Erick neither avoids the guards, nor acknowledges them. In other words, he treats them like furniture, like every other patron of the bar.
"Yeah. We are. And no, just need a bottle of something stronger than wine, my room, and a hot bath, by choice in that order." Erick says, putting a coin down on the counter for the barman. "Something not watered down." He nods at Telsyn. "Kind of tired tonight, we can do the drinking together and catching up on what all we've been up to over the last year or two tomorrow, when it's not so noisy." He jerks his head at the bar in general, but it's likely obvious he means when there are no soldiers around.
"Thank ye maam. Going to enjoy a bit of rest, so don't expect much bother. "
and he quietly finishes up his wine before heading for his room.
Clyde finishes changing his clothes and when everything is gathered he introduces himself. Name is Clyde, I'm a member of the Andorian military doing some off the books work here. I'm a fair hand at riding and scouting. If we need to escort any folks cross country I can help with the food and shelter problems so we'll be fed and covered if not comfy. As you no doubt know, I tend to stick with bowwork but can get up in the front if need be.
Erick has changed out of his long coat and hat, and into dry clothes. His face is grizzled and weathered. Now that he's not covering it up, his armor looks as foreign and strange as his sword, but oddly his accent is Taldoran, as are his looks.
"Name's Bonestihl, by family, Erick given. I'm a body guard by trade." He pats a pistol at his hip, and then hooks a thumb at the sword hanging from the back of chair. "Done a lot of travel in a youth I tried to mis-spend, had a mentor who didn't let me. Been to Tian Xa, Garund, Casmaron, and even saw the Crags of Azlant. Tended to pick up something everywhere. Armor, weapon, weapon, jewelry.." He tugs an Ankh up on a chain around his neck, then drops it back down. "Now I'm on Avistan. Mentor was from Cheliax, so when he retired, I ended up here. Guns are handy against people in heavy armor, but they are very loud, so I try to stay with the sword for the most part. If we're fighting something in heavy armor, noise probably isn't an issue anymore." He snorts, and pours himself another shot glass of whiskey. "I'm pretty good with languages, and I don't miss a lot. Got some knowledge of magic, but don't cast. May not look it, but I know how to talk my way out of trouble as well as I can fight my way out. Also know my way around a ship, in case we have to put to sea."
Given keys, the party find themselves to a small corridor of rooms with a small meeting room converted into a communal living area at the far end.
The next week demonstrates that the reward of the abolitionist is a week of inn-cooked meals sand well-made rocking chairs while working through every public flyer and poster your host will bring you. It also proves an ample opportunity for discussion.
Micah pops in and out when required if you care to speak with her.
What other "missions" might be available for some dedicated abolitionists? Telsyn asks, hoping Micah would know of something.
Hmm..I dunno about us heading out on our own to do stuff. Independent stuff tends to get frowned on.
Micah shrugs. "Well, for bored adventurers, there's a few options in Ostenso. The City Bounty Office regular gives out rewards for the capture or sometimes killing of escaped criminals and the like. I've seen a good few wanted posters around town recently for missing children, some offer a reward if that's your fancy."
Maybe, just as long as none of us are on thos eposters.
Maybe we should go look and make sure we're not on some posters. There might be something worth doing. Can't hurt.
Sure, I'm up for it.
Erick grunts. "Got money, don't need any more just yet. But I got no objections to finding out what's making kids disappear and making it disappear. Permanently."
"This is Cheliax, the children disappearing is probably legal. "
As long as they are halfling children of course. Good human kids would get the hellknights all right up in arms. Clyde says this sarcastically.
Erick shakes his head at Henry. "Halflings don't have money to offer rewards, and Cheliaxians aren't offering rewards for halfling children." He looks at Micah. "These aren't slave kids or second class kids, are they? Or rather, not just them..."
"Well, they ain't the kids of anyone who can pay enough for anyone practiced to after them, I can tell you that much."
Clyde will go check out the posters if the others are up to going.
Also, he'll buy a wand of CLW in the downtime, if that's OK.
Erick leaves behind his hat and long coat. He wears his armor and puts his pistol (unloaded) in his pack for now, to avoid looking like the man from the other night, at least until he finds out if they have any posters of him up.
Shortly before they step out, Micah finds them; she hands over a small letter. "A runner just passed me this to give to you; from a man named Bator I think? Best've luck."
Muscles aching after a long week of hiding out, the party sets out into the blazing sun and clear blue skies of Ostenso late morning. Despite some initial apprehension, no guards give them a second look as they prowl their way through the cobblestoned streets.
Following Micah's direction and Bator's request they find themselves in a poorer section of town, a good few streets of ramshackle buildings and unpaved alleys. Crudely carved wooden tablets strewn across a few of them show plain the pain behind some of those doors. Missing posters for two boys and a girl, all disappeared in the last month, only one able to offer a reward. An address is posted with each. Down the corner to the right lies the grain store.
Erick eyes each of the posters carefully, trying to commit the features to memory. "Two ways to handle it, that I see. We can openly nose about, ask questions about the missing kids, maybe even tell people that a fourth kid went missing, and someone made a mistake and took a kid that has a protector who's paying for us to find him. That does a few things, warns the people we're looking, might make them make a mistake. They might run, might come after us, or might try to get information out of us if they know they don't have a fourth. Of course, if they do, they might kill the fourth and try to cut and run." He ticks off fingers on his left hand. Then he moves his right up, and ticks off other things. "Other option is keep it quiet that we're looking for kids, but we'll need another reason to be asking questions. That keeps us from being obvious about what we're doing, but makes our job harder. Since we're looking for the escaped slave too, and he's a kid, whatever we do for the missing kids will work for the escaped slave boy too." He pauses, and looks around. "Thoughts? Also, anyone have an idea were we can get copies of these without it being obvious? If we go with option two?"
Clyde looks at the posters. Hmm.. We might wanna visit their parents at least. Try to learn about where the kids went, how they vanished. Plus check the bran.
That seems to be the most discreet way to do it. The parents, first, then? What do you say, Henry? Telsyn asks the halfling.
"That's fine, but I would think it's best if we do it with just a couple of people instead of all of us. No reason to intimidate the people who are already suffering. "
Good idea. Perhaps you and one of our more gregarious companions could reach out without startling anyone. No doubt these poor folks must be skittish with all that's going on.
"Me? I'm not really a people person. Let's just say I have a rough upbringing. "
Clyde gets a sinking feeling. Well...I never learned to chat people up in the army.
"I'll do it..." He looks over the companions. "No to Telsyn, I've met angry dwarves with better people skills than him." He looks at Henry and Clyde, and sighs. "Neither of you two have any personal magnetism. The way halflings are treated though, let's go with Clyde as my backup."
Using the posters, he tracks down where the parents live, and knocks on the door of the first home. When it opens, he nods his head politely. "My pardon, may I talk to the person who placed up the posters?"
Upon a quiet knock, the door opens to reveal a middle-aged woman with red hair and a wrinkled face, who promptly bursts into tears as soon as Erick mentions the posters.
After a few bouts of crying and being invited in, she volunteers a description of the child, Tolem, as well as the time he went missing, a week and a half ago at night when he was running home from a day's playing. No one saw him go or has seen him since.
With your burgeoning knowledge of the area, you note the youth didn't vanish that far from the grain store.
We should check the grain store and the area around it.
Erick reassures the woman that while he can't promise anything about the boy, that he can promise he'll look into the disappearance, and asks her not to tell anyone, as he doesn't want to spook anyone. He implies, without outright saying it and making her cry harder, that if the person spooks something bad might happen to the boy if he's still alive.
When they exit, Erick nods at Clyde. "Probably, let's let our two companions do some field work around the shop while we check with the next two poster homes. Once is random chance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action. If either of the other two also had their kids vanish near there, it may be time to dress Henry up like a kid and see what happens if he goes running around near the grain store at night."
"While we're walking around here, keep an eye out for a magic shop, we need to buy a wand of healing so we aren't dead next time."
[b]Will you be able to use that wand? I don't have any skill with magic.[b/]
"I'm not great with them, but I can usually figure it out given enough time. Just don't expect me to be of any use with one in combat."
The woman tearfully nods and blesses Erick with a hug.
Clyde recalls a small magic emporium just down the street and around the corner on the edge of this poorer side of town.
Studying the road, Erick spots a broken window next to the grain store.
Similarly he spots a distinct set of tracks moving from underneath the window; small even for a halfling. Fortunately this seems to be a relatively little-traveled boulevard. He tracks the tracks down the road before they abruptly halt at a manhole in the road.
Looks like we are going sewer diving.
Clyde helps get the manhole cover up.
"Never liked sewers, but when you gotta, you gotta. "
and assist on the strength check
or fail maybe
Despite Henry's weak efforts, Erick and Telsyn pull hard and the manhole is levered open, and one by one you drop into the dripping darkness of Ostenso's sewers.
The sewers are surprisingly orderly; two passes with a long river of... water... down the middle, grated in intervals.
Looking around you spot a steady trail of rats passing through the sewer tunnel.
+5 following tracks
Got some tracks here, Big creature with clawed feet.
Taking 10 on planes.
Telsyn shares what he notices.
DC 14 K. Planes:
Some of the rats show signs of demonic corruption; red eyes, bone whiskers.
DC 15 Perception:
The rats are split into two streams; normal rats heading in one direction, and subtly different rats heading in the opposite direction.
Well this is bizarre for the rats to be acting like that, even the normal ones, so I guess we follow the nasty ones?
Wait, we should go follow the normal rats.
Okay. I'm right behind ya.
"Don't rats usually run away from a threat?"
Maybe controlled by some evil rat wizard.