Drat...I didn't look at the size of the dance floor closely. I did sign the paperwork for payment of delivery though. I had 16 segments of floor and each was...
Tendal quickly calculates the sums in his head, in an attempt to derive the amount of sail that he needs.
"Good sir. I am Tendal Deverin. I was told that I could procure sailcloth from your chandlery by these gentlemen. We need 70 yard-lengths of cloth total. I am not concerned about condition, nor do I care particularly for width, as long as it is no narrower than 3 yards." Tendal announces in his usual manner.
A certain excitement stirs in his chest at the prospect of bargaining with the unknown man.
"Sailcloth, hey?" the man barks, his suspicion overwhelmed by the prospect of procuring some coin. "Can get you some used. Can't promise no mildew or patches. Seventy yards: that'd be seven gold, cash on the barrelhead."
"My good man, 7 gold is enough to outfit one of the finest merchant ships of Absolom in full kit. I am not looking to sail a ship, but using the discards for my own purpose. I am certain that they are merely mildewing up some storage lot of yours, taking away space that could be used much more profitably. I think that you should be paying me to take the refuse off your hands, but instead, here I am, offering you 2 golds to remove the used sailcloth." Tendal negotiated enthusiastically.
The man snorts. "Enough to rig the toy fleet you sail in your bathtub maybe. Five gold!" he counters.
-----------------------------
Gristav moves through the fetid gloom to the back door and lifts the latch.
"I can't see them in here. Just a window into the ruin next door."
"And I know just what to do with windows."
By the look on the man's face, Tendal doesn't think he is going to be able to bargain him down much further.
"Done. 5 gold." he says, quickly flicking out the golds and dropping them into the man's astonished hand. "If you would let my men get the sailcloth and we will be on our way."
The man looks as if he wishes he'd countered a little higher ... but the coin is in his hand now, and he puts it quickly away in a pouch at his belt. He directs Tendal's entourage of workmen into the shadowy, sour-smelling warehouse, and they bundle the used sailcloth into handcarts.
"You bring those back, and in good shape!" the man snaps, showing a rather-unreasonable level of concern for the rickety wooden contraptions.
------------------------------
Braddon rushes over to the window and sticks his sword out, followed by his head, and looks around for the diminutive dangers.
Snake moves into the room, looking around also.
"Time is drifting away from us gentlemen. Let us be about our business. Remember the bonus if the sail-walls are installed before the dancers arrive." Tendal says, encouraging alacrity from the ex-sailors as he stood in the doorway of the warehouse. He ignored the sour look from the warehouse owner, focusing instead on his own thoughts.
I have other things that I would like to see to, and this is delaying my own business. Tendal thought as he watched the men, quietly tapping his cane against the wooden jam of the door.
Tendal's thoughts drifted to Liry, wondering about how she was doing and wondering if he would see her at the activities tonight.
His thoughts skittered further to the missing dwarf. How very odd that nobody saw him leave...or at least nobody has mentioned any sort of activity.
With the promised bonus to spur them, the workmen are quickly ready for the return trip to the Gold Goblin.
----------------------------------------
As Snake enters and looks around cautiously, Braddon rushes to the window and peers out. The wall of the neighboring building is no more than six or seven feet away, but that is too far for the halflings to have reached and no window or ledge to jump to. Looking down, he sees a damp and muddy alley littered with crates, barrels, and piles of trash; there is plenty of cover down there for them to have hidden. Braddon also notices that the crumbling facade of the building has left pits and ridges that could conceivably be used to climb up to the flat rooftop.
Downstairs, Gristav opens the door and finds himself staring down the crossbow of the stranger who sought their aid. His trigger finger twitches ... but he was preparing to shoot a halfling coming out the back and recognizes Gristav in time to hold his shot. "Well?" he asks breathlessly. "What took you so long? Did you find them?"
Snake moves to the door and attempts to open it.
Snake attempts to open the door in the corner and finds it locked.
"We expect them... there.", Gristav points with his staff, and moves past the crossbowman. "Out the window, to the alley", he explains at their perigee, not waiting, actually now hoping to be ahead and prevent the injured party's impulse to impale.
Moving past the alley exit, Gristav looks briefly, casually, only stopping once out of sight of anyone in the alley.
Braddon turns to Snake.
"Unless they made it to the roof, they must be in there."
He gestures at Snake's door with the bastard sword.
Gristav's "casual" glance down the alley reveals a foul-smelling, dimly-lit gauntlet of obstacles and possible ambush sites: crates, barrels, and piles of trash could all easily conceal a diminutive bandit.
------------------------------
Meanwhile, back at the Gold Goblin, Tendal arrives back in the cobblestoned courtyard with his sailcloth carriers. The dancing surface is set up between the verandah and the gilded statue of the grinning, oversized goblinoid that welcomes patrons.
Tendal glanced around, his eyes passing over the dancing surface, and then up and down the street. Not seeing any possible dancers coming up the street, he pointed at the dancing surface with his cane.
"I believe that you gentlemen are in luck, I do not see any dancers, or anyone looking like a dancer approaching. Please set up the sail-wall around the dancefloor as quickly as you can. Additionally, leave a section open at the back, facing the doors of the Gold Goblin, so people can come and go. If you can rig the wall in such a manner that I can drop the entire wall by pulling on a single knot, I will be even more pleased," he says to the workmen, illustrating his points with wild swings of his cane and several jabbing points.
Then, seeing the workmen scurrying into action, Tendal walked up to the doors of the Gold Goblin and tugged one open to poke his head inside and check on the state of disrepair...and to see if Thuvalia was causing more trouble.
Snake attempts to pick the lock with the point end of a dagger.
Braddon joins Snake at the door, ready to stab any enemies within.
Snake draws a dagger and dexterously slips the point of the blade into the mechanism of the lock, attempting to manipulate its inner workings. Braddon crosses the room to take up a position next to him, his larger blade at the ready for a more violent action.
Outside, the stranger stares back and forth between Gristav and the open door. "What? Where is he?"
-----------------------------
Tendal leaves the men to their task and goes back inside the casino. Like most summer days in Riddleport, it is hot and humid, most of the breeze off the harbor not making its way up the river valley; inside, it is no less muggy, but at least Tendal has the relief of getting out of the noonday sun.
The people inside seem to have come to some sort of precarious detente: half the casino floor is set up; the furniture for the other half is clustered around the open space where Thuvalia is holding court. In Tendal's absence, the dancers and musicians from Lubbertown have arrived; under Thuvalia's direction, the dancers are going through steps on the new carpeting while the musicians are tuning their instruments in some of the extra chairs.
"Little fellow, in a bluish jacket? Or a hairier sort, in an auburn pelt?"
Gristav allows himself a peek back into the alleyway, before again retreating to the shelter of the neighboring building. He then looks to the victim for either sort of confirmation.
"The first found a second, and they've retreated. Perhaps trapped, perhaps fleeing. The other, is probably dying on the stairs."
Looking again into the alley, and at the window, unbroken, unopened... Gristav again crosses the alley, and passes the stranger. "I'm guessing at trapped. But you might want to cover the window. I wouldn't offer warning; they'd drop into the clutter of the alley, and you'll never see them. That'd be true, if you shoot them, as well..."
"Or you could come with me."
Gristav returns upstairs, at a run.
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.
Tendal leaves the men to their task and goes back inside the casino. Like most summer days in Riddleport, it is hot and humid, most of the breeze off the harbor not making its way up the river valley; inside, it is no less muggy, but at least Tendal has the relief of getting out of the noonday sun.The people inside seem to have come to some sort of precarious detente: half the casino floor is set up; the furniture for the other half is clustered around the open space where Thuvalia is holding court. In Tendal's absence, the dancers and musicians from Lubbertown have arrived; under Thuvalia's direction, the dancers are going through steps on the new carpeting while the musicians are tuning their instruments in some of the extra chairs.
Seeing the group set up on the floor of the Gold Goblin, a white hot rage snaps through Tendal for an instant.
"Aspergine Multiplorum Hutesium!" he snarls, pointing his cane over the heads of the assembled group. A lashing weave of color blasts from the end of his cane, lighting the entire room for a fraction of a second in a swirling panoply of color.
Into the deathly hush that falls over the room. Tendal says in a cold voice, "Musicians, dancers and entertainers will move practice to the dance floor outside, and continue their practice. I will be checking on you shortly. Workmen will resume the setup of the casino floor...promptly." Then he steps out of the way of the door, thumps his cane against the floor with a loud thump, and points his cane out the door.
"To the dancefloor. Move", he says, his voice icy.
Suitably chastened, the Varisian hirees quickly gather their things and head for the front doors. Thuvalia shrugs coldly. "I assumed you would prefer we make use of the available time once the talent arrived," she remarks, "rather than lounge around indolently waiting for your return. Mr. Vankaskerkin is paying them, after all. They are not slave labor." She move after them at a more leisurely pace.
"I'm guessing at trapped. But you might want to cover the window. I wouldn't offer warning; they'd drop into the clutter of the alley, and you'll never see them. That'd be true, if you shoot them, as well..."
"Or you could come with me."
Gristav returns upstairs, at a run.
"I -- what?" The burgled bystander moves to the corner of the building where he can see both the narrow alley between the house and its neighbor and the back door by which Gristav re-enters and heads for the staircase.
Upstairs, Snake's dagger successfully lifts the latching mechanism, and he seizes the handle and opens the door, stepping to one side as he does so to leave space for Braddon's sword to swing.
Braddon is ready to attack when the door opens ... but finds himself staring into a cluttered storage closet, stacked with crates and a small lockbox.
"Well, they won't be going far while we've go that."
Braddon gestures to the lockbox with his sword then returns to the previous room to retrieve his short sword.
For the barest of moments, Tendal wants to engage once more in a verbal sparring session with Thuvalia...but then, like a flash he realizes something.
You may play others for the fools Madame Barabbio, but you knew where you needed to be, you knew you could ask for assistance, and you knew that you were interfering and creating more chaos. Yet you decided to take your own path, and instead merely caused chaos and disruption.
You are a petulant child Thuvalia, and will never be more than this. The moment that an opportunity comes to throw you out, I will do everything in my power to convince Mr. Vankaskerkin to take it.
As Thuvalia passes, Tendal gives her no more deference or interest than he did any of the other musicians or workers.
After a moment, Braddon and Snake hear feet pounding up the stairs, and Gristav presently reappears in the doorway.
--------------------------------------
With Thuvalia outside, the atmosphere on the casino floor lightens considerably, and the workmen cheerfully get about the business of setting up the rest of the tables and chairs.
Braddon looks up as Gristav enters.
"Got away. I reckon they climbed onto the roof. But we got their stuff."
Braddon makes his way back into the room where Snake is.
"I don't know we have a right to their 'stuff'. I'll go require a detailed description of what was taken. It may have left with the residents, but if we can find it...", Gristav stops himself, musing mutely a moment. "We won't be just loosing him to rifle about.", Gris says as if in judgement, turning to go, but stopping with a raised brow (and falling frost round his fingers) to ask...
"Did you look under the beds?"
Braddon also notices that the crumbling facade of the building has left pits and ridges that could conceivably be used to climb up to the flat rooftop.
For the next few minutes, Tendal ensures that the workmen inside get back to setting the casino for the evening's revel. He then goes back outside and pays the ex-sailors 5 silvers each, before directing them back inside to help their comrades.
And now to my own interests. I wonder if the street urchins may have seen our dwarf when he departed. If not, then he either was not seen anywhere in the city as he traveled to his destination, or he departed through some other means. If I find a child who is willing to spread the word that there is a reward for information that leads me to Laur...I would hope that I might find some shred of information.
First, I need to find a likely urchin to spread the word. Tendal scans the street, looking for a likely child to carry word of his request.
Snake looks to Gristav a moment in thought before looking to the beds. Shaking his head, "No." He then turns his attention to Braddon. "Hey, bub, why don't you send that blade of yours through the bed and kill anything that might be hiding below."
Snake looks to Gristav a moment in thought before looking to the beds. Shaking his head, "No." He then turns his attention to Braddon. "Hey, bub, why don't you send that blade of yours through the bed and kill anything that might be hiding below."
"A sweep beneath would destroy less, prove more, and be less likely to result in a trapped or broken blade. Or do we all, now, owe them injury? I do not see it thus..."
Gristav releases his gathered glaciation, targeting the shadows under whichever bed is furthest from Braddon.
"Do come out.", he invites of an imagined inhabitant.
Braddon sheaths both weapons and tips over the nearest bed.
"I still say they're on the roof," he sulks.
"I don't say they aren't. But can we mount to the roof against opposition? Three stories, onto rubble, might be the end of a fourth."
"Well let's check the roof then. Heights don't really bother me much."
Gristav's ray shoots harmlessly into the space beneath the bed and softly explodes into a burst of frost, while Braddon casually overturns the other bed, revealing nothing more than dust bunnies and a small colony of cockroaches which scatter into the cracks in the floor.
-----------------------------
Tendal settles up with the canopy-spreading workmen and strolls out into the street itself, glancing up and down for a street urchin of the sort which begs on nearly every corner in Magnimar and is always eager to earn a silver coin by delivering a message or fetching a carriage or some other menial task, but there seem to be no children in sight on this road whatsoever. Feeling distinctly put out by the inconvenience, he remembers the brouhaha stirred up by the elf Daynadrian's attempt to hire a boy to serve as watchman, the priestess Shorafa Pamodae's indignation, and her insistence that the street children of Riddleport were under the protection of her temple.
He seems to recall that the Wharf District was regarded as singularly unsafe for children, due to unscrupulous sailors kidnapping prospective cabin boys and riggers. He might have more luck finding a child spending an idle Sunday at play a bit further northeast into Leeward District. Then again, there might well be a boy or two hanging around Zincher's Arena, drinking in the lurid posters or hoping to catch a sight of an off-duty gladiator.
"Well let's check the roof then. Heights don't really bother me much."
"Okay, you check the roof. Do you want me to follow?"
Braddon draws both weapons again, though one is unsure how that might help him if climbing is required.
"Didn't you make a habit of carrying a grapnel?", Gristav asks his well-armed companion. "Likely to aid the climb more than a full hand, or main gauche." ...and I'd welcome a rope, myself...
"I've got manacles... What does a bounty hunter need a grapnel for?"
Well, this is going to be a bit harder to accomplish than I thought. I don't want to run afoul of whatever the priestess Pamodae thinks she is accomplishing. Who knows if the urchins actually respect her, or if its mere braggadocio. Only way to know is to ask, I guess.
Tendal, plan in mind, glances at the fall of the shadows to judge the time remaining in the day. Thinking it adequate, and knowing any further interference into the practice of the dancers and musicians would be counterproductive, he heads off towards Zincher's Arena, looking to find someone who can spread the word of his proposition.
Tendal leaves behind the activity of the Gold Goblin and heads east toward Zincher's Arena, navigating by the massive stone walls visible above the rooftops. Past the grandiose circular structure that is the Cypherlodge-owned inn, the Mystery of the Gate, the arena itself starts to come into view, its utilitarian stone walls plastered with man-sized broadsides joyfully depicting various imaginative beasts and gladiators graphically maiming each other in lurid colors.
As Tendal had hoped, there are a few boys gazing up at the posters and mimicking the poses of the gladiators as they re-enact the battles against invisible enemies.
"Okay, you check the roof. Do you want me to follow?"
Braddon draws both weapons again, though one is unsure how that might help him if climbing is required.
"Up to you, bub. If you do, you're probably gonna need to use your hands to do so." Snake then proceeds to make his way onto the roof.
"A moment, Kane. If they're defending, you may fall. You may not care if you do. But if your lights danced ahead first, however harmless we know them to be, not everyone knows such. And warding the natives from the edge might purchase time to gain... purchase."
Gristav has slung his staff as he spoke, clearly emptying his hands for an attempt at ascent.
Tendal leaves behind the activity of the Gold Goblin and heads east toward Zincher's Arena, navigating by the massive stone walls visible above the rooftops. Past the grandiose circular structure that is the Cypherlodge-owned inn, the Mystery of the Gate, the arena itself starts to come into view, its utilitarian stone walls plastered with man-sized broadsides joyfully depicting various imaginative beasts and gladiators graphically maiming each other in lurid colors.
As Tendal had hoped, there are a few boys gazing up at the posters and mimicking the poses of the gladiators as they re-enact the battles against invisible enemies.
"Ahem." Tendal began awkwardly, uncertain of how to best approach this. "Lads, I have a question and a proposition...." Tendal trailed off.
You know, I should have run this by someone first. Like Mr. Vankaskerkin. I don't know if he wants it known that Laur isn't around, or that we don't know where he is. I imagine that we could cover up his absence with a tale...unless I opened my mouth and started asking around...damn. Certainly letting our enemies know of our loss would not be wise.
"Actually scratch that, I merely have a question. Who do you favor in the upcoming matches, and where do I place a wager?" Tendal asked, shifting his conversation and hoping that the boys ignored the slight hesitation.