March 2nd

When Rory reaches a horse, he mounts up. He tenses forward and cradles his everything, bruised from the cannon's heavy shot, and almost surges with Rage out of habit. "Think the beasts will outrun the shots?" he asks, prodding the Red Mage for his plan.

Terrified by the Holy Radiance that suddenly and inexplicably erupts from the abnormal-looking Fairy, the other Moarsman up top run screaming away, ignoring all other comments or statements.  Javan manages to grab one and fling it down the side of the building, Jumping on the poor sod (killing him) to make his way down, and sprints away for the outer wall.

Zeiss manages to hit a fair few people with that Holy Radiance attack that were out defending the grounds, but quite a few (not knowing what to make of the unknown Elf sprinting away from the building) shoot at him.  Over the course of him running across the courtyard toward the wall he takes a total of 47 damage from various sources, but manages to Vent his way over the wall.  Javan, severely injured, takes several, several rounds to make it over the wall since he rolled a damn 1 but eventually manages, having taken another 18 damage from shots in the interim.

Zeiss makes his way to the rendezvous point where the horses should be. He looks around to see if everyone is there. If Javan is still behind, he will link with Advoc and ask him to search for the fairy while making his way back towards the others.

After...too much time passes for Rory to feel comfortable, he comes to the logical conclusion that the cannon must have stopped firing, but Javan was no where in sight. Moments later, he can faintly make out something moving down the wall and, after a while, begin approaching. After it becomes apparent that the runner is Zeiss, riddled with arrows, he can't help laughing at the sight of them whipping stiffly this way and that, caused by the rogue's fluid movement as he sprints toward the horses. His laughter is stifled by the recent abuse taken by the cannon, however, and he groans and clutches his aching sides.

"Come on, you crazed winged logger, don't make us wait," he mumbled, caught between the suspense of waiting for the Fairy's safe return and the pressure to spur the horse. The sand, of an untold measurement, was running through a thin hourglass, and at the end of the falling grains was another heavy shot.

After the party successfully escape the manor's compound, they regroup outside of town to take a break. Despite being riddled with arrows, a wavering smile still forms on Zeiss' face. He gets off his horse with some difficulty and tumbles near a rock. Advoc appears near him and begins pulling out the arrows, which causes the young elf to groan in pain. It doesn't prevent him to take out the mirror from under his clothes to show it to the group.

"...I guess we did it."

The fairy finally made his way to the party, approaching them in a hurried pace and supporting his weight with his tower shield and visibly limping, his armor bloodied and pierced all over, and his right granite pauldron cracked, and several leather straps of all over his plate look on the verge of or already snapped, but thankfully it had just enough straps intact to keep it all together until they could be exchanged.

Javan himself looked quite out of it, the adrenaline rush from his earlier reckless charge being long over, with only pain and fatigue taking its place. He made sure to strap his shield and spear firmly in place and mounted the horse in a trance, looking at each of their faces as if checking if everyone was present, look worried and look around for a split second, quickly look at them again, and let out of momentary sigh of relief.

Javan would then stay silent even when talked to on his way back, his mind fixated on keeping his balance on the horse and keeping it from straying off from the party.

At the sight of the heirloom in Zeiss' hand, Rory grinned with relief. "There she is! Can't believe it took less than half an hour. What now? We got our stone, let's kill some birds."

While Zeiss is traveling with the group back towards and through town, healing and fixing his appearance, he notices with a start that one of his rapiers is missing.  Thinking back he was sure he had it when he left the fortress manor, but isn't positive when he lost it thereafter.

Zeiss froze when he noticed than his old rapier was missing. It wasn't a big deal since he had now two hookblades that served as his primary weapons, but it was worrying. After he made sure they were alone, he said :

"I lost my rapier and I don't remember when I did. But I'm pretty sure it was after I left the manor..."

He took a look at his inventory to make sure nothing else was missing. When this was done, he recollected himself and played the Heist events through his head to find out if his memories have been tampered with. He also asked Kolson to appraise the mirror to make sure they had the right one.

OCC:

Javan blinks for a moment at the idea of things missing.

"No rapier left behind! We must rescue it!", the fairy started to say in a joking tone, but then quick returned to a more serious one, "But really, you think they could use the rapier and some kind of voodoo to track us down here in town? I think I've read something about that in a funny-titled magazine."

Rory tends to his injuries by the campfire, treating his bruises and bandaging them with some of leftover cloth from the empty buildings.

He shrugs. "What of it? It's just a tool. I sold my axe a while back, now I'm lugging around a sword made of stone. I'm sure I'll share a tender moment when I'm reunited with it, watching it chop through necks at the executioner's block."

As he finishes, he dons his Explorer's Cloak to cover the bandaged areas, lest any discerning eye or mind get an impression he and the rest of the group dearly do not wish for.

skill checks:

Near as Kolson can tell the mirror is rather old, at least a century, and well kept, but completely mundane; no magical energies or whatnot.  If it's a fake, it's a fairly convincing one.

It's no issue to get an audience with Kinzh'Lizakh the next day (it's about 3 in the afternoon now), and your group already has rooms booked at a local inn. 

Zeiss spends some time thinking over the events, but they all seemed to go in the order that he remembers them.  Then again, there isn't much in the way of external information to base any changes off of, so he realizes he can't know for certain.

Zeiss mumbles.

"I just don't like the idea that I somehow left my rapier behind. They could simply cast Scan on it and find out where we've been the last few days."

He thinks for a moment.

"Let's avoid the places we visited. Just to be sure."

OOC:

"We can still go back to the inn, right?" Rory asks, mildly bewildered. "I mean you've been running all over Dereth with that rapier, and we aren't leaving town anytime soon."

"We shouldn't go back to anywhere. You're not considering that Lorkhihf might've seen through this dumb plan from the beginning, and allowed us to get on with it, just to track us down to whomever wanted to steal from her. I find it hard to believe that rapier just happened to slip off it's sheath. Not to mention we've got the blood of two of her men on our hands, she won't let this go by a long shot."

The informer informs you that, near as he knows, Kinzh'Lizakh keeps his deals, though he never dealt with the Undermarket.  You find a Spyglass that, after some bartering, they are willing to part with for 180g.  The hair dye is inconsequential in price as long as it's mundane.

"Then we schedule a meeting ASAP, get a good night's rest, work out a deal with you-know-who tomorrow, and then we make tracks for wherever. Surely we can afford one day, I'd hate for all that effort to go wasted."

He throws his cloak into the fire, mildly delighted with the dancing flame smoldering it out of existence. "Besides, the dead men are mercenaries. With the closing of the Guild, they come cheap these days. She's not going to be out for blood for two replaceable sellswords. Their deaths don't make it personal, especially not for a crime lord."

"We don't know who they were, and this woman is an up-and-comer; that means she's proactive, while Kinzh'Lizakh is mostly trying to maintain his base. I very much doubt she'll be sleeping, and if the she will, you can bet her people won't. I don't have to remind anyone here what normally happens when this party decides to waste time."

"I doubt that Kinzh'Lizakh will receive us today, so we have no other choice than to wait for tomorrow. But Higaide is right : Lorkhihf will come after us. She might not care about the lives of her mercenaries, but she certainly doesn't want to lose political prestige. Let's schedule that meeting and rest a little. I'll take the first watch tonight."

"I don't know how Sho politics works, but she may well want to track us all the way to the employer, and if she does, she'll stay her hand until we reach him. We need to watch out for anyone that might be keeping tabs on us, not just moving in with intent. Probably best to check that mirror for any tracking spells too."

"Kolson already examined it. No magical energy is emanating from it."

Rewritten:

At the inn where much rejoicing is to be had, Rory grabs a stool whereupon he intends to wait patiently for his order of inexpensive, cider-flavored ale, glass after glass as he attempts to chat up whomever of the fairer gender he finds pleasing to the eye with stories of his intentionally nonspecific exploits, in hopes of enticing them to a private evening in his room. As he orders his first round, he scans other equally jovial gentlemen with whom he may spend time with between rejections. He sets his mind to forking over the gold until the price inexplicably increases or he becomes to drunk to walk without leaning...or at least until the majority opinion of his companions is that he has had too many. And then to bed.

His companions are clearly aware of his intentions as he makes it no subtle matter that he is spending money to celebrate being alive and "getting social with a lucky lady", as he delicately puts it.

This is very clearly his intent, and no small effort will be required to persuade him otherwise.

OOC:

Zeiss will wait for Thug to appear. When he does, he will calmly explain the situation to him and point out that he should stay with the group to avoid being attacked on sight by the local guards. If Thug is bored and wants to do something, Zeiss will offer him to teach him something.

The next day, the party will prepare themselves for their meeting with Kinzh'Lizakh which Zeiss will lead as the Exchange's Warlord.

OOC:

When Zeiss first wanders his way into his room, he immediately spots two things.  First, he sees an Elf gentleman he doesn't recognize spot him and quickly dart out the window.  Second, he spies another elf, an elderly chap, lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, Zeiss' rapier jutting through his midsection.