10/27/06 (Real world)

3rd, 4th  and 5th day of Bloom (Ptolus)

Perspective: Jack Falco (Mark Cronan)

Dramatis Personae:
Jack Falco – A Private Informer with a knack for trouble, and your diligent author. (Mark Cronan)
Luford – A Sorcerer with a penchant for women, wine, and song, in that order. (Steve Smith)
Lucius the Luscious – A Swashbuckling charmer who loves anyone that loves him. (Rachel Smith)
Glüg – A half-orc barbarian with an appreciation for food, battle, and more food. (Julia Blakeslee)
Yarl – A dwarven cleric with an admiration for all things technological, including guns. (Matt Blakeslee)
Yerrick – Yarl’s brother, a dwarven warrior with a fondness for his six-shooter, and shooting it (Jason Naylor)
Rainbow – A fairy who’s partial to disappearing at the most inopportune times (Kestral Bruce)
Riven - A Warlock with a flair for destroying objects. (Todd Walker)

We spent our first day back laying low and mostly resting over at the Ghostly Minstrel tavern, over in Delver’s Square.  A pretty nice mix of adventuring folk hung out there, and it seemed like a nice enough place to get in trouble or relax.

 A couple of us went to take care of party business, selling off our unclaimed loot, dividing up the cash, and spending it on some upgrades and pleasure.  Fortunately that went relatively smoothly with no disputes over who grabbed what.  I managed to find a buyer for my shortbow and upgraded to a shiny beautiful composite longbow.  I wasn’t going to get stuck too far away from an enemy anymore.  Others likewise upgraded some weapons and armor, and started to practice with their new toys.

While we were at it, I starting to put out the word on Abbel Dar, the elusive fence with the details on the mysterious Shilukar the dark elf, but had no luck.  Not a beggar nor shopkeep would admit to having heard the name.  I had hopes that someone would report back to Dar that we were looking for him, but I doubted it.

The next day, our investigation having gone dry, we discussed our options.  I advocated we head back to the Lothian temple that had reported a theft by someone dressed as one of their clerics.  The mention that the theft involved a book rung a bell and bore a striking resemblance to the description we had received from the Green Daggers, and I figured it was worth a look around.  Some agreed while others wanted to continue to beat the bushes for Dar.  Eventually, we agreed to stop by the temple, and if that didn’t pan out we would resume our search for Dar using the indirect route.  Glüg however opted to stay behind and eat some more, saying it would catch up maybe some time.

It seemed that the deities of fate had decided we would be doing neither, at least initially.  Not far down the road from the Minstrel several of us heard a cry for help from a lass in distress, and we took off in pursuit.

Right around the corner, we spotted two nasty looking Pale Dog members.  Pale Dogs, my nemesis.  Warren rats with no sense of fair play and a mean streak a mile long.  They had been plaguing my neighborhood over on the edge of the Warrens for years, and it seemed this couple had decided to stray from their pen and assault a young lady.  Not on my watch!

The lady was a human, thin, but with a pot-belly like she might be pregnant.  She was heading right for us, the Dogs on her tail.  But the moment those cowards spotted the lot of us charging back at them, they decided to skid to a halt and retreat a bit.  Even dumb animals know when the odds have changed.

As the woman latched onto Riven for security, I unslung my bow and let loose an arrow that winged one of them.   Rainbow followed suit, though missing her mark narrowly.
That woke those Pale Dogs up, and they held their position and returned fire.  It took me a moment to realize what was headed my way – a bolt from a heavy crossbow.  Too late, I took it right in the chest.  As I fell back and consciousness left me, I could hear myself cursing.

The wound wasn’t grievous, and a spot of healing from Yarl brought me around right quick.  As I started to rise I could see Rainbow and Luford firing off missles at our enemy (some magic, some mundane), while Riven was shattering crossbow bolts headed our way.  Nifty trick that – wish I could do it!

Luford cried out, as a bolt stuck in his shoulder while a second one grazed his side.  Yerrick returned fire after finally catching up (damn those short dwarven legs), and one of the Pale Dogs went down with the blast.  Rainbow and I each let loose a volley of arrows, and one of them stuck in the remaining Dog. 

The last Pale Dog member knew he was in trouble.  Unfortunately, they had come prepared for such an eventuality, and I watched from afar as the remaining Dog bent and lifted a potion off his downed comrade and drank it.  I couldn’t see the wounds healing, but I knew that was the likely effect.  He still had plenty of fight in him.

Riven meanwhile was dropping to the ground to offer a sleeker profile to his opponant, rising, blasting one of those energy bolts he likes to shoot, and then dropping again.  Yerrick meanwhile had also caught up and was blasting away as well with his gun.  Between the two of them, the remaining Pale Dog went down.

Riven ran to his side, keeping his head together and remembering we wanted information from these bastards.  He bound one of their wounds as we determined that the other one was most certainly dead.

I started to shake them both down for valuables, and pulled a couple off double brass rings off of them, a sure indication that they were in fact members of the Pale Dog gang.  Between the two they also had 20 gold pieces, 23 silver pieces, a set pf studded leather and normal leather armor, a short sword, great club, some thieves tools, a light and heavy crossbow, 9 remaining normal bolts, and 8 pretty nice looking bolts that were probably masterwork in quality, and some bad smells.

There was also an interesting, poorly spelled note.  It read:

Phon Quartermall.  3rd door
Western side ob Crispin
Streat.  Blak hair yung

Abter: the red warehouse on
Able row, 2-hours after dusk.
Theoday

As we read the note out loud, our damsel in distress cried out “Phon Quartermall, why that’s me!”

Of course it was.  These ruffians had been sent to kidnap her.  But why?  Time to do some questioning.

But first we had a dead body to take care off.  We discussed the possibility of tossing it in a river or back in the Warrens, but opted to call for the Guard and be upstanding citizens this time.  Besides, we had a fine witness that this was self-defense, defense-of-another, and all on the up and up!

Once we summoned the Guard, the questioning began.  We discovered this young lass worked at Sasha’s, a seamstresses shop right here on Crispen Street.  She lived in an apartment in midtown, near the chapel of Lothian.    Her bosses name is Marta Thon, who is a middle aged woman nearby.  Phon seemed to have no clue as to why these men were chasing her, though she was thankful we had rescued her and badly wanted to return to the temple of Lothian for safty.

The Guard arrived around then, and our explanation held up.  They arrested the remaining unconscious thug, and carried off the body of the other.  I promised to come and question the prisoner later.

Some of us escorted Phon off to the temple while a couple of us stopped by at Sasha’s for a quick bit of further inquiry.

Marta Thon was as described, and helpful enough.  She also had no idea why anyone would chase Phon, but she did not that Phon seemed to have more money and nice things than she should, given how much she was paid.

The rest of us booked it, and caught up at the temple of Lothian.  Phon was taken into their care, and we paid the kindly Brother Fabator for some healing to the nasty wounds inflicted by the Bone Thugs (though at no discount, despite our rescuing their parishioner Phon).

The warehouse mentioned in the note was just across the street from the temple, and within view of the Ghostly Minstrel back in Delver’s Square.  So back we headed, getting a room at the Minstrel on the top floor facing back towards the warehouse and temple.  It wasn’t hard to see down the street, and we took turns keeping a lookout.  Theoday wasn’t until tomorrow, so it

We left the woman there, and traveled back to the Ghostly Minstrel down the block.  Theoday wasn’t until tomorrow, so we had another wait on our hands.

That night at the Minstrel, I heard the sound of it’s namsake, the ghost itself.  The moaning sound came from down the hall, and as I tip-toed across the wooden floor I thought I saw it flutter away in the distance, but couldn’t be too sure.  Lovely yet eerie music.

The next morning we met up with Phon again, and tried to get additional information.  We discovered she did in fact have a boyfriend that went with what we suspected was the child she was carrying, though she refused to tell us who he was. 

Next we headed off to the local jail, and I managed to persuade them to let me interrogate the prisoner using my friend Fin’s name as a vouchsafe.  The rat knew little however, telling us only that some man named Offal had paid them 50 gold pieces each to kill Phon, that they were in fact Pale Dogs from the Warrens, and that they usually only did minor crimes and not murder.  They didn’t know why they were supposed to kill Phon, but 50 gold coins was enough to persuade them to not ask too many questions.

Not much, but it was enough to know we had a real villain on our hands with this guy Offal.

That evening, we prepared ourselves for a fight, and headed for the Warehouse intent on arriving well before the note said the meeting was to take place.  We were not sure if any of this was connected to the missing Key, but I had a sneaky suspicion the deities of luck were playing dice with us, and that there were no coincidences.

<125 experience points each party member who was there >
<50 xp to Jack Falco for the log, when I get it >
<50 xp to Jack Falco for MVP>

Total XP so Far:
Yarl - 815
Glug - 715
Rainbow - 790
Jack Falco - 1165
Yerrick - 690
Luford - 690
Riven - 390