the products sold here.

Finally the front of the searched inn was uncovered in that maze of alleys. A bronze rusted sun hung twisted from the slightly ajar door, held only by one worn and also twisted nail where previously seemed to be four or more.

The sign could be read more from the missing letters marked by the absence of dirt around them than from the couple of bronze letters that stubbornly stood there as best they could: HOU_E O_ T_E _I_SI_G S__

It was the place.

Upon opening the jammed door and entering, you are greeted by the same known room with torn flowery wallpapers, moody travelers, and a familiar figure behind the bar, an human old barkeep female in a enthusiastic battle with what seemed a cockroach as big as her palm. As you approach, she encloses it under a upside-down mug of ale.

"Aha! Gotcha. Now I just gotta figure out a way to use you to lure your big momma." Then she notices you all, her face lightening up as she tries to fix her white mess of a hair.

"Well, you here again, welcome back. With new clients! Did not expect you back here so early. C'mon...lunch is almost done." She looked awfully excited to the glass she held with her both hands as it resisted bravely, hitting embbeded kitchen knives while moving a little in the counter. "How was that enlisting of yours? And how can I best serve you?"

edited 9th Nov '16 9:46:09 AM by Kyef

As Vella walked with the group, the implications of their eerie silence were becoming clear, and her smile faded entirely, knowing now that Daren was in trouble. She should've put two and two together, how could she have not seen that coming in this city? It did not matter now. She would have to find him.

When they arrived in the House of the Rising Sun, Vella walked up to the innkeeper, the same woman that had given her a job on the day she first met Daren. "Long story, but Daren is in trouble. We wanted to know if you saw anything suspicious around here lately... any dark elven activity?" she asked, looking a little uneasy to be asking about it.

edited 9th Nov '16 2:35:03 PM by AllHailThrall

Ellen followed behind Vella, keeping her head up high and proud despite having to wade through the veritable tide of filth in this flimsy excuse for an establishment. She glanced around to see if anything looked odd.

Well, considering this was Golimar, everything looked odd. She was mostly just looking for anything that seemed out of place or suspicious.

Investigation roll

"Wha-you mean drows? Hells no, miss, and thank the gods, we have enough to deal with already in this place." The barkeep seemed alarmed enough to leave her prey escape. With a frown on her face, she proceeded.

"What, is it trouble with your friend? Quite the hyperactive, that half-elf. Curious, too. Payed extra gold for leaving his room untouched for the day, said someone would come back to pick things up but left with everything he brought here on his back, and left in a hurry as if his pants were on fire. You guys here to get something for him?" She says, picking trough her keys.

Investigation check for Ellen: 1d20-1= 15. Will PM with the info.

Ellen pressed up against the bar, as if casually leaning into it, then put a hand on Vella's shoulder. "Friends of yours?" she asked, tilting her head towards a group of patrons across the room, where one of the toughs seemed to be looking at her and talking to his friends in a suspicious manner.

Vella's head was turned by Ellen towards the toughs who were looking at her and talking amongst themselves suspiciously. She tried to listen in to see if she could hear them talking. She had a sneaking suspicion she might see a familiar face here.

Perception check for Vella.

The Contessa tilted her head in confusion. "What's going on?" she asked obliviously.

Just as Vella turned her head, she found out the person that Ellen talked about, as he got up and shouted at her, while hearing a muttered "oh no" from the barkeep. The mood of pure hopelessness and life choice evaluations immediately shifts to one of aprehension.

"Hey, ya there. Circus freak. Ya just magick'd me yesterday!" Says the tough, big goliath, approaching wildly with his relatively smaller but still thugish three or four friends.

He starts storming the bar, throwing aside furniture and patrons alike as he rushes to Vella's direction, breaking a bottle in a nearby table before approaching. "I'll teach you something you can tell later to that skinny boyfriend of yours with that big-freaking mouth!"

The patrons finally seemed to get some life into them and sensing a upcoming bar brawl either prepare for the fight or start moving to the street, except for, Ellen notices, one table, whose scholar-like individuals rush upstairs, probably to their rooms.

"Eer...dearie? Take care of that will you? You can have the key, just keep my clients from fleeing!" The older woman whisper from behind the bar.

Vella nodded. "Don't worry, miss," she assured the barkeep. "I can handle someone like this." With that she turned towards the tough. "Oh come now, boys," she stated, matter-of-factly while also trying to sound cute again. "Do you really want to beat up a poor little girl like me? Is it really worth it? Would that really make you happy? Maybe I can pay you 20 gold instead and call the whole thing off. What do you say, sweetie?" she inquired, pulling the gold out of her pouch and giving a cute look at them. If things went sour she would duck out of the way to prepare for more drastic measures.

Vella attempts a +5 Persuasion roll on the toughs. Readying a disengage action to move away if she fails the persuasion attempt.

edited 10th Nov '16 10:10:17 PM by AllHailThrall

"Please don't break my escort," Ripley chimed in, getting a general sense of what was going on, now. "Not a lot upstairs, but she is pretty, and the big lizard whatshisface gave her to me... Fennis, I think? I think he'd be mad at everyone here if I brought her back in pieces."

assisting Vella's persuasion check. Readying a disengage action to head for the stairs if it should fail.

edited 10th Nov '16 11:07:01 PM by Dragon573

"Lady have mercy..." Ellen half-prayed, half-muttered under her breath before taking her hand off of Vella's shoulder.

Casting guidance on Vella.

Persuasion check (with Ripley assisting to cancel disavantage being that Vella freaking charmed the guy): 1d20+1d4+5=21(the DC came down certainly as you offered him more gold than a peasant makes in one year and a half). Good thing you assisted, because I rolled with disavantage before and it was a Nat 1. Dunno if mentioning Fennis would be more of a Intimidation check, too, but what the hell.

The big, burly humanoid got to Vella's face and breathed hard staring hard at her eyes, he towering a least a foot higher than her.

There was a moment of pause before Vella was pushed back to the counter by the man's hands, who then promptly used the chance to pry her gold from her hand. With a final blow, he said: "Lucky for you, I'm more interested in drinking than beating up weaklings just as you. Even if some have an awfully familiar face." He says the last part to Adelaide, and walks back, his last hit embedding the bottle he broke to the counter.

"You won't come near me or even look funny at me again, dancing fool. Or else I'll make sure you play many flutes, none of them with your mouth." And as he turns to the disappointed men behind him for the lack of a fight, he extends his arm with the gold and gloats in his bloated voice:

"Drink up, my fellas! Tonight we drink and celebrate properly the memory of the general Lorraf Pigface, chant the game choirs of Maleris, the greatest kingdom in this known world, and curse Relanis and his wretched grey puppies, 'till we find his accursed killer!"

A wave of hurrays followed as the seemingly once military man shouted "O captain, my captain!"

Vella felt behind her as a key was put into her hand. "You just earned yourselves a free round here. Well done again dear, shame you prefer this nasty adventuring business, I could hire you for your conciliation skills only."

edited 11th Nov '16 8:47:02 AM by Kyef

"E-Ehehe... ehehe..."

Adelaide, normally stoic, normally suffering or sighing at the current course of action suddenly began to chuckle... to giggle softly while among her allies, looking at the drinking group of louts with quite a strange expression in her face "Oh dear, I wish Vondal was here..." she says, her expression a strange mix of anger, mocking and joy as she begins cracking her knuckles.

"Do you make it a habit of handing over a small fortune to the first group of ruffians that approaches you?" Ellen said to Vella.

She turned to the barkeep. "Who is General Pigface," she asked. "And what';s this business that they're drinking and cheering to?"

Vella's face turned pale and the cute smile faded from her face as the ruffian pushed her against the wall. Then he took the money she had offered and left. She sighed in relief, then looked at the innkeeper as she put the key into her hand. "I... thanks," she stated, trying to recover from the shock, and the fear that she had been hiding. "Guess I just have the gift of the gab."

She looked over at Ellen who made a snide remark about her handing so much money to the toughs. "I have plenty more where that came from," she pointed out. "Besides, it was either that or there would've been a fight on our hands, and I never did like getting into scrapes myself... I'm not as strong as Adelaide or Vondal. Now, uh, why don't we check out Daren's room? That might have some clues."

She glanced back at the innkeeper. "Miss, do you mind if we investigate Daren's room?" she inquired.

"I-I never knew of any General Pigface, I swear I-"

The human's voice was almost overcome and muffled by the sounds of stomping feet and fists to the table, as the apparent hooligans started chanting and celebrating:

Ooh, What do we do with a Relanis Vermin? What do we do with a Relanis Vermin? So, what do we do with a Relanis Vermin? Squirming and moaning!?

Hear-'em-up, They cryin'! Hear-'em-up, They cryin'! Hear-'em-up, They cryin'! Squirming and moaning!

Crush'em in the in the fights like we do it in the games, Sip from their tears as they beg upon our knees, Pave down the road with their blood and spilled brains! As they are, squirming and moaning!

And that were among the more pleasant verses of it.

edited 11th Nov '16 11:06:10 AM by Kyef

"Gold comes and goes," Ripley shrugged her shoulders. "There's only one Vella," Ripley looped an arm through the bard's. "And I wasn't lying when I said the lizard would probably be hacked off if we got in a fight. I recall that he basically said 'don't do anything fun or I'll lock you up.' Nobody has time for that; we have to go find the whatever-we're-looking-for... oh, and that guy. And the short, angry guy.

Ripley's grin turned wicked. "Besides! I'm sure we can find some way of making it back," she winked.

"Aaaaaaah!? YOU *********, SAYING WHAT!?"

These are the really loud words coming out of Adelaide's mouth... only after she jumped right on top of a table, kicking off a mug of beer and plates to make room for herself... one hand on her waist as she leans down, her other hand at her ear... her expression... well, her expression as delinquent as there can be.

"WELL IF THESE AREN'T A GROUP OF LOUT FACED, ******* BRAINED, *****s birthed from the swampy ******** that is Maleris!" says Adelaide quite loudly, a manic grin on her face as she cracks her knuckles nice and hard "And they sing praises for Lord Loraf Pigface, whose ugly mug he ought to apologize to swine for daring to compare with their snouts. You know what? I'm glad that I, Adelaide Melnik of the Border Guard of Relanis at Sellis Fort, finally rid the world of such filth by cutting his damn head off with a single damn swipe. BOOM! CRITICAL HIT, and then that head bounced and rolled down the hill into the freaking bog!"

Then, letting out a little chuckle, and a most despicable, smug grin ever, Ade leans down to face the group of thugs saying in a low tone "And if the lot of you ****** clowns don't freaking like to hear about it, you can roll your way back to your swamp... or you can freaking come at me, soldiers"

You can bet I roll to Intimidate

edited 11th Nov '16 1:41:17 PM by daltar

"Is she talking sports or fighting?" Ellen whispered to Ripley and Vella.

edited 11th Nov '16 1:46:20 PM by nman