Hamshanks himself answers, waving Tamrin back, "We know that when Zefiro was arrested he had several such books in his possession. If it wasn't for your quick thinking back in Corentyn the others in his private library might have been burned already. Despite the Bellflower network having agents inside we don't have a layout of the prison," he says, meaningfully looking at Tamrin.
Tamrin shrugs and replies, "What? Once we rescue anyone from inside it'll be more difficult to do so in the future. That's why I'm glad its your Pathfinders taking the mission."
Hamshanks shakes his head, "Anyways, try looking for a contraband area, or an office or vault. Those are the most likely locations for 'illegal' histories."
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"One more question, Venture-Captain, or perhaps this would be best answered by Master Tamrin. Once we free Belinger and liberate his histories, we'll only have a short time to get away before the Interrogator returns and finds his prison has been breached. How do we plan to escape the city once the job is done?"
Tamrin is the one who speaks up again, cutting off anything Hamshanks was about to say. “On your feet of course!" Seeing his joke not receive the attention he thinks it deserves Tamrin becomes serious once more, "I’ll keep the interrogator occupied for as long as I can. If he comes back early, get to the docks as fast as possible. My advice? When the guards are spread this thin, it’s tricky for them to pursue fugitives while also doing damage control. It’s a holiday. Teach the Chelish how to party.”
Zarta pulls Marcus and Qioté aside before Tamrin collects everyone to step off the ship.
Abruptly she pushes Marcus and Qioté towards the others and retreats from Tamrin once more. "Goodbye loves, bring us back our contact and we'll have something nice and shiny for you when you return!" Venture Captain Hamshanks looks rather sullen that Zarta would blurt out such information, but pushes you on just the same.
After outfitting the you with bronze Aspis Consortium badges, Tamrin leads the way aboard the Queen Gale, a merchant vessel that sometimes assists the Bellflower Network in transporting both people and goods. The Queen Gale smuggles everyone into Ostenso Harbor the next day, where Tamrin hastily leads you through Dockside’s winding streets. Dozens of guards oversee the construction of stages, the hanging of banners, and the steering of extravagantly decorated floats in preparation for the upcoming Loyalty Day events.
Despite the spectacle, Tamrin wastes no time bringing you to a rectangular stone building capped with an octagonal pyramid. Each side of the pyramid bears the painted image of a red nail, though rain has made the paint run, so rivulets of red stain the roof and make the image appear to be bleeding. As is common with many state buildings, Asmodean symbols are common here, though they are only on easily removed fixtures (paintings, banners, and such) while another symbol resides beneath. The symbol is a red-crowned spike piercing a golden ring and makes the holier members of the party uncomfortable to look at for too long.
Tamrin instructs you to wait outside, then disappears into the building for nearly half an hour. He returns accompanied by a retinue of soldiers, led by a lanky interrogator with manacles at his belt. Tamrin gestures towards everyone, prompting the interrogator to size you up.
A man in the prime of his life, the interrogator has the bearing of both a noble and a soldier. The way he analyzes you however is something entirely different, as though you were all just slabs of meat ready to be cut. He reaches toward his belt, then further into his pouch and quickly thrusts a piece of jerky in Qioté's wolf's face. When she smells it and takes it without taking his hand off he nods and looks back at Tamrin, "They'll do."
The interrogator beckons to one of his guards and then asserts "You are here to help watch the facility while I tend to Tamrin’s emergency. Galvar," he points quickly to the guard he summoned, "is in charge during my absence. You are not to go anywhere or touch anything without Galvar’s permission and supervision."
Tamrin flashes you a subtle wink before leading the interrogator and his soldiers into the city.
When the interrogator is out of sight and earshot Galvar visibly relaxes. Breathing out a sigh of relief he opens the doors and formally welcomes you into the facility, "Come on in to the Bloody Nail. Now, you know I do have to supervise you while you're helping us guard the facility, but I'm sure you're as unhappy as working on a holiday as the rest of us are." He leans in conspiratorially, allowing you to smell the undertones of alcohol on his breath, "Between us, the other guards and I have been having small celebrations while waiting to get off shift and enjoy the festivities outside." He straightens and looks at you professionally once more, "I'll be with you while you explore, so feel free to head anywhere you like. Exception is locked doors, but you won't be able to get into those anyways. So, lead the way."
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While he is not skilled at deception, Anthys is a professional soldier and can at least play that role well. He falls into the role of a guard on patrol, keeping an eye on entrances and exits, keeping his hand near his sword, and making sure to keep in formation with his comrades.
He'll try to avoid saying any more than necessary, to avoid tipping Galvar off.
"Right. We do need to familiarize ourselves with our assignment."
Anthys will move up to open the double doors.
Galvar smiles, glad that you understand, and walks in the doors. Four statues of snarling hounds stand in the corners of the Nail’s entrance hall. A red rug covers much of the floor, although stone peeks through the holes worn in the severely trodden carpet.
Galvar walks past a guard leaning in the corner, "Hey Straven. Got the temps here." Straven snorts and waves you through the hall. "And now we're at the hallway leading to the main areas." He points out the four guards standing watch conversing, who eye you with intrigue, but quickly turn back to their conversations. "That's Asma, Brai, Tesante, and Zir. Where would you like to see next?"
Iron bars separate the Nail’s southern hallways from the northern ones. Basic lanterns hang from the ceiling in each corner surrounding the central prison, lighting the halls. Galvar looks around and asks, "Which direction do you want to go?"
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"Nice to meet you all." Marcus follows along and nods politely to the group before turning back to Galvar. "We should probably see where the prisoners are kept and take note of which ones are supposed to be in which cells, just in case anything does happen where we might need to do something to one of them. But after, do you have kitchen facilities? I'm hoping there's going to be some food on this job, at least."
Galvar nods and leads the way. He brings you up to the bars separating the north and south sides of the building, leading you through. Pointing at the double doors he says, "This is were all of the prisoners are kept. As you can see this door is locked, and the only person who has the keys is the interrogator himself, though he keeps a spare set in his office. He was in the middle of a session when your Halfling friend came strolling in here, but there's no telling who was in on it."
He leads you backwards and through a single door. This cozy chamber features wooden chairs arranged casually around two tables. Two blazing fireplaces warm the room—a western one facing in toward an open door and a southern one furnished with kitchen utensils and cook pots. Playing cards, dice, and other diversions litter the tables. A gamey smell wafts through the room. Galvar points out the five people lounging in this room, "That's Cormyn, Inetra, Usul, and Valtym sipping from the flask, and Thrick over there is preparing some rabbit stew." Each of the guards raise their hand in turn when introduced and happily welcome you when the introductions are over.
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Vindlér does his best to keep his mouth shut and stay out of the way while the others ingratiate themselves to their babysitter. When Galvar leads them into the mess hall, however, he can't help but break a small smirk. "Heh! If you've seen one mess hall, you've seen 'em all! G'day to you, chaps! Anyone feeling up to a quick game of cards before we get too busy on patrol?"
Vindlér sits at one of the tables and begins shuffling a deck of cards, waiting for someone to take him up on the game.
Galvar shrugs, "No one causes trouble because they're chained at all times. They've already been fed for the night so we won't even have to go into the prison itself while on duty tonight. This all happened so quickly we really don't have any place that you absolutely need to be, so whatever formation you want to take feel free, though we can't stay in this room all night."
Inetra and Usul are quick to jump in on the game of cards while Cormyn and Valtym hang back and watch. Thrick, happy that someone complimented his stew continues to watch it in case it burns, every so often tasting and adding extra herbs or spices as necessary.
Qioté begins scanning the room and finds several more flasks hidden well from sight, even one right next to the door leading to the privy. Two doors, north and south, probably lead to barracks and storerooms so the guards have quick access to them.
Everyone but Inetra holds their heart on their sleeves. She however, has subtle tells that Berato and Vindlér pick up on quickly, indicating her frustration with her hand. She bluffs hard and quickly blows Usul out of the water. By the end of the 5th round however, her abysmal luck has hold of her and soon it is only Berato and Vindlér left. Neither can hide their expressions of success as they continue to play, and in the end it all comes down to luck. Berato pulls a high full house, deuces over eights, while Vindlér pulls a slightly better full house, Kings over tens. That ends up being the final hand of the game, Vindlér coming out on top.
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Marcus walks over to the rabbit stew and inhales deeply. "Mmm. That stew smells wonderful. A hearty stew pairs best with biscuits or bread, if you have any. Its a shame we're not likely to have a good white wine to go with it. If you could point me to your storeroom, perhaps I could look over what we do have and prepare a side dish?" Marcus will try to wander off to the storeroom with Anthys and see where Galvar stays when the party splits location.
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"By the ... ya took me to the cleaners again, 'Short Stuff'!"
"Heheh! That's right, lad. Now enough o' that 'Short Stuff' nonsense. You'll make the halfling feel left out!" The dwarf laughs deeply again and turns to the guards, "Well played, you lot, especially you, Inetra. That was a bold move. You can't get past these sharp eyes though." He winks at the woman with a grin, then leans back in his seat. "So, what's the chance one o' you would share a drop from those flasks with your new dwarf friend, eh?"
Knowing that Marcus and Anthys are in the storeroom checking things out Galvar is happy to stand beside the fire and watch over the rest of the party while keeping an eye out for the others that have split off, waiting for them to return to the main area.
The rest of the guards are more than happy to pass the flask around, with the remark, "Just don't let the interrogator see it once he gets back, or you'll be in for it."
The store room contains chests with the guards’ personal belongings. None of the staff store valuables here, but extra guard tabards hang from the rack along the northeast wall.
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"This is going to be difficult." Marcus begins looking in the corners to see if the they stored any food in the room while he whispers quietly to Anthys. "I can, given enough time, probably spring the locks on the door to the interrogator's office, assuming we can find it, or on the doors into the cell area. We don't know what is inside though; more guards, magical warning? And we'll have to get our friend out of here somehow."
Marcus stands up from his search, stretching his back. "I think I'm going to tell them we'll do periodic sweeps, just to keep things professional, to give us a reason to be back there. I'll ask if there's any magical traps or warning we need to worry about tripping or responding to at the same time. What do you think? Marcus critically eyes the guard tabards on the rack. "Also, do you think we could snag one of these and get them in one of our packs without them noticing?"
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If the southern wall of the storeroom totally blocks line of sight from the northeast wall to the guardroom, Anthys will put a guard tabard in his backpack. (That is, if he doesn't have to risk a Sleight of Hand check.)
"Let's go back and have Galvar show us around some more. We need to find this Krima. When we make our move, Marcus, can you jam the guardroom door shut? I don't want to have to fight the guards."
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"Possibly, but that will be a dead giveaway when we go for it. I could try if we get a clear shot though." Marcus follows out into the guard room. "Hey Galvar. I think we'll take a few walks around the prison block before dinner, just to keep an eye on things and do the job. Any magic alarms or anything in the block we need to make sure we don't trip?"
Galvar shakes his head, thumbs thrust into his belt, "Not anywhere we'll be walking. If the interrogator has something else in the main interrogation chamber I don't even know what it would be." He takes the group on a slow march around the main hallway within the building, past the bars separating the north from the south side. When he gets to the northwest corner he points out two doors, "Those lead to the interrogator's office," and continuing the circuit comes to another door, "and this is the vault. Only the interrogator knows the combination to enter here." He points at a combination lock, "This nifty little thing is probably our best defense against seditionists, Bellflower agents, or dirty Andorans from sneaking in and stealing important documents retrieved from the prisoners kept here."
Shaking his head with a chuckle he leads you back to the south side of the prison. Heading to the southeast corner of the facility he shows you the main storage area. This chamber stores crates containing various odds and ends necessary for running a prison: food, manacles, parchment, ink, and other supplies. Two cages for minor offenders, animals, or valuables stand against the east wall, and an interior door leads into another room.
He then leads you into that other room, an archive of sorts. Hundreds of manuscripts and prison records fill this room’s shelves, many bearing labels such as “Accounting,” “Calendars,” and “Discharge Logs.” He introduces the woman organizing records on the shelves as Krima. She turns around and greets you, lightly clapping dust off her hands.
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Marcus will wave to the woman as she approaches. "Hello Krima, its nice to meet you. We've been hired to fill in and help guard the place while some emergency gets taken care of." Marcus gives her a warm smile and nods to the records as he peers them over with a professional eye. "I have to admit, I am impressed. Running any institution of this size generates great quantities of paperwork, and you seem to have it well in hand."
Galvar shrugs off-handedly, "With your temp status, I'm not sure how long you'll be sticking around once the interrogator gets back, so no formal patrol route is scheduled. Truly, I'm here more to babysit and make sure you don't get into anything you're not supposed to than direct, despite what the interrogator says."
Krima greets Marcus with a smile, "I find myself in here more often than I would like just digging through old files and making sure the dust and vermin don't get to any of the important records." She quickly slicks her hair back, leaving a trail of dust from her hands, though she doesn't seem to notice. "I think that I'm all good for now, but I appreciate the offer."
Krima's eyes widen a bit, "Yes, I've do agree indeed. Galvar, I think I've found some new friends in these folk, I'd gladly take babysitting duty off your hands. My eyes are crossing from looking at these numbers all day and I could use a break from that."
Galvar clearly looks reluctant to leave you alone, and makes several arguments about the Interrogator leaving him in charge of the temporary help.
Galvar struggles with it for a bit, but acquiesces and heads back to his post with a smile on his face. Krima lets out a soft sigh of relief before turning back to you, "On to business, what do you know and how can I help?"
Krima nods along, "I'm not sure who Zefiro is, but he's probably one of the new prisoners. Yes, it is very likely the documents are in the vault, at least until they can be 'cleansed on a purity pyre'." The disdain is evident in her voice saying that last bit.
"If your friend is in the interrogation room he's probably still strapped into whatever machine they were torturing him with, along with some other Bellflower agents. What you need to know about the interrogator is that he is notorious for forgetting passwords and needing help remembering little details, so he probably has a written memo of some sort for accessing the vault. I suspect that is in his office. Oh!"
She searches through her pockets and hands you a key, slightly bent, certainly imperfect, saying, "I managed to get a cast of his office key, but I'm certain its not perfect, so you may have to jiggle it a bit to hit the tumblers. Sounds like everything is in place, are we ready to 'go on patrol'?"