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In response to this, Quinton reaches into his pocket and produces a single Gold Coin, which he offers to the man. "Perhaps now you'll be willing to take me seriously?"
"My name is Reginald Windsor Smythe III." said Quinton in the manner of someone who expected that their name would mean something.
Quinton appears to falter for a moment, then says "It is of a....sensitive nature, but I should say that I have heard that you are someone that can be relied on to deal with...risky situations." Quinton then looks around conspiratorially and says "I don't really feel comfortable discussing specifics in the open as it were, but I sufficit to say, I would like to hire you."
"I suppose the best way to find out would be just to go and talk to him." offered Quinton. With a decision made, Quinton stood, gathered his coat, and headed out the door. Walking down the street towards The Copper Pot, whistling a jaunty tune as he did. He appeared completely unafraid, and was twirling his cane as he walked. Arriving at The Copper Pot, he donned his gloves before gingerly opening the door and stepping inside. Looking around the room, he walked like someone trying not to touch anything for fear of contamination and approached Grimskull directly and said in a voice with only a hint of disgust "Hello my good sir. I wish to speak with you regarding a private business matter. Might I have a moment of your time?"
"Perhaps we should just see if we can bribe him for information?"
"It would seem that our initial information were confirmed: the tavern is a front for the Gallowed, unless Lady Ashenval has some observations to contradict that information." Quinton looked towards the bar, wondering why she had not come out yet.
just waiting on our scouting team to report.
"Nothing like that. I just would stand out, and not in a good way."
"I'm not much of a tavern person. Even in college I didn't go to the nearby tavern."
"What say the rest of you?"
"That does make the most sense, my good Mr. Armature. Perhaps we should put it to a simple vote?"
"What information, if any, do you have on the Skinsaw men?"
"My thoughts were that we could take out the Sczarni first as a way to let Magnimar know that we exist. They should be easier to deal with then, say, The Nightscales. I would be curious to hear why you think that we should attack the Nightscales first."
Quinton poured over the map as if memorizing it before asking "Lady Imesah, perhaps we should start with the Gallowed. They'll likely prove the easiest to defeat, and it should make for a good introduction for our group's efforts."
Okay, I have my alias all set up.
I agree. We haven't heard from the others in a while.
"Indeed. I think they needed an equipment truck, and they took the first one that met their requirements."
"I think we should head to the motor pool and update the others in route."
"Could we get a list of everything that was searched for? It could be that they took something that people don't currently know is missing."
"Also, do you recognize that truck?"
As before, Quinton will talk to the miners at the site and find out where the theft occurred, then leave them pretty much alone unless they bother us. "While it might be a strong urge to look for the same types of evidence, we should probably just take a look and see what we can see. Better to have no preconceptions, then to miss something cause we were looking for something else."
that seems to be the plan, yes.
"Certainly. I would welcome the company. Shall we check out the people's lodgings to see what can be discovered there?"
"As I said, I still think we should split up into 2 groups: 1 that checks out the sites, and another that checks out the missing people's lodgings in town. We're already behind the clock, so to speak, so getting as much accomplished as quickly as possible seems to me to be the way to go."
"I'll agree that they are fairly insular, and I definitely agree that they're playing their cards close to their vest, but I still think our best course of action would be to investigate the other worksites and get first-hand knowledge of the break-ins. We should probably also go check the dwellings of the missing people, as I don't think anyone has done that yet. Finally, we might want to see about getting a list of closed mines, in case they are building down, not up."
"sorry, I'm still a bit groggy so let me clarify what I'm saying: I think that whatever is controlling people is having them build a secondary elevator to get to the top of the cliff so that it can board a ship and get off-world." To Kevin's question, Quinton replies "I have firearms training. I was a homicide detective long before I was a warden."
Quinton sips his coffee, wincing at the taste, and then says "My working theory is that something that can create acid is stealing supplies to build an elevator so that it can get off-world. If I had more evidence of this I would lock down the planet, but right now it's only a guess at best. I think that we should split into groups and check out the rest of the sites to confirm, but I would imagine that we'll find the same thing there: acid was used to create a 'door', and we'll probably find more hair samples. I may have missed it, but has anyone gone to any of the other sites?"
Quinton will grab some coffee and begin trying to get his tired brain to start working again, looking at the gathered information with bloodshot eyes.
"Name's Quinton. I'm not a sir; I work for a living."
"What's your specialization? the last guy we had was a bit more....aggressive than we probably needed at this juncture."
"What about the hair/fur samples? can we get anything from them?"
"Perhaps we should get some clarity on the timeline. Sheriff, can you find out if there was a break-in this evening, and if so, what was taken?" Running his finger through his hair to help clear his thoughts, Quinton then says "by the way, do any of you have forensics training? I have some samples that need to be analyzed."
"Hrm. Do we know what was taken?" Quinton crosses the room, reaches into his jacket, and turns on his wristcomp to make a list.
Quinton comes out of the room with the bunks in it, rubbing his eyes and says "What the hell did I miss?"
Staggering back into town, Quinton will head directly towards the sheriff's office and one of the bunks within. The walk back had been much more physically taxing then he thought it would, and the lack of sleep the night before was wearing him down. Setting his wristcomp to 'wake me if I get a call' he set out the samples with the group's equipment with a note saying *samples*, secures his gun, and lays down curled up around it, holstered but hand on the handle.
Quinton will attempt to create the future version of the conference call with the group, and after connecting, will say "I found a clue at the first site I selected, which is here." he will send a picture of the map marking the site he just left "I found what appears to be either hair or fur on the gate into the area where the explosives were taken. The fence also appears to have been melted, but I took a sample of the fence to see if we can determine the specific corrosive that was used. I'm walking back towards town, but I just wanted to add the observation that the air out here is thinner than the air in town. If we're going into deeper dig sites, we might wanna have a portable oxygen tank on standby in case the air gets thinner. It took me about an hour to walk out here, so it should take me roughly the same amount of time to walk back. I have all of my equipment with me, so should trouble arise, I am as prepared for it as I am going to be. I haven't found anything yet that would be of interest to our particular field, but I'm not ruling anything out yet. How have the rest of your investigations gone? turn anything up while I was out?"
Collecting what physical evidence he can, Quinton will say nothing to the miners other than to let them know he was done.
Quinton did not head to the dining facility after sharing the information that had been gained with the group: he went walking. During his stint as a homicide detective, he had learned the hard way that looking at a picture of a place was not the same as seeing a place with his own eyes. Taking a list of the closer dig sites where materials had been taken from, he headed to the closest one, carrying all his gear with him. He kept the front half of the zipper of his shoulder bag open, so that one of his firearms was in easy reach but not visible; the best compromise that he was going to get. Arriving at the first site on his list, he would check the areas where the equipment was stored, and look specifically for method of entry. Should he find nothing, he would head to the next site: otherwise, he would take notes and samples and share his information with the group (either via wristcomp or face to face should he not have reception) before heading to the next site. Should anyone be on station, he would try to gather information from them, using the "hapless city official who just wants to get back off planet as fast as possible" persona.
After catching a nap for two hours, Quinton will get up and take a look at the map for the top 5 spots where someone could build an elevator. When he had his list, he would try to wake up the rest of the group and call Hoss to let him know that he had a lead.
Quinton will begin with what he's really good at: finding the thing that sticks out of the pattern. He'll dive into the basics of the missing people: where they lived, known associates, assigned dig areas, and so on. He'll add to this recent changes to the colony: new dig sites, new personnel, even new shipments of replacement parts or supplies. After staring at the information for a few hours, he'll get out and go walk the town, grabbing his shoulder duffel as he leaves.
"We're here to help you. As my college said, why don't you explain it to us from the beginning."
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