World Tree MUSH

    So stuff happened. And while the Hags at the old mill were dealt with, Lether has since been... Kind of surly and reticent. Okay, moreso than usual considering her usual demeanor.
    She's back at the Gaping Maw drinking from a flagon of ale as she waits for the others to pile in. See, the last time the group was here, they were approached by a man named Volo, and he had something to say that went a little like this:

    "Volothamp Geddarm, chronicler, wizard, and celebrity, at your service. I trust you've noted the violence in our fair city these past tendays. I haven't seen so much blood since my last visit to out of town! But now I fear I have misplaced a friend amid this odious malevolence."
    "My friend's name is Floon Blagmaar. He's got more beauty than brains, and I worry he took a bad way home a couple nights ago and was kidnapped - or worse. If you agree to track him down with all due haste, I can offer you ten dragons apiece now, and I can give you each ten times that when you find Floon. May I prevail upon you in my hour of need?"

    For the record, a Dragon is the name of the city's gold coin currency, and that's a pretty fair offer to look for someone. It's not quite a lead on the missing 500,000 gold but it will put food on Lether's table for weeks to come.
    So once everyone is settled in, the little Lizardfolk downs the last of her drink and wipes her mouth with an arm.
    "I did some snooping. Floon was last seen around the Dock Ward in a ramshackle pub called The Skewered Dragon, with that Volo guy," she explains. "Turns out The Skewered Dragon is run by the Zhentarim. One of the two biggest, nastiest crime guilds in the city. The other being the Xanathar Guild."
    She puffs her cheeks out. "Anyway Floon was jumped by like five guys on his way home with 'another good looking chap', and my lead says they were taken to an old Zhent hideout on Candle Lane. Y'all ready to go?"

    Dante isn't much better. Since the hag job he's been rather quiet and withdrawn. Not that it's the first time a job turned out like this, just he feels exhausted and wants nothing more than a reprieve, or maybe a means to vent his rage and grief. He seems to be the first to join Lether, ordering up a stiff whiskey and knocking back a shot, then another. Whether or not alcohol even affects him is unknown, but it's not like Dante cares.

    "Never heard of you." Dante says bluntly at Volo when the wizard-whatever introduces himself, before knocking back a third shot. He might need to cut himself off if he wants to be somewhat cognizant tonight.

    "Screw it, let's do this. Not in the mood to get kicked outta here tonight anyways." Dante grins half-heartedly at Lether.

Neviah came out of the encounter with the hags unsettled in more ways than one. It was more than a moment of confronting something unspeakably gruesome. The encounter brought something to a head in her consciousness - and it's left her less sure of herself than she's been at any time in the past couple of years.

She's here nevertheless, her armour swapped out for her casual leathers and her rifle slung in a long carrying case at her side. Again she's gone for the wine and again she's regretted it; she's not sure if someone's just dyed the toilet water or what, but it's clear by the way she squints at the glass that her palate has been grievously offended.

It's easier that way. The wine doesn't fight back or tell her she needs to be more cruel.

"The Zhentarim, huh," she says with a frown, setting her glass down. "Then let's deal with them. With any luck, we won't bring any more horrors down upon us this week."

    Hyouka missed the events of the mill, but she heard enough to understand entirely too well why Lether has been surly. She's tempted to fuss and bother over the girl, but sometimes it's better to give some space. She's chosen instead to focus on a decidedly lucrative missing person quest, and so she is here.

    "Ready and set," she replies to Lether with a grin. "I'm always up for giving out a few cracked ribs to bad people, doubly so if it helps us find a decent person." DARGN replies to Neviah in Hyouka's place, "At the very least, there should be no more hags. Of course, there's plenty of other monsters out there capable of similarly awful experiences, I suppose."

    Draping across the back of a chair suddenly, Marceline smiles bit at Neviah. "No more than usual. Also, never bite hags. That was not a great time." 'Bite'?

    "So, some goons and nothing too exciting. Great!" It's no small relief that Hyouka got to miss her little episode but she's not so naive that she'd allow herself to believe that people didn't talk about it.

    "Anyway, I'm behaving this time. Honest. Red loaded and I brought some spare!" She waggles a clear baggie full of what appears to be red fruit rollups. Lots of them. Which she stows in an inside pocket of her jacket where nobody's likely to shove a hand into.

    "All set, though." She is armed today with an umbrella. Really, that's it.

    "Dante." Lether nearly growls. "I'm cuttin' you off. We need your head on for this." She says, before lightening up at the grin the hunter shoots her way. Just a little. Tiny bit. Maybe.
    "I bit that hag." Lether points out when Marcy appears. "I'm not like... Gonna get hag tongue or something am I?" She makes a face, while eyeing Neviah a little worriedly.
    For the record, Lether didn't talk about Marcy's episode.
    So it's time to deal with the Zhentarim, and Lether leads the way out of the bar and inn.
    "Floon's a whore. Works nights at Festhall." Lether points out matter of factly to Hyouka. "Doesn't make him not decent, though. But he does have connections because of his work with nobles. He might know someone who knows something about the gold." She does consider while walking along the streets.
    But it's not long before the group passes a grisly sight.
    As the group turn a corner, they'll find themselves on a street that has been cordoned off by the City Watch. Lying on the cobblestones are a half-dozen corpses, seemingly the victims of some terrible skirmish. Watch officers have disarmed and arrested three blood-drenched humans and are in the midst of questioning witnesses. One of the officers sees everyone. "Get on," she says. "Nothing to see here."
    "Ah." Lether mutters, quickly leading AWAY from the bloody street.
    "Those three the guards caught were Zhents. The bodies were a mix of Zhents and Xanathar people." She explains on the way to Candle Lane.
    The Zhentarim hideout on Candle Lane is a ramshackle two story warehouse, one of many like it in the area and likely one of many safehouses the Zhentarim use. The gate isn't locked but the place does have three points of entry; a front door with a sliding peephole, a painted over window, and a large set of warehouse doors for loading and offloading goods.

"I would not bite a hag with Dante's teeth," Neviah assures Marceline with a deep, vigorous nod.

    'Floon's a whore'

"Language," Neviah says instinctively before pausing and blinking. "...Nevermind."

The murder scene is... unexpected, grisly, and not the worst thing Neviah's seen this week. She presses her lips together, takes mental notes on Lether's identification process, and continues on.

The hideout looms, run-down but no doubt more secure than it looks. Trying to keep herself out of sight for now, the once and former professor peers around to try and assess where things are and how one gets in. Not being the expert on stealth, she looks back towards Lether, then to--

Neviah stops herself before looking towards Dante. She does not want to look to him for stealthiness.

    "O-oh."

    Hyouka was not ready for that. Adventurer she may be, but she hasn't had much contact with some of the more... street-level types. "W-well, as long as he's a good person." DARGN immediately chimes in, "And has connections that might get us closer to rather a lot of gold." She may be an AI, but she IS patterned off a dragon, after all.

    But oh my goodness, that's one hell of a massacre. Hyouka stops in alarm, wearing a bit of a grimace briefly. That's pretty rough. Lether's explanation as they head away gets a more grim sort of nod. It's enough to have her a little more somber as they approach the Zhentarim hideout, but once they do arrive, her reaction to the bloody battle fades, replaced by the faux elf visibly considering their options.

    Three options, three different possible paths of entry, and countless different ways they could manage entry into each one-

    "...want me to break down the front door?"

    Hyouka Kiyama in a nutshell.

    TTossing a hand, Marceline shrugs. "Maybe. Depends on what she uses- used, I guess, to wash that hand. Kidding, you'll be fine. They're just dank nasty dirtball flavor."

    She doesn't make much of a scene or tries not to while traversing the city. Though she also doesn't /walk/ and hangs under the shade of her parasol.

    "Huh. Floon makes sense, then. Little on the nose, I guess." Presented without further comment.

    The murder slash street violence gets an indifferent look from the vampire. Death is death. At least those jumps get to make their next stop unimpeded.

    At the warehouse, Marceline grins at Hyouka and immediately agrees. "Frick yes. Mess it up!" Poor Lether. The only other person here that can match that sneak energy has zero problem going in loud.

    Dante doesn't protest beyond a childish "Yeah I know" before paying his tab with whatever small cash he had.

    He does give Hyouka a dap up when he notices the elf-cyborg. "Ayyy. You missed out on a lot of crazy stuff last week." He says, and leaves it at that. Just because Dante's no stranger to it doesn';t mean he likes thinking about dead kids. Floon's occupation doesn't really surprise Dante in the slightest. Seems like the poor guy got caught in something nasty, such is life. "Oh." Dante offers, widening his eyes. "Picked the wrong night to cut me off, L'il Croccy." He asides to Lether before making sure the bodies didn't match Floon's description, even a trace of ginger hair.

    "I mean I was gonna bust the door down if she wasn't gonna." Dante chimes in when Hyouka offers to make the entrance.

    So the party arrives at the warehouse and Neviah looks to Lether for a stealthy option.
    Hyouka, Marceline, and Dante all vote to smash in the front door.
    Lether stares owlishly at the trio before she looks to Neviah with an almost pained look as she crouches into a shadow.
    Then as to not be heard by anyone listening from the warehouse, her hands start to move. Fluid, practiced, communicative gestures.
    It's Sign. Specifically a very common variant used around the Tree by speech impaired people AND adventurers for silent communication.
    'I'll take the window. Give me three minutes. Then do as you please'.
    Lether creeps towards the window and, wily as an eel and nimble as a gecko clambers a good fifteen feet up the wall in seconds. Quietly sliding the window open she slinks in with one last view of her tail slithering into the darkness of the warehouse, as slippery as a snake.
    Three tense minutes pass, before the window slides back open again, Lether's gleaming golden eyes visible before her hands.
    'Four birds inside. Clueless. Bust in.'
    The door is strong and of heavy iron make, but...
    That is very likely not enough to stop a heavy blow from a FISTEAU sized fist, and as such the door crumples in on itself and is LAUNCHED off the hinges.
    The warehouse is mainly used by the Zhentarim for their usual dastardly work of training and arming sellswords and as such the place is packed to the brim with crates of weapons, boots, black uniforms, and other gear. Tables ad chairs have been carelessly tossed across the floor. The corpses of a dozen men lie along the walls, their rapiers and daggers lying nearby. On the north side of the area, stairs rise to an open level above.
    Four short avian creatures with long beaks and black feathers look over in surprise from where they stand in the middle of the warehouse. Each wears a hooded cloak and wields a shortsword, currently sheathed at the moment considering they've been caught flat footed.

Neviah pinches the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. So much for the indirect approach. "At least don't get yourself killed," she whispers to Dante a bit more tartly than she intended.

Lether, at least, has her own plans. Catching the glance from the lizardgirl, Neviah raises her eyebrows, then nods once. She unzips her carrying case and loads her rifle. "She wants you to wait," she whispers to Hyouka and Dante.

They wait. Lether does her thing. Neviah glances anxiously at the three still out here with her, half-convinced they're about to go nuts and bust in anyway. But the time flies by, and out comes Lether with a signal, which Neviah translates. "There are four 'birds.' They aren't expecting us...." She pauses, then sighs. "She says to bust in."

And so they do. Neviah closes her eyes. "This is so unsubtle," she grumbles, before stomping a sharp heel down and lifting her chin. "Fine, then! We'll do it that way!"

Rifle in hand, Neviah jumps through the already-splintered door, hits the ground and rolls way too dramatically for anyone to care. She comes up firing several shots off at the crowd of corvid crooks. They're not really well-aimed shots considering she's moving and coming out of a theatric dive.

"FRENCH PRINTMAKER LOUIS LEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOY," she shouts.

>> SUMMARY[Neviah Younger] >> 33.3, repeating of course, chance that neviah hits a crow

    Of course Hyouka returns Dante's dap. If she ever doesn't, something is very wrong!

    When Hyouka first started adventuring in the wider tree, DARGN bugged her heavily to learn whatever the most common form of adventurer's sign was. It took a lot of bothering before Hyouka finally did it. And... she tried. She really did.

    In the end, DARGN more or less learned it for her.

    "Don't worry," DARGN replies to Neviah, "I know the form she's using." The AI translates live for Hyouka, and she gives Lether a faint nod. And then the waiting comes. And waiting. And waiting. Three minutes seems to go on forever. She could have made cup ramen in this time. But then Lether finally pokes her head out again, and there's another signal.

    Seconds later, an iron door flies halfway across the room.

    Before Hyouka even steps through entirely, her voice leads the way. "GOOD EVENING! I am terribly sorry to disturb you at home, but I'm here to collect your mandatory television access fees. Do you have any devices capable of receiving NHK signals in this house?" She doesn't even wait for a reply. She's already running at superhuman speed across the room, Neviah's shots whizzing past her. If any of those shots landed home, she's aiming for one of the remaining birds that hasn't been hit yet.

    Dante doesn't hesitate to join the fray, drawing both pistols and hooting. "Finally! A litte stress relief!" He grins before rushing in with guns raised. "You heard the lady, we're here for the TV fees! Hand 'em over!" Dante is almost always one to join in on The Bit if there is The Bit going on.

    RTHe flaming birds are gonna get a firestorm of bullets hurdling toward them as Dante takes the high ground, rushing on some crates. THere's dead guys and bird people who have swords, he doesn't need to be a PHD to figure out the rest.

    Three minutes is foreeeeeever when you're watching a clock or getting your butt whooped. When you're barely paying attention to anything beyond the passive sting of diffused sunlight it's over before Marceline realizes it. She does squint up at Lether in the window. "Maybe I shoulda followed. Whatever!"

    Marceline never learned any sort of sign language. At least, not in the relatively short span of time she's been around these parts.

    Following Hyouka's destruction of the door, barging in and twirling her umbrella away as she assumes a rather large, winged wolf-bat-thing form that's easily taller than the door.

    "We're from the government and we're here to help!" We got jokes this afternoon! Well done! She makes no moves yet, quickly scanning the line of very dead banditos and the bird-like people? "Huh, rad. At least they weren't chickens."

    She's got plenty of arm length to make a grab at anything that tries to squirt past and escape and she's certainly going to do her best to block the new very open front entrance! While showing all those absolutely crazy long teeth.

    They are not chickens. Kenku are more corvid than anything else. And boy are they surprised as the door gets LAUNCHED and a college professor comes tumbling in, taking shots at them, and shouts.
    Then Dante comes in following suit guns blazing, too.
    Squawks of alarm and dismay sound off as the four scramble to not get riddled with bullets, tumbling, rolling, bashing into crates, flipping over tables for cover. One of them eats a bullet in the thigh and goes down with a sharp caw. One of the birds draws his shortsword and tries to rush Hyouka.
    ... That ... That really doesn't end well for him.
    A third tries to weasel by, likely to get caught by Marceline. And the fourth?
    Lether gets the drop on him.
    Literally.
    The gator-girl drops down from the upper landing and uses the fourth kenku as a landing cushion, with another squawk of dismay.
    And just like that the party has four prisoners.
    Lether is ALREADY menacing the one she landed on, holding his head up and looming near his throat, her mouth opening FRIGHTENINGLY wide to show off all her teeth..
    "Sing for me, birdy." She growls.
    The kenku doesn't quite sing, but it does speak up in a thin an nasally voice: "Tie up the pretty boy in the back room! Follow the yellow signs in the sewers."
    As soon as the first one breaks under this rather intimidating interrogation prompts another to squeal in a scratchy voice: "No time to loot the place, Just get him to the boss."
    At which point a third bird says in a deep voice with an orcish accent...

    "Xanathar sends its regards."

    That hangs on the air for a beat before everyone can hear some movement from the upper floor.
    "... No one was up there when I looked..." Lether mutters, clutching her daggers tighter.

In Neviah's time on a normal Earth, Leeroy wasn't a common first name yet. Multi-shot guns also weren't common. Her rate of fire here is absolutely terrible, but at least she manages to get someone before she trips over something and lands behind the sofa.

Sighing, she rolls out from behind the furniture and shakes her hair back into some semblance of order. "I'm never doing that again," she grumbles as she steps forward to Lether's side. The little lizardgirl makes her demands, and the kenku begin to squawk.

She narrows her eyes pensively. "Kenku are skilled mimics and have excellent memories," she murmurs to Lether. "They must be repeating what they heard. If that's true...."

Thump. Thump.

"Let's hurry," Neviah urges, gun shifted to one hand as she dashes for the stairs and heads up without heed to what dangers might await her. If she's right, they have precious little time.

    A crow-person gives them a more-than-passable imitation of what was presumably a real sentence said by a real orc.

    Something starts to move upstairs.

    Hyouka falls back into a cautious, defensive stance, and the lines of red-orange light on her gauntlets start to glow brighter. "Thaaat... that sounds like a boss monster."

    Dante plants his boot on the kenku's leg as he interrogates the bird with a muzzle to his dome. "Squawk, but do it quick."

    He briefly glances upwards, holding Ivory close as he alertly scans the upper floor. "Yeah..."

    Marceline gives her captured kenku a bit of a shake after hoisting it into the air with one hand. "Bird people are cool." Blink. "Hey, mine's broken it sounds kinda funny?" Shake-shake.

    She doesn't kill it or anything but her gaze does sweep up to the second level. She's almost high enough standing flat footed to see but just for effect, she beats her wings and hovers, perhaps bringing her gaze high enough to cut through the dark and peep the next potential threat.

    Wait, threat? Riiiiiight. "Girl, I'm the boss monster now. Lemme peep the challenger, one sec." Of course, she hauls her poor captured kenku along for the ride. She's not trying to fully restrain the creature but she's for sure got a pretty crazy grip strength like this.

    Lether was ABOUT to speak the virtues of patience and caution.
    When Neviah runs up the stairs brandishing her rifle. Hyouka gets defensive, Dante threatens the bird more, and...
    Oh that poor kenku with Marcy gets hauled along for a ride.
    Neviah and Marceline arrive on the top floor in time for a door to open and a man to walk out, unwrapping some binds and rope from his wrists while muttering.
    "Ah..." He says, looking up with vivid blue eyes as he brushes some red hair out of them.
    "... Are you here to rescue me?" He asks the cleric and vampire. "Because I was doing just fine rescuing myself, thank you." He says, smiling amicably.

Up they go, Neviah shifting her rifle to both hands and getting ready to lead with the curving bayonet if she has to - but then the door opens and a man steps out.

Quickly, Neviah runs down her mental checklist for the man they're looking for:

    [x] fair
    [x] redhead
    [x] blue eyes
    [x] manwhore

Instinctively, she narrows her eyes, advancing no further. "That's fairly convenient. Do tell us how that came to pass."

    Dante sees the twink (do twinks get called that in their thirties?) and immediately stows his gun. "You were this close to getting another nostril, don't sneak up on us like that!"

    Marceline looks at the kenku, looks at Neviah, back down to the floor, back up to Volo's squeeze. "Hey, um. Cool, your fella Volo asked us to check." She lifts her new friend and gives him a shake. "Guess the dudes that jumped you caught some of this. So, heeeeey, the universe is lookin out for you buddy! Congrats." Still a massive night creature horror beast thing.

    "Also, stop reminding me of snacks I can't have anymore! Dweebs! Anyway, what's your deal?"

    Poor Floon Blagmaar would have probably screamed and panicked at the sight of Marcy right now.
    But this... Is apparently not Floon.
    Even though he, essentially, fist most of Neviah's mental checklist, the man frowns.
    "Oh dear. You came for Floon." He says, making a strained and pained face. "Unfortunately he and I were both jumped by the Zhentarim because they thought he was me." The man explains. "And then the Xanathar attacked and took Floon away ALSO mistaking him for me. My name is Renaer Anchorember. Floon and Volo are friends of mine." That name makes Lether squawk.
    "Shit, he's the son of the last Open Lord."
    The Renaer nods. "The Zhentarim think that my father embezzled a large amount of gold while he was Open Lord, and that he hid the dragons somewhere in the city. Thy think they can find it by using an artifact called the Stone of Golorr which was in the hands of the Xanathar Guild until recently. Apparently someone stole it. The Zhents thought I knew something about all of this, but I don't. My father and I haven't spoken in years."

Things lined up far too nicely in Neviah's mind. There was no way this was Floon.

With a sigh, the professor slings her rifle again before leaning one shoulder against a wall as she listens. "This all sounds like a veritable comedy of errors," she sighs.

"I suppose the only thing to do now is figure out where they have taken Floon on the assumption that he's you. And no doubt to find this Stone of Golorr."

    "Guys gotta get their eyes checked, you're not THAT much like him." Dante says as he stows his pistols. "We DID save you the hastle of escaping the bird patrol, at least. So you're welcome."

    Marceline hums, settles back to the ground and releases the kenku. No reason to kill em, really. "Yo, dude, get your life straight. This could have went a lot worse." Back to her relatively human looking form, then, before she turns away to fetch her discarded umbrella.

    SURELY THIS WONT BACKFIRE IN ANY WAY.

    It could have went a lot worse. But it didn't for Renaer.
    Poor Floon though...
    "He's probably in the sewers. I'm guessing there's a Xanathar Guild lair down there, Lether points out as Marcy lets go of the Kenku. He looks ready to run until Lether *smiles* at him, prompting him to halt and freeze, and then repeat sheepishly:
    "No time to loot the place, Just get him to the boss. Follow the yellow signs in the sewers."
    Once Lether is done tying him up like she totally did to the rest downstairs she starts snooping around some more while Renaer and the others talk and...
    "Found a secret room." She announces, as casual as can be as she finds a secret door.
    Inside is... Well it's another stash.
    A crate containing fifteen silver trade bars. They're a whopping ten pounds each. They're blackened with corrosion but still worth cash.
    But the real prize... Are four paintings. They're very old and framed in wood, but they depict four different cities on them.

Poor, poor Floon.

Sliding her rifle back into its carrying case, Neviah seems about to move off with the others, but it's Lether who stops her. Her eyebrows come up. Easing past the secret door, she steps inside and is immediately brought up short.

For a couple of seconds, Neviah stares between the four works of art. With care, she moves forward towards first one, then another. She doesn't touch them just yet, merely admiring with lower lip hanging in obvious wonder.

"These are... cities from Faerun," she murmurs. "That one is Luskan... this one, Silverymoon, then Neverwinter... then Baldur's Gate. They're... they're from before this world was absorbed by the World Tree. Depictions of what they actually looked like before our world was lost."

Neviah's eyes are wide as she turns to Lether. "Any silver that you would have offered me is yours. All I wish for is the paintings. They must be kept safe."

    Dante is pretty oblivious to all this but he does understand the significance of Neviah finding this. He scans the treassure hoard in the secret room, he gives Marceline a glance. "You getting any of this?"

    Looks up from her stashed pack of treats, tucking a corner of one of the red-colored candy sheets into her mouth. "Huh? Oh, yeah, something about silver moons, dude. Stops werewolves from turning or something." But really, she's paying more attention to recharging than anything.

    Lether kind of stares.
    Neviah wants the pictures over shiny silver?
    She looks at the art. She looks at the silver.
    Lether proceeds to start pocketing silver bars.
    "Fine." She says. "They're all yours. We should bail before the city watch gets here."
    Something Marcy says makes her pause.
    Maybe she can use some of this silver to coat some of her knives so she, too, can kill werewolves.

"Don't be a philistine, Dante," Neviah snaps, scowling over her shoulder. "The world I come from has long been absorbed into the World Tree. You remember - when we went to the ruins of Mulhorand? The pyramids beneath an empty sky? Faerun has been overgrown by other branches, but parts of it still exist."

She gestures around the room. "The cities in these paintings are named in Archimedeus's books - remember him? The wizard who turned into a Nothic? Whose library we visited with Lether? His books and his maps name these places as parts of Faerun."

Looking off to one side, Neviah brings a hand up to her chin. "For them to be here must mean, then... that Anchordeep, this very city, was once part of it Faerun too."

With care, she begins to pick the paintings from the walls. She handles them delicately, as if they could disintegrate at any moment. As she hoists the first down, she looks back towards Lether. The momentary irritation she felt towards Dante has melted away to something softer, now.

"...Thank you, Lether."