Terra Povos: Pit Fighting

Amergin, male dwarf druid

James male-presenting dwarven stabby thief

Pythia female dwarven cleric

Whisper male dwarf rogue

Lithos male goblin wizard

Archibald male human bard

Max arrives to grab us in the middle of the night. The Alderman’s outside: Senator Ragnus Goldbeard’s son is dead! In his town! We have to help! Balin Goldbeard (middle child) has a place that he rents out here to do his carousing. One of the neighbors said she heard a disturbance, and saw a strange dwarf she didn’t recognize so she called the guard; the guards called Nori, and Nori called us. 

Whisper: I need 25 pounds of quicklime and a steel basin to make this go away. 

Nori: “I can get rid of a body by myself! The guards won’t say anything, but if word gets out there’ll be quaestors crawlin’ straight up me butt! Give me an update in twenty-four hours.”

Whisper checks the lock before we go in; it doesn’t seem like the door was locked at all. There’s another dwarf, not so well dressed, over by the book case. There’s a table in the middle of the room with three tankards on it, spilled; there’s a book case toppled near the second dwarf, he might have been knocked into it. 

Whisper starts by looking at the footprints. There is more than one pair of bloody footprints leading out of the door. In the mess of footsteps on the ground there are four total footsteps. Amergin starts looking over the bodies, starting with the unknown one; he was stabbed in the gut, probably with a sword of some sort. Balin’s head was bashed in from behind with a large blunt object. Amergin attempts to detect poison; he finds nothing. Amergin and Lithos both detect magic; neither of us comes up with anything. Lithos looks at the fallen bookcase; the books there seem like they were chosen more for decoration than reading material. James checks the cabinet, and finds plates, tankards, and things like that. He finds a book that fell behind the cabinet; it appears to be a bestiary with several pages marked: black bear, crocodile, wolverine. 

Archibald heads across the street to talk to the neighbor. She immediately adopts him and is serving him tea and crumpets and introducing her cats. He asks about what she saw and if there was any distinguishing about the dwarf she saw. She spends about ten minutes complaining about Balin and the company he keeps. “Definitely wasn’t from around here. Pinkish skin, maybe orange hair. Looked very mean, up to no good – had a sword, shield, and crossbow. But… she’s emphatic that she only saw one person. Archibald puts her back to sleep and backs out the door.

Whisper checks the bodies for valuables. Balin has nothing of value other than his outfit, which is quite expensive; there are marks on his fingers where he clearly wore rings, and a moneypurse has clearly been cut away from his belt. A key has tumbled to the ground and is laying next to him. Whisper marks the key with a chalk arrow. He moves to the second dead guy, who has ten gold in a pouch a writ of admittance to the Lion’s Bane under the name of Riley. It’s about a mile outside of town; it’s a pit-fighting place, for Vat Fights in old brewing vats. 

Since this kind of establishment is borderline illegal, you ned a writ of admittance to get in. 

 

Amergin goes looking for animals that might have witnessed the murders. He’s going to use Detect Animals and then use Speak with Animals to interview them. 

Mouse: “Hello human! Where’s the food?”

Amergin: “There was food here?”

Mouse: “Lots of food! Always has friends. Sometimes food over there.”

Amergin: “What happened to the other two food-carriers?”

Mouse: “One of them didn’t eat. That was weird.”

“Do you know where he went?” 

“Out?”

“Do you know when?”

“Before the last food.”

Lithos, meanwhile, goes over to check the sleeping bags. One of them has faux fur inside it, which kind of matches what the second dead body is wearing. There are also some weird crunchy patches in the cloth. The second one has 60 GP and a pouch of Jafreese’ Breeze. 

James goes to check one of the doors to the back; he starts by checking it for traps. She doesn’t find any. Then she checks the lock; it’s unlocked, Then she opens it very carefully. It’s a bedroom, and there’s 100 GP and 100 SP sitting on top of the counter. We take the money and the writ, and Whisper goes to inspect the chest at the end of the bed. It is locked. The bed is not made; Whisper attempts to open it and sets off an alarm. So now it’s screeching at us. He races back for the key, and uses it to open the lock; the alarm stops as well. He stops to examine the lock, which is a good quality lock. Inside are fifteen hundred GP in gems. 

Whisper locks that back up. James goes to check the keg in the front room. It has wine in it. It’s actually pretty good wine, and apparently not poisoned, and there’s about 40 bottles worth in it. Lithos checks the middle of the room; the table was definitely shoved aside. 

Archibald comes in and looks at the bodies as well. Balin was definitely bashed in the back of the head with something heavy. His rings were basically ripped off his hands. The other guy was stabbed from the front, and then fell back against the shelves. James checks the dresser and finds a flask of alcu’ul, 15 GP in change, and… it’s obvious that this wasn’t searched. So this wasn’t the robbery that it was half-assedly rigged to resemble. The bottom drawer has a bong, another bag of Jafresse’ Breeze, and a flyer for the local distributor. The nightstand has a book of Jensenian poetry and a writ of credit for 1000 GP at the Lion’s Bane. Whisper swaps his mundane dagger for the masterwork dagger in the chest. 

We close up the house, leaving the key inside. Amergin is taking the mice with him so they don’t gnaw on the bodies. We also take the noble outfit and its jewelry. The description of the dwarf sounds like a deep dwarf – which would definitely not be local – to Lithos. 

We make our way out to the Lion’s Bane. Lithos and James knock on the door. 

Massive Orc: “Closed.” He’s wearing a surcoat that says Thing #1 on it. 

Whisper, acting as the footman, shows the writ.  We manage to bluff our way inside by promising Thing One 500 gp. The pit boss looks over at us: “Who the hell are these guys?” 

Thing One: “They Riley!”

Pit Boss: “You’re not Riley! Get over here.” His name appears to be Dane.

Whisper looks around for somebody with pink skin and orange hair. There’s some humans who look like pirates. There are two armed and armored dwarves drinking up by the front of the place. On one side of the pit, a necromancer and a couple of skeletons are watching the action in the pit. 

Dane: “Who the fuck are you?”

We explain about where we got the writ. Amergin discreetly shoves a bench into the pit, but the wrangler emerges and hauls the wolf back. 

Dane: “You’re not starting shit in my place.” 

Amergin: “Ye started it by keeping wild animals trapped in here.” 

Dane starts expounding on how his place is the only place underhill where you can see animals from overhill. He yields a bit, and tells us that Balin hung out here all the time with Leaf and Riley. He doesn’t know about any deep dwarves. He’s willing to let us hang out a bit as long as we partake in some of the activities. We pull out Balin’s writ of credit. Archibald: “Perhaps a wager?”

“Not the dire wolf, not for children. For you… rats.” 

Amergin hops into the pit. The rules are that you can only send down two people. If we win the first round, we win 300 gp and can continue the challenge. Whisper jumps down there with Amergin, and a couple of dire rats come out. They attack immediately, one missing Amergin and the other biting Amergin. Whisper tumbles around to flank, and taking more damage on the way. He stabs a rat. 

It goes down, and Amergin curses loudly. He then casts Calm Animals, and the rats suddenly settle down. Amergin gives it scritches. “All right, next?” We’ve won 300 GP. The wrangler carries the injured rat back to the bat. He thinks Amergin is his friend now. Amergin: “Think on your sins.”

Garg retreats back to the cages. Amergin bolts in after him. Dane: “Wait! Stop them!”

Thing 2 jumps into the pit and follows him. They make it through the door and spike it close behind them, blocking Thing 2 out. The wrangler knows a secret, but Aergin misunderstands him and thinks that there's a door that Leaf used to get out.  Thing 2 starts to force the door. 

There is a dwarf imprisoned in cell three… it’s Balin’s other companion, Leaf. There’s no secret exit. Whisper frees Leaf, and moves on to a human prisoner and a kobold family. They're armed, since they were going to be made to fight in the pits. 

Up top, Thing #2 swings and hits Archibald. He goes down. Lithos fires off Color Spray and takes out Thing 2 and Dane (temporarily). Pythia heals Archibald, who pulls out his whip and trips Dane into the pit while he’s stunned. Lithos steps back and casts Shield on himself. James moves for the back door. Archibald tries to trip one of the guards, but the guard grabs the whip and tries to trip him; he drops his whip and backs off. 

James opens the back door and finds the kitchen; he goes inside. Pythia heals Lithos enough to pull him back from the brink of death. Archibald sings one of the guards to sleep. He then moves back over next to Lithos. Lithos uses the last of his spells – grease – and causes the other archer to fall into the pit. Archibald uses the wand of healing on Pythia and sets himself beside her. 

The archer in the pit stands up and backs up. 

Meanwhile, downstairs, Whisper tries to release the kobolds but fails. Thing One smashes through the door. Glarg the wrangler is not happy with this. Amergin: “We’re going to save the animals together. We’re going to get them back overhill.” 

Glarg is convinced. He hands Amergin the keyring and steps in front of the door, holding his halberd. Amergin tosses Whisper the keyring. He pops the kobold lock and moves over to the badger’s door – off to the side – with the intent of opening it next.Steve the Gladiator Prisoner charges straight down the hall and attacks Thing One, but misses. The family of kobolds charge down the hallway, right past thing One, who swings at them as they pass but misses. Leaf moves up next to Glarg. Amergin is still Speaking with Animals. 

The dire wolf isn’t having it; he just lays down. The rats have a mixed reaction: the injured one runs out and starts gnawing on Dane. Glarg smacks Thing One with his halberd and damages him badly. “To the happy overhill!” Glarg yells. Thing hits him back, and now they’re both damaged. 

Whisper opens the badger’s cage as well, and it runs out into the pit; Thing One ignores it. Leaf attacks Thing but misses. Amergin throws some jerky on top of Dane. It comes out of its cage and eats the jerky, then starts licking Dane. Glarg and Thing try to hit each other; both miss. Whisper opens the Hyena door, and Amergin’s persuasion works much better this time. They run out and swarm around Thing One, who attacks one and hits it, Steve the Gladiator swings and misses. The kobolds get to the top of the pit, and one of the pirates pushes him back down. Leaf smacks Thing One with his warhammer, and Thing one goes down and starts getting gnawed on by hyenas. 

Dane stands back up too, draws his rapier, and skewers the rat. James comes back out of the kitchen and throws a spear at Thing Two but misses. Amergin emerges back to the pit and swings his club. Glarg runs out, looks at Dane, then moves over next to the wolf without attacking him. Pythia attacks Thing Two but misses. Archibald steps back and puts a crossbow bolt in his back; the archer in the pit promptly puts an arrow in his back, and Archibald goes down. Steve runs past Dane. Dane attacks Amergin and hits him, James moves up a bit and throws another spear, then misses. Pythia takes a five foot step and collects the wand, then Heals Archibald with it. Leaf attacks Dane but misses; Amergin moves to flank with Leaf and attacks Dane, but misses. 

Glarg leads the dire wolf over to the ramp; the necromancer and his skeletons retreat into one of the rooms. Archibald puts another crossbow bolt into Thing Two’s back. Whisper emerges from the dungeon. Thing Two hits Lithos, and he goes down. The kobolds manage to climb up and swarm the pirates. The barmaid has retreated into the kitchen and is bitching to the halfling cook. 

Leaf attacks Dane but misses. James puts a spear into Thing Two’s back. “Ha-Ha!” Pythia steps in and jabs Lithos with the wand of healing; the second archer wakes back up and tries to shoot Archibald; he misses so badly that he hits Dane instead. Whisper takes a shot at Dane from the doorway; the archer doesn’t see him, but Dane probably remembers that he’s back there. He shoots again and takes down the archer in the pit. 

Steve the Gladiator races out the front door and disappears into the darkness. Thing Two takes Lithos back down. (OOC, James' player: "Again?" Me: "Yeah, well, despite all my rage I am still just a wee goblin mage...")

 

Leaf: “This is for putting me in a pit! Like an animal!” He attacks Dane. Dane attacks Amergin and hits, and Amergin goes down. James pulls out his pickaxe and charges, flanking Pythia; he misses. Pythia hits Thing Two with her greataxe and takes him down. 

Archibald shoots at Dane but misses; he moves in close to the remaining archer. Whisper slides along the wall and tries to take a shot with his hand crossbow. He misses, and hits Amergin’s prone figure instead. Leaf hits Dane again, doing a bit of damage. Dane attacks Leaf, doing similar damage. Amergin and Lithos are both still bleeding out. 

James throws himself off the edge and takes a hit on the way down before slamming into Dane and smashing him into the ground. Pythia restores Lithos to consciousness. Baldy takes a five foot step back and shoots at the archer, who shoots back at him. They both miss. Whisper advances on Dane and tries to stab him with a dagger. He makes a perfect hit. 

Lithos throws an Acid Splash at the archer, but misses. Dane surrenders, and James knocks him out. Pythia jumps down, and pulls Amergin back from the edge of death. Archibald steps in to keep Leaf from killing him. Leaf is very, very impressed with Archibald. He explains that he came by the house, found Balin dead, and went to tell Dane what happened. Dane promptly threw him in the dungeon. We throw Dane in one of the cages, cantrip him back to consciousness. 

“Who killed Balin?” 

Dane: “You guys just busted in here to find out who killed Balin? Look, I just locked up Leaf because he was going to bring the heat down on us! Balin had been losing, but he had some kind of plan to come back with some kind of creature that he was sure he could win with.”

We leave him in the cage and walk out. The pirates and the kobolds have bonded over brawling, and they’re now swapping drinks. We are now down by five charges on the wand of Cure Light Wounds. We’re commandeering the rest of Dane's fortune. We loot the dead bodies; we take Dane’s Masterwork rapier for Uncle Baldy, and +1 leather armor for Ambergin. Dane is very sad about this.