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Post by kelantar on May 18, 2019 15:52:00 GMT
Kel'antar turned his head slightly to the side, and oogled at Kara with a quizzical look. And then he chuckled again. Of course, she wanted revenge against Ajisha, and this was one way to do it, for surely the men in her employ were expendable for her for she could buy more with gold or simply bribe here way about where muscle wasn't enough, but if she suddenly found herself not only without the manpower she once had but also without the wealth she used to have, or would have had in order to buy more of those... She would find herself in a position not unlike being close to death for someone of her standing. Maybe one of her rivals would seize the opportunity and end her when word got out. That was, if Kara didn't have her way with her first... Because from the looks of it, and judging by what little Kel'antar knew of Kara, he doubted she would just walk up to her and sternly tell her to not do it again. And, similarly, he doubted someone like Ajisha could be trusted to really not be caught doing something like that again even if she said she wouldn't.
With a small nodd he brough one of his hands forward and grabbed a handful of those gems and began to fill his pockets with them, small glowing beads that soon began to pile up on top of each other. He grabbed as many as he could have reasonably carried with him, without them being a hindrance; which was more a thing of how much could his pockets fit in, because the things being so small were... Rather slippery to say the least. He was no jewelsmith however, so he couldn't tell how much was each individual bead worth, or even if the materials had any difference in use or price, so he tried to pocket them evenly but didn't really give much thought to the whole issue beyond that.
He welcomed Kara to do the same too and grab her own handfuls of the stuff, meanwhile the sounds continued to echo to their ears, that irregular, spaced out kind of odd groaning and the sound of dropplets hitting against the small pools of water on the ground somewhere, as if leaking. It made him think though, that maybe having a basement in a city called "Waterdeep" would not be such a great idea. Now, he didn't know the geography of the place, or even it's topography, so he was going by instinct when he thought that.
"Agreed, and maybe some gold will loosen tongues where a good conversation or simply violence won't. And, as usual, it's better to try and avoid the violent outcomes. I think that most times that must work out for the better for all persons involved in the interaction."
When he was done he slowly stood up and began to inspect the rest of the room in case he had missed anything but... No, he hadn't missed anything it seemed, the place was just a room digged and carved into the earth. No more arcane things, no more locks into place, no more traps that could probably kill either of them if misshandled. That only left one more corridor to go through, and then back again to the place they had come from.
"I don't suppose we can calmly pretend to stay here much longer... I don't even know what time is there but the guards must shift watches at least once a day... Or maybe two times a day. It shouldn't take them too long to put one plus one together... But if they had done so already I feel like we would know by now."
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Post by moralhazard on May 18, 2019 16:09:28 GMT
Kara took a few handfuls of gems herself, carefully gauging how well she could fill the pockets inside her tunic without making noise or risking spilling them everywhere - or worse, getting off balance while fighting. Somehow, she doubted they would be leaving today without a few more blows being exchanged.
Kara looked down at her last handful of small gems, counting them carefully. She took a deep breath, then swallowed them, one by one. Safer that way; no chance of them dropping or throwing her off balance. At worst, she would bring these with her.
Kara stopped back once she was done, looking at the not-elf.
“Yes,” Kara exhaled. An alarm to signal everyone might reach them down here - or it might not. If the guards above had been discovered, however, Kara doubted very much they would be alone here longer.
But - it seemed a shame not to finish exploring. This time, Kara went what would have been left from their initial entry into the cave room, cautiously looking around, listening intently for any dangers from before or behind.
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Post by kelantar on May 18, 2019 16:20:15 GMT
By the time Kara actually began to swallow the gems, Kel'antar was watching her slack jawed. Not sure whether to laugh or to be concerned by her health. Maybe it was a cultural thing. Maybe it was that she had been to prison before and it was a force of habit. He couldn't begin to grasp on how to exactly broad the subject, so he just stood there watching her, thinking on what would that feel like. For a sentient being with a functional stomach at least. She knew those were stones, right? The elf stood there for the better part of a minute and then, carefully asked her.
"Are you feeling alright?"
He slowly arched one eyebrow, not meaning to sound derisive in his asking, not meaning to sound like he was judging her to be insane or that she had at least taken a serious blow to the head in one of the previous fights while he wasn't looking. Those stones. They would be digested. They would actually go through her body. She had just... Kel'antar shook his head, and tried his best not to think about what he had just seen. Once she was done with her strange stone-eating ritual, he followed her and they began to go towards the only place they yet hadn't checked. One of the rooms towards their right, now their left. There was a big, yet short hallway leading towards a sealed room with big iron doors, set into part of the stone that the digging had uncovered, that strange groaning echo came from within.
It was locked, of course, but they possessed the keys. It was one of his'. When it opened towards the inside with a cringing metallic sound, it revealed a larger room. Inside, there was a short flight of stairs that descended into a lower ground, and that lower ground eventually gave way to a small lake. A really small lake, with a tiny island in the middle. The waters were dark and muddied, and on this end of the water there was a makeshift dock with a wooden boat tied to it. The boat was being slowly moved against the wood of the dock and that was what made the groaning sound, the echo of the cavern taking care of the rest. It was an odd thing, considering there was... well there didn't seem to be any considerable wind down there.
And yet, the water was moving, slowly, but surely...
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Post by moralhazard on May 18, 2019 16:25:17 GMT
Kara looked at the not-elf. He was staring at her as if she had gone crazy. Kara scowled back at him, feeling self-conscious. “They will - pass through,” Kara shrugged. “It is done by smugglers.”
After a moment, and blushing slightly, Kara added, “It didn’t hurt.” Whether she meant it or not, Kal would have to judge for himself.
A lake. Kara looked at it, frowning. Why was the boat moving? Why -
“Get back,” Kara said in the lowest, softest voice she could, retreating back towards the stairs. Back up the stairs, back to the door, and they could lock it again for good measure. Kara didn’t know what was in that lake, and she thought she would prefer not to find out.
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Post by kelantar on May 18, 2019 17:47:22 GMT
There was something quite... instinctual about the fear of dark waters that he could feel even though he wasn't really... quite like everyone else in many ways. Possibly because it wasn't his element. He wouldn't risk drowning, for sure. But he felt a certain caution towards the muddied water and the way it was moving. Why was it moving? Why were there small waves every once in a while while there was no wind in the place? The only answer he could think of was that there was something below the water surface. Something so big that it was making waves as it moved through... And that only made him think of the hypothetical size of that kind of creature, and it was definitely not something he would want to tangle with right then. So when Kara vouched to get back, he nodded silently and slowly began to back away. He had been thinking of something along the lines of a shark... But just as they were beginning to close the door again as stealthily as they could, the thought crossed his minds. Maybe some creature with actual tentacles that could draw other creatures below the surface. Now, that was kind of terrifying. " What was the purpose of that room, even" He wondered out loud in a small whisper. Though the truth would not be very hard to fathom, at least not when one took into consideration who Ajisha was and the kind of warfare she often fought against other people. It was not unlike obscenely rich people and criminals to have oddities and excentricities in their lairs, sometimes, even absurd or over the top means of execution meant to terrorize underlings and diminish the possibility of anyone of them ever thinking about defecting to the other side, whichever the other side was, or simply crossing her. Or, at the worst scenario, simply failing her. The long hallway carved into the earth bid them welcome once again, and this time however Kel'antar did stop by the crate that Kara had opened earlier, and did retrieve one shortsword, and four daggers. Why? Simply because he thought it best to have enough weapons to be able to fend for himself should the chance to fight against arise. And he had... the inkling thought that it might be the case. They locked the doors behinds them as they passed and soon they found themselves back into the main hallway just ouside of the cells, where everything was silent except for the bloodstains they passed through on their way there, ominous, a silent reminder of what had happened there in a manner of seconds. At the end of the hallway, the place curved and revealed some more of the place they found themselves in. But, perhaps most importantly among those, stairs leading upwards somewhere.
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Post by moralhazard on May 18, 2019 18:00:55 GMT
Kara didn’t answer the not-elf’s question; she wasn’t sure she wanted the answer any more than he did. Better to leave it behind and not ask; better to get to Ajisha, or at worst to get out of this place and find a way to make the City Watch care. Kara hadn’t managed that yet, but – well – she would have to think carefully about how to proceed. Gems might not be the right way to get the Watch’s attention.
“They brought me down to the cell,” Kara said, quietly, looking at the stairs upward. There were several more hallways; there were too many choices, as always, and time was running low. She took a deep breath. She wasn’t sure how many fights she had left in her, in truth. She had done what she could to search for the not-elf’s things; at least, Kara thought, he might well be able to buy himself replacements now.
“Let’s go.” Kara began to climb the stairs, slowly and cautiously, trying to be stealthy and keep a watchful eye for what might be ahead.
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Post by kelantar on May 18, 2019 20:17:34 GMT
It didn't take too long after she said those words for Kel'antar to make the connection between the two things and follow her train of thought, clearly she meant to say that the exit was upstairs. Where, it clearly was. The only question that remained unanswered but would not remain so for long was whether it was the right "upstairs" or the wrong one. And when the human began to climb upstairs, as stealthily and slowly as she could, he followed in kind except this time he readied the heavy crossbow just in case that they ran into some trouble.
Stealth! TrW0joNd1d20+2
As they finally reached the end of the stairs what greeted them was a rather big courtyard, a big square thing without a ceiling and ground around it. The only ceiling to be found was on the edges, where the rest of the building, whatever the name of that thing was, continued. From where they were standing there were three other possible places they could go to. Right behind them from where they had just emerged there was a rather long hallway with some stairs at the end that descended. Stone stairs; nice looking, and matching the wooden, internal structure of the building nicely. Far off in that distance, perhaps a hundred feet away or so, a metal gate could be seen.
Both to the right and to the left were two more hallways on the respective opposite ends of the square courtyard that led somewhere that was hard to say. Once they emerged, however, they would realise that they were not alone; two of the guards were walking together happily chatting about something when they locked gazes with them; about thirty feet away from them. It did not look good. Both were lightly armored, with what seemed to be like hide or leather armor and were carrying big axes; both were half-orcs with piggish faces and crude facial features, small black eyes and small tusks protruding from their lips. Like the rest of the guards both of them had encountered so far they possessed a small whistle hanging from their necks in order to raise the alarm. Nonetheless they were not as fancy looking as some of the ones they had already faced, and if anything, looked to be like they had just been conscripted from the streets and been given weapons solely based on their sheer size and appearent strength, for they certainly did look intimidating.
The eye contact lasted more than a few seconds, like a very small mexican standoff, and not one single second afterwards everything sprung to life.
Initiative Kel'antar 1d20+2 Guard #1 1d20+1 Guard #2 1d20+11d20+2·1d20+2·1d20+1·1d20+1
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Post by moralhazard on May 18, 2019 20:32:25 GMT
Kara initiative: sKb8NbvQ1d20+11d20+1
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Post by kelantar on May 18, 2019 20:36:33 GMT
Attack at Guard #1 CkyNs_pF1d20+2 Damage 1d10+2
This time however he hadn't been caught ocmpletely unaware, his crossbow at the ready he had already been suspecting that they would run into some kind of problem sooner than later; there would only be a limited amount of guards watching the prisioners for sure, and by the looks of it they underground part of the place was much bigger than what they had initially suspected. That could only mean more guards down there. But when he had come through the main entrance he clearly remembered seeing at least as much as a dozen guards, and some of those looked more dangerous than the rest; now he was sure than in an even fight Kara would be able to take them on, looking at how she had wiped the floor with everyone they had fought so far. But could she really be able to take on that many people on at the same time, once the alarm was raised and everyone gathered at their location? He doubted it. Maybe it could have been a thing should Kel'antar been able to heal her, but as they currently were he did not want to risk it. Also because they might decide that trying to kill the bipedal blender was far more riskier than trying to nab the harmless elf, and then that would be another whole problem onto itself, wouldn't it
And now, they were faced with a familiar problem. Guards. Two of them as they usually walked in pairs. Their gazes met. Both parties knew what was about to go down. This time Kel'antar was faster, aimed, and shot with the crossbow sending an iron bolt forward that flew true until it struck his target sinking somewhere in his chest cavity, though clearly missing the heart seeing how the man didn't simply hunch forward or die on the spot. And second, fast as lightning was Kara that rushed straight towards them. Neither of them even thought about getting the whistles, they were far too concerned with saving their own lives for that and seeing the woman run at them with her glaive was enough to to make them certain of that choice.1d20+2·1d10+2
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Post by moralhazard on May 18, 2019 20:56:30 GMT
Glaive attack 1 against guard 1: TQvcDacj1d20+6 If successful, damage: 1d10+3 Glaive attack 2 against guard 2: 1d20+6 If successful, damage: 1d10+3 Butt of the weapon attack against 2: 1d20+6 If successful, damage: 1d4+31d20+6·1d10+3·1d20+6·1d10+3·1d20+6·1d4+3
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Post by moralhazard on May 18, 2019 22:15:58 GMT
Kara glanced around the courtyard, a frown knitting her eyebrows. She caught the descending stairs and the distant metal gate – and then two more hallways, on either side of the courtyard. Too many directions, and only her and the not-elf. They stood very little chance of finding anything deliberately, and there were only so many fights Kara could manage.
But this one? Her eyes locked onto the guards at the same moment they saw her. Kara lunged forward, glaive gripped in both hands, racing full speed at them. The not-elf fired a crossbow bolt, and the shot sank painfully into one of the guards. He didn’t seem to notice; his attention was focused on Kara. Neither went for their whistles – but Kara couldn’t take the chance.
Kara spun with her full momentum; the blade of the glaive slashed hard across the first guard’s throat, dropping him. She never hesitated, whirling into a second blow, opening up the second guard’s chest, and jerking the butt of the glaive up and almost through his chin, breaking his neck with an audible crack. Both bodies dropped to the ground, and Kara stood still between them, chest rising and falling slightly harder than usual.
Kara grabbed the collar of one of the guards, dragging him out of the main square and looking for somewhere to stash him. She gestured with her chin at the other, looking at the not-elf. Once she at least had him on a path rather than in the main square, Kara would search the guard, quickly checking for keys or anything else helpful.
Investigation: |AqGGwd_1d201d20
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Post by kelantar on May 18, 2019 22:16:21 GMT
And in a flash of Kara's blade both guards choice of thinking first about trying to block the woman's blade proved to be the correct one, as otherwise they wouldn't have stood a snowflakes chance in hell to withstand her attacks. Little did they know however that they didn't stand a chance either way for she cut them down where they stood with ease, starting first with the very one Kel'antar had wounded, which left him as easy pickings due to the delay he had in getting into a decent fighting stance, and the other one followed; first being cut through with one swoop motion and then hit with the part of the weapon for good measure, a sound crack of bones breaking being perfectly audible through the hide armor they were wearing. Right where they stood, their bodies collapsed and now ruined the otherwise neat looking courtyard they were in. Kel'antar was close to being once again slack-jawed at Kara, it was a reaction that lasted but for the fraction of a second, but perhaps it was the fact that he hadn't seen her cut down anyone in at least three minutes, so it was time to be surprised again.
He shook his head and quickly approached the corpses kneeling down to see if either of them were still alive. They weren't. Then he brought his head up forward towards the other hallways at both sides. Neither were looking like the exit, and yet the big gates through the one at the middle... Perhaps that was the one. However he hadn't forgotten what Kara wanted to do, he considered all of his options. Would they really be able to take on the entire thing by themselves as they were? He had his doubts.
"Hey"
He said then in a loud enough whisper to be heard, and searched for her eyes with his gaze
"I think we should head to where the black-barred gate is; if only to see if there's anyone guarding it. For all we know it might be our only way out of here... And it wouldn't do to get wounded or worse, and having to retreat, only for there to be no place to retreat to. If after that's covered we're still in one piece and you still want to go for Ajisha right here, right now..."
Proposed, like he was about to say he was down for it too, however what he said instead was
"It might still not be the best of ideas, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there."
That said he awaited to see her response and where would she deem to head next. He was out of spells for the time being, which meant that he couldn't heal her, or himself for that matter. He had other things he could do with magic, for sure, some of them could be considered downright impressive but however he preferred to leave those for emergencies as magic could be used as a trump card in and of itself. Whereas with everything else... Kara seemed to be able to handle herself pretty well. But the concern that nibbled at him was for how long.
This pair of guards, at least, had no keys whatsoever.
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Post by moralhazard on May 18, 2019 22:21:52 GMT
Kara looked at the not-elf, then back at the courtyard. She exhaled, slowly, thinking it over. She was strong enough to fight two guards like this. More than that? Three or even four, and she couldn’t possibly get all of them before they got her back. None of the wounds she’d taken were still bleeding, but there had been more than enough of them, and the cumulative effects were something to consider.
They had taken Ajisha’s gems; not all of them, and not her gold, but they had done – something. Was it better to press forward today, to try her luck, or to retreat, see what they could learn from this place, and go on from there? Uryon wasn’t particularly important, in the grand scheme of things, but Kara still itched to take him on; she wanted to end his sort of casual, violent cruelty, even if it wouldn’t stop things for long.
But if she died, Kara thought, she couldn’t give iara any of the gemstones she’d taken today.
Kara exhaled and nodded. Either way, the not-elf was right; they were better off making sure they had an exit strategy. Kara dragged the other guard out of the way, then turned to head towards the black-barred gate.
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Post by kelantar on May 18, 2019 22:46:45 GMT
The hallway led into an open sky, slowly but surely the walls at the side began to broaden up until they broke into what looked to be Ajisha's version of a front yard. Althought this front yard was part garden, part fortress judging by the enormous black metal gates at the end where the entrance would have been. There were a few frees distributed in closed enclaves of ground, some flowers growing by their roots, with smaller stones encircling them. Clearly not the work of the thugs but of someone else and more refined. However, they themselves were not too far away; and in fact, Kara would recognize one of them. They weren't being precisely stealthy this time, and it showed. For when they finally came out of the hallway and into the frontyard, two of the five people in the front yard looked out at them. One of them said something in a whisper, and then, one by one the rest turned towards them with a yell of alarm. Four guards, including Uryon.
Two of them had been standing near the gates with those long axes of them, more half orcs, while Uryon was playing dice with another two, the five of them had been talking up until that point. Axes, all of them, including Uryon. After all he had been the one to recruit them from amongst the rabble of Waterdeep, rising them up from petty criminals into dignified thugs, a kind of shock troops for Ajisha that worked both as enforcers and guards sometimes, though they considered that beneath them for they were of gruumsh after all, even if only in smaller part. The only one that seemed to be on the bigger part was Uryon, that stood tall even amongs the rest; and his wasn't hide armor, his was heavy iron plates, crude, that covered most of his body.
"You don't know when to stay dead, do you"
Said Uryon, though the surprise in his voice was hard to miss as he started to notice the wounds on her body; and the fact that she had her own glaive in hand as opposed to some opportunistic weapon taken from a corpse. His mind quickly put one plus one together and realised what must have happened, but he seemed to be having trouble believing it. The rest of the guards stood up gathering their weapons, but they didn't rush forward, not really while Uryon was talking.
"As usual, I was right. It was a mistake letting you live, Ajisha's always had a soft spot for women and broken things. Let's fix that"
He growled then.
Kel'antar Initiative OiuXAh4D1d20+2
Uryon init 1d20+1
Guard #1 1d20+1
Guard #2 1d20+1
Guard #3 1d20+1
Guard #4 1d20+11d20+2·1d20+1·1d20+1·1d20+1·1d20+1·1d20+1
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Post by moralhazard on May 18, 2019 22:50:26 GMT
Kara init: 7z4NNV8v1d20+11d20+1
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