Zahur is many things, but not a talker, so he sits nearby and fishes an apple from a pouch. If the girls need him, they'd call. Meanwhile, he'll keep an eye on the back doors in case there is any suspicious activity.
If no one responds to her request for face coverings, the blacksmith will go back to the end of the line and wait.
It takes a long and very boring amount of time before Brigita reaches the store.
C1 Perfumery
Heady scents twist throughout the cramped but stylish perfumery. A dizzying assortment of bottles—from gaudy ceramic containers to graceful crystalline vials—lines a variety of lace- and ribbon-strewn tables, shelves, and racks, as well as an eye-catching display in the wide front window.
Across from the front door’s lavender-tinted glass panes runs a long
counter, stacked high with hundreds of simple clay phials bearing round, magenta stoppers. Behind the counter, violet flourishes swoop across a sign reading, “Lavender’s Luxuriant Liniment: Either You’ve Got It, or You’ve Had It.”
Inside Vendra greets each new customer from behind the shop counter, leaving the actual sales to two pretty young shop girls.
Two large, well dressed men with purple cravats discreetly hold saps and
keep their eyes on the shop’s patrons, ready to put down any trouble at a nod from Vendra.
It is 2GP for a dose.
What are you doing? Buying a dose and leaving is easy.
As Brig goes through the process of purchasing doses, Ariadne approaches Vendra. "You are doing lifesaving work here, it's a wonder the lines aren't even longer."
Brig raises two fingers, and slips over four gold. A price that is a bargin if it truly cures the sickness. If...
Kayleigh looks around a bit, trying to get a read on the vendor and her two shop guards.
Kayleigh can see that the Guards are here to mainly keep order in the store, but do keep an eye on Vendra in case she has orders for them.
She can't pick up anything on Vendra besides great delight at the amount of gold pouring into her hands.
Brigita easily buys 2 doses.
You notice one middle-aged man seems to be idly browsing the perfumes, he's not shopping for anything. Just hanging around the shop.
What now?
Seeing that Vendra has no interest in small talk, Ariadne nods to her companions that they should leave once Brig seems to be wrapping up her purchase.
No one can get any read on Vendra. She's very good at putting up a front. :)
Zahur, Brigita & Vedika all make their perception checks and can now read the spoiler.
What are you doing now?
Enough time passed, Zahur appears by the door. "Ready girls?"
Brig has her samples, and it ready to go deconstruct them, but the older man tweaks her suspicions. Brig is rarely called subtle, so she looks to her companions, nodding toward him in case they did to see.
Klueless Kayleigh eventually catches Brigita's signal and tries to surreptitiously watch the man and try to figure out his intent in the shop.
Ariadne glances over in the man's direction, studying his face for any sign of recognition.
He looks bored, but occasionally glances in Vendra's direction. When she doesn't do anything he goes back to browsing the perfumes.
No idea who he is, from the weathered look and callouses on his hand you would say a manual laborer of some kind. An odd type to be browsing perfumes?
What now?
While the man is somewhat suspicious, Ariadne dismisses the nagging feeling for now, vowing to keep an eye out for him should they return to the shop after Brig is done with her testing. As Brig packs her purchases away, the magus leads her companions out, taking note of what the line looks like now, as they make their way back.
Once the party is outside and a fair distance from the shop, Kayleigh offers her thoughts on the suspicious man in the shop. "He definitely seemed interested in the proprietor," she begins, "but I'm not sure if he was another guard working undercover or maybe someone investigating the 'miracle cure' like us."
"I wonder if it was that mysterious vigilante in disguise."
"Hunh...wouldn't that be interesting? It's a good way to keep track of what's going on in the streets." Ariadne muses, considering Vedika's point.
Despite knowing the others are waiting on her, Brig goes slow and steady in breaking apart the tonic. Little twists, tiny drops, a dap to taste, she wants to be sure before announcing ...
?
.
The cure is administered to a sufferer in front of Marshall Croft. As you expected it does nothing.
Brigita takes an hour to carefully study the so-called cure, a pleasant smelling oily fluid with a bitter taste and discovers the ingredients are Sugar, perfume and river water.
Marshall Croft sends a squad to drag Vendra Loaggri back to a cell. After the crowd witnesses the setup in Vendra's apartment behind her shop the squad also needs to stop a mob from grabbing Vendra and stringing her up from the nearest pole.
.
.
While this is taking place Marshall Croft thanks you for your work and with a weary sigh tells you she has another matter that needs investigating.
Are you ready to go now or do you want to rest first?
"Why don't you outline this mission to us now?" she asks the field marshal with one of her simple yet disarming smiles. "I'm ready to go now, but if any of the others needs to rest up and recover resources, we could always talk things over and head out tomorrow with a plan already in place."
The Marshall indicates a very attractive young women, who has a very worried look to her. "This is Deyanira Mirukova. Her brother Ruan was hired to provide music at the Carowyn estate for a party."
A PC who succeeds at a DC 16 Knowledge (local) check recognizes Ruan as a Varisian prodigy and a youthful master of a most unconventional instrument, the ocarina.
"He didn't come back the next day and when Deyanira went to the estate to ask about him she found it seemingly abandoned—its entrance locked, its windows tightly curtained, and a sickly smell issuing from behind the
heavy door."
Marshall Croft sighs with gloomy tiredness. "She came to us next and we're run off our feet. Until you returned I had no one I could send out to investigate".
What now?
Brig wants to return to the shop and slug the fake alchemist a good three times. There is pure regret anger in her face as the lady is drug away. As Kayleigh talks to Croft, the blacksmith simply stands behind her and waits.
"Yeah, I can keep going," says Vedika. "Glad we got that huckster off the street."
River water. She was giving folks river water. Zahur isn't easily shaken by things, but this makes him sick. A pity the mob did not get to her and lucky for her the guards handled it. If was to him, he might very well had let the angry people get to her.
"I know Ruan. He has been in my place twice, pretty good with the ocarina, uh?" He says to the sister.
Kayleigh knows nothing about the young woman's brother, Ruan, so she merely offers Deyanira a supportive smile and assures her, "We'll do our very best to find your brother."
Once Deyanira's attention turns elsewhere, the culturally-challenged cleric whispers to Brigita, "What's an ocarina?"
Brig leans down to listen to the whisper, and has to chew on her lip a moment "Round with holes" the blacksmith has heard a couple played before so she makes a shape with her hand with her thumb sticking out and blows into her thumb, then makes a tooting sound.
It looks a little ridiculous and Brig does not realize that fact.
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"I hate ocarinas."
For days, Deyanira Mirukova has pleaded at the gates of Citadel Volshyenek, begging for help in finding her brother, Ruan.
The young Varisians live together in a modest apartment off Overton Way, not far from the Marbledome where she works as a chorus girl and Ruan
plays ocarina in the orchestra.
Several days ago, Ruan came home in a state of excitement, delighted he had been personally requested to perform at a private masquerade at Carowyn Manor, home of the well-known patrons of the arts.
He bought a new outfit, practiced a challenging new arrangement, and left early the evening of the event.
When Ruan didn’t return the entire next day, Deyanira went to the Carowyn estate, only to find it seemingly abandoned—its entrance locked, its windows tightly curtained, and a sickly smell issuing from behind the heavy door.
Next she approached the Korvosan Guard, but it proved unable to provide aid, as its efforts were stretched past the breaking point already.
Deyanira didn’t know where to turn. Until you returned from your latest problems solving and Marshall Croft pointed you to her.
Deyanira is barely holding herself together as she tells you what she
knows and what she discovered at the Carowyn estate. She has little money with which to reward you, but she offers all she owns—common goods and family heirlooms worth less than 100 gp and a season’s worth of free passes to the Marbledome—if you help her.
Anything you wish to ask her? If not what are you doing now?
Once everything was explained, it did not seemed good. Not at all. "So, Miss Mirukova, we'll have a look at this, but we have no idea how bad it is. Could you tell us about something only you and Ruan would know? This way, when we find him, we can use it in case we need some convincing to do."
"Do you know anything about the manor?" Brig asks, after Zahur gets his answer. At the same time she thinks about anything she knows about the manor.
Kayleigh gives the mystery some thought. "Maybe the party's hosts succumbed to the blood veil; that would perhaps explain the smell you detected coming from within the manor," the cleric hypothesizes. "Perhaps your brother caught the blood veil at the party and is now recuperating at a healer's place or near a temple." Realizing that her words likely don't allay the woman's fears and may, in fact, worsen them, Kayleigh smiles and says, "Don't worry. We'll find him, and if he's sick, I should be able to heal him."
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Oddly enough none of you know much about a nobles estate. Clearly you haven't been going to the right parties.
What you can find out is:
Carowyn manor
A stately, gabled estate along Shoreline Way, Carowyn Manor serves as the in-town home of Olauren & Ausio Carowyn. Built for entertaining, the property includes the manor house itself, a smaller servants’ residence, and a meticulously manicured garden, complete with a gazebo and a pond full of Ember Lake charigs (tiny salamanders that glow in the dark).
What now?
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Brig agrees with Kayleigh, but asks for some time to brew her strengthening potion before heading out again. In an open room, she pulls out plenty of weird glop in cloudy bottles, meticulously measuring portions of each over a small burner, until it is a perfect blench of spice and horror.
Then she nods, puts everything away, and stands ready.
Unsure as to what may have transpired inside the manor proper, Kayleigh decides to investigate the servants' quarters first. Maybe there's some clue there....
Agreeing with Kayleigh's idea to investigate the servant's quarters first, Ariadne draws her sword as they enter, alert for any surprises. If any of the servants survived whatever had happened here, they could be hiding terrified, or possibly ready to attack the first thing they encounter.
Brig is ready to knock in the door if needed with her hammer, but once the door is open the alchemist drinks a series of potions, then keeps her eyes, ears, and nose open.
You have the double doors at the front, or the side servants entrance to enter the house proper.
The sturdy front doors are made of Bloodsworn mahogany and are locked, it's a 15' climb to reach the balcony over the front door.
You can also clamber over the garden hedges to get onto the estate grounds,
What now?
As Brig begins downing potions, Ari utters an incantation, completing the spell by tapping her chest, wrapping her body in invisible layers of pure force that settle upon her like a second skin.
"Servants' entrance seems least likely to be heavily guarded." Ariadne suggests quietly.
Zahur looks at the balcony. "The balcony even less guarded... and I think I can get us there pretty easily." He says, already with his grappling hook in hand.
Kayleigh nods at Ariadne's suggestion but that's about it: the cleric is aware that she's no master when it comes to stealth and infiltration.
Vedika takes the rope and grapple, tosses them over her shoulder, then scrambles up the side of the building to the balcony like it ain't no thang. She unwinds the rope, hooks the grapple securely to the balcony railing, and tosses the rope over the side.
The 2nd floor balcony has two doors, both are shut and jammed closed. Someone has damaged the locks to try and make them unusable? Examination shows the windows are also shuttered and the locks on the shutters are also damaged.
.
.
What now?
After quietly trying the double doors and finding them locked, Vedika sees about unjamming the lock.
Zahur was about to complain as Vedika takes the grappling hook. Climbing was his favorite hobby! But then, he looks up as she climbs... the view as definitely nice.
"Hum." He grabs the rope and climbs it to the balcony.
When Kayleigh's turn to climb comes around, she nervously takes the rope in her hands. "Milani--I could really use your help with this...," she says softly, casting a guidance spell upon herself.