"I can assure you that is not the case, My name is Sandu" he holds his hand out in greeting.
"Ha! Ha! Ha! I like you young priest. Come in tell me your name and what I can do for you." he chuckles.
"I'll tell you what. For a holy man, I can try to help you for fifteen gold."
Mikkitar moves up and slips one of the gemstones into Sandu's palm.
"Here-here, for 15 golds he owes you 35 in return, yes-yes."
Olander thinks If I weren't wearing these clothes, he'd still make a snide remark about me....
He waits for Sandu to conclude the business.
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Nocki keeps an eye and ear out for trouble. So he dropped seven parts of ten from his price for liking the priest? This is why they stay poor., the dwarf thought hoping no one could read his mind. Thinking he'll never understand these dealings, he stays alert in case anyone tries to jump them. He says quietly to Bear "Keep your ears open for trouble, yes?" The koala looks at him a little confused but determined.
Zograthy picks up the stone off his table and examines it for a second.
"This looks nice enough. I normally deal in cash, but I think I can exchange some information for the stone."
Jera watches the exchange in silence from the back, but pays close attention when the fortune-teller begins to say what he knows.
Mikkitar, give me a Craft(alchemy) check.
”Ah …. Miss Natalya.” he begins ”She hasn’t been heard from among the Sczarni in a few days, maybe a week.”
”Many folk along the waterfront, both here in Beacon’s Point and over in Dockway and Underbridge, have been disappearing of late—a few each week, in fact, with many simply vanishing out of their very beds at night.”
”I suspect that Natalya is among those who have disappeared in this manner.”
Then, in a bitter tone he adds: ”As long as only poor Varisians and other destitute folk
are being targeted, the chances of the city doing anything about the disappearances is nil.”
”I know that it’s not a Sczarni plot—indeed, they seem quite interested in solving the vanishings themselves, but they aren't looking to anyone else to solve their problems.”
”The leading theory on the street is that the vanished folk are the victims of slavers who then secretly sell them offshore at night to Nidalese ships—but I don’t put much stock in such rumors.”
He quickly adds ”Natalya was, at least until last week, a member of a gang known as the Tower Girls.”[b]
[b]”Word is that they are searching for Natalya as well, and that she's in deep trouble. I don’t know exactly what is going on with them but I've heard talk that Natalya went mad before her disappearance.”
"Frak, that is not good" before the man spoke Sandu was working a way to balance the monetary scales, but money flees his mind as soon as he hears about the missing Varisians. "Do you know any one with missing family in the last few days?"
Sandu / Olander make a knowledge(local) check
Zograthy looks back to Sandu with hooded eyes. "Know any of the disappeared personally? No, I don't know any them."
"It's been more than a few though, so if you ask around I'm sure you can find someone who does."
"We will do that, any idea where the Tower girls hang?"
Mikkitar recognizes the guy's behaviors and such, and looks around for anything of value he could potentially abscond with. He steps closer to the "fortune teller" and whispers to him.
"Listen-listen, friend. I know a guy who can hook you-you up. Good supply, clean stuff-stuff, yes. Say the word and I take you-you there and make the introduction yes-yes."
To Sandu the fortune teller replies:
"There are limits to what I will share, such information is not suitable for sharing with gorgios."
To Mikkitar Zograthy says: "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about."
Zograthy looks down his nose at Nocki and says: "What an interesting .... cat?" obviously looking at Bear.
"Anyway ... I don't know if Natalya is mad or not, all I know is the rumors I've heard. For all I know there's some sort of disagreement and one of her colleagues is just slandering her."
Olander tries to play 'good' cop by reassuring Nocki," Rumors are as good as you'll get on these streets, no reason to rough people up when they're doing their best."
"Keep your dwarf friend in line there, mister tiefling." Zograthy speaks up testily.
"Cause any trouble here and you'll find out just how rough this neighborhood can get..."
"Now, do any of the rest of you have any questions for me?"
Everyone please, there is a way things are done and this is not it. I understand and respect your limits, I do not wish to push them. in light of the balance due you could at least direct me to a tavern that we may sup."
"You are defined by the company you keep and I've told you all I know, young priest." the fortune teller responds to Sandu out loud.
"Okay we go look-find for these Tower Girls, then? Yes-yes, we will find them fast-fast."
Mikkitar waits until everyone starts moving out, then uses that opportunity to try and lift the stone back off the conman.
Sandu ducks his head out of the tent and begins looking for a pickpocket, maybe he could get some answers for an honest couple of silver.
Jera moves out of the tent with the others. Much of the exchange with Zograthy having gone over his head, Jera tries to parse what he's learned.
"So if we find the Tower Girls, they likely won't know where Natalya is either, right? Since they're also looking for her."
As the group begins to turn to leave, Mikkitar seems to stumble into the seer's table.
It's hard for the rest of the characters to see what happens, but Zograthy hands snakes out and slaps at one of Mikkitar's hands that was reaching across the table.
"Keep your hands to yourself, you little rat!" he barks.
"Now all of you, begone."
The group exits the tent, back out into the street of Washer's Row.
Sandu spots a dirty young girl that looks like a likely cutpurse, ducking into a tent marked with a sign that says "Mook's Meats" in several languages.
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[dice=Perception vs sleight of hand]1d20+7[/dice
Nocki notices Mikkitar trying to steal the stone, but the fortune teller reacted quicker. After leaving the tent, Nocki says "That was the agreed price. You don't try to steal the people we deal with, at least not under my watch.", the dwarf scolds Mikkitar.
Then, he says "Now how are we supposed to find this gang?" a little louder than he should.
"No-no, the stone was way too much golds. No matter, the conman will be dead from dirty pesh sooner or later-later. Come, we go look-find, see if we can't search for the girl."
"Nocki, did you see that kid, circle around the back of the tent and watch if he tries to duck out the back."
Sandu heads into the tent looking for the cutpurse. He grabs a few silvers for a bribe.
Sandu enters the tent emblazoned with the sign "Mook's Meats".
When he pulls back the tent flap a wave of smoke rolls out and into the air.
Stepping inside he has to stop for a moment to let his eyes adjust to the dark.
The inside of the tent is much larger than what it appeared from the outside. The structure extends back away from the street for quite a ways.
The tent is part meat market, part restaurant, and part kitchen. There are a number of fires burning smokey fuel cooking various dishes.
Over to the side, a man stands by a tapped keg of beer, filling wooden cups for customers in exchange for coin.
In addition there are several clusters of chairs, filled with a collection of customers eating a mid-day meal.
It takes a moment, but after looking about he spots the dirty-faced urchin he saw ducking inside. She is handing over a coin to a vendor in exchange for a short skewer of wood holding several chunks of roasted meat of dubious origin.
Sandu walks over to where the girl is getting her food and before she can dart off. "Two more for the girl, on me. he looks at the girl and keeps from crowding her, and from blocking her exit. "I'd like to talk. Just talk." he hold up a copper in one hand and a silver in the other. And attempts to switch hands.
The dirty-faced urchin grins up at Sandu after he clumsily tries to handle the coins.
"Smooth choir-boy..." she drawls from around a mouth full of meat.
"I don't know what you think you're going to get from me for a mouthful of roast cat, but I think you're in the wrong place."
Sandu roll perception.
Sandu notices four beefy Varisian men converging on him from different directions. They all have various tattoos and wear scarves on their heads, one has a brass ring through his nose.
Nocki, your eye's are adjusting to the contrast in light, give me a perception check.
The four Varisian toughs close in on Sandu and Nocki and one of them with a green headscarf speaks up:
The girl answers in common: "I don't know Edgar .... I though the choirboy was propositioning me ... but now the dwarf with the ugly puppy has shown up and it's just weird."
As the conversation takes place between the Varisians, Nocki and Sandu notice that there are suddenly a lot of people in the tent watching the exchange. Conversation between all of the patrons has seriously dropped off.
It's gotten really slow out on the street and kind of boring. Olander, Mikkitar, and Jera are tired of waiting and step into the cook tent/restaurant to see what is going on.
They step inside and take a moment for their eyes to adjust to the dim light.
They see most of the patrons are Varisians, Olander recognizes from their dress that a lot of them are probably Sczarni gang members.
The crowd initially seems to be focused on Sandu and Nocki, who appear to be talking to a short dirty-faced urchin.
Now that the other three have pushed forward into the tent, a lot of the Sczarni seem to turning their looks towards them.
Olander gets a bad feeling about what might be about to happen.
"Hey-hey, look-look, we seek Natalya. You know where to seek-find her, you can earn some coin. Come-come tell us where and we'll be gone-gone quick as claws!"
Mikkitar raises his voice just a bit, eyes gleaming at the though of such a packed flammable structure turning into a brawl.