Ottavia replies: "“Yes, I know Lofton. He was once a great man, speaking up for those without a voice and fighting for justice in our admittedly biased judicial system. He would take the no-hope cases nobody
else in the defense bar would take, simply because he believed the defendants were innocent. He saved a lot of people from the final blades back in the day, but in the last few years has become just another sycophantic bootlicker. He rarely bothers to give his clients a decent defense, something that makes the convictionhungry judges very happy. I don’t know what happened to him.
Maybe he just lost the spirit to fight; it wouldn’t be the first time that happened in our unjust world.”
Please make a Survival or Perception check.
You do not find anything special. Maybe you can try to find some people who have seen something.
Pethwen finds someone who tells her a little story. Someone came over and dropped a perfectly fine sheet of paper. Well a bit crumbled. But the chap tells you that he took it home to give it to his wive for some notes.
The man is not moved. You need to convince him to go back home and fetch it for you.
With the gold and the sweet words of Barth you can manage to sway the man. He quickly runs home and gets the paper.
The paper is a page from a ledger labeled “Lumber Consortium.”
So what do you do ;-) And you still haven´t talked to Almant Enderios.
Enderios is a tall man in his late twenties with olive complexion and black hair. He wears a long red woolen coat wrapped tightly around him against the evening’s chill and carries a bastard sword strapped to his back.
When you arrive, he is one of the shop’s back storerooms, sitting next to a small fire and preparing coffee.
Enderios moves toward Pethwen and thanks her for clearing up that mess in Sauerton.
After you all try your best to win his goodwill he replies.
“I was speaking with one of the Gray Gardeners I know over at the Sellen River docks two days ago. His name is Citizen Blight and he’s their equivalent of an officer. They all have funny pseudonyms like ‘Blight’ or ‘Malice’ in order to hide who they really are. While talking to Blight, a big gray hearse pulls up next to a river sloop that had just docked. ‘Gray hearse’ is what we call the prisoner transport wagons the Gardeners use, mainly because of their charcoal gray color and because the people inside often end up with a ‘permanent haircut.’
“There were two men with heavy crossbows riding on the roof and another one on the back and a burly woman driving the team. They pull up in front of the docked sloop and two Gardeners led five hooded and chained prisoners down the gangplank and into the hearse, followed by a third Gardener bringing up the rear. And here’s the strangest part: that last Gardener, I saw him donning a mask as he exited the sloop, which means that I, and everyone else nearby could see his face. Since you’re probably not from around here, let me tell you: that NEVER happens. The only thing the Gray Gardeners protect more closely than their final blades
is their identity. In my entire life, I can’t remember ever seeing a Gardener’s unmasked face, and I’ve worked with them for years. He was a blond man with a rose-gold earring and a deep, crescent-shaped scar on his chin.
“So where was I before that? Oh yeah, the prisoners. I could tell that half of them were probably men, and the other half women. All of them looked human. Once all the prisoners had been loaded into the hearse, they took off. I’m not sure where they were headed, but it wasn’t toward the Woodsedge Jail, that’s for sure.
“Oh, and the blond man said something loudly to one of the prisoners. He said, ‘Walk faster, Korkovin, you drunken scum. Let’s see your fortune save you now.’”
|
"Is there any possibility that these weren't genuine Grey Gardeners?" Mekhu asks, suspicious of the group's behaviour. "Could someone have obtained the masks and the hearse in order to make it look like this was a 'lawful' operation?" he adds, the emphasis on the word lawful making it clear what he thinks of how Galt operates.
|
"It would seem more than a possibility based on what we've heard, and closer to a certainty." Pethwen muses. "The question still remains, that if they aren't Grey Gardeners then who are they and why are they posing as Grey Gardeners. Someone trying to stir up dissension against them or just to appear to be operating lawfully when they were not?"
The bounty hunter smirks and replies to Mekhu.
"Anything is possible!"
Armed with all this informations you now move to confront Venture-Captain Alois Lofton, Counselor-at-Law.
You find Venza in his small office, located over a permanently closed butcher shop. A small, faded sign with an arrow pointing up an exterior flight of stairs to a second-story landing reads: Venture-Captain Alois Lofton, Counselor-at-Law. The door at the top of the stairs is unlocked and opens to Lofton’s shabby office.
Loften looks up from the paperwork and shakes his head.[b]"I am very sorry, due to my momentary cases I do not accept any more cases.
|
|
VC Lofton seems harried to Mekhu, who quickly notes that a large number of gaps in his bookcases indicate removed books and files.
"Venture-Captain Lofton, as my colleague says we're not here about a new case. We've been sent to talk to you about some prisoners recently transferred here that we believe you may have been involved in. Their handling has been most unusual, and we hoped you might shed some light on proceedings."
Mekhu watches the man for his reaction, hoping to see some spark of recognition.
Lofton just raises an eyebrow and replies.
"I am sorry, but as I said, I do not take any new cases!"
|
|
Pethwen steps forward and addresses the solicitor, her voice ringing clear like the beat of a drum."I'm sorry, did you not hear that we are not here with a case? We are here for information. Information such as what your involvement is in the adbuction of two senators. We know that a grey hearse loaded with prisoners was seen outside your office, from which people dressed as Grey Gardeners emerged, in your company no less. You were seen leading them to a warehouse, not the jail, where prisoners would normally be held, but a warehouse. Very strange! Perhaps you can enlighten us a little, as I must admit I think we're all a little confused as to what's going on. Oh, and while you're at it, please tell us why you bribed several people in the harbor to conceal the arrival of a ship? A ship which you claimed was there to 'faciliate the apprehension and security of dangerous criminals and traitors to the Revolution'. Yes, I think they were your words, or at least as quoted to us!"
Pethwen then smiles at Lofton, the tone of her voice changing to the soft, soothing sounds of a gently played flute. "Please! We were told you were once a champion for justice, fighting for those most in need. We want justice too. Please help us understand what's going on here and how you're involved!"
Venza opens up, “Do something for me, and I’ll tell you all you want and more about that wagon. I’ll give you this for free: It left town two days ago.”[/B]
Venza says that he needs to tell you a pretty far-fetched story that is all true first. As you ask him to drink the elexier of truth he does so without hesitation
[b]"“Back in 4708, I needed to lay low for a little while after things had gone sour here in town. A buddy of mine knew of a woodcutter’s shack in the Verduran Forest, so I quickly escaped. I snuck into the woods and looked for the shed, but that rat must have given me bad directions and I got lost. After about a day, I come across a beautiful clearing with flute music playing in the distance. Before I knew what’s what, these horned guys with goat legs grabbed me and knocked me out! I woke up in silver chains with faeries all around me who kept me as their prisoner for months. They’d force me to play their stupid faerie games and make me tell them all about the ’mortal world,’ as they called it. But I’m just one guy and eventually I ran out of stories. They would have killed me for sure, but this old guy shows up named Lofton. He talks real nice to the faeries in their language, and then he tells me that he’s
going to argue for my release in a faerie thing called a moot! This guy was quite the talker, and believe it or not, after hours and hours of arguing, he was able to convince them to let me go! It wasn’t meant to last, though, because faeries rarely keep their promises in the way you think they will. The head faerie touches us both with a silver wand as we were leaving, knocking us both out. When we wake up, we realize that he’s switched our bodies: I’m in Lofton’s wrinkly skin, and he’s in mine. The fey kept their promises in a way, only in a way they didn’t, and as far as I know he’s still there. So you see, I’m not really Lofton, I’m a guy named Venza; Venza the Nick, they used to call me. Geez, I haven’t said that name in a long time. I swear on Desna’s light that this is all the honest truth!”
He asks you to travel into the Verduran and retrieve the real Lofton, and bring him back to his office. He gives you detailed directions on how to find the glade of the fey, claiming that it is a 5-hour walk from Woodsedge. In exchange for bringing back the real Lofton, Venza promises to reveal all he knows about the kidnap victims, who is leading them, and where they are going.