Digger enters as a young half elf female, as he'd previously warned Kit. "Kitrina! Gurl! You talkin to guard? Dont let that handsome costume veil you. But then, these two are handsome ..."
Kit pulls up a chair for her girlfriend. Pull up a seat honey!
Mik and the sergeant look up at Digger's entrance, but quickly scoot their chairs to make room for her to take a seat.
The sergeant speaks, "Well we could use some more guards on the force if you're interested. Probably just a temporary thing understand, till the Frans are put in their place. I can get you in to see Bela in the morning if you are interested."
Jake sits listening To Kit organise their way into Bela's offices, a little embarrassed he wasn't as bold and a little annoyed at her endangering herself and more importantly those that depend on her.
I would love that! Kit grins at the man as she responds to his offer. What do I need to do?
"You know the training grounds in the dregs? Bela's office is on the opposite side of the road on the north. Meet me there a little before noon. She will want to see you go through a couple of the forms with your weapon, just to be sure you know which end to stick into the criminals." The sergeant again looks over Kit's gear. "I expect that won't be a problem for ya. The pay is okay, certainly better than a dock hand."
He looks at Digger a moment, clearly wondering if she plans to join you at the training grounds.
You are well aware of the location the sergeant speaks of. A small practice yard next to one of the guard houses in the dregs.
Kit looks at her girlfriend. What do you think? Sounds like an adventure to me!
It looks like you may have yourself some new recruits!
"I've been working on my archery ...I'd love to get a good, deep bullseye."
Oblivious to Digger's comments and hidden meanings there the sergeant slaps her on the arm. "We'll see you in the morning then."
Mik on the other hand blushes deeply, his face turning a shade of red. He stammers a moment then takes a long drink from his mug to cover his obvious embarrassment.
Eventually, Drewan arrives at the inn and joins the others. He tells them about the strange behavior exhibited by the man, as well as the location of the man's suspected lair.
The practice grounds is a small open area where a few straggly weeds peek up through the hard packed dirt. Several new guard recruits inexpertly hold wooden practice blades and are sparring under the direction of a watch captain.
A couple of young children watch the practice with enthusiasm.
Watching the children for a moment you realize they are betting on the sparring matches, trading a few sweets between one another as tender.
The sergeant from The Silver Spirits stands near the door of the administrative office. He gives a terse wave when he sees Kit.
The office building is small and adjoins a guard house on its west side.
Jake will get up early, give the hat of disguise to Puck and send him off disguised to temple of Shelyn to meet his contact. . Then impose on the others. "We should use real disguises rather than magic, nothing fancy just hide who we really are. Maybe a bunch of Kit's friends all looking for a bit of fun adventure and paid work. Who is the best at applying a disguise? And we need a plan to get the seal once we are there."
Puck sees the man standing at the corner of the gardens and gives a friendly wave. The man returns a blank stare at Puck though.
Kit returns the wave and walks over to the sergeant. Morning Sarge. How does this work?
Kit is too focused on the sparring matches to notice anything.
"Pretty straight forward actually. Just show Bela and the drill sergeant you know which end of the blade is the sharp end and answer a few questions about your background and we should be able to put you to work right away." He sticks his head inside the door of the administrative building, his voice slightly muffled calling out, "Tell Bela the new recruits are here."
It is only a moment before a fat man dressed in the clothing of a clerk emerges. A pair of gold rings adorn the middle finger of each hand. His clothing is in good condition, showing only a few signs of wear. His eye lids droop slightly, and circles under them show a recent lack of sleep. He looks out to the practice field, "Let's hope they show more skill then the group Devon recruited." Spotting the children watching the sparring Bela's face flushes red. "Sergeant, send those brats back to their homes." The sergeant frowns but marches towards the children, who quickly scatter as he approaches.
"Well alright then." Bela turns to Kit
Bela fires off a series of questions, "What are your names? How long have you lived in Coran? Do you have family living here or next of kin should it be needed? Do you have any experience doing investigative work?"
Yeah, Drewan is laying low - not a good time to be a catfolk in Coran.
Jake would be there, in a mudane disguise.
Jake will answer quickly when he gets to him
"Jason, sir. Only couple of weeks sir, from Gumlat and want to do my bit. Mum's still in Gumlat Sir. Not really sir, but I'm sure I'd be good at it." Jake says with the confident smile of a young man.
Kit smiles at Bela. The name's Kit. Lived here all my life. No next of kin. I don't know about investigative work, but I've survived on my own on the streets of Coran for my whole life.
She pulls her scimitar. Who do you want we to whoop?
As Jake and Kit give their information Bela takes a couple of notes on a sheet of paper tacked to a thin piece of wood used as a clipboard.
"Whoa there, err, Kit." Bela holds up his hands as Kit unsheathes her blade. "You go around killing people and its harder to get information from them - though sometimes a person deserves to be run through." Bela gives a vicious looking smile.
"The sergeant said there was a half-elven woman as well? She change her mind?"
"Sergeant Adams" Bela calls out. The drill sergeant turns to look the group over. "See if these two know how to use a blade."
The drill sergeant waves the two over. When Jake pulls out just a dagger the sergeant frowns. "That ain't going to do you much good if you need to apprehend someone, or worse deal with a uncooperative individual. You know how to use a real sword?" He pulls a wooden practice sword from a rack on the dirt patch and tosses it to Jake.
"Why don't you two spar off against each other?" He eyes Kit, "Flat of your blade only though."
Kit walks out into the courtyard and begins an elaborate dance.
Pointing to Jason. This fellow is probably a caster of some kind, at least that is they way it appears to me. Give me a challenge. A few of those strong ones over there. Care to spar boys?
Before she strikes, she curtsies politely to her sparring partners. Kit performs a dance as she tears through her opponents. Slapping their right butt cheeks, the back of their arms, and then their left cheeks. If she is succesful, she curtsies again and giggles.
Round 1:
'Jason' swings the sword a little strangely he doesn't appear used to wielding something as heavy as it. He start what looks all the world like a swing for the head.
Round 2:
When his opponent ducks he flicks the wrist to bring sword up from underneth.
Round 3:
Unconscience
[b]"Heyy-heyyyy! Sorry I'm late! I brought my cute little bow and everything!"[/d]
Dev works on a newer sculpture while waiting with Drewan, trusting the catfolk to alert him if anything happens. His newest sculpture seems to be of a catfolk though one with horns, fangs, and other aberrant add-ons.
The handful of other trainees on the field look on in awe at Kit's display, none volunteer to go toe to toe with her.
Bela chuckles as Jason is dropped quickly to unconsciousness. "Better grab the salts Adams." The drill sergeant heads over to the nearby building and goes inside.
With Digger running up Bela turns and raises an eyebrow. "Being late isn't a quality I look for in a guardsman." He runs through the same questions as before. "What are your names? How long have you lived in Coran? Do you have family living here or next of kin should it be needed? Do you have any experience doing investigative work?"
Sergeant Adams returns with a small vial of smelling salts and brings Jason to consciousness, his head aching and several new bruises ripening. Adams whispers quietly to him.
"You should have said you were a caster, if indeed you are. Bela takes a bit of morbid pleasure in seeing wizards and the like take a beating."
Bela calls out to Digger, "You want a go with Kit here? See if you can best her?"
Jake looks ashamed "He... I mean Mr Bela never asked if I could do anything else, and I'm not very good. I only know a couple of tricks."
"Well don't yall need archers? Damn, my gurl done proved she badass. I ain't claimin to be no swordsb!%++. But I can get secrets real nice."
"I suggest you tell him what you are capable of if you want the job. Those of use on the front lines appreciate the support of you spellcasters. Saved my life more'n a few times to be sure."
"How long you think you will last with a bow if you've a angry half-orc in your face? But skill with a bow is helpful too if you've a good aim. Can you hit a target at a 100 paces? Show me that you can."
There is a single target at one end of the small dirt patch. One would have nearly press themselves against the door of the administrative offices to make it a hundred paces. And a missed shot will end up in the wall of a building across the street on the south side.
Jake thinks for a moment. "Alright, Mr Bela I can do a little magicif you care to see that too?" He waits for permission and assuming it comes "Imagine we need to take a criminal alive and he's fighting back, rather than kill him to disarm him how about this." He says and points at one of the other hopefuls "No Pae Wruoy Pord" and casts grease at his weapon.
Digger's arrow hits the target. Not a perfect shot by any means but a few of the other trainees look surprised to see her hit the target at all.
One of them drops his weapon to the ground as the slick coating of grease coats the handle.
Bela gives a grudging nod. "Very well. Pay is 5 silver coin per day. Each of you will need to sign one of these forms here." He holds out his board for each to mark with their signature. "Since sergeant Hamil recruited you you can report to him."
The sergeant from the bar last night nods in acknowledgement. Bela hands the man a folder slip of paper, "This is an odd one sergeant, couple hours old but we haven't had time to send anyone to check it out. See if it's even true."
Hamil opens the paper and reads it, his expression turning to a puzzled frown. "Well..." he just leaves off whatever he was going to say and holds out the paper for any who wish to read it.
Report: 4 AM a couple drunkards claim to have seen a wagon set alight in a back alley in the slums. Swears they saw a couple people in the wagon as it burned. The drunken fools couldn't even remember which alley they'd seen it in though.
"We can go check out all those locations, that'll be easy." Says Jake sounding very much like he's trying to impress.
Kit slaps Jake on the back. "I'm in. Who in their right mind would turn down five whole silvers?!"
To Jake: "You may not be too good with a sword, but you sure are a cutie!"
"You got yourself some new recruits sergeant, and some extra overtime to work with 'em." Bela says duly.
Following sergeant Hamil the group heads further into the dregs, turning into the back alleys at the designated cross streets. The back alleys here are deserted, even those who live in the area know better than to wander the back streets alone.
As you walk sergeant Hamil speaks a little about himself, "I grew up in the hold, but moved to Coran when I was 18. Always liked the big city. The airs not as fresh as in the Hold, but he people are friendlier - well most the time anyway. I doubt there is a man or woman in the Hold thats honest. Here in the city its hit or miss, but at least there are some."
Turning a corner you see the burned out remains of a wagon and its contents sitting where two of the narrow alley ways cross.
Kit follows behind sergeant Hamilton. She keeps an eye out for trouble on the way. "I've never been there myself. Sounds like a place to avoid." She continues her conversation with him. "That is one of the reasons I am glad you hired me. I want to help the good ones."
Kit smiles to herself at the sergeant's comments. Maybe there are some city officials who are not completely corrupted.
When they arrive at the burned out wagon, her whole demeanour changes. She starts by casting detect magic looking for any clues and then scours the surrounding area.
Approaching the wagon Kit detects no signs of magic. Four sets of charred and blackened skeletons stick out of the ash.
The skeletons are from a shorter humanoid creature, but the bones are large. Dwarves most likely.
Sitting on the ground in the center of the burned out wagon, neatly stacked, are about 100 stone bricks in two piles, 50 to a pile.
Sergeant Hamilton looks at Kit, an confused expression on his face. "Why... what the..." he stammers.
A quick glance at the skeletons is all Jake needs to know he doesn't want to look any more. He goes carefully over to the bricks and examines them, are they soot covered as if they were there during the fire?
"Sargent, should I ask the locals what they saw?
The bricks were indeed there during the fire and still have a slight warmth to them. A closer look reveals slats of charred wood underneath the two stacks that were not completely consumed in the flames along with numerous iron nails amongst the ash. You presume the bricks had been stored in wooden crates.
Sergeant Hamilton gives a nod to Jake, "Yea, see if you can find out anything from anyone."
"Looks to me like they were transporting a couple of creates of bricks, the fire burnt away the creates and left the bricks." Jake says straightening up and moving towards the nearest building. Jake will then spend the next while going door to door to see if anyone heard or saw anything.
[Ooc] I'll help! [/b]
Kit responds to Sarge I don't know, but we need to find out.
She continues her investigation around the area (perception checks at +10). She casts message on the group to keep contact as they look around (survival checks at +2).
After the others go around asking questions, Did you guys find any leads?
Dev clumsily follows Drewan on the rooftops.
The sergeant and Kit starting taking a closer look at things, examining everything carefully as Digger and Jake begin moving down the streets knocking on doors. No tracks are discovered on the hard cobblestone of the streets.
A closer examination of the bricks, after removing a few of the blackened ones, shows them to be of red stone, the same color as the cliffs that border the northern edge of the city.
There is a stone quarry at the base of the cliffs that might make stone bricks such as these, although these ones look a little rough to be used good building materials.
It takes all morning to produce some answers for what may have happened here, and even that isn't much. It isn't until you get a little ways away from the location of the burned out wagon itself that you get a few answers.
In the late hours of the night an individual in spiked armor drove down the alley with the wagon. It was shortly after that that the light of flames was seen coming from the back alley. The person was seen leaving at the same time, walking with a limp.
These are the same color as the cliffs. We need to track down where they may have come from.
Kit turns to the sergeant. Any idea sir?
The sergeant thinks for a moment, clearly perplexed. "There is a quarry at the north end of the city that provides a lot of raw stone for building. They hew out bricks such as these." He gestures to the ash covered stone.
"As for the night stalker... probably several hundred people with a lame leg scattered throughout the city. To many to track down or try and question. No guarantee we'd even find them all really. Not unless we happen to catch them still wearing their armor."
"Seems our only current lead then is to talk with the quarry workers, see if they know anything this? I dunno though, there is probably two or three dozen workers there. If one of them is responsible we might scare them into hiding if we go bully our way in there demanding answers. Diplomacy isn't my strong point, just give me a pick pocket to club over the head and life is good." he grins.
"Let's grab a couple of them bricks to take with us."
The quarry spans about 10 feet across and has dug about 20' into the cliff face and 50' up, creating a hollowed out indentation. Ropes, pulleys, cranes, scaffolding and other equipment abound, allowing the workers to chisel out large pieces of stone from the cliff face and move them to the ground level where they can then be shaped as desired and shipped to buyers.
After reporting back Jake listens to the sargeant's orders and follows.
When the reach the quarry he looks at Digger "You want to talk to boss while I talk to the workers?"
Taking one of the slabs of stone he moves towards one of the works who doesn't seems to on a break. "G'day, we were wondering if you could tell me anything about this." He says loudly as he approaches and then more quietly when there "Or a man with spiked armour?"