Garret moves around the set props and trips the director, but the gnone rolls out of the way of Garret's followup stomp!
Anail drives home a wicked stab, ending the man's struggles. As he goes unconscious, his form morphs in front of your eyes, leaving a grayish humanoid creature that seems almost unfinished, with a narrow head, gaunt limbs, and a sinister, noseless face.
Among his gear, you find a potion of bull’s strength, an acid flask, a smokestick, masterwork leather armor, and +1 longsword.
Investigating the playhouse you find a dozen dressing rooms through a short corridor behind the stage. Each room has a piece of paper with a name scrawled on it tacked to the door where it looks like a nameplate used to be. One of the doors still features a gold-faced nameplate that says “Senlokto Boraminder”. The door is locked.
Anail finds no traps and is able to easily pick the door's lock. Inside, you see a carpet, bed, desk, mirror, and chair. Searching the room, you find a note in the desk.
From what I ’ve seen of your most recent recruits and the plays, you are doing a splendid job as a stage director, but are failing me in our ultimate pursuit. Need I remind you why I hired you in the first place? There is no shortage of young “talent ” eager to appear on stage; ensure that as many of them as possible come under our influence. Only then can we truly profit on their sale.
D.O.
Darion and Anail recognize the creature as a doppelganger.
Finding no traps, the door is opened. The trap door opens to a ladder that leads down 15 feet to a crawl space measuring no more than 20 feet square. In one corner of the room is a pile of rags, beneath which lies the decomposed body of the true Senlokto Boraminder. In the other corner of the room lie scattered papers, including the deed for the Captive Audience, signed by Senlokto Boraminder, as well as papers providing the details of the recent renovations to the playhouse, some of them signed by both Ouidda and Senlokto.
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"This is good. If we compare Senlokto's signature on the deed with the signature on the renovation details, it reveals that these latest signatures are forged. An interesting piece of evidence to bring to our case. I wonder if we should bring both bodies - the real and the fake Senlokto."
Then Anáil suggests moving on to the next location they've heard about.
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Owyn will offer a prayer and grants funerary rights to the corpse, recommending that they quietly bring the body to the temple of Iomedae. "He deservesa proper burial. And besides, it will be hard to prove that he's dead if we can't produce a body."
With that, he's also ready to move to the next place of interest.
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Garret silently says "It seems that the Spider is involved with a strange new investor, an old half-elf, goes by the name of Jarovar—a real stingy, nasty type—well, he’s just set up his investment establishment in Almas, but he refuses to subscribe to any of the merchant guilds in the city and he only deals with a few clients who get small contributions from him, one of whom is the Spider, I hear. Queerer still, he makes odd ventures out of his shop in the dead of night, well after closing.”
Garret looks at the sky, estimating the time "We might want to pay him a visit tonight, but first let's investigate here. Shall we see if the front door is open?"
"Shall we head to Jarovar's establishment now? I suggest I wait outside for him to move out and we will follow him at a slight distance."
With only a little difficulty, the party finds your way to Jarovar Investments. As the sun lowers in the sky, you enter the establishment to see a crusty half-elf with little in the way of manners and even less in regards to personal hygiene sitting behind a desk. He looks up as you enter. "Aye, what da want? You don't look to have much to be investing!" He says, looking the party up and down.
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Anáil nods respectfully. "Greetings, are you Jarovar? I am Anáil, and we've heard of your independant stance towards investing - something rare indeed, and one thing we particularly like about you. We'd like to know more about your business and propose you an interesting offer. Could we enter and sit to talk about it, please? I'm sure you won't regret it."
The man levels a hard stare at you. "If your not here to invest, then be on your way! I'm not interested in any "interesting" offers."
"Bah, money is what talks boy! Some me your and maybe I'll listen. Otherwise, be on your way!"
Garret doesn't notice anything in particular. The man glances out the window, frowns at you, and closing his accounts ledger, begins cleaning up. "Unless you have anything else to add, I'll be closing up shop, soon."
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"Fine, out with pleasantries. We've come to talk about Oundle, and we won't take no for an answer. "
-Posted with Wayfinder
Jarovar's eyes widen as Own steps forward. Holding up his hands, he says. "Look....look, I don't want any trouble. I'm just a pawn, a trader from Katapesh. A business associate of mine told me the a lot of gold to be made here, in the slave trading business. I was contacted by the Spider to take of of money and resources." He says, his voice quavering and sweat beading on his forehead.
"I'm just a worker bee. I didn't think I was getting into the slave trade at first, just running errands for people who 'might' be slave traders. Look, if you really want to know what's goings on, you should go check out the Captive Audience and the Sailswift, where the real trading goes on."
Giving you a pleading look, he says. "I swear, I didn't ever know what they were......though I did hear muffled sounds coming from the back of the cart, sometimes....." He finishes, guiltily.
"I only deal with two people; Senlokto Boraminder who runs the Captive Audience and whom I collect the goods from, and Ruovarn Krillis, the captain of the Sailswift, whom I delivers the goods to."
Sighing, he shrugs. "That's all I know."
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"We already know about The Captive Audience, Senlokto is out of the picture. Now if you want to save your skin I suggest you cooperate and get ready to testify against Ouidda. If all goes well, we'll put in a good word for you and you will be free of her influence forever. Would you agree to write a testimony to prove her involvement?"
"That'd would be signing my own death warrant!" He says to Anail. "Look, I've told you everything. I think I'll be booking passage on the next ship to Katapesh!"
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"If you're leaving for Katapesh, signing won't change a thing for you. You will have made the right thing."
-Posted with Wayfinder
"That's where you are wrong, the Spider has agents everywhere."