Missing Musician (Part 2)

Ga'Elian stands at the doorway, Balderdan just outside the doorway looking at the elf in curiosity as he touches the mark above the doorway. It's an interesting scene to walk up upon.

Boshter is still looking ridiculous. With a bizarre cap and an overly large magnifying glass.

Durrankar walks his way up and looks at Boshter. "You look silly as always." he says before taking a sniff. "Musician, am I right?"

Ga'Elian says, "He was physically carried away by this tall, bald guy. Otherwise, the abductor is kind of ordinary, but he's really tall, like maybe 7 feet."

The description seems to excite Balderdan somewhat. "Can you find him then? This kidnapper?" He lowers his voice, looking at Durrankar. "And sir, if you could keep your voice down? We do not want to draw the attention of anyone who might know the musician to this investigation."

"How do you even know that?" says Boshter to Ga'Elian, confusedly. Then he nods towards Durrankar.

Durrankar just.....looks at the Balderdan. "So....you don't want to draw attention. that's amusing." He then sniffs at the Balderdan. "do you have anything that might have the musician's scent?"

Balderdan looks a bit uneasy, but he nods to Durrankar. "I imagine that most of his things in his house smell of him." He motions toward the house that Durrankar is standing before. "Try not to disturb anything though, this is still a crime scene."

Ga'Elian tells Boshter, "When I saw the track he left behind, the Silver Huntress showed me his image. Anyway, I'm going to try to use my greater knowledge of him to follow his tracks." He stoops down to examine the place for tracks of about the right properties (foot size, weight taking the captive into account, etc.)

Durrankar nods to the man and wanders his way inside.....and begins to sniff....pointedly.

GAME: Durrankar rolls survival+3: (12)+28+3: 43
GAME: Ga'Elian rolls Track+Urban: aliased to Survival+4+10+5+2: (9)+26+4+10+5+2: 56

It's difficult -,very difficult in fact, to track the man. It's clear that he went through some trouble to hide his presence, obscuring his tracks with the tracks of other people, moving through areas where powerful scents nearly obscure his own. However where his tracks leave off his scent can be followed. Where his scent is overwhelmed there is a footprint to be found. The slightest hints of his presence which alone you would not have been able to find; together you persevere.

You arrive at last at an unextraordinary house of sorts. The windows are boarded up, and it appears nearly condemned. There's no sign of an entrance, but the footprints lead right up to the barricaded door.

Durrankar tries, but doesn't always succeed in avoiding the powerful scent. In one case, it does overwhelm him, and he sneezes. the man told him not to disturb the crime scene....yet he leaves a ooze of snot on one of the glasses nearby. "Ugh...."

GAME: Boshter rolls Strength: (7)+4: 11

Slamming into the door, Boshter then bounces off it and proceeds to knock on it and speak in a higher pitch.

"HELLO. WE ARE THE YOUNG JOTUN SCOUTS. WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN OUR LIST OF ELIGIBLE PATRONS?"

It's worth a try.

Ga'Elian looks at the shack, then watches as the Arvek does his battering ram impression. He shakes his head, but hides, taking cover in case something /does/ answer the door.

Nothing does answer the door. The door doesn't even so much as shift. It just sits there boarded up as doors do.

Durrankar says, "maybe....if you pulled the boards off?"

"If not the door... then a window!" BOshter is going to circle around and try to see if there is one where the boards may already be loose.

Ga'Elian emerges from his cover, and takes a closer look at the door, its boards, the porch, and such. He uses his dagger to try prying the boards off, saying, "Just what I was thinking."

GAME: Ga'Elian rolls Disable Device: (14)+20: 34

As Ga'Elian's knife slips into the crevasse of the door it triggers a hidden mechanism that opens the door quite suddenly - boards and all. The door opens to a dark home. Several shadowy figures dart away from the light, and further into the house.

Ga'Elian says, "We're in, guys." He proceeds inside, sheathing his dagger and looking around.

Durrankar tilts his head as he starts to walk in. "This is different." he says sniffing and looking about.

GAME: Durrankar rolls will: (10)+21: 31
GAME: Ga'Elian rolls Will: (8)+14: 22
GAME: Boshter rolls will: (20)+11: 31 (CRITICAL SUCCESS)

As you come into the room you see a little old lady peek around the corner leading into the living room. "Whattya want?" Her voice is quiet and creaky, vaguely fearful. She's a tiny little thing, all hunched over and blinking at you as though she's lost her glasses.

Durrankar isn't..... really one to talk to those that aren't of his kin.

"... You are wearing a mask! Back, foul undead!" Boshter is probably really wrong. But he shouts it anyway.

Ga'Elian smirks at Boshter then answers the lady saying, "We're hunting for elves bound up in chairs with silken ropes. Have you seen any? We'd be ever so grateful."

"I ain't dead yet sonny." The little old lady replies, eyeing Boshter before turning her attention on Ga'Elian. "It be just me and the little ones - and you - up here. And we'd thank you to leave please."

Durrankar says, "So....you haven't seen any elves at all?"

"I see little Luci there on them stairs. Go on girl get back to yer room." She shoos a shadow on the stairs, a little girl that runs up to one of the rooms and shuts the door quietly. The old woman nods her head to Ga'Elian. "An that big'un there if that's what you mean."

Boshter makes a gesture towards his eyes and then towards the elderly individual. He's WATCHING HER. NOW SHE KNOWS

Ga'Elian says, "Is your door magical? Because a very tall bald man came up to and presumably through your front door within the last several hours. He was last seen carrying an elf bound up in a chair with a silken rope."

There's a sound at the door as it is knocked upon and Balderdan's voice comes through. "Hello? I saw you duck into here! I had to pick up another person to help you figure out what's going on. Can you open the door?"

Kravar looks at the door, then looks back at Balderdan dubiously. "In there? Are you sure...?"

"Oh, hello," says Boshter. And he is moving to the door, of course.

The door opens with a little click, and Balderdan leads the way in, looking suspiciously around the house. His eyes land on the little old lady and then he nods to the group. "There we are then."

Meanwhile the little old woman sighs and huffs. "The door ain't magic. It's just a door. But mayhap someone went through? Out the back?" She motions toward the back door which you can just barely see through the unlit hallway.

Durrankar looks over. "I'll take a look." he says moving that-a way.

"I think she is evil! "Boshter points at the old woman. "In the Gobber Girl detective stories, it is always an evil old woman at the heart of everything! Sometimes! Okay. It was only one book."

Kravar follows Balderdan inside. He nods to the other adventurers. Then he turns towards the back door. He squints through the darkness. He reaches for his sword but thinks better of it. Perhaps drawing a glowing sword isn't the best idea inside this woman's house. Instead he pulls a torch from his pack. He unwraps a long cloth wound around the end of the torch to reveal it was apparently lit all this time, though apparently it didn't burn the cover. Kravar holds the torch high to give Durrankar light.

Ga'Elian says, "Well, thank you.

Balderdan hushes Boshter, and then begins to talk to the old lady himself. Explaining that she and the children can not stay in this old house. While you all head to the back door he begins to troop them all out. Perceivably to find them a better location. Meanwhile you search around the back door for further tracks.

GAME: Ga'Elian rolls Track+Urban: aliased to Survival+4+10+5+2: (2)+26+4+10+5+2: 49
GAME: Durrankar rolls survival: (10)+28: 38

You head out the back door, tracking the footprints and the scent, but both trails quickly grow cold and stop completely at the back of the alley where there's a dead end. There's no sign of where the man or his captive could have gone from there.

Durrankar sniffs. "Well....." he says before he tries to think of something.....

Ga'Elian tries to get the trail, looking here and there, but ultimately throws his hands up and says, "We need some other way to find our quarry."

"I'm sure she knows exactly where!" Boshter points back at the house. That old lady is TOTALLY IN ON IT.

GAME: Durrankar casts Greater Scrying. Caster Level: 16 DC: 24
GAME: Aftershock rolls 1d20+16+5: (9)+16+5: 30
GAME: Boshter rolls Perception: (14)+21: 35

Boshter studies the alleyway and then the boarded up house again. He proceeds, then, to move up the buildings towards the rooftops. He's having a look.

GAME: Ga'Elian rolls 1d100: (52): 52

There's trash in the alleyway, but not much in the way of anything else. Not even plants grow here. The roof of the building blocking the alleyway is fairly low - all of them are in fact - so you could probably climb up on one if you wanted to.

GAME: Ga'Elian casts Acute Senses. Caster Level: 20 DC: 15
GAME: Ga'Elian rolls Percep/Ioun+25: aliased to Perception+4+25: (11)+28+4+25: 68

Ga'Elian laughs. He calls, "Boshter, he didn't go up, but rather down." He points to a little door under the stairs at the back of the house.

Karelin walks to the door. "Let's open it, then." He cracks his neck. "It's always the fucking sewers is this god's damned city."

-TBC-