"It's some kind of monkey," Braddon calls back over his shoulder and casually swings both swords at the prone creature.
If the creature is defeated Braddon attempts to step over it and look about for any more.
Having traced the mysterious key, Phillip returns all the keys that don't fit the lock on his own door to the cupboard, locks it, puts out the lamp, and locks the dwarf's door on his way out.
---------------------------------
In the house in Rotgut, Braddon's oversized blade rips through the primate's furry pelt, laying open its steaming innards before it has a chance to regain its feet. Its grunting stops. The voices from behind the door have stopped as well.
The area at the top of the stairs is a small landing, with a mostly-boarded-over window through which stripes of daylight struggle through the filthy glass and a door across from it.
Gristav takes the opportunity as he passes to rap thrice on the closed door. "Your pet attacked my bodyguard.", he says levelly, if a bit loudly, allowing for the door. "I don't think he's going to make it. Even so, I hope we can settle this by you giving back the purse."
Erstwhile artful, aware of all he'd not actually said, Gristav finished his move with a glance at Braddon, one hushing finger held over grinning lips.
Snake moves up the stairs and notices the dead monkey. He continues on up and past the ranger and his victim, drawing out his morningstar just in case. Keeping his voice low, "We come in here for a bag and we get a monkey? What in the Nine Hells kind of place is this?"
Braddon advances to the other side of the door and readies to attack any enemy foolish enough to present themselves.
Phillip winds his steps firstly to his room, stowing what needs be stowed within, before ascending to return the keys to Saul.
At long last, Phil unlocks his own door and secretes away his purchases.
-------------------------------
Snake and Braddon position themselves on the landing. A moment later, the door opens onto a lamp-lit room. Gristav casts his spell and Braddon is ready to swing his sword ... but no one emerges.
Breathing a sigh of some relief... mostly for his now beginning to ache shoulders and back that were unused to the manual labour he'd undergone, Phillip stretches and makes for Saul's office again, somewhat jauntily.
Phil climbs the stairs to the owner's office once more to return the keys. "Find what you need?" Saul asks.
With a short nod Phillip offers "Aye... just a couple more errands and then I'll be here for the lead in." he moves forward to slide the two borrowed keys across the table and back to Saul. Without waiting too long for response, he gives a short nod and excuses himself... looking to Hassan as his next destination.
"Hello!", Gristav calls in gregarious greeting, obviously offered along the angle of the open door. "Probably best you not approach. I assume you're summing similarly. You can surrender the purse with a toss, then close the door. We can determine that nothing's missing, and be on our way. Ships in the night. Save for the... simian? Who, I don't think, can be saved."
"What sort of beast was it?"
Snake steps over and gives himself a better view through the doorway, attempting to spot anyone he can within.
Snake steps to the head of the stairs to get a direct view through the door.
With a short nod Phillip offers "Aye... just a couple more errands and then I'll be here for the lead in." he moves forward to slide the two borrowed keys across the table and back to Saul.
Saul reaches for the keys, giving them a glance that's just a bit more than casual, to verify that Phil is returning the same keys he borrowed. He gives the halfling a nod. "We're a few men short," he reminds Phil wearily. "The more eyes we have on the environs, the better."
Snake studies the halfling a moment through narrowed eyes before taking a quick glance over at Braddon. "We're not here to hurt anyone, bub, we're here...," he stops, thinking about it a moment before finally remembering. Looking to Gristav with raised eyebrows, "We're here to recover a purse?" he asks rhetorically, shaking his head before turning back to the halfling. "Look, bub, all we want is the man's pouch. He claims you took it. Or somebody in here took it and right now you're the only one we see. I'll let you know right now, you don't want this going south. It won't be good for you if it does. And I'm not threatening, I'm just telling you for your own good. You may be good with that dagger, but we've got one who wields a blade bigger than you. It's your call."
Both Snake and Gristav are addressing someone Braddon can't see, but he fails to come out and present himself as an easy target for you to swing at.
Braddon rolls his eyes, but waits silently outside the door. His mind turns to his new toy, but with Snake and Gristav's plan to talk the enemy to death, Braddon refrains. "After all, it's only a matter of time before someone does something stupid," he smirks to himself.
"As I measure angles, we're talking to two different halflings.", Gristav says from where he can see only one. "So, which took the pouch, is the natural question. We actually don't care; with the pouch returned, we might forget this building entirely. Come.", the halfelf says, letting a spell unweave, transient light. "Let us step back from the brink, and perhaps even yet, the simian might be saved. That, as yet uncertain."
"Come gentlemen, we've been rather patient. Would you force us to trespass? To battle?"
A voice from deeper inside the room snarls, "Vai escoitar algún estraño ou para min? Fai o que dixo!"
The next moment, a Small blade comes whistling out the open door, burying itself in the meat of Snake's upper arm. At the same moment, a Small arm reaches to shut the door, but Gristav steps forward and interposes the butt of his staff at the last moment.
Phil climbs the stairs to the owner's office once more to return the keys. "Find what you need?" Saul asks.
With a short nod Phillip offers "Aye... just a couple more errands and then I'll be here for the lead in." he moves forward to slide the two borrowed keys across the table and back to Saul.
Saul reaches for the keys, giving them a glance that's just a bit more than casual, to verify that Phil is returning the same keys he borrowed. He gives the halfling a nod. "We're a few men short," he reminds Phil wearily. "The more eyes we have on the environs, the better."
As the halfling gives a short nod of acknowledgment and excuses himself, Saul, Bojasc, and Tendal watch him go. The casino owner sighs and rubs his hand over his face before returning the keys to his keyring; the stress of the imminent opening combined with the absence of his dwarven partner is visibly wearing on him to Tendal.
Bojasc stares at the doorway for a handful of moments after Phillip has already disappeared. "You trust that sharper with the keys to everything, boss?" he asks dubiously.
"You could have gone with him, if you don't trust him," Saul answers a little sharply. "Besides, it's not like Larur kept the key to the vault in his office."
"Got to keep my eye on you, boss" Bojasc grins. "That's what you pay me for."
Tendal has seen a great deal of the Varisian bodyguard over the past week, and while he has not otherwise been favorably impressed, he must admit that the man takes his job seriously; he is virtually never away from Saul's elbow.
Grimacing as he pulls the knife out, "There's two of the little <bleep>, bubs. They've gone through another door." Snake recalls a familiar bit of magic as he increases his protection.
"Called it."
Braddon grins and races into the room and through the other door, both weapons in front of him.
"I will go out with him." Tendal says, standing up from the corner table where he had spread out his writing implements. "This letter is complete, in any regard. Now I simply require a carrier who will convey it to Magnimar in the next few days."
Paper, ink and pen disappear into his satchel, and he takes his cane from beside the chair.
"But for the moment, my communications are not the primary concern. I believe that Bojasc is correct, Mr. Vankaskerkin. Mr. Hargreaves, while not raising any suspicion on my part, should not be required to bear the burden of watchfulness alone. I too think that every opportunity that the Golden Goblin has to raise its fortune, is an opportunity for our opponents to set their pieces into motion."
"I will go and set a watchful eye on the proceedings and preparations."
Tipping his cane as a quick salute, Tendal follows Phillip out the door and down the stairs, quickly catching up with the shorter legged halfling.
"Mr. Hargreaves. I feel the need to stretch my legs a bit and I understand that you are about the casino's business. I would like to accompany you in your errand."
Braddon makes it to the second doorway and sees two halflings within. He jabs at the nearest one with his short sword.
Tendal catches up to Phillip as the halfling starts down the stairs. Phil explains that his immediate errand is, in fact, personal, but that he expects to be back at the Goblin and at Saul's disposal as soon as he has completed a purchase.
Alighting at the ground floor, Tendal can hear Thuvalia Barabbio's voice raised imperiously through the kitchen doors and has an unpleasant flashback to his first arrival at the Gold Goblin a week ago this morning.
"No, no!" she is insisting. "Take all this away, and bring it back later!"
Phil gives Tendal a smirk and a wink and leaves via the back door to avoid going onto the casino floor and getting drawn into the altercation.
"Can we please stop pissing about? We've still people outside. You're still counting our numbers..."
A ray of polar frost passes Braddon toward whatever target may be visible, animate preferred, inanimate acceptable.
"Add that. This is foregone; stand down, stand to, or be knocked down."
"No, no!" she is insisting. "Take all this away, and bring it back later!"
Watching Phillip's coattails vanish out through the rear-exit of the kitchen suddenly makes Tendal feel a bit abandoned, as if he was a child left holding a misappropriated plate of sweets while his siblings vanished in the face of parental wrath.
I wish I had something "personal" that I could attend to...rather than this.
Steeling himself, Tendal straightens and walks through the kitchen doors and into the sea of chaos. His eyes flick over the scene, and once again Thuvalia is in the midst of the chaos.
"In no treatise on leadership do they list "Screeching like a harridan fishwife" as an effective methodology. Or am I mistaken and you are simply working through the upper registers in an effort to prepare your voice? If so, I would recommend doing so elsewhere as your timbre has set the glassware in the kitchen a-shiver." Tendal says, his voice loud enough to cut across the din in the room. His face settling into his natural frown, he latches eyes with Thuvalia, "So what unpleasantness has disturbed your deportment this time Madame Barabbio?" he asks as momentary silence falls across the room.
Gristav follows Braddon into a long narrow room which contains a rough, wooden table, a barrel half-full of stagnant water, and a rusty washbasin on a stand. Through the door, he just catches a glimpse of the same nervous-looking halfling he saw from the hallway and summons a ray of frost, a rushed and ill-aimed shot which causes the doorframe to creak with sudden cold but fails to come anywhere near the halfling.
The next moment, the door slams shut.
I wish I had something "personal" that I could attend to...rather than this.
Not for the first time in the last few days, Tendal's thoughts touch on Liry Parmenter, the Ghoulette girl, and the tour of Riddleport she gave him last Moonday. Her parting words had been a clear invitation to a repeat engagement yet he'd made no attempt to contact her again.
"So what unpleasantness has disturbed your deportment this time Madame Barabbio?" he asks as momentary silence falls across the room.
"These ... these stevedores," she gestures indignantly at the workmen attempting to get the gaming tables and chairs in place on the new carpet. "The dancers need this space to practice!"
"These ... these stevedores," she gestures indignantly at the workmen attempting to get the gaming tables and chairs in place on the new carpet. "The dancers need this space to practice!"
Tendal wove his way across the crowded floor, passing the workmen setting up the casino, his cane making muted thumps on the carpet as he came closer.
"The dancers are not yet here, correct? Therefore you cannot practice in any regard. Furthermore, the casino is the means of income, and therefore the gaming floor is required to be ready in time for the opening." his insinuation of Thuvalia's very minor place in the affairs of the Golden Goblin falling into the silence.
Tendal stood silent for a moment, his mind working.
"It seems that practicing is best accomplished in the location and conditions that are most like those of the eventual performance. I imagine the requirements of footwork would be different on carpet as they would be on a dance floor."
"Perhaps you should look to practice outside, on the dance floor, which is prepared for this evening's performance?" He then wove his cane at her, cutting off her expected protest.
"And if you are concerned about privacy for practice, and thus your harpish shouting to utilize the casino floor, you could perchance ask for assistance in devising some stratagem to accomplish your requirements...or is that too difficult? Yes, I believe it would be for you...hm...the caravaners that I traveled to Riddleport with would set up temporary enclosures of poles and canvas. We are using torches to illuminate your dance this evening, and the poles are already set around the dance floor. Cloth can be procured, perhaps old sailcloth and fashion you a privacy enclosure of a sort", he pronounces with ruthless efficiency and his usual exemplary diplomacy.
Then, turning to the workmen, and ignoring Thuvalia, he asks, "Odds are that at least one of you gentlemen is a retired sailor. If so, please come forward, I would like to hire you for a quick task."
"The dancers are not yet here, correct? Therefore you cannot practice in any regard. Furthermore, the casino is the means of income, and therefore the gaming floor is required to be ready in time for the opening." his insinuation of Thuvalia's very minor place in the affairs of the Golden Goblin falling into the silence.
"Yet they will be here soon, and we must have a place to practice. Your silly games may be the means of parting your customers from their money; but they must be drawn in first, and that is the job of entertainment. This is Varisian Caravan night, and without the music and dancers, there is no Varisian Caravan night, no? Only Parting Fools from Their Money night, which is honest but perhaps not the most enticing of slogans, no?"
Then, turning to the workmen, and ignoring Thuvalia, he asks, "Odds are that at least one of you gentlemen is a retired sailor. If so, please come forward, I would like to hire you for a quick task."
With some nudging and shuffling, three of the workmen step forward.
"Excellent, now we can be about fixing this.", Tendal says, seeing the men step forward.
"You know of my reputation." he says, addressing the sailors. "Honest pay for quick, diligent work. We will proceed to a location that sells sailcloth, purchase enough to rig around the dance floor, and then return. Whereapon you gentlemen will get paid depending on the skill and speed by which the task is accomplished. If it is completed before Thuvalia's dancers arrive, your reward will be handsome. If not, then you will receive less."
"What say you?"
There's more shuffling and an exchange of glances among the men. "Begging your pardon, sir," one of them speaks up, "but would she be the one to be watching us?" He hesitantly points at Thuvalia with a gnarled little finger.
Snake brings about more magic upon himself before moving into the room with the others, flinging the dagger away as he does. Shaking his head in irritation, "It's just a purse. You gotta be freaking kiddin' me."
"Hmm, length may be useful."
Braddon tosses aside the short sword and attempts to open the door with his free hand.
He then stabs through the door with both hands on his bastard sword.
Dropping his sword, Braddon tries to open the door but finds it locked. In frustration, he swings his oversized sword like an axe but misjudges the space in the cramped room; the blade's end catches on the barrel behind him, and he stumbles as he loses momentum.
There's more shuffling and an exchange of glances among the men. "Begging your pardon, sir," one of them speaks up, "but would she be the one to be watching us?" He hesitantly points at Thuvalia with a gnarled little finger.
"Of course not. I will be providing the coin, therefore I will see the task completed."
I think only Hanz and Franz are here...nobody else. I do not think that they should be long removed from their post at the safe. I will have to be cautious and simply risk it.
"If that is all gentlemen, I say we be about our business. Time is money after all. Please lead on to a ship-chandler where we can get used sailcloth", Tendal said, motioning towards the doors.
The rest of the furniture-movers, discovering that they are being left behind with Thuvalia, look as if they wish they had volunteered for Tendal's special project.
The three ex-sailors walk with Tendal cheerfully out into the hot summer day, grinning as if they'd just won a reprieve or a day of shore leave. One of them sidles up to Tendal, as they head in the direction of the wharves. "It's possible you needn't lay out any coin, sir," he intimates. "I know a place unlikely to be guarded on a Sunday where we can just take what we need."
------------------------------
In Rotgut, Gristav turns on his heel and heads for the stairs.
With a stone look about him, wondering how in the world the ranger managed to find a way to not smash the door open, Snake steps forward while drawing his morningstar and takes a swing at it himself.
The door shudders under Snake's attack and cracks slightly where the head of the spiked mace struck it but remains basically intact.
Annoyed, Braddon takes the time carefully to aim the blade of his bastard sword at the crack made by Snake's morningstar and strikes again, this time crushing the door and leaving it hanging in splinters from its hinges. He steps into a seemingly-empty bedroom, with two beds, a table and two chairs with sawed-off legs, and an open window through through which the wall of the neighboring house is almost within reach.
At the foot of the stairs, Gristav hears the splintering crash.
"It's possible you needn't lay out any coin, sir," he intimates. "I know a place unlikely to be guarded on a Sunday where we can just take what we need."
Tendal walks along the street in silence for a moment before answering the man. "I appreciate the sentiment, my goodman. The urge to save money is fundimental to good business practice. Being too new to the town though, I hesitate to set myself against anyone, however unknown. And, since we are going to string up the sails in full public view, it may not be prudent to obtain them from someone who may miss them later. I certainly appreciate your lateral thinking though." Tendal says quietly to the man, before clapping him on the shoulder.
Tendal continued down the street, attempting to keep track of his path as he followed the men though the winding ways of the city, aware and alert to any possible threats.
The workmen lead Tendal into the alleys of warehouses just north of the wharves and knock at a nondescript door at the end of one of them. After several moments, a sour-looking man peers out. "Well? What do you want?" he asks, his eyes flickering from one man to the next and narrowing with suspicion at Tendal's elegant manner of dress.