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Post by moralhazard on May 1, 2019 3:08:48 GMT
Kara was bleeding now from half a dozen cuts, and the man added three more: two swift blows with his own curved sword, and another with the axe from his fallen colleague. She turned on him; what else could she do? There was a ringing – Kara couldn’t tell if it was in the hallway or her ears.
Kara threw herself back at her first opponent, with all her fury and strength.
He was bleeding too, even more than she. She ripped the blade through the back of his knee, hamstringing him and sending him down to one leg; her blade ripped through his chest then she smashed the butt against the side of his head, a deadly full force blow that dented his skull and dropped him to the ground.
HP: 25/55
Reckless attack
Glaive attack 1 against 1: Yjt5bp941d20+6 or 1d20+6
If successful, damage: 1d10+5
Glaive attack 2 against 1: 1d20+6 or 1d20+6
If successful, damage: 1d10+5
Butt of the weapon attack against 1: 1d20+6 or 1d20+6
If successful, damage: 1d4+51d20+6·1d20+6·1d10+5·1d20+6·1d20+6·1d10+5·1d20+6·1d20+6·1d4+5
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Post by kelantar on May 1, 2019 3:30:46 GMT
Kel'antar for once was glad that Kara was on his side, the fight hadn't even started a few seconds ago and now she had ended it again. The second man did not even a chance to blow the whistle; and upon further inspection it would seem that the man that wielded a weapon in each hand had been some sort of officer within the organization, for he did not carry a whistle around like the guards that were in their given posts but instead possessed simply a better armor and overal higher quality clothes. At least, the parts that were not stained in blood seemed to be of a higher quality, and the same thing went for his weapons. With that observation done, Kel'antar let his back fall against the wall and dropped the crossbow to the side, softly so that it would not make noise or go off without his notice and then focused his attention on the dagger lodged near his chest. It was not looking good. He brough one of his hands up to the wound and touched it. It felt painful. It would be bothersome to walk around with such a thing lodged in his body. He took a deep breath and then grabbing the rear end of the weapon, he pulled out.
If Kara was paying any attention the first thing she would realise was that there was no wound; even though the elf was wounded there was no blood pouring out of him nor in the dagger, though the wound remained in place. He spun the dagger around and kept it alongside the other, and with a deeper breath grabbed the heavy crossbow once again. He still had plenty of bolts for another fight, specially if they were all to be as short as that one. Nonetheless, he approached the woman with care and concern once again. As usual she had taken the worst part of the beating and was bleeding again, and for one, he was out of spells to cast on her in order to heal her.
"How are you feeling?"
He asked, though he doubted they would be able to find much rest within the place they were currently in. Without knowing the guard shifts, and without them being able to be prepared against any eventuality such as them coming down to drop someone else at the prision or something else happening, it seemed like there would be no rest for them, unless they could find a place secluded enough. Though that was unlikely, given that they had left every room they had been in thus far riddled with corpses all over. Kel'antar wasn't in good shape either, but he kept it to himself. Another one of those hits and perhaps he would experience what unconciousness was again. He was weak, and he could feel it.
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Post by moralhazard on May 1, 2019 4:07:09 GMT
Kara lowered the glaive. She was breathing hard now; there were no deep cuts after this fight as there had been after the fight before, but he had hit her six times during their fight, and each bled, some more sluggishly than others. Kara took a slow, deep breath, taking stock. The wounds were painful but nothing serious: no concussion, no damage to any major muscles. Everything moved as it should, even if those movements hurt more than they had.
Kara looked up at the elf when he spoke. Her gaze dropped to the wound on his side. There was no blood. Kara looked back at his face, then down at the wound again. She paused, thinking it over. This was not an elf. That was clear. He looked like an elf – he sounded like an elf – but he couldn’t be an elf. Elves bled from wounds like that.
Kara thought harder. He wasn’t an elf. He had never said that he was; she had assumed it. They were allies, and he had had her back – as best as he could – in every fight they’d been in. Whatever he was, Kara decided, she didn’t care. She wouldn't ask. It didn't matter, not really. She knew what she needed to know: he was inexperienced but cool-headed, with magic and healing powers, and he meant Ajisha harm.
“Well enough,” Kara said, simply. If he had more healing, she thought it likely he would use it, either on her or himself, if whatever he was needed healing. She didn’t know if she could take many more fights like that. Perhaps one. Likely not two. She grabbed the collar of the first man, the one with the scar, and pulled him into the small store room, gesturing at her chin with the second and hoping the not-elf would do the same. There was blood in the hallway, but blood at least was less visible than corpses.
Once inside, Kara knelt and searched the man’s corpse.
Investigation: 0bv0PhK51d201d20
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Post by kelantar on May 13, 2019 14:36:00 GMT
"I wonder if, at your deathbed, you will say that you are mostly alright"
Kel'antar pondered out loud, judging by the main wounds on the woman's body her definition of well enough seemed to be slightly different to those of most sentients he had known thus far, though perhaps she was used to getting wounded in such a fashion. He couldn't tell, not really. After all how could someone be used to taking that ammount of aggression in it's body and still be alive after all? It didn't seem likely. And yet, there she was, now dragging one of the bodies inside the store room. He sighed, and then did the same with the other body albeit with more effort than she was doing. He found it unpleasant to search through a dead man's body, but he did it nonetheless.
Investigation
VGmtW5qH1d20
Their searching however did not turn up with anything useful other than a handful of coins, a whistle, and yet another dagger. The higher ranking man did have however a single, slightly rusted key. But it would seem however as if the keys were passed from guard to guard depending on who was holding shift. Either that or each of them was tasked with guarding different things and regulating entry to them. So far there were not any more noises coming their way, but it was only a matter of time before they were found out, if they hadn't been already and someone was ringing the alarm upstairs instead of running to face them. And yet... Why would they? What were the odds that the prisoners had actually broken free and quite literally killed everyone in their path stealthily so far? Not likely.1d20
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Post by moralhazard on May 13, 2019 15:02:46 GMT
Kara took the key; better safe than sorry. She frowned at the not-elf when he made his joke; it processed after a moment, and Kara made a faint snorting noise, more of an acknowledgment than anything resembling a laugh, and shrugged.
Kara drank one more gulp of water, checked to make sure she had gotten all of her things from the storeroom and took anything she had missed, and turned back to the not-elf.
“Your things?” She asked.
They weren’t here. Kara rubbed her face, feeling a little drained. Valuable items stolen. Guards across the hall and a staircase past them. Had they been guarding or was it just a break room? She thought they had heard voices from downstairs. Could Ajisha be down there?
Kara didn’t know. If they wen downstairs and the alarm was sounded, guards up here might cut them off. If they didn’t, they might miss the not-elf’s things or Ajisha herself.
With a final nod, Kara turned to the door. She had made a promise. “Back across,” she said. “Down the stairs.” With that, and it a courtesy, she would leave the closet and head down.
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Post by kelantar on May 17, 2019 17:58:08 GMT
"Not here" He said with a sigh after spending the better part of half a minute searching through, it wasn't a thorough, methodic search but neither did it seem like it had to be. Perhaps what he was looking for was big and noticeable, and not something small that could be easily stashed away or left unnoticed underneath something else. In truth, it was much simpler than that. He had no idea what he was looking for but was rather sure that he would know once he saw it, and for the time being nothing he was seeing rang a bell or generated any kind of reaction from him. Thus, none of the belonging's were his. Not that they weren't useful either, but he wasn't going to carry those things with him, they were noisy, and heavy. He did however keep the dagger that had caused him a wound, maybe that would prove useful in the future. Once Kara began to head out, he followed, the hallways were completely silent for the time being... At least so far as they could tell, and once they reached the farthest end and began to descend through the stairs those strange, regular noises would begin to fill their ears again. Like some kind of inintelligible, deep, groaning, brief, inconsistant. And... a something leaking, the distorted sound of a droplet into a body of water. After a long hallway that turned into the earth itself as a kind of crude basament they found themselves into what looked to be like a cave. A place that had it's fair share of cases, boxes and similar things, as well as what looked to be construction implements laid bare against one of the sides, piled there. Kel'antar kept himself close to Kara, in case they found any troubles. The hit he had taken had already been more than enough to remind him that he wasn't clearly in any fighting shape, for the time being, and would do well to remember it.
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Post by moralhazard on May 17, 2019 18:20:06 GMT
Kara made her way through the room, down the stairs and the hallway. There was an odd, distant groaning that sent the hairs on the back of her neck standing up, and made the small hairs on her arms rise as well. She followed the long hallway down to the cave basement, glaive gripped tightly in both hands, keeping well in front of the not-elf at all times. Something might come from behind – but Kara thought it likelier that any threats would be in front.
Her hunch was right; whatever was in here, Kara thought, they had been guarding.
Kara stepped forward to examine one of the crates, using the blade of her glaive to pry it open if it didn’t open easily and checking inside.
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Post by kelantar on May 18, 2019 12:55:08 GMT
The crate was sealed shut complete with nails helping to keep the crates held together, however Kara would find that when applying her healthy dose of freakish strenght the wood below her grip made a small creaking sound, then a crack, and finally it opened up. The first box she chose revealed an array of weapons; daggers, knives, and short swords. Easily conceleable weapons made of black steel, some of them with a curved whip. On the inside face of the wooden surface she had just cracked, and was now exposed, there was a simbol of a black winged snake heading downwards, mouth open, about to swallow that which looked to be like a small black sphere.
Kel'antar peeked over her shoulder to see what was inside and then looked towards the other boxes. Some of them had holes drilled into them, and were rumbling suspiciously. To the south, the cave continued further through two different paths, and neither seemed to have anything to indicate what was at either end. It was illuminated by witchlight lamps, which hanged in a rather crude fashion from the walls once every while leaving the whole underground illuminated by dim light, forcing the eyes to see everything covered in shadows and assumptions, at least until one got closer.
"I've seen that symbol before, elsewhere"
The elf pointed out, nodding towards the box.
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Post by moralhazard on May 18, 2019 13:02:20 GMT
“Smuggling,” Kara said aloud. She had been a guard; she didn’t need it to be spelled out to understand what was going on. She had read the code legal here in Waterdeep; weapons weren’t heavily taxed, but there was a cost of a gold piece per sale. For simple weapons like these, and for someone buying in bulk? It wasn’t surprising.
Kara steered clear of the rattling boxes with holes in them. She glanced over at the not-elf, then down at the box and the symbol. “Where?” Kara asked.
Cautiously, quietly, and paying attention, Kara began to make her way down the right side path, trusting the not-elf to follow. She hadn’t forgotten the eerie noises. She would, she thought, need to find a way to get this information to the City Watch. That meant a full report; she did her best to fix the details in her mind, but still kept a sharp eye out.
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Post by kelantar on May 18, 2019 13:28:00 GMT
" On another prisioner, while I was in the dungeons. Not in this dungeon, in another one. A lawful one. He had it tatooed on one of his wrists, and wasn't in the same cell as I was for longer than a few hours at most, he walked in, and a few hours later someone came to bail him out, just like that." At first he thought there were two distinct possibilities for the man and the tattoo's significance. The first one was that clearly it was just a random tattoo with no deeper significance that the man's own, and the second idea that had crossed his mind was that it signaled gang membership or something along those lines, it wasn't uncommon for men in a group to share a visual bond with each other, thus tattoos were amongs the most common. That, or simply branding themselves with a hot iron for the most crude ones, or the ones with a more militaristic approach to things. He didn't mention why he had been in jail to witness such thing, since it led into a rabbit hole of explanations that would seem each more contrived than the last, he'd rather her believe whatever she would of what he had said. The path continued and it further diverged into three more paths. To the utmost left, there was a chamber still in process of being shaped, empty, with a couple shovels resting against the wall. A turn to the left, and a straight path ahead that lead into yet another hallway with smaller side tunnels digged into the earth. Their purpose was unknown, and, perhaps, they had been digged for reasons that partained to the very nature of the soil, or simply due to the building above and it's supports running through the ground. The very last room contained a locked, crude metal cube, black, heavy. There was a keyhole but no handle visible; and it had yet again that same symbol carved on to the front surface. It was like an overgrown safe, big enough to occupy a ridiculous ammount of space, when compared to the ones that were hardly more than fifty centimeters tall and wide. The elf stopped and turned to look towards her, raising an eyebrow.
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Post by moralhazard on May 18, 2019 13:37:57 GMT
Kara frowned at the not-elf when he explained that he had seen the symbol on a man with him in prison. She scowled a little, rubbing the shaved part of her head with one hand, trying to think. Prison. Why had he been in prison? It wasn’t the sort of thing one usually just dropped unless they hadn’t done anything wrong or they were a truly hardened criminal.
With a long exhale, Kara let it go. They didn’t have time to stand around talking.
There wasn’t much to see down here - at least not until they reached the locked metal cube. Kara scowled slightly.
“Does it look trapped?” Kara asked, squinting at the cube. She would do her own check, but better to have two pairs or eyes than one. She did think they should try to open it; it seemed important.
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Post by kelantar on May 18, 2019 13:48:23 GMT
"If we go by common sense... Then yes. Look at the size of this thing. And have you seen the size of the corridors? There is no way they could have it in this thing in here by carrying it through the corridors, least of all down the stairs and through some of the doors. That means it was made here. And if it was made here, it was probably made with magic, since I didn't really see any forges down here. And here, check at the edges."
He pointed out as he approached the oversized safe reaching out with one of his fingers, though he didn't touch it, he pointed to where the edges were supposed to be.
"Look at this, there are no welding marks, nothing that would imply this thing was put together from smaller parts brought inside. That definitely means it's magic, and the purpose of it being here then must be so that it can't be stolen away, since it's too heavy and on what appears to be the lowest level of whatever this is supposed to be. It's the hardest place to get to. So, technically, the safest place to stash things. Even if a thief would manage to get inside, imagine this thing being filled with gold, there is no way he could carry that by himself"
The elf then squatted in front of the contraption and began to inspect it up closer looking for other tellsigns that the thing was trapped.
"And if it was made by magic then we can asume that it must have some kind of magical trap in effect as well. Why go through all the trouble to summon such a thing here and not use the chance to leave some kind of magical countermeasure in place, for if everything else fails? It's already as contrived as it can be, so whoever put this must have been on that kind of minset when it did."
Perception check DC 25 Qh_8fex21d20+5 + Guidance 1d4
He finally stopped and pointed to an almost imperceptible pattern made with black over black, and squinted as his elvish eyes focused on the pattern they described, before hapzarding a guess at what it would be. He couldn't quite remember what it was, though he had found out that it was definitely trapped.
"Yes, it is trapped. I can try to slowly undo the glyphs, though it is a... Hard process so to say. Not necessarily slow. I mean I have no idea what the trap does, if I make a mistake maybe the entire room will explode and us with it. Maybe it'll be just mean. Or perhaps it'll just ring out an alarm, or the cave will fall in towards us. However... I am pretty sure that I can do this. And by that I mean I have a really good chance of getting rid of it, and then opening it up. But you should be aware that... Well, this can go wrong, and what it entails if it does."1d20+5·1d4
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Post by moralhazard on May 18, 2019 14:00:35 GMT
Asking the not-elf seemed to be the right call. Kara could follow his explanations, but most of that nuance would have been lost on her. It all made sense - a safe place to stash things, magically made.
And - yes, it was trapped. The not-elf warned that they might summon al the guards, collapse the ceiling, blow the place out. Kara scowled, rubbing her head again. She thought it best to just - leave the thing behind and go. But they had made a deal.
“Your things could be inside,” Kara said, slowly. The organization’s books - proof for the City Guard - might also be inside. If the not-elf was going to take the risk she would stay, not leave him to face his fate alone. “How badly -“ Kara was screwing this up. She cut herself off, trying to think. It was hard for her to ask him to do it.
“I can’t choose for you.” Kara said, finally. If that meant walking away - then so be it.
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Post by kelantar on May 18, 2019 14:35:19 GMT
Kel'antar inhaled slowly and exhaled, she was right of course. What he was looking for could very well be inside the cage now in front of him and if he left it as was, odds were he would probably not find such a good chance of finding out as he had at that moment. However it was dangerous and it looked to be potentially fatal. Was it worth risking it, to recover a clue towards his memory and perhaps the person that he had been? He had let Kara know about his suspicions regarding the trap, but all in all he had done so so she could be brought up to speed on the dangers they were facing. After all, it would be rude of him to accidentally trigger a trap that could get her killed as well. So, it was that he would let her pick where she wanted to stand when he began to thinker with the safe.
"I am going to try to open it, I should request that you go outside of this room for the time being in case it is actually something that will explode. I don't imagine however that it would be something too strong and that unfocused towards a specific point, after all, an explosion would only probably damage the safe if it's really strong, and maybe even the contents inside. If I fail to remove the trap and it goes off, which will most likely kill me... I don't suppose you could carry my body to the Blackstaff tower? Well, if something remains of it to be carried. And if it can be helped. I wouldn't want you to end up back in the cell due to the extra luggage."
That said he gave out another sigh, and extended his hands forward beginning to concentrate. The following would be the hardest thing up to date, but he was decided to face the situation without fear, even though it would mean his end most likely. For if he didn't, then he wouldn't know. He began to wonder where did his fearlessness came from, and only then noted that it was a traits that most other sentients did not have. But was it fearlessness? Or simply carelessness? He didn't feel particularly brave when doing it. He waited until Kara was safely out of the room, and then he began his work.
Sleight of hand: Disarm trap DC 20 qes2qSUB1d20+6 + Guidance 1d4
Surprisingly he didn't blow up. Using that magic that ran through his fingers he began to slowly, very slowly peel away the different layers that made the glyph, until as it began to lose it's form it started to vanish, to disolve into nothingness and to blend against the blackened background. It took long, longer than he had expected but at least the trap did not blow up in his face as he did it, eventually the entire glyph was undone and the magic subsided leaving only a mundane, oversized strongbox locked in front of him. He then moved towards the lock and continued his work. By that time probably, Kara would be wondering if the Elf was already dead or not, that was if she hadn't actually took off on her own. He tried to unlock the box then.
Sleight of hand: Open box DC 20 1d20+6 + Guidance 1d4
And after a few minutes of effort and concentration, the door unlocked... And it began to swing open outwards as if magically compelled to do so. A small sound of pressure was heard as it opened and revealed the contents within. The glimmer that came from inside illuminated Kel'antars face with a rainbow glow in which the color of gold was the more prevalent. He let out a small smile, and then chuckled. And then chuckled harder. It was full of gold and gemstones of different colors and variety, no doubt each of them incredibly expensive and yet so small they could be carried without problem inside regular pockets, however, no one could realistically take more than a few handfuls of those unless they had brought with themselves heavy bags in order to heave them out. He reached over and began to sort through the stash... Only to found that none of the things inside, none of the gems and certainly not one bit of the gold sparked anything familiar within him.1d20+6·1d4·1d20+6·1d4
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Post by moralhazard on May 18, 2019 15:33:32 GMT
Kara looked at the not-elf, jaw clenched tight. She didn’t like the idea of leaving her companion to face danger alone while she stood outside. But then - he was right. It benefited neither of them for her to die needlessly. Kara nodded her agreement, and went to wait outside the room.
She tried to think of it as standing guard. It was - difficult. Too much time still and alone; too many fights; too many injuries. But Kara held, waiting, as the not-elf waged his own battle against the safe behind them.
When the not-elf began to laugh, Kara figured that he had succeeded. She turned and made her way back into the room, looking at the safe. Her eyes went wide. It was more money than she had ever seen in her life - much more. Kara exhaled, slowly.
It wasn’t hers. That was the first thought that struck her. She had no right to it. It wasn’t Alisha’s either, something in her argued. It was ill-gotten, through force and theft. Ajisha had no more right to it than Kara did.
The not-elf was sorting through it, as if searching. Kara stepped closer, slowly, crouching to look inside the safe. The gems alone - she gritted her teeth. She wasn’t here as a guard. She had no obligation to leave this where she had found it.
She had come to strike a blow against Ajisha. Perhaps, Kara realized slowly, it just wasn’t the blow she had expected. She would - figure out what to do with the money later. She couldn’t keep it, at least not all of it. She would figure that out when the time came. But it benefitted not one except Ajisha to leave it here.
“It isn’t defeating her,” Kara voiced her thoughts aloud. “But to take - some of this, is a strong blow.”
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