She nodded her head at the man as her name was mentioned. Letting Karthan finish his statement, she spoke up after him. To reinforce his point. "The city has been without a proper defense for a long time. Making do with separate disparate groups won't work forever. As the angel showed, at some point threats will come that need a more unified front to face."
"I know some that do it for the show, but yes it's a myth. We sleep in very fine beds most of us. You know I think we could get a barrel, and we could roll him there"
The tall demon scoffs at the barrel idea.
"Just give me directions, and I'll make my own way there," he grouses.
"well if you think your fine getting there"
She tells him sweetly and outlines where it is across town.
The three merchants glance back and forth at each other at Karthan and Eliana's proposal. Following the dramatic events of the previous night, two of the city's most respected defenders coming to them and offering to protect their interests? A most intriguing proposal.
Julius steps forward to meet Karthan and Eliana's gazes. "We speak for the Guild, but it's true, we cannot make decisions on their behalf. Give us your proposal, and we will bring it to our next council meeting. There, we will discuss with the other members whether to accept."
The merchant rears his head back, brushing his carefully-oiled hair behind his shoulders. "What exactly are you proposing here?"
"Well then I will see you there, Mr Li'Omrut and I wish you the best of luck"
She packs her things and heads out the door.
Then she is just on the threshold, turns back and looks at the other two.
"You know we could also use a hand cart, pop you in under a cloth and push you there, should I go out and find one?"
"I like that better than your barrel idea. If you can find one, I'll be fine with that."
"Thought you might, I'll see what I can get"
And she heads out.
After Isabella is well out of earshot, Li'Omrut curls his lip and says, "Thought you might," in an affected feminine voice and stalks off to the master bedroom.
After awkwardly waiting for Karthan to take the lead, Eliana realized the man wasn't going to. Directing Moonwing to step forward, she rolled her shoulders before getting into her best speech posture. A knight clad in white mounted on a silver griffon? An image for the story books. "We are proposing a proper guard for the city. Sternmason's men and the local branch of the Order are few in numbers, mostly due to a lack of resources. With proper funding and resources, we can expand. Grow. Take the place of the church in terms of protecting the people. Make it a lot less likely for a mob to accidentally set the city alight while hunting something."
Moonwing for his part was more interested in the small cat that had appeared. His eye followed it, understanding Sinri's message. He let out a small chirping noise. The merchants wouldn't recognize it, but Eliana had been around him enough to know it as a sound of agreement. A puzzle she'd have to solve later.
She finds a nice man with a cart.
"Please come with me, O and bring your cart"
"Well put m'lady. Gentlemen with Thrabens fall we stand at the gates of opportunity. We are now the largest standing freeport in the world. However, it should be clear from the events of last night that we can no longer rely on inquisitors and the light of angels to protect us from the horros that prey upon us at night."
Karthan adjusts his hat and looks around a little self consciously clearly not comfortable with the idea of such major business done streetside.
"A formal townguard along with a clear judicial structure will bring in those who wish to do business and encourage labor from other parts to come here for work. We have long since had a reputation that only those clever, strong or cunning can survive, it's time we put those strengths to use in the name of benefit to all decent peoples in the city. These are the foundations upon which our merchant fleets are built, and the stuff of which my Company was grown from. However, this process will not be fast, easy, nor cheap. But, at the end of it such events as last night will become the stuff of historians. You will be poised to expand our city's influence and your own in ways before unheard of in our history. Of course these are all rough draft, barroom napkin type ideas. But it is one I wished to bring up to you as a potential solution to our problems. I would like to have a more formal meeting with appropriate arrangements regarding pay structure, organization, and exactly what laws we are looking to enforce. That is with all relevant leadership and officers present. I would not dare to presume any sort of bargaining over such complicated matters until we have a full scope of what both parties desire. I have some ideas for a ten rank structure from lance constable to commander with pay to match with 2 man patrols during day and 4 at night. But, hm, we'll discuss that further."
Helpless against Isabela's dominations, the random commonsperson (taking a cart of fruit and vegetables from his farm on the outskirts to town) turns to follow her and walks up towards the Sotos estate. Once they reach their destination, he comes to his senses. After a few moments looking around to try and figure out what he is, he turns and runs away yelping once he's gotten his bearings. Still, he brought Isabela a cart and she didn't have to do any labor.
- - -
With a cart gathered by Isabela, Taime and Li'omrut are able to pile up a comfortable set of stuff for the demon to hide in while the women push him across town. Given that the two women are fairly inconspicuous, they are able to move without being noticed much. Sinri returns to Taime in the middle of the walk, having delivered his message to Moonwing.
- - -
Karthan and Eliana's message is received well by the merchant elite of the town. They preen and groom themselves at the thought of having their very own town guard, and having to do none of the actual organizational work to do it. Julius nods at Karthan's proposal. "I agree to an initial meeting," he says. "We should be able to get the full council together in, hmm, three days' time. I will deliver a formal invitation by messenger-boy to the Order and your tavern, if that suits."
He reaches forward to shake hands. His handshake is dainty, delicate, and soft. He smiles. His smile seems a bit slimy. "I look forward to doing business with you."
- - -
After a walk across the city, Taime, Li'omrut, and Isabela arrive at their destination: Alleyway bar and gambling den 'Cameron's Place'. Isabela knows the owner, whose name is Rosalina. She's a hard-bitten profiteer who knows the only way to survive is to not take any s&~$ from anyone.
Since it's about noon, the place is in cleaning and restock mode. A few young serving boys wipe tables, wash dishes, and lug barrels of ale (empty out, full in) around the place. The lights are dim, so the wooden hall seems even darker in contrast to the daylight outside. The place is recessed into the ground, so three stairs must be descended in order to enter. It's full of tables of various shapes and sizes to accommodate various card and board games, chairs taken out of the garbage, and a large central bar. A boarding house (owned separately) is upstairs. Rosalina, a muscular, 50-something human woman, is at the counter, going through the previous night's ledgers, a pair of square glasses perched on the end of her nose.
As they go close Isabela, checked she was unseen and then pulled the hood of her cloak over her head, a few moments later she pulled it back.
She now looked like This
"While we are in her call me 'Is' only, please. Rosalina owns this place and she knows me, we have a thing going so please don't upset her.
I'm a working girl who looks after high rollers. Tiame I'm with you, you know someone whos looking for a place that has a clean game, or a game you can get a cut from. Li'omrut is your bodyguard. kind of what he does anyway."
She gives Li'omrut her cloak.
"Keep this on, and don't cause trouble, Angles you can fight. But you will get a poisoned blade in you if you step out of line in here."
Then she walks over to Rosalina.
"Rosalina!, you open for a gal and friends"
She smiles at the woman.
The proprietor looks Isabela up and down and then scowls. "Why, you in here looking for work again? You know we don't open for customers until sundown."
"Last time you were here you did a great job, but now I haven't seen you for weeks. And who's this here with you, anyway?"
"What do you want?"
"I did do a good job and you made good coin, and it's as the lady says, a place to stay"
She hoped the mention of coin would work.
She eyes them suspiciously for a moment, before letting out a 'bah'. "You just want to go upstairs? Fine, why didn't you say so." She waves her hand and then goes back to focusing on her ledgers. "I'll make up a bill when you've decided to leave," she adds, like an afterthought.
Now with access to the upstairs boarding house rooms (and with nothing much going on in the downstairs area anyway) the trio move through the parlor and up a narrow wooden staircase. Once they go up a floor, they find themselves in a cramped hallway. The staircase goes up another level, and on this floor there are eight crowded doors. Not a soul in sight.
They preen and groom themselves at the thought of having their very own town guard, and having to do none of the actual organizational work to do it. Julius nods at Karthan's proposal. "I agree to an initial meeting," he says. "We should be able to get the full council together in, hmm, three days' time. I will deliver a formal invitation by messenger-boy to the Order and your tavern, if that suits."
He reaches forward to shake hands. His handshake is dainty, delicate, and soft. He smiles. His smile seems a bit slimy. "I look forward to doing business with you."
Karthan takes the hand and returns the smile, "with arrangements made I have plenty of work to do until we see your messenger arrives. Good day gentleman I look forward to a spirited negotiation!"
As they move down the street out of earshot of the merchants Karthan sighs deeply and deflates, "there's the easy part done. Now we need to put together a proper proposal. War has officially been declared Lady Carlova. We'll need to be vigilant and steadfast on the laws we choose to enforce and ensure that is all in the contract lest we become nothing more than a crowd of paid thugs."
Know nobility roll if needed
Know history rill if needed
Profession sokdier roll if neededd
"Let's get the one with a window to the backstreet"
And she heads off checking out the rooms that they can have.
The doors in the boarding house are marked with rotating signs marked 'occupied' and 'available'. In each hallway there's a sign reminding patrons to bring their 'room card' (a small card located inside the room) down to the proprietor. About half of the rooms are full.
The rooms themselves are narrow dorms. A twin bed, a chest, and an empty washbasin (with sign directing patrons to the nearest well) decorate each room. It takes about five minutes to find a room with a window.
- - -
Informally, Havengul is a bit of a wild frontier town. Before the Eldrazi, dispute mediation and justice for wrongdoers was provided by the Avacynian church, but since their archangel's fall many of the former lawgivers disappeared or melted into the common populace. The common people have thus been without a protector for some time now.
It is common practice for individuals to mete out their own justice, such as with adultery, theft, and assault. Common punishments are demends for remuneration and beatings.
Karthan's military experience provides him with an avenue for training, but there is no way to turn a random gaggle of commoners into an organized and experienced force instantly. Karthan will have to be careful with who he recruits, because a good guard still needs to be loyal to his town, perceptive and insightful, and a good fighter. Karthan thinks two dozen guards will be enough to start with.
Li'Omrut took Isabela's cloak with a resigned shake of his head. He put it around his shoulders and draped the wide hood over his head, but the horns made it sit several inches higher. He looked and felt ridiculous.
Once upstairs, he returned the cloak.
"Why are we here, again? I thought we were heading to the undercity. But if they have decent food, I can lay about for a day or two."
"I never intend to be a paid thug. I would give up their funding before becoming that. But yes, we may want to find a barrister or lawyer to help us write this down. After all, I do not believe either of us is particularly adept in legalese." She made the comment idly, glancing down at Moonwing who seemed... interested in something. Wanted to lead her somewhere it seemed. Odd, she'd have to figure out what the point of that was. "If you don't know any, I could ask around. I've familiarized myself with a large portion of the city."
She picked a room and headed in, flipping the door sign.
And flopped onto a bed.
"Think of this place as a kind of the gateway to the undercity, and while its day, we lay low, later when it's darker we play"
She jumped back up again,
"More life on that bed than in a zoo."
She walked over and looked Li'Omrut up and down.
"Humm let's see what we can do to make you less recognisable"
"Riding in a rickety cart covered in fruit was enough. I'll just stay up here out of sight until it's time to leave. It's not like I'm going to stay in disguise in the undercity. If anyone doesn't like what they see, we can talk it over."
The demon holds a clenched fist up in front of his face to show what sort of talking he plans on doing.
"You know a simple 'Thank you' would be nice, and good luck with the whole 'Chip on shoulder' thing."
She turns to Isabela
"So, shall we head out and see if we can find one of the dead mans Servents?"
"Hmmm the challenge is forcing the Guild to see beyond it's own coinpurse. They rarely gave a damn beyond their own doorstep hence the need for lynch mobs now. There's a foundation in place between the Guild, the citizenry, and the old church. I think we should sit down and refine it into something consistent to start. Speaking of the church I'm free until this afternoon. We'll have to see about hiring a barrister or secretary to draft an initial contract for us to go over. I would do it myself, but I'm a soldier by trade and well," Karthan held out his wrist which trembled very slightly when he curled his fingers as if to hold a pen, "I'm beyond the point of delicate handwriting." Replacing his hand back on his belt he continued, "I don't have any in the family's employ anymore unless we wish to go seek out his grave. Also we need to visit the Avacynian fortress before the evening comes. I proposed it as a potential base of operations but I don't wish to accidentally put us in a looted wreck or some damned vampires den."
Isabela, spend the time they have sleeping and thinking of where they could start to look in the undercity to find clues about the dead men.
And the missing girl.
Isabela thinks her current location, the rousing gambling hall and low-rent boarding house, is a great place to start asking around, looking for people who have lost their jobs and dropped down into the poor underclass.
"Well once this place gets more alive, we can head down and ask about."
"Well while you wait, I need to go out, I'm hungry, so keep safe. I will be back later."
Once out of sight she changes again,
Then heads to the darker more dangerous side streets.
looking all lost and alone. She was starting to feel hungry
and in the backstreets, someone always made the mistake of
seeing her as easy meat. Like a fly trap, she looked so enticing
but has such a bite.
"O dear I am so lost!"
The demon reclines his large frame on the bed. He grins as recalls pleasant memories.
"Acavyn went crazy, that's what happened. She got so worried about evil and chaos, that she created her own chaos and drew evil to her like a magnet. The Lords of Hell," Li'Omrut offers a flippant salute, "saw that the time was ripe to capitalize on the in-fighting between the Church and... everyone else, and did what they could to increase our presence in Illistrad. I was part of that surge. I lived countless ages in Hell, and I was very excited to come to a mortal plane and wreak whatever chaos I could.
"It didn't go well. It turns out, you mortals aren't all stuffy, inflexible paragons of order, but you had just enough of that that the demonic host could be countered. Again and again.
"It was after one such battle that I met my current teacher, a mortal warrior of great skill. He offered to train me, to make me more powerful. I'm sure he thinks that the discipline he's bestowed in me will change me for the 'better,'" (Li'Omrut uses air quotes for that last word.) "But when I've learned all I can, or when I'm slain here and my energy is returned to Hell, I'll be more powerful and more skilled than the common, stupid demons around me, and I will be rewarded and given even more dominance amongst demon-kind. It's pretty much a done deal, at this point.
"These pillows are really comfortable. I wonder what sort of feathers they use in these."
The two men bard her way. She looked at them with pleading and o soo sweet eyes.
"Dear sirs I have lost my way could yo..."
She did not get to finish as one grabbed her and pushed her into an alleyway. A dead end with shoots from the houses where household waste was dumped. Not somewhere she would pick but, beggars can't be choosers.
The one who had pushed her smiled,
missing teeth, nice and o my gods the breath"
She backed to the wall looking in fear of her life with just the right amount of bosom having.
"Sirs what is the meaning of this?"
And there was the lear, Old toothless sex drive had kicked in.
"Keep a look out!
And his companion a little rat of a man, who seemed to have a bad leg, hobbled to the just street and started lookout. Toothless moved to her and grabbed her dress, and was a little confused when his hands passed throw it. He was even more confused when her dagger entered his ribs and pushed up into his heart. It started to fribulated as he bleed inside.
She slapped her hand over his mouth. She was stronger than him, holding him up while his life ended she said.
"O no sir don't do.."
Then in a deep voice
"O sir your so big and strong"
Now dead she shifted to feeding form, and lowered the body to the floor,
Then with a few strides, she was behind the criple. He seemed to feel someone was there and started to turn. But she had his collar and yanked him off his feed to land next to his now very dead partner. He looked wide-eyed into the head man's face. She straddled him gagger now under his chin.
"You know when your mother told you that if you bad, a vampire would come and eat you up. Well, She was right, I'm here to collect on all the bad things you have done. Any last words?"
She was using her empathy power to scare the life out of him and it was working well.
"Or we can cut a deal. Your mine, but I may have use of you, And you could even earn some gold, not copper but real gold. What do you think of that Limpy?"
It took a heartbeat for them man to realize his one chance out of this was to agree. His head shook yes.
"Good, Now I want you to find out all you know about any servants who worked at..."
After she had outlined what she needed, she pulled him up. Be here in 2 days and you will get five more of these. She gave him 5 gold coins. Now get lost. He had a bad leg but he could move when he wanted too. She looked at the dead body of toothless.
"Wast no want not"
A few hours later she was back at the gambling den come bordello.
Karthan and Eliana take off for the rest of the afternoon. Karthan meets with his men and his lieutenant, and explains the situation. He lets them know that they'll need facilities and readiness for training a bunch of commonfolk into the sorts of people that would guard the town. After the meeting, his company breaks into small groups to talk about the most important lessons for a new recruit, and about finding some sort of horse corral for the actual martial training.
Afterwards, the pair visit a local lawyer and head up to the fort previously occupied by Avacynians. The best local lawyer -- at least one that isn't definitely corrupt -- is a middle-aged man named Goffred. Goffred has short brown hair, a stylish goatee, a beautiful mahogany-paneled library, and very good advice for the pair of heroes about signing contracts with the Guild. He assures them that, if they negotiate with the Guild regarding his own fee, he will help to represent them at their meeting.
At some point during the day, the pair also receive a visit from a magical cat. This cat informs them that there are three people inside a rough bar in the bad part of town that want to meet with them -- a demon, a witch, and a vampire.
The pair hike up the nearby hill on the landward outskirts of town to visit the Avacynian Fort. The building isn't large enough to be called a true castle, but it is surrounded by a stone wall. It has a cobbled courtyard within the wall, and also a stone keep at the center of the courtyard. There are also stables (although they should obviously be empty). The place doesn't seem to have received maintenance since the Avacynians were killed in last year's unpleasantness. The wooden bridge that leads over a small creek nearby the place's entrance, for example, creaks and appears sodden.
When the pair arrive, they find that the portcullis has been dropped, though. Eliana doesn't find that much of an obstacle, however, and takes to the skies to review the interior. While circling, she and Moonwing both spot activity inside. Watching her from shadows and corners within the fort -- ghouls! At least a dozen of them, darting from pillar to pillar or from stables to keep. Who knows what else might be hiding within the castle.
Clearly if the pair want to inhabit this castle, they'll need to take care of the ghouls first, but... two heroes against an unknown force of undead seems dangerous. Perhaps some preparation time is necessary first.
- - - - -
Isabela heads out and murders someone she deems acceptable so that she can continue going on without desperate hunger. While she does so, Taime and Li'omrut wait in their small room for evening to come, so that the gambling hall downstairs would fill up with people. At some point, the bartender comes upstairs to find them and take the room card, which she stamps with a stamp marked 'AM'. She sneers at them that they seem like an odd crew, that they forgot the room card, and she reminds them that payment is due at departure or at the end of the week, whichever one comes sooner. It's three silver per room per day.
Before the evening, Isabela comes back, looking satisfied and happy with herself, and it's only a short wait longer until the gambling parlor opens up.
After sundown (which isn't late here in Havengul) patrons begin to stream into the basement parlor. A few at first, but eventually the place gets lively and rousing and full of activity. Drinks are sloshed on the floor, dice is cast on felt tables, and money changes hands every few minutes. Also navigating around the floor are various poorly-clad waitresses. The kitchen in the back is loud with the sounds of frying pans, and platters of potatoes and battered fish pass everywhere.
Isabela, Taime, and Li'omrut are looking for some past employees of Mr. Sotos. They think perhaps here is a good place to start looking, because this is a gathering place for the city's underclass -- and certainly fired household servants should drop into poverty. They don't know what these people look like. Maybe it's time to ask around?
Isabela [Isy] came back looking satisfied and happy with herself.
A rapist was off the streets for good and his accomplice should be working for her now. If he was not, well there was always supper.
She passed the bartender coming down as she went up.
"Day-done-yet, she-an-odd-en-that-one, likes a bit of beast, if ya no-what I-mean. I'll be down later, say hello to the regulars."
Then she up at the door. Knocking then enters.
"Well my sweets, I'm all full up, and ready for a night out, o and I bright some for you"
She placed a simple wood platter on the window cill, with two hot bird pies in on the bed, a simple ail jug and three wooden mugs with it. She pored out the ale.
"It's not the best wine but the bartender said it's the best ale."
After they had done she says.
"Well now, let's be at it. If you two play the couple, I'll pay the working girl. Leave the room to me for a while, I may need it."
She then heads down to the Bar with the empty jog and tray.
She will spend some time looking to see who comes in.