The guards look at one another, look at Kraw and then back at one another.

Finally one turns back, spits at the ground right in front of Kraw and rumbles out

"He's busy..."

Kraw nods knowingly. "I understand. Upon reflection, it's likelier that the guards would pay more for this information that Barvasi would. And maybe it's better for Korvasa that one criminal's empire gets shut down entirely rather than expand the Spider's reach.  Say, what's your name? If one of Barvasi's agents corners me in an alley and asks me at knifepoint why I didn't come to him with this, I'd like to point him in the right direction."

The guard just smirks.

"My name is No Entry, birdy-boy."

Kraw makes a little motion with his hands. After a moment, he says to a spot behind the two (as he activates twin wrist-sheathes with saps loaded) "Figus, please don't do that." When the two turn to face the bodyguard, Kraw tries to knock both out with heavy saps.

Vs 1
Sap attack, flanking 14 on d20+5.
Damage 2 on d6+1.
Sneak Attack 4 on d4.
6 nonlethal damage

Vs 2
Sap attack, flanking 21 on d20+5.
Damage 4 on d6+1
Sneak Attack 1 on 1d4.
5 nonlethal damage
This message was last edited by the player at 03:18, Thu 20 June 2019.

Figus follows Kraw with attacks of his own on the guards.

08:29, Today: Figus Dva rolled 8 using 1d6+3 with rolls of 5.
08:26, Today: Figus Dva rolled 6 using 1d6+5 with rolls of 1.
08:25, Today: Figus Dva rolled 11 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 6.
08:25, Today: Figus Dva rolled 13 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 8.

Stunned at the outburst of violence, Ayeesha reacted by grabbing the closest guard who remained conscious. Or trying to.

---

CMB to grapple guard to prevent him from running inside and alerting others (eating an AoO, but the guard doesn't seem to have a weapon out so that's not so bad)


16:55, Today: Ayeesha rolled 15 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 10.  CMB grapple any conscious guard.

As Kraw and the others contemplate violence a couple of factors come to light.

• The area is quiet but there are still more than a few other people moving around. Nobody has checked to see if any of them are other guards or people coherent enough that seeing violence they wouldn't raise the alarm.
  
  
• The guards are sturdy looking chaps wearing decent armor and weaponry. On par with the guard at least. These aren't trumped up bullies who'd piss their pants at signs of violence but more akin to trained mercenaries that, judging by their scars, have seen a fair amount of action and probably wouldn't go down to a simple sucker punch.

And OOC fyi this would be a CR 7 fight. Definitely challenging but because of the limited terrain you could pull it off with some serious luck. Someone with knowledge about the underworld would know that they probably wouldn't kill you outright if you lost, but would take you to the boss for interrogation and then probably kill you.

Kraw checks his action. Instead, he reaches into his pocket and asks "would 5 gold for each of you get me an audience with the boss?"

OOC: In Light of the many witnesses, this wasn't the situation I was envisioning. Thus, Kraw is going to try bribery.

Figus plays out the fight in his head, and decides that it would not be fair ... to the guards. They are just doing their job and do not deserve to be punished. Better a small payment as Kraw was offering them.

The two thugs grin and hold out their hands. Once the coins were transferred the one thug spits again.

"Oh look, I think the King might be in now."

He lets off a sharp whistle that is repeated twice more by guards along the way.

"Go straight back to the double doors."

---

Several drunkards, sailors, and revelers dance and drink on the large open main deck here, while the aft deck is relatively clear. A pair of large double doors bearing a complex painting of a spider allows entrance into the stern section of the main deck.

Another pair of guards stands flanking the double doors and up above in the rigging they can see another four guards in hammocks, either drinking or asleep.

As the group approaches the pair of guards look at one another and then one of them knocks on the wooden doors before opening it up to let the group inside.

The doors open into a large room, once a captain’s cabin, that has been converted into a throne room of sorts. The walls are thick with spiderwebs, in which scuttle dozens of spiders, some as large as a fist but most considerably smaller. These spiders seem content to stay in their webs and do not venture into the room itself, which is furnished with two sturdy oaken tables surrounded by chairs. Aft, a wooden stage supports a large leather chair, itself covered with cobwebs and scampering spiders. A narrow door stands to port, hanging ajar and revealing a flight of stairs leading below. An iron birdcage hangs from the ceiling like a chandelier, inside of which lingers a tiny, tired-looking purple dragon.

Inside sitting on the raised chair is the self-styled King of Spiders, Devargo Barvasi. He is a tall man with close-cropped black hair, a warm smile, and blue eyes. He accents his black leather armor with a steel spider-shaped shoulder baldric and a thick chain criss- crossing his chest, linked together in the shape of a spider’s web. His signature weapons—gauntlets fixed with blades over the knuckles sit on the arms of the chair in easy reach and glisten with poison. Now and then, spiders clamber over his skin, but he takes no notice.

Meanwhile at the table six more thugs are eating a large feast. While they are chatting excitedly with one another, making boasts about eating or drinking or sexual conquests they all are casting nervous occasional looks towards Devargo who seems to be studying them.

The rowdy thugs at the table fall silent as the group walks in. Hands drop to their belts at the daggers and clubs held there but then Devargo lets out a cold smile and gestures the party forward.

"Well then, come on in. What is it you seek from the King of Spiders?"

Prior to bracing the Spider in his web, Kraw swallows the antitoxin as a preventative. Kraw takes the books from his satchel and says "first of all, we have a goodwill gift for you, sir. As you may well know, Gaedren Lamm no longer breathes. These ledgers were found by his body. I cannot read them, so I have no idea if these are important. But someone in a position to take advantage of his absence might need whatever is concealed on these pages. I give these freely to you." Kraw sets the books down on the table before the King.

She made note of the number of thugs and guards on the way in. It wasn't a good number for them. They weren't going to fight their way out of this place.

Intimidation, her forte, didn't seem to be that great an idea at the moment either. She continued to let Kraw and Kyra do the talking, noting any leers from the guards at her in her evening gown.

Figus plays his part of a bodyguard. Look tough and stay quite was the nature of the job. Figus stuck to the script.

Taking note from Kraw, Kyra downs a vial of antitoxin as well before boarding the ship. Inside she sticks to the back, not being a great fan of arachnids. She waits to see how Devargo will respond.

Seeing Kyra, she realized she'd forgotten the anti-toxin. Hopefully no one would find it threatening that she drank the potion in the presence of the king of spiders, but she did.

A big spider crawls up from behind him, over his shoulder and down his arm without him taking any notice. He brings his hand up to study the spider and then it scurries back as he raises his hand, motioning for one of the thugs to grab the journal and bring it to him.

The thug is eager and nervous, jumping to attention and scrambling to get it done in a speedy manner. The thug hesitates a bit approaching the spider covered throne but his nerve overcomes his fear and he steps right up to hand the journal to Devargo.

Devargo thumbs through a couple of pages before setting them down in his lap.

"I see. And I'm guessing you're just a good and honest citizen coming to perform your duty and reporting what has happened. Out of the blue with no strings attached?"

Anger starts to creep into his voice and the spiders get agitated, scurrying up and over one another as well as Devargo.

"You just happened to find Lamm's dead body or did you happen to create that corpse?"

His voice gets louder and louder. The thugs have all stopped eating and their hands are all uncomfortably close to their weapons. The spiders are now swarming, moving back and forth in a tide as more and more come out of the woodwork apparently attracted by their king's anger.

"OR MAYBE...YOU'VE COME HERE...TO CREATE A FEW MORE!?"

The accusation lashes out at the party. There is the sudden sound of steel on leather as the thugs all start pulling swords and daggers and getting up from the table.

For a brief second the room is still as death itself.

Then the tension breaks as Devargo breaks into a giant grin, holding his stomach to keep from laughing too hard. The thugs all look at one another with a questioning look and a few begin to chuckle half-heartedly but all have their weapons drawn, looking between Devargo and the party and back again.

Finally the King of Spiders sits back down, motioning for his thugs to resume their meal.

"Ha ha ha, I'm just taking the piss out of you. Lamm was a parasite and the way he handled his business it isn't any surprise to anyone with brains between their ears that someone would put him down. He was a cockroach though. At least a dozen times he should have gotten himself crunched and yet he would turn up later on. If you put him down for good then good riddance. Consider the matter resolved. Unless there is an ulterior motive for you marching in here and stating you've murdered one of my associates..."

Figus' face did not move, but if he was to be honest, he was ready to sell his life doing as much damage as he could and the King of Spiders would have been his first target. That scenario was still likely. 'If only we could get him alone. Maybe burning does this garbage scow is not such a bad idea.'

In reply to Devargo Barvasi (msg # 77):

Kraw decides to be honest. "The man ruined my life. I have no regrets returning the favor. And since when does anybody come waltzing in here without an ulterior motive? As dark and shady as this city can get, it's still my home. I'm hearing rumors about a Chelish ambassador who is trying to buy or leverage property in Korvosa. Given some comments I have heard attributed to this man, I don't think he has this city's best interests in mind. I was hoping that a man with your resources would have the means to dig up some dirt on this man that I can use to dissuade him from making inroads in the city."

"You're a funny guy," she muttered at the tension punctured by the joke, but truly appreciated his humor.

Hearing Kraw lay out their request, she simply stood behind him, arms crossed ready to back him up. This wasn't a place for violence or intimidation so she felt a little lost.

"Yes, very funny. Just to die for." Kyra mutters to herself and lets go of a smokestick she was holding in her pocket.

She moved forward to talk to the king herself. This was her job, even if she wasn't prepared.

"Like my fine feathered friend says, we are looking for an ambassador, and what you know about him. korvosa is in a rough spot about now. War with Cheliax will make this look like a tea party. Bad for business, I'd think."

---

I think we decided with a 3 diplomacy had to be me so here goes nothing...


06:58, Today: Ayeesha rolled 19 using 1d20+3 with rolls of 16.  Think it has to be diplomacy.

Kraw rolled 20 on d20. Diplomacy (Aid another).

Devargo smiles and points his finger, nodding to himself>

"You see that boys! When you've got your finger on the pulse of the city there's no telling who'll come sniffing around for scraps. Yeah I may know about a Chelixian ambassador. It'd be a real shame to the muckety-mucks if trade was disrupted but you see, I've got here what's known as a recession proof commodity. You see that? Sounds fancy, right? Learned that term from an Abadar priest. I just know that no matter how the city suffers, people are still going to need their daily fix.

So maybe I know something, maybe I don't..."

He props up one of his hands on the arm of his chair and starts rubbing his fingers together in the universal gesture for money.

Before attempting to make an offer, Kraw mentally reviews what he knows of the streets and what types of information command what amount of monetary grease to 'loosen'.

OOC: Best guess for an initial offer.

Knowledge Local 20 on d20+7.