Thwip
Like Sasha, Thwip often found the behaviour of pinkies unfathomable. However Sasha pushes into the back before he can formulate a plan of approach.
– I need to teach these guys the scientific method at some point. –
He stands up and follows the dwarf. He decides that caution has already been spiked into the tropical winds brewing over the city. “Hullo? Apologies ifin I haff given offense. Tis seems personal to yi. Do yi needt help?”
Hayu
She hangs back far enough to still keep track of them but not so close that anyone will peg them as a unit. The pub Eoin leads them to isn’t much different than the one they just came from: except for the goods served. She should have asked Eoin to grab her some coffee.
She’ll blend in inside like a cat in a mouse den, she wagers. On the street, however, no one wants to look too closely at a beggar, lest they be forced to care. She sets herself up where she can keep an eye on the pub’s front door. If a few coins come her way during the course of keeping watch, so much the better.
GM POST
@DaakSyde @William_George @MalevolentPixy @strokeybeard @Macro
As Thwip and Sasha barge into the back room, the assistant spins to face them with a surprised expression. On the other side of the room stands an older man, in the process of closing the door that leads out the other side of the consulting room. A desk is in one corner of the room; a stretcher bed sits against one wall.
After collecting himself, the apprentice comes towards Sasha making shooing motions with his hands. “Please, gentlemen, I asked you to wait outside…”.
The elder man at the door turns and steps forwards.
“Never mind, they’re here now, I may as well see them. So, hurt your arm, have you? Give me a look at that”.
He gently draws Thwip’s arm from the sling and examines it.
“A nasty break. Been getting into trouble, have you? Never mind, that’s none of my business. I can fix it immediately for $200, or make it heal over a month for $100. Which will it be?”
Thwip
Thwip thinks of trying to stare down the man for two seconds. Then he remembers that there are human children more physically intimidating as he is. Instead he smiles.
“I could pay yi nothingk andt still have mi arm healedt in a month.”
He glances at Sasha. Perhaps if Eoin were here he could approach the man about who he just let out the back door in a subtle way. But Thwip is a scientist. Poking at things he shouldn’t is his calling. A brief memory of his father on the day he left home after the murder of Eyegouger floats into his head.
Thwip hopes this nest has golden hornets.
Looking at the door that just closed in what he hopes is a meaningful way, he speaks in what he hopes is a confident and reassuring way. He is relying a fair bit on hope today and it makes him uncomfortable.
“We are members of t’ Tredory mercenary guildt. Unlike some off are brotters we try t’ help tose who needt it. Be it t’ Fate of Dwarfen godts or t’ hand off Godt in Heaven we are in tis toon at a time off needt. It doesn’t take an abrasif-yet-opportunistick street thief t’ see tat t’ situation is personal t’ yi. Ifin yi’ll have it, we’ll help fir the cost of yir magicks.”
– I didn’t lie here. I just decreased the margin of error is all. –
Thwip mentally prepares himself to be tossed out on the street. Perhaps the next healer won’t act so suspiciously and he can get on to doing what he really wanted to do: Take measurements of the burnt buildings.
GM POST
@DaakSyde @William_George @MalevolentPixy @strokeybeard @Macro
The healer appears momentarily startled, then confused.
“Well, obviously it’s personal when you’ve had to watch people die under your hands. It was a truly terrible accident.”
“I’m just a simple healer, though. Did you want me to fix this arm or not? I tell you what; I’ll do it for $150. It isn’t a very large arm, after all.”
Thwip
The botched escape from the vault flashes before his eyes. Aronn’s life pouring out in front of him. Blue Hawk falling. He never saw what happened to Jabril and Nic. He only remembers their silence as he and Ranar laid them out.
He shakes himself out of it and attempts to regain his composure. “I… understand completely.”
Smiling again he nods a thanks, “I tank yi fir yir offer off a reducedt price. How does tat cost seem t’ yi, Sasha?”
– Please live up to at least one Thumb stereotype and haggle them down! –
Sasha
Thwip looks at Sasha.
Sasha looks at Thwip.
Shrug.
“Well, pay the man.”
GM POST
@DaakSyde @William_George @MalevolentPixy @strokeybeard @Macro
Thwip bows to the inevitable and digs out $150 for the healer. After telling Thwip to lie down, he goes to a cabinet in the rear of the room and withdraws a couple of gemstones.
Clutching the stones in one hand, he places the other upon Thwip’s broken arm. Muttering a few words, he sends power coursing into the goblin’s arm, drawing the bones straight and knitting them back together.
After a few moments, Thwip’s arm is as good as new.
“Thank you for your business, gentleman; remember us if you should ever need our services again. Good day to you.”
Thwip
Despite his newly functioning arm Thwip feels a very different sort of pain in his pocketbook as he walks out the door.
“Tat lead did not git us anyting,” he says to Sasha. “Yet I cannot help but feel tat someting is happeningk beyond some arsin.”
Thwip fiddles around in his pockets. Eventually he finds his scrying stone. He holds it up by the string to show Sasha it’s amazing swinging properties. “I tink we may findt some clues at t’ fires. Shall we go or do yi have a cunning plan? I am all fir exploringk all t’ options until we eliminate tem.”
Sasha
“It got your arm fixed, which seems a fair price, Heathen.”
Sasha glanced at the ‘scrying stone’ but it had nothing special about it.
“You are right, though. We should visit the fires and see what the stones can tell us for we should.”
As he leaves to find the first fire, Sasha stoops to snatch up a grey pebble from the floor that had been calling to him, and tucks it into his pouch.
GM POST
@DaakSyde @William_George @MalevolentPixy @strokeybeard @Macro
Following the scent of smoke, Thwip and Sasha stroll through the streets towards the theatre.
The city is bustling, and business carries on as usual. There does seem to be a hint of tension in the air, however; muttered conversations and suspicious looks follow the dwarf and goblin as they move through the streets.
The theatre is still smoking, but the fire is out. A small crowd of people are milling around outside; some cleaning up and stamping on embers, some merely looking on. An attractive young woman sits on the street, sobbing into the shoulder of an older male companion.
Hayu
As she watches, she listens. Her Arabic isn’t perfect, but it’s better than most people’s who didn’t grow up with the language and thanks to Hassan, she’s well aware of some of the more emphatic expressions.
People around here are on edge, mostly because the Christians are on edge and jumping to conclusions. Some mutter over whether they should leave while they still can, while others vow to fight if trouble comes. Still more just hope it will all blow over. Every now and then, someone drops a coin in her cup: perhaps out of habit, perhaps in fear of his soul. Allah, after all, is said to be pleased with charity; maybe if they are kind He’ll do the same.
That’s something, at least. When gossip reveals so little, it says more than most people know. When Émile worked, for example, even merchants who never dared venture near the dens of thieves muttered about business losses and money owed. There’s none of that here, only fear. That makes this arsonist worse than Émile, she decides. Cruel as he was, it was targeted. These fires seem like they are aimed at everybody with the sole purpose of stoking fear and unrest.
She mutters something under her breath, one of Hassan’s favourite expressions when an experiment went wrong rather spectacularly. This bâtard had best hope she never gets her hands on him.
Thwip
Thwip nods towards the crying woman in case Sasha missed them, and then head gestures at the crowd putting out embers. Taking Sasha’s silence for agreement, he walks towards the crowd.
As he nears, “Hello friends. Were travelers tat just arrivedt. We feel tat what happendt here is a shame. We half two strong backs and we’t like t’ assist yi in t’ clean up ifin yi’ll half us.”
GM POST
@DaakSyde @William_George @MalevolentPixy @strokeybeard @Macro
The nearest of the men hunting embers stops and stares hard at Thwip. He is carrying a bucket of water, and had until now been dousing the last hints of the fire.
After a moment, he shrugs and says “there’ll be no proper cleanup today I reckon, but if you want to stomp on some embers, feel free”. With that, he turns back to his task.
Thwip
– Heh. Heh. Perfect. –
“We’re gladt t’ do anyting tat kin help. Let’s go, companion Sasha.”
Thwip begins to step delicately into the ruins as far as he can. Scanning what hasn’t burnt down. Trying to see if he can follow the path the fire took.
– Logically one should start with what isn’t burnt and then work back to what is. Presumably there may be a clue at the place or places where the fire was lit.–
He stomps on some embers. Working under the assumption Sasha has been mutely following him this entire time, he begins to speak to the dwarf in a low voice.
“I’m tinkingk tat ifin there is one or two spots were t’ fire was lit ten tat wouldt be a sign off a single arsonist. But ifin tere are numberous places it started ten tat wouldt suggest an orkanized attack. Unless it was magick. I hope it wasn’t magick. Ten this could mean tere’s a mad mage in tis town.”
– It’s not that I dislike magic. It’s just so… fuzzy… in how it works. It’s hard to plan around it. Give me a good pulley and lever system anytime.–
Sasha
Sasha looks at the burnt building, angry at the thought that this had been done deliberately.
Ignoring Thwip, he reaches out his senses, feeling the space of the building, covered in ash. He feels also the pockets of heat, glowing embers waiting to spring back into life and burn again. He scrapes a sign into the ash, odd marks representing his knowledge of the fire and it’s remnants. Aligning his spirit with the sigil and the reality of the ash strewn building he claps his hands together.
<casts Extinguish Fire, happy to pay whatever cost it is to put the building out>
The clap sounds louder than it should, reverberating off the burnt timbers. A sudden drop in temperature as the ash goes cold and all the embers go out is accompanied by gasps from those still hunting embers.
Satisfied that the fire will not restart he leaves Thwip to investigate the cause of the blaze and instead walks over to the crying young woman and her companion.
“I am sorry I was not here sooner, I could have saved more had I been. What do you know of this evil business? Were there any lives lost to it?”
Ranar waits for Eoin to speak, but something about the last thing that Waleed said seems to have made Eoin uncomfortable and cast him into introspection.
“I…I know naught of that. B-but we’re here now, f-for the moment. Passing through. Along the way, we’ve acquired some - ahh - unusual things. Eoin here thought that you might be interested in them. I’m not entirely keen on selling them, but we will need funding for further travels. So I’ve agreed to this meet. What sort of things are you looking for?”
GM POST
@DaakSyde @William_George @MalevolentPixy @strokeybeard @Macro
The man looks up at Sasha’s words, while the woman buries her face in his shoulder and quietly weeps.
“Yes” he says, grimly.
“Who are you? What do you mean you could have saved more?”
“Looking for? Many things; I am a humble student of the world.”
Imam Waleed pulls a chair from behind a cluttered desk and sits down. “What is it that you have to sell? We may be able to make a trade. I know many things and many people.”
Sasha
“I am Sasha DeStijl and I am a Warden Of The Fires That Burn In The Dark. Had I been here sooner I may have stopped the fire instead of snuffing the embers.”
“Where I come from there are many sins - murder, greed, carelessness - but arson is a special case. A fire underground can burn for years, poisoning the air and eating the rocks. A firestarter cannot be suffered to pay weregeld or survive a punishment. Do you know of who or why this was done, so that I may bring them to Justice?”
“Ahh, a student of the world! Therein we have s-something in c-common. I have traveled quite a bit myself but still have far to go. So much to see and learn! For instance, did you know that there are artisans on the surface capable of making high-quality weaponry? Not dwarven perhaps but nonetheless beautiful, well-forged, balanced, sharpened, to a degree of skill that any dwarf would be proud of. Such pieces as would serve equally well as showcase works of art on display or as a daily working armament.”
“Consider Eoin’s sword here. Note how the blade flexes, note the weighting and balance. How firmly the guard, grip, and pommel are attached. See the care and precision that went into etching the emblem here? That marks it as a piece with historic cultural significance, although I am unfamiliar with the origin of the symbol. Have your travels led you much to the west?”