Leanne is ready in a matter of minutes to leave the apartment.
Andrea is all set as well. If need be, she covers Leeanna with an invisibility spell as they leave.
He chuckles, "The idea is kill the devil not dance with him." He has a self-satisfied look in his eyes.
"She? Alphonse, did one of the girls run off? I saw Tracy on my way in, so which of the others is missing?"
As the two armored soldiers chat, Truk leans over and whispers to Orsin.
The journey towards the bridge is uneventful. You see there are dottari positioned at the end of the bridge. It's you Maurice's group.
"So what brings the Rack here?"
"Insurgents...we are always stomping out those willing to break the law. Some slave was stolen." He glares, "Know anything about that?"
"Good Morning folks."
The journey towards the bridge is uneventful. You see there are dottari positioned at the end of the bridge. It's you Maurice's group.
Andrea waves to Maurice as they draw closer. Hello there. Things have been quiet I hope? Andrea looks at Maurice's armor. That is Grumm's work correct? Good to see more and more good men being outfitted by him
"Yeah, they are also here about Orn, we were going to pool out money if I didn't have enough to buy him on my own. The other half-orc out there is his brother. Is there any chance that he could at least visit his brother?"
Truk nods and quietly steps away from the group.
He asks Shelyn for her blessing in finding his brother and begins discreetly asking around the Grotto if anyone's see where Orn was taken to for his questioning.
"No, i haven't head anything of it. Though if I do I will make sure the criminal will brought to the authorities."
"Of course you will." Lumar says.
A little serving girl nearly crashes into Truk, Orn your back! She beams. Then double takes.
As he looks to the guard who opens the door for you, "You may leave."
"Careful there", the big orc says as he catches her.
"Truk'tosh", he says touching a hand to his chest. "Orn is my brother. Have you seen him? Where they took him?"
Truk does his best to look as un-intimidating as possible for the small serving girl.
"I understand. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help your investigation, sir."
Lucrezia will leave the office.
Her eyes are large, "They'd taken 'im ta dare place," her tiny voice barely reaching your ears.
Truk looks around briefly to make sure nobody is watching too closely.
"Come on girl, you can tell me. What dark place?"
Truk kneels down and takes the girl's tiny hands in between his own gently.
"Do you have any brothers and sisters? You do don't you? Well Orn's my big brother but I still need to take care of him. I need to make sure he's okay for now."
"These Hellknights, they're not good people..."
Lucrezia walks back out to the main room, looking for her friends.
Orsin approaches Lucrezia, whispering, "Are you alright? They didn't harm you, did they?"
Lucrezia manages a small smile for Orsin and pats him on the arm as she speaks quietly to him. "Thank you Orsin. I'm fine. However Orn is being held and questioned regarding a slave that has gone missing from here. He is currently not for sale, we can't even visit him to see how he is. I'm worried he's being tortured for information he doesn't even have."
"Which slave? It's not Shu Lien, is it?" Orsin looks a little panic-stricken at the thought.
Well damn it. I can't reassure Orsin without making anyone suspicious. I guess I can just apologize to him later.
"I'm sorry Orsin, but they didn't give me a name. We'll have to ask someone out here."
The young girl looks up at the hulking half-orc, "Didn't say dark place, but it probably is. Said dare place." She frowns and speaks slower for the big to understand, "not dare place, their place." The girl replies.
Those bastards...
"Thanks little one", Truk rumbles in as calm a manner as he can muster.
***
"He's not here", Truk explains once he's met up with the others again, the ham-sized fists clenched tight enough to grind stone say leagues about his fury. "They've taken him to one of their citadels."
"Let's get out of here. For a place so full of beauty, the stench of Hellknights is making me ill."
Lucrezia takes hold of one of Truk's arms just in case he tries to run off on his own to do anything. "Come on, let's go meet up with the other for our shopping trip. We can discuss your brother and my little questioning session later."
Lucrezia's hand on his arm does help sooth the rage boiling over in the orc's heart.
"Let's go. Anywhere", he growls.
Orsin: Talbards is the closer of the shops.
Andrea, Duncan, Faleyn and Fluer make it to the Grulios Estate, and you are led into the manor. Lady Grulios and her adviser Chelsi Longbottom greet you.
"Welcome to manor, this must be Leaanne we've heard about." She greets Leanne. "Your timely escape has brought about much scrutiny but you are safe here." She smiles, Tea and cakes?' she offers.
Thank you very much Lady Grulios. Leanne has had quite the trial but hopefully that will end soon. Andrea will gracefully accept the tea, sipping as Leaanne and the others settle in. Quite the trying times for us all, especially the last few weeks.
"I've heard that the Rack has been brought in to locate the girl." She does an air quote motion, "Supposedly to find and suppress a potential insurgency bent on freeing lawfully bound slaves." She stares each member, "We've four fast caravels leaving in two days time, we'll through off any trail." She grins, "Beside, we've got two groups of six war galleons a day off shore to run escort." Her eyes brows raise.
Indeed good news. Andrea turns to Leaanna. You are in good hands with Lady Grulios and her family, excellent hosts.
Andrea leans back some. I am somewhat amazed that such a fuss has been raised over finding Leaanna that The Rack has been involved. Alphonse is a common brothel owner, whose problems would probably be foisted off on the Dottari. I do belive that there might be another reason, one more connected to Alphonse's patrons, rather than to Alphonse. Something we can perhaps discuss more privately.
The familiar scent of parchment, oils, and potions is a welcome sensation in the Wiscrani morning. Orsin steps into the shop first, with Lucrezia and Truk following close behind.
"Hello? Mister Talbard?" he calls out into the store.
Lucrezia tries to herd the menfolk out the Grotto.
"What is this place?" Truk asks aloud as the various magical minutiae come into view.
Lucrezia is still struggling with her emotions as they enter the magical shop and is still holding onto Truk's arm rather tightly. "It's a shop Trouble. One that specializes in magical type items."
Duncan smiles. Relived that at least this one is safe.
As always, yer too kind, Lady.
Truk nodded but only half-heard the answer to his question. He was busy wrestling with his own thoughts. His brother, the only family he really had, a slave for almost as long as he'd remembered and now a prisoner of the damned Hellknights. How could it have come to this?
He wanted nothing more to howl in anger and despair so that all of Westcrown knew it; to beat his fists against until his hands were broken and bloody; And tackle the first Hellknight he could find and throttle him until he was purple and black beneath that damned armor...
But a glance down at the stunning half-elf tightly clutching his thickly muscled arm snapped him out of his rancor. This fiercely spirited, beautiful woman -the same woman his brother loved- was just as lost as he was. She needed him to stay strong and maintain control... for now. There would be a time to bring the full measure of his wrath to bear but for now he needed to play his role.
A quiet dagger in the dark...
Truk rested one big hand on top of Lucrezia's comfortingly.
"Is the owner a friend?"
"He's a friend of Faelyn's."
Lucrezia rests her head against Truk's shoulder as she quietly speaks to him. "I'm so sorry Trouble. It's my fault Orn's in trouble now. I shoulda tried to buy him sooner, but I didn't think that I had enough money until I just won that bet on Faelyn."
You can't blame yourself for what happened Beautiful. It's the Hellknights and Alphonse that will pay", Truk says as he leans into Lucrezia.
The big orc forced a smile, "Besides, Orn would be pissed with both of us if he saw how upset we were over him."
Lucrezia continues to whisper to Truk. "But Truk, I helped the girl escape. She was being kept chained up in cold cell and looking at the condition she was in, well, we just couldn't leave her there."