Luna comes back in from the common area when she sees Gomdebo & Quint return. After hearing the others, "I fully agree with Boddynuck's suggestion. That seems wise & prudent to me."
Right, you two can do the talkin', but we will be close by.
|
--Temple of Light--
Ithrelas walks down the creaking wooden steps from the temple's balcony as she hears Lindaer enter. She lifts the skirt of her flowing azure wool dress as she negotiates the tight spiral staircase. As she reaches the narthex of the temple, she offers Lindaer a slight bow. "Welcome Paladin of the Light, how can I serve you today?" Hames, her silver-grey tabby cat, climbs down the stairs directly after her and rubs up against Lindaer's ankle in a show of affection. At just the moment the cat touches Lindaer's ankle a bright flash of light penetrates the entire temple, and the ground rumbles from the thunderous rumble of a powerful bolt of lightning. Afterwards the coulds burst and a powerful deluge of rain pouring onto the temple's roof drowns out all soft sounds.
Lindaer looked up as the clouds burst. While he could not see the rain, he knew that it would be foolish to go outside now.
"My lady. I bring news, and have come to ask for your counsel. And your discretion. We tracked down the creatures which have caused the reprehensible deaths upon the youth of this town. They were abominations, created by magic. We killed the queen, as well as all of the creatures we could find. We also found the corpse of the mage who created them. Though, and I say this to you asking for the strictest confidence, so as to not cause a panic nor tip anyone off...the mage did not act alone. In Amren's name, he must be brought to justice."
He paused, for dramatic effect. A clap of thunder broke the silence, and he continued" "We do not know much about who this second mage could be. What we do know is that he is likely working with goblins, with the name Grugiz having come up, and has access to advanced mechanical devices."
He looked her dead in the eyes and said "I ask you to keep this information to yourself, and to share with me any knowledge which might help us in our investigations. I also say this to you, because there is the chance that while investigating this, I may not return. Should we fail, can we count on you to bring this news to those within our church who could act on it? My soul would not rest if my failure could not be rectified."
She nods, stuffing her mouth hard with a stone spoon "Was thinkin', we really don't know what to expect from this guy...could be a trained killer, or one of them necromancers *slurp belch*. Well, I'm ready to go I suppose...not sure how we'll know which ones him, but how many dockworkers could there be in this villa, eh?" she grins "...oy, maybe ask yer girlfriend." she snickers.
Psalm looks off whistfully remembering his time aboard ship with Ruby. "Ruby set sail back down river. Not sure if that ship is due back anytime soon." He looks down at his drink and takes a deep pull lost in memory for a moment.
"If you'd like, I can accompany you as well. My family's company might have an outpost down at the docks, and I'm fairly good at negotiations."
Luna stands by the door waiting for the others to start getting up before she walks on out.
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Jun answers with "Hyōryū yuki yusō no ie, which roughly translates into 'House of Drifting Snow Transports'. Most people, however, just call it Snow Transports." explains Jun as he stands, sheathes his blades, and then slides them through his sash. "Shall we proceed?"
Psalm gets up and secures his things and hops to.
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As she walks outside into the storm, Luna steps to the side out of the way and seems to just stare up at the storm, and she seems especially fascinated to watch any lightning she can see.
--Byrthelm Republic, Blueblossom Haven, Midvale Province - Aldelday, 2 Ilsa, Afternoon, 146 R.R.--
The Docks
Fascination with lightning and a childlike pleasure in a raging thunderstorm are quickly replaced, in everyone, by soaking wet... everything. The rain has formed new bodies of water in town, running in streams of its own devising through the streets. Looking around the party realizes that they are the only people insane or needy enough to be out in this weather. The trip to the dock warehouses takes little time at all, and seeing that not even the dockhands are out in this torrential downpour the group quickly ducks into the first open building they see, a rather large two story structure with no windows. Slipping in the open double doors Quint noticed the burned wood sign hanging from an iron bracket above the doors reads, Coastal Costers. Jun sees the sign as well and immediately recognizes it as one of the biggest trading companies on all of Iewiuf, his family's company has even, at times, moved shipments for Coastal Coster to and from Tindar.
After shaking the rain off of their clothes, and watching as Boddynuck uses a bit of magic to perfectly dry himself and his raven familiar, the group sees a rotund man with a thick braid of blonde hair sitting behind a large, varnished, oak desk covered in parchment and paper. He looks up at the group and in a husky voice says, "Ship's manifest." He holds his hand out expectantly.
Temple of Light
Lindaer's words cause Ithrelas' face to scrunch up in concern. She walks away from the half-elf paladin toward the dais, altar, and its adorning statue of their deity Amren, his hands gripping a long stone scythe whose blade is gilt in silver. Your bravery and honor do credit to your faith, my friend." She pauses then, waiting while another blast of bright white lightning subsides. "Are you certain of this Lindaer? The creation of abominations is strictly forbidden by the laws of every civilized nation. Do you have any proof of these things? The church would not begin an official investigation into such things without some proof of your claims?" She turns and stares at Lindaer awaiting his response.
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Hack shakes off the rain once they enter the warehouse. He is content to stand back, looking fierce, as always, and allow the others to do the talking. He does miss the comfort of the private room and the Highland Whiskey.
Nikeisha took a moment to used Prestidigitation to dry herself off. It was, on occasion, very useful to have magic.
Not enjoying being soaked in cold rain water - Now I really need too see about getting a hot bath to wash all that stench from the worms & tunnels off of me AND get warmed back up! - when Luna observes Boddy drying himself off in such a fashion, she sidles over next to him, and in a low voice, "Boddy, good Gnome sir, might you be able to share some of that magic and dry me off as well? I would most certainly appreciate it! And think about this, if I should need to present myself diplomatically to assist our group, it is not going to look so good if I look like a drowned rat is it?"
Boddy will definitely dry off whoever wants it (more precisely, everybody who doesn't explicitly tell him not to)
"I love this spell. It is SO useful. Makes life SO much better"
Being among those that go in first, Jun will say "What my employee means to say is that my company is looking to see if there are any contracts we can fulfill for your docks. My name is Mishima Heihachi, and I work for Snow Transports."
Quint is almost entirely unaware of the conversation with the man behind the desk. He is too busy trying to memorize Boddy's words and hand movements as he repeats the spell to dry everyone's clothes. He repeats them silently to himself, over and over as the others are speaking.
Mr. rotund behind the desk pulls fat fingers up to his blonde braid and plays at smoothing it out, which is, obviously, nothing more than affectation. Contracts? You mean do we have any cargo that isn't spoken for? Cause the answer to that is an emphatic no. If you just want to earn a few coppers moving cargo off the ships today, I could probably use you, though. That lazy goblin bastard Grugiz and his crew never showed up today. The Pair O' Dice is s'posed to be pulling in to port within the hour. Though..." the warehouse master's eyes drift to the water trying to seep in the seams of the double doors, "with this storm comin' up all of the sudden like, they might have gotten delayed. When they do arrive they'll be unloading and loading, and I'm sure Cap'n Aghon's crew wouldn't mind the help, 'specially if the sky's still ripped open and leakin'."
"Far's I know he and his mates still live in that earthen-home hovel north of the town proper." He looks at Gomdebo, and thinks for a moment. Then says, "As to how many in his crew, I'm not rightly sure, goblins mostly look the same to me. He's had as many as six working here at a time, but not sure if it's always the same goblins every day. Might be he's got a whole pack of 'em livin' over there?" It becomes obvious by the dock master's disinterest that there could be a whole tribe of goblins living outside of town and he'd have no idea. Yet one more piece of evidence that, here in Blueblossom Haven, as with many places in the Republic, so-called lower class citizens and lesser races are tolerated but not respected. Of course that's still a good deal better than other nations where many of these same races are killed on sight. That the goblins have chosen to live in an underground structure could be an attempt on their part to remain hidden as much as possible.
"Redport, aye." Large and in charge gives Gomdebo a questioning look, then says, "mostly trade goods, spices, metal bars, bolts of fabric, and the like. Though I think Galador's got a couple o' crates of fragiles coming on it too."
Psalm glances toward Gom and Quint at the mention of Galador's fragiles. He then looks down and scratches the back of his neck.
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"I would hate to see our group jump claim on another group's legitimate work. Let's go speak to this..." Jun mimic's the dockmaster's disdain for Goblins by nearly spitting out the word "Grugiz and see if he still wants the job. We are civilized, after all."
Flipping his thick blonde braid over his shoulder the portly harbor master nods and says, "Okay, if you find the rascal, or his cronies, scoot their little butts thisaway. Or, if'n you can't find 'em, come on back yourselves, the offer of coppers for good work still stands." Heaving his bulk up from the chair, the ale-bellied man reaches out a plump hand and shakes Jun's as the group heads back out into the rain.
Looking up at the sky pelting the earth with rain that has, by no means slowed down, Boddynuck says what more than a few of them are thinking. "How are we going to find a house built under the ground in this mess?" He says this as the entire group moves up the street to the north, knowing, at the very least, the general direction they have to go.
Once out of town, everyone's boots are covered in a thick layer of mud, and every step creates a heavy slurping sound as people pull their feet out of the sludge the ground has transformed into. Looking around for any clue as to where to go, Luna points at the grass to the east. "Look," she says, "footprints." Psalm notices them immediately after, and then Shenkt nods, seeing them as well.
Upon arriving at the tracks Quint looks for barely a moment and then says, "Soldiers..." Others look at the shallow prints for a moment unaware of what Quint must see.
Nikeisha chimes in, "He's right, look, they were moving in a two by two formation. Either soldiers or trained mercenaries, and they came out here only shortly after it started to rain, the prints aren't nearly as deep as ours." Nikeisha points back at the deep print her own foot just left behind her. Since the tracks move in the same general direction they're supposed to go, the group decides to follow them.
It isn't long until they finally see a set of lumps in the earth with dug out openings. These must be the "earthen-home hovels" the dockmaster was talking about. The booted prints from town are scattered all around the area, and are mingled with other smaller prints, so much so that discerning anything from the tracks themselves becomes entirely muddled. Yet, Luna, again, keen of perception, points to the western end of the small community. "There," she says, and without hesitating moves toward the scar she sees in the mud.
"Darks." Gomdebo curses, and Quint stands shaking his head. Just as a blast of lightning streaks across the sky and the ground rumbles with thunder.
"What?!" Boddynuck asks the group, not able to discern anything important from the tracks.
"Whoever came out here left the area dragging someone, or someones, behind them. Small someones." Gomdebo points carefully at the tracks outlining the drag marks in between the same two by two booted prints they followed out here. The tracks lead west toward the main road.
Jun, who's remained silent thus far, says, "Came from town off the road, but returned on it, maybe just because the road is more passable. Maybe not." Jun lets the ramifications of that sit in the air for a moment and then says, "Do any of our smaller friends want to check out these homes?" He points back at the community of goblin dens. "I don't think I'd even fit upright in those dwellings." The half-elf excuses himself from investigating the goblin domiciles via the obvious size problem.
Psalm nods, "We can check it out."
"It's a good thing I don't wear heels," Nikeisha said dryly, unlike her bare feet. Thankfully she was short for a human, and would not likely get a concussion. Reaching out she knocked on the door. It seemed polite before entering.
Be careful. Get outa there if ya see any of the gobbos.
"Sure, we can check it out. Lets stay together though"
"Thank all the Gods, I'll at least get out of the rain for a few minutes"
Nikeisha's knock is met by a ramshackle wooden door swinging open and darkness. Darkness until Nikei pulls Quint's lantern from her pack and uses a bit of magic to light it. Short as she is, Nikeisha still has to duck to enter the dirty underground shelter. Once in she realizes she'll only be in the way, the entire "house" is only big enough for three small creatures to stand in, because of the cluttered layout of rough cut furniture, tools, and cookware. There is a small tunnel at the back of the "home," but squeezing into that dirty hole doesn't look comfortable or fun. Gomdebo enters after Nikeisha steps out and begins to examine everything, she mumbles to herself, and then disappears down the tunnel with Psalm and Boddynuck giving the place their own look see, and then following her. The rest of the group stoically stands in the rain waiting for their short investigators to return with their findings.
It isn't long before Gomdebo comes out from one of the other holes in the ground and approaches the group. Psalm and Boddynuck appear shortly thereafter, and the dwarf waits for them to catch up before speaking.
"Okay, here's what I think." She starts, "First, there's a central chamber in the middle of this community that all the houses have a tunnel to, and that was where the group kept their wealth." She holds up a leather sack full of coins and gems, opening it slightly to show the group a bit of the tinkling and jingling wealth inside. "This is way too much money for simple dockworkers to have 'put aside.' So I think we should hold onto it as evidence." Gomdebo says smiling, pointing out what she hopes is obvious. These goblins may be dockworkers, but that wasn't the only work they were getting paid to do. "Second, every one of these gobbos, and just based off of the number of individual holes here, I figure there are seven among them, went willingly out of here. There was no struggle. In my experience goblins are cowards. They must have known running wasn't an option, and fighting would have lead to a foregone conclusion. Point being, they felt like going with whomever took them out of here was the choice that would keep them alive the longest."
...
--Temple of Light--
"Yes, making a copy would be advisable. Perhaps several copies. Is there anything specific I can do to help, now? Specific questions I can answer?" Ithrelas flips through the pages of the holy text that rests upon a book stand on the altar as she inquires.