"I was ordered to do so by individuals who didn’t like her poking her nose in where it wasn’t wanted," Grovald answers.

"The General for example," Mittens guesses, "Doesn't answer her question, though."

"I don't know what Zithiruun hopes to accomplish by replacing the clergy!  I don't know what he’s a general of, or even what species, for the general wears a hooded cloak... but he does wear a strange armor of iron joints and leather harnesses."

"You said individuals.  Who else?"

"At the moment I take my orders from Durkik, high priest of that rock-headed idiot god."

  Kyle is hardly surprised.  "So, another hire who doesn't actually know anything we do not already.  The only thing to make this more of the same complete will be a portal somewhere."

Timothius looks angered by the guy insulting Moradin and bops Grovald on the shoulder. "Moradin's intellect is more than your mind could handle."

May shrugs at Kyle, "He mentioned 'Zithiruun' which is more of a name than we had before."

Raichel says, "Even if 'Grovald the Mighty' apparently had no idea he's taking orders from a fellow faker."

May asks, "How did you normally meet with Zithiruun? How would we find him?"

---

Unarmed dmg to Grovald's shoulder. Max! 6 (1d4+2)

Mits snorts when Grovald insinuates he thinks Durkik is a turncoat then blinks in surprise at Timothius getting violent.  Grovald of course hollers in pain from the strike.

"Wait!  I'm not lying!  Don't hit me!"

"Answer May's question," Mits says.

Grovald gulps and continues, "I saw him once.  In a meeting with Durkik at the Stone Anvil.  Since then, I only get orders by courier carried letter."

"Anything else useful you know?"

"That's all I know!"

"Think real hard."

"I uh...  I know that Durkik spends most of his time at the temple, but he frequently disappears for the night; to where, I don’t know."
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:44, Thu 10 July 2014.

  "Should I be concerned seeming more offended at a slight against Moradin than the murder of an actual priest, Timothius?  Because that's what it looks like."

  He turns to Grovald, and says "Roughly how close by are your other work accomplices."
This message was last updated by the player at 05:56, Thu 10 July 2014.

Timothius closes his eyes, tears rolling down his cheeks. "..sorry." is all he musters before he gets up and exits the building.

Raichel follows to the door to make sure Timothius doesn't wander too far. And to make sure she'll see if he needs her.

May glances at Timothius before looking back to Grovald and then looks at Mittens. "Sounds like we have what we need for now. But how are we going to turn Grovald in? One word from fake Durkik and we'll be labeled heretics who beat up on priests."

Raichel glances back to the others, "We tell the authorities about Haelyn's burial place. We learned it from Grovald because he attacked us and we defended ourselves. From that evidence, Durkik will be forced to disavow any association with Grovald."

Taking a page from Carla's book Mittens shushes Grovald and he falls unconscious.

"Ever heard of 'the straw that broke the camel's back,' Kyle?" she asks, "It's a metaphor.  Like camels, Timothius can carry a lot of weight, but there's a limit.  A single straw is nothing to the weight already carried, but it was just enough to make the overburdened collapse."

She nods to Rai.

"Your suggestion will tip our hand a bit sooner than I'd hoped, but our only other option I can think of is to kill these jerks.  I'd like to get back to the Stone Anvil tonight to see if we can follow fake Durkik to wherever it is he slinks off to since that's about our only other real lead right now.  So let's find some guards between here and there to dump these prisoners on."

  Kyle thinks back to his little explosion regarding Bird Man, and nods.  "If the authorities are skeptical, I've picked up the ritual for asking Haelyn directly.  Remind me to give Timothius a copy at a less inappropriate time."

Raichel nods, "They deserve to die, but not only would Timothius prefer they live, but I rather like the idea of letting the law know what we're up to so that the authorities won't work against us."

May says, "Think Tim'll be fine?"

Raichel says, "No. But I'm sure kind words from the rest of us will go a long way."

May says, "Then let's get going. We might already be too late to tail Durkik." her tail wags up and down a little as if to add emphasis to the word tail.

Prisoners corralled and force marched outside, Mittens approaches Timothius to side-hug, kiss his cheek, and whisper into his ear.

The guards are deferential to the heroes, having heard their reputation, and thank them for 'bringing these skumbags in.'  They promise to bring the matter to Watch Captain Aerun's attention.  (The blond-bearded dwarf with a gruff voice the group met at the entrance.)  At the temple, things are quiet.

  Well, a quiet temple means less construction workers to get caught in the crossfire or marked as witnesses to be disposed of by the badguys.

  "I wonder how far inside we will get before running into several times as many armed guards as there normally are."  Because only jerks are allowed to set up defenses that last longer than five minutes on screen, or no time at all off screen.

Timothius shrugs a shoulder, but returns the hug. Upon hearing what Mittens whispers, he just nods, rubbing his nose.

May tries cheering Tim up by showing him her weapons. That would cheer anyone up, wouldn't it?

Raichel just hugs Timothius from the other side and quietly comments things like "Don't worry... we'll stop them soon. We have to." It's true. The enemy is likely to strike within a week or two, so they HAVE to be stopped before then, or goodbye everyone.

When the group gets to the temple and sees things are quiet, May points at herself and points ahead, indicating she wants to scout.

About then, the city fully cloaked
in the shadows of night, your quarry emerges.
Glancing around, Durkik turns and begins walking at a swift
but inconspicuous pace.

Assuming the heroes follow:

Durkik ducks into an alley after walking a few blocks. Mere
seconds later, another dwarf—slightly taller, with different
hair and beard—emerges onto the street. You wouldn’t even
have noticed had you not been specifically watching, but
much of his outfit appears to match Durkik’s own, and his
posture as he walks is identical.

If the PCs glance into the alley as they pass, they
can confirm that neither Durkik, nor anyone else,
remains within it. They’ve just witnessed the doppelganger
who has taken Durkik’s place alter his form,
hoping to make himself less noticeable.
At this point, regardless of who they’re following,
begin the skill challenge.

Catching Durkik Level 9
Skill Challenge XP 1,200
You make your way as silently through the streets of Overlook
as you can, attempting to keep Durkik in sight without alerting
him to your presence.
The party attempts to shadow their target through
the city.
Complexity
3 (requires 8 successes before 3 failures).
Primary Skills
Acrobatics, Athletics, Perception, Stealth, Streetwise.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:15, Thu 10 July 2014.

  "One would think with how often it comes up, I would be better at stalking enemies.  But no."  It's okay Kyle, Timothius can only do ONE of those things... Which is still one more than you can do, some leader class.

Raichel tails the baddies from the rooftops, running along them like a ninja.

May is, as always, her surprisingly stealthy self, despite her weapons and heavy armor. She almost tips over a can with her tail, but Raichel pssts at May to keep her from doing so. May also occasionally climbs up walls or leaps out of sight.

Timothius seems to instinctively know some directions to check whenever the guy manages to disappear from view and sure enough, the team finds him where Tim points.

Nothing in particular makes this warehouse stand out. It’s
a large, squat building, with a huge front door that opens
by sliding up into the ceiling on rails. A rickety wooden
staircase along one wall leads to a door that presumably
opens onto an upper level.

Fake Durkik takes the stairs.

Once he's inside Mits looks to the others.  "So... shall we take the direct approach?"

She points at the huge front door.

  "While tempting, standing in front of the biggest door to a warehouse probably filled with dozens of enemies probably just means standing dramatically in the open.  While everyone else has cover behind crates and above on catwalks shoot at us. So.... No. No.  Also, no.  Unless you happen to know something I do not."  Again.

Timothius asks, "...is there another way in?"

May says, "The ceiling. Where we fall about 50 feet to our deaths once we carve an opening."

"Know?  No," Mits answers, "Just suspect that any decent group of conspirators to have the stairs rigged to collapse when any non-Durkik-fake walks up it.  And the door is locked and magically sealed so that anyone who doesn't say the secret word within five seconds gets ray of annihilationed.  And then there's the narrow gauntlet of acid pits, murder holes, arrow loops, swinging axes, and poison arrows.  Kidding.  My main reason is I hate being forced into single file.  'Cause any decent group of conspirators would have all that other stuff at both entrances."

  "Oh, I share your dislike for being stuck in a small we started in for almost the whole fight." See also, the keep in the first module *fistshake*.    "I just hate being out in the open against defenders even more."

May says, "It's a warehouse... you won't be single file for long." and she heads for the way Durkik went. "I'll sneak ahead, just in case."

---

Stealth: 20

"If we went in the main door you could hide behind the door frame," Mits suggested.

But she goes along with the group.  She isn't far behind May but stays back far enough that her lack of skill in sneaking won't hinder May's scouting.  May finds the door at the top of the stairs is locked.

DC 19 to open.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:35, Fri 11 July 2014.

  While May has been doing quite well so far, Kyle is considering hiring someone just to handle thievery checks at this rate.  "And from the side door, you can aim downwards upon people instead of having the usual contents of a warehouse blocking your spells.  You have stated your main concern with cramped starts is your not being able to shoot as many people as possible, after all."  A GOOD thing to be concerned about with her I-Don't-Think-about-it-anymore amounts of damage modifiers, to be sure.

May sticks her rapier in the lock, twists and unlocks it. "Easy peasy." she comments quietly. Then peaks through the door.

---

Thievery: 26

Mittens looked unable to counter Kyle's point.  Because it was a good one.  She shrugs and thumbs-ups.

Once May enters:

You are in a small counting house, which is occupied by
little more than a table, a chair—and Captain Aerun, shock
evident on his face as he rises. The wall behind him boasts a
shuttered, glass-free window.