Burahl frowns and sees Akiki skulk off around the edges, then sees Thaven take up a good position as well.
Well at least someone has the right idea, or two someones.
He looks to the others and then quips into Goffred's conversation, by talking out loudly to Raijinn so bystanders can hear.
"So good to be true that some people thought to believe a perfumist to come up with a cure rather than a doctor or a herbalist. I'm just here to support a friedn of mine, but I told him to better stay in bed and get some decent medicine. Any decent healer knows that real medicine tastes and smells unpleasant, anything else is detrimental to the curative powers."
The woman that Goffred speaks to wears a face-mask and a big, thick cloak - she doesn't appear to be sick herself, though she is deathly afraid of the sick people crowding around her. She turns to face Goffred, eyes wide open, but seems to relax a bit when she realizes that he, nor the two people with him, appear to be sick, though she does recoil a bit at the appearance of Burahl. "Um, she says, my neighbor told me about Lavender's. My daughter got sick about two days ago, so when I heard about it...Well, for only two gold, it's worth a try, right?"
Thaven and Emmera have a great view of all of the proceedings from their chosen rooftop, and nobody is looking up there, so they're so far unnoticed. They're not exactly hidden, though, so if someone were to choose to look up, they'd be within sight.
Akiki successfully manages to sneak down a tight alleyway in between Lavender's and the adjacent building, bending down low enough to avoid the wall-covering window and the gaze of the perfumerie's owner. When she reaches the back, there's an entrance to the perfumerie itself as well as an adjacent back entrance to what appears to be a apartment. Just outside the two doors are three large wooden barrels.
Find the back door. It might as well be a rogue's motto. Or credo. Or something.And hey - here's two back doors! Akiki takes a peek at the barrels - nobody would be stupid enough to toss out the waste from what they're making out here ... right?
The barrels are currently empty, though the inside appears to be wet.
Akiki scowled. It would have been dumb, but oh well. She had come back to the city after all. Time to get to work. She tries both doors - very quietly. Without opening them, just seeing if she can open them.
The doors - both doors, are locked.
Fredo frowns in sympathy. "I'm sorry," he says, pausing to get the woman's name. "I don't know. My family all live outside the city. I did know someone whose daughter caught Blood Veil, and he'd have tried anything to cure her. Luckily, he was able to meet the Abadarans' price before she was too far gone.
"They probably sell cures for a hundred and fifty sails in these times, and two is obviously cheaper." He nods at Burahl to indicate belated agreement with the alchemist's skepticism. "On the other hand, their magic works every time, and the Liniment's success rate is, from what I have heard, lower. Obviously, everyone here has heard differently." Fredo lowers his voice and beckons the woman closer, covering his mouth with his rubber-gloved hand so she wouldn't feel compelled to don her mask. "It's the kind of thing the Queen's Physicians should be investigating, but they're not. They seem to be more interested in making plague victims disappear.
"Anyway," he says, "I was thinking of buying a dose and analyzing it. It shouldn't take long."
Apartment first. Akiki shakes her sleeve so the well-used thieves tools fall out into her palm. The shop is open right now - maybe no one will be upstairs. There's no real reason to go up there other than her twitchy nosed thief senses.
With all that she can see from her and Thaven's perch on the rooftop, it's hard for Emmera to not think about the enormity of the impact the plague was having on the city. From the crowds at the temples, to those desperate enough to try even the most outlandish possibilities of a cure below, and all the bedridden - or worse - in between, it was hard to believe that anything they could do would just... put a stop to it. And to be honest with herself, it probably wouldn't. The best they could do is maybe stop it from spreading, but even then the number of people effected... well.
She glanced over at her rooftop companion. "How do you manage it, Thaven? Seeing everything in the city from the sky all the time? Even here, I can't stop thinking about the impact the plague has had, even if we somehow find an actual cure."
The lock clicks open at Akiki's delicate touch, the door opening to reveal the apartment beyond.
Delicate wall hangings, artistically shaped candles, and the fine scent of
cherry blossoms fill this well-decorated apartment. A table sculpted with swirling ivy leaves bears a fragile porcelain tea service and an exotically curved hookah in a kitchen nook to the east. A door adjacent to the kitchen opens into a bedroom furnished with an antique armoire and a bed sheeted in purple silks and heavily laden with round pillows.
The room is unlit, though Akiki can see easily enough inside with her superior vision.
The woman introduces herself as Kaylee, nodding and giving symphathetic and affirmative noises until he mentions the Queen's Physicians, at which point her sad smile disappears and she just nods grimly. "Haven't heard anything good either, but...it wouldn't be good to talk about that. Best keep your mouth shut, if you know what's good for you." she waggles her finger knowingly at Goffred, before turning to discover - she's next in line! She's beckoned inside by the guards outside, and she promptly goes to buy her own dose of the Liniment.
Goffred, Burahl, and Raijinn, of course, are next, and are ushered inside the building at the next opportunity, a mere minute later.
A menagerie of heady scents twists throughout the cramped but stylish perfumery. A dizzying assortment of bottles—from gaudy ceramic containers to graceful crystalline vials—lines a variety of lace- and ribbon-strewn tables, shelves, racks, and an eye-catching display in the wide front window. Across from the front door’s orchid-tinted glass panes runs a long counter, stacked high with hundreds of simple clay phials bearing round, magenta stoppers. Behind the counter, violet flourishes swoop across a sign reading, “Lavender’s Luxuriant Liniment: Either You’ve Got It, or You’ve Had It.”
Burahl winces at the overdose of scents and has the incredible urge to sneeze, so much perfumes and luxury scents that it might kill someone with a superior nose.
He looks round the room and shakes his head in disdain, but refrains from saying anything just yet, he waits for the others to speak or for the owner to approach them.
Akiki grins at the door, wiggling her fingers and tucking the lockpicks away. She's still got it.
Then she scoots to slink along inside.
First she looks to see if anyone is home. If not, then she will rifle through the apartment carefully with the practiced ease of someone who's used to leaving no trace.
She may not know what she is looking for, but she does know the usual places people hide their valuables or things they want to hide. Under the bed, behind the dresser. Secret drawers in a desk. That kind of thing.
After turning around and nearly knocking over a series of glass vials with his large and broken wings, Raijinn decides to stay as still as possible. "I feel like an auroch in a crystalline sculpture shoppe." He mutters to Burahl. "For what reason do people enjoy these odors?"
Burahl looks up at Raijinn, his nose twitching and moving as much as a hovering hummingbird.
"Can't say, I've never enjoyed this fancy scentery at all. From an aclhemist's view it's quit einteresting but give me the natural scent of something over a fake one."
Thaven shrugs at Emmera's words. "Don't think about it much. From high up things are peaceful, make sense. Roads go this way, people go that way, nice and predictable. It's only when you get down in them that they don't make sense at all." Thaven looks uncomfortable at having spoken so much, so he goes back to scanning the streets in silence.
Fredo catches his breath at Kaylee's phrasing, but seeing that she's next in line, doesn't ask her to explain herself. "Oh, don't worry about me," he says, trying to sound casual, but she's already turned around and headed into the shop. As soon as she's out of sight, Cat hops into Fredo's arms and buries her face in his chest. He strokes her back, and manages to calm down before he, Burahl, and Raijinn are called into Lavender's.
Oddly, Fredo hadn't seen Kaylee leave the shop, but he reasons that he probably wasn't looking. He shares Burahl's and Raijinn's discomfort, but not with the scents. Lavender's at least smelled better than Girrigz's or Vreeg's lairs, or the fishery, or the butchery, even if the odors were a bit cloying. Rather, Fredo is put off by the advertising. It's a bit...on the nose.
As Raijinn and Burahl talk, Fredo grimaces apologetically at the proprietor. In the hopes that she won't throw them out, he offers a flattering answer to Raijinn's question. "The same reason people burn incense while they prey; it makes them feel better about their lives.
"Speaking of feeling better," he says, dropping six sails on the counter, "can we have three doses of the Luxuriant Liniment, please?"
The lady of the establishment, Miss Loaggri, looks at her three new customers an appraising gaze as they judge her place. She gets a slightly sour look, which is then ameliorated a bit when Goffred praises the product.
There are about five other customers in the place, quietly browsing the stock, but shooting glances at the Liniment every once in a while. Kaylee is there, though she ignores Goffred. If you stay and wait, you see that none of them buy any of the perfumes and invariably go to buy a dose of the Liniment. Every time a customer exits, another is let in from the front.
Miss Loaggri smiles at Goffred lays his money on the front desk, and procures three of the small clay jars for him in return. "Of course," she says. "And who in your family is sick? I do hope it's not your child. The pilght of the young is heartbreaking to me."
Everything Akiki finds suggests a woman well-accustomed to wealth, and everything in the apartment could likely be considered "finery". Something that is very obviously lacking is any alchemical equipment at all, but Akiki doesn't find anything she might consider evidence. No personal diary, explaining a hate for poor people or an obvious diagram of hopes and dreams and water equals liniment.
She does find, in a drawer, a fairly significant pile of gold, organized into eight ingots, all stamped with Korvosan mint.
Akiki's nose twitches a bit. The woman has money. She won't be beggared by losing some gold ... Especially if she got it from selling fake plague cures. They need water breathing potions, and they won't be free. Besides, they're saving the city. Who wouldn't fund that if they could? Into her pouch it goes. Then Akiki takes care everything else is unmoved ... And slinks back outside, locking the door after herself.
Rogue rule number 2, right after always going in the back door ... Take anything not nailed down.
She listened at the back door of the shop a moment before trying that door.
"Indeed," says Fredo evenly, though he remains skeptical. He knows from her actions now how she would have reacted to Brienne's plight, though he supposes it's possible that, had she found the Lambs, she would have gotten them out of Korvosa. Odd that she would ask after his child. Why would she think he had a family of his own, or care? "But this is not for family. My mother and sisters live outside the city." Fredo has spotted Kaylee by now, and doesn't want her to think he was lying to her. Besides, one of the guards might have overheard them, and could tell Loaggri. "It's for my friends, Henk and Dalrene. They serve the sick, and need some insurance. How long does the Liniment keep?"
It's quite easy for you to tell that Vendra is being insincere about caring so much for the children.
Miss Loaggri smiles at Goffred. "How kind of you, going through all this work for your friends. You must be very dear to them."
Akiki, there is nothing coming from the door you're inspecting, though it is boarded up rather than being locked.
"So they say." Fredo takes the clay jars and looks them over appraisingly , then hands them off to Burahl . "I'm sorry to make you repeat yourself, but I seem to have missed your answer. How long can one keep this medicine before it spoils?"
The Liniment doesn't register as magical, but the cone that Goffred uses picks up a couple of auras on Vendra's person.
"Oh! Silly me, I'm sorry," she says, waggling her hand at Goffred, "It should stay perfectly fresh for a couple of days, as long as you don't unstopper it."
Burahl frowns at the woman's words, but can't pick out the exact amount of lies within them.
He looks to the clay jars and inspects them with great care to look for any sort of cracks or so in them and what not he might be able to discern about the jar's contents without opening up the jar yet.
Akiki wiggles her fingers a little and scowls. A boarded up place right next door? Suuuuure. There's no way they're making whatever it is they're making in the shop proper, so its a little convenient. The rogue may be mostly unmagical, but one did develop a sort of sixth sense for shenanigans after a while - especially when one was up to shenanigans oneself.
She tried not to grin like an idiot - this was fun. Hanging out in the wilderness was good for her relationship with her sister, but Akiki's environment was an urban one ever since she was born, and she missed the intrigue and secrets and locked doors of the city.
Pushing her excitability away for a moment, the elf poked about to find another way into the other door.
There's very little that Burahl can tell about the concoction, as its stoppered and all (so he can't even smell it). It's certainly a liquid, and isn't very thick, if the swishing sounds are any indication. The clay jars are quite well-made and blemish-free, for the most part.
Akiki, there is a window next to the door, though it's similarly boarded shut. In the alleyway between the shop and the adjacent building, there is a second, boarded-shut window.
Akiki sidles around the building curiously to check out the second window. This one is less likely to draw attention from any shop windows, at least. She will see if she can pry some boards off over there. You know. Quietly.
With an annoyed grunt, she gives up on that endeavor. Foiled by a board? Hell no. Akiki is now more determined than ever to get in there. She'll slink around the perimeter looking for other likely ingresses with less obnoxious boards.
"In that case, everything should be fine. Shall we go?" The Liniment is not magical, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. An herbal or chemical cure wouldn't be. To get answers, Burahl will have to subject the stuff to a thorough analysis. He can't without opening the jars, and Fredo isn't foolish enough to suggest doing so in front of Loaggri. So they'll need space. They might even need to go back to the alchemist's shop; Fredo is looking forward to finally seeing it.
He looks over his shoulder at Kaylee as the trio leave the shop, to see if she's following. Regardless, as soon as they pass the guards, Fredo speaks lowly into a spell.
As Akiki tries to wrench of the boards of the window, they creak loudly. Not only that, but she is unable to get the window open.
As Goffred and the others prepare to leave, they hear a creak from outside the shop, as does Vendra. Her head snaps to the side, and then she turns back to Goffred and smiles. "Have a nice day! The guards will see you out, and the next customer in."
She then turns to the rest of the customers. "Excuse me, but I'll be just..right back. I have to see to something." and then she leaves the shop by the front door, (clearly visible to Emmera and Thaven) going around to the side of the shop and the alleyway where Akiki has been prowling.
Akiki, oblivious to anyone alerted to her, continues on her prowl about the building.
[smaller]"Not it certainly is not, but I'll try to distill the components of it and check if any of the ingredients are actually healthy for you. We need to get back to my shop as I've got better equipment there. I'm not sure how long it would take, but two days at most, but probably sooner."[smaller]
Burahl whispers back as they go, he is still looking curiously at the clay jars as they go, breaking his head already about what the jar might contain.
Raijinn blinks, not entirely understanding, and whispers back. "Not being magical doesn't imply that it's fake. Burahl's remedy for my own infection wasn't." He thinks for a second, before continuing. "If anything, I'd be more suspicious if it was magical."
"Two days. Do we do this before investigating the ship?" He whispers back. "Finding the source may help us to determine a real cure, rather than simply debunking a fake one."
Emmera and Thaven will be able to see them leaving, and follow, from their perch. But Akiki needs collecting. Fredo writes a quick "time to go" on a slip of paper and gives it to Cat, who can move through the crowd and track Akiki by scent if she needs to.
"Well, that's interesting..." Emmera murmurs as a woman she didn't see enter the shop exits and makes a beeline to the adjacent allyway... where Akiki had gone. Trying not to think too hard about what Akiki might have been doing to draw attention, Emmera moves towards the way back down to street level, calling to Thaven over her shoulder if he isn't on the way as well.
She wasn't quite sure what she was going to do if - or when - she intercepted the other woman, but this was hardly the first time had leaped in to help someone else without fully thinking about it.
...At least this time nothing was on fire.
Thaven nods to the cleric, then moves along the roofline to keep the band in sight before using the local handholds to climb down to the street.
Vendra Loaggri is just about to round the corner and turn into the alleyway where she might just run into Akiki (though Akiki has actually turned the other corner already, to try and find an alternate way in) when Emmera and Thaven hurriedly cross her path. She screws up her face in annoyance at them and waves her hand to the side, snapping "What are you doing? You're in my way!"
And meanwhile, in the alleyway, Akiki has half-completed her circuit of the block without finding any other means of eggress into the tiny shop. While circling, though, a small cat approaches her that she realizes is Goffred's familiar, bearing a small note in its mouth. 'Time to go,' it reads.
Akiki scoops up Cat if she's willing, and reads the note. She sighs, and slips off as quickly as she can backvtowards the street.
Cat allows Akiki to pick her up, and nestles into the crook of one arm so the rogue will still have a hand free.
It's difficult to look imposing when almost all of your face is obscured, but Emmera is fairly sure resting one of her hands on her blade doesn't hurt.
"We've been investigating the plague, and received a tip that someone in this area may have... some connection to it. I don't suppose you know anything about that, do you?" She wasn't even technically lying - 'profiting by preying on the ill and misinformed' was a connection after all.
Miss Loaggri is obviously taken aback by Emmera's question, and rears back, standing up straight and throwing her chin back. "Are you accusing me of something? I am a stand-up member of the community here, you...you..." her eyes dart back and forth across Emmera's body, looking for identifying signs. Finally, they fixate on her chest and she finishes, "Miss."
While she is distracted and haughty, Akiki is able to slip by her and out of the alleyway, there having been no sign that she was ever there, other than some bent boards and several gold ingots stolen.
Emmera shakes her head, taking her hand off her blade as she does so. "Of course not Ma'am, but as you said you're a rather important member of the community. We thought you might have heard something that could help us with out investigation, especially with so many of the... ill coming to your shop."
Emmera was honestly only guessing that the woman in front of her was the proprietor, albeit a fairly educated one. She also wasn't going to fight too hard to keep her here much longer - all they had was suspicion and claims at the moment after all, and the woman's words rung true to her ears as well. Emmera had a pretty good feeling that the 'cure' would turn out to be worthless... but for now, they had no reason to keep her.
Thaven simply stands there, staring at the woman in his 'assessing the threat level' sort of fashion.
Loaggri scoffs at Emmera, turning her nose up and saying, "I'm already doing what I can to help you, aren't I? I'm afraid to say that I don't have any extra information for you. If you have some sort of sick relative, I invite you, wholeheartedly, to purchase some Liniment, or to go to one of the churches to find much more expensive help. Otherwise, I'd like you to leave, please. I have customers to see to."
"Of course," Emmera says, nodding her head slightly as she steps to the side, "Sorry for holding you up so abruptly, time could be of the essence after all."
Once she leaves, Emmera will head back out to the street to meet up with the others.
Thaven lingers a moment behind, nods his head at the woman and whistles. With a near-deafening screech of greeting, the hippogriff Whisper dives from the sky and lands in front of Thaven. Thaven mounts her quickly and stares hard at the woman.
Akiki slunk by and out front with Cat to look for Fredo and Raijinn and the others. Not quite what shw was looking for ... but money was good.
Fredo smiles at the sight of everyone gathering, safe on the street. He beckons them over, recasting his spell , and when they notice him, starts walking north. Cat jumps out of Akiki's arms to follow him. All he knows about Burahl's shop is that it's in or near Old Korvosa, but that's enough for now.
"Follow me everyone. We've got a ways to go towards Old Korvosa, and I'd need the time to figure this 'Liniment' out."
After some time the group arrives at the ruins of an old house, the rubble having never been cleared and Burahl approaching it almost immediately after having checked that there are no nosy people around.
"Alright Fredo, I wonder if you can solve this riddle." Burahl points to a crude mark and sign on the side of the ruins.
Burahl gives the others a moment to contemplate the riddle and answer, then moves over behind wall on which the sign is hung and waves the others over. Through a hidden stairs and door, the group enters Burahl's hidden shop.
Inside the air is filled with different kinds of scents of herbs, spices, dusty glasswork, charcoal and cauldron spatters on the ground.
It seems as if Burahl isn't that much here anymore as another smaal stack of letters has piled up in front of the door.
Burahl picks up the letters and places them on a small table with two chairs next to it.
"Make yourself at home, but don't try to break anything okay? Not all of these bottles here are healing or healthy for you."
Burahl takes out the bottle of liniment and places it on a workbench, than gathers his alchemical supplies, tubes and apparatus to determine what's inside the liniment.
"Right. Show me what secrets you hold." He mutters as he opens the bottle and begins his scientific work.
It takes very little time for Burahl to get to work, and once he's started the expert ratfolk is very consumed with his work, utilizing various tools around his shop to divine what it is, exactly, within the small bottle.
The sun is falling low on the horizon by the time he's finished examining the solution. He quickly tabulates his notes, takes a look at a piece of colored cloth, and realizes that Lavender's Luxuriant Liniment is very little more than a collection of water, a small amount of perfume, orange juice, and a small amount of shiver. Not anything close to a full dose of the stuff, but enough to induce a bit of euphoria.
"Hmm..." Fredo scratches his beard and squints at the Varisian runes interspersed with characters he does not recognize. "The bee is you, the nectar, your wares. Heaven is the shop. Descend means underground. But where underground?" He looks around for a trapdoor or grate in the pavement, but Burahl cuts his search short by throwing open the door, hidden behind a crumbling wall. "I would have gotten it eventually," he pouts, but follows the alchemist inside.
When it becomes clear that the work Burahl is doing is beyond him, Fredo takes a seat in the corner, pulls his knees into his chest, and begins re-reading Samantha Griffin's case. He's stiff and cramped by the time the alchemist is done with his work, and his growl upon getting up from the floor isn't entirely due to outrage. "Well, we suspected as much. Now we have proof." Fredo pokes his head out the door to look at the orange sky. "I think we can shut her down before we have to meet Eiress, don't you?"
"Indeed, anyone giving shiver to people without them knowing it is bad in my book. And she even cons people into buying this stuff. I had hoped with Lamm's ending the amount of shiver in the city would have subsided and diminished. I'd like to have a good long talk with her about who her supplier is of this source."
Burahl says as he finishes his notes. He looks quietly in contemplation and frustration to the others and his fists tighten.
"So what do we do with this information Fredo? Should we confront her ourselves or do we tell Marshall Croft about her malpractice?"