The Rathaus, or town hall of Dachau, faces a small square called the Marktplatz, opposite the city fortress. The square is but sixty feet on a side, a widening of the principal road, the Mittermayer Strasse, as it passes beside the fortress; the party enters the platz along the Rosster Strasse. Two small lanes, ten feet wide, also lead into the platz: Lane Brucker and Lane Krankenhaus. Two large buildings, besides the Rathaus and the prominent gate of the fortress, appear to be warehouses.
At the present, the platz is full of citizens, at least two hundred, many of them angry. The town guard and members of the private mayoralty guard, plus some sixty glittering plate armored soldiers of the duchy are holding the crowd under control, but the situation is quite intense.
Clearly, much of the crowd is seeking to gain access to the Rathaus—after a few minutes of watching, you can see that the guards are letting a few enter from the crowd. You chance to see a soldier strike insensible, with his mace, a man in dusty travelling clothes, apparently a Pole from his dress, for reasons that are not clear to you.
Anshelm pushes through the crowd toward the doors of the Rathaus.
ReplyDeleteIf he is stopped by a guard on the way, he will tell them that he and Tiberius are seeking permission to pass the town gates.
If he makes it to the door, he will announce the same intention to the guards there if challenged.
Tiberius follows Anshelm. If challenged, he will present his writ of passage to the guards, in hopes that it will get him through the door.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard work moving through the crowd; you are both jostled and battered, but you do make steady progress, Anshelm on account of his quick feet and Tiberius by his strength.
ReplyDeleteEventually you push your way near the front; Tiberius demonstrates his writ of passage, and one of the mayor's private guards will allow him forward from the crowd; but he puts his glaive in front of Anshelm to deny his following the fighter/mage.
"I'll meet you at the gasthaus when I'm done here," Tiberius says to Anshelm. Turning to the guard, he asks him where to go to obtained the Mayor's signed seal to leave Dachau.
ReplyDeleteAnshelm nods and retreats back into the crowd. He works his way to where he and Tiberius saw the Pole struck by the guard.
ReplyDelete"What was that man's crime?" he will ask the first bystander (not a guard!).
The guard will tell Tiberius to stand where he is and wait. There are about eight other men pressed against the outer wall near the door of the Rathaus, keeping as far back from the crowd as possible. Several members of the crowd are throwing small stones, or bits of plaster and lumps of broken roof tiles at the guards or those waiting by the door.
ReplyDeleteThe crowd has swelled to some three hundred, and although the guards are trying to pull the people apart and find the most aggressive, as they strike these people with gauntlet or mace or club, it is only enervating the crowd. While at the moment those things being thrown are only large enough to bounce off the guard's armor or helmets, there are signs of that changing. Anshelm will see someone pick up a large crockery pot, smash it on the street, then pick out a piece the size of his fist and prepare to throw it, before being pulled down and beaten by three guards.
You don't really get an answer, Anshelm, to your query; but my last comment should explain why.
ReplyDelete(Yikes!)
ReplyDeleteAnshelm will retreat to the nearest side street and watch events unfold from the crowd's periphery, doing his best to remain unnoticed.
If any guards do appear to notice him, he will nonchalantly move along the perimeter of the town square.
All the while, he is trying to see if there's a familiar face in the crowd, especially Karl's.
Ducking any passing stones, Tiberius waits as patiently as he can for his turn to come up.
ReplyDeleteTiberius is struck with a lump of plaster the size of a plum, and a fair-sized piece of brick breaks against the wall near his head. The guards begin to move Tiberius and the others who are waiting into the Rathaus.
ReplyDeleteAnshelm notes a close group of a dozen unarmored men, in cloaks tied with yellow ropes, moving along the Lane Krankenhaus. Upon entering into the square, they break apart--whereupon they all fall into speaking oddly and making distinctive motions with their hands and bodies.
(OOC: I'm taking it by their uniforms that these newcomers are members of a group. Do I recognize if they're in the employ of the city fathers?)
ReplyDeleteAnshelm,
ReplyDeleteYou' ve possibly noticed one such person dressed in like fashion, but it has never entered your mind that it might be an Order. Do you take any action? They are within a few feet of you.
This smells of sorcery.
ReplyDeleteI retreat a short way down the lane and watch what happens.
The crowd sees the mages and some hurl rocks. One apple-sized stone strikes one of the spellcasters, spoiling his spell and tumbling his body at Anshelm's feet. Anshelm has just enough time to see a sizeable gash on the mage's forehead.
ReplyDeleteIt only takes six seconds for the first of the spells to be cast. At once some forty people collapse into sleep. Three exploding puffs of smoke--stinking cloud spells--break out over various parts of the crowd. A fog bank abruptly rises from the stones of the platz and obscures a great part of the mob.
The effect is profound. The crowd disperses, screaming, flooding in every direction away from the mages. The distinct odor of the stinking clouds induces many of the crowd into vomiting, stumbling and tripping over the prone bodies in the platz.
Then one of the mages transforms into the shape of a hill giant, bearing a massive club. The giant roars for the square to be cleared. Nearby, one mage appears to have cast a spell and is now holding it, a crackling lightning ball sizzling between his fingers.
Tiberius is herded into the Rathaus with the others, and the door slammed closed.
What does Anshelm do?
Tiberius looks at the other men herded in with him to see if he might recognize one. Otherwise, he stays where he is inside the Rathaus, until he's called upon.
ReplyDeleteTiberius,
ReplyDeleteNo, you don't recognize any of the men. They speak of what's happened and begin making predictions that this is only the beginning. Clearly the people of the town are quite unhappy.
An official approaches, and announces that no one will be asked to step outside at once, but the mayor will not be granting any permissions to leave the town of Dachau until the following day. There is much grumbling at this.
Is the unsconscious mage close enough to grab?
ReplyDeleteIf so, Anshelm takes a quick look around to see if any guards or mages are looking his way, then grabs the body and drags him into a convenient alley (please say there's a convenient alley nearby)...
Anshelm,
ReplyDeleteIn the chaos, it would be impossible to tell if someone might have seen you, but you do not catch anyone's eye.
There is no such alley connected to the square, but a quick glance indicates a door well to one of the warehouses twelve feet away from you and the body. Will you jump to the door and see if its open before dragging the body, or will you take a chance and drag the body straight to the door well?
Tiberius decides to wait until the chaos outside has subsided before venturing out to find Anshelm.
ReplyDelete(OOC: Where are we at, time line wise, for Delfig and Kazimir?)
ReplyDeleteKazimir,
ReplyDeleteIt is about half past ten bells.
You do not need to wait until noon to take an action.
Test the door first.
ReplyDelete(sorry for spotty posting today; crisis after crisis)
The door is locked, but with a fairly rusted padlock and chain. Your chance to open is double, and will take you six seconds.
ReplyDeleteI'll roll to open. d6?
ReplyDeleteIf it's a normal open doors roll, just to move it along:
ReplyDeleteI rolled a 2!
Anshelm,
ReplyDeleteSadly, no. Remember that little open locks % on your thieving character? The one that reads 35%?
Double that makes 70%.
But I'll accept -- this time -- the 2, since that's under the percentage needed...and the door is open.
(OOC: Oh, yeah..."lock." I'm honestly not this dumb in real life. You have permission to hit me for that, all of you...sorry, it was rough at work today.)
ReplyDeleteAnshelm drags the unconscious mage into the warehouse and shuts the door behind him, leaving just enough for a sliver of light.
(OCC: Ha hah! Making mock is one of the few pleasures I have as DM)
ReplyDeleteAs you look out through the slit, you see no one outside moving towards the door.
Action?
I pat the guy down, looking for any valuables, papers, weapons, etc.
ReplyDeletehe mage is a young man, 25 years old, a bit of a pudding in his shape and musculature, with a bit of a baby face.
ReplyDeleteYou’ll notice a large belt pouch with at least 70 coins in it, a 3” copper holy symbol, a pair of low leather boots, a embroidered woolen doublet with lace cuffs and collar, a silver ring, a meerschaum pipe and a small pouch with what appears to be opium. He had a staff, which I'll say you grabbed as you pulled him in.
The mage will groan, not quite gaining conciousness.
I grab the coins, ring, pipe and pouch.
ReplyDeleteI have rope listed in my gear...are we assumed to be walking about with it?
If so, I tie up the mage and kick the staff across the floor of the warehouse, out of reach.
If not, is there anything around that I can use to tie him up?
All right.
ReplyDeleteYou find 37 g.p., 29 s.p. and 17 c.p. in the pouch. I presume you have your backpack, so yes, you have your rope (it isn't the heavy waxed nylon rope you see in movies like Boondock Saints, it is somewhat softer hemp twine, like horse rope). Scratch your rope from your equipment list.
Next?
Keeping his back to the light so as to hide his facial features, Anshelm slaps the young mage to wake him.
ReplyDelete"Who do you work for?" he asks, trying to alter his voice to something deeper and more gravelly than his normal speaking voice.
The mage wakes groggily; he's at about -3 hit points at the moment.
ReplyDelete(OCC: a bit of clarification here. You don't die at zero hit points; death occurs at -10. At each point below zero, your overall stats are reduced by 10%. Thus, if you had a 15 wisdom, then at -3 hit points your wisdom would be temporarily 10.5. If you had a 12 intelligence, at -9 hit points your intelligence would be 1.2; thus, at the present, the mage is somewhat less than in good shape).
We'll dispense with the confused replies, your repeated inquiry to get through to his consciousness and so on, and get to the point where he can coherently answer: "who do I work for? I'm part of the Mage's Guild."
"Useless flunky," mutters Anshelm under his breath. "This'll go nowhere."
ReplyDeleteHe shakes the mage and says, "You may want to re-think your allegiance."
He binds the mage's mouth and blindfolds him with strips torn from the other's clothing, takes a look outside to make sure no one is watching the door, then as nonchalantly as possible joins the crowd in the street and makes his way back to the Pig.
Good.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the slow running today. Tomorrow we will pick up with Delfig and Kazimir outside the town, and Tiberius' exit from the Rathaus.
(OOC: Yeah, sorry for taking up the whole session today, guys...y'all get two free punches now. :-) )
ReplyDelete