Kelaria, Ionaya, and Morin head south down the Torch roads, passing the Temple of Brigh and the Town Hall and circling around Black Hill and Crowfeather Lake, before heading west towards Silverdisk Hall. They pass by Market Square as the various vendors--fewer than there used to be when the Torch still burned--are packing up and The Marrymaid and The Copper Coin as their business is only beginning--the sun making its way over the horizon cuing a shift from work to leisure for most. In addition to the increasing bustle of townsfolk heading out to spend their few coppers in the various taverns, the party notes an increasing presence of guards--some of which look to have been hastily dressed and equipped with buckles and straps twisted and clothing haphazardly tucked beneath their armor--travelling in pairs, investigating alleys, knocking on doors, and peaking through windows; it seems the Guard are taking the fugitive Garmen Ulreth seriously without raising panic and confusion among the townsfolk--or alarm among the ropefists.

Arriving at Garmen's gambling house, the trio find a burly, poorly shaven man leaning beside the doorway dressed in the brown and grey trappings of a commoner under the worn and scarred leather armor common among the ropefists and with a notably clean and vibrant red fedora sitting out-of-place and a size too small on his head. It is no surprise for Silverdisk Hall to have a bouncer, but the last time Morin was here the man stood guard inside--probably preferring to do his work out of view of passersby and guards. The man tips his hat in greeting to the trio as they near, though his gaze focuses on the walking pile of steel and her very big hammer.

At the nearby intersection, across from the Silverdisk a pair of guards pretend to be standing guard as usual and to not be giving the establishment any extra attention.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:52, Sun 03 Mar.

"So we find the mightiest one, and challenge him?"  Kelaria half asked, half suggested.  It didn't always work out well but it was never boring.

She had not once attempted to remove her strange close faced helmet, decorated with many strange bits from the various Metal beings.  It made her voice echo when she spoke, like she was speaking to them from inside a cave.

Ionaya carefully leaned towards Morin and asked a question, her whispered voice as soft as a zephyr and clear as a stroke of lightning in his ear, "How would you suggest we get past all the ropefists without killing them. I am willing to follow your guidance but we should act quickly, Garmen will be trying to escape. Maybe we encourage Kelaria to make her challenge and use the distraction to find Garman."

Morin nodded cheerfully at the guards as he passed.  "Heya boys.  Working hard or hardly working?"  Morin's tone was light, but there was an undercurrent of confusion to it.  He had no idea what they were expecting to accomplish just standing on the street outside the casino.

He tipped his had back at the bouncer out front, before leaning over to whisper back at Io and Kelaria.  "The way I see it, we got two options.  Option one, we go in the direct way.  Tell him that his boss is a traitor and a fugitive and he's fucked over the whole town.  We tell him the council sent us to toss the place, and that Joram Kyte would have come himself, but he's too busy informing the family of the last idiot who tried to get in our way.  The problem with a threat like that is we might have to actually back it up.  Maybe we could get those yahoos at the corner to pitch in, but I doubt it."

"Option two, we bluff.  Tell 'em Garmen's in trouble, and he sent us to clear out everything incriminating from the back rooms.  I think I can sell it.  We're mercs, after all, and the biggun already works for Garmen.  Even if nobody here met her, I'm sure word would have got around about the huge armored barb guarding the boss' warehouse."

As he talked things through, Morin sized up the Ropefist in the stupid hat.  The bard had been in town for a couple days, and he'd spent most of his off time socializing around town.  Some of that socializing had even been in the Silverdisk itself.  Did he recognize the big guy out front?  For that matter, did he recognize the hat?  It didn't even look like it belonged to the bouncer.  It didn't fit his head, and it didn't fit his style.  That kind of flash would be more suited to someone like...well, someone like Garmen.

"...Hey, Io, you're an expert on magic, right?  Does that hat look...does that look like a hat of disguise to you?"

"It could be. But I could not be certain unless I cast a spell. However, we could try deception and/or distraction. If I get his attention, you could perhaps retrieve the hat," she suggested. "Or maybe we simply let Kelaria stalk her way past the door, and distract everyone with an open challenge to face her metal. What do you think?"

OOC
Ionaya rolled 18 using 1d20 with rolls of 18.  Sense Motive.
Ionaya rolled 18 using 1d20+6 with rolls of 12.  Perception.

Both skills attempted to be applied to the man with the hat.

Kelaria, who had been silent a moment, suddenly spoke.

"We combine the two!"

On closer look, Ionaya notes as the man tips his hat to an approaching man that his knuckles are free of rope, but discolored either by an uneven tan or by the recent removal of such ropes. The approaching man, however, pauses in his walk at the gesture, nods in return, then changes his path to continue on down the road.

Ionaya quietly relays what she's observed to about the 'bouncer' in front to both Morin and Kelaria, adding, "I don't think he's a regular rope fist anymore, and I don't think he's our target either."

Looking to Kelaria and then back to Morin, Ionaya's lips curled and spread into a fae-like grin, "I like her idea. We let her go in first and bring forth the chaos, which will allow us to make our way deeper inside while the guards and workers are distracted! It sounds like fun to me!"

She turns to Kelaria and quickly adds, "Please try not to kill anyone who is not trying to use a weapon against you!" But if you feel the need to break a few things, I won't mind!'

"Ha!  They will fall prey to my mighty cunning and indomitable... smartness!"  Kelaria boasted.  She clearly had something in mind, whether or not it would, or could, or should possibly work was a matter for reality to sort out.

But Kelaria was a woman of action and load boasting, not speculation!

Morin watched the interaction between Bron the bouncer and the approaching man, nodding to himself as realization dawned on him.  "Ahh, that's what the dumb hat's about.  A bit more subtle than hanging a big sign with "We've been rumbled, stay clear," but it gets the same effect."  If the hat was a signal like he suspected it was, that meant the Ropefists had already heard from Garmen.  Which meant Morin's hope of convincing them they were on the same side was just about dashed.  Oh well.

He gave Kelaria a little nudge forwards.  "Alright biggun, go get 'em!"  He said encouragingly.  "We'll follow your lead."

Kelaria... took in some great breaths.  Good, deep ones.  Touched her toes a few times.  Picked up her hammer and gave it a few practice hoists.  Seemed to hum something.  Then punched her own helmet so hard it rang out audibly like a bell.  And then she was ready.

Kelaria lumbered forward with all speed, not stopping until someone stopped her, and then she let out a war cry and proceeded to bellow some particularly aggressive nonsense (to others, but not to her, or anyone paying attention).

"I am Kelaria of the Ironclaw, Slayer of the Metal Ones, and the harbinger of the paymaster!"  The last was the most humble boast and largest load of absolute shade ever.

"I seek The Great Metal, and worthy foes.  I have come to acquire the goods of shame!  And a goat!  You will surrender them to me and denounce the wickedness of the paymaster, who is feeble and without honor!  He disrespects the Metal!"

She raised her hammer and let out another war cry, this time beating her cuirass, which gave a very loud reverberating metal sound.

The big man at the door tilts his head watches in strange fascination as the heavily armored woman manages to touch he toes and clearly prepares herself for something. He even waves to the nearby guards to get their attention and gestures to the disturbing display. As the large, heavily armored and armed stranger to Torch then begins to march quickly towards the Silverdisk, the guards each move in behind her--not knowing what to expect of her but figuring it could be no good.

"What in the Abyss?" is the only response the bouncer can muster at the woman's confusing shouting, but soon he leans into the slightly-ajar doorway of the Silverdisk and calls inside, "Looks like trouble out 'ere." As movement stirs inside the man turns back to Kelaria, still not understanding what she wants, and tries to defuse the situation, "Sorry, Miss. We 'ave a dress code."

"What's going on here?" one of the guards calls after Kelaria, still several paces behind her.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:39, Wed 06 Mar.

"Foul minions of the Paymaster, surrender the goods of shame!  Or produce your champion!"  Kelaria screamed at the bouncer, ignoring the guard for the moment.  "You sons of goats and daughters of dungbeetles!  Your pock marked sisters rejected you through their hare lips!"

"No one knows what yer on about, y'need t' calm down," the large man responds, visibly confused, as a few others begin to gather in the doorway: a couple young men in leather armor and roped fists as well as a few others in clothing of different stations and the cashier girl, recognized by Morin from his last visit, mostly craning their necks to get a look at the spectacle.

"Ma'am, you're causing a scene," one of the two approaching guards warns as the pair look between each other anxiously, each ready to draw weapons if the unstable woman escalates to violence, "We're here; lets try to sort this out peacefully."

"I'm not sure what I was expecting."  Morin remarked quietly to Ionaya as they watched the barbarian start shouting nonsense and insults at the top of her lungs. "But it really should have been this." The barbarian had basically done nothing but scream nonsense and insults since he'd met her, and the novelty was wearing thin fast.

He sized up the situation, trying to think up something useful the others could do while Kelaria started a brawl.  "Whaddya think?  We're not getting through that crowd at the front door, and if things get hairy, those militia dopes look ready to jump in on the side of the Ropefists.  Backdoor's gonna be locked, and we left our burglar back at the warehouse."

Not coming up with any kind of obvious solutions, the gnome shrugged and turned back to the sorceress.  "Wanna just leave them to it, go see how Cain and Zed are doing?  I mean, if these clowns all kill each other that might make for less problems all around."  His tone was light, but he was only half-joking.  Kelaria was acting friendly for the moment, but she was about as unpredictable and dangerous as Mr Tentacles was.  As heartless as it sounded, it might be safer in the long run to just let her interact with the militia unsupervised and just let nature take it's course.

In reply to Dungeon Master (msg # 14):

"The paymaster's goods of shame!"  Kelaria yelled back like he was an idiot.  She allowed exasperation to take over her tone, seeing that insulting their honor wasn't shifting them.  "I have come for them!  The great master has sent me!"

She was shifting tactics, just a little.

Ionaya replies to Morin quietly while drawing her cloak around her head, "Lets see if we can still get inside as normal customers while the ropefists and the guards attempt to deal with Kelaria. They shouldn't be paying too much attention to us since we aren't causing a problem, we should still be able to get inside. Right?"

She starts moving towards the door, being quite careful and avoiding the presence of the loud armored woman.
OOC
Using Bluff to aid Stealth to enter the Silverdisk unnoticed.

Ionaya rolled 11 using 1d20+4 with rolls of 7.  Bluff check.
Ionaya rolled 20 using 1d20+2 with rolls of 18.  Stealth check.

Ionaya begins heading towards the door to the Silverdisk, giving the commotion a wide berth, but with the crowd gathering in the doorway there is no way to get in unnoticed, or at all, until people disperse.

"Wait, Bron, I think that's the brute Garmen hired as a guard," one of the ropefists gathering in the doorway mentions from behind the bouncer. The big man looks back at his colleague in disbelief for a moment before turning back to address Kelaria--his complete confusion beginning to shift to frustration,--"Y'lookin' for Garmen? Y'should 'ave just frellin' said so! 'e ain't 'ere."

"Alright everybody, calm down!"  Morin called out, finally stepping forwards.  After a fair share of hemming and hawing, the bard had decided to just go forwards with his original plan of talking his way in.  Nobody at the Silverdisk seemed to know Kelaria had switched sides, which meant they probably didn't know the Canaries were after them either.

He nodded to the nearby guards.  "Just a misunderstanding, boys.  Nothing worth getting your sword out over."  His tone was light and friendly as he tried to wave them off.  A little too light, actually.  Like the tone of someone up to no good, and trying a little too hard to act casual.

Keeping an eye on the militiamen, Morin sidled up to Bron and lowered his voice. "We know Garmen ain't here." He muttered urgently, taking obvious care not to let the town guards overhear what he was saying.  "He sent us.  Let us in before this oaf says anything else in front of the pigs and we all get fucking arrested."

13:34, Today: Morin Matzylford rolled 28 using 1d20+10 with rolls of 18.  Versatile performance as bluff.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:44, Sun 10 Mar.

Kelaria, seeing this was the play, started to draw up and take in a deep breath, obviously meaning to go back to screaming, even more loudly, if they did not meet the Small Man's demands immediately.

Big Bron narrows his eyes at the gnome for a moment, only briefly diverting his eyes to Kelaria as he considers, before shrugging and leaning back against the wall as he agrees, "You an' the girl, no problem, but the crazy one stays out here. I got my orders, too. Y' put a muzzle on 'er yerself, the guards got no reason to arrest me, or they would've already." He smiles and tips his hat to the guards with a sly grin as he notes, "They's just stakin' us out." The pair of guards frown to each other, but seem ready to back off if the trouble is managed.

Morin made a big show of chuckling along with Bron's grinning declaration, before leaning back in. "You thick lump."  He muttered back, still smiling at the guards.  Getting even closer, he continued quietly and slowly, his irritated tone contrasting with the wide, fake smile on his face.  "They're not staking you out, they're waiting for backup.  The militia just hit Garmen's warehouse.  There's fifteen guards tearing the place apart right now, and the other half of the force is poking around back=alleys trying to run down your boss after he pulled his disappearing act on them."

He continued slowly, as if not sure the big man was smart enough to get the implications of what he was saying.  "The second those guards get done over there, they're coming here.  And when they do, it's in everyone's best interests if there's no "goods of shame" left on the premises for them to find.  So how about you quit jerking us around and let us in, so we're not having this conversation two feet away from the fucking cops."
This message was last edited by the player at 08:33, Mon 11 Mar.

For all the shade thrown toward her, Kelaria really wasn't as dumb as she looked or sounded.  She suddenly wheeled on the town guard trying to give the Small Man something to work with.

"And one among you shall be chosen, who can take my Metal!?  Do none of you hear its call!?  Is there not a man among you, or at least a really yoked woman with an awesome hammer!?"

She hoisted said hammer up and down.

"Who will come forth and taste its bounty!?"

"No shit, really?" Big Bron exclaims more than asks, somewhere between entertained and impressed by the news, but continues to lean back against the wall, calmly crossing his arms. At Morin's repeated insistence, he only shakes his head and offers "No one's stoppin' ya, big man. Get to whatever y' came for."

As Kelaria continues to make her scene, two of the ropefists crowding the doorway move outside to watch the show while one ropefist, the cashier girl, and other patrons move back inside--either to get back to their gambling and work or to gawk from a safer distance. One of the guards, still confused by the brute's rantings, pulls a whistle hanging from a chain around his neck from beneath his armor and prepares it as he asks as calmly as he can manage, "Are you threatening us?"

"Does the sky threaten the sea?  Does the snake threaten the dew?"  This was actually a line from a child's story in her tribe, used, far, far outside of context.  It was something about how not everything is fighting all the time, or something.

"Speak your name bold one, and receive your accolade, and your bile!"

Morin nodded, taking the big man's response as permission for the entire party to enter.  "Gladly," He responded.

Turning around, he casually moved to put himself between the barbarian and the guard.  "Wow."  He exclaimed to the guard cheerfully.  "You lot don't spook, do ya?  Don't worry about it, just a little cultural misunderstanding.  I'm sure you two would wind up the best of friends in no time if I let you keep talking, but unfortunately we've got places to be."  Turning back to Kelaria, the bard put out both hands and started pushing the huge barbarian towards the Silverdisk with all his might.  Given the enormous differences in size and weight, the shoving was purely symbolic.  But Morin hoped the gesture would get his point across better than trying to talk to the nonsensical brute.

Kelaria wasn't sure what the play was any more, but she acted like the shoving was effective, hoping no one noticed.

"What is the riddle of Metal!?"  She called after them as she was so brutally forced back.

While Morin and Kelaria were acting their parts, Ionaya followed the rest of the people inside. Making certain that she was well out of the way of the incoming Morin and Kelaria show, she took a look around at the goings on inside. She also looked for any entrances and exits.

OOC
Ionaya rolled 17 using 1d20+6 with rolls of 11.  Perception.

The two guards watch uneasily as Morin pushes Kelaria along, and Big Bron frowns as the gnome deliberately ignores what he had been told, but rather than picking a fight with the guards there, the big man instead hands his red hat off to another of the gathered ropefists, gives a mocking salute to the guards, and follows behind the trio. Inside is much as Morin remembers it, although with fewer people. Inside the main entrance is a foyer with a caged-in area for a chip exchange and through a wide opening to the right is the games room with several tables for card or dice games as well as a small bar. Tonight there seem to be only seven guests sitting around two tables while bored dealers and a few security ropefists lounge at the bar or along the edges of the rooms. On the wall across from the entrance is the doorway to presumably an office area--where Garmen has emerged from in Morin's last visit.

As the party enters the foyer and as she is finishing locking herself back into cashier's cage after watching the scene Kelaria made, the cashier girl asks hesitantly, "Welcome to Silverdisk Hall! Would you like to buy some chips?" But once everyone is in and he closes the door behind them, Bron asks tersely, annoyed by Morin's actions, "So what'd Mr. Ulreth send y'for?"

"Not today, thanks!"  Morin waved off the chip cashier cheerfully.  Having made it into the building with Kelaria in tow, he had noticeably relaxed.  He had worried that Bron and the others already knew what was up and were luring him into a trap, one him and Ionaya would have a hard time fighting off alone.  But given the Ropefist's earlier performance in combat, Morin had no doubt the barbarian could reduce everyone in the room to a soup-like homogenate in about thirty seconds.

Looking over his shoulder to reply to Big Bron, Morin shrugged.  "Y'know, it was a bit of a rushed conversation.  We definitely gotta get his accounts ledger out of here.  Y'know, the real one, with the business deals the council doesn't gotta know about.  Sounds like the guard's evidence is pretty circumstantial now, but if they know for sure what he's been up to?"  Morin drew a thumb across his throat and made a little "neck-slitting" sound.  "He's getting tossed into the beam, and he ain't the only one.  I think there's some other stuff, he said we'd know it when we saw it."

"That his office there?" Morin pointed at the back room, starting to amble in the general direction. "Anybody here got the key?"

Ionaya watched Morin and Kelaria for long moments, slowly and quietly making her way towards the back room ahead of the gnome. She awaited the results of Morin's clever patter and considered what she might do next while standing near the entrance to the back door.

Big Bron's brow furrow in confusion for a moment at Morin's words, before realization dawns on him and he lets out a laugh, "Aww shit, you 'ad me fer a minute! But ye'r in way over yer 'ead." He shakes his head in good spirit as he pulls the Silverdisk Hall's door back open, revealing the room to anyone outside, and gestures back out the way everyone came as he insists politely but with authority, "You can leave now. Go 'ave a word with yer guard buddies."

Morin laughed along with Bron, genuinely sharing his amusement. "Yeah, I'll admit that last part was a stretch!  You got me! I was just hoping to get this business sorted out without any more bloodshed." The gnome chuckled a bit, shaking his head.  "I mean, don't get me wrong, after all the monsters and robots we've been battling below the ground, you lot don't exactly scare me.  You only got two arms each, zero tentacles, and I highly doubt any of you have a net-gun built into your arm.  But we gotta wipe out, like, a whole tribe of plant guys in the morning, so...look, I'll level with you."

A bit more seriously, though without a speck of fear, he told Gram the truth.  "Garmen's a traitor.  He turned the Torch off, or at least he helped turn it off.  I'm sure you've heard about the big buzzing doohickey he's got stashed in his warehouse?  The one he turned on the same day the torch went out?  I dunno if you put two and two together, and I honestly don't care.  But Garmen clearly knew the jig was up when we found it, because he drank his second invisibility potion and now he's doing a runner.  We're trying to track him down before he makes it out of the town limits, 'cause knowing exactly what he did might come in handy while we turn the Torch back on and save your little town.  You dig?"
This message was last edited by the player at 06:48, Sun 17 Mar.

Kelaria grunted.  The big, loud crazy Kelaria was suddenly gone, and silent, brooding, want to tear your arms off Kelaria had replaced her.

"I said you can leave." Big Bron repeats slowly and firmly to Morin and Kelaria, his patience wearing thin. "Or I can call them guards over t' drag y'out?"

Ionaya, for her part, manages to slink across the room towards the office door--not avoiding notice but at least avoiding drawing Big Bron's ire.

Kelaria, though her eyes were not visible thanks to her massive helmet, locked eyes with Bron.

"What say you, Small Man?"

It was clear what Kelaria was thinking, but she wanted to give Morin the chance to be the reasonable one again.

Looked like Bron either didn't believe what Morin was saying, or was simply so phegmatic that being implicated in capital treason just didn't draw any reaction.  "Here, let me save you the trouble." Morin replied, before raising he voice to a volume only possible to someone trained in theater.  "Hey, officers!" He called, his shout easily carrying out the open door.  "We could use some law in here, if you don't mind!"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:59, Sun 17 Mar.

The guards, even from a distance, can be easily seen frowning at the continued nuisance as they make their way towards the Silverdisk at Morin's call. As the pair near and their views are clear, Bron begins to guide Morin and Kelaria out of the door with a firm hand as he informs the guards, "This lyin' gnome an' his crazy lady ain't welcome an' are refusin' t' leave."

The guard taking the lead shakes his head in disappointment as he gestures for the pair to follow and directs them, "Enough causing trouble. Come with us and let's talk."

Despite Morin and Kelaria's efforts to draw most if not all the attention inside Silverdisk hall, Ionaya decided that they had failed in drawing attention away from her, so she went to the cashiers station and approached the girl in the cage there. "You offered to sell me chips? Could you quickly explain the games here along with the costs of the chips?", she asked the girl quizzically.

Ionaya decided that becoming a regular customer here was the best way to avoid unnecessary confrontation until she could get a chance to make her way into the back.

"Do you wish to speak to him, Small Man?" Kelaria asked, very, very calm at the moment.  Which should be terrifying.

As Bron the gangster tried to "guide" Morin and Kelaria out of the door, the gnome just stared at him in a mixture of bafflement, amusement, and a little bit of offense.  It was like every single member of the Ropefist gang was so used to being the only tough guys in town that they didn't even stop to consider the consequences of laying hands on an armed mercenary.  Morin was used to that sort of thing, of course.  Anyone looking at him could probably tell that he didn't do a lot of killing.  But trying to shove a fully armored, clearly unstable, barbarian warrior out the door like an errant drunk?  That was a level of overconfidence that Morin himself could only aspire to.  Did Bron not understand that she could kill him?  That she probably would kill him, under slightly different circumstances?  Or would he go out like poor Gram, dying in complete shock when an armed killer refused to let themselves get assaulted by a guy with rope wrapped around his hands?

Heh.  Dying of "shock."  He'd have to remember that one.

Ignoring the bouncer, Morin flashed a winning smile at Kelaria and the two guards. "One thing you should know about me: I always want to talk.  Lead on."  Following the two militiamen out of the casino, he went along with them until they were out of earshot from the door, then stopped to hear them out.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:35, Tue 19 Mar.

The guards lead Morin and Kelaria away from the Silverdisk, back across the intersection in front of the building, as Bron closes the door behind them.

When across the street again, the old of the two introduces them, "I'm Joref, this is Marus. So you're not with the ropefists? Are you the mercs who caused the scene at the warehouse? What are you up to now?"

"Did I not already explain this at great length?"  Kelaria asked, sounding absolutely exasperated.  How complicated could this possibly be?  She was tired of these city people.

"Don't worry, there's like sixty guards in the whole town."  Morin reassured Kelaria brightly.  "So at worst, we only have to have this conversation another twenty, maybe thirty times."

Turning back to the guards, he shook his head at Joref's question.  "Nah, we're the heroes who exposed Garmen Ulreth as a traitor to your people.  We might have made a scene while doing it, I didn't notice.  Too focused on trying to save your town, I guess!"  He shrugged cheerfully.

"Speaking of which, the council sent us to search Garmen's business, see if we can find a clue about what he was up to or where he might be hiding.  Honestly, I'm a little surprised you lot aren't ALREADY searching the building.  What gives?"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:07, Wed 20 Mar.

"Yeah, right, too concerned about our town to take a look around before picking fights in the streets and causing a commotion," Marus remarks with an eyeroll. Joref, for his part, keeps his composure at the gnome's attitude and instead tries to get the mercenaries up to speed, "We've already had a plain clothed man take a look through the place; Ulreth isn't there. He'd be stupid to hang around the first place we'd look. For now we're just keeping an eye on the place while others chase down better leads--boys more likely to flip on Ulreth than Mr. Bron. We could raid the place, preferably with more men or someone with more authority here, but it's unlikely we'd get anything and we'd still have to stand here keeping an eye on it anyway." He pauses for a moment before looking down to Morin and stating the obvious, "It's a gambling hall in the center of town. We've always kept a close eye on it and Ulreth has always known it. If he was up to anything illegal, he wouldn't do it here."

"There are two good places to hide."  Kelaria explained, unsolicited.  "Where no one will ever look, and where everyone will look.  The last is easier to know."