Session 3 (August 14th, 2015)
Day 3 in New Sarnath (Midnight)
Making good first impressions
Braggor kicks open the door and without even waiting for the DM to describe what is on the other side he yells out a challenge, telling Drebin that the party is here for answers and he better have them or else.
Two large, very bored looking men with great clubs stop spinning them idly and turn to Braggor. They get up from the dusty bar stools. U wot m8?
Now realizing that the person he was addressing was not, in fact, in the room, Braggor politely asks to see Drebin, but the two large men just heard him blindly threaten their employer, so they feel the need to screen this call first.
Things seem tense, but the rest of the party interrupts Braggor and gives the ambush map to the bouncer and tells him that Drebin will definitely want to see that. Bouncer 1 walks around the bar and into a backroom while Bouncer 2 eyes the party, greatclub in hand. A few minutes later Bouncer 1 returns with a man wearing a once fine, but now beat up business suit. Clearly this must be Drebin.
Drebin pulls a couple of glasses from behind the dilapidated bar and pours drinks for himself and the party. He then asks who the hell they are and about the meaning of the map they showed him.
The other side of the story
The party starts to explain and as they do so they can see him putting the pieces together. He asks them if Kira put them up to this or if she just wanted him dead. The party tells him the truth. Drebin seems resigned, but definitely not surprised, as he begins to explain his side of the story.
He buys information about potential loot spots from explorers who find it safer to scout and sell their findings then try to clear places out themselves. Sometimes leads pan out, sometimes not, but he always vets his sellers and makes sure his buyers know if what they are buying is from a trusted source or not.
Drebin believes that one of his trusted sources has turned. He explains that he heard of a couple small scavenging groups disappearing lately after buying information from him, which is unusual but not unheard of.
It didn't occur to him that both groups that disappeared were using intel provided to Drebin by the same source. That source also sold him the lead the Silverstriders were following when they were ambushed. That same source also happened to inquire about the sell of that particular piece of information.
It appears that he and the Silverstriders were both screwed over by the same person, a slippery loner type by the name of Javik. The party finds Drebin's story believable and ask what happens now.
Drebin asks them to call Kira over to have a discussion and the party does; once she realizes that the party has "betrayed" her, she is quite violent, but Braggor holds the door shut as she tries to kick it down to do some killing herself and Drebin yells out his explanation.
Eventually she calms down and is willing to hear him out. She is let in, she hears the other side of the story, and now she is pissed again, but this time at Javik. He needs to die, both her and Drebin agree.
Would the party like to make some more gold? Of course they would.
Dead or alive, but preferably alive
Drebin knows that the man they are after is supposedly scouting a section of the ruins a few hours away and is using a well known scavenger rest spot as his temporary base. It is possible that he is still there and if that's the case they need to get the fucker now; if he learns that his partner is dead, he will flee.
He's a slippery sort and can take care of himself, so if he flees it is likely he still stay gone. The party will have to go tonight; bring back alive is possible. They will be well paid for their efforts and maybe once this unfortunate business is behind them, Drebin and the party can begin a fruitful business relationship.
The party agrees to the terms and Drebin gives them some supplies as a show of good faith. He also convinces Kira to stay with him while the party goes out to do their business; she is clearly having a rough night and needs some comforting from an old friend. Braggor doesn't like this turn of events as he himself had been trying to get into her pants, but he accepts it and the party heads out.
On the hunt
The party follows the directions given to them by Drebin and a couple hours later they come to an open, rubble strewn square. All of the builds in the immediate area are collapsed with only a single, broken two story tower left standing in the middle of the leveled ruins. The upper level of the tower is broken open on one side.
There is the faint glow of a small fire coming from the upper level of the tower, and given the full view of the surrounding mostly flat area the upper level must afford it is easy to understand why it would be a popular camp site.
The party debates their approach and decides that they should pretend to be scavengers looking for safe haven and see if their target is actually there. While they decide this Elmsworth slips off into the darkness toward the structure and is lost from sight. The party advances.
As they get near two silhouettes appear in the break of the open tower. One has a bow with an arrow knocked, but not drawn. A wary yet nonviolent voice calls out to the party and asks who they are and their business.
The Hellfire Syndicate makes its introduction and explains that they are a new crew looking for a place to camp. The men above relax and tell them to come on in, and a minute later the party hears something heavy being moved from door to the lower tower. The party is in!
Target acquired
A grizzled mercenary sort, though not necessarily an unfriendly one, meets them inside and leads the party to the upper floor. Here are the two men the party saw from below but also another man, a wiry distrustful looking sort of man with his hood up. This man sits slightly away from the fire and with his back against the wall, watching.
Introductions are made: The obviously suspicious looking man is indeed Javik, and the party keeps their poker face when they realize it. The other three men represent the entirety of the Iron Cobras, another small scavenging crew; the party learns that they are just here to camp and are just sharing the space with Javik. Good, thinks the party, maybe we won't have to kill them too.
Small talk is made and Braggor breaks out the purified wine he took from the sunken house's basement. The Iron Cobras are all for it, but Javik refuses; so much for the plan of getting the man too drunk to move and then tying him up. The Iron Cobras prove talkative, but Javik keeps to himself unless directly asked a question.
Time passes and now it's really getting late. Everyone gets ready to sleep; Thanus offers to take first watch. As the party made a great first impression on them (and also because maybe they aren't that bright), the Iron Cobras are cool with going to sleep and letting strangers stand over them.
Javik says nothing and just stays hunkered back in the shadows like he has been the whole night; it is impossible to tell if he is awake or asleep.
Assassin's creeding all over the place
While the rest of the party was doing all that, Elmsworth approached crept up on the tower unseen and scaled it in perfect silence. There is perhaps more to him than he lets on...
He pulls himself onto a ledge on the outside of the tower and from a window (really more like a hole in the wall). He watches the party make friends with the Iron Cobras and listens to the small talk, but mostly he watches Javik. After everyone but Thanus goes to sleep, he continues to watch Javik.
Specifically he watches Javik pretend to sleep for a couple hours after the first watch begins. and then he watches Javik go into a light, restless, but real sleep. Time for Elmsworth to make his play.
Elmsworth readies a noose attached to short length of rope. He slips into the tower, undetected by everyone, including Thanus.
He creeps up on Javik and stands over him, and then with one swift movement he gets the noose around his target's neck and begins to drag the man over to the break in the tower wall. Before Javik or anyone else fully wakes, Javik is dangling off the side of the tower, rapidly suffocating.
As Javik desperately pulls a dagger and begins to cut the rope around his throat, Braggor wakes with a start and gets between where Elmsworth is doing some extreme garroting and where the Iron Cobras jumping up, weapons drawn. Braggor says that he can explain all of this, and begins to do so. He tells the truth.
As he has already proven himself to be a pretty cool guy, the Iron Cobras are willing to listen even as Javik asphyxiates at the hands of an unknown assailant; as Braggor explains, the knife slips from Javik's hands and falls to the ground below. He is unconscious. Elmsworth drags him back up before he dies and hogties him; target captured!
The diplomacy with the Iron Cobras goes well, but they do figure that they are owed something for their part in collecting this bounty; the party gives them a token amount and tells them not to press their luck. The Cobras accept the terms.
As Javik is supposedly a slippery fuck, the party decides that it would be for the best to get him back to Drebin as soon as possible; who needs rest after all? They bid their new friends farewell and head off for another pleasant moonlit stroll through the city of Doomed Sarnath.
To be continued...
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