Risbeth nods. "That's fine Trops, we'll go with that."
Raul goes back, kicking his feet up and going over some paperwork while Trops goes on his spying adventure.
Trops looks at the big folks nodding, he then whistles to Gordo and flies away on his back through the open window.
Trops flies close to the fool's guild. He leaves Gordo a few blocks away to avoid being seen and then walks stealthily toward the guild. He hides next to the entrance and goes in at the same time as the first person who enters the place (hiding in their footsteps).
His goal is simple, during the day, he will explore the whole place, listening to the conversations of the fools and trying to get a glimpse of who is whom (most likely by going to the dining hall, but also by spying the doorman and the people in charge of the largest/most important rooms of the guild.
Once the nigh comes, he waits for everyone to go to bed. He then goes to all the important rooms (and offices) that he found earlier and opens anything that's locked. He reads any readable thing he can (quickly) and tries to look for anything suspicious. He will try to concentrate on finding written information on everyone who came and went from the guild in the last days if possible.
He then leaves to report to the others.
So in summary: get to know the place and people, then spy on the offices of those people.
The nice croak of Gordo awakes Raul as the bird flies in his room.
"YeahH! I am baCK! Assemble everyONE!"
Trops flies to the dining room where he sits and waits for everyone to come. As the others come in, they can notice that Trops looks quite tired and edgy and is waiting with a knife and a fork in his hands.
"So, this place is just a place of madnESS! Made me crazY! Weirdos with all they booby traPS... and well.. would take me at week to get the information we seEK. Let's just enter and asK. ... Is the food coming, I am tired of piES!"
Raul listens quietly to Trops for a moment, then stands and takes out a slap of meat and starts making a fire. "I'll get this cooking. Medium-rare? Tell us what you learned."
Tanz whispers the last word with almost sacred awe. Igor sighs morosely.
Not taking aways his eyes from the food, Trops answers to Raul's question:
"NothiNG!!! TrulY!! They are just a band of fools, no talk about new guy, no documents about new GUY."
Raul grunts, and the others are beginning to be around him long enough that they are starting to tell the difference between his grunts. "Old fashioned way it is." Raul holds up the steak, juices dropping off it and cutting it open to see a good deal of pink inside. After a moment he shakes his head, putting it back down to get past rare.
Risbeth sighs. "If they weren't talking, I suspect this is another ruse by the Fool, and the Fools who sent him. He wasn't with the assassins' guild, which is what he told the killers, why would he have told the truth to the Thieves?" She looks at the chalk board. "Every lead we've had seems to have shriveled up. I think.. we may have to do the unthinkable..." She shudders at the mere thought of it. "We may have to return to the Alchemist's guild and poke around and either be nice to people, or beat them senseless."
"We'll try the second option first. When - if - they can still speak we'll try being nice."
Raul finishes up the steak, putting a few pinches of sea salt on it before handing it over to Trops. "Eat up, day isn't over yet."
Risbeth nods. "No, the day is not over yet. We should leave when it is."[b/] She gets up and heads upstairs. [b]"We'll reconvene at sunset... some of us don't deal too well with sunlight, remember?"
She will take a very long and hot bath, and then relax until sunset.
Then she'll be happy to go with Raul and Trops and Tanz on wild goose chases.
Raul grunts as Risbeth announces their meeting time, this grunt being one of amusement. "Can't just wear a big sunhat? This might lead us to somewhere else and I'd rather have a few more hours in the day to work on this. Maybe Trops and I can run this one alone."
Trops eyes grow to cartoonish size when a large piece of steak is put in front of him. Quickly he digs in and binges. His mouth full, but not spitting too much food around:
Though I would finaly sleEP... spent the night looking a fool's notes... exhaustiNG! What about taking Stone guy?
Igor looks up at mention of talking Stone guy, but said guy is still distracted, waving his stubby fingers around in the air and mumbling softly (for a troll) to himself.
"”Aherm, a-yes, little master, I believe that my master would be amicable towards such," he replies, taking the initiative.
Risbeth shakes her head. "Sorry Raul, I just.. it seems like attacking the Fool's Guild on just the say so of a disembodied voice purporting to represent the thieves guild is not going to sit well with Vimes or Vetinari. Vimes would just throw us in a cell for 50 years. Tanz and I can handle that, possibly even Trops, although he'd need a new mount. But you'd come out a wasted little gray haired mutt." She sighs. "Let me try the seamstress guild again, Madam Palm gave me permission to ask around last time I saw her, let me see if any of the ladies did any sewing for our mystery Fool's Guild member, or anyone from the guild who talked about unusual or explosive things, or coming into lots of money. Might even find out about some secret entrances to the Guild, for a more secretive assault? Rather than hitting them through the front gate. Anyone that wants to go can, but you might have to wait in the waiting area, or hire someone to darn your socks while I ask around."
Risbeth then goes to the Seamstress guild, and asks around, showing the drawing of the guy who tried to kill them in the underground. She also asks around about alternate entrances to the Fool's Guild, given people like to sneak seamstresses in through secret doors.
Risbeth returns, looking depressed. "Ok, front door it is. Raul, you should probably wait until ti looks like I"m about to rip someone's throat out before you beat their skull in." Risbeth seems about fed up with this whole thing.
As Risbeth comes back, Trops wakes up and joins the big folks. He looks much less tired and much less crazed by the events.
"Lady vampire, take a relaxant, that will help when things get stressFULL! If you want I have sugar cubES! My employers (rats) usualy like thEM!"
As he speaks, Trops climbs up unto Raul (his now favorite perch) to sit on his shoulder.
"NOW Goatie man, I will make sure you don't hurt anyfoOL! We simply need to ask if they got a foul smelling newbie recentLY."
Raul grunts, resigning. "Fine, we'll try it nice first." Although he would never admit it, he actually likes Trops on his shoulder. It's a familiar weight and he feels like he has an extra pair of eyes on him.
Tanz nods, finally standing up and paying attention.
Igor nods politely and steps out, quietly shutting the door behind him.
Risbeth looks at the castle. "Oh my, it's a castle." She says, sounding very unimpressed. "Igorina? Go to the alchemist's guild. Bring back two kegs of gun powder, and 50 feet of lignite cord. Let's knock in true style." Steel glints in the vampire's eyes. "And if anyone gives you any trouble, start tossing this in your hand." She hands Igorina a couple of alchemist's fire flask.
Risbeth's tongue licks blood red lips as she takes a swig off the flask on her hip. "Good job Igorina. I hope you salvaged some body parts from anyone that interfered. Trops, you're up, make sure there's no working traps around..." She looks up and down the wall. "...that section of wall. Never take the obvious entrance when raiding a castle. Tanz, when he's done, I need you to put some cracks in that wall. Raul, if anyone on the crenelation tries to drop nasty things on us, kill them."
Raul arcs a brow. "Thought we were doing things the nice way?"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Risbeth smiles, her teeth flashing. "Oh, be very polite and say excuse me when you kill them."
Trops looks at them in a really uneasy way.
I picked the wrong shoulder, bAH!
The gnome does not leave to go look for traps but instead looks at Risbeth.
"Are you mad vampire Lady? I am not going to attack anyone for FUN! Stone guy, knock on the doOR! With your haND."
Risbeth looks at Trops. "Go right ahead, Trops. If that's what you prefer. I'll wait here. When you're tired of having molten pies dropped on you, or having seltzer acid spritzed in your face, come see me, and we'll make our own entrance." She waves Trops and Tanz on, if they want to go knock on the front door.
"Trops, Tanz, whenever you're ready to blow the wall down instead. Unlike the wolf, we won't be using our breaths." She buffs her nails on her dress. "Igorina, keep track of how many pies the fools throw. When Trops and Tanz are ready to kick heads, go get that many more kegs."
Trops slaps his forehead in dismay. Looks up to the castle's door, breaths in and, in a most shrill voice, yells out:
"HEEEEYYYYYYYY!!!! LISTEN! He need to talk to someone inside, so let us in!"
Risbeth looks at Raul. "5 Silvers says Trops is swimming in pie filling within 10 seconds."
Raul considers the offer, then grins. "I'll take you up on that. I bet they'll come up with something else."
Trops stares at the two others then comes down from Tanz.
"Go in first Stone GUY!"
Tanz gingerly wipes pie from his chest.
"Igor have to buff forever get this out. Ugh," he grumbles quietly, or at least quietly as far as trolls go. He shoves open the door, taking a somewhat timid step inside. Then: less timidly, he bellows, a few trickles of dust cascading from the high hidden rafters.
Risbeth winces in anticipation.