From what you all know of this part of the city, known as West Dock, there are few, if any, real residences. It is comprised almost entirely of warehouses and fish processing facilities.
The building at Westpier 17 is set directly on the dock, and extends from the shore out into the water. It is surrounded by two other dockside warehouses.
"Now that she mentions it, this fishery isn't active. The government holds it. I'm hoping Lamm's a squatter and that we don't have the guard to deal with on top of this. Best to be careful."
Seren ponders things for a moment. "Need to get an inkling of where the entrances are, mainly. I can do that as a walkaround in disguise pretty harmlessly and then take up position near one that we can have Mooneyes sneak up to and look in. I assume no entering until we have the full party together? Keep the rest of you back a ways, but at least have someone who can see me so I can signal if needed."
Seren will teach the others a couple quick hand signals for Help! and Stay hidden.
Yes. A tragedy for the family involving a devilfish attack on the family boat. Likely no one is going to recognize the new me. I could walk with you if you like.
"There is also the thieves' highway to consider," Absinthe murmurs. "Nearby roofs. Also, since the fishery is on the water, one might use a rowboat to approach from the sea. So long as one manages to avoid the eyes of sentries, this would allow one to avoid ambushes from the nearby buildings."
"Segang, thanks, but it may be tough for me to blend in as a dock worker if I've got this massive personal Shoanti bodyguard," Seren smiles and claps him on the back, "But please don't be too far away in case I screw this up and need some help!"
Turning to Absinthe, "The rowboat may work at night, although it's hard to disguise it as anything but an attempt on the fishery. I think the thieves' highway may be your best bet. Just let me know which way you're coming in from so I can have a good vantage."
"Forgive the rest of us for waiting here," says Melianthe with a grin and taking a slice of bread. "We shall contribute soon enough. I look forward to learning how best to approach Lamm's den. I doubt he'll expect all of us, who limped away, to come back for blood."
She breaks off a small piece and loosens her cloak slightly, shrugging her shoulders. Her dowager's hump collapses, revealing at first pincers, then an entire large scorpion, complete with nasty looking stinger, which delicately crawls out of her cloak and onto the table and nibbles the proffered bread in its complex mouthparts.
Demitri is at first a little surprised at the sight of a monstrous scorpion, but his mind was too focused on the upcoming assault to think anything of it. "What's his name?" He asks between bites of bread. He seemed anxious to get this over with, is making conversation to cope with it.
Absinthe raises one eyebrow at the scorpion, but shrugs its presence off.
"One can approach the fishery whilst fishing," she suggests to Seren with a subtle smile. "Following the thieves' highway is as good as a shout that one has plans involving theft or similar. One will acquiesce to the wishes of the clan in this, however."
The tiefling looks expectantly at the rest of the party.
The boat idea has merit. Can anyone pilot a small water craft?
"No, that was not part of my training. It was mostly land-based. We could just attempt to hide somewhere close by, but far enough to not be easily spotted. I admit though, I ignored my classes on stealth."
"WHAT THE F*** IS THAT!" Seren leaps away from Melianthe in a panic, falling over his chair and scrambling to the side. He pants for a bit until he realizes he's the only one freaking out and begins to calm down a little, face flushing with embarassment.
"Right, right ... uhh, totally normal ... sure ... so, umm, Absinthe," Seren says turning towards the tiefling and tearing his eyes away from the monster vermin in the room. "I'm .. uhh ... completely unfamiliar with fishing, but it ... ahem, excuse me ...uhh ... sounds like a grand idea assuming we have the resources. Ummm... do people fish in the evening?" Seren stares at her hard, sweat beading on his brow.
"Oh...this is Hloire, my familiar. He doesn't sting friends," says Melianthe with a disarming innocent look. "So sorry, I should have mentioned him. Do carry on." She pets Hloire unconsciously.
Rosa coughs at Hloire's unexpected appearance, but doesn't say much of anything. "I can't imagine there would be many people who would fish at night. It does need to be cooked, and doesn't keep for the next day. Still, perhaps a poor catch could convince someone to stay out later than usual. That would mean waiting until tomorrow to go out, assuming they watch the docks for that kind of thing."
"There is night-fishing, friend Seren, friend Rosa," Absinthe says after she has helped Seren back to his feet. "Some species of sealife only come out after dark. One usually shines a lantern into the water and spears whatever rises to the surface, but this one's racial advantages would allow her to use a fishing rod and bait as during the day."
Turning to Segang, she bows her head and says: "One was educated in the ways of the sailor in one's youth, friend Segang. It might actually be beneficial to have two to a craft. Fishermen often work in pairs, as one recalls, to have support in case of emergencies."
I would be happy to go with you to survey what we might find by boat then, while Seren scouts from land. Let us to to renting a small boat. The barbarian looks excited to have a plan.
"Phosphorescent creatures come to the surface at night as well, though they are generally not for eating. They have their uses, though, alchemically, medicinally, cosmetically...anyhow, stay in the center of the boat, Segang, lest you tip it and knock Absinthe out."
Melianthe settles in, content not to scout.
Melianthe hands Absinthe five silver coins, smiling maternally. "Don't be out too late, Moon-Moon."
She turns to Dmitri and Rosa. "It may not prove useful to speculate what we shall be doing until our reconnaissanceurs return from their forays, but it passes the time. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What church do you hail from, Rosa...and you, Dmitri?"
She pauses to give Hloire another piece of bread, looking down at him with kindness. She continues speaking while looking at the table.
"No doubt another piece of our puzzle is our good Shoanti warrior; I think he'll prove his mettle far better on dry land with a sword then hiding all a-bobble in a boat. Swords up front, no doubt; I am possessed of certain talents--" at this, her eyes flash up, more menacing than you have seen before, "--and can bring about ill fortune and ill-timed slumber in our opponents. Though I lack in stealth, I may be able to cause the guards to fall asleep in their tracks, if they are to be found one by one. It will be easier, potentially, than to storm the place and allow the inner chambers to get warning from the outer guardsmen."
Demitri looks rather impatient and a bit frustrated at being so close to the end, but not currently being able to help in any way.
"I follow the Inheritor, so you can trust me to defend you as best I can. I also trained with the guard, so I'm skilled with my blade. I have a few magics for defense mostly, not as powerful as a full priest or priestess, but sufficient. Though like I've mentioned, I'm not very stealthy." He knocks on his shield for effect. "This isn't made of paper, so it makes a little noise. I'm also very persuasive, at least when I'm being forceful. So in other words, I'm at my best when it comes to the direct approach."
The reek of brine and the stink of week-dead fish hang thickly in the air here. The old double doors at the street-side of this building are tightly closed, with a drooping signpost hanging above. The sign it once displayed is long gone, leaving behind only a single short length of rusted chain.
From the front, the place looks closed and abandoned, but the scene at the northern loading dock shows that it has seen recent use. Through the entrance at the ramp, you can see inside. A few carts sit nearby, partially loaded with large tar-caked barrels marked with a fish-shaped splotch of red paint on the side. Double doors to the immediate south of the dock's ramp provide access to the building's interior.
Seren looks closer from the street at the barrels and the window.
If the fishery is abandoned why are there barrels with stuff in them here ... unless they're really old ... gross
If he can't see inside, he'll stick to the shadows moving closer, but not skulking. He'll walk with a bit of a sway and play the drunk if accosted. If he can see inside, he'll stay in the street leaning up against a wall or pretending to relieve himself.
Melianthe watches as Rosa runs off to buy sweets and turns to Dmitri. "Humans...so impetuous. Ah, there I go with the elven superiority...forgive me. Our wait will not be long."
The barrels have seen recent use, and are in relatively good condition. Unfortunately, the windows are completely obscured with old soot and grime.
As Seren nears the building, a number of dogs start barking from within.
Seren will stop and relieve himself in the water before swaying his way back to the street.
As the rowboat approaches the fishery, Absinthe halts its progress, casts out a line and quietly addresses Segang while she pretends to fish: "Use your senses, friend. Look upon our enemy's stronghold. What do you believe the best approach would be? At the very least, one does not see any sentries... yet. Yon old barge might make a good stronghold from which to further our clan's advance inside, no?"
Melianthe watches as Rosa runs off to buy sweets and turns to Dmitri. "Humans...so impetuous. Ah, there I go with the elven superiority...forgive me. Our wait will not be long."
"No , you're right. We are impetuous. You have no idea how much I want to bust down Lamm's doors right now. Or maybe you do."
"I could wait until the building collapsed from age, and stand over Lamm's weathered grave, and be content,", says Melianthe. "However, we have an opportunity to prevent more harm to others--we shall take it when our good scouts come back to tell us the crack we can widen to break Lamm's shell wide open. And then, he shall writhe."
"I wonder where Rosa went off to. We were strategizing, or passing the time, at least, and she appears to be a pleasant one to pass the time with, eh?"
Melianthe smiles at Demitri and lets Hloire scuttle up her arms and onto her back, where it burrows down out of sight beneath her vestments.
"Well some of us don't have that kind of time. So yes, this is an opportunity we can't pass up."
"I have no idea. I think calling her a free spirit would be an understatement. She is rather attractive, I think it's a requirement for being a follower of the Savored Sting." Demitri smiles back. "And for the record, I don't mind passing the time here with you either. Though I do feel restless just sitting here."
"Well, now, and here I thought the Inheritors were a chaste lot...not like our Calistrian friend." Melianthe winks. "Forgive me for not immediately recognizing the signs of your religion; I'm not well versed in the faiths of the land, and my own views are more...mystical, as it were. What shall we do to pass the time? I have no swords to sharpen."
Absinthe and Segang can hear the dog barking from the water. After a few moments, there's a yell from inside. "Bloo! Shut up, you mangy cur!"
Seren will continue to watch from his vantage point in the street ensuring he can see the rowboat.
"Well, it's not forbidden. As long as I act with honor, then I see nothing to get smited over. I was even married once...." His voice trails off as if remembering some distance memory. He quickly snaps back to reality ."You could start telling me about your people. Can't say I've ever met a dusk elf before. Didn't honestly know there was more than one type of elf."
Segang does the heavy rowing under Absinthe's direction. He too looks at the structure, looking for ways in or weaknesses. He is specifically looking to see if there is a way to climb aboard the barge from the water.
It grows dark. I do not see much.
Melianthe notes the inquisitor's silence regarding his marriage and does not inquire further. She follows suit to in changing the subject.
"Ah yes, the amazing, bountiful, untold diversity of Elvenkind. Not like gnomes, are we? They bandy about in all forms, but the face one sees on an elf, if any, is the elf of Kyonin, a daylight elf of the elf gates. The ones who abandoned Golarion. Who knows what they did elsewhere, but they went off, or seek something, called the Brightness."
Melianthe makes a face. "Can you believe it? A race that sees well at twilight, seeking some bright thing. Meanwhile, accounts vary of the rest of us, those you don't see. Some say there were always two races; they the Elves of the Sun; we the Elves of the Moon. Others--usually daylight elves, mind you, say that we were corrupted when we chose to stay behind, and that some of us went from the darkness of the forests to the darkness of the pits and caverns of Orv and beyond, to give rise to the hated, cursed race of drow." Melianthe shakes her head, rolling her eyes and exposing a lovely curve of sleek grey neck. The resemblance to the black skin of drow is apparent.
"It's true. Drow are descended from dusk elves. But we maintain that we, and the wild ones in the South, and the elves of the ice in the North, stayed here to guard Golarion, while they fled. And who can say? Elves." She makes a face, turning the last word into a curse.
"Pits and caverns? We had cities when your kind were drawing images with charcoal and mud in caverns. Look what it got us. Elves, for all their pride, have amounted to very little. We fell apart, thanks to petty squabbling, tribalism. Chaos. The dusk elves hide now, and have done so for several generations--that's a thousand years for you, of course. The day elves swish about in their arrogance, but what do they have? A tiny outpost in Kyonin? I hear tell that the Mordant Spire is actually dusk elves, or something like them--elves change, you know, and in any case, they sound like a sour bunch." She idly rolls a bit of bread around.
"Oh...but you asked about my people. Well. They once lived in the Churlwood. We once had cities too--great half buried things, tunnelled into the earth and spiralling around trees, all in the darkest parts of forests. Sunlight burns the eyes of dusk elves, and our cousins in the North, so our dwellings are rarely seen, hidden away as they are. By the time I was born, though, our tribe was small and the cities had been absorbed back into the forest. We hunted and gathered, preserving our works of lore, with little contact save for adjoining tribes. That is the nature of elves. Our civilization is diminished, you see--there is little trade or traffic anymore."
She pauses, her voice sounding a little smaller.
"One day, though, we had a visit from the day elves. I was gathering morels in the far reach and came back to find our village burning. Daylight elves moved through my people, hacking them down with curve blades and setting fire to our huts. My mother found me and--" she blinks her eyes at the memory--"hid me under a spell of shadow, and told me to run. I did as she bade me. That was the end of my tribe. So, what do I know of elves? I knew of my tribe. I knew of stories. We had trading posts. Aside from that, very little, until I met the day elves en masse in less than ideal circumstances."
"I don't hate them. I feel sorry that they hold to this ancient glory and pride. The dusk elves do not; whether we stayed to guard or cower during the Age of Darkness, enduring that time broke us as a people."
She exhales and looks at Demitri. "Forgive me. Elves have the time afforded a long life to talk for a long time. Suffice to say...I, and my people, have endured enough that what Lamm did to me is trivial in comparison. It doesn't mean I won't be there when he dies." She ends this with a diabolical smile.
"That was a lot to get off your chest. Thank you for sharing all that with me. It must have been difficult for you. I can't imagine what it feels like to be a dusk elf. But I share your pain when it comes to hardships."
Absinthe moves the rowing boat over to the barge as quietly as she can, keeping an eye out for danger. "If we can but move everyone in here," she murmurs, eyeing the Kraken's Folly. "So close to the target. And if she is seaworthy... a fine getaway vehicle in case of emergency, no?"
Quietly Segang responds. She does not look all that well cared for to me. Would we need a crew to handle her?
The edge rail on the barge is about seven feet off the surface, so it would take a bit of nimble climbing to get aboard from a boat, or a grappling hook. Up close, you can see it is more a part of the building now that a free-floating vessel. It is not seaworthy, and barely "dockworthy".
With no access from below, I see no other way in than a frontal assault with maybe some ruse to get the door open. The dog(s) will alert if we come near so its not likely we will sneak in. Time to head back?
"That was a lot to get off your chest. Thank you for sharing all that with me. It must have been difficult for you. I can't imagine what it feels like to be a dusk elf. But I share your pain when it comes to hardships."
"You can tell me about them," says Melianthe carefully and slowly.
Melianthe notes the inquisitor's silence regarding his marriage and does not inquire further. She follows suit to in changing the subject...
Zellara listens to Melianthe's story, fascinated but she remains silent.
"Well, it started off well enough.. Nine years ago, I graduated the academy and became part of the famed Korvosan Guard. I had my whole life ahead of me, and to top it off I had just gotten married." Demitri pauses to take a drink.
"After a little while, my wife bore me my first child. A little girl I named Nadia. Then of course it all went south. Soon after the birth, my wife died from illness. It seems the birth was too much strain for her to take afterall. But I atleast had my baby girl, thank the Inheritor for that. Until last year, on her birthday of all days I took her out to the market to buy her a gift. I told her to stand still while I haggled for a bit. I only took my eyes off her for a second and she was gone. That blight of the streets Lamm took her." He takes a deep breath before continuing.
"I spent the better part of a year, trying to track him down. I used every resource at my disposal, but the man is like a specter, haunting the streets going unseen. To make it worse, my "colleagues" were no help. Either they couldn't or they wouldn't. Some urged me to focus on the crimes that were solvable, but now I think they were just on the take. So I quit, afterall I didn't need them. In my time of need, they did nothing. I gave them a third of my life in service and I have nothing to show for it." A look of disappointment washes over him.
"But that was then, things are looking up now. We know where he is and we're going to stop him. I just hope we can find my daughter before it is too late." That look of disappointment is replaced by a small smile.
"We must free the Lambs," says Melianthe, her eyes wide and glaring red in the pupils. "You need to find your Nadia, Demitri. She hasn't forgotten you. We will find her, and then we will make him pay. You have learned an elf-lesson, Demitri: vengeance is slow and patient. Your year of searching has prepared you for what must be done." Her voice is so musical and soothing compared to her harsh words of blood and revenge.
"And it is never too late. Even if she is gone, you will still do what must be done."
She places her hands together in a triangle, the room almost crackling with latent magic seething from her, and the hump on her back shifts perceptibly.