Dicing with Death: Episode 018

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==Recap==
===Day 2===
It is the middle of the night and Qualneer is fleeing Cornbrook and heading northwards north and travels on until morning.
===Day 3===
Qualneer is still travelling into the next day. He sees a storm brewing out at sea.
While taking a break, Qualneer looks at the small metal chest again and this time is able to break the lock open. Inside is a folded piece of paper, 2 small stripes of leather (there is a redish brown symbol), and a brass ring with blueish piece of glass in the middle like a monocle.
Qualneer reads the note:
:Captain Harrison Wurthan,
:Wayward Gull
:We hope you have not forgotten your debt, captain. You still owe three casters. I hope I do not need to remind you what will happen if you fail to follow through. Enclosed you will find two favors. This should keep you afloat.
:Stirge
:Grand Pursuivant to the Red Duke
Qualneer continues. A few hours later Qualneer arrives at a farm and asks the farmer about the next inn, and is told the next inn is an hour away.
Qualneer arrives in the town of Farway and heads to the inn. He is told Ashenholdt is anouther days travel away. While talking with the innkeeper, he hears the local wizard in town, Grigin, has disappeared.
Qualneer sleeps for four hours and goes to investigate. He breaks into Grigin's house/shop and goes inside and looks for clues. The inside has a sign of a struggle.
Qualneer goes and meets with Constable Garrett and reports the struggle, and goes with the Constable back into the house. Constable Garrett confirms it looks like a struggle, and goes to gather a search party. Qualneer joins the search party.
Qualneer walks away from the search party and finds a trail. Qualneer follows the trail and finds himself at a cave. Qualneer expolores the cave, then rests for an hour, but he dozes off.
Qualneer wakes to find a bugbear nearby with an unconscious human prisoner, Grigin.
Qualneer pays some gold and silver coins and gets given Grigin, the bugbear implies that others pay him for this type of work. Qualneer drags Grigin out of the cave. Outside the cave, Qualneer finds the search party and brings them up to speed. 
A member of the search party spots a pair of blue dots on Grigin's temples. Then a search party's dog, Booy, rushed into the cave. The Bugbear comes out and kills the dog. Qualneer throws darts into the back of the bugbear. After a few blows the Bugbear retreats back inside their cave.
Qualneer encourages Constable Garrett to come with him to finish off the bugbear in the cave. Constable Garrett is shamed into doing it with the townsfolk. They kill the Bugbear but Constable Garrett has a bad belly wound. The civilians carry Constable Garrett and Grigin back to town.
Qualneer returns to the inn and he is called Qualneer the Goblin Slayer. He finds out that Grigin has woken up, so Qualneer goes over to visit the wizard. Grigin has no memory of the past few days, and is unable to help Qualneer with his own mystery of how he came to arrive on that rocky beach in the Southern Isles.
Qualneer returns to the inn and seduces a lady into coming back to his room.
===Day 4===
In the tavern, Constable Garrett, all bandaged up, comes up to Qualneer. He says he heard a rumor of a "Qualneer" who stole the pearl necklace from Sigothe Twoskins, along with her heart. He also says the storm over the sea is probably aimed at Qualneer.
Qualneer leaves the town and heads north towards Ashenholt. On the road a half-dozen horse riders rush past from the east and onto the road to the north. One of the riders carrys a banner of a grey open hand on a beige field. Then after then are 2 more riders. On the back of the 2 riders are dead dears.
At sunset Qualneer arrives in Ashenholt. He finds out the lord of the town is Baron Lucius Ashenholt, and his sigil was the one he saw being carried by the riders. Baron Ashenholt is unhappy with his position as he wanted to be the Duke of Seagate.
Qualneer arrives at a tavern, The Leaping Fox. Inside he finds a pair of elves. He talks with them about his plight of washing up on shore. They tell him stories of spellcasters on the island disappearing. 
Qualneer sells to the 2 elves his 2 pearls for 90 gold each.
Qualneer then meets Michelle. Hotness 17. Statuesque, classical beauty, with chiselled symmetric features and attempts to seduce her. Michelle is very receptive and is acting as a working girl, and takes Qualneer to a better quality inn. After their evening together, Qualneer pays Michelle 29 gold then leaves.
Qualneer returns to his inn, The Leaping Fox, has dinner then retires for the night.
===Day 5===
Qualneer heads to a local cartographer to get a map of the local area.
Qualneer walks around town and notices there are a lot of Goldsmiths. He goes into one shop and is told the name "Rolson" is the person to talk about the "Goldsmith's Union". Rolson tells Qualneer very little, since Qualneer fails to understand the subtext of what Rolson is saying.
Qualneer heads to the nice inn in town and meets up with Michelle. Michelle sets Qualneer straight about the "Goldsmith's Union", they are a Organised Crime Syndicate that takes a cut of everything.
Qualneer then asks Michelle about what she knows about the treasures of Ashenholdt Keep. She mentions the treasury in the basement, but warns that Baron Ashenholt is not only deadly with a blade, but wields the magical dagger, Bloodletter. Qualneer hires Michelle to get the exact location of the treasury, a 10% of the loot, with a 30 gold advance. Qualneer then pays for some more time with Michelle.
Afterwards Qualneer buys some supplies then returns to The Leaping Fox to await the report. Qualneer however realises a dwarf in the tavern speaks thieves cant. After the dwarf leaves the tavern he disappears and Qualneer can't find him.
===Day 7===
The Leaping Fox. Qualneer is sitting by himself at the bar when someone sits next to him. They say they hear that Qualneer has been asking for "rumors" in thieves cant. They introduce themselves as Chance, and say they will be Qualneer's handler and be able to fence anything that Qualneer "acquires".
To make contact, Qualneer has to order a pear cider in the The Leaping Fox with exactly one silver coin. 
===Day 8===
During the night Michelle returns. She gives Qualneer the exact location of the treasure chamber. Qualneer is also given a lead, a Sir Holder, who would be receptive to Qualneer's advances.
===Day 9===
Qualneer heads to the training grounds of the knights. After talking is way past the keep guard, he enters the training grounds.
After Sir Holder finishes training, Qualneer lays out his charmns and seduces him. They arrange to meet at the keep at sundown.
Qualneer heads to the apothecary and buys some poison, claiming he has to euthanize his elderly pet dog Georgeie-Boy. He also buys a fine bottle of elven win from "The Leaping Fox".
At sunset Qualneer arrives at the gate to the keep. Sir Holder escorts him inside and upstairs to his quarters. Qualneer poisons Sir Holder with a glass of wine. Before the wine goes into effect, the two enjoy one-another's company first. Eventually Sir Holder chokes to death on the poison.
Qualneer hides the dead knight under the bed. Qualneer attempts to poison the guards guarding the main chamber, but they refuse the wine since they are on duty.
Qualneer's next plan is to set up a scene, then call in a guard saying that Sir Holder has been poisoned. When the guard turns his back, Qualneer goes for a sneak attack, but it doesn't kill the guard. The guard calls for help as Qualneer murders him with a pair of daggers.
Qualneer lures the two guards away from guarding the door to the cellar and takes them back to Sir Holder's room. The guards sees the blood on the ground and pulls their weapon on Qualneer, not believing the poison ploy. After some fast talking, one guard turns his back to Qualneer, and Qualneer backstabs him to death. The other guard attacks Qualneer, calling out for backup. Qualneer murders the other guard, before 3 reinforcements arrive. Qualneer tries to act innocent to get a back attack on them as well. After murdering the 3 of them, Qualneer hides the body in the bedroom then closes the door.
A guard comes by asking about the noise, but Qualneer says some people ran past, but he has no idea what it was about. The guard keep going. As he is going down the stairs to the throne room, Qualneer murders him as well, then props him behind the Baron's throne.
Qualneer then hears a shout from upstairs about the noise Holder is making, then the yell of someone discovering the pile of 7 dead bodies in the room. Qualneer sneaks down the stairs down to what he thinks is the treasury. 
In the room isn't treasure but two trees with a dead body tied between them, with old runes on the ground. Qualneer searches for treasure and finds nothing of value.
Qualneer, annoyed, leaves the room and heads back upstairs, but sees that guards are investigating the crime scene in the throne room now. Qualneer tries to sneak by the guards, but is spotted.
Category:Dicing with Death Episodes
Category:Qualneer Episodes