"You stay away from her bed, you rabbit-eared bastard!" Bojasc rasps back, his battleaxe returning the blow Braddon's bastard sword just delivered to him.
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Bojasc grunts in pain. "Bring it on, pretty boy," he growls. "I've been looking forward to this." He twirls his handaxe expertly before the two axes slash in from opposite angles, wounding the half-elf.
"What?" Bojasc stammers at Lil. "What are you...?"
Bojasc swiftly draws two axes.
Snake: The Varisian bodyguard shoves a scrap of paper in your hand. "I took another look around the vault; found this on the back of a shelf. Figure the boss might've dropped it when he was collecting the take."
At the foot of the stairs, Bojasc growls with rage. "You can shut your fat mouth. I don't work for you. I don't even work for the Gold Goblin; your precious dwarf didn't try to order me around. I've worked for Saul for more than a year; you knew him a week! I don't work for anyone that doesn't pay me, and I wouldn't work for you if you offered a dragon's hoard. Go to the Hells!" He shows no intention of following the party upstairs to look in Saul's room.
"You can do what you want," Bojasc shrugs. "I won't stop you. I get paid to guard Saul's body, not his room. Figure I'll stick around a while longer, see if the boss comes back."
Piqued by interest, Phillip distracts the Varisi with a simple question "Just how much is your job worth Bojasc?" Bojasc is taken aback by the question. "You mean ... what I get paid?" "I'll still have the answer to my question: Can you open his door, do you have a key?" "No," he replies, his voice thick with annoyance.
"Copies of all the keys should be in the dwarf's cupboard," Bojasc offers with a shrug. "More than my job's worth to barge into the boss's room without permission, but it's your funeral." Indeed, Gristav is able to locate an extra key to Saul's bed chamber in Larur's office.
"Given he's left you behind I'd imagine he's either run off with what wealth he had or he was to meet someone he didn't want you seeing. You're not the sort to speak out of turn, so it's unlikely to be any of the Riddleport mob we know... it may very well be something or someone of darker bent" Bojasc's chest swells with pride at the same time as his eyes narrow in confusion at the ... if not praise, then at least not-abuse accorded him from an unexpected ally. "That's what I'm saying. Either he took off with the money, or he's involved in something he shouldn't be and didn't want anyone to know about."
Bojasc shrugs. "Nothing. Ordinary night. As for Sunday, if he cleared out with the money, I don't guess he was worried about it."
"Ain't no spare," Bojasc growls. "Didn't need one. He left the vault wide open and empty." "It was breakfast. He says to send everyone away, we wouldn't need them. I was coming back from telling them all to get out, and he was headed out the back door. Where we going, boss, I ask. We ain't going nowhere, he answers, got to do this alone. I argued with him, said it was my job to guard his body, but he's the boss. You stay here and wait for me to come back, he says. So that's what I've done."
"Maybe he was just waiting for you lot to leave so he could take the money and run," Bojasc replies stubbornly. "Ain't no profit in looking for someone, unless there's a bounty to collect." He doesn't outright refuse Tendal's suggestion, however.
"The boss. He has the key. Must have took the money with him. No 'visitors' besides people working for Saul: cleaners, costumers. Told them they weren't needed. There's no money to pay them anyway."
Bojasc shrugs again. "Orik turned up, didn't he? Figured if he came back, it'd be to here. Where to look, I'd guess Magnimar. Maybe Sandy Point with Orik. Vault's emptied."
"So, what have you been doing? Apart from drinking?" Bojasc shrugs. "Waiting for the boss to come back."
"Get everyone out? So you're telling us you're the only one left?" "He asked everyone to leave? As if he was meeting someone and wanted none to be here for the meeting?" Bojasc's nod to Snake turns into a shake of the head by the end of Tendal's second question. "Not here. He left."
Bojasc spins his axe expertly as he re-sheathes it with a grin. "Uh, today's...." He counts on his fingers a moment, then gives it up. "It was the day you left ... or the day after. He came in all shifty; said to get everyone out of the Goblin, he had business to take care of."
Bojasc ignores Snake to reply to Gristav's demands. "I didn't draw first," he reminds the half-elf with a sneer. "You started this. Drop your own stick."
"I don't know," Bojasc shrugs, turning in the corridor with one axe toward Braddon and the other toward Gristav, "but he's not come back yet. Wouldn't be the first time he tried to skip town, would it?"
"Shall I explain? Will you listen? Dice I must roll... Larur's not back. He's still missing, and how would I know, when I've been with you? Because of the disarray; his house is tidier than this....." "Gods, are you still on about that?" Bojasc interrupts with a growl. "We've got bigger problems that that. Saul's gone."
Bojasc draws his two axes to defend himself as Gristav comes bounding toward him, brandishing his staff. "Zer arraio, gizona?!" he growls. "Zein da zure matxura handiak?" Despite his inebriated condition, he is clearly ready to defend himself against anyone seeking to injure him. Varisian:
What the hells, man?! What is your problem?
Startled, the figure turns around, swerving a little and steadying himself against the wall. It is Bojasc. His hand goes unsteadily to the axe hanging at his belt before he recognizes his interlocutor "Desna bular!" he exclaims. "You looking to end up dead sneaking up behind me in the dark? You're lucky not to have an axe blade between your eyes." He appears to be quite drunk. Varisian: Desna's tits!
"Words with Saul. For Saul. Take a breather. He doesn't fear me, and I'll do your part for a quarter-hour or so. Take a turn downstairs, see the new talent, perhaps. Saul will need to meet them, that's deserved, and you'll want to know the faces, yes? Do remember to look at the faces...", Gristav says in faintly suggestive conspiracy. The Varisian grins unpleasantly. "Known you less than a week. A man will lie low and play nice longer than that for a chance to kill a mark once he's gained his trust." He swings the door open wider. "Come in and have your words, but I won't be leaving my post, not on your say-so." Past Bojasc, Gristav can see Saul sitting at his desk, looking on with a frown.
Hesitating outside Saul's office door, Gristav hears the muffled sound of men's voices, sharp and argumentative in tone, but he can't make out any of the words exchanged. As his staff's brief tattoo sounds, the voices immediately fall silent. A moment later, the door cracks open a few inches, and Bojasc's sullen face peers through the gap. "What is it?"
"Got to keep my eye on you, boss" Bojasc grins. "That's what you pay me for." Tendal has seen a great deal of the Varisian bodyguard over the past week, and while he has not otherwise been favorably impressed, he must admit that the man takes his job seriously; he is virtually never away from Saul's elbow.
Phil climbs the stairs to the owner's office once more to return the keys. "Find what you need?" Saul asks. With a short nod Phillip offers "Aye... just a couple more errands and then I'll be here for the lead in." he moves forward to slide the two borrowed keys across the table and back to Saul. Saul reaches for the keys, giving them a glance that's just a bit more than casual, to verify that Phil is returning the same keys he borrowed. He gives the halfling a nod. "We're a few men short," he reminds Phil wearily. "The more eyes we have on the environs, the better." As the halfling gives a short nod of acknowledgment and excuses himself, Saul, Bojasc, and Tendal watch him go. The casino owner sighs and rubs his hand over his face before returning the keys to his keyring; the stress of the imminent opening combined with the absence of his dwarven partner is visibly wearing on him to Tendal. Bojasc stares at the doorway for a handful of moments after Phillip has already disappeared. "You trust that sharper with the keys to everything, boss?" he asks dubiously.
"Coming with you, boss," Bojasc grins, as Saul starts to rise from his chair. "Strangers in the casino ... it's not safe."
"Can't leave you along, boss," the bodyguard replies imperturbably. "Not with the dwarf already gone missing."
"Come on, boss," Bojasc inveigles with what he no doubt imagines is an appealing grin. "You got to keep up your strength. We'll eat at your desk." Saul grumbles a grudging concession, and Bojasc accepts the plates from Gristav.
Bojasc grunts with grudging respect for Braddon's quick and brutally effective strike as he repockets the key. "Lots of handcarts around the wharves for deliveries," he advises them in his thickly-accented Taldane. "Should be able to 'borrow' one, no problem."
Bojasc gets heavily to his feet and follows Snake and Braddon downstairs.
Bojasc opens the first and grunts, "Empty." Setting it on the table, he unstoppers the second. "This one, too."
In the dimly-lit Goblin, Bojasc's sneer curdles at Phillip's threat. "Ez da Sczarni," he counters sullenly. "eta ez zara. Gainera, bere egin nuen eskaintza bat izan duela ukatu. Dute betetzen, bere behartuta dut? Eta nire termino galtzen zuen, ados, nola ez duzu inplikatzeko da? Nire ohea egingo zuen joan zurea aurretik. Ematen digu bi artean aukeratu du, eta harekin egin nahiago zuela uste al duzu? Gizona edo panpina?" Churlish, he steps around the halfling, as one might step around a pile of ordure in the street, and heads back toward the kitchen and, presumably, Saul upstairs. Varisian: "She is not Sczarni, and neither are you. Besides, I made her an offer that she has refused. Have I forced her to comply? And if she agrees to my terms, what business is it of yours? She will go to my bed before yours. Given the choice between the two of us, whom do you think she would prefer? The man or the mannikin?"
"Ez... it is a simple word isn't it? You'd do well to understand it's meaning..." allowing the words to hang a moment while Phillip stares intently "...or I might need to see that you are taught." One side of the Varisian's mouth twists upward in a sneer and he falls back into his native language for ease of expression. "Guztiak esan dute 'ez' lehen," he scoffs. "Euren jokoa zati da. Hortik besterik ez da horiek lortzean 'bai' galdera bat." Varisian: "They all say no at first," he scoffs. "It's part of their game. From there it is just a question of getting them to yes.'"
Bojasc swaggers up the corridor, stops short and frowns when he catches sight of the figure in his way, then relaxes with a grin when he recognizes the halfling. "You want something?" he asks in his heavily-accented Taldane. Phillip:
Bojasc's amusement isn't diminished by Samaritha's rejection of his proposal. "Nire eskaintza dago, gutxi untxia!" he calls through the closed door. "Noiz alde bat egin nahi baduzu, zer egin behar duzun jakin behar duzu." Still chuckling, Saul's bodyguard strolls casually back up the hallway toward Phillip's hiding place. Varisian: "My offer stands, little rabbit! You want a favor, you know what you have to do."
Bojasc only laughs at her outrage, a low, ugly chuckle. "Eskaintzen besterik ez dut aurkitu zure lagunak joateko. Besterik ez da zenbat aurkitu nahi duzun galdera bat, eh?" Varisian: "I only offered to go find your friends. It's just a question of how bad you want it, eh?"
Daynadrian: You exit back through the waiting room and corridor and hurry down the stairs and through the staff sitting room to the kitchen. The room is empty, and you are just about to push through the swinging doors and head out onto the casino floor in search of Bojasc and Thuvalia when you hear the sound of heavy footsteps approaching. A door to the north of the entrance to the break room opens, and Saul's bodyguard comes through, carrying a candlestick. When he spies you in the room, his free hand goes instinctively to the axe at his belt; then he recognizes you and grins, although the big man's expression seems more predatory than friendly. "What you looking for, elf? Saul send you down for more food?"
"Herr Vankaskerkin," the man replies with something that might be a smile if it weren't so unfriendly. "Got only one hand. You can't miss him." Indeed, as Phillip glances in that direction, Saul Vankaskerkin meets the halfling's gaze and gives him a nod. The man doesn't look angry, but Phil has no inkling of what he might want.
Inside the casino, Phillip abandons Thuvalia to her bottle and strolls across the floor toward the front doors. He feels the proprietor's eye upon him, however, no matter how casually he tries to stride; at a nod from Saul, Bojasc pushes closed the door he had opened for Tendal to exit and stands forbiddingly in front of it. "Boss wants to see you," he slurs through a heavy Varisian accent, gesturing with his chin for Phillip to join the knot of men around the two captured Hellknights. |