Meeting the boss upstairs, he looks bleary eyed. "What happened to Larur, did you find anything? Was it Smeed that has him? Either him or that big galoot Zincher. I want my friend back! Who took him?"
Something is amis Vancaskerkin. We are being played by someone. I am not sure we have all the facts. Saphren states, clearly not liking failing in the mission. We found this in the rubbish behind Smeed's place. he provides the bloody cloak.But Smeed did not do it. I am convinced of that. And his boss Croat did not do it either. So who? Who had the motive?
"We don't KNOW that Croat didn't. But Clegg is my number one suspect too."
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Croat has no motive. He is less likely to get paid now. Saphren provides.
"Wasn't Larur carrying the full sum owed? He takes that, then insists Saul didn't pay him. If Saul doesn't pay, he still has what he was owed. If Saul pays to get him off his back, he gets double."
Blossom refrains from comment, her attention passing from speaker to speaker.
"Clegg is my guess," says Reva as she watches Vancaskerkin evenly. "Somebody did a bad job of planting that cloak, but we were mad enough to believe it and scared Smeed half to death. I let him know you may reconsider your option to keep up payments considering Larur's disappearance, but that's your choice."
"So you're saying, Larur is...dead! I can't believe it! It could be Clegg, it could be Croat. It could be a random deal in the street, I guess. He was carrying more than just an installment, but it wasn't the balance either. What am I going to do? I need a floor manager...and my friend."
He breaks down for a moment tears streaming down his face. Then sighs and regains himself.
"One of you will have to take over. Reva, would you take over as floor manager? You're honest and the staff respects you. I'll start kicking tires with my contacts in the underworld, see if anyone knows anything about poor Feldin. If it was Clegg or Croat, we'll get them back, you just wait and see. Whoever did this will pay!"
"Actually, we are saying only that we found his cloak, bloody & torn. We are asking if you can think of any who might profit from his death?". Blossom replies.
Blossom is right - we said nothing of the sort.
"Sure," says Reva simply. She steps aside to let Blossom speak.
We never said Larur is…dead…
He musta jumped to that conclusion.
Magnus sits in sullen silence, glowering at any that meet his gaze.
Saul looks abashed. "Hey I didn't mean to jump to conclusions here. You bring me a bloody cloak of my friend who is missing, what am I supposed to think? I don't think he had any enemies, and I know no one who would've profited from his demise or disappearance. Probably some enemy of mine, I am afraid. Maybe Croat or Zincher? Maybe someone else."
"Do you have any leads on his disappearance? Do we know where he went? Like I said, while we look, I still need this place to run. I need a floor manager and I guess I should make you full partners? What do you say?"
His mouth is set in a grim determination you rarely see in his face which is usually animated and jovial.
"Tell me where he is, and we'll go get him. Tell me who's responsible and we'll make them pay."
"No...
disrespect, to your loss, but I have little interest or talent for the minutia of management. I am here to dance." Blossom replies, bowing slightly before proceeding to her room.
nithe a bhainistiú."
manage matters."
Reva glances over as Blossom leaves before turning back to Larur.
"We don't know who did it, if Larur is alive, or what happened," says Reva simply. "We just have a bloody cloak that was planted, and a pretty strong idea it wasn't Smeed. My gut tells me Clegg but I can't prove it. Our trail is cold. I'll continue to dig up informatio--" She blinks. "Full partners? I'm in. If you want to draw up what that means I suppose I'll let the staff know my new position. I'll also see if anyone has any information on Larur. Someone knows something."
I'm not sure if he's drawing me in or I him. Still, I know there's something to find out about him. I have to have been sent here for a reason. I bet that bastard did Larur in, but let's find proof. A partner gets more information than an employee.
"I'll take full partners for sure, and I think I can handle being floor manager, if you need me to be. But I'm most concerned about Larur. Maybe we should go to his house and look for any clues there?"
Saphren nods. I shall be on the floor working then. There are a few things I want to improve in the running of our place. he says with a smile. Let me know if I am needed for further excursions.
"Full partners? But ve are heffing nothing to invest. Only cunning, and mah-scle." he says, suspiciously. "But it is not done to be telling a man vot to do with his money. I only vish to find my kinsman."
He nods in agreement to Trig. "Ve start at his house, then find somebody in employ of zis Clegg and break his knees and make him talk."
Saul reaches out to shake hands with each of you. "I'm sure you'll find what happened to Larur, and your presence has already helped the Goblin out tremendously. Making you full partner will only help more. Make whatever changes you feel are necessary."
With that he dismisses you to your duties.
As Reva and Saphren get to work inside the casino, Trig and Magnus make another road trip, this time to the home of Larur Feldin. As they approach the well-tended townhouse, they see the front door standing wide open.
Trig yelps and runs for the door, her bare feet slapping the cobblestones rapidly. She peeks into the townhouse carefully, letting the sun get out of her eyes so she can see into the room.
The first thing that assaults Trig's senses is the smell. Unwashed bodies, sweat, and old whiskey...very bad. Then she hears the sound like a buzzsaw coming from the back room. A long low rumbling sound, like a cornered great cat.
Saul reaches out to shake hands with each of you. "I'm sure you'll find what happened to Larur, and your presence has already helped the Goblin out tremendously. Making you full partner will only help more. Make whatever changes you feel are necessary."
With that he dismisses you to your duties.
As Reva and Saphren get to work inside the casino, Trig and Magnus make another road trip, this time to the home of Larur Feldin. As they approach the well-tended townhouse, they see the front door standing wide open.
"Get your hammer out, Magus, dear, there's something not right here" Trig whispers to her dwarven friend.
Magnus nods, wrinkling his nose as he grips his warhammer and pushes past his companion into the back room.
The dwarf rushes into the back room, hammer held high for a killing blow against whatever fell creature emits that odor and sound. As he crashes in the door, he instead finds to his surprise 4 sleeping vagrants. They are dressed in Feldin's finest clothes, sleeping on his large mattress or floor, and clearly passed out drunk.
One stirs feebly when the dwarf crashes in, "There's plenty o' room on the sofa out there, mate. No need to crash in here."
I vill not let you haunt about my kinsman's halls. Begone!" the dwarf bellows, pulling one of the unfortunate vagrants brusquely to his feet and shoving him toward the door. Assuming the unarmed drunkards won't tarry with a heavily armed and armored dwarf, he chooses to ignore them and start searching the room for clues. "Trig. Qvestion them. Zey may be knowing somethink."
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"Don't give us any trouble or you'll be on the wrong end of a magic spell!" Trig warns the vagrants, and then demands, "How long have you been here? Why did you break in? Have you seen the owner of this house?"
The tramps are up at once stumbling to the door as the fierce dwarf bellows at them. Once out of the bedroom, the hobos fall under the withering glare of the Trig.
"Don't hurt us missus!" they cry. "The door was open, honest it was, and the place looked warm. We just came in, found it abandoned and set up camp. We've only been here since last night. We ain't no thieves or robbers. It was open and empty, truly!"
"He was missing last night!"
"By Magrim..." the Dwarf mutters, slackjawed. "Bah! The trail is cold, but ve may yet find some clue." he grunts, undefeated. He pushes past the drunkards and begins to frantically search through Larur's desk and papers. "Stones on his bones! Could he not heff told us vhere he vas going? None of zis is making any sense..."
"You said it, Bubeleh! What a disaster this is."
Trig helps Magnus search, looking under the desk and into dark corners.
They search the house, but come up empty. The trail is indeed cold. Besides the ripped and bloody cloak no sign of Larur or his fate remains. Frustrated, the investigators eventually return to The Gold Goblin and share their news.
At the Goblin, business continues to pick up. Reva takes on the responsibilities of Floor Manager with relish and the staff responds well to her firm but fair management.
The new-comer you interviewed, Samaritha Beldusk, turns out to be a jewel of a find. Intelligent, friendly, and capable, she has become one of the stars of the staff.
Do we have any regular income that we can spend?
Time passes and the trail of Larur Feldin grows no warmer. Without violent distraction, you fall into a routine of your positions and lives at the Gold Goblin. Learning to run the business is hard work, but you find that some of your adventuring skills translate to the business world as well.
As a week or more goes by, you throw yourselves into the work, not thinking too much about it and welcoming the respite from risking your lives. One day, a little more than a week after Larur's disappearance, Saul asks to meet with you as a group again in the evening.
Reva does her best to keep the staff in line through fair, consistent rules and her ability to intimidate most people with a simple glare. Her extremely sharp senses and knack for picking out those with ill intentions helps to keep the Gold Goblin humming profitably.
Reva arrives in Saul's office on edge and wary. Larur's disappearance has deeply unsettled her, the news of the squatters moving in immediately doesn't help. She remains to the side, arms folded and mostly quiet.
Saphren acts as bouncer quenching trouble before it is brewed. This is his contribution.
He also asks around on the streets about Larur, but it seems no one is talking.
Magnus spends the week in a dark mood, increasingly mistrustful of not only the Goblin's patrons, but also his fellow co-workers. Haunting about the Goblin like a surly, 250 lb poltergeist, bitterly cursing Riddleport and her inhabitants in his native tongue. He works late into the night, and steals home reeking of smoke and bitter dwarven ale for only a few hours of sleep each night. It is only in the company of Trig that he makes any lengths to be civil, at least as civil as the dwarf can manage. He is glad there is still somebody at the goblin with a stomach for dwarven cooking.
Magnus, now a partner, marches his way into the counting rooms, asking who supposed to stop him. He pours over the accounts well into the night, transcribing them in dwarvish into his little black book, searching for some way to increase the Goblins' profit margins. He also maintains his duties in the kitchens The dwarf's foul temper and the decline in giant reptile attacks see his kitchens running like clockwork, with barely a word from the Dwarf.
Trig does her best to comfort Magnus in his darkest moods, but she also mourns Larur and becomes a bit obsessive about protecting the other Goblin employees. "Travel in pairs, girls," she advises her servers, and warns the men to always let someone know when they leave and where they are going.
Over the following week, Blossom shows the least apparent reaction to Larur's disappearance, occupying her days with visits to those salon's frequented by important men's wives & mistresses. Where she indulges in gossip and the discussion's of fashions & personal habits. She also makes some effort to locate appropriate musical accompaniments for her performances. When possible, Blossom also spends time with Samaritha, encouraging her to talk about her aspirations, plans & goals.
As you gather again in Vancaskerkin's meeting room, he smiles at each of you absently rubbing the key that sits in place of his hand.
"My friends, I have need of your aid once again. I placed on order for exotic and expensive Garundi liquors months ago in hopes of having it for the 'Cheat the Devil' gambling tournament where we met. Unfortunately, the ship from Sargava was delayed, and has just now arrived in port. I have significant investment in that inventory, but I know that every pirate, crook, and crime boss will know about it, and some may try to make a move to steal it. I wouldn't put it past the Overlord himself to make a move on my goods."
"The 4 casks await unloading aboard the cog Foamrunner which is docked at the wharves. Take 4 of our bouncers or staff if you like to help load and carry the stuff, but mostly I want you there for protection."
"Can you go and bring back my goods?"
"Níor chóir go mbeadh ár earraí?" Blossom murrmurs to Reva, sotto vocce. "Táimid Tá 'comhpháirtithe tar éis an tsaoil."
"We are partners after all."
Reva nods over to Blossom and turns to watch over Saul.
Either I am far too suspicious or he is the best liar in Varisia. I don't even know what seems funny about this story but something is off. And Blossom is right; we're not real partners. It's not like the basement has been opened.
"Consider it done." She looks over to the rest of the group."I'd like to bring Sam - she's less a strong back and more a good head. I'm sure the rest of you know the best choices for some solid hands."