Tessirda sighed, and nodded. "Yes, I think most likely some thug feels really lucky right about ne." She replied, and looked Saul over. She wasn't going to press the point, but Kelne seemed to share her feelings.
"We should check if he reached this Smeed character - But lets be careful this time around." She shot a short glance towards Zindit, whose inclination to disturbing ideas might not entirely fit well with a diplomatic approach.
You follow Saul's directions to Lymas Smeed's place and find yourselves before a a townhouse carmmed in amongst apartments on Rat Street in a run-down part of Riddleport. A sign above the front door a stack of gold coins and reads "Rat Street Loans- by appointment only".
Zindit had fallen completely silent as tensions seemed to rise between her employer and everyone else, particularly Tessirda. She was torn between taking Saul's side simply for job security and supporting Tessirda in order to stay in her good graces. She looked back and forth between them nervously and shuffled back from the crowd, wishing she could just disappear. She began to stare at the floor until things seemed to come to a close.
She looked up in time to see the glance Tessirda was giving her, and she jerked back slightly with a barely stifled yelp. "Y-y-yesma'amI'llbecarefulthistimeIwill!" she hurriedly tried to assure everyone, nodding her head vigorously. She tried not to look either Tessirda or Saul in the eye. She desparately wanted to avoid having to choose between them in front of the other.
Tessirda looked at the moneylenders home, and knocked lightly, She didn't know much about him, but he didn't seem to be a very sociable or likeable fellow. Which admittedly made the position of "talk first" harder to maintain.
Zindit wrung her hands as she kept to the back of the group, not daring to raise her voice for fear of setting any of her tense companions off.
She looked about the townhouse's front and the surrounding buildings nervously, trying to spot any potential trouble the others would need to know about.
A small metal plate in the door slides open and two beady eyes peer out. They look at Tessirda and the plate quickly sides shut again.
"I know who you are"!" a voice says from the other side of the door. "Tell Saul what he owes me is gonna double if he sends his thugs here again!"
"On the contrary; we are not 'thugs'. In fact, we would like nothing better than to see you paid, as does Saul. You are Lymas Smeed, yes? If you allow us in, we'd like to discuss your payment with you." Despite her calm words, Amunyet's hand noticeably drifts to the scimitar sheathed in her belt.
The plate slides open again.
"Not much to discuss. The vig is 100, just slide er on through."
"Would that include the payment that Larur brought you last night?"
"Would that include the payment that Larur brought you last night?"
"Indeed. Add to that Larur himself, and it would seem you were more than adequately compensated, Mr. Smeed."
"Larur that foppy dwarf? He dint bring me no payment last night."
"Now If ya ain't gonna pay, get lost."
The panel slides shut.
Kelne steps forward and raps firmly on the panel, "Two questions," he says loudly. He waits for the panel to slide back open before speaking again, "Has Saul ever sent his thugs around before, and how much does he owe you in total?"
Zindit looked back and forth between her companions, wondering if it was wise to interrupt them over the thought that had just popped into her head.
She inched forward and quietly spoke up, asking "H-hey. You don't think whoever left that snake at the Gold Goblin is still out to hurt Mister Saul's business do you? Should we ask him if he keeps any snakes?"
It made logical sense to her gnomish mind, at least.
The panel remains shut and there is no reply.
"I believe I heard him invite us in. Kelne, Tessirda, perhaps the door is stuck, should we help him force it open?"
"Let's give him the benefit of the doubt for the moment, shall we?" Kelne says mildly, "Saul wasn't exactly straight-up with us; I'd like to have the facts before I start kicking in doors."
Tessirda had already moved to take on speed in forcing the door, but Kelne's words stopped her. He was right, she was hasty. She didn't like the man's tone and behaviour, but... they had no proof. Worse, the whole thing, she reminded herself, was all but an open and shut case.
"If we break open the door, this will end in bloodshed. I don't think being an arrogant jerk alone is worth that." She conceded, and moved to Kelne's side.
Zavos looks around to see what else is in the area. Perhaps a neighbour may have seen Larur here last night.
Smeed's flat on Rat Street is one of many in a row of tenements. On either side of the block a street a street crosses Rat street. The rest of the places on the block are much like Smeed's, some have businesses on the first floor, most are just residences.
Tessirda nodded. While she was not quite as hopeful as Kelne, but they should check as well as they could. She wasn't too interested in just becoming a blunt object of her employer - something rubbed her wrong about this whole situation. Why had he been sent out alone?!
"Let's give him the benefit of the doubt for the moment, shall we?" Kelne says mildly, "Saul wasn't exactly straight-up with us; I'd like to have the facts before I start kicking in doors."
"Hmm. True. I suppose I was a bit hasty in judgement. I trust none of these individuals our employer deals with, or our employer either, for that matter. What do we do as our next step then? Trace the route back to Larur's? Check his residence?
"That brings up an odd item. Saul said Larur's apartment had been vandalized, which means he had been there. Yet, he seemed eager to have us head to Smeed's, first. Perhaps Larur's would have been the better starting point, after all."
"It makes a certain kind of sense that he would have checked his appartment to see if he bolted town on his own." Tessirda answered, thinking hard. She knew she wasn't too bright... had trouble getting this issue really sorted out. Why would someone vandalize the appartment of someone they robbed and killed? It made no sense - you want to get yourself away from this, not possibly leave more proof
"M-maybe it's the same person that's been trying to bother Mister Saul..." Zindit chimed in. "But...how many enemies does Mister Saul have?"
Stealing Saul's payment to a moneylender certainly seemed like a good way to get him into trouble to her. Though taking the money itself was probably a decent perk.
"Check with the neighbours," Kelne says, "I doubt they'll be much help, but it's worth a try. And let's spread out a bit, shall we? Heavily armed mobs turning up on the doorstep don't tend to get a warm reception. Zindit and I will just pop around the back, just in case Smeed's trying to make a discreet getaway."
He doubts this is the case, but they'll look pretty damn silly if they come back later and find him gone.
"Very well." Amunyet seems dubious that investigating with the neighbors will turn anything up, but she'll do it.
Turning to Zavos, she says, "Shall we start there?" pointing to the closest neighbor.
Amunyet will work in support of Zavos (he has the higher Diplomacy score), and is willing to spend a few gp to get some answers.
diplomacy (aid another); sense motive (1d20+6=14, 1d20+7=10)
Zavos accompanies Amunyet, and takes the lead role in discussions.
Zindit followed Kelne around the back, eager to be doing good work and pleasing the others again.
Kelne and Zindit:
You go through an alleyway to the back side of Smeed's flat. You see no sign of Smeed, but his apartment has a back door. Near the back door is a pile of empty barrels, old crates and other assorted pieces of garbage.
The others:
You canvass the neighbors for information, and hear much of what you already know, that Smeed is a disreputable moneylender and generally an unsavory and disgusting creature. Nobody remembers seeing anybody matching Larur's description the night before. However, you do learn one interesting thing: Smeed is in fact an agent for Boss Croat, one of Riddleport's major crime bosses, and it is Croat's money that Smeed lends.
Zindit tilted her head to the side as she stared at the back door. She glanced at Kelne, then back at the door, then back at Kelne again, as if expecting him to suggest something involving locks and lockpicks. She knew Kelne knew she did good work. And if it turned out to be a bad idea, it woudn't be her's!
She then busied herself by digging through Smeed's garbage. People often threw away interesting and useful things. Perception: 25!
Kelne gives a slight headshake to Zindit's suggestion of the door, and lets out the faintest of sighs as she starts digging trough the garbage. There might well be something of interest in there, but it's so very undignified. Still, he makes no move to stop her.
Amunyet comments to Zavos and Tessirda, "Do you think perhaps this Boss Croat decided to take repayment into his own hands? Which do you think is the better course now - investigating Larur's, or visiting this Croat person?"
After a little rummaging through the junk, Zindit finds a bloodstained green cloak. It looks just like the one Larur wore every day at the Gold Goblin.
"You know what I think, Zindit?" Kelne asks rhetorically, his voice level but angry, "I think we're being manipulated. Nobody is stupid enough to leave evidence like this on their own back doorstep. Well, except maybe goblins."
"Let the others know what you've found, would you? Then, I think we'll want to get Smeed's side of the story."
Tessirda mulled things over for a moment before replying to Amunyet. "I don't know. If he's behind that, I don't know what he stands to gain from it. I mean, if Lahur was carrying a big payment, there's no reason at all to kill him off. Sure, you pocket the money now, but you risk angering a customer who's already on the way to paying you."
Tessirda mulled things over for a moment before replying to Amunyet. "I don't know. If he's behind that, I don't know what he stands to gain from it. I mean, if Lahur was carrying a big payment, there's no reason at all to kill him off. Sure, you pocket the money now, but you risk angering a customer who's already on the way to paying you."
"Unless, of course, someone else has paid you a larger sum of money to make things as difficult for Saul as possible. And we may very well have met someone like that."
Of course, after being reunited with Zindit and Kelne and seeing the cloak, Amunyet's demeanor does change. "Hmm, besides my earlier thoughts, I agree with Kelne that we may be being played for fools. Perhaps Saul himself is willing to set this up to have us take care of his debts for him. Maybe Larur is in on it, or maybe Saul is willing to sacrifice his people to get his way."
Tessirda had drawn her weapon and turned towards the house in anger when the explanation hit her like a ton of bricks. "Yes.. I think. I think that makes sense. But... Saul's... why would he rob hims..." Then Amunyet continued to spin her theory, and Tessirda's nods grew more eager. "Yes, what better way to get rid of the debt? That son of a snake..."
Zindit had gleefully scampered off after the others, nearly yelling for their attention before catching herself. But when the priestesses began discussing the matter between themselves...
"B-but Mister Saul wouldn't lie to us would he?" she weakly defended their employer. It wouldn't do to turn on her boss so quickly. It wouldn't do to stand strongly against the others either.
"I don't know." Tessirda replied to Zindit, glumly. She felt conflicted as well - on the one hand, Saul hadn't felt like a bad person to work for, and they were more or less implicating him with murder of one of his employees. On the other, the planted evidence looked a little too convenient, even if she'd initially have fallen for it.
"Zindit, you're smarter than me. Why would someone put this here, if not to make us kill the moneylender out of revenge?" She finally conceded. This puzzle was too hard for her.
Zindit stared blankly at Tessirda when the elven woman suggested the gnome was smarter than her. Surely that must have been some sort of trap. When Tessirda asked her what her thoughts on the matter were, she then looked like a doe staring a wolf in the face.
"Um..." She knew she couldn't break and run. Maybe it was a test. Yes, she was being tested. "Well...maybe...maybe Smeed hates Mister Saul and put it there because if we attack him then Saul will be in trouble. Or maybe they did it so we'd think it was Smeed and they know he's one of Boss Croat's men and that we won't mess with him?"
"Or maybe Smeed's boss hates Mister Saul and he put it there. Or maybe someone hates Smeed and Mister Saul. Or maybe someone hates Smeed's boss and Mister Saul. Maybe someone just hates Smeed and thought using Mister Saul would be a good way to get him. We know people that hate Mister Saul don't we? Like whoever left that snake at the Goblin?"
She gasped at her next thought. "What-if-Larur-hates-Mister-Saul-and-stabbed-himself-and-left-the-cloak-her e-and-ran-off-with-the-money?!" Or...or maybe it was one of them! She looked back and forth at each of her companions, wondering which of them would be most likely to murder for money...
She couldn't think of any other reason to leave the cloak there other than to goad them into attacking Smeed or to make them back down and take no action before harming one of Croat's men.
"We can speculate about possibilities as much as we wish, but I think we won't get any answers until we start asking questions."
Zavos starts knocking on Smeed's door.
After about a minute of Zavos hammering on the door, the panel slides open again. Smeed's watery eyes peer out and when he sees who is at the door he quickly closes the panel.
A muffled "Get the f$++ lost!" comes from inside.
Zavos steps to the side, and waves Kelne towards the door.
"That rudeness was uncalled for. We should speak with this gentleman."
"Tell him we were probably suppposed to be tricked into killing him!" she whispered to Zavos helpfully. Surely Mister Smeed would understand then.
She smiled hopefully at Tessirda after the suggestion. Honesty was important to Sarenrae, after all!
Tessirda had began to grimace at Zindit's increasingly incoherent ideas, but her latest comment brought a smile to her face. While she still didn't nearly comprehend just what went on in Zindit's head most of the time, this once she was right - being told someone was out to kill you motivated most people.
Zavos calls through the door, "Would you prefer to discuss the murder evidence with us, or with the gendarmes?!"
There is no reply.
"Rather than bust in, maybe it would be best to see if Zindit can open the door. What do you think, Zindit, can you get it open?"