Valai follows as long as well, her expression cold and haughty. On her shoulder, her raven occasionally flutters its wings and glances about.
Judah led them to the massive building, not really sure about how to go about finding the information, or the person, they sought.
The looming architecture made him uncomfortable. As he stared at it images swam in his mind of similar structures in other places. He looked around nervously, paying careful attention to people's faces. He shook his head to clear his mind and turned back to the group.
"I… never had much dealings with official types. It might be better for one of you more respectable sorts to take the lead on this one."
Last thing we need is for me to have an episode in the middle of the godsdamned Arvensoar.
Dimral moves towards the building:"Let's find an officer and try to het him to receive us" so saying the colossal man approaches one of the guards.
The guard looks at the large man approaching him "Yes?"
Dimral considers his words carefully:"Guard, we are here to talk with one of your officers about a matter of importance to us. We would be grateful if you could direct us towards one who could receive us"
The guard nods "Follow me. I will find someone to assist you, though it may be awhile."
"If you might expedite matters," Valai says, a little stiffly, "that would be... swell." Then she smiles. It's a pretty enough sight, but too clearly forced; asking nicely does not seem to come easily to the Elfmaid.
"Yes, discretion and quickness would be... appreciated"
Judah nodded, keeping his mouth shut. Talking to guard-types wasn't his favorite thing in the world.
The guard leads you into the Avensoar to a bunch of offices. He motions to a place to sit while he heads into the office. Coming out moment later he notes "The watch officers have busy schedules someone will be with you when they have an opportunity." Unless otherwise held up the guard heads back to his post.
Valai sits down, heaves an irritated sigh -- and takes out her journal to jot down a few notes. There is a slight frown of concentration on her face, but otherwise she looks resigned to stay where she is.
On her shoulder, however, her raven soon starts to groom. Then to flutter its wings. Finally, the bird actually jumps off of her shoulder and hops over to the office, peeking inside.
"What's happening in here?" he asks in a loud caw.
Knowing a huge part of being an accomplished hunter is made by the ability to wait Dimral stands with his back to the wall, making as little noise as possible.
Judah did not like being in this place. He didn't really like staying in one place for long to begin with. He forced himself to sit in one place, but the longer they were stuck waiting the more he seemed to fidget, jump at shadows and worry at himself like a Pesh junkie.
After about 2 hours a Varisian woman dressed in guard attire, though obviously higher ranked than most guards comes out of the office and walks over to the group. "I apologize for the delay, as you can imagine in a city such as this the guards are rather busy. I am Kasadei. Please follow me to my office and we can discuss your matter of importance."
Without waiting for a reply she beings to walk back toward the offices. She leads you to a small office with a reasonablly nice table and chair, facing the door, and another 3 chairs facing the table. She motions for anyone who would like to sit while she takes a seat in her chair, waiting for you to speak.
Dimral follows the others but declines to sit down:"Well met, officer Kasadei, we are here because we are on the trail of a criminal we believe you have met before... ever heard about a certain Natalya Vancaskerkin?"
Judah sat, still saying nothing, pulling his cloak around himself. He was starting to look a little pale but was holding himself together.
She nods to Dimral half paying attention as she files away from papers from the top of her desk "Natalya Vancaskerkin is known to the city watch —she’s a petty burglar known to run with the Tower Girls."
Kasadei looks up and stops a moment "What is your concern with her, what do you think might have happened?"
Dimral eyes the officer waryly:"We have reason to think she might be involved with a robbery and we were hired to recover some of the items she might have stolen. The fact she might be one of the victims of these Nindalese slavers adds a little spice to the mix..."
She shrugs slightly to Dimral "That Natalya has vanished is news to the watch — she hasn’t been picked up by any patrols, in any event. Though I'm not surprised that Natalya’s disappearance hasn’t been reported — the Sczarni tend to try to solve their own problems. If anyone knows more, it’s probably the Tower Girls."
"As for the Tower Girls, tracking down any of the Sczarni gangs is tricky normally, but as far as I know, the Tower Girls themselves have recently changed their headquarters. No informants have yet been able to update the city watch as to their new headquarters, but I do know that a few months back, the Tower Girls had a falling out with another Sczarni gang, the Wreckwash Blades. For several weeks after that, rumor was that the Tower Girls were slumming it in an abandoned warehouse in Underbridge that they shared with a disreputable local by the name of Fenster the Blight — he may know where the Tower Girls or perhaps Natalya are located now."
Dimral nods:"Thank you. You were most helpful. One last thing... what can you tell us about the nindalese slavers?"
She shrugs "Rumers."
She nods to Rommin's words "Well the best place to start is in Underbridge as I mentioned. I can even get you a map of the warehouse we have heard the Tower Girls might be staying in."
She waves her hand dismissively as she continues "As for this nonsense with the slavers, I admit that I am frustrated at the persistent rumors that the city watch is doing nothing to solve the disappearances — especially considering that we have confirmed that the rumors of Nidalese slavers are false, and that the majority of those who vanished have actually been found."
She shrugs "The rumormongers don’t find happy endings nearly as fun to gossip about, and as a result news that the vanishings have been solved isn’t nearly as gossiped about as the vanishings themselves have been. In fact, as far as the city watch is concerned, the investigation into the disappearances is concluded."
She goes on to say "Many of those who had disappeared were not vagrants, but rather were gainfully employed merchants, fishermen, shopkeepers, and laborers. In many cases, they were found days or weeks after they vanished, living as homeless wretches in the city slums. Those who were questioned proved to have amnesia and had no idea of where they had been during their disappearance. They seemed none the worse for wear other than their amnesia and the effects of their deplorable living conditions. I'm baffled as to what may have caused the amnesia, but since most victims seem to have returned safe and whole otherwise, the watch has declared the spate of vanishings to be a closed case."
Kasadei lowers her voice as she continues "I do admit though that I worry that whatever has been going on in these cases, the city of Magnimar has not seen the last of it, and if you can figure out what has been causing hard-working citizens to abandon their lives and become amnesiac vagrants, I will see to it that you get a 1,000 gp reward."
Dimral looks uncertain:"These tower girls seem like our best chance to find Natalya, yet these disappearances are worrysome, maybe we should investigate them a bit more througly" so saying the gigantic man nods as if he convinced himself of something
She shakes her head "The only thing they had in common is they were all from the docks or last seen there before their disappearance."
Dimral bows his head a little and walks after Rommin:"That was good information we gathered. Now the question is what trail we choose to follow from here on. Any preferences?"
"Have these recovered people been tested for magical tampering?" Valai asks. "Or perhaps... surgery?"
Judah was eyeing the shadows as well, though for very different reasons.
"The docks are the last part of the city to go quiet at night. They can be dangerous too, but for a group like ours the usually problems will likely avoid us unless we go looking for trouble. Which... I suppose is exactly what we're doing."
Dimral's visage almost opens up with something akin to a grin:"Yes... that's exactly what we are doing... searching for trouble... and a thief. But I'm still concerned about these disappearances. Something seems odd about them and I don't like oddities. They end up killing you if you are not careful"
She nods to Valai "We checked. Nothing we could find with the resources we have." She opens a drawer and shuffles through it before pulling out a map of the Underbridge area and marking a spot on it then hands it over "This should get you to the warehouse I mentioned. If you find anything about the disapperances please let me know."
"If life and opportunity allow, certainly," Valai says, nodding politely.
Heading out with the map in hand and finding a quite spot to discuss you see the map is pretty straight forward and should be easy enough to follow. Not it is simply a matter of deciding your next step.
While travelling towards their destination Dimral does the same as Rommin although he knows fully well he's not suited for diplomatic endeavors.