Anna manages to not gawk, but it takes effort. She'd always thought she was fairly cosmopolitan, but cities like Pitax and Lepidstadt hadn't prepared her for Caliphas. She stays alert, though, keeping a eye on potential pickpockets or others who might find them easy marks.
"Sure," Anna replies to Tolvan with a cheeky grin. "Otherwise, you guys might get lost."
Sonny shrugs "It's been a while since I've been in a big town. You should see Absalom. The temples. The shops. The inns and taverns." He shakes his head as if coming beck to the present. "We should try and find where we can make our purchases and see if there is any information about these murders."
Andjela is silent, from her childhood... people were always suspicious. Many wanting to kill her. Mobs needed people, there was no shortage here.
Bigger city, more people... more chaos, trouble.
you make your way through the mass of people as you try to find the right merchant for the stuff you are looking for. The first one is easy, to find an armorsmith, all you have to do is to follow the sound of the banging hammer on steel. Anna's is able to find the chain shirt. It doesn't have the defiant enchantment, but the owner says that he can have it ready in four days.
The next item on the list is rather more elusive to find. After a few questions and probing, Anna realise that she would have a better chance of finding said item in a least official market. Luckily, her trained eyes notice the signs of what she was after the previous night. After a few covert conversation, she gets an official invite to the alternate market place where the said item will be present.
Tolvan's first item prove to be a bit problematic. Every time he finds a shop that could have the item, he gets told that they don't have it but that they might know of another place that could. To add to the frustration, the crowd just keep getting bigger as more and more people visit the market. There is also the annoyance of the street vendor pushing different ware to your face, trying to make you buy whatever they are selling. It takes a while, but in the fourth shop, Tolvan finally gets the headband.
Anna commissions the upgrade to the mithral chain shirt, and goes through the clandestine efforts to procure the secret crossbow.
She hides it away once she's loaded it.
"Well, I think it's been a productive day. You want to find a nice inn?"
With the shopping now done and so is the day, the group is left with the decision of where to spend the night. You could either head back to the same inn you were last night or find a new one.
"Let's get someplace in the city. Closer to the action," Anna suggests.
Yes, lets find one inside the walls. We must be quick about it as with the setting sun comes that curfew.
"Relax. It's like you've never had to evade the city watch before," Anna mutters. She glances around to her companions. "Oh, crap. Just me, then?"
I've had to evade militia and townsfolk with torches and pitchforks... different reasons.
Sonny looks around and says "I'm all for a new inn if we can find one. Otherwise we need to head out in time to get to the inn."
Sometimes you just need to go deeper into the labyrinth... did anyone notice suitable accommodations?
Anna votes for the most opulent inn or hotel that they can find. "Yeah, I know we can just climb into Tolvan's little rope space. But come on! We've got the coin, let's splurge a little! Room service! Hot baths and massages! Little candies that they leave on your pillow! Who doesn't want a little luxury now and then?"
"I'm all game for the inner city and some luxuries but we better find a spot quickly." Danica adjusts her new headband.
Sky's the limit for a celebrity like yourself. Maybe two rooms, this time... or a suite.
With the day coming to an end, you start looking for an inn to spend the night. While you would like to find one with high end service, you are currently in the more working class part of the city. Being so close to the port, you know that the inns here are more of the gambling dent type of place, where brawl are common and the food is cheap but plenty.
It takes you a moment, but you do find a place. From the outside, you hear laughter and cries of joy. The place itself looks old, with a main floor built in stone and a second level made of wood. The sign hanging above the door would needs its paint to be refreshed, but you can make out an octopus holding a mug. The letters underneath spell the name The Drunken Octopus.
Tolvan looks at the slightly sub-standard inn then at Anna and then and the setting sun and shrugs an apology.
Anna catches Tolvan's look of apology, but gives him a smile and a wink. She heads inside the raucous establishment and quickly settles in. She eyes the gambling tables and takes a spot as soon as one comes open.
She then proceeds to take them to the cleaners.
You walk into the inn and find yourself a table. Anna spends a few minutes with you, but then she walks over to one of the gambling table. The game is rather simple dice game and Anna gets the hang of it pretty quickly. After a few games, she starts winning several hands and some of the others gamble start mentioning something about Desna's luck or Calistria's trickery. None of the accusations even become more than jest and people seem happy just to have a chance to play. The pot never really gets high either, and Anna gets the feeling that people are more playing to distract themselves than to win big. It most likely have to do with the curfew and the murdering spree.
As for the rest of the group they are eventually approached by one of the waitress. She gives you the feeling that she has been working for way too many hours and her smile quit the job long ago. "Fish or turkey?" With no more explanation, she seems to wait for an answer.
Turkey for me and the young lady over that at the gambling table. And a bottle of white. Something a step or two up from your house wine.
Sonny smiles at the waitress and says "I think we will all have the turkey. I think we have still had our fill of fish. I'll take water or juice if you have it."
Even though she finds herself relaxing and enjoying herself, Anna doesn't forget their purpose for being in Caliphas. She keeps an eye open for signs of anyone with creepy afflictions like lycanthropy or being a fish person. More than that, she tries to learn something about the murders if the topic doesn't kill the mood.
Fish with an extra portion, please and water... I suppose they go together. Andjela seems amused by her own accidental pun.
Thank you.
She nods as people give her their order and walks back toward the kitchen. Some moments later, she reappears, balancing bowls in her arms as she makes her way back to you. She places a bowl in front of each of you. As she is able to place the last one in front of Tolvan, she stares at it for a minute and then pick it right back up. She looks at it more closely, shrugs, then place it back on the table. Another waitress bring over a few bottles and a good size bread, she places them a the center of the group. They both walk away without saying a word. Looking at the bowl, you find a stew of some sort. Hard to tell what meat is in there.
At the gambling table, Anna gets some of the people talking about what is going on in the city. It is not long until people go into different theory about the killer.
"I know who the killers are... Werewolves! There is a pact of werewolves in town, and they are the one doing the killing."
"Bah! You and your werewolves. Nah, the real killer is a cursed man. During the day he looks normal, but at night he turns into a large deformed brute and rips people appart."
"That is just silly. The real murderer is a headless horseman that kill people looking for something."
"Bahaha! He's looking for his head right? Nah, that is just silly. If you want to know what is behind the killing, look no further than the sea. The killer is a creature from deep under the water. How else can it get to this side of the wall?"
"You can fly above a wall. I heard it was this giant bat creature, grabbing lone people in the street and dropping them back to the ground."
After a time thing just get silly and down right ridiculous.
Tolvan looks concerned at his stew, back to the departing waitress and then again at his stew. As he pokes at it with a fork he wonders if he should have gone with fish.
Anna listens to the conjecture and wild theories about the killer, laughing along with the others. After a moment, she interjects with a question. "So, I take it that the victims aren't just getting a knife in the back then? If it's werewolves, or bat creatures, or whatnot, they're leaving a mess, huh? Blood everywhere, that sort of thing?"
"Well, see, that's the thing. There is no blood at the scene. Only a completely burnt corpse that turn to dust if you touch it. Hard to identify the victims when they are nothing more then a pile of ash. The weirdest thing is that nothing else is burnt around the body."
"I still say that it is werewolves."
"How would werewolves be able to burnt people like that?"
"Well... sorcerer werewolves?"
"Now you are just being silly." The man turns back to Anna. "Look, if you want to stay alive, don't wander outside alone at night." He points at the rest of the group. "You have friends, stay with them and you will be fine."
I'm not being silly, werewolves can be sorcerers too. it is not impossible."
Danica casts various detect alignment spells on the waitresses and some of the patrons. (Detect evil and good)
Danica reaches over to Tolvan's bowl and pulls it towards her.
She then begins to smell the contents within the bowl. "Sorry Tolvan, nothing for you. Remember, you should be fasting. Your mind has to be clear before you next test."
Andjela raises a brow at the monk's antics, Dining with Danica... always a pleasure.
Tempting as it was to brag that she'd actually faced off against werewolves, beheaded undead, deformed brutes, and underwater creatures, Anna restrained herself. She wanted to maintain a low profile and bragging about her battles would bring more attention than she would prefer.
Besides, none of the things she squared off with could reduce someone to ash, that she could think of. So this was something else.
She nods along with the advice. "Stay with friends. Check. So, groups are safe, is that it? Only lone travelers are attacked?"
Danica inspect Tolvan stew, but find nothing out of the ordinary. Digging in it with a spoon also doesn't reveal much aside from the fact that there is barely any meat in there. Looking over at the fish stew from those that ordered it, you can barely tell the difference between the two plates.
At the gambling table, the people there continue talking with Anna. Well all but the werewolves theory guy, he seems to be sulking now. "So far group are safe. Whoever or whatever is doing this seems to be targeting lone people for there is always just one corpse found in the morning when a murder happens."
Tolvan reaches for his stew. Is it ok to eat now?
"Good to know, good to know," Anna nods.
She pats the back of the sulking werewolf theorist. "Don't feel bad. I've heard some crazy stories about werewolves, let me tell you. Have you ever heard of the 'vilkacis'? It's a werewolf ghost. Then there are werewolves that worship a demon lord. So, yeah. I mean, it could be werewolves," she says with a shrug. She looks to the others at the table when he's not looking at her and mouths, it's not werewolves.
Anna finishes off the evening continuing to chat amicably with her new gaming buddies, but always keeps a surreptitious ear and eye out for anyone that might have taken an unusual interest in the table's wild speculation about the Caliphas murderer.
You study the room to see who might have had an interest in your conversation with the gamblers but find that no one really pays attention to that table, well except on man. He sits in a corner of the room, and if it wasn't for your trained eyes, you wouldn't have even notice him. When your eyes lock on each other, he flashes a discreet hand sign telling you that he is of the trade. He doesn't make any other sign but seems to wait to see what your next step is.
Anna makes her own subtle gesture to let the man know, I'm interested in talking. You pick the place.
She'll wait for the man's signal, then excuse herself from the table to meet wherever the man indicates.
"Top of the evening to you," she says in greeting once they're alone.
Tolvan reaches for his stew. Is it ok to eat now?
Danica whispers to Tolvan, "Nothing wrong with the food but looks like 'slop' to me. I suggest we just put it aside and stick to our iron rations. I guess people come here for the gambling rather than the food." Danica just pushes her food aside and does not eat it.
The man nods to Anna and gesture to a a doorway that leads to a storage room. Once there he turns to Anna. "What can I do you for?"
For the rest of the group, the evening is rather ordinary with low quality food and drinks. Once you make it to the room, you are not surprise at the room bare minimum accommodation and confort. You've seen worst during your travel... but not by much.
"Kind of you to ask," Anna says with a wry half-grin. "Though I'm not so much as looking for some help as I'm looking to see what I can do to make your lives easier."
She nods her head back toward her companions' table. "No doubt you sussed out my crew, at least well enough to know they'd be good at stirring a pot. Sometimes a group of pallies like that would make some people nervous -- especially upstanding businessfolk. That's where I come in." She smiles broadly.
"I can tell you, they're not interested in disrupting honest, regular trade. But the murders, that gets their attention. Ugly stuff. Bad for business, amiright? So, rather than stomping all over the yard, kicking over cans and being all loud, maybe you can give us something. Help us take care of your problem, while leaving the businesses sitting pretty."
She gives him a palms-out gesture. "What do you think? Any chance you can recommend us a guide?"
"A guide? I would need to talk to others to see what ressources we can spare. Because of the recent event, we had to redistribute some of them to secondary locations. There also some that went for a vacation, and I'm sure when they are coming back." He ponders for a moment, looking like he is doing a mental inventory. "Those unsavory acts aren't from a natural cause. We tried to find out more about them, but our arcane source as gone missing. So any help you can provide would be welcome, but like I said, we will need to look into what ressource we can lend you. Come to me in two days, might have something for you."
"Two days, sure," she says, though she arches an eyebrow at the "arcane source" that had gone missing. "Though if your worried about your arcane source, if you give me a location where they were last seen I could do a little investigating."
Whether the contact gives her a place or not, she'll excuse herself and return to the group's table. "Having fun yet? I didn't learn much, except for the way the murders have been happening. Really strange, if you ask me. Apparently, the bodies are burnt to a crisp, so that they crumble to dust if you touch them. Weird, huh?
"Oh, and they're always lone travelers. People in groups haven't been attacked, it seems."
Tolvan pauses his shoving his stew around in his bowl and looks up. Burnt to a crisp, so that they crumble to dust if you touch them? Hmm. Let me think.
Tolvan racks his brain trying to piece the clues together. With the description of the state of the corpse, he tries to find what spell could possibly do this. With all his vast knowledge of the arcane and divine magic, nothing comes to mind. Approaching the problem from another angle he thinks at the how and when the killing happens. The victims are attacked at night when alone and when the morning comes, only a pile of ash is left. This makes him think that will, the victims are still being killed, they are not humans, but more likely vampires beaten to an inch of their unlife and left to be finished off by the morning sun. Turning them into a pile of ash.
As the truth of the situation comes to him Tolvan blanches buy says nothing in the public room. Later that evening he will share his conclusion. Whatever stalks the city is powerful enough to subdue vampires. he adds. It worries me that there are so many vampires in the city to begin with. We might be well served to prepare to fight them too.
"We knew they were coming up," Anna says glumly. "The fight with the vampire is next on our list."
Seems like someone is fighting them for us. Tempting to sit back and watch things happen.
Sonny chuckles "It does seem like someone is doing world a favor and taking out the vampires, I'd normally be happy to help them but we do have other business here."
Danica also adds, "Let's not forget, historically, we usually get side tracked by other activities that eventually is all related."
She ponders some more, "I am not a fan of the undead but I have had my eyes opened recently. We have seen good and bad werewolves in our recent adventures. I would wonder that vampires may be the same here but I would think twice about coming to the rescue of a bloodsucker. Anyway, what are our next steps? Do we go out at night and start calling out 'Hey vampire slayers.... we'd like to help!'"
Danica starts thinking about vampires in general, how to identify and how to destroy them.