Declan's eyes widened at Idrassa's assertion. What an unexpected turn of events. "Why, how, when-" he began before shaking his head to refocus. He carefully set his tea down on the table and started again, "How do you know, and what was their motive?"
"Lady Gralhund has a nimblewright in her retinue," Idrassa replied. "An exact match to the description, right down to the red robes and the feather in its hat. Seems like too much to be a coincidence," she added.
"As for the motivation, I'm not sure. Lady Gralhund has a reputation as a schemer, and the family is known to reach." The human shook her head. "It doesn't make sense for anyone to blow up a market area, but they're ruthless enough to do it if it suits their purposes."
"Look, we don't know the details," added Idrassa. "But there's an insane amount of money at stake. Anyone would want it. And getting to count coup over other groups who are chasing it would just be a bonus."
Curious and with no more pressing matters at hand, the Trollskullers strolled over to look at Gralhund Villa. A 12 foot high stone wall enclosed the Villa and its grounds, quite large for a single family's home even in upper-class North Ward.
It being after dinner time and a residential rather than commercial area, the streets here were quiet but not completely empty. Zander's earlier observations had told him that in a few hours the streets here would be nearly deserted, though.
Almost immediately after settling in, Ash murmured "Don't look, but there's a guy up on the roof of that house across the street."
Illendur said "I also spotted one of those gazer things hovering down an alley a little ways back."
Declan made a face. Of course they would have lookouts. "We should neutralize him before we do anything."
With an attic and a first floor raised a few feet over ground level to accommodate a basement or garden level, that made the roof around 50 feet above the street.
Artheyn House, as the discreet bronze plaque by the front door announced this was, was in the middle of the row.
"Let me walk around," Declan said before he slipped away to make a circuit of the block.
When he returned a few minutes later, "There is a courtyard behind the house, and an alley that leads to it. It would be a smarter approach than from the front."
Idrassa nodded. "Let's go," she assented, following Declan back toward the alley. Tweety slipped along behind her.
The Trollskullers made their way into the courtyard. If this had been a single manor it might have been a fair garden but as it was the townhomes all had fenced-in gardens of their own, with about the same footprint the houses themselves , and this open, cobblestone alley for deliveries and tradespeople to come in from the back.
Investigating the house in question, the group found the fence gate shut but unlocked. Beyond the fence was what had once been a neatly arranged garden with a lush grass lawn but was now overgrown- it looked like it had been a long time since anyone had pruned the bushes or seen to the flowers or cut the grass.
On the far side of the grass, there was a garden level door and stairs leading up to a wooden deck where there was another door that led into the townhome's first level. Both were shut, and the curtains to the tall windows drawn.
Idrassa eyed the garden and surroundings, then spoke quietly to Declan and the others.
"Tweety could scale that wall and take the lookout," she observed. "But...I mean, we don't want to send any of us alone, right? Just in case something goes wrong. Could anyone else make the climb?" Her manner of asking made it clear she was not up to the job herself.
"Someone is in the residence," Declan said in a low whisper, particularly to Idrassa. "We likely cannot use the door." He looked around at the surrounding walls, considering what it would take to scale it from the outside. He shook his head, almost any route would be patently obvious to anyone observing. So, he chose another option.
Declan moved to the corner of the courtyard, and set his pack down, tucked against the wall at which the man was stationed above. He retrieved a length of rope, and loosened the coils. He then selected an arrow from his quiver, one with a rather nasty-looking barbed tip. He tied the rope to the end of the arrow and then carefully aimed up at the gutter of the building. "Hide. He will hear the thunk."
Declan waited a moment for Idrassa and Tweety to hide, and then let fly with the barbed arrow.
Once the arrow thudded into the gutter, he waited a moment longer. He imagined himself looking out over the edge at what might have caused the sound. He kept still, hoping the man didn't notice. When a reasonable amount of time had passed, he waited a bit longer. Then he tested the fastness of the rope before starting his climb.
"Send Tweeety," he said to Idrassa as he ascended.
Idrassa clumsily tried to press herself between the wall and an adjacent shrub, and succeeded only in setting the latter swinging. For her part, Tweety darted under a wheelbarrow that had been propped against the wall, disappearing so effectively that Idrassa would never have known of the serpent's mocking glance had she not been able to experience it through their shared awareness.
At Declan's instruction, Tweety began slithering her way up the corner of the building, coils clinging uncannily to the surface.
As far as the group could tell, no one had noticed them so far. Tweety and Declan climbed up the rope quick as rats and were soon balanced on the edge of the slick slate roof. Before them was the 15' high ridge of the attic; they saw no one on this side of the roof.
Declan fell into a crouch on the rooftop, keeping low so as not to breach line of sight over the roof ridge. He carefully crept up the incline, dropping prone just at the ridge itself, peering over the edge.
Tweety followed Declan up, at Idrassa's mental instruction holding back and watching for any signal the half elf gave.
Declan and Tweety made their way up to the ridgeline and peeked over. They spotted two men in black perched on the rooftop. Both were looking the other way; neither seemed to have heard the pair creeping up the slates at the back of the house.
Declan eyed the situation and gauged tactical approaches. The men were pretty close to the edge. If they were quick, they might just pull this off.
Silently, Declan drew his thornblade. He glanced to Tweety and nodded, whispering "Now." He then rushed down the far side of the roof aiming to push one of the men right over the edge.
Tweety slithered immediately after the
Tweety darted forward, an ophidian shadow to Declan. At the last moment she coiled and struck, mouth closed. She bruised her nose as she struck the unsuspecting lookout.
Declan and Tweety took the two observers completely by surprise. Neither even looked over their shoulder or made a noise before they were knocked over the roof's edge and falling.
A heartbeat later there were two black garbed bodies on the street in front of the townhouse. Thank the Host the street was empty for now but someone would probably see the unconscious men in time.
Looking around, there was a hatch leading down into the attic halfway across the roof.
Zander, posted at the corner of the townhouse and keeping an eye on the front of the house - and the street it faced - had just been silently complaining/observing to J'r-V'zz about how much more helpful he could have been to the tactical situation if he'd figured out yet how to fly.
He'd just gotten into one of his many theories about how he could theoretically re-direct the as-yet-undiscovered-but-surely-we-can-figure-it-out-eventually energy-blasting abilities of what they had come to refer to as his "Astral Suit" (which he currently had deployed in what he referred to as "evasion mode") to emit from his feet, as well as the palms of his hands, to an extent that it could propel him into (and through) the air, without damaging the surrounding terrain (or other life forms), when there was a brief sound of scuffling above, and then two black-clad humanoids fell to the ground rather heavily, right in front of him.
"That seems like a very probable outcome for you, should you manage to apply any of these theories in reality," J.r-V'zz observed in Zander's mind.
Without giving the comment the dignity of a reply, Zander instead darted forward to recover the bodies and drag them out of the line of easy observation. He motioned to Ash and/or Illendur to assist him.
Declan looked down at the ground to see if these men were made of tough stock. He was relieved to see that they were not moving, and Zander was taking care of the bodies.
"Right," he said, looking around the roof. Noticing the hatch, the likely egress of the two men, he started rummaging through his pack again. He pulled out a small hammer and a couple pitons. He then hammered the pitons into the corners of the hatch opposite the hinges to make it difficult for anyone to open it.
Declan nodded to Tweety while re-stashing his hammer. "Let us return to the others. See what we can do about the gazer." he said before abseiling down the way he came.
At Idrassa's prompting, Tweety bobbed her head in agreement and began slipping her way down the side of the building. Idrassa met her at the base of the building, obviously relieved to be reunited with her counterpart. She nodded to Declan, and the group made their way to meet Zander.
"What now?" She whispered.
Declan and Tweety got back to the others without trouble. Ash whispered back "Wasn't there someone in the house? They'll miss their friends eventually."
Declan shrugged, "Possibly. I would rather not go in there blind. All we need is a few minutes to get into the compound. After that, the alarm will likely be raised regardless."
In the dark, the Villa's garden was only dimly lit and Idrassa couldn't see any sign of the groundskeeper's hounds.
Zander, down on the street, continued monitoring the compound. Neither he nor J'r-V'zz spotted anything out of the ordinary. Once he'd gotten the bodies out of the street, a search revealed they were wearing uniform black leather armor and hooded cloaks, along with a shortsword, mace, and light crossbow with a case of 10 bolts. They carried no notes, no coins, no ID papers, and nothing else to identify themselves.
Once he'd moved the bodies into the shadows and done an almost-instinctive field-intelligence search, Zander silently reported his findings to the others using his suit's telepathic messaging function. He was only able to directly transmit the message to those within 30 feet of himself, but he trusted them to pass it along to the others. It still bothered him that the function didn't allow others to respond back to him in the same manner, but J'r-V'zz was 'working on' finding a way to improve the functionality. It wasn't as high a priority to Zander as trying to figure out how to get the suit to allow him to fly, mind you, but it was 'on the list' of improvements Zander and J'r-V'zz theorized were possible.
In the meantime, the group needed to decide whether they were going to move on the Villa or not, and if so, how.
"I am not fond of the front door approach," Declan said to the others. "That way will be watched. I would prefer attempting the kitchen door or the stables."
As far as Declan could tell, the gazer had already moved on. It was nowhere to be seen.
Approaching the kitchen door, he found it closed but unlocked.
Declan waited patiently for everyone to arrive. The gazer was nowhere to be seen, whihc could be problematic. But it's route seemed to not coincide with the Trollskullers' actions this evening, so he let it slide.
Once everyone arrived, he opened the door.
Idrassa looked up and down the street nervously as she and Tweety made their way to the door. She threw Declan a worried glance as he gathered everyone at the kitchen door.
This was too aggressive, she thought. Surely a powerful family with secrets to protect would guard itself against such an obvious incursion. But she fell in behind the others and waited.
As it seemed both advisable and tactically sound to continue relying on stealth for the moment, Zander fell into line as directed, maintaining his skinsuit configuration. The translucent blue crystalline sheath that covered him like a second skin seemed to be the only thing that could effectively dim the faint blue glow from his eyes and the triangular crystal in the center of his chest.
For a metal man that stood several inches taller than six feet, and who weighed just under three hundred pounds, Zander could be surprisingly light-footed.
The group quietly- even Zander- slipped inside, immediately realizing something was wrong. Two bodies laid on the floor, an older human male and a younger halfling male. Both looked like they had made a run for it but the older man hadn't gotten as far. The halfling had actually gotten through the door to the north, revealing a kitchen that was uninhabited at this time of night.
The group appeared to be in a pantry, the room lined with shelves containing dry foods, spices, linens, and preserves.
The door on the other side of the kitchen was also thrown open but from here the group couldn't see what was in the far room.
Idrassa froze and stared at the bodies, the twitching of Tweety's tail being the only outward marker of the shock that coursed through her.
"We either go on face the thieves and the family, or get out and call the Watch," she whispered. "What will it be?"
"One of the fallen humanoids outside had the mark of Tarkanan on its skin," Zander remarked, his voice uncharacteristically quiet, "there is a possibility that the inhabitants of this building are potential allies, or at least consider the Tarkanans to be shared foes. In any case, it seems unlikely that anyone in the building will be left alive for us to interrogate if we do not engage the Tarkanan intruders immediately."
He gestured at the fallen humanoids, neither of them likely to be considered combatants by the rules of war, his silence speaking volumes.
Declan frowned at the unexpected bodies. "Clearly the Tarkanans are highly involved in events of late. This whole situation is a deeper conspiracy." His voice was low while he knelt by the old man to see if he could discern a cause of death. "We will contact the watch when we are finished here."
Rising at last, he drew his thornblade and eyed the kitchen. "Proceed with caution," he whispered unnecessarily.
Illendur and Ash both nodded and drew their swords, following along behind the others. The Trollskullers moved north past the halfling's corpse through the kitchen- ignoring for now the closed door to the east- and into what looked like a laundry room.
Scrub buckets, wash basins, soap, mops, and other cleaning tools were all neatly stored for the next day's work. Stairs led up from the laundry room to the next floor, and here was further evidence of the invaders' ill intent- another body was slumped on the stairs, this one a middle aged female human in the neat, plain uniform of a maid. A large ring of keys dangled from her belt- perhaps she had been the head maid.
In addition to the stairs leading upward, there was also a swinging door leading west.
"We should clear the ground floor before continuing upward," Declan commented. He grabbed the ring of keys from the deceased maid - they could come in handy.
Idrassa, cradling her loaded crossbow, simply fell in step. "What are we going to do if we kill the Tarkanans?" She whispered. "Or what if we meet the family first?"
"We are here for answers," Declan said, "If we meet non-combatants, then we will see what they are willing to share. The Tarkanans are known criminals. I expect the Watch will not be fussed by a few exiting the mortal plane."
Unbidden, Idrassa's hand slipped to the scarf at her neck, but she simply fell in step with the others and said nothing.