Ahh, pee in the chamber pot, perhaps I can set it up to spill on Jaed when he comes in... Clasic... No no time for that, plus that pot looks heavy, don't want to dent his delicate noggin. Finnian thinks as he slinks through the house.
Content that the house is currently unoccupied he unwildshapes and opens the door for Jaed.
Marzela hangs out at the bar a few blocks away, in order to be close and thinking that if something goes wrong, surely someone coming in will mention it. She keeps her ears open, and chats with different people, working on perfecting her language skills.
Jaed waits until he cannot see anyone on the street and then enters the house.
He asks Finnrick for a description of what he has seen. "Ok," he whispers, "I'll go to the work area. You can take a look at the bedroom."
Once there he inspects the room for any concealed objects like a safe or a hidden door.
After walking around the room he proceeds to inspect the desk.
Jaed waits around for a little over an hour as people continue to mill by, finding their way home or to a dining establishment or off to other entertainment for the night. Eventually there's a gap during which no one is on the street and he manages to slip in without being noticed.
After getting an update from Finnrick, he heads back to the work area and looks for anything hidden. Finding nothing, he takes a look at the desk. It's not the fanciest of desks, but it's sturdy and well made. On either side of where the writer would sit are drawers, three on each side. The bottom-most drawer on each one seems to have a small keyhole, suggesting that it is lockable.
Jaed carefully inspects the drawers, watching for traps,
before trying to unlock the two lowest drawers.
Jaed does not find any traps as he unlocks both drawers. Inside the first seems to be a number of labeled folders, each with a number of papers slips inside. The other drawer seems to contain a number of large notebooks. Unfortunately, all of them are written in Vudrani.
While waiting outside, Lily keeps an eye out, but she can't help but glance nervously inside the house once or twice. Clearly she's worried for the boys.
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Jaed isn't able to determine exactly what the documents are, but he does notice some patterns between them. Namely, all the slips of paper from the folders seem to have a varied about of text and then a number ranging from the hundreds to thousands at the bottom. The books all seem to similarly have one or two lines of text and then a number in the right-hand margin. The numbers in the books seem overall smaller than the ones on the pieces of paper, tending towards the tens or low hundreds.
Finnrick has already searched some of these rooms, but I guess he will go through the bedroom more throughly while Jaed is inspect the other room.
Equally confused and intrigued about what the papers could mean Jaed takes a bunch in his hands and goes to show them to Finnrick. "Do you have any idea of what these could be? We may need to take a couple and see if Marzela is able to understand them."
The majority of what seems to be in the bedroom is clothing. All of it seems to be of very nice quality, with many of the items made out of silk. Perhaps not surprising given the rolls of fabric in the first room that was entered. The chest seems to contain a number of personal items, some books, some basic jewelry, a spell component pouch, and a few daggers. Under the bed is a stray candlestick that apparently fell underneath and was forgotten.
Finnrick casts detect magic and notes the spell component pouch. hmm, a spell user" He then reaches underneath the bed to examine the candlestick.
You do not detect any magic. As far as you can see, the candlestick is an ordinary candlestick that hasn't been used.
Should we take these with us? Jaed looks at the papers in his hands. It is going to make it even more obvious that we broke in but they may be important. The rogue takes a few seconds and in the end he decides to put them back in the desk, trying to leave everything as he found it.
He takes a quick look around the house looking for something out of the ordinary.
If he finds nothing he goes back to Finnrick. "Should we leave now? I did not find anything interesting. Did you find something?"
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While all this is going on, Carrakas remains outside the building, looking around, as though he was a good little citizen waiting for the merchant to return. He leans against the building, looking around at any passersby, smiling pleasantly as appropriate.
Jaed does not find any secret doors or concealed objects. Meanwhile Carrakas does not see anybody who appears to be heading towards the house. The couple of people passing now and then don't seem to pay him any mind.
"We should let Marzela take a look at them, she will know what they say,"[b] Finnrick says pointing to the papers. [b]"I can try to sneak them back in when she is done"
If Jaed agrees we can scoop up the papers and dip out. If not we leave them and dip out anyway.
"Ok, partner in crime, let's take those papers to Marzela," the rogue says with a slight smile in his face. I may have been a bad influence in the past.
Jaed takes a bunch of papers and waits until the street looks clear before getting out and returning with the others.
Once her companions join her in the local bar and she hears what they need, Marzela suggests they go someplace more private where she can look over the information.
Jaed and Finnrick manage to get out of the house unnoticed, joining their companions outside and then going to meet up with Marzela.
When they meet up, they go somewhere secluded for Marzela to look over the papers and notebooks. The notebooks seem to contain details of all of Lankesh's mercantile dealings. Each entry details items bought/sold and at what price from whom. The papers all seem to be not-yet-cashed promissory notes promising payment for goods bought.
The majority of Lankesh's income seems to come from sales of consignments of silk from the Apananda Silk Mill, though there are the occasional sales of other fabrics or, even more infrequently, dealings in other types of goods.
Marzela double-checks every shred of paper, certain that this is the bad guy, and grows a little frustrated when she can't find anything incriminating. She takes notes in her journal about who this Lankesh has had dealings with, especially noting the Apananda Silk Mill.
She tells the party her findings, and suggests that they try checking out this Silk Mill. She also suggests that they not return the papers, since that would just increase their chances of getting caught.
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"Oh," is all that Jaed says when Marzela explains her lack of findings. "So, what now? Should we go talk to him? Well, if we can find him."
I think we should investigate the silk mill.
She dumps the papers in the fireplace.
"Ok, it will not hurt to go to that mill."
Not knowing where the mill is and there being a general lack of people around to ask at this time of night, the group heads back to the inn to sleep. As you leave your lodgings to ask around for the mill's location, an arrow speeds out of seemingly nowhere.
The arrow looks a little odd and a bright string attaches a note to the shaft.
Marzela grunts as the arrow hits her. She looks around to see if she can tell where it came from.
(vs hidden)
She points out the source to the group and starts running that direction, wanting to solve the problem rather than hide from it.
Jaed also starts running after Marzela. "Are you ok?"
Carrakas' eyes widen with alarm as Marzela gets hit, and then his eyes zero in on the rooftop she points out. He growls, a deep and throaty rumbling, before taking off at a sprint in that direction.
Between waiting for Marzela to point out the building, the distance to the building, and the fact that there doesn't seem to be any straight path between your current location and the target building, it takes around 3 rounds to arrive at the southeast corner of the building. neither the southern nor the eastern side appears to have any stairs or ladders on the outside of it, though it is made of stone and about 30 feet tall.
Shoppers and sales-people are milling about this area, perusing or selling their wares. Due to the relatively early hour, it's not especially crowded and the sellers seem less aggressive/loud in their entreaties to view their wares.
Marzela slows down as they reach the building, realizing that they don't want to cause a scene. She hopes that the person is still on the roof and that Carrakas can get there, but isn't sure all of them rushing into this in the middle of a crowd is a good idea. She tells Jaed that she is alright, and then stops to examine the message that was attached to the arrow.
"I'll cover the other side!" Without hesitation Jaed starts running along the eastern side of the building. Once on the opposite street Jaed looks for the attacker on the roof and for someone carrying a bow or crossbow in the street in case the attacker went already down.
As Marzela points Finnrick too cathces a glimpse of the figure that must have shot her. "One hoot there is danger, two hoots we are clear," he says before transforming himself into an owl and takes off, covering the distance in 2 rounds. Can move 180 ft after spending a standard to wildshape.
When he arrives he finds a perch and scans the building waiting for the others to arrive.
Millsy will stay near Marzela and attack anything that threatens her that she can see.
When Carrakas arrives at the building, he mutters at Marzela and Lily "Watch the door, in case he tries to run." Then, without any concern for the bystanders, he quickly climbs up to the top of the building.
Once at the top, he immediately activates his force ring, and if he sees anybody at all will also mutter an invocation to his brooch, causing his armor to expand all over his body with incredible speed.
Lily nods to Carrakas, though she can't help but follow Finnrick's sudden flight for a short time, mesmerized by his incredible shapechange-on-the-wing. Then she tears herself away to watch for the door.
Marzela will show the note to her companions when they are all together again. For now, she waits to hear what they have found, and heals herself.
Finnrick takes a lap around the entire building looking down the alleys for the fleeing creature. He was just here, how could he have disappeared. I shouldn't think he, it could have been a she, or an it... Finnrick thinks to himself as he circles overhead. He keeps an eye on the lone man. If he sees nothing else of not he will fly back to the others.
The group arrives at the building and sees and owl circling overhead.
Carrakas scowls in frustration, then proceeds to look around the top of the building for any places where the perp might try to hide, or any clues. He also looks over the edge at the other side, hoping to catch sight of someone running away.
The tiefling grunts before turning back to the front of the building where owl-rick descended earlier. He quickly jumps over the side of the building, and gently floats the three stories back to the ground.
When he joins the others, he shakes his head. "Nothing. Whoever our friend was, he vanished before I could get there and I saw no clues."
When everyone gets back, Marzela shows them the note and asks if they found anything. After hearing that Carrakas didn't find him, she says Frustrating, but not a failure of yours. Perhaps whoever it was can change shape to escape like our friend here (indicating Finnrick as he arrives back in their company).
Shall we continue to the Silk Mill?
Cowards. Disappointed, Jaed returns with the others and agrees to continue to the mill.
The group continues on their original plan to ask about the Apanada Silk Mill. After not too much time, you discover it's located in the Low-Caste District and begin heading there. The journey is uneventful; no more arrows fly out to shoot you, and soon you are walking down a small side-street not important enough to even warrant pavement. Before you is your target: a 20-ft high building with a sloping terra-cotta roof. It is but one building among a row of two-story houses, its sides flush against its neighbors. On the side facing you, you see a wide set of double doors along with 5 rather grimy, grate-covered windows.
Jaed gets closer to one of the windows and discreetly peeks inside.
"Should we just knock and introduce ourselves?"