Faithe looked up as Jace entered at with a wrenching motion jerked her scythe free of the table before slinging it at her back and stepping back into the shadows to hide her embarassment at her outburst. "I think, much as I am loathe to admit it, a deal of some kind is in order," she looked at the Shieldmarshal and asked, "do you agree?"
The Tailor looks at Joie and shrugs, "Wells you knows where to find m---" Suddenly he hears the shouts coming from inside and rushes in.
He sees the scene play out in front of him, or well the tail end of one.
"So... Yous all 'kay?" He gives a toothy grin and tries to instinctively grasp the magic from before but find that he can't.
"Thanks, Tuco. No one got hurt except the desk."
Jase listened to Daerokh with an incredulous expression. Were lawyers allowed to sell you out? Of course, the young man kept his expression only mildly interested at the mention of bloodstone, rolling his eyes. "Oh yes, the infamous link to all of our murdered scribes."
As Daerokh and the somewhat chastened Faithe attempted to start trying to deal and reason with the murderous ghoul, Jase glanced to his side as Tuco slid in behind him, stepping to the side to allow the half-orc into the room without edging around him. The swashbuckler snorted at the dwarf's comment about the desk, but kept his eyes on the ghoul, both prepared for violence, if need be, and wondering at the creature's answer.
Tuco winces then smells the ghoul. "I thinks you be talkin' to the lady yeah?"
"I think, much as I am loathe to admit it, a deal of some kind is in order, do you agree?"
Mexerius nods. "Yeah."
"So...where do we go from here? I can't imagine Xanviar will let what just happened slide...even if we believed his bullsh!tting, it's clear Geb will consider you a liability now, and you're still on the hook for the deaths of these scribes...so the question is this: how much are you willing to tell before you're a dead man again, this time permanently?"
Mexerius starts to pace around the interrogation table. "Like the lady said..." He nods at where Faithe once stood. "...I think at this point we can make a deal."
"I can't exactly go back to Geb, and I'm not naive enough to think that the locals won't want to get back at them in some way for being forced to pay through the nose for their meals. People can be petty that way. So, here's what I'm proposing."
"You've got the man who actually murdered the scribes locked up here, yes? Caeric? Pin the crimes on him, and I'll be happy to share what I know with you about the Bloodstone--and why Geb wants it back so badly."
Joie snaps out of her trance.
"An insanity plea for the undead is a death sentence," she points out, a bit late; she blinks. Wasn't Mexerius here a minute ago? Did she black out?
"We are not at liberty to make such a deal," she says, now back to the present, "but we can provide a suggested course within the confines of the law. Regardless, the more helpful you are here, the better it will be for you."
"Yeah, Joie's right," Daerokh comments. "We're just deputies, and don't really have the authority to do pinning of any kind. And even if Caeric's an @ss, he doesn't deserve THAT."
Jase smirked, stepping forward, "Maybe these nobodies don't have the authority to make a deal, but I do." The young man leaned forward conspiratorially with the ghoul. "They're always by the book and whatnot, so no use giving them power they won't use. You have to be flexible in these kinds of things, yeah?"
Looking back to the others with narrowed eyes, he turned back to the creature and nodded, "So you've got a deal. What's the scoop on this Bloodstone?"
"Whatcha doin' Jase!? This ain't right!" The nuance of the situation was lost of the usually streetwise half-orc. "Yous can't jus' be sendin' some poor old sod off to die!"
"Hrrmm...my thoughts exactly, Tuco," Daerokh comments.
Mexerius turns to Jase and looks him over, his pallid brow furrowing for a moment before shrugging.
"Alright..." The ghoul nods, shooting a venomous look at Joie. "...here's the thing."
"This 'bloodstone' that we're interested in is the Bloodstone of Arazni--it's a priceless cultural artifact of Geb, said to be the petrified heart of our dear Queen Arazni herself." His tone turns particularly harsh. "It was thought lost after those bloody knights of Ozem invaded our country and stole it away all those years ago."
"I was tasked with finding out just how many people were aware of the Heart and kill them to prevent the knowledge from getting out."
Ignoring the objections of the others, Jase kept his eyes on the ghoul. "Oh wow, really? Sounds pretty serious. What's so important that the knowledge can't get out? And how's the other sap, Caeric, play into all of it. Just hired help?"
The ghoul's thin lips crack into a frown. "Aside from the fact that it's a fragment of our divinely-empowered ruler, you mean?"
"They told me just what I needed to know."
"As for Caeric... yeah, he was supposed to be the fall guy. The scapegoat we could throw to the Marshals once the mission was accomplished."
"Here's the thing, though..." The ghoul leans in. "...the contact who gave us this information disappeared into the city afterwards. We haven't been able to find him."
"And what kind of contact would that be?" Daerokh asks, raising a bushy eyebrow.
"He was a Keleshite fellow--served as an acolyte in Alkenstar's Temple of Brigh. He often had business with the Alkenstar Property Office--I understand he spoke with Old Norris there before he disappeared." Mexerius continues. "His name's Kaymar Royce."
"Living then...and what was in it for him?"
"You'd have to ask him. He never told me why he was helping Geb..."
The Tailor listened in and started worrying a little bit. It was one thing to be caught in a tangle with Geb but it was another to hear stories about divine beings and their splinters.
"Di' bein' mo' complicates than I's thought. Kaymar Royce, he workin' alone? Where's they hang out?"
He wondered about who Old Norris was and why this had to do with the property office... There was too much and truthfully he couldn't trust him.
"Royce usually spends his time in the temple of Brigh, here in Auburn. Always loved tinkering with his machines, he did. As far as I know, he worked alone--had a bit of paranoia that someone would steal his notes or some such rot."
Joie stays quiet, for now; it doesn’t take a detective’s keen mind to tell she’s (metaphorically) biting her tongue. Were it up to her, the ghoul would have already been executed—or would be, as soon as he was done speaking.
Jase paid attention to the ghoul's answers, rather pleased with himself even if he could tell from some of the looks and objections that a couple of the others were less than keen on the deception at the start. Seeing that Daerokh and Tuco were asking good questions and Mexerius seemed to be open to answering, the young man figured all he'd manage to do was much things up if he kept running his mouth.
Instead, he remained uncharacteristically silent, looking on the proceedings with a certain grim aplomb, as a superior might when letting his subordinates handle a task. Or at least that's the image Jase had in his mind.
The Tailor nods, "Wells, I thinks we needs to make an appointment wit' 'dat Brigher aye?" He grins, his tusks popping out, "I hears alls I needs to hears," He lets go of the supernatural energy in his fist, "Yeah? 'less yous all got some more to be talkin' 'bout on 'dis 'ere date."
Mexerius shakes his head. "That's all I know."
The interrogation room door opens. Shieldmarshal Greystone is standing in the doorway with a leather bag in his hand.
"Well, you folks get results. Follow me, please."
Joie nods, and follows, hands folded behind her as she walks.
She's... satisfied, although hesitant. Was that information accurate? She supposed it could go either way.
Still, each step forward either confirms or eliminates a possibility.
Jase grinned as he saw the Shieldmarshal appear, holding what looked to be a bag of loot in his hand. "Damn right we do."
He looked over at the the ghoul and said, "I'll speak to the dour Shieldmarshal over there and we'll have you out in a jiff."
Of course, he had no such intention of performing that action.
Regardless, he walked out behind the Nexian soldier, rather pleased with himself for the way that had played out. And the bag of gold...and the positive press he and the others would almost surely be entitled to once word of this broke.
A flicker of hope appears on Mexerius' face. His smile causes his skin to crack and flake off, but it looks genuine nonetheless.
Shieldmarshal Greystone leads the group back to his office. Once everyone has arrived, a smile breaks out on his tired face. "I'll be damned--I was hoping you'd make headway on this case, but you gave us more than I could have hoped for."
He drops the leather bag on his desk with a satisfying *THUNK*. "2,000 gold pieces, courtesy of Parliament, as agreed."
Tuco looked onward, he wasn't entirely sure about the Shieldmarshal, honestly he wasn't sure about anyone that other than the ones he did the investigation with. There was a lot to still be demystified, but it wouldn't come easily.
He walked in a strange silence, listening for the whispers from the mirror at his breast.
Jase wasn't shy, he strode forward and started counting out a stack of coins, looking up at Joie. "Oi, you still serious about doing this for free? Don't want to insult you by offering you a cut if that's not your thing."
The young man then continued counting, confident he'd get an answer well before he got to 333 coins. As he stacked it up by tens, he asked the Shieldmarshal. "So what now? Case closed? Murderers caught and accounted for?" Jase gave Tuco and Alorea a warning look, swiftly pointing at his left ring finger in the motion of picking up a coin and then shaking his head ever so slightly.
Joie doesn't make eye contact with Jase as she responds.
"As a proud soldier of Nex, it is my duty to aid our people. As I was assigned to this mission, I am already being paid by the state as it is. It would be inappropriate for me to accept prize money intended for citizens."
"I dunno," Daerokh replies, his brow furrowed. "Given what we've learned over the course of just a couple of days, we've REALLY put our foot in it...we broke off a branch of this conspiracy, but the root's still there...that's the right surfacer metaphor, right?"
Joie nods. ”It works.”
Jase got a mock serious look on his face, giving the Nexian woman a bow. "How very dutiful of you, milady." The young man then grinned and finished counting himself out 40 stacks of 10, pulling his cut of the reward away from the main pile so the others could get their share.
As Daerokh spoke up, surely with good intentions of continuing their good work under the auspices of the Shieldmarshal, Jase responded. "That's fair, my friend. Seems like conspiracies like these are outside the scope of our arrangement, though. I'm sure the Shieldmarshal here has plenty of investigators to put on this, now that we've done the job of nabbing the killers. I'll bet the scribes in this town will rest easy when this news comes out, eh?"
"Right, well, I'll leave you to it then." Shieldmarshal Greystone sits at his desk and practically slumps over it. "I've got some paperwork on this to organize, and not nearly enough sleep to do it."
Daerokh gives Jase an incredulous look.
"You're kidding, right?! Are you slagging me right now?!"
"Hm. Aye. Seems like it be the ends of it but I's pretty damn happy wit' you not takin' no cut. 'Dis 'ere can get me a real place yous know? A reals business." He grins, "Consider it a debt I's can pay yous another time aye?"
He starts to walk on out, his wallet heavier than ever, "Drinks on Jase. Les' get outta 'ere."
He always played to his perceived nature, they wanted to see a carefree, carousing half-orc they would. It was never difficult.
”Just doing my duty,” she says curtly.
Jase's grinned turned a bit more fragile as Daerokh started to question him rather indignantly, but Tuco came in for the save. When Joie responded to himself and the half-orc, he smiled more naturally, quite pleased at the new weight of his wealth. "Aye, a drink on me, and two for the valiant soldier of Nex."
The young man chuckled as he started to leave the building, thinking that perhaps that in his new-found wealth he could be a bit less abrasive to the Nexian woman. When everyone gathered outside he looked back and said, "Let's go get that drink, but we have something else to discuss, as well. We'll tell you more when we get away from this place."
"We has some money, les' be grabbin' a drink somewhere's where magic ain't so crazy. Might need some information and I can't be doin' everythin' when all chaos be going nuts."
Jase nodded to Tuco. He didn't much care where the drink was drunk, as long as it was soon. "I know just the place...
The young man turned back to look with a worried expression at the imposing building they had just left before leading the way to (hopefully) the place he had been thinking of.
Jase leads the party down a few side streets to one of his old favourites--a two-story saloon and rooming house made of proud oaken timbers and roofed with stone slats. The front windows are made of clear, recently-cleaned glass, and the front saloon doors sway on their hinges, offering glimpses of the nightlife within. Above the doors is a hanging shingle with the image of a breaking dawn, and the words Rising Sun Saloon.
The common room of the saloon is brightly illuminated with several lanterns along the walls. The L-shaped bar next to the door is well-stocked with all manner of alcoholic beverages, and several tables dot the floor. Stairs lead up to a row of doors above the common room. Off against the eastern side of the common room is a small stage with a piano next to it.
All manner of patrons and staff are milling about here, with the dark-skinned elven man behind the bar taking drink orders and serving them up with the ease that comes with decades of practice. The sounds of a woman's gentle singing voice come from the stage, accompanied by a melancholy piano tune. The singer is a dark-skinned human woman in a fine red dress with elbow-length gloves, seated on a stool.
Tuco walks into the Rising Sun, almost embarrassed for a moment that he didn't look the part.
Grabbing a seat in a corner, he does a quick look around with his magical sight, hiding under the table for a moment to obfuscate the casting. Getting back up, he pulls out his mirror and gently sets it beside him, before cleaning it off with a shockingly clean napkin. Speaking something unintelligible under his breath, a quick sheen comes off of it before the light's trick ceases to be.
"I ain't not thinkin' 'dis week be in a place like 'ere. Been long since I had coin 'nuff to come to such a place."
A waitress--a young lady with beige skin and curly brown hair--comes by Tuco's table. "Welcome to the Rising Sun Saloon, sir. My name's Saya and I'll be your server. What'll you have?"
Joie accompanies the group halfway.
"If you will excuse me, I will need to report in for the night. A pleasure working with you all," she says-- all etiquette, no warmth.
Unless dragged, she's off to the Nexian base.
Daerokh takes a seat with Tuco and blinks in a little surprise at Tuco's trick, but says nothing. When Saya introduces herself, he nods.
"Evening, Ms. Saya. I'll take your brownest and tastiest amber lager, please."
Feeling rather generous with his newfound wealth, Jase turned back and beckoned the Nexian soldier onward. "Aw come on, Joie. Your superior will be there in the morning, waiting for that report. And since it's such good news, no harm done. Have a drink on me so we can celebrate bringing those killers to justice."
Whether the woman continued with them or not, Jase was in good spirits, taking a seat with the others. The smile didn't even leave his face when Tuco's mirror did something weird. He thought he had heard the half-orc talking to it before. Maybe it was some kind of strange, sentient mirror they made for lonely people. He'd have to make sure and be a good friend to the man.
When Saya came to the table, the young man waited for Daerokh to finish speaking, then said, "Something sweet and fruity, I think. And don't be stingy with the alcohol, please. It feels like a night for merry-making!" He winked at the woman, not sure if that would go anywhere but not much caring at the moment.