Act 2: Upheaval II - Revelations and search

Mihai enters the office and walks behind desk right next to the windows to examine the opened trapdoor; it leads into a narrow tunnel that has been dug out of the dirt and it is heading east.
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"...Wiktor," the mage answers, wary.

OOC:

"Shit..." - he mutters, then goes back to the office door - "It's a tunnel. I'm going in."

"You know, it's really hard to get off on the right foot when you can't even say what your name is." Steve looks disappointed in him.

"Wiktor" keeps his head down, avoiding Steve's gaze.

Mihai goes in the trapdoor.

Amber hesitates for a second, but quickly follows Mihai.

"Me and my friends went through a lot of trouble not to kill any of you, so I'm going to need you to heal your two friends here back to consciousness. Will you at least do that?"

Konrad goes to a different thug. Maybe the guy next to the one lying and saying his name is 'Wiktor'. "What's in the crates?"

The mage thinks about it for a few seconds before he raises his hands and shows the woven shackles to Steve. "I can't cast with these on," he says in Wytrwaly.

The other man, who Steve momentarily petrified with his spell, stares at Konrad with a confused expression. "That's our supplies," he says as if this was obvious. "Everything we need to make the stuff."
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Mihai and Amber climb down the ladder and start walking into the tunnel. The ground is soft beneath their feet and except for the sun shining into the office, there's no light source in here. Mihai can however discern a very dim light source less than 100 feet away from him.

"Watch your step."

Mihai moves toward the light.


Awareness 29 - check surroundings.

"All right Healy (Steve's nickname for the mage now), I'm going to take a chance here and remove those shackles. No funny business; no one else needs to get hurt today, yes?" When Healy indicates he understands he'll take them off.

"Healy" nods and slowly stands up. He then approaches his unconscious colleagues and begins healing them. Meanwhile, the other prisoners are somewhat confused by Konrad's words.

"Look mate," the formerly petrified man says. "we don't steal from anyone. We just guard the merchandise and we keep our mouths shut. If you ‘lost’ something, go make a complaint at HR."

Some of the other gangsters are amused by this quip, but the majority of them prefer to look down at the floor and stay silent.
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"Kind of hard to," Amber replies.

Mihai keep a hand to the right side of the tunnel, and after a few steps, he realizes that another tunnel leads to the right – down south. This way is completely black however.

Konrad walks up and flicks the retard's nose. "I didn't say 'from', you idiot."

"Here, hold this up."

Mihai lights his lantern and hands it to Amber.

Hooded Lantern - Clear light 30ft, Dim light 60ft

Under the light, he checks the ground for footprints.

"Oh, that's perfect then. We just need you to point us towards your bosses so we can ask them our questions. A friend of ours found himself on the wrong end of a kidnapping attempt by some Rev junkies. This made us very cross. Like blow up a drug operation cross and cost certain gangsters a lot of money kind of cross. Gangsters like the Noze, yes? Perhaps gangsters like you! So how about it? Do you know anything about any kidnapping operations? Or maybe the name of someone who might? Like say Rafal Matras?

If you do, we'll forget all about what we found here today and we can all go back to minding our own business. Sounds like a plan, right?"

The man is very irked to have his nose flicked off by Konrad, and it takes a lot of self-restraint to not do something he'd regret. Thankfully, Steve's chirpy attitude appeases him. By now, the two injured thugs have been fully healed and are now conscious. The white mage tells them to keep quiet and listen for now, which seems to miff them but they comply with the instructions.

All of the thugs listen to Steve and are befuddled by the party's insinuations in regards to the Noze.

"The fuck did Rafal do now?"

"No way the boss would do agree to that. That'd be Mikolaj."

"We don't have anything to do with the kidnappings, you morons."

The mage stands up and interrupts his colleagues by talking directly to Konrad and Steve. "So if we talk, you're going to let us go?"
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Mihai examines the ground and surmises that the footprints leading towards the faint light are fresh, while those leading to the right are at least a week old.

Mihai chases the fresh footprints.

"Yes, that's right. We aren't here to shut you down, or go to war, or any of that. We are just here for the people who wronged our friend. And if that's not you, we got no problems. So who is this Mikolaj person? And what kind of crap is Rafal into? Was that him who escaped into the tunnel just now? I didn't get a good look at him."

Deception 31 to see if they are telling the truth.

The mage winces and reluctantly answers the party members. "Yeah, that was Rafal. He runs things here." He gestures at the office. "That's when he's not sniffing the merchandise or out on a job."
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Mihai and his sister arrive at the end of the tunnel where they see a ladder leading up through another trapdoor and into a well lit room. They can't hear anything except their own breathing.

Mihai gestures at Amber to put out the lantern and proceeds to climb up the ladder - Stealth 35 - and listen for anything on the other side of the trapdoor - Awareness 25.

If he doesn't hear any indication of someone on the other side, he'll risk nudging the trapdoor open enough for a peek.

Given that Konrad has already asked about Mikolaj, Steve listens for the answer.

Deception 31 to make sure they aren't lying.

Wiktor's jaw slightly tenses up at Mikolaj's name. "He's in charge of our ‘custodians’," he answers with reluctance. "Rafal is on his team."

Steve:

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Mihai slowly climbs up the short ladder and sticks his head out of the hole. Before he has time to examine the empty room he's in, he finds himself face to face with Florolf. The carbuncle is indolently sitting right next to the trapdoor and to welcome Mihai, he stands up and turns around to show him his butt.

"What do you see?" Amber whispers.