Braddon shrugs.
"Whatever. Let's go."
"You lads happy on this side of the Velashu?" Grimas asks wearily. "Or do I have to ferry you someplace else? Devil's Fork? Maskyr's Island? Magnimar?"
Leaning forward to deliver a kiss to forehead, Phil moves past to secure the puzzle box in quarters. He then muses reflective before answering "I've a need to be dockside to see Marce during lunch, then I'd hoped to spend the afternoon at the Arena... though between that pair I likely need speak with Braddon... the half-elf from last night... you might not remember..." a roguish wink delivered before finishing "But we've time to linger if our intent is to meet with Marce initially."
Ethel gives the polished wooden box and its mysterious rattle a glance as Phil sets it aside. "I've never been in Wharf District," she confesses. "It's supposed to be rough. I suppose work clothes will do?"
"You lads happy on this side of the Velashu?" Grimas asks wearily. "Or do I have to ferry you someplace else? Devil's Fork? Maskyr's Island? Magnimar?"
"On the side I want to be on, but not yet happy. Thank you, Grimas, for caring to ask."
Gristav makes sure to pay and tip the ferryman, then is off at the length of his legs, for the Gold Goblin.
Grumbling, Grimas returns the ferry to the Leeward side of the Velashu. "This is it for you three today," he warns them. "You want to cross the river again, you either go where the boat's already going or you swim."
Bemused that Ethel's first question is one of fashion, Phillip leans against the too tall and o'erwide bed as he answers "Aye, though most of the roughness will be sleeping off what you've just slept off at this hour. Working clothes would be fine... where do you carry your steel?" querying where Ethel intended to keep her blade.
Sheepishly, she pulls up her hems to reveal Phil's newer dagger in the same worn ankle sheath she'd carried her brother's in. "With all the excitement and the new dress, I never got around to fixing up something else," she confesses. "I was thinking I might be able to try something out with concealed pockets. I guess now I don't have to go work at Betta's, I'd better put my time to use. I'd like to discuss it with Almah; she's more of a seamstress than I am." She grins wickedly. "Or I could do like the lady pirates and dress in trousers with my cutlass out in the open on my hip."
Nodding an approval to her words "Aye, best to put it somewhere a mite easier to put a hand to..." pausing and widening a smirk "but do you have the swagger to pull off a cutlassed hip? Confidence and a concealed blade gives pause... while steel in view needs selling a different way." a wink delivered with challenge carried within.
Gristav makes sure to pay and tip the ferryman, then is off at the length of his legs, for the Gold Goblin.
Braddon follows Gristav.
"Where are we going? Why aren't we going to the docks? Aren't we meeting Phil there? Don't tell Saul anything. Dayn's life may depend on it. Well, his manhood at least."Braddon sniggers.
Slightly grinning at the ferryman's sarcasm, Magnimar. That's pretty good. Snake keeps his silence most of the way, figuring if he does say something, Gristav will burst into novel. Last thing I wanna here is him going on and on about nothing... again.
Rubbing his eyes at the endless questions from the ranger, he does find himself curious as to why they aren't heading to the dock. "I know pretty boy here ask a lot of questions, but I'm kinda curious myself as to why we're coming back here and not headed to the docks. And if we're suppose to meet up with Raccoon, where the heck is he? We don't have all day. Of course, if we get this taken care of too quickly, we may not allow enough time to give anybody a chance at killing us. And then our whole day is just wasted," he says, the sarcasm easily obvious.
"He's not just pretty; he's the deadliest of us. Lesser men aspire to the sort of mayhem Braddon accidents into. Anybody taking the chance you offer will become so informed, perhaps too quickly to gain wisdom by it. Wings, perhaps. But not wisdom."
"We're not headed to the docks... Well, you may, if you like. I am not; because all of my interest in the Goblin and its events devolve from my interest in Larur, who has gone missing. I frankly do not care about a runaway roundheel and her schemes... no, that's not entirely true... But I care more, for Larur. Missing. In Riddleport. Assuredly, with valuables, and presumably, with monies."
"So I'm headed back to the Goblin, with increasing worry, for Larur, and decreasing care, for any other matters."
"Assuming I become satisfied of Larur's safety, I would then again be available to discuss an expedition, but we might all be here until after the Goblin's next event, in the interest of serving the Goblin best. Dayn's safe enough where he is, and his restoration is certain; timing is the only question."
"Thank you for the questions. Helpful, sometimes, to think things out, and put worries in prespective."
"but do you have the swagger to pull off a cutlassed hip? Confidence and a concealed blade gives pause... while steel in view needs selling a different way." a wink delivered with challenge carried within.
She sniffs. "Liry Parmenter, that Ghoulette girl, always wears trousers. If she can pull it off, I think I can," she replies scornfully, perhaps willfully ignoring the difference in length of the pairs of legs in question. "That awful schoolmarm dress is stiff enough," she goes on thoughtfully. "I'll bet I could put a dagger in its pocket without the weight making my hems uneven."
Braddon and Snake trail Gristav back to the Gold Goblin. Piccolo, Thuvalia, and the hired Varisians from Lubbertown are still at work on the dance floor and bandstand in the front courtyard, the gnome acting as buffer between Thuvalia's demands and the indignant workers. None of the rest of the permanent staff of the casino are in evidence, but the double doors into the building still stand open off the verandah.
Gristav nods amiably at the present staff, not really slowing on his way to Larur's office and abode, each room to be inspected by lamplight.
Braddon looks to Snake, looks back to Gristav, then follows in Gristav's wake.
"Maybe Shorafa got him and wants us to go after Lil. Maybe Lil's got him. It's not like he has any other enemies, right? So we nab Lil and I won't kill her till after we question her. Or after we question Shorafa. They'll know. Right?"
Braddon sulks.
"You could ask Saul."
Braddon looks to Snake, looks back to Gristav, then follows in Gristav's wake.
"Maybe Shorafa got him and wants us to go after Lil. Maybe Lil's got him. It's not like he has any other enemies, right? So we nab Lil and I won't kill her till after we question her. Or after we question Shorafa. They'll know. Right?"
Braddon sulks.
"You could ask Saul."
"Saul may be his enemy.", Gristav says as if speaking of maths. He stops a moment, to meet Braddon's eye, and Snake's, if he's present. "What would that make us?", Gristav asks calmly, not lingering for an answer. "Think on it. Know your heart, before time comes to dance, that it not trip you in the stepping out!"
"Saul is not his enemy. Saul and Larur are just starting up. The dumbest thing they can do is fight. If word of this leaves the Goblin, their real enemies will strike hard and fast and this place will go under in the next week. Saul's not dumb enough to let that happen and Lurur doesn't seem that rash either. He is a dwarf."
Chuckling "It was less the pants than the cutlass I was concerned upon." extending a hand to be taken by his lady before suggesting "Shall we take the light en-route to the wharf? There's a lovely tannery nearby whose stench would make you forget the worst of headaches?" half joking as he looks to lead her outside.
Snake simply rolls his eyes and shakes his head as Gristav carries on and on. There's a reason why I keep my peace. You know you're gonna get a novel spewed at you. "I think you're making this out to be more of a big deal than necessary, bub," he tells Gristav. "Larur's a big boy; he can take care of himself. Maybe he can't be found because he doesn't want to be found. I think he'll show up when he wants too. I know if I desired a bit of solitude and all of the sudden you showed up babbling all over the place ... I wouldn't be the slightest bit happy. And then I'd wonder if there is any place on Golarion I could go that you wouldn't be able to find me."
"Shall we take the light en-route to the wharf? There's a lovely tannery nearby whose stench would make you forget the worst of headaches?" half joking as he looks to lead her outside.
Ethel pulls a face as she follows him a little gingerly. "As if the smell of fish and unwashed sailor isn't bad enough."
As they emerge onto the main floor, Phil sees Braddon, Gristav, and Snake on the opposite end of the casino, in the area where patrons queue in front of the cashiers' cage, in front of Larur's office door.
Gristav returns for the third time to Larur's office, finding it still visibly unchanged. He lights the lamp to give the small cell a more thorough examination.
Holding up a hand by way of greeting to Snake and Braddon, Phillip provides clarification even before greeting "I'll be seeing my man on the docks come lunchtime... he should know which ship's likely to be quickest and whether they've berths free." before running a hand through his hair and waiting a moment, his demeanor showing that in his view there was no need to still one's tongue in the lady's presence.
Braddon glances around the Gold Goblin, looks at Ethel and nods at Phillip's report.
"Do we know if she's back yet? Or still out to sea? Or might that be learned at lunchtime too?"
He looks to Ethel again.
"Are you working for Saul too? He's acquiring more people every day."
Ethel looks startled. "I -- no, I'm not...." She looks to Phil nervously.
Gristav's more exacting search of the office with the lamp in hand reveals nothing he didn't notice on his first few passes.
Emerging wrinkle-browed from Larur's office, Gristav greets, "Phillip!", adding with a fair bow a moment later, "Miss. Good to see you again. In weeds for work, or wandering? I'll warn you...", he smiles, "Things change quickly, here."
"Which brings me back to you, Phillip. Braddon discounts my concern, Snake, my person. But I think you'll, see my reasoning, and perhaps, something I missed?" Gristav beckons, returning to the office.
His voice lowering a bit, Gristav relates Larur's absence, the duration of that absence, that Larur missed dinner, and seemed burdened, but was gone by the morning, the coincidental absence of paperwork from a certain drawer, Arnando's as yet remaining unpaid... "And there's a contact he'd have gone to first, or last, with that paperwork, who appears to be undisturbed."
"You've a suspicious frame of mind. Turn it to my worry; confirm or console me, please."
Braddon follows Gristav into Larur's room and is only too glad for an opportunity to pry. He riffles papers, examines the desk for false bottoms and hidden drawers and shuffles amongst the floorboards and flagstones.
"Of course if I were hiding something from Saul keeping it in the Goblin wouldn't be my first choice," he explains tapping quietly at a corner
Smiling slightly as Ethel is taken aback Phillip smooths over "She is a lady of leisure... my lady and her leisure" bringing her hand up for a brief peck upon the back of the palm before attending to the rest of Braddon's query.
"Whispers suggest the Teeth came and left Oathday and hasn't returned since..." shrugging "I don't think she's here."
Gristav's request draws a raised eyebrow, but Phillip doesn't protest "By their witness it's at your request though... I can't imagine Larur would look with favor upon the delve." trusting Braddon's eyes to look to the fine detail, Phillip's instead scan the room swiftly - seeing if happenstance snags his attention.
"I'll suffer his ill favor, to have him here to look."
A bottom drawer is empty, and some fresh fingerprints lead you to believe that this drawer has been recently opened, though it's entirely possible Gristav left them before asking you to have a look around; they don't look broad enough to be dwarven in origin. You find no secret compartments, either in the furniture or in the room itself.
There are no tell-tale signs of a struggle or of violence in the room. Everything seems to be put away with Larur's chararacteristic order. Either he last left this room voluntarily and of sound mind ... or someone's done a very good job of making it look that way.
Phil shrugs, clear from his face he sees no reason for concern.
Braddon looks across to Gristav.
"Well, it's not like he left in a rush. Everything is neat and in place, nothing knocked over. Looks like he was writing letters and sending packages."
Braddon lifts some twine in one hand and a half-melted stick of sealing wax in the other.
"I'd say he's out delivering the mail."
Braddon's face lights up.
"Maybe he's down the docks sending stuff off with the harbourmaster. We should check."
Braddon nods with some gravity.
"I suppose, if the rest of you, and Saul, aren't worried... No. No, I'm still worried. But yes, perhaps the harbormaster. Although we have nothing to enforce our questions... How did you acquire that earlier letter?"
Snake shrugs, "I ain't worried. Let's go. Beats standin' around here all day."
"How did you acquire that earlier letter?"
"I got it when you and Malkith left the scribe. Dayn and I stuck around for ages and eventually he took off. I tracked him to the ferry and crossed with him while Dayn was stranded on this side but then he got the ferryman to take him back to the harbourmaster. I got a lift across with some guy from the Publican, met up with Dayn again and told him the scribe was in there and got him to watch while I rushed to the Goblin to get help and no one was around. Well, Malkith was but he was too busy hitting on Sam to be any use and then that flood came in. I rushed back and everyone at the harbourmasters office ran onto the roof, so Dayn and I rushed in and searched it and found the newly written letter in the mail. So we grabbed it and ran out as the water washed away."
Phillip raises an eyebrow at the impatient desire to flail about Riddleport on half thoughts and whims before holding his hands wide. "To each their path... though I'll admit I've no idea what you're thinking the harbormaster's voice might add... to either of Gristav's concern or Lil's pursuit." pausing a moment before adding with a sense of finality "Come lunchtime I'll see the man I put the question to and pass those words to you... after that my attention is turned to tomorrow night."
"If you're adamant to bother the harbormaster - where should I pass the information on passage if you're not upon the boards when I meet my man?"
"Wait. Did you say the Teeth came and went on Oathday? 'Cause Lil killed Gramma Sunday. The scribe got a large sum of money on Moonday, Lil was gone on Toilday and the scribe tried to send that letter Wealday when the flood came. If the ship came back Oathday, she could be here again. She wouldn't be in the temple because Shorafa cursed Dayn yesterday. We should check her hideout and see if she's been back there. And if not, we should move her bed to my room."
Phil nods "Aye, Oathday and stayed just long enough to take on water..."
"And maybe drop off a passenger...? If she checked her mail, then the letter from the scribe wouldn't have been there because we didn't give that to the General until yesterday. So if she left with the ship, she doesn't know we're on to her. But if she got off, she would have headed straight to her hideout. Which we looted. I think we should check there."
Shrugging to show that the vagaries of exactly how long the ship was at port and whether a passenger was taken on, disembarked or otherwise was beyond his immediate understanding - Phillip instead verbalizes Braddon's intent "So you're hoping that in the chance that Lil was still here and able to move about without Shorafa's knowledge would go to her hideout... note it was ransacked... then somehow either stay there or helpfully leave a note as to where she headed next?" raising an eyebrow to betray that he thinks it a long bow to cast.
"If you want to go on ahead... but at any rate I'm taking a turn with Miss Braum before being dockside at lunchtime for the rendezvous." indicating that he had no intention of heading towards either of the two possible locations before seeking and meeting Marce at luncheon.
"Obviously, she can move around without Shorafa's knowledge. She killed Gramma in some kind of disguise and using some kind of magic and Shorafa has pretty much told us she doesn't know where Lil is. And shown us she can't control her. While regular people I've hunted are dumb enough to helpfully stay in a hide out and hope I won't come back, Lil wouldn't be one of them. But she'd look around to see what we've discovered and then flee. I'll know if she's been there but probably not where she went to next. Unless she did go to Shorafa and Shorafa is covering for her by sending us away."
Braddon shrugs back.
"If we've got an hour, best to make sure she's still at sea."
Phillip again shrugs, gesture showing that he sees no real reason to not go, but also confirming that he doesn't intend to accompany.
Cutting his eyes between the two as they speak, Snake waits a moment before, "We got it covered. Let's get moving and find out what we can, bub," he tells Braddon.
"That sounded ... ominous," Ethel murmurs to Phil, wide-eyed, as they pass out of earshot. "Someone was killed? And they're hunting the murderer? Does this have anything to do with that strange man and the woman in bloody clothes at Betta's yesterday?"
"Hold a moment, I'll go with you. But only to talk you out of moving the bed. At least, whole. Typically done, frame, mattress, and bedclothes, in three lots. And more discretely, over days. Although, were we to bring a whole tart-silked bed through the front door, while the stage and staging were being assembled, people might get the wrong idea of what sort of show we're planning."
"I don't know whether that'd be good or bad, for business."
Amused, though still worried, Gristav does Snake the favor of sharing their purpose and destination, but not their route or timing. "I'll meet you there. One to watch, one to delve, one to hold the door?"
"Phil, you're best of all of us; might your lady's turn loop this three's target?"
"Okay. Phil? Where can we meet you? We'll be there in the hour, or give you some extra time if you want."
Then Braddon gestures to Gristav to follow and makes his way back to the less and less secret hideout of Scarlet Lil.
Gristav's query is met with a shake of the head. As to Braddon's the halfling ponders, recalling the Saucy Strumpet, before responding "If not at the West edge of the wharf then back here at the Goblin."
To Ethel after moving away Phil shakes his head "Yes, no and otherwise... it's hard to say for certain as I'd only been drawn into it of this morn. But no, it didn't have anything to do with the folk brought to Betta yesterday. If anything they're likely back in squalor in Rot Gut by now."
Phillip guides the legs of Ethel and himself at an even pace out and East, aiming for a circle around past the Mystery of the Gate, down the length of Zincher's Arena, before approaching the rendezvous with Marce along the waterfront.
Phillip and Ethel cross the courtyard of the Gold Goblin, where Ethel looks around curiously at the improvements being made. "Will there be dancing tomorrow night?" she asks with interest.