Unable to help her companions, she focused instead on the rogue she'd bested, turning towards the man she still had her beefy arm around, whispering in his ear just loud enough that he can hear her words over the din of the place, but no one else can. To anyone else it'd look like they were flirting.


"You know, in my culture, you'd be mine for the night if I bested you in a competition like this."

She smiled and looked him in the eye, staring him down.

"Don't worry, I can be gentle. I can be nice. As long as you're nice to me first. Tell me a few things and I'll just go away and take a cold bath, and your manhood will be far less bruised tomorrow. Tell me, where does Devargo keep the information he collects? How do we get to it?"

---

16:45, Today: Ayeesha rolled 17 using 1d20 with rolls of 17.
Forgot to add in +7 intimidate, so 24.

"Take it slow. Breath in and out ... strike"

Figus concentrates and slashes with the knife

19:05, Today: Figus Dva rolled 7 using 1d4+5 with rolls of 2.
19:05, Today: Figus Dva rolled 25 using 1d20+7 with rolls of 18.  Time to finish.

As Kraw scoops up more gold, he tries to induce his opponent into overbalancing, rolling out of the way as his foe lunges.

Sleight of Hand 21 on d20+9
Disarm knife 9 on d20+2
Acrobatics 18 on d20+9.

Kraw continues to dance and scoop up coins as he ducks and dodges to avoid the thug's blade..

On the sidelines Devargo has stopped smiling and has started to scowl.

"Finish that damn bird if you know what's good for you..."


Kraw: 11/14 HP, 18gp

Thug: Healthy, 0gp

Table: 124gp

---

Figus

Figus takes a breath and strikes true, right into the chest of the other thug. His smile fades as he falls to his knees and then face first onto the table. Another thug checks for a pulse and then nods as others reach up to cut the bonds tying him to Figus so they can carry him away for healing.

OOC: Figus wins 25gp

---

Ayeesha
The man gulps uncertainly and Ayeesha notices a bulge forming in the man's breeches even as sweat breaks out on his brow.

"Uhhh...I don't really know. Below deck maybe? I'm not really part of the gang yet. This is supposed to be our initiation."

Kraw fails again to disarm the thug. He grabs at some gold, and when the thug lunges at him, he makes a spectacular somersault over the thug's head to land behind him on the table.

Disarm knife 7 on d20+2 (man, I just HAVE to pick up Agile Maneuvering..)

Sleight of Hand 27 on d20+9.
Acrobatics 29 (nat 20!) on d20+9.

The thug tries to stab Kraw again and again but each time the agile tengu avoids the cut of the blade and scoops up more coins. The thugs had been cheering for their mate at first but as miss after miss occurs they start to jeer him instead and Devargo gets frustrated at the lack of any good progress and finally fed up or bored by the event he pulls a dagger from a thug's belt and tosses it up to Kraw.

"Go on then. Let's make this a bit more interesting."

The thug on the table opposing Kraw looks at Devargo in a panic and then focuses on the blade now in Kraw's hand...

Kraw: 11/14 HP, 22gp

Thug: Healthy, 0gp

Table: 120gp

Kraw catches the blade and salutes Devargo with a flourish worthy of a knife master. Turning to face his opponent once more, Kraw tries a lunge, forgetting that is is bound to his opponent by the leather thong. His blade slices air as his balance is compromised, but he recovers quickly to maintain his own defenses.


01:43, Today: Kraw rolled 7 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 2.  Dagger attack. Miss.

AC 18.

The presence of the second blade seems to step up the last thug's game as he lashes out and catches Kraw with the blade once again.

OOC: Kraw takes 4 pts of piercing damage


Kraw: 7/14 HP, 22gp

Thug: Healthy, 0gp

Table: 120gp
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:26, Tue 23 July 2019.

Kraw pecks with his beaks, then lunges with his dagger.

Bite attack 9 on d20+5.

Dagger attack 15 on d20+5.
Dagger damage 5 on 1d4+1.

The table becomes a blood bath as Kraw starts laying into the thug. He scores two quick hits opening up both the thug's arms and Devargo and the others are shouting enthusiastically as blood starts pouring down their wounds and splashing onto the table. Both Kraw and the Devargo's thug are equally injured and it seems like anyone's game at this point.



Kraw: 7/14 HP, 22gp

Thug: Injured, 0gp

Table: 120gp

This message was last edited by the GM at 20:55, Tue 23 July 2019.

Kraw lunges with his beak. As the thug responds, Kraw slips in a solid dagger to the chest.


15:51, Today: Kraw rolled 15 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 10.  Bite attack.

15:53, Today: Kraw rolled 3 using 1d3+1 with rolls of 2.  Beak damage .

15:52, Today: Kraw rolled 23 using 1d20+5 with rolls of 18.  Dagger attack.

15:52, Today: Kraw rolled 5 using 1d4+1 with rolls of 4.  Dagger damage.

Kraw's vicious attack caught the thug off guard and between beak and blade he had the thug bloodied and battered at this feet. One of Devargo's men rushed forward and nodded. Another knockout for the group. With a clap Devargo ends the match and the gold is divided up between the winner and the gambler.

OOC: Kraw wins 71gp

Devargo calls his court back in order with the triumphant adventurers off to one side and his thugs off to the other. The four losers were standing, best as they were able, in the center and Devargo was looking down at them with an amused look on his face.

"You lot thought you could join my gang and protect Eel's End and you couldn't even deal with a group of ratcatchers? Look at that one..."

He pointed at Kyra...

"She's barely more than a stick and she bested you in seconds. Despicable."

He shook his head. The two thugs that had lost to Kyra and Ayeesha looked nervous while the other two seemed barely conscious from blood loss and the very crude patch work they had been given.

"Bug, leave my sight. You're out. Nobody expected you to win against a giantess but you could have at least stabbed her a couple of times to make good of it. And take Wailen with you."

He gestured towards the one that Kraw had pecked apart. Bug looked like he was going to cry but he did as asked and grabbed the other and dragged him towards the door.

"Now, you two put up a decent fight...let's see if you can do it again!"

The King of Spidre flashed a wicked grin and the spiders on his throne started crawling quickly. The trapdoor opened up and the two thugs fell screaming down the hole to splash into water at the bottom. The trapdoor resealed itself but the shouts for mercy from below were quite clearly heard.

Devargo grinned and held up his finger, signaling everyone to wait for the moment. Suddenly the shouts for mercy turned into panicked cries of terror and then the pained cries fo the dying before falling silent over the course of the next minute. When the last of their cries died off Devargo grinned and motioned for the adventurers to come forward.

"Now it's time for your reward. You performed admirably and helped weed out some of the scum that tried to infect my organization so for that I will thank you...properly."

He gestured the group forward, grinning from ear to ear.

Kraw comes forward, carefully avoiding the trap doors and making sure his companions are not in a threatened area. He looks for other traps.


21:48, Today: Kraw rolled 27 using 1d20+9 with rolls of 18.  Perception .
This message was last edited by the player at 04:48, Thu 25 July 2019.

Devargo grins at Kraw’s caution.

”What? You don’t trust me? And here I thought we were finally becoming friends. Come on now, don’t be shy. I’ve got something important to tell you about your ambassador friend.”

Kyra follows after Kraw, staying well clear of the trapdoor. She just wants to get this over with so that she can leave this place.

In reply to Devargo Barvasi (msg # 125):

Kraw smiles thinly. "Those who tried to curry your favor trusted you" he looks pointedly at the trap door. "For the moment I'll consider us associates with the possibility of more dealings in the future. 'Friends' don't last long in my experience. "

Devargo laughs and shrugs at Kraw’s response.

”Fair enough. Your ambassador friend is an interesting chap. Wait here and I will have something worth your time and troubles.”

He sweeps forward from his throne sending spiders scurrying all around it like creepy crawly waves of a pond. One the side of the room is a door that leads to some stairs down deeper into the hull. As soon as he leaves two more guards from the hold come back up but don’t do anything besides guarding the door. The remaining two thugs go back to one of the tables and begin arguing about the results of the knivesies match. Besides those two’s drunken and boisterous conversation the room feels oddly empty after the commotion earlier that day.

A few minutes later Devargo returns holding a pair of letters in his hand. The guards return down the stairs and Devargo plops back down on his throne, several spiders just barely managing to get out of the way before he lands.

”I met with the ambassador to discuss opening up a bit of trade back to Cheliax and he rebuffed me, quite rudely in fact. Well it just so happens that during the argument I must have ‘bumped’ into a table and his house key dropped into my pocket.”

His grin turns a bit wicked at that.

”When I returned later to return his key I found he wasn’t home so I, being a good neighbor, went inside to return the key to where I had found it. It was then that I discovered that he had some correspondences unsent so I , being a good neighbor, scooped them up to get them sent by messages post haste. While trying to find the name of where to send them I discovered a shocking scandal. It seems our very politically married ambassador is having an inappropriate relationship with another very politically married lady back in Cheliax. When I confronted him about this he of course offered to buy my silence and so I have been trading back the letters to him, one by one. Only to teach him a very important lesson, of course, being a good neighbor. Nothing makes a lesson stick like lightening the purse a bit. I hope that he will return to the straight and narrow when he returns but until then I just so happen to have the last two letters here. I have grown tired of the little game and I do believe he has learned his lesson so I am willing to gift them to you. Consider it my civic duty and all to prevent catastrophe and chaos for I am nothing  if not a good and friendly neighbor.”

He holds up the letters in front of him offering them to the party. The problem would be that in order to reach the steps of the throne one would either have to quite embarrassingly shuffle along the outer edge of the room and then climb up onto the raised platform where his throne is unaided by stairs OR risk a few moments over his trap door. Granted his hand is nowhere near the hidden button but then again he has shown himself to move quite quickly when he needs to...

Figus moves forward to pick up the letters ... right over the trap doors as though he has nothing to worry about.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:39, Sun 28 July 2019.

Confident in his own preparation,  Kraw leaps to stand partially on the trap door...his other foot braced on the edge of the door, providing himself a solid place to push off from. Having seen DeVargo's love of Entertainment,  Kraw smiles and says "what the Abyss...I'll play."

13:07, Today: Kraw rolled 28 using 1d20+9 with rolls of 19.  Acrobatics .

As Figus and Kraw step forward Devargo makes a sudden shift in his seat causing the spiders to scurry around but other than breaking out into another broad grin nothing else happens. He splits the letters, one to a hand, so both Figus and Kraw can have one.

”Now then, it’s been a pleasure doing business. Now get the fuck off my property.”

 

---

When the group is finally able to read the letters at their leisure they find that Devargo was speaking correctly. They are, to say the least, quite spicy love letters describing very explicit acts of a carnal nature and while nobody present is an expert in Chelaxian nobility it seems like if the contents weren’t damaging there is no reason the ambassador would be paying blackmail money to a scumbag like Devargo as opposed to just going to the guard and using his political connections to force Korvosa to raid the King of Spiders. If it was good enough to put the ambassador in Devargo’s pocket it should be good enough for the Field Marshall. Then again that is assuming he was being honest...

OOC: Let me know if you ever want to come back here for entertainment or if there is anything else you would like to do. Currently there is just Devargo and two thugs in the room. The group knows about two more guards outside the entrance and two more guards down the stairs but it would presumably take then 1-2 rounds to enter combat if you decided to attack.

Kraw bows and says "Korvosa is enriched having a 'good neighbor' like yourself. Good day, sir." After exiting the premises and once out of earshot, he turns to the others. "Aside from a few wounds we didn't do badly. Not only do we have something on the Ambassador, but we collected some winnings from knivsies. And since anything left over from the bribe money was ours to keep, we have that entire thousand of gold amongst us as well. So let's settle up with the paymaster, shall we?" Kraw, unless someone has an objection, heads back via a circuitous route to the Marshal.

Kyra hits Kraw with her wand before they head back. She makes sure to check often if they are being followed on their way. That's just the kind of thing a rat like Devargo would try.

07:36, Today: Kyra rolled 2 using 1d8+1 with rolls of 1.  CLW. Bah.
07:36, Today: Kyra rolled 7 using 1d8+1 with rolls of 6.  CLW again. Much better.

Figus make a vow to himself to return one day and clean out this nest of filth, but for now the mission is finished and he is happy to head home for some rest.

Kraw looks at the others. "Were any of you able to scan DeVargo's meeting hall or the man himself for magic? Knowing ahead of time about potential traps would be useful if we need to return here."