Intelligence abound that the statue had been stolen from under the noses of Lady Ramen's entourage whilst transiting in Colonna, and that the villains involved were a group of badniks who had doublecrossed one of the Colonnan crime bosses, then absconded. The situation was thorny, and our new deputies had to exercise due discretion when investigating.
After boarding an air ship to Colonna, our deputies reported to Lady Ramen, who led them to Warehouse #23, which had been commandeered as a Mostly Holy Knights outpost in Colonna's seamy Underbelly. There, they were given the opportunity to question Paddy Brownbeard, a ship captain who claimed to be a "Mostly Honest Merchant", but was quickly revealed to be a smuggler who'd turned coat on both Don Cordon and now Boss Cromag, thanks to Martini's clever mind tricks.
They also discovered several leads - firs, that the villains they were chasing had stopped in Maiandra, then departed for parts unknown.
Secondly, the Baker's Guild had relocated to a flour processing plant on the outskirts, after an explosion at their guild house. However, there were rumors that the plant had something to do with Don Cordon, which made it seem "Mighty Suspicious".
Thirdly, there was talk that the villains were seen casing out a local laundry shop, which was also pretty suspicious, since they did a lot of their business at night, and scouts reported shady individuals loitering near it.
Finally, they'd also gotten wind that the villains might have been collaborating with Boss Cromag, and might have to check on the black market boss.
Weighing their options, they decided to visit the flour plant first. En route, they noticed a suspicious goblin sitting on a bench across from Warehouse #23, spying on them through peepholes carved into a sheet of newspaper. Martini approached, casting silence upon the bench. The goblin instantly tried to move away, sidling off as nonchalantly as he could, but was put to sleep immediately by Aldeco's spell.
The group quickly lugged the goblin into Warehouse #23, whilst placating the curious passers-by and claiming that it was watch business.
With that out of the way, they advanced towards the flour plant, which turned out to be on the outskirts of town, in a field of dried grass. It was a forbidding place, surrounded by metallic fences. The group debated for a moment, before finally deciding to take the direct approach. The fence was most assuredly trapped, and they decided not to chance it.
Upon knocking on the door for several counts, a cagey, wild eyed and unkempt dwarf appeared. He was armed with a shotgun, and claimed to be the caretaker of the place. Introducing themselves as investigators from the Mostly Holy Knights, the party demanded to be let into the place to perform an inspection - a task which the dwarf grudgingly agreed to.
The plant, as our heroes discovered, was owned by the Baker's Guild, and was built with three large drums and machinery including conveyor belts and chains that transported goods from the mill to the sifters. The entire basement area was a concrete floor, and the only way to move around the area was on stairways and catwalks.
The party's demands for samples of flour led them to the office of the plant, where they also noticed a picture that showed four people in it - one of them being a rather familiar guy called Cordon Bleu. The group blurted out that this person looked a lot like Don Cordon, a fact which the dwarf denied plainly.
The dwarf then led them towards the stairway - a narrow strip leading to the basement, but as the group followed, he suddenly turned around and yelled "Get em boys!"
Only Burger and Flammen had the presence of mind not to be surprised, and Burger quickly put two arrows into the dwarf. Grappling hooks shot out from the conveyor belts near the vats, and several darkly clad and swarthy workmen showed themselves. The hooks netted Martini and Aldeco, and with a tug, pulled them in the direction of a nearby flour sifter. Fortunately, they had items that helped them fall slower, and this prevented them from instantly falling inside.
The dwarf then unleashed a powerful blast from his shotgun, catching Martini and Flammen with the pellets, while another one of the workers, armed with pistols this time, put two arsenic laced slugs in Flammen. Another worker came up from behind, and did the same to QQ with a rifle.
Aldeco gestured as he floated gently down, and instantly put one of the thugs to sleep, while QQ hurled a spray of glitterdust onto two of them. He managed to coat the sleeping thug, but the other covered his eyes in time, and avoided the worst of the spell. Martini's pet flew down to distract the scoundrels, while he extracted a rod of surprises from his bag, and began to manipulate it.
Flammen breathed a cone of cold on the dwarf, who nimbly danced around it, and countered the attack by pulling out a wand and sizzling Flammen and several others on the catwalk with a lightning bolt. The rogues pressed their attacks, but QQ zapped one of the rogues down with a scorching ray, and Aldeco pelted another with missiles. Burger, too, fired arrows at the dwarf, trying to take the dwarf down. Inside the vat, Martini had extended his magic rod, and Aldeco grabbed on. Using the rod and their weight to counterbalance each other, they stopped their descent, and even swung Aldeco back to the catwalk.
Flammen, reduced to within a sliver of his gnomish life, made a beeline towards the door using his draconic wings. He would have made it, too, except the dwarf blasted him in the back with a second lightning bolt. Flammen instantly charred and turned into a crisp.
However, the tables were turning. Martini seized upon the opportunity to spider climb against the wall of the sifter, and managed to make his way out, while the others proceeded to shoot down the rogues with spells and arrows. Seeing that they slowly losing their advantage, the pistol wielder fled, ducking through a hatch under a nearby stairwell. The dwarf, too, pulled out a grenade, and tossed it in the direction of QQ, before running down the stairs.
Except he slipped on flour, and rolled down awkwardly, bumping himself unconscious in the process.
The grenade exploded, singing QQ in the process, and setting fire to the walkway. The fire spread, and it became obvious that the plant was a very very bad place to be. The group dashed out, and made their way past the fence, to safety. It was just in time too, as fire finally engulfed the building, and the flour reacted explosively. The plant was consumed in a massive fireball that lit up the sky and put out a mushroom cloud a mile high.
As they stood and stared, they heard the sounds of the fire crew from town, who demanded to know what the mess was all about. With some clever questioning, Martini turned the tables, and had the fire chief in charge corroborate that there was in fact no Baker's Guild, and sought their cooperation for an investigation.
Armed with this knowledge, they decided to return to Warehouse #23 to lick their wounds. They were then presented with good news. The goblin they had arrested had squealed, and was willing to become a double agent and spill the beans on Don Cordon.
What new developments would the party discover next week? And would there be any help for Flammen the Fried Waffle?
Stay tuned to find out!
Experience
1. Survivors receive 1,500 xp.
2. You looted a Rifle (1d12 damage, Crit 19-20/x3, range 110-ft, 7 shots) and a Shotgun (3d6 damage in 15-ft cone, no AC, no Save, 1 shot left). These were released to you after being impounded for evidence.
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