The halfling shrugs, "Never had a map for this place. Krima's doing her best, but she hasn't been able to get anything important out of the Bloody Nail. And with the festivities going on...There's no telling what will be the best or fastest way back to the rendezvous point, you'll have to wing it."
The halfling chuckles, "The Bellflower Tiller network is not used to giving away information on those that would help us currently working in Cheliax. If you're adept at dropping hints to others while being observed you're more than free to get her to be your 'babysitter' and move around with impunity.
And as for your 'Rex' I'm certain if you show she is properly trained the guards will consider her a boon."
Zarta pulls Dissa aside before Tamrin leads everyone off the boat.
Abruptly she pushes Dissa 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 Kontha'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 while 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."
Galvar shrugs 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 smirks, "If only we had a feasting hall. Here let me show you." He leads the group to the first door on the left in this hallway. 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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"Zarta, if memory serves, you and I will need a full day or more for a thorough debriefing." Dissa casts a lurid, knowing glance as he's shoved out the door. He turns back for a quick wink to Zarta while hobbling abeam his companions.
Once inside Dissa presses his luck with Galvar at every opportunity. "What kind of prisoners do you keep? This jail has quite the unorthodox layout."
Inetra looks up with Dissa's question, “We don’t ask what they did to get here; management’s pretty strict about that stuff. They even have a way to soundproof the main prison when they’re interrogating important prisoners so nothing leaks out. Fine be me. I hate hearing them scream.”
Galvar nods, "Sure, I can keep showing you around. Won't be able to get in the office , the vault , or the interrogation room because they've all been locked up with the Interrogator out and about."
Galvar leads you through the other areas, showing you the privies to the south, the barracks, which has three guards slowly putting on their armor (he names them Falzin, Jurvik, and Yenae as you pass through), and the staff storage just north of the barracks.
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.
Krima brushes dust her hair back, not knowing or not caring that the dust remaining on her hands stays behind. "I couldn't rightly tell you, I don't often leave the archives when I'm on duty."
Kontha sneezes once or twice because of the dust, but doesn't react to anything.
Most of the records Bozmir sees are mundane in the extreme, records of calendars, vacation for guards, and other such things. Nothing here looks recent based on the amount of dust on each of the shelves.
Krima gulps audibly as Galvar looks curiously at Dissa. He leans close and whispers, "I don't think the Interrogator would be happy if he caught you shirking duty. Maybe you can take her out for celebrations after our shift is over..."
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"Fair enough, sir. I misunderstood your mention of intermittent celebration. I know the correction of history can be extremely important. I myself struggle with keeping the facts of my own life straight." Dissa chuckles as he looks to Bozmir and Kontha.
"Do you all have trouble with people that mix up history?" Dissa taps the ledger again, giving Krima another sideways glance toward the interrogation room.
Krima's eyes widen a bit, "Yes, I've had some trouble with that in the past. 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. But after about a minute of conversation he shrugs and wishes you all well, smiling on his way back to his original post.
Seltyiel sighs in relief once Galvar is gone, "Thank the gods, that man's happiness and constant fear of the interrogator was cloying."
Krima chuckles softly, "Galvar can be a bit much yes. But on to business, what do you know and how can I help?"
Krima chews on her bottom lip and begins searching her pockets, thinking aloud, "Haven't heard of any Zefiro, but then again I don't really know prisoner names. Can you give me a description? Also," she pulls out a key from somewhere, "here's a key that I made of the office key. It wasn't cast perfectly, so you may have to jiggle it a bit."
Seltyiel pulls out a drawing from among his pouches and gives it to Krima, "I had this made by someone in the Pathfinder Society because I have never officially met Zefiro. Let us know if you have seen this man."
Krima looks closely at the drawing, "Oh, this one! He seems to be a special case, all of the papers that went with him have been secured in the office vault. He was actually in the middle of an interrogation with several other people I suspect are also Bellflower Tillers. Tamrin pulling the interrogator away will actually allow you to pull them out of whatever machines they are currently hooked up to."
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"Krima, thank you for the help, I'm sure it is at some personal risk. We need not only the individual, but also access to those papers. I would prefer not to fight, but we are more than capable." Dissa looks over his shoulder, making sure no one can hear.
"How do we get to Zefiro, the other Bellflower Tillers, and the documents in the most efficient manner possible? Time is a necessity. Also, how do we activate the silence?" Dissa bows to the woman, and hands her a writing utensil from her desk to make some notes on the Zefiro parchment.
She scratches her head and takes the quill, "The silence has something to do with these purple crystals, though some of them fail and need fixing. I don't know where spare crystals are kept if we have any. You need to get in the office if you want the documents, which you can use that key I gave you for. Only Vasenti, that's the Interrogator, knows the code to the vault, but he's notorious for misremembering or not knowing things. He probably has a written memo for the vault access, which is likely in the office. To rescue everyone you just need to get into the chamber itself, but I don't know what traps there are, if any." By the end of her explanation her fingers are ink-stained and the page is full of scribbles.
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"OK. Krima, here is my plan. We go to the office, use your fake key, and search for a code to the prisoners." Dissa stares at the notes she provided.
"Then we get the prisoners, and hopefully Zefiro." He holds up two fingers, ready to expand in his point.
"Then, well, it doesn't matter what happens next. We have to go to the office first. Ready?" He preps his armor, tightens his gauntlets straps, and gets ready to fight.
"Let's go!" The Paladin strides to the door with great purpose. However, he stops at the doorway. He pauses for a moment, and turns back to Bozmir. "Uh, left or right?"
Krima just begins leading the way to the office, nodding at the other guards that stand watch, chatting in the hall. She leads you to the right door and stands watching down the way you came from. "Here it is, try the key now."
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Dissa burns a charge from his wand of Fallback Strategy on the walk to the office, anticipating a need to manipulate his fate.
"Crap. I just tightened my gauntlets. Can one of you jimmy this thing? I think Seltyiel or Bozmir may have the best luck. I'll do my best to pry the door for optimal latch disentanglement." Dissa nods at the words he just used, as though to reassure himself they sounded correct. "My friend Barid used to say something like that when he would ask me to help. Although I don't thing that happened until next year..."
Madness!
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Dissa reaches out to Bozmir with his left hand, while propping his Fauchard under the door with his right. "Let Tsukiyo help you further!"
Dissa offers his wand of Fallback Strategy to Bozmir while they are at the door.
"Dip your toes into the waters where uncertainty mixes with fate and madness. The Prince of the Moon smiles on you today." Dissa encourages the Skald while watching him work the key.
Seltyiel steps forward from his place near the back of the troupe. "Let me handle this and see where it gets us."
"Hmm...Almost got it to catch... He pulls several thin rods from a pouch on his hip. "I typically use these to channel lightning through my hands, so there may be a bit of static charge. But if you three could poke at the teeth of the key while it is in the lock we may be able to catch all the tumblers."
Krima, standing watch looking down the corridor whispers back to you, "I'll redirect anyone heading this way."
Seltyiel looks up from his work and sighs. "This isn't working. Who has the nimblest reflexes among us? I'm sure if we take a couple of minutes we can get this open."