There is no answer to Angati's knocking.

The noise in the street makes it difficult to listen at the door, but Logan gives it his best shot - he doesn't hear anything.

Kassius uses his super nose at the gap between the bottom of the door and the door frame, and picks up the scent of the same expensive musk that he detected at the crime scene. And what's more, he smells fresh blood...

"Logan... can you do something about getting us in without breaking down the door ?"

DC25 to open the lock, Logan.

Logan smiles and pulls out his set of thieve's tools.  After fumbling with the lock for a few moments, though, the thief frowns and backs away.

"No good.  Victor must be too paranoid.  I can't get it open.  We'll have to try a noisy entrance, or go in some other way."

Logan peers up at the tower.  "The noise might actually help us here, both hiding our entrance from Victor or whoever's inside, and masking it from the street.  I say we knock in the door."

10:59, Today: Logan rolled 24 using 1d20+14.  Disable Device.

OOC: I thought disable device was one of those that allowed for retries ?. Still Ill be happy to bring the door down with someone's help if that's what it takes :)

Yes, you can retry open locks as many times as you want.

But if Logan tries again I'm throwing in an encounter.

While Logan fumbles with the lock, Kassius holds his hand up to the door, attempting to extend his vision past the obstruction. Using doorsight, see through if it's less than 9 inches thick.

"Logan, why don't you try again. It's at least a tad more subtle than bashing in the door in plain view of the street."

If only someone in the party could give Logan a +1 bonus so he could auto-succeed by taking 10. Maybe someone casting guidance.

Kassius begins the long (one minute) process of relaxing his breathing so he can become one with the door and see through it. Meanwhile, Logan takes a deep breath and begins working on the door again while Angati... tries to look casual.

"PRETTY ELF BOY!" bellows a rough voice. Without even turning around Logan knows who it is and cringes.

Bent Bertha stands in the street, her half-orgress features almost blending into the crowd on 'Wildnight', the last day of Carnevalè. She is carrying a huge sack of what might be coal over her shoulder - it is about the same size as Logan - but swings this down into the street as she continues talking to him.

"Why Logan leave bed other morning without saying goodbye? We had good time that night, eh?" There is something in her voice that is almost pleading.

OOC: Jeez. Talk about embarrassing Logan in front of his friends.

Kassius finishes his preparations and pushes his sight *through* the door. On the other side of the door is a rectangular room serving as a large office with a big desk. A bloody jumble of men lie on the patch of floor between the door and the desk. They wear the livery of House Lidu and have been killed with a bladed weapon like a sword and then pushed into a rough pile.

No sign of Victor or the other criminals, i.e. the albino gargoyle, the cigar smoking choker, the Zzonga addicted bugbear, the cowardly werewolf, the hobgoblin monk with all the metal piercings and Vrinn the gay one-eyed cyclops (that last one is not as rude as it sounds).

Angati turned and saw the half orc woman, she eyed him from toe to head and back, stopping to gauge her attributes and then looking back at Logan with a wide grin in her face, wonderingly.

Still, Logan was concentrated on the door, and as much fun as this could be to watch, she would rather he concentrated on the door and not on the woman, so, she turned back to her, and approached, her grin still showing as an idea came to her mind... "Ahhh so finally we meet the half orc woman Logan has been talking about so much lately... we have been out of town for a while and just came back. I am sure he will want to catch up later on with you but now... there is a friend of mine Victor... he is having a great party at his house there" she said signalling the door "and the bastard is not opening up to let other people come in... I heard he has it all... men. women, alcohol all sorts of good fun and he is keeping it all to himself... That's just not done don't you think ?".

"Say... why don't you show that feeble elfie how a true woman opens a door... I am sure he will be duly impressed. I'll run with the costs don't you worry..."

She couldn't resist one more question that she asked softly to the half-orc "By the way... is he truly as good as they say in bed ?"

OOC:
12:10, Today: Angati rolled 24 using 1d20+17.  Diplomacy.
That's without the perfume on.... if you dictate I'd have already used it, that would be 34.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:13, Fri 04 Nov 2016.

OOC: Woah. 34 for the diplomacy roll?

Bent Bertha chuckles. Angati isn’t really her sort of person. Fancy attractive human woman, those sort of people didn’t usually want to talk to Bertha unless it was to make fun of her, but this woman seemed different. This woman seemed to really get her.

“Okay. Stand back little elf boy. Bertha show you how it is done.” The half-orgress takes a small run up and then end with a powerful kick against the door. The door is busted off one of its hinges.



Bent Bertha shrugs. “Pretty elf boy tries hard.”

The tavern proprietoress kicks again and the door is knocked in enough that they can gain entry into the inside of Victor’s house. The ground floor is one big room that apparently serves as his office with a flight of wooden stairs up to the next level.

The orgress laughs triumphantly but then her eyes open wide. “Why party full of dead people?” she asks. Just inside the doorway lie the six Lidu men that Angati send out to investigate. They are all dead from what looks to be like a major sword fight based by the amount of blood on the floor.



OOC: Yes, you used one dose of the special Ylarium perfume – but you have a couple of more doses left, right?

"Fuck !" said Angati "Thats a party gone too wild.. no wonder he was not opening. What the hell is going on here ? where are our friends ? ohhh my... " said Angati as she set herself on guard... "Party is over" she said gravely.

"Did you see anyone coming out of here ?" she asked the half-orc with the feeble hope of finding another clue that might point them in the correct direction... Angati moved into the house with care, and checked one by one on the men on the floor in case any of them was still breathing.

After that she turned to the half-orc "I am sorry... I was not expecting this... listen...  you are probably well connected... people broke from prison yesterday a Gargoyle and other monsters, and it seems that Victor is leading them, they have Zelina, Warren's daughter, and they are saying they will kill her tonight... I didn't think we would find this in here, and I will keep your name out of this to keep you out of trouble... but if you know something... or of someone that may have any clues that may help us get to Zelina, I will make sure it is worth it for you... VERY worthy !!!"

Angati was not lying, she was in fact considering striking a deal with the half-orc to turn her hideout into a tavern of disproportionate dimensions... a new concept of leisure that could become a gold mine with proper investment.

OOC: But thats for another time I guess... still it would be quite a heartache for Mr. Warren that his daughter became a co-proprietor of a disco-tavern.

Kassius had just finished seeing through the door when the effort was wasted by the half-orc busting it open. Overcoming nausea and disgust, he bends in closely to investigate the fallen, seeking clues. His magically enhanced sense of scent proved more of a hindrance than expected, as the odor of death and blood was overwhelming, but he checked anyways, looking for any hints as to how they were killed, and by whom.

Examine the bodies.

Bertha just stares at Angati is disbelief, her huge mouth agape and with drool collecting at the corner. "What sort of party?!" she finally manages to stammer.

OOC: 'Party over' indeed! :D



"Bertha just walking past. Bertha know nothing about this!" she says, putting up her hands in protest.

Angati quickly confirms that none of the men are breathing.



Bertha's eyes glaze over more and more as Angati's story unwinds. Her lips silently move, mouthing "gargoyle...prison... Worrin Lidu..."

When the oracle finally pauses, it is clear that the half-orgress is not convinced, no matter how much magical perfume Angati has on. "Bertha knows nothing. NOOOTHHHIING!"

She turns to Logan, a sad look on her face. "Pretty elf boy. It not work out. You bad boy. You not good for Bertha.” She bends over at the waist, sweeps Logan up in her arms and plants a massive tongue kiss on his mouth. After this, she turns and half runs out of the room.



And just like that, Angati’s dreams of opening a Eurotrash style disco club in Sasserine were dashed…



Kassius finds that all of the men were killed by a sharp, bladed weapon. The unusual thing is that they were all killed with one strike to a critical organ – the heart, the jugular vein of the neck, through an eye… this is unusual as you were usually expect to see a number of minor scratches as well considering that Lidu’s men were well trained and wouldn’t have just let their opponent(s) walk right over them. Kassius also notes that one of the men sent in the squad here is missing.

After that, the party have a chance to look around the room.



The whole ground floor of the large wooden building constructed on the side of the old water tower is being used as Victor’s office. It is pristinely neat, except for the mess made by the recent combat and the blood on the floor. A large desk sits in the middle of the room, a fancy high-backed leather chair on one side of this and two plainer chairs on the other. A sloped architects’ table sits close to one side of the room, a number of loose papers and drawings spread across it. Against the north wall is a row of tall filing cabinets.

A flight of wooden stairs lead up to the next floor.

Logan hears a faint rhythmic clicking noise coming from upstairs. It taps out a slow beat every third second or so.

Angati sighed... "Sorry Logan... nothing you can't fix if you want I hope..." she turned right away to search the room, and while she did, she spoke to Logan and Kassius "I think we should consider that one of the soldiers was indeed our friend the cyclops, but that is a lead that might be mighty hard to follow... ".

As she heard the noises upstairs she headed straight towards the stair and started climbing. Having her sister in danger made her act quite impulsively.


11:23, Today: Angati rolled 17 using 1d20+5.  Perception.

OOC: Pausing to give Logan and Kassius a chance to post before I respond to Angati.

Logan has been utterly silent, first taken entirely by surprise by the appearance of Bertha and her ogrish battering-ram of a body, then by the scenes of the devastation and murder inside, and finally by her final departing present.  After a few moments, he shakes his head and emerges from his trance.

"Onions, why does she always taste like onions?"

Shaking his head, he motions upstairs.  "I'm not too terribly worried about fixing that.  It wasn't ever going to work out, anyway.  But on to pressing matters...there's something upstairs.  We should investigate."

Drawing his weapons, Logan moves to sneak up the stairs, trying to be as silent as possible.

16:21, Today: Logan rolled 27 using 1d20+12.  Stealth.

Does Kassius want to search downstairs? I.e. Investigate one of the areas I described in the room description?

Kassius rummages quickly through the various papers on the desk, looking for some hint as to what the frak is going on! He skims quickly, not bothering to read every detail trying to find something useful.

Hopefully would have read something before Logan makes his comments?

Kassius nods at Logan's remark, putting the papers back down and unslinging his bow, ready to follow the others.

Kassius does his best to search the room as quickly as he can so he can catch up with Angati who has rushed up the stairs to search for her sister.

The main desk has nothing on it, so he looks at the architects writing desk. It has a number of drawings on it setting out the renovation plans for the Dawnlight Orphanage in the Sunrise district. Kassius knows the abandoned institution well - it is only a couple of blocks from his grandfather's house and he used to play in it with his brother when we was a kid. Interestingly he notes that a large brass bell was ordered and installed a couple of weeks ago...



Angati runs up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Unfortunately, her sister is not in the next room either. Victor's bedroom is immaculately clean, except for a bundle of fine clothes that have been pulled out of the open wardrobe and thrown on the bed haphazardly.

There is only one exit from the room - a door to the east that judging from the building's layout must lead into the old water tower.

Logan is quick to climb the stairs and join Angati. He notices something that the oracle has not in her frantic searching - the steady rhythmic beat that her heard downstairs is a lot louder and clearer up here. It is definitely coming from the east, through the door to the tower and has sped up a little - now there is a beat every two seconds or so.

Kassius and Kibeti walk up the stairs and join their two companions.

OOC: Ok, so that orphanage is our next stop... a bell probably means a tower...
"It is probably just water... but maybe there is a lot of it in there and if we open it may pull out ?... hmm I don't know if we should open this door or not... but then... I don't want to leave any clue left exploring with my sister's life depending on this".

She paused "Make a quick search here... when you are ready, I open the door...".

OOC: You do have someone in the party who can see through doors, you know... :P

Agreed. More importantly, a bell probably means an excellent place to hear "the first chimes of midnight!"

Kassius ignores Angati's worried dithering, and walks up to the door, holding his hand against the base and closing his eyes. After a minute he forces his senses through the door, looking around on the other side.

Logan waits by Kassius's side, eager to hear what might await them on the other side.

Kassius focuses in an attempt to see through the door - it takes a little longer than usual due to the rhythmic thudding upsetting his concentration. The noise seems to increase in volume and the beating grow closer together as he spends the minute he needs to activate his power.



When he does manage to look through the door, he indeed sees that it is the bottom of the old water tower - but it is empty of water and has been turned into Victor's laboratory.

The walls of the huge metal cylinder are encrusted with piping, steel tanks, cranks, rivets and bolts all the way to the top of the old silo 30' above. Two large work tables are in the middle of the room, pilled high with beakers and vials filled with strange liquids. Kassius sees a man slumped up against one of the work tables, and for a second thinks it is Victor - the figure is dressed in the stylish and slightly garish clothes that the self professed super sleuth usually wears. But then he sees that the man has a huge gash on his neck and his clothes are covered in dark arterial blood. This is not Victor but one of the Lidu guards dressed up in the investigator's clothes.

Up against one wall a collection of sketches and notes have been pasted over the pipes in that area. There is a sketch of Worrin Lidu, with a dagger pushed through one of his eyes and the words 'DIE, LIDU, DIE' scrawled underneath. There is also a sketch of Angati's sister, Zelina, with a big charcoal circle drawn around her face. The rest of the notes are things like diagrams of the Lidu mansion layout, notes on guard changing times and the like.

The thudding noise is reaching a crescendo and the beats are almost continuous now. As Kassius watches, a large gyroscope placed above a vat on the side of the wall tears itself off its bolts and falls, ripping the vat from its mountings and crashing it into another tank below. The two liquids quickly mix and the combined contents start foaming and bubbling furiously. As Kassius watches in horror the mixture bursts into flame, escapes the tank and starts racing across the floor to another pile of chemical vats filled to the brim with strangely coloured contents.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" screams the spirit as she flees through a wall.