After having witnessed the carnage of the previous encounter and suddenly realizing that the leader had referred to Tanrov as his son, actually it was Garth.   So that means she is my sister sort of, gross.

Go down to the machinary and try to disable.

     With the bloodshed over, Logalog's first instinct was to root through the cultists pockets. The rational little voice in his head ( a very tiny, squeaky thing) told him the building could still hold cultists, and nothing ruins a good looting like being surprised by the lootee's angry friends. Going alone through the mill also seemed like a bad idea, so he called out to the group for a companion to aid in his search.

    "Capital idea Logalog, come with me into one of these offices."  Talis will then try to gently glide Rynshinn in with them.  "Where we can continue this conversation in a less stresfull circustances."  With a headbob to Miriam that "says" without words, "You need to check on the Leader."

Bluff 26 to pass a Secret Message

Sammiya approached Rynshinn and Miriam, still sitting atop Akihiro. "Did your friend send us? I do not believe so, but that does not mean we cannot look for her. They may have been lying about having her anyway. That man was not your true father either. If he was there was no way he could kill you."

Zer-wedula shouts up from below, "I'm okay, thank you.  Don't worry, nothing down here I can't manage." With this, he pauses to kick the Manager.

Casting Detect Magic, he starts to poke about for his missing wand, or any other bits of awesomeness to be had.

Miriam didn't have much in the way of comforting experiences to share on the matter of fathers, nor was the fate of Maras really something she wanted to discuss with Rynshinn right at the moment.  So she sidestepped that question, and instead put an arm around the half-elven woman for a moment, offering her a shoulder to cry on.  "You're safe now, Rynshinn.  We'll let no further harm come to you.", she said, soothingly.  Noting Talis' gesture, she said, "Why don't you go with Talis now?  There's no need for you to see this dreadful scene any longer."  Assuming that Rynshinn went with Talis, she'd go and check on the cult leader.

While Miriam was giving her attempt at comforting Rynshinn Sammiya considered Zer shouting up from below. She then said to Miriam, "I should probably go downstairs in case he needs help." With that said, Sammiya spun Akihiro about and took off for the stairs, riding down them to find Zer.

Jan 36/36
 52/52
Akihiro 42/42
Catessa Fallowfield & 36/36
Murphis 60/60




Miriam may not have anything to say about fathers, but her bedside is excellent and she hands the sobbing woman off to Talis so smoothly that she doubts the poor girl is even aware of it.  Talis guides her and Logalog through the doors of what must be an office and instantly regrets it.

[Private to Miriam: With that diplomacy roll she trusts you and you can convince her to do anything not dangerous or what not.

Alone, Miriam goes over and checks the Leader.  He is dead and Pharasma is his judge now.  With anticipation Miriam takes off his mask to see who she has been fighting these many years.  Who killed her mentor.  The Leader proves to be Justice Ironbriar, her mentors friend, Miriams friend and a powerful member of the legal system in Magnimar.  This answers so many questions, the most important of which is how the Deathcult was always 1 step ahead of her and the Law.]

Downstairs Zer-wedula loots the bodies and finds that the Manager has some nice stuff (mw weapons and armor), only the quiver appears to be magic.  He also finds his wand underneath the manager, it's ok.

Tanrov heads downstairs to disable the machinery...[Private to Tanrov: The cultist you left tied up is dead.  Disabling the machines proves tougher than Tanrov thought.  While there are levers at the west and east end of the four waterwheels that once provided for an emergency stop, they have long since rusted in place and Tanrovs attempts to use them results in the lever breaking off.  In Tanrovs skilled opinion stopping the machines is beyond a simple task (for him anyway).
ooc:  Dc is 20 for the wheels and 25 for the machines.  Failure could be deadly.  Do you want to roll the dice or wait for Talis or try to break it somehow?]

Sammiya Koi rides up the stairs and then back down, keeping an eye on everyone.

Feeling frustrated because of the machinery, Tanrov will wait for Talis to come down to help him out.   Thinking that it might be along time before Talis will get to him, maybe going back up  and getting Talis would be better.

"Well," chuckles  Logalog, despite looking greener than usual, " that desk would match perfectly with a bookcase i have at home. Such lovely detail. Talis, can you see any traps by the..er...trap door?"

Once back downstairs, Sammiya rides over close to where Zer was searching the bodies. "Do you need help or have you got everything under control here?" Sammiya asked Zer curiously.

Once Talis takes Rynshinn away, Miriam moves over to check on the fate of the cult leader, her nemesis for so many years, so many of them unseen.  Going down to one knee, she removes the mask that concealed his identity, and gasps in shock.  She's silent for a few moments, then slams the mask to the floor in anger, and rises back to her feet, stomping on the corpse's chest and grinding her heel into his side as she unleashes a furious torrent of invective at the fallen cult leader, peppered with an impressively creative selection of expletives one wouldn't necessarily have expected a priestess to be so easily fluent with.

Cat goes over to comfort/aid the young woman, hiding frustration she feels that this was a dead end.

Zer-wedula relates the exodus of the halfling vampire (?) and orb creature.  "I suggest we leave quickly as someone may have seen smoke and come to investigate," he adds.

"Why should we leave?" Sammiya asked. The suggestion confused her. "The building seems safe now. There is no reason to run."

Talis will smoothly close the door "Or maybe we should just move downstairs while Logalog checks out this room."  When Miriam begins to curse like a sailor, he glances from an ANGRY woman to a sobbing woman and decides Rynshinn needs his attention more.  After all, an angry spellcaster is dangerous.  He is quite impressed with Miriam's command of the Common language.

(27 diplomacy)He divert Rynshinn's attention with a running monolouge and take her down the stairs where he will sit and comfort her, away from the bloodshed.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:33, Fri 17 Feb 2012.

As Tanrov goes up the stairs he'll notice Talis and Rynshinn coming down, and hear a tirade of profanity that would make even a sailor proud from Miriam.   He'll comment that "remind me to never get on her bad side," mainly to himself of course.  Waiting until they are past Tanrov, he will lightly whisper to Talis the predicament about the machinery and wheels, before going back down the stairs and waiting for Talis to arrive.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:17, Fri 17 Feb 2012.

  Logalog jumps at the sound of violence taking place nearby. He spins around and unconsciously bears his teeth, ready for another attack. To his surprise, all he sees is the young priestess assaulting  the dead body of the cult leader- a formerly dangerous corpse but a corpse none the less.
 "Wow, there, Miss," says Logalog, " I'm fairly certain the evil sod's heart can't beat any less. I'm sure this thing of a creature's done much harm to you, but he's gone from this world. Why does he continue to vex you? "
This message was last edited by the player at 23:23, Thu 16 Feb 2012.

Miriam rounds on Logalog as he begins to speak, fury blazing in her green eyes, and starts to respond in heated tones, "That miserable...", then takes a moment to consider her relapse into the sort of language she heard and spoke growing up in the slums of Underbridge.  She doesn't blush, but she does make an effort to moderate her tone before she speaks again, though she's clearly still quite angry.

"He vexes me because I know his true face now, unconcealed by any masks, and it's one my mentor took for a friend, right up until he murdered her two years ago, and one that I continued to take for a friend right up until the moment I removed his mask.  Justice Ironbriar, who so graciously offered to help in my quest to end this threat, but never quite seemed to come up with anything substantial.  I never considered it odd, because he was a friend and surely he was trying his best.", she said, bitterly.

"I suppose this does answer the question as to how the cult was always one step ahead of the authorities.  Justice Ironbriar was a traitor to his oaths, to his supposed friends, and to the city of Magnimar, and I was a fool to ever trust him.", she spits out, glancing down at the leader's body again.  She doesn't stomp on it again, though she kind of looks as though she'd like to.

"Tanrov, don't go downstairs to turn it off quite yet, we need something to coverup the cussing.  Better him than us."  Then to Rynshinn, "It's always best to talk these things out."  He's thinking, "Why can't women just stifle their emotions and go get drunk like normal people."

"A fool you're not Miriam,<b>" Logalog somberly replies. <b>" The line between friend and foe is as fine as spider silk in a moonless night. It's not often we know the true intentions of those around us, and Ironbriar had the conveniences of lofty title and ill-gotten respect to hide the ugliness of his soul. It's ironic that his real visage is so easily removed and thrown to the floor"
      Logalog turned his gaze to the dead elf. And the city folk look upon me with fear. If they only knew....

Cat has ended up in a group and has little to offer. Overhearing Miriam, Cat does some mental arithmetic and decides she wasn't paranoid. Probably/

"All is well down here, but we had a fugitive get away, the place was on fire for a bit, so my thought is that leaving the scene before anyone shows up to investigate or seek revenge would be smart."

Zer-wedula moved so he could look outside.

"Yes, but he will be difficult to catch," Sammiya replied as she got off Akihiro for the time being. "The place was on fire, but we stopped that and foiled the sacrifice of a young woman. We could do well by telling the investigators what happened."

Miriam pauses for a moment to consider Logalog's words, not initially expecting such eloquence from a half-orc.  "I suppose you could be right.  It's not as though anyone else suspected him either.  Though it does make me wonder what else I may have been in error about.  But at least we've insured he'll not fool anyone else again."