Part 1: Cheat the Devil, Take his Gold: Session 2

[15:39] <@Daroskt> *****Second Darkness*****
[15:39] <@Daroskt> ~~~Chapter 1: Shadow in the Sky~~~
[15:39] <@Daroskt> -Session 2-
[15:39] <@Daroskt> “Now, let’s cheat the Devil and take his gold!”
[15:41] * Katarina claps her hands in excitement and gives a small cheer.
[15:42] * Daroskt gets up from his emptied drink and makes his way over to the money changer. He didn't really have much desire to gamble, but he felt he might get removed from the premises if he didn't at least make some token participation. He lumbers over to the money changer and trades in five gold pieces for five Gold Eye chips.
[15:44] <@Daroskt> Katarina is still currently seated at the Ghoulette Table, but in addition to a few other regional house games, there are conventional gambling options like standard roulette, poker and Cap'n Jack (21/Blackjack)
[15:45] * Katarina sits back down at her table... she just had some luck at this game and wanted to try at least one more time. She wagers up two Gold Eye Chips, handing them off to the dealer with a smile. "Say something nice."
[15:46] * Daroskt makes his way back over to Katarina and looks at the game she was playing, deciding to watch for a round and see how she was faring.
[15:46] <@Daroskt> The croupier nods and sets her chips down on the 'Say Somethign Nice' tile, while a few other wagers are placed.
[15:48] <@Daroskt> The ghoul head spins and faces Katarina, pointing at the 'Race' tile. "Peh, a human? The most common, boring, run of the mill race there is. It'd be a waste of my talented tongue even to bother trying."
[15:48] <@Daroskt> One of the other gamblers at the table, who had bet a gold eye on Face, is handed 10 gold eyes in return, while the rest of the wagers are swept into the Croupier's coffer.
[15:49] * Daroskt raises an eyebrow, "What a bizarre game."
[15:49] * Katarina frowns and sighs, standing up from the table and nodding to Daroskt. "Yes... I think I will try my luck at another table."
[15:51] * Daroskt nods, "Then I shall join you. I don't know most of these games, so I think I'd be better served following your example."
[15:53] * Katarina decides on the game 'Cap'n Jack, walking around to find the closest table.
[15:54] <@Daroskt> There are two Cap'n Jack Tables, one that allows the minimum bet of 10 Copper, which is standard for the Gambling hall, and another that has a Minimum bet of 10 Silver for higher stakes.
[15:55] * Katarina decides on taking the high stakes table on! She takes a seat at the table, and not having played this sort of game before, looks to the dealer. "Uhm... H-how does this game work, exactly?"
[15:58] <@Daroskt> The dealer shuffles the deck and explains, "Simple as can be ma'am. Each player is dealt two cards to start, the goal is to have a total as close to 21 without going over. Goin over is a bust, and if the dealer busts, everyone wins. House stands at 17. If you want another card, you say hit, if you wanna keep what you got, go 'Stand'. A Cap'n Jack, that's 21 on the first two cards, pays 3:2. regular win is 2:1. Aces are one or elevel,
[15:59] <@Daroskt> -Aces are one or eleven, number cards are as printed and face cards count as ten."
[16:00] * Daroskt looks like the numbers confuse him a bit
[16:01] * Katarina nods in understanding, but looks to Daroskt first with a questioning glance. "D-do you not understand?"
[16:02] * Daroskt nods, "I'm not stupid like some of my paternal kin, but numbers are not my strong suit."
[16:03] * Daroskt takes a seat anyways, "Still, I suppose we shall see if lady Desna favours you this evening."
[16:03] * Katarina hmms, taking out two more gold coins and handing them off to the dealer. "I-I th-think I'm ready." Her face sets in slight determination, waiting for her cards.
[16:03] * Daroskt sticks with 1 gold chip for now
[16:04] <@Daroskt> The dealer finishes shuffling and deals out to the table's players. Daroskt has a 12, while Katarina only has 9
[16:05] * Katarina smiles. "Hit."
[16:05] * Daroskt nods, "Hit me as well."
[16:06] <@Daroskt> Daroskt is dealt a 5, while Katarina gets a 10, putting them at 17 and 19 respectively
[16:07] * Katarina nods, smiling at her numbers. Close to 21! "Stand!"
[16:07] * Daroskt ponders. The dealer said the house stood on 17, so if he had to beat the house... "Hit."
[16:08] * Daroskt is dealt an 8 and busts.
[16:08] * Katarina gives Daroskt an apologetic smile.
[16:09] <@Daroskt> The dealer starts on 12, and deals himself a 3 and a 4, ending up at 19. "Draw with the lucky lady." He collects the busted Half-Orc's wager but leaves Katarina's.
[16:09] * Daroskt chuckles, "I am not certain I like this game."
[16:10] * Katarina shrugs. "Just need a little bit of luck." She smiles, clutching at her necklace.
[16:11] * Daroskt snorts, "We shall see." He places down another gold eye
[16:18] <@Daroskt> As the night progresses, the pair turns to poker, using their wiles to see through bluffs and catch a couple cheaters in the process, ultimately pulling in a decent amount of winnings, offset my a few losses along the way.
[16:19] <@Daroskt> As well, a decent number of people are given the 'Devil's Mark', and escorted out of the gambling hall. A couple unruly patrons recieve their mark not from a kiss, but a loud slap to the face.
[16:20] * Daroskt looks to Katarina, "I think perhaps, now that we've actually won a decent stake of chips, perhaps you should see about procuding those badges towards the tournament final."
[16:23] <@Daroskt> Several times during the night, almost rhythmically, Saul Vankaskersin excuses himself from the gambling floor to transfer money from the coffers and registers into the more secure vault. Doing so takes him a minute or two round trip. With the hour of 1 approaching, he beings making his way around to the coffers for another transfer.
[16:26] * Katarina nods. "I will... in a moment." She smiles, looking to her chips. "We are doing well, yes?"
[16:27] * Daroskt nods and stands up, moving towards the money changer. He beckons for Katarina to follow, mainly because she would be able to do the numbers for the badges better than he could.
[16:28] * Katarina follows, looking to advance herself, and help Daroskt, to the Stygia badges.
[16:30] <@Daroskt> The money changer, looking at their current winnings, notes, "Should be trading in a bit more regularly if you want to make the final in a timely fashion, but we'll just assume we made all the trades at once." He relieves each of them of 19 gold chips and hands each of them the Stygia badge, which was the 5th of 9.
[16:31] * Katarina smiles at her badge and nods to Daroskt. "Back to the tables?"
[16:32] * Daroskt nods and chuckles, "I suppose. We'd only get half the worth of our earnings if we were to cash out now."
[16:32] <@Daroskt> As the two make their way back to the floor, Saul finishes his round and heads down to the vault.
[16:35] <@Daroskt> Shortly after Saul leaves, there is a slight commotion as a woman, seemingly drunk, drops a bunch of chips on the floor and tips over a drink. "oopsie," she declares loudly, but picks herself up and seats herself, the Dealer at her table picking up her chips and handing them back to her.
[16:36] * Katarina raises an eyebrow. "S-seems like someone has had a little bit too much to drink..."
[16:37] <@Daroskt> The two of them don't think there's anything off about a drunk woman in a gambling hall aside from that, eyepatch or no. However, chancing a glance in the direction of the lavatories, Katarina spots a hand just inside the door, with what looks like a scroll clutched in it.
[16:38] * Katarina stares at the scroll and hand, unsure what to make of it.
[16:39] <@Daroskt> The scroll lights up for a moment, and all of a sudden one of the braziers in the gaming floor explodes into a blinding display of pyrotechnics!
[16:42] <@Daroskt> The dazzling display instantly blinds Katarina, most if not all of the patrons currently on the floor, and all of the bouncers. However, there are exceptions. The woman with the eyepatch and four shady looking characters all seemed to have their eyes closed at exactly the right moment.
[16:43] * Katarina shrieks, startled at the sudden display.
[16:44] * Daroskt grunts, not blinded by the display, but immediately alerted that something is amiss, although his reflexes aren't so great in terms of getting in on the action. He stays close to Katarina instead.
[16:45] <@Daroskt> The four unblinded ruffians each draws a blade, while the eyepatch clad woman steps up and almost seems to sing, loudly orating: "All right, folks! Drop to the ground and don't try anything stupid and we might let you live!"
[16:49] <@Daroskt> -Round 1-
[16:50] <@Daroskt> The one-eyed woman smirks as half the patrons drop to the floor as ordered, although a number of them flail about in a panic on account of being blinded, and of course, not knowing whether or not it would be permanent.
[16:52] <@Daroskt> The woman snaps her fingers and hits the nearest guard with a burst of light in front of his face, knocking him flat and dazing him, but otherwise leaving him unharmed.
[16:57] * Katarina shakes her head, irritated with her-- hopefully temporary-- blindness. She quickly draws her composite longbow, firing a single shot at where the woman once was.
[16:58] <@Daroskt> Katarina's shot misses completely, but thankfully doesn't hit anyone else either.
[16:59] <@Daroskt> The bouncers stumble around in their blindness, but attempt to make their way towards the middle of the room where the chest they were being paid to guard is.
[17:00] * Daroskt growls, and looks to the eyepatched woman. He hadn't seen the scroll, and for all he knew, she was the one responsible for the display of fireworks. He draws his Scimitar and shield, rushing her.
[17:01] * Daroskt was not about to stand for a friend of his being blinded, especially considering he could count the number of friends he had on one hand, if that.
[17:06] <@Daroskt> Daroskt cuts a nasty gash in the one-eyed woman's side, bringing her song to an abrupt end and causing her to shriek.
[17:06] <@Daroskt> Chip the boar then jumps off of Daroskt's shoulder, again attempting for the ever popular flying piggie gore attack.
[17:07] <@Daroskt> Chip flies past the woman and smashes into a table.
[17:07] * Daroskt winces in concern for his companion
[17:09] <@Daroskt> The wizard in the bathroom, who looked like he was about to head for the chest in the middle of the room, stops short when he hears the woman shriek. He scowls at Daroskt and makes a gesture with his hand while mumbling something in draconic. A dart of magical energy lances from his fingertip at the Half-Orc, catching him in the back.
[17:10] <@Daroskt> The wizard then forgoes the chest, moving towards the woman instead.
[17:11] <@Daroskt> The thugs stop in their confusion at the unexpected resistance, then decide to move together to cover the wizard's movement attempt. It looked like that was the call to retreat, especially with the woman's song no longer inspiring them.
[17:11] <@Daroskt> -Round 2-
[17:14] <@Daroskt> The one-eyed woman immediately decides that getting gored by an orc and a boar is not worth her trouble, and she retreats towards the door.
[17:17] <@Daroskt> She clutches at the nasty wound on her side, her blood smearing the side of her armour.
[17:20] * Katarina frowns, hearing the mumbling of the wizard. She drops her bow, quickly drawing her greatsword, and attempting to run to the wizard.
[17:21] <@Daroskt> Guided either by luck or a keen sense of sound, Katarina manages to reach the wizard quickly without running into anything
[17:22] * Katarina smiles, believing herself to have made it to the fiend, and brings her greatsword up high, slashing it down in an arc in front of her.
[17:29] <@Daroskt> Fortune truly does favour Katarina this night, as her greatsword cleaves the wizard even through his magical shielding. He slumps to the floor in a heap, unconscious, bleeding and barely alive.
[17:30] <@Daroskt> The bouncers, ultimately unsure of what's going on now, stand their ground and wait for some chance to be able to see clearly again
[17:33] * Daroskt gives a satisfactory grunt at Katarina's success and follows the fleeing woman, hoping to drop her before she could escape. So long as he didn't kill her outright, he could stabilize her for imprisonment or questioning at the discretion of whoever wanted her.
[17:34] <@Daroskt> Daroskt catchs up to the one-eyed woman, but his swing falls just short of her.
[17:35] <@Daroskt> Chip extracts himself from the table and follows Daroskt, charging at woman.
[17:36] <@Daroskt> Chip barrels into the one-eyed woman, knocking her to the floor and cutting another gash in her opposite side, leaving her bleeding and unconscious as well.
[17:37] <@Daroskt> The wizard twitches and bleeds, and that's about it
[17:38] <@Daroskt> The four thugs, seeing their two primary beneficiaries laying in puddles of blood, drop their saps and run the hell out the door.
[17:39] <@Daroskt> -Combat Over-
[17:40] * Daroskt kneels down next to the one-eyed woman and removes her weapons and armour, as well as anything else that might be dangerous on her, before pulling out a symbol of Gozreh and touching her with a hand, green magical light stabilizing her wounds.
[17:41] * Katarina whines and sheaths her sword, bringing her hands up to eyes and rubbing them, "S-still cannot see!"
[17:43] * Daroskt calls out to her, "If it does not fade, then we shall see you to a healer at the expense of these two." He leaves the unconscious but no longer bleeding to death woman with Chip keeping an eye on her. He makes his way over to the wizard, stippign him of his gear as well before using his stabilizing spell again.
[17:44] * Katarina sighs, kneeling on her knees and rubbing at her eyes.
[17:46] <@Daroskt> Between the wizard and the one-eyed songstress, Daroskt procures: A suit of Masterwork Leather Armour, a light crossbow with 10 bolts, a rapier, a spellbook from the wizard, a wand, a sickle, a bracer, a scroll, and 40gp worth of house chips.
[17:50] <@Daroskt> A few moments later, the bouncers and patrons begin to get their sight back, as does Katarina. Upon seeing that they are mostly unharmed and the perpetrators apparently brought down, their fear is quickly repalced by anger as the patrons bicker and shout for refunds and attempt to rush the money changer in order to cash out.
[17:51] * Katarina blinks her eyes a few times, standing up unsteadily as she looks around. She looks for her longbow first, having dropped it earlier...
[17:51] * Daroskt kneels down next to Katarina, staying out of the commotion, standing up when she does. Chip dutifully fetches Katarina's longbow for her with a command from the half-orc.
[17:53] == GravesRobbers [63631fd0@Pony-loje7r.iplsin.sbcglobal.net] has joined #FoEFansdoDnD
[17:53] * Katarina smiles, petting Chip and slinging her longbow away. She frowns as she looks to the defeated women and wizard.
[17:54] <@Daroskt> Saul remerges from the vault room, having had to pass through and lock all the doors on his way out, thusly preventing him from returning to the floor quickly. A bouncer informs him of what happened, althoguh the complaining and commotion says quite a bit. Considering the time it took him to return, it would seem the timing of the heist was fairly precisely planned.
[17:55] * Katarina frowns looking at the crowd. It wasn't really Saul's fault all of this happened...
[17:57] <@Daroskt> Saul steps up to his podium before and taps his cane loudly over the clamour. "Now now, ladies and gentlemen, please calm down! This unfortunate incident has been hard on you all I'm sure. For your troubles, I will be willing to allow you to cash out at 110% of the calue of your chips."
[17:57] * Daroskt leans to Katarina, "Is that a good deal?"
[17:58] * Katarina nods. "It does seem fair, yes. I would not mind that."
[18:01] * Daroskt nods and presents his remaining 19 chips to Katarina, as well as the 40 taken from the wizard and the bard. "You take care of that then, please. I shall see if any of the bouncers or patrons are wounded, although I think they were lucky."
[18:02] * Katarina nods, "Uhm... wh-what about your badge? We can probably turn that in too..."
[18:03] * Daroskt blinks, then takes it from his cloak, "Ah, forgot about that. Yes, here." He hands it off to her and then goes to check on the gaurds and waitresses.
[18:04] * Katarina smiles, taking the two badges and chips to the nearest coin changer.
[18:04] * Katarina presents the 83 Gold Eye chips, 17 Silver Tooth, and two badges whenever she can, smiling widely at her fortune.
[18:05] <@Daroskt> The anger of the crowd lessens to a simmer. Even the most staunch protester figured that would be a better deal than had they stayed for the duration of the tournament. The coin changers are swamped for a bit, but gradually cash everyone out.
[18:06] <@Daroskt> Meanwhile, Saul gestures for one of his bouncers to assist him in taking the 10,000sp chest and its contents back down to the vault as well.
[18:09] <@Daroskt> The crowd slowly makes its way through the cash changers, Katarina being able to procure 135gp for their chips and badges. As each patron cashes out, they immediately take their leave.
[18:10] * Katarina smiles at her pile and moves to find Daroskt, handing him a pile of 68gp. "E-even split, I-I figured..."
[18:11] <@Daroskt> Daroskt nods, "As you wish. We still have the culprit's posessions to pawn off as well. I think they have forfeited any right to reclaim them after that."
[18:12] * Katarina nods. "Wh-what all did they have?"
[18:14] * Daroskt sets aside the armour and weapons and looks to the Bracer, scroll, wand and spellbook, "I imagine these, being the wizard's implements, are magical in some way, but I did not have the magic needed to affirm that prepared today."
[18:15] * Katarina looks at the set and nods. "Oh, O-okay. B-but y-you could tomorrow?"
[18:17] * Daroskt nods, "I could, yes. For now though..." He clutches his holy symbol and places his hand on the spot where he had been singed by the magic projectile. He mutters something in a language that is nowhere near as gutteral as orcish and that green healing light repairs the injury.
[18:19] <@Daroskt> Eventually, Saul returns from depositing the chest in his vault. At the exact moment he returns to the floor, all but three of his employees make a show of departing from the gambling hall. Whatever they were being paid was clearly not enough in their books after that
[18:19] * Katarina smiles. "Sounds good... what should we do now? Perhaps talk to Saul?"
[18:20] <@Daroskt> Saul sighs and mutters to himself, "Can't really blame them. They were paid to deal with gamblers and drunks, not wizards throwing explosions around." He taps his cane again however, and waves it at The Half-Orc and HUman, "Excuse me, you two! Might I have a word?" He hobbles down towards them, his cane slowing him a bit.
[18:22] * Katarina turns her attention to the old man, muttering, "S-saul then, I suppose." She waves lightly. "H-hello."
[18:24] <@Daroskt> Saul's three remaining employees set about picking up the tables and clearing away the debris of a few brokwn chairs, tables and glasses. Saul himself stops in front of the two, "Well, before he left, my bouncer told me that you two were largely responsible for thwarting the heist attempt. I would like to extend to you my personal gratitude." He gives them a bow wit ha flourish of his handless arm.
[18:26] * Katarina nods meekly. "I-it was n-no problem..."
[18:26] <@Daroskt> Saul sighs, "If they'd gotten away with that chest as well... this night would have been a complete disaster, or at least, a worse one than it already was. As it is, without any staff, I'm damn near back where I started."
[18:28] * Daroskt nods, "We have taken a bit of compensation from the wizard and his vixen, if you've no objection."
[18:28] * Katarina frowns sadly. "S-sorry... I'm not sure we can h-help with that.."
[18:29] <@Daroskt> Saul nods, "Oh, yes, go ahead, I'm not one for magic anyways. Still I-" Saul is interrupted by the arrival of a pair of Riddleport's Gendarmes. Saul directs them to the two unconsciosu culprits, "There were four others, although I didn't manage to get a look at them personally." The gendarmes nod and wake the two after binding them, leading them away and promising that they will apprehend the others responsible if they can.
[18:34] * Katarina scratches her head, turning back to Saul. "Y-you wouldn't happen to know a-anything about the blot, would you?" She was hoping Desna would favor her in this question.
[18:35] <@Daroskt> Saul blinks, "Well, that's an odd question... ah. Well, I'm afraid I don't, as I said, not one for magic and such. However, if you two don't have any place pressing to be, perhaps you'd like to join me for a drink upstairs? I would be interested in a recounting of your apprehension of the culprits, if nothing else."
[18:35] <@Daroskt> -End Session-
[18:36] <@Daroskt> Rewards: 1 Effective CR 5, 1 CR 1, 1 CR 2; 870 Experience Total