Sighing slightly at Carmina's query, Yamyra eye's her friend bemusedly, "This is my usual neighborhood dear. I've taken you to all the good taverns I know."
Which is to say, I don't frequent taverns & I thought you knew that.
"I suspect we will be in need of a stout pint or two once we have located her, yes."
"However, I doubt we will find the locating of her to be something we accomplish in a few scant hours when others with far more resources than we have yet to do so after several ."
"I wasn't suggesting we the watch, I was suggesting we make of them." Yamyra clarified to Gared.
"Ah, but is it not more likely for a tradesman or a souse to have their ears to the stones on the road? It has only been the poor folk who have gone missing. It would be more of a concern for ordinary folk than the city watch. The watch might not know enough to be of any use," Horven suggests.
"I believe that Horven is right. I do not think the city guard will help us, in fact they will likely demand we tell them what we know in return for nothing. We should ask around the people."
Horven casually asks a few denizens of the waterfront if they've heard anything about the disappearances or about Natalya.
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After several hours of canvassing the seedy bars and taverns looking for any rumors concerning the Natalya disappearance or any of the other unsolved disappearances. The only rumors you have picked up which are prevalent are the persistent rumors of Nidalese slavers, in fact a pickup for one of these slave runs has been scheduled for this very midnight at an old, boarded-up shoreline tavern in Dockway. The tavern was once known as the Puffy Pelican.
"Seems like we have a lead. I am not sure what we will find there, but it is something. We have a bit of time before then, though," Horven says.
"Well, I suppose it is a little early for dinner..."
Ganer had a bad feeling, "I hope this doesn't have anything to do with the Nidalese slavers, though I have my suspicions." Ganer moved close to Carmina, and whispered something to her in the hissing tongue of the Abyss.
Carmina thinks for a moment, then responds.
"I don't think I have anything like that... Though if I keep my mouth shut, close my eyes and keep my clothes on, I will look mostly normal."
"I do wish you two would stop doing that. It's a tongue of evil, leaves a little patina of vileness on my ears every time I hear it." Yamyra snaps animatedly. "If we insist on speaking in a tongue people about us aren't likely to understand, could we at least choose one that doesn't imperil our souls?"
"Do the rest of you feel prepared to assault possible Nidalese Slavers? Because I certainly do not."
"Granted, not certain when I feel ready, but if this is what we are going to do, we should likely prepare..."
"Preparations that would be better done somewhere we can speak freely & without fear of being overheard!"
"I say we go back to Sheila's & discus it there, we've time to be there, talk it over & back with a comfortable margin left over."
"Ha! You're just jealous because you are not awesome enough to know it!" Carmina says, though it isn't clear wheter she means it or just invented something to dismiss Yamyra's complaints with. "But yes, I'm always ready to assault people, Nidalese slavers or otherwise. But by all means, let's go to Sheila's if you need to prepare something. I'm sure that she will be glad to help."
"Very well then, let us move quickly and return as soon as we are prepared. I would urge you all to keep any eye out for any shadows that follow us on our well path of good intentions. I am wary of this place who among these people might count themselves as our enemies." The dwarf made a sweeping motion with his arm towards the people who milled about on the streets around them as they spoke, and his darted back and forth suspiciously as he did so.
"It is a language, no different from any other. Besides, the blood of fiends runs through our veins, by your logic our souls are already imperiled." Ganer sighed, he didn't much like arguing, he found it to be a waste of time, and tried to avoid it whenever he could, so he didn't know what it was that brought an argumentative streak out of him whenever this woman opened her mouth. "Never mind, we should get moving, as Gared said, I'm sure there are many in this place eager to separate us from our money."
Continuing along, Yamyra responds to Ganer's rebuttal.
"The only thing your birth imperils you with is death, same as anyone else. language however..."
"You realize there is no word for Love in that Tongue?"
"Friendship?"
"Respect?..
Well, on a technicality, but really it just means 'one who dominates in more than one way, some of which I might enjoy'..."
"It is a language of violence, degradation, corruption and hatred. When was the last time you ever heard anything said in that tongue that didn't immediately set you on your guard in fear for your life, your soul, or your loved ones, hm?"
A few moments on, "besides, it's all twisty sounding...
Nothing like..."
A slightly offended look passes though the face of Carmina, who is quite hard to offend. With honest passion, she starts lecturing to Yamyra. "Now, as far as I know, you don't actually speak Abyssal. So I fear that you might be misinformed." She pauses for a moment, then continues with confidence.
"As you might know, Abyssal is not a rigid language governed by complex grammar and a large vocabulary. Instead, it is like an artist's paltte, a collection of simple colors from which an artist can mix breath-taking new hues to build amazing paintings with. Sure, "love" and "respect" or "friendship" might not be parts of the palette, but with creativity you can express every possible feeling, including love and respect."
"For example, you could say "friend" like this:"
"Friend."
"Respect."
"...which is turn is derived from: "I will not let anybody else stab you in the back, as to ensure you a relatively painless death."
She remains silent for a moment, then remembers her personal favourite. "Oh, and then there is "love", which I once heard being said as:"
"Which, if translated literally means: "I want to be next to you, even though you smell."
Horven grins at Carmina's linguistics lesson. "How about we go take a look at the Puffy Pelican and find a good vantage point for later? Then we can return to Venture-Captain Heidmarch and inform her of our plan and probable location...just in case."
Finally deciding to address something that had been bothering him, he turns to Yamyra. "Kial vi malfaciligas por ni raporti al vi? Vi ŝajnas tiel malproksimaj sed ŝajnas kvazaŭ vi ne volas esti sola. Ĉu ni ne povas esti amikoj?"
"It's not pie dear...
"Yes, I am fluent in Abyssal, that is true. I am forced, if I encounter a passage in Abyssal, to spend even more time painstakingly deconstructing the syntax, the tense, the verbiage, the subject, the , and the context than you might be."
"That said, I have the to deconstruct the syntax, the tense, the verbiage, the subject, the object & the ,
and context is important..."
"For instance, what you call 'pie' also translated as 'candy' or 'sweet' or 'treat'..." Yamyra shudders slightly as if in contemplation of just what the inhabitants of the Abyss might consider 'sweet' or 'candy' or a 'treat'.
"Can any of you see where I am going with this?"
"Anyone?"
Sighing, "I concede dear, I do speak the tongue of sin incarnate. Nor have I a wish to."
"That said, if I will learn it for you, will you consent to learn some other tongue for me?" glancing over at Ganer, "Something other than the lingua Inferna if at all possible?"
As Gared & Horven already are obviously conversant in Torag's tongue, perhaps that?"
At Horven's query, Yamyra seems a bit taken aback. Her mouth opening & closing as if about to say something, perhaps rebuttal, perhaps something else. Eventually she shakes her head, but she is silent for the remainder of the walk to Heidmarch Manor.
Ganer laughed at Carmina's explanation, it was significant in the sense that Gared and Horven had never seen him do it before that point. After taking a moment to compose himself, he replied, "If the subject causes you such stress, then you needn't concern yourself with the matter. Irori has already protected me from greater threats than the sorts of demons so weak as to concern themselves with the use of their language, so I am unconcerned. I would not be so cavalier about Infernal, however, what you say of the Demons might actually be true of the Devils, concerned as they are with temptation."
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Laughing and joking, the group of Pathfinders make their way back to Heidmarch Manor to inform their sponsor of what they have discovered. Although Gared watched their surrounding carefully, none of the onlookers felt the urge to tangle with such a group of well armed individuals (although Carmina does get more that a few lacivious looks from some of the more unsavory types.)
Upon arriving at the manor, all of you discover Sheila is not currently available to talk to currently. You all do tell her assistant, a scribe by the name of Andel Gesseran, what you have discovered and where you will be heading to this evening. He assures all of you Sheila will be informed of this.
After grabbing a bite to eat and also equipping yourselves for whatever awaits you, you start making your way to the Dockway district and the Puffy Pelican. As you approach the tavern, you can see it appears to be quite old, boarded-up shoreline tavern. In the fading sunlight, you all see a faded painting of a fat pelican still gracing the facade of the empty building, and the building’s back features a half-collapsed wooden deck that hangs over the high-tide mark.
"Well gentlemen," turning to the three arrivals, "I've heard a great deal about 'Grand Lodge' training...
I don't suppose any of it addresses covert observation?"
"That is to say, we should probably find a good spot to hide & watch." She adds in response to Carmina's blank expression.
Dinner & several hours of not putting her foot in her mouth seem to have refreshed Yamyra's cheerier disposition.
"I know what it means!" Carmina scoffs. Sometimes she feels like Yamyra underestimates her. "Though I'm not sure about the Grand Lodge training... I got my training shortened. They said that my problem solving methods, while unconventional, were very effective. And I think they mentioned something about "saving the remaining infrastructure", or something like that."
She spends a while thinking, then has her expression brighten as she gets a new idea. "Hey, Fancy can do that "look like a statue"-thing, yes? We can leave her here, go somewhere near but out of sight, and have her alert us somehow if she sees something suspicious."
"Except both Fancy & I manifest an arcane sigil when she is here."
"Very few statues, particularly in this neighborhood, will have something like that." Yamyra rather pointedly looks about you. Oddly enough, there is little in the way of statuary in sight.
Horven looks for a good vantage point, preferrably one higher than the tavern.
Perception:
"Something's not right..." Horven mutters.
At Horven's warning Yamyra furtively looks around to see if there are many people out on the street & ducks between Carmina or Ganer & the closest building, whispering, "Try not to arouse suspicion." She then begins a highly unusual incantation.
Carmina raises an eyebrow at Yamyra. First telling others to not arouse suspicions, then starts doing some odd ritual in the middle of the street... Typical Yamyra.
"This place hasn't been used recently," Horven explained. "I'm thinking this is a set-up."
Horven moves his hand to his rapier and glances around. He doesn't look for anything in particular, he is just giving time for his intuition to kick in.
Gared has remained relatively quiet throughout most of the day, and seems perhaps some where between concerned and determined. He stays close to Horven as the halfling searches about the building, and nods in acknowledged as he speaks and begins to search the ground around the building, looking for tracks in or out of the place.
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Although there are a few passersby walking around the streets and alleyways, none seem to take any undue notice of your group. The appearance of the exotic statue draws no attention to yourselves.
An odd, clicking, rustling sussuration begins as Yamyra's incantation builds in rhythm. Faintly luminous dust motes whirl into a comparatively small, slow, rising vortex. Each mote revolving like a cog in a fine clockwork. Each revolution bringing them closer to each other and, oddly, more of them. Within moments, the statuesque, feminine outsider stands among you once more.
At the others bemused looks Yamyra answers "What?"
"He was acting as though something bad might happen," indicating Horven, "Fancy is much better in a fight than ."
Ganer decided to offer what assistance he could in the situation, which wasn't a lot. He withdrew his holy symbol and said a few words and waited for any lingering magic in the area to present itself to him.
Fancy's sudden appearance does not surprise Carmina at the slightest, after all, she has some experience in summoning creatures herself. What irks her is something entirely different...
"Fancy, why did you call everyone else "master" but me? Am I not worth the title or something?"
She turns her back at the eidolon, having been offended by the perceived lack of respect.
Gared moved into the room after Ganer, bow drawn and eyes darting back and forth into the darkness, moving quietly as he could.
"Shall I wait out here or may I light a torch? Don't they remember I don't see in the dark?" Horven mutters.
Suddenly noticing that most of the group has disappeared into the old tavern, Carmina darts after them.
"Hey, wait! I though we were going to wait until midnight before going in.
Upon reaching the others, she takes a good look around, and listens carefully, her demonic blood compensating for her slight unattentiveness.
Horven extracts his everburning torch and joins the rest of the group.
"Maybe there's a passageway underneath the tavern?"
"Let us see what we can find with out leaving marks of our passage. We should have caution, this may indeed be a trap for those who would find our quarry. Hold a moment while I look for any foot prints."
"No one's been here besides us, at least in a good long while. We could search the area, or perhaps set an ambush of some sorts here. Thoughts?" The dwarf stated to no one in particular.
"I doubt we'll find anything around here. If there's nothing in the vicinity, we may have to turn to the Sczarni for answers," Horven muses.
"There is nothing magical in here, though that is not surprising, considering how long this place has been abandoned. I am beginning to wonder if the story of the slavers was a distraction. If they had agreed to meet in this place, shouldn't they have sent a scout ahead to investigate?"
Ganer wandered the room, looking around, though his heart clearly wasn't in it.