CH. 6: Nobody Expects the Occupation

[Haahque]

Well if we're agents of the church now, we got a ton of extra people here that could possibly help us search for these Belzorites, so we might as well use them.

Walking up to one of the patrolling guards Haahqae asks if he's seen anything suspicious: "We here have been tasked by the church to weed out some heretics, we suspect that they're hiding with magic somewhere in the harbor district. Have you seen anything suspicious or of magical nature going on lately?"

[BishGada]

Walking down on River Way, Tulbas remembers how only few days ago they all where here searching for the Ergothian's ship. All was so simple back then. So much happened. His mood turns back into deep sorrow and desperation. He is lost in thought and doesn't really pays attention to what's going on around him. Suddenly Haaque's voice returns Tulbas back to the current events. Hearing his proclamation Tulbas gaps in amazement. 'Doesn't the gnome has any sense of secrecy?' but he says nothing, takes some distance from Haaque so he won't be immediately related to him, but listen carefully to see if his direct way will carry fruits after all.

[JadedDM]

Haahqae, Gregeddin and Tulbas (River Way, Harbor District)
Gregeddin quietly observes some of the people in the area as the three walk by. Looking for people who cast nervous glances at the goblin guard proves unhelpful; the vast majority of citizens do that. However, there are some possible conversations he could eavesdrop on. He spots a hobgoblin speaking with a goblin while sitting outside a warehouse, sharing a drink. However, they are speaking in the goblin tongue. There's a young woman, barely in her teens, with a cart of oysters she's attempting to sell; she's arguing with an old man. On the river, on a docked boat, a couple of rowers are having a discussion. The bard could attempt to listen in or read the lips of any of these people.

Haahqae, however, takes a decidedly less subtle approach. He approaches a goblin worg rider on patrol that is heading their way. The gnome stops right in front of the worg, causing the goblin to pull back on the reins suddenly. The worg growls at Haahqae's interruption. The goblin, after hearing his question, looks down at him. "You are a little short to be an agent of the church, aren't you?" she asks sarcastically before giving a hacking cough. She then spits a glob of phlegm onto the street. "How do you define 'suspicious?'"

Kendra and Arulia (Mill Street, Farmer District)
A few moments pass after knocking before there is a response. Arulia hears the telltale clicks of several locks before the door opens and an old man carefully peers out. He is bald, save a ring of white hair on the back of his head. His eyes are sunken and have black circles under them. His skin is wrinkled and fallow. "Who are you? What do you want?" he demands.

[Haahque]

"Oh you know, there's lots of ways to look suspicious. They could be wearing black cloaks huddling and whispering together, disappearing whenever guards get near. Or drawing magical circles on things and burning incense. Or maybe they'd have some sort of secret language that they start speaking in part ways through sentences. If you're chasing them into an alley with no exits and somehow they vanish into thin air, that's pretty suspicious too. You know, anything like that."

[djhyland]

Arulia frowns, taken aback at the suspicious man at the door. "But these days, I suppose I would be suspicious if strangers came knocking on my door too," she thinks.

"Are..are you Master Toom, the vinter?" she stammers.

[HorizonsDream]

Kendra remains quiet for the moment as she looks over the man. ~I don't blame him for being paranoid,~ she thinks to herself.

[mgbevan]

Gregeddin assesses the events before him, out of the corner of his eye he notices Haahqae beginning to start searching in his own way and decides to leave him to it, they can regroup and share their findings in a minute.

Gregeddin decides the conversation in Goblin is beyond his capabilities, then prioritises the conversation of the rowers, edging closer to listen in and trying to read the syllables off their faces. The bard hoped he would catch some clandestine words, the 'Z' sound of Belzor should be easy enough to spot he thought. After watching that conversation he approaches the vendor girl and old man to observe their argument and intervene if necessary.

OOC, Jaded would you prefer to roll read lips secretly so that Gregeddin is unaware of his success or failure?

[JadedDM]

Haahqae, Gregeddin and Tulbas (River Way, Harbor District)
The goblin considers. "No, haven't seen nothing like that. Well...actually, now that you mention it, we did get a weird report the other day. Couple of folks were acting really shifty. Nothing suspicious about them, really--pretty plain looking humans. But they were acting odd. Kept looking over their shoulders and whispering to each other. Not doing anything illegal, but...the guard who noticed decided to tail them, just to be sure. Followed them to an abandoned building right near the old brothel. Saw 'em go inside. He snuck over, listened by the door--couldn't hear anything. After waiting half an hour, he went in." She shrugs. "Nobody there. Not a trace of 'em. And no other exits. They were just gone. Like ghosts."

Meanwhile, Gregeddin moves within thirty feet of the rowers and observes them, trying to read their lips.

"## was attacked?" asks the first one.

"So #### ###. Elves. They ##### the prisoners and ########### into ### woods with ####," says the other.

"####. I guess that's lucky. Then again, not sure the #### will treat 'em ### better than the army," replies the first.

The second one shrugs. "### rumor is that ### caravans ### heading to Pax #######, to ### south. #### heard of it?"

The first one nods. "Yeah, an old fort or something, #### it?"

"That's #####. ### scuttlebutt is they are ###### to #### the mines ##### ## slaves. ### children are #### as hostages so ###### tries to escape or cause ### trouble. Heard Verminaard is ### up ##### ###."

"###," says the first. "Maybe they are ###### off with ### elves then."

"Hey, you two get back to work!" a foreman calls out, interrupting the rowers. They quickly resume their work of preparing the boat, and cease talking.

Gregeddin then approaches the girl with the cart. The old man is skeptical that the girl's oysters are fresh, as the nearest ocean is 20 miles away. The girl insists they were shipped in from New Ports and are quite fresh. It doesn't get very heated, and the girl settles it by offering the old man a free sample. He sucks one down, seems to enjoy it, and offers to buy four more from her.

(OOC: Gregeddin makes a Reading Lips check [13] (1d20): 6, pass. He understands roughly 70% of the conversation.

Well, that was fun. I wrote the whole conversation plainly, then censored about 30% of the words by rolling on each one. Good luck deciphering it.)

Kendra and Arulia (Toom's Residence, Farmer District)
The old man looks at Arulia and his eye twitches a bit. "M-Maybe I am, maybe I ain't. Who's asking? And more importantly--why?"

[djhyland]

Arulia sighs. "He's terrified!" she thinks. "How can I make him trust me?"

"My name is Arulia Seroth," she says. "I don't mean you any harm." She hesitates, then looks nervously up and down the street to ensure that nobody is watching. Pulling her hair back to show a pointed ear, she says, "I'm not saying you're Toom, but I've heard that he once had good relations with my father's people. I was hoping to find him, hoping that he'd be able to help me contact them. I apologize for disturbing you if you aren't Toom."

[Haahque]

"Hmm, well in my experience, shifty and suspicious often go hand in hand. This is indeed a good lead, thank you." Haahqae replies and looks around to see if he can find an abandoned building beside an old brothel.

If he should find it, he'll use all methods he knows to search the place, including checking for unsafe walls, ceilings and floors, searching for traps, and trying to detect any noises.

[HorizonsDream]

"And I'm Kendra Greylock," she says with a bow of her head. "I'm a friend of Arulia's, and I also have a connection to her father's people," she says softly.

[BishGada]

Seeing that Haaque not only didnt got himself into trouble but actually got useful info Tulbas waits for the goblins to clear and then joins Haaque with the search.

[mgbevan]

Gregeddin mulls over the conversation he just read, attempting to piece the bits of information he got together. Reopening the mines, slaves, prisoners, pax somewhere? There were many questions he had but it didn't sound much like Belzorites to him.

He hangs around until the old man concludes his business with the vendor. One gone Gregeddin discreetly asks, "So there oysters are fresh, and shipped in down the river? That's fantastic! You wouldn't happen to know who organises and runs these shipments would you?" Gregeddin asks as he looks casually between the mounds of oysters, adding, "Gregeddin, by the way, what's yours?"

[JadedDM]

Haahqae and Tulbas (Deserted Building, Harbor District)
Haahqae heads to the old brothel, Tulbas in tow. Neither had lived in the city when it was still open, but both had heard of it. When the Seekers had taken over, they had shut the place down for moral reasons. Prostitution still occurred in the city, of course, but it was done in secret, in the shadows at night. The brothel, however, had remained in disuse.

The building next to it, though, was what drew their interest. It, too, appeared abandoned. The windows were boarded up, the paint was peeling, and they could see at least one small hole in the roof from their vantage points.

Haahqae tries the door and finds it unlocked. So without further ado, he steps inside to a large, singular room and looks around. Immediately to the right is a nook that may have once been a living space for squatters before the army shipped away all of the homeless. There is a rope tied from one side of the nook to the other with old, smelly furs hanging from it, perhaps to provide a slight bit of privacy. There are old sleeping bags in the nook, stained and reeking. Beyond the nook, on the right side, is a small table with a few chairs around it. By the table is a pile of trash--old clothes with holes in them, food remains (fish bones, etc), broken pieces of wood, and so forth. At the far end of the right side of the room is a single bed that looks to have been smashed apart for kindling, only some of it still remaining.

Immediately to the left is a sort of kitchen area. There's a table with a bench next to it. Flies buzz around the remains of rotted food on the table. There are a couple of barrels near the table that hold small amounts of brackish water. Further down is a fireplace, cold, dark and empty of wood; a couple of old chairs sit before it. At the far end of the left side is a double bed, its sheets removed and the mattress stained and odoriferous.

At the far, back end of the room--directly across from the entrance, stand a couple of bookcases against the wall. One is completely empty. The other has a few book covers on it, the pages themselves having been torn out.

Haahqae goes right to work. First, he checks the structural integrity of the floors, roof and walls. They all appear safe, although the roof might be dangerous should someone try to climb up and walk on it, based on some of the holes up there. He then searches for traps, but finds none. Finally, he tries to listen carefully, but doesn't hear anything noteworthy.

(OOC:
Haahqae detects unsafe walls, ceiling and floors [7] (1d10): 6, pass.
Haahqae attempts to find traps [25] (1d100): 20, pass.
Haahqae attempts to detect noise [25] (1d100): 47, fail.)

Deserted Building 01.jpg (16.06 KiB) Viewed 6692 times

Gregeddin (River Way, Harbor District)
The young woman, who Gregeddin would judge to be maybe somewhere between 12-14 years old, smiles warmly to the bard. "Morning to you, sir. They call me Elara." She gives a little curtsy. She has brown hair that is wrapped up in twin braids and bright blue eyes. Her skin is deeply tanned from spending long hours outside. "The Trade Guild organizes all trade in out of the city, sir, although I reckon the army oversees them now. Care to buy some?"

Kendra and Arulia (Toom's Residence, Farmer District)
The old man's eyes widen at Arulia's statement. "Your...'father's people?'" He looks around the street nervously. "Did 'they' send you? Is that what this is about? Damn it, get inside before someone sees you!" he insists, stepping aside and gesturing for them to enter.

The main room of the house is well-kept. In the back is a door that likely leads to a smaller room--a bedroom, likely. There are several wine racks along the east wall, each about half full with bottles of wine. On the west wall is a fireplace that is lit and keeping the place warm. A kettle is hung over it, and steam is starting to seep through the spout.

"Were you followed?" he asks anxiously. "Does anyone know you are here?"

[djhyland]

Arulia quickly follows the man's directions and steps inside. Confused, she asks, "'They?' I don't know who you're talking about. We came here of our own wishes." Brushing her hair back to hide her ears again, she looks about the room. "I don't think that anyone is following us, and I haven't told anyone that we were coming here. I wasn't planning on coming here until a little while ago, anyway."