(Assuming he does so): "That one's an ettin (#4); and then some kind of a ball with eyestalks (?, #5); and then a gray render (#6)--you have to be careful, they 'adopt' weaker critters and if you try and trap the little ones, the render goes berserk and kills you -- oh, and that's a giant black widow spider (#7) -- the females are as big as horses." He also knows some stuff about chimeras, bulettes, and basilisks.
Korynne glances over at Gwlybwr, his discomfort interrupting her mental reminder to herself to order more bestiaries and the like for her library this month. "Are you all right, Wil?" she asks, turning her attention to the fishy carving. "Reminding you of lunch? You might try cooking your fish next time--I know more than a few friends who had some bad clams and ended up making a mess outside the bar. And we hadn't even gotten our drinks yet!"
She peers from carving to carving, shuddering at the huge spider. "Uro, why does this one have only seven eyes? Wait . . . these creatures are arranged by number of eyes. Wonder what that means."
"Wait . . . these creatures are arranged by number of eyes. Wonder what that means."
"Ah, of course!" Jym says slapping his forehead. "I'm really glad you haven't been poisoned, yet, today.
"Hmm, okay. Lady, maybe your parents required anyone entering to demonstrate their knowledge of adventuring fauna? Could you state the name of each of these creatures in this order? Let's see if anything happens!"
A tentacled, conical monster with one glaring red eye and a mouth full of teeth - roper
A looming dragon
A fish-like monster with 3 eyes and 4 tentacles - aboleth
A two-headed giant wielding a pair of clubs - ettin
A spherical creature with 4 eyestalks and a bulging central eye - beholder
A gorilla-like beast with a fanged maw and six eyes - gray render
A towering black spider with seven eyes. - giant black widow
"It is not the fis-sh that makes me queasy. It is the aboleth. It won't s-stop looking at me. It's.. it's horrible!"
He shudders involuntarily and makes the same warding sign.
"I am no coward. I have healthy fears - cold, hunger, guards with hobnail boots. These fears keep me alive. But this-s, it s-scares me beyond all reason. It makes me want to flee and never return. Why would anyone have s-such a carving?"
Jym intones the names of the creatures, but apparently nothing happens.
Lavinia holds up her scroll for reference and says, "Master Jym, maybe you're on to something with the number of eyes matching the number of the monster... but how does that fit in with these other monsters? I think this scroll is my father's answer key, somehow."
Korynne gives Gwlybwr a sympathetic pat on the shoulder - careful to touch his tattered cloak and not his wet skin. She lowers her voice to a soft and comforting tone to quietly assure their newest ally. "We'll try not to linger here. If it makes you feel any better, I think all of these carvings are just part of the riddle, and not exactly reverential. Just try to hold it together for a little while, all right? You're going to be okay."
That done, Korynne takes time to investigate the small chamber, looking for trapped floor pressure plates, trip wires, hidden spell triggers, and the like before stepping in.
She then examines each carving, looking for any cleverly hidden ways to interact with them, especially around the eyes. She also examines the central pillar, looking to see if there's a way to move or rotate it. "I'm thinking maybe we have to match eye numbers with what's on that scroll. Good thing you all know what those things are."
As Korynne plays with the carvings, everyone tenses for some trap to go off, but ultimately nothing happens. Apparently the carvings are just carvings.
Not so for the pillar -- as she fiddles with it, it rotates. With an audible "CLICK," the red star point on the ceiling, the one pointing to the entrance, goes dark. Simultaneously, the dark star point pointing to the wall with the spider turns red.
Evidently the deep vertical grooves in the pillar are handholds.
Yes, the one with the really bad poetry!
Gwlybwr looks at the scroll that Lady V. holds up, and asks, "What does it s-say?"
Once he hears the sonnet, he points at the roper carving. "A c-cyclops has one eye, just like that carving there. Korynne, can you twis-st it s-so it points to that one?"
He joins her in the octogonal room. "Now, how do we make it fac-ce s-suns-set?"
The parchment says:
A chimera looks to the sunrise.
Cyclops looks to sunset.
Bulette looks to sunrise.
Umber hulk looks to sunset.
Basilisk looks to sunrise.
Korynne goes over the scroll again, her tongue in her cheek as she ponders. "Sunset and sunrise are east and west, right? Maybe it's just alternating right and left rotations of the pillar? So a chimera has three heads, which is six eyes, Cyclops is one... Does anyone know how many eyes an umber hulk has?"
Korynne tries rotating the central pillar and the star arm on the ceiling right toward the gray render, left toward the Cyclops, and so on, alternating directions and matching eye numbers. If that doesn't work, she tries reversing turn direction and number order.
That works indeed. At each stopping point, the red indicator points at the indicated critter; as Korynne finally turns the pillar back to the dragon, there is a rumbling sound as the carvings rotate back and five alcoves come into view. In each alcove are a number of coffers and chests -- 20 in all, among all of the alcoves.
Lavinia, eyes aglow, smiles widely. "You did it!"
Her glee turns to dismay, however, as she opens the containers. In the bottoms of a few are scattered a few silvers, but for the most part, the coffers and chests are empty. You can see her getting visibly more despondent as she opens each one. Finally, in the last alcove, she finds one that still contains money, along with others holding a large collection of ledgers and documents.
She looks almost hopeless as she counts the total: 2,900 gp. It's even worse as she flips through the ledgers: the vaults should have been full, as the various favors her parents had done for the nobility of Sasserine -- dangerous missions and long ocean voyages -- had netted a large amount of revenue, almost all missing. Lavinia stifles a low wail, then, staring up at you, she struggles not to weep.
Uro looks sadly toward Lavinia. "It seems, lady, that someone was here before us.. Probably whoever was responsible for the metal snake.
Do you know if your family has any enemies?" Uro thinks a moment. "Or any partners that would have known how to enter these vaults?"
Lavinia listens carefully to Uro, then nods. "There's an easy way to find out."
She strides purposefully back to where the attendants are, obviously assuming you'll follow. As she's still walking in, she says, "I want to see the log book for visitors to my vault within the last, say, two weeks."
The attendant looks up and says, "The visitors log is of course confidential..."
She stares him down and snaps, "The section for the Vanderboren vault is most certainly not confidential from the Vanderboren heiress." Without waiting for a reply, she grabs the book, opens it to the appropriate section, and reads the entry there. She checks it again in disbelief, then turns to you.
"My brother Vanthus was here last night. The snake wasn't a problem for him because you'd already destroyed it."
Looking at you steadily, she states the obvious: "The bastard cleaned me out."
Uro cocks an eyebrow. "Was your brother entitled to any of your families holdings?"
Formerly riding high on solving the vault riddle, Korynne's stomach sinks at the sight of the empty coffers. And with the knowledge that she caused the overnight delay, her face grows hot and panicky, her rouge substituting for the actual embarrassment in her face. Her hand unconsciously goes to the little mask on her necklace, rubbing its smooth surface to hold back jitters.
She takes a deep breath before speaking with a shaky voice. "Lady Vanderboren, I... Where does your brother live? If he took everything last night, then we might still have time to get it back. I won't stand for this kind of, this - this skullduggery!"
Jym thinks about anything he's heard concerning Vanthus Vanderboren and his relationship to his family.
"How did he get in the vault without a signet ring? Unless there's more than one...."
Jym is aware that Vanthus is a notorious ne'er-do-well -- whispered about as an object lesson for wealthy absentee parents.
At some point when the Vanderboren siblings were teens, Lavinia was abruptly sent to Thenalar Academy for five years, to acquire an education. Vanthus, spoiled, intractable, unwilling to study, always in trouble, and with pretensions towards nobility, was instead sent to work on a plantation, in hopes that he'd grow up. Lavinia came back better-spoken, poised, and eager to learn the family trade and estate management. Vanthus came back dissipated and bitter. He moved out of the family estate (or, as the rumor goes, was thrown out), showed up just long enough for the funeral, and then disappeared again.
Lavinia says "We can talk more in the vault. As far as the ring goes, this one" (holding up her hand) "that you recovered from the ship was my father's. Vanthus must have stolen my mother's ring at some point."
She puts her hand on Korynne's arm, saying "Madame Korynne, the delay wasn't your fault -- it was entirely mine. I should have known about the snake. I apologize again for your injury."
Back in the privacy of the vault, she confirms Jym's information, and adds to it ruefully: "When we were children, Vanthus and I were inseparable. But eventually a prank, um, got out of hand, and our parents sent us away. Vanthus spent his time nursing some kind of bitterness. When he came back, he was changed, like something happened to him. He'd sleep all day, carouse all night with some associates of, uh, doubtful character. The easy humor he had when we were children was gone, replaced by bitter cynicism and a morbid streak that sent chills up my spine. I think he went to the Azure District when my father threw him out; probably fallen in with a bad crowd -- smugglers or thieves or even killers."
Taking a deep breath, Lavinia says, "I'm sorry you all had to be privy to this sort of family melodrama. I'm embarrassed. In any event, the little money left is enough to settle the immediate taxes due, and I have an uncle in Cauldron that I might be able to hit up for a loan. It'll be a rough year, but the estate will survive, I think."
Leafing through the coins, she separates out about a fourth of them and hands them over to the party. "Your pay for this trip. As far as Vanthus' location goes, I have no idea. Probably not in the Champion's District or the Noble District -- he'd be unwelcome both places -- but there may still be clues. I suspect he's living with some harlot -- uh, woman, that is -- in the Azure District somewhere."
"Do you know her name? Or any other details about her other than her strumpet status? I would think it's in all of our best interests to at least investigate."
She sniffs. "I certainly would have no idea. It's just a random guess, anyway."
"The Azure District markets are where I would go if I had a heap of ill-gotten coin to offload. It might be hard to find him in the crowds there, but if we drop a little gold the beggars around there can help us find some information, I'm sure of it. I say we start there unless anyone else would prefer a different plan."
Gwlybwr's head spins at the enormity of the theft. He can't even begin to comprehend having enough wealth to fill a single chest, let alone twenty. Dutifully tagging along, he follows the exchange between Lavinia, the attendant, and the rest of the party, and scowls appropriately at the description of Vanthus.
Back in the vault, he accepts his payment without comment, as he is still unnerved by the presence of the aboleth carving. He spreads the coins out in front of him, marveling at them, and begins to count them. He counts out ten coins, ticking them off with his fingers, and stacks them to the side. He counts out another stack of ten, and another, and another. He continues stacking coins, periodically counting the stacks, until he has as many stacks as he has fingers on both hands and toes on one foot.
He scoops the rest of the coins back together and brings them over to Lavinia. "You are very generous-s, Lady. I need many coins for my cure, but you have given me more than I need. The res-st are to pay the preis-stes-s, but you s-should have these back. I know how to live on the s-streets, and you do not."
Lavinia says, "That is very virtuous, sir. As you are clearly a man of honor, I don't hesitate to ask a favor of you, as a lady: will you hold on to those extra coins for me, for the time being? If their use becomes needful to you, you can always pay them back later."
"I do much of my trade in the Azure district. Perhaps I can ask some of my regular customers if they've heard of your brother. What does he look like?"
"The portrait in the dining room -- I'm sure you've seen it a number of times now -- is of him, as it turns out. I shall have to take that down."
The orc takes in the picture for a moment and nods. "Let's go back and get the animals that we captured from the ship. We can take them to the Azure district to sell and ask questions through small talk while we make our transactions. Sound good?"
Uro looks expectantly to the others for confirmation.
Korynne grins widely. "Uro! That's quite clever! And here I thought you were as subtle as that axe of yours - not that I thought you were a fool or anything," she quickly clarifies. "That sounds like an excellent plan. You and Jym can work the merchant angle, while Wil and I can hang back while staying nearby, talk to the beggars, follow anyone suspicious, that sort of thing. Wil, we'll put your coin to good use yet. Shall we be off?"
"Yes-s, let us-s leave this-s plac-ce. We s-shall go to the market and find the thieving brother."
Gwlybwr collects the scraps of the metal snake on his way out, thinking to perhaps pawn them at uncle's.
((They go and do just that!))
You take a pleasant tour of the Azure district -- it has stopped raining and even the overcast has mostly burned away, leaving you with a warm, clear day. It would probably be too hot, but the sea breeze blowing off the harbor cools you down, and carries the smell of the salt waves.
A water-taxi drops you off on the southwest side, furthest from the remarkable Azure Cathedral; on the way, you passed two small islands that are also part of the district -- the western one dominated by fishing interests, and also holding the residence of the District Representative; and the eastern one laid out around a huge tavern called the Empty Grave (located next door to that is the manor of the Kellanis, who are nouveaux riche in the manner of the Vanderborens, but a lot less well-liked).
In the south end of the main district proper are the famous shops of the East Market, overlooked by the Azure Garrison headquarters. Uro knows these well, and of course Jym has been there many times; Korynne may have bought books or jewelry there in the past. You see any numner of "legitimate" exotic animals for sale there -- leopards, monkeys, birds, snakes, and even a small dinosaur. Uro is easily able to unload his animals, although for less money than is usually the case.
"Rumor has it the Lotus Dragon gang is heavy into dealing in real exotics -- illegal stuff -- and that's making people bored with the legitimate stuff," one of the shopkeepers confides, as he hands over a few coins in embarrassment at the small amount.
Uro gives the man an inquisitive look. "Who is the Lotus Dragon Gang?"
He looks around in a panic, making frantic motions for you to keep your voice down. Inviting you into the back of the shop, thick with caged parrots and bird dander, he says, "The Lotus Dragons are a thieves' guild, I think. I have no dealings with them that I know of -- it's probably best not even to speak of them. I don't want any trouble at my shop."
One of the parrots squawks, "Dragons!" The shopkeeper looks as if he's about to have a stroke, and hurriedly throws a sheet over its cage.
"But you're the one who brought them up, first!" Jym exclaims to the shopkeeper.
Uro follows the man to the back of the shop, then puts his hands up in a placating gesture. "I did not mean to trouble you about this.. guild. Say no more." Once the shop keep seems to have calmed; "Though, while we are back here in private, have you heard of a Vanthus Vanderboren?"
Jym's ear is always to the ground. He's heard of the Lotus Dragons, as well as about a half-dozen other would-be thieves' guilds or greater or lesser stature. The only thing that stands out in his mind are that the Lotus Dragon guild seem to be a fairly new one, and -- judging from the fact that you never hear about them engaging in pointless brawls, and members don't seem overly eager to roll over on each other when one of them does get caught at something -- they seem to be better-organized than most. But that's all he knows without scouring the city and talking to his less-reputable sources.
Meanwhile, the shopkeeper shakes his head at Uro.
"Everyone in Sasserine has heard of the Vanderborens," he says, "But the name Vanthus doesn't ring a bell. I seem to recall they threw out a son -- is that him, maybe?"
While Jym and Uro talk inside, Korynne leans against the shop just outside, scanning the crowd. Spotting a beggar nearby, she approaches and holds up a shiny gold coin. "Hey there, friend. I'm looking for some information if you're willing to keep an eye out..." She describes Vanthus and drops his name, indicates that he's come into quite a bit of gold recently, and may be quite dangerous. "What do you say?" she asks, placing the coin in her potential informant's hand.
The beggar bites the gold coin -- he's never been handed anything but copper before. Eyes widening, he says, "Ol' Ben be yer man, then." Spotting Gwlybwr, he coughs and adds, "But it looks like ye got some other'n me helpin' as well, aye?"
"Anyway, I'd be seen this man ye call Vanthus, a mean cuss -- kicked me fer no reason when I was sleepin' off a drunk, he did, so I'll be thankin' ye to show him some manners."
He scratches his head, thinking, then offers: "He was tomcattin' with a hussy we street folks know -- height Brissa Santos; she be all woman, aye, but watch yer' gold if ye talk with the likes o' her, or no more gold ye'll have when yer done!" His cackling laugh ends in a series of hacking coughs, and he turns to stumble off.
"Thanks, Ben, we'll certainly show him what we think of that sort of shoddy behavior. Be well!" she calls after the coughing Ben.
She turns to Wil: "An associate of yours? He seemed to know you. In any case, we should look for Brissa Santos. I think we should ask Jym, and from there see what we can find out. Honestly, kicking a poor sleeping person..." she trails off, rolling her eyes with frustration. "Once we find this Vanthus, he's going to have quite a bit of explaining to do."
The name vaguely rings a bell, but Jym can't quite place it.
With Jym unable to produce any leads from memory, Korynne starts asking around on the street if anyone knows where to find Brissa; she looks for beggars and anyone friendly enough to stop and chat.