Footprints

The gang received some bad news: the Dwarven airship blueprints they spent so much blood, sweat, and tears recovering this year had gone missing. More specifically, they have been stolen right out of the vault at Morningstar Keep. Ombre, who had taken the investigation on, told them that the two obvious suspects were the Basha and the Skyport Thieves, but the conversation turned quickly to Tricksy Smirnova, whom Nixie had told everything about the guild.

However, it was pointed out that this was before the Runners obtained the castle, and Larkin defended herself on grounds that she had never told her uncle about the castle, either, and about the blueprints being moved there. Things descended into accusatory arguing that eventually landed suspicion on Gwydion, on grounds of him being the new guy and generally shady. Roddy cast Suggestion on him to make him answer Goro's question, but Ombre defended him -- so Nixie cast Friends on her and had her leave the room. Gwydion was then compelled to tell the group that he had spoken to Tricksy through a Dream, but he maintained that he had not told her the location of the castle. He just wanted a book from her.

Things calmed down a little, and when Ombre came back in, she made sure Gwydion was okay and then, somewhat exasperated, told the Runners that at any rate, she had a lead on Jonn. She had already tried to send Hansel to talk to him, but he'd run away, so she was hoping that they could intercept him at this New Year's party he was seemingly doing a job at, and one of them would have more luck.

So, on the night of New Year's Day, off the gang went to the manor of Sir Fyodor Ohara, where the ailing old man lived with his two knight daughters Faye and Tessa. They met up with Jonn, and his friend Asya -- the thief with the horned mask -- and chatted for a while and loosely agreed to help Jonn with the job he was here to pull off in return for him introducing them to his boss -- he didn't know anything about the blueprints, but he figured she would.

Larkin, known hater of Jonn in specific and the Skyport Thieves in general, immediately went to sabotage the job, while Roddy and a reluctant Goro helped out. The gang scored some loot and killed Sir Fyodor and his daughter Faye so that Tessa would become the sole inheritor to her father's estate ... and also be in the pocket of the guild.

After this, Jonn took them to meet his new boss in Skyport.

Morgan Wyn, a dark-haired half-elf woman, waited for him under a streetlight with Finch in tow. Larkin only accompanied them after Roddy helped to disguise her, and Finch didn't see through it, but Wyn did, and casually addressed Larkin by name. She booked it wordlessly, but not far. Wyn invited them all the join her guild -- the Sanguine Guild, which had absorbed the Skyport Thieves -- and implied that she could give them more information if they did join, but was largely close-mouthed. She declined Goro's attempts to get Jonn away from her, saying that he 'causes trouble' and is 'important' to the guild, and she'd prefer to keep him in Skyport. He himself commented that he was grounded.

Of Helena Baron, she simply said that when she took over the Skyport Thieves, some of the upper management had to be restructured. Jonn and Asya seemed to tense at this comment.

Finally, she told them that she would prefer they work with her, and handed over all the loot Jonn had collected from the manor as a peace-offering of sorts, considering they had done basically all of the work. She told them they could find her at Stoic Hall -- a local mead hall -- if they ever wanted to reconsider her offer.

"You should tell your friend," she added. "I'm putting the Basha out of business, and she's gonna wanna be on the right side when that happens. Otherwise, I can't promise her safety."

As she left, she was joined by a small red dragon that perched on her shoulder -- a pseudodragon, the type often used as familiars by wizards and other spellcasters.

Later, Gwydion sent her a letter: *I want in.*