"Sure." Captain Uriana sends off her guards and returns to Sheila with a glass in hand. "Nice party. What is it about?" she starts some small talk.
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"You mean the elf standing next to our resident crazy gnome? I'll take a pass. They're your problem." Captain Uriana replies.
After a few minutes marching troops are heard as they approach. And a brigade of City Watch Guards enters the grounds. Captain Uriana orders the guards to stay alert and wait as it becomes clear that there is no massacre going on. Then she searches for Mrs. Heidmarch. "Good evening. What's going on here. It looks like a garden party but from the Arvensoar we got the impression hell broke loose here."
"Why not. I won't complain about free ale." Uriana tells concentrating on her mug again.
"I know humility and moderation is not yours. But a complete bar seems a bit of an overkill for that." Uriana comments.
"Then what did you build this bar for?" Uriana inquires.
"Great idea! I hear that is exactly what they are missing in Kaer Maga." Uriana replies. "For Magnimar you could consider a brewer's guild." she suggests.
"Good old days it were when they were more picky about their members." Uriana teases the gnome.
"No one of significance is going to show up here. So probably yours. If you wanted to become a figure in organized crime that is." Captain Uriana replies with a smile.
Captain Uriana almost chokes on her ale as she starts laughing. "It's a city. And I bet it's exactly your cup of tea. There are no such things as city guards there. Maybe you were too quick with your decision to open your 'temple' here."
"In that case I'll stay here for a while and join you in your worship." Captain Uriana replies and takes another swig. "Where are you going to? For your next journey I mean."
"My pants are fine I can assure you. But if you come to us the next time you find someone who tries to illegally profit from you it might be possible to solve this without you dying. Or dozens of citizens who might or might not be involved in these crimes." Captain Uriana takes a swig from the mug. "Oh, you serve the good ale from the Fancy Reefclaw. My compliments."
"To the city watch." Captain Uriana replies and raises her mug too. "I hope you hold us in that high regard and contact us the next time you have trouble with someone."
"Well, it's the best opportunity to hand you that little present." Captain Uriana explains while getting a nicely wrapped gift out of her pack and handing it to Abomentolor. "As no one was desperate enough to appoint YOU as official authority in Underbridge I talked to the mayor again about a little restitution. And he agreed as I found something that you will probably like and that doesn't cost us." she says with a smirk. Opening the gift: The present is a framed deed of ownership. It names Abomentolor Goblinburner as rightful owner of the Shadow Clock.
The door to the tavern opens and Captain Acacia Uriana comes in with a group of four city guards. After checking the situation she sends the guards to the bar and walks over to Abomentolor's table. "Hello Mr. Goblinburner." she greets him and signals Isabella to serve her a drink too.
Captain Acacia Uriana has the means to extract the information about the one who ordered the assassination of Abomentolor from his murderer. Which was only a figurehead. But that figurehead was fast to sing when offered the choice between jail for delivering the coins or public hanging for ordering an assasination. After that easy part it got tough. How to hang the head of the most influential sczarny group without having a war on the streets. But she knows her way in these circles. After getting the mayor's approval she offers the thieves guild a choice. Either handing over Jaster Frallino to face justice for murdering a member of high society and finding someone new to take the leadership of the Gallowed. Which led to quite an uproar especially since Jaster Frallino was sitting at the table. Or having Abomentolor Goblinburner the victim of this murder appointed as chief of the guard in Underbridge. And the City Watch handing him the money and equipment to have some hundred men at arms to solve that problem himself. As everyone heard the name Abomentolor Goblinburner already and could imagine how all of their business would go up in flames it was a rather short 'discussion'. And Captain Uriana got a parting present. Bound, struggling and with a ribbon on top. Appointing Abomentolor was therefore called off.
"Fine. Then I'll leave too. There is enough left to do for me. Have a nice day." Uriana says her good bye.
"Would you please appoint someone to keep an eye on Abomentolor? If he has second thoughts I'd like to know it immediately." Uriana requests.
"I only promised to ask the mayor. And for that I get that gnome two weeks out of my hair. And if the mayor approves that it is not my responsibility. And he'll get an appointment contract to ensure he behaves. That I can tell you for sure." Uriana answers.
"Wonderful. Now that this is resolved I'd like to have a word with you Mrs. Heidmarch before we leave." "Officer Kasadei, lead the squad back to the Arvensoar."
"Captain Acacia Uriana, head of the Magnimar City Watch." she replies offering a hand.
Uriana takes a deep breath and with a glance to the side at Mrs. Heidmarch she replies "If you think you're that good. I'll talk to the mayor about getting you appointed as the one solely responsible to enforce law and order in Underbridge." With a mischievous grin. "I don't know who you'll be reporting to, but I'll make sure it's not me." "Until then you don't leave your spa and keep out of trouble. I'll try to get that done as fast as possible, but I hope for it to not take longer than two weeks. Deal?" She asks the gnome.
"You think you can do better?" Uriana asks. "But one way or the other. You are not going to start an open war with the Gallowed in the middle of Magnimar."
"This is different. This was murder." Uriana replies.
"He is not. But as we have your supposed murderer and can question her it wouldn't help to get all of that resolved in a lawful way if you run back there and kill a dozen people." Uriana snarls at the gnome.
"I'm not sure I still agree on the last point." Captain Uriana comments.
"I know him half a minute and I already loathe him. How can you stand having him with the Pathfinders?" Captain Uriana asks Mrs. Heidmarch.
Captain Uriana gives him a glare. "It still proves that you don't get away with it. Even if someone else was faster than me." Leaning closer over Abomentolor she asks "Are you going to behave from now on or would you prefer that I put you in a place where I can make sure you behave?"
Captain Uriana steps in front of the gnome. "It looks like it doesn't take an army at all to get you."
"The circumstances of his death." Captain Uriana replies not willing to go into detail. "Officer Kasadei stand behind the gnome to hold him down if necessary." she orders. "Would you please start?" Uriana asks of the cleric.
"I hope so too. Good bye." Captain Uriana says and leaves.
"Tell me when you'll have him raised. I want to come with you and question him once he's back. I can give him a talk about staying hidden for a while. And I'll bring some of my sergeants to make the point clear that I am serious about him not trying something himself." "And I'm going to check what can be done about the general situation of Underbridge." "I thank you for your open words and your cooperation. I'll send a squad to retrieve our murder suspect here and please send me a message about the appointment for the raising. I need to go now and see how we will manage this quite complicated situation." Uriana says.
"Great. Now that he is dead he causes even more trouble as when he was alive." Uriana complains.
"You can threaten him that we take him in if he tries something. At least he admitted to an assault on the Gallowed. We could put him to jail now and keep him there for a month or two until he gets a trial. I don't like that idea but before he becomes a threat to the city's safety I would do that." Uriana comments.
"I would like it best if we could soft-pedal that. I'm going to take care of that person for you." she says pointing to the murderer. "And we'll see if she spills the beans about who hired her. If that goes well we'll have someone on trial for that pretty easy. If she doesn't tell we still have her to convict. Even if that leaves the issue that we can't get the man behind it. Even though it's obvious who that might be."
"You're right that this has the potential to become an outright scandal. But appointing this gnome to something sounds like setting up a fox to keep the geese."
"I haven't decided if that is really done yet. We didn't get a single one of the heads of the group and we have to release them eventually. There is no guarantee that they will not reform again. And they might do that somewhere else in town." "And clearing out Underbridge is no easy task. A lot of shady figures live there and they don't wear signs telling if they are the kind you can ignore or if they are serious trouble. A one time sweep is easy enough to do. But no one is going to pay for us to regularily patrol the streets there. And it would mean we would have to increase our efforts in Dockway too to prevent that the scum spills out." Uriana explains. "I'm sorry about that but most of the people that pay for us with their taxes live on the summit. And they don't care what happens in Underbridge. You should know that. You have the connections to those important in town."
"I know that this doesn't put me in a good light. But I'm more concerned what it will do to the neighbouring districts. This may drive the criminals out of the shadow. Literally and figuratively." Uriana thinks aloud.
"I got an idea to what group this assassin belongs to. But getting caught on the job is something that doesn't happen to them normally. Something is strange here. But I think it is not too hard to guess who paid for this. And I'd like to check on that by having an interrogation of this person. So we have some starting points to get this crime solved." "But would you tell me one thing? If this gnome really manages to set himself as the new 'king' of Underbridge - as he seems to try at the moment - will it be better or worse than what we have now? And how many deaths of innocent bystanders will there be until it's settled?"
"You're going to have him raised?" Uriana asks.
"Well s&+*. They are both dead?" Captain Uriana inquires. "That supposed murderer looks like a wild animal ate away on it's face."
"The city watch ran into a problem with one of your Pathfinders." Uriana opens without further ado. "We had some reports on a fight in Dockway. Which according to the witness led to several death. It were several people who made an assault at one of the wagons of the Varisians in Lowcleft." "We don't know who the others were but one of them identified himself as Abomenolor Goblinburner. As we investigated there we found nothing and no one was willing to talk. But that Abomentolor was not hard to find. He occupies the Shadow Clock. Which was officially closed by the city because it is too dangerous as you know. He openly admitted to be the head of that assault and that he had a talk to 'this guy in the blue wagon' - which would probably be Jaster Frallino - about stopping all illicit business in Underbridge or bear the consequences. As the sergeant leading the squad there was asking him to come along for further questioning he denied the request and confronted with the option to be forced to come along he replied and I quote: 'You and what army.' followed by an intimidating explanation by some woman who called herself a gray maiden which could be interpreted as a threat that he'd rather die and take hundreds of the guard with him than to accept the guards authority and to follow orders." "The base for his denial was that he expected the guard to take in Jaster Frallino first to take us serious. You can imagine that openly opposing the city guard and accusing them of ignoring real criminals and bugging the good people is something I can't ignore. I guess you know who I'm talking about?"
"Couldn't we talk about that in your office? I would prefer to have a little more privacy for that." Uriana asks looking at all the three open doors that connect the salon to the foyer, the corridor and the garden.
"Could be better." Uriana replies with a worried face as she accepts the hand. "And yourself?" she asks.
"Of course." Captain Uriana replies.
"Good morning Margaret. I would like to talk to Mrs. Heidmarch about an important issue." Captain Acacia Uriana, head of the City Watch greets her. |