27/10/2020 - Failed Flirting, Devil-baby Difficulties and Councillor’s Conundrums

## **Mindless Macho Mingling**

Bayul, Kunai and Galdor entered the tavern with great purpose. Glancing around, they saw a fairly nondescript interior. An older chap stood behind the bar servings drinks while a gnomish woman was sat on a stool stooped over it, clearly putting away one beverage after another with mindless fervour. Closer up, a young woman cleaned the tables while the only other patrons were a bunch of females in a booth eating a brunch and a group of rowdy young men arm wrestling.

The three made their way to the young men, attracting curious glances from most of the patrons as their presence became known. Galdor immediately got involved with the competition currently playing out, betting on one and providing encouragement, accompanied by flailing tentacles. At first they all turned to look at the eccentric simic but his enthusiasm buoyed them on and soon they were whooping and cheering once more. Unfortunately, his candidate was more distracted the rest and his strength gave out first. Galdor’s good spirits weren’t to be bruised, however. “A good show nonetheless, everyone's a winner here!”. “Um, can we help?”, they asked inquisitively, nervously eyeing the three now stood over them somewhat imposingly.

A minor amount of encouragement later and Bayul found himself facing a very uncertain youth, the winner of the previous bout. The Loxodon easily crushed the first bout, but was forced back a point when the guy regained his nerve in round 2. In round 3 the matchup was closer, each having got the measure of the other, though in the end Bayul’s superior endurance came through, to the pleasure of most those who’d bet on him. “Barkeep, a round for my new friends”, Bayul boomed. At that point, having ingratiated themselves sufficiently, Kunai slunk into the circle. He surreptitiously slid a little gold across the table as he began to ask questions. He found out that they struggled to find work and hung around the docks a lot, and a few weeks prior some very posh looking folks, eloquently described as “smart fuckers, ponces!”, had passed through. The description of one of these matched Krieg Venusto and these people had spoken to the group of women still sat in the booth on the far side. Their intention seemed to be recruitment, and something potentially related to a family business.

## **Tavern Tales and Bemused Brunch-goers**

While the arm wrestling was going on, Ash, Blagden and Elyan wandered in more discreetly. Ash noted the group of women and perched himself in the booth next to them with a drink, acting cool but listening intently, particularly for the word 'Letitia'. Heeding Kunai’s signals, Blagden made of the gnomish woman at the bar. And Elyan made a b-line for the bar, ordering a drink and asking the barman, a seemingly shady man in his mid fifties, if it would be alright if he set up to play. However, once the barman demanded a 10% cut of the tips the conversation became less convivial. In the end he wouldn’t budge and Elyan found unacceptable, determined that he would be doing the bar a favour, so finished his drink in short order and stormed sassily out to find another.

Blagden noted Elyan’s departure as he prodded the gnomish woman who had not yet even registered his presence. “Why you drinking so much?”. She, ‘Jelly’, told him that her parents suck and that his situation of not having any at all was arguably better than having them. They stole her when she was a baby, as well as all her siblings, all of whom hate her. Now they want her to steal one too - in particular, they want the ‘devil baby’. When she tried, having no other choice, it was already gone. Blagden asked her to show her where the baby was meant to have been and she drunkenly agreed, telling the barman “I’m going to show the baby where I had to steal the baby”. Both Ash and Bayul saw the goblin leading a drunken gnome from the tavern. Ash consciously tracked Blagden’s mind while Bayul immediately stood up mid-conversation to follow, recalling what happened last time Blagden led a drunk from a tavern. Kunai ensured the drinks were paid for and followed in short order, intrigued by a cryptic mental message from Blagden: ‘gone to find baby and dragons'.

As they left, Galdor saw Ash’s intent to keep listening in and decided to provoke more discussion with the group of ladies. He tried to get Gregor the arm wrestler to go along but, much to the enjoyment his friends, he was too shy. Evan, however, was keen as a bean. “I’m not scared", he grunted. The two of them walked over to the group with purpose and confidence, Evan putting more than a dose of swagger into his walk. On their approach they saw that the females were a complete mix of races: a tiefling, a human, a half orc, a dwarf and an elf. “Good morning ladies, do you mind if we join you?”, Galdor opened smoothly. All looked at one another, somewhat bemused. “…can I help” the dwarf responded. “We’re just looking for pleasant company, and you look like pleasant company”, replied Galdor as charmingly as possible. A little consultation among the group and they shuffled up to make space. “We’re in!”, Galdor whispered excitedly to Evan.

After a little enquiry about their business, the evident awkwardness and violet armbands on each one meant that Galdor, if not Evan, caught on to who he was dealing with. Nonetheless, conversation remained pleasant and he found out the dwarf was the captain of the ship the Clematis, and named ‘Irma’. As he not so subtly steered the conversation towards Venusto he earned an eye roll from the captain. “He’s been hanging around here for a couple of weeks, chatting with many and recruiting them. He is, or was, staying at ‘The Rosewood'”. As far as she knew, he was effectively recruiting a mafia to fill the power vacuum left in Merchendale following the disaster there. “His mate was worse than him, mind”. Ash ensured that Galdor pursued this intriguing detail further with a tactical mental message, while Evan continued to ogle the human pirate who was having absolutely none of it. The captain revealed that the mate’s named was Stefan Goltorah and he was a politician in Taehia until some scandal got him kicked out of office - he was gone for a number of years and now hangs out somewhere in the direction of the Araelot forest i.e. to the west. Realising the group were keen to get on with the brunch, Galdor took his leave. Evan lacked such self awareness, and the last Galdor saw of him he was still hopelessly and awkwardly trying to integrate himself despite all the signals. Bless him.

Before he also left, Ash started chatting to the barmaid. At least he tried to, before realising she was mute. He then startled her with a telepathic message as his voice spoke directly into her mind. Once she realised she could respond she was extremely happy and grateful to be able to communicate with someone properly for the first time in forever. Unfortunately she didn’t know the names Letitia or Kyris, though he left her much happier and with a generous tip, promising to return for another chat.

## **A Curious Case of Kidnapping**

Meanwhile, Bayul caught up with Blagden and Jelly just outside the door. Seeing him bearing down and looking serious, Blagden sent him the same message as Kunai, but Bayul dismissed this as probably fake news based on his experience. However, Jelly blurted out that they were ‘going to find the devil bay’ of her own accord, so he consented to go along with it for the time being while keeping an eye on the mischievous goblin. They began to make their way across the city towards the home Jelly described as that of the baby and along the way Kunai caught up and Elyan, who had wandered and visited yet another bar stumbled across them on his travels. After 20 minutes of Jelly leading them along, the journey slowed down by the combination of her little legs and haphazard drunken stumbling, she announced "nearly there”, followed by a hiccup-burp combo. Discussing it further, Bayul deduced that she was probably talking about a tiefling child as they came upon a fairly ordinary looking house. They stood staring at it for a while and deciding what to do before Kunai realised that people were taking note of the unusual group gawking at their neighbours home. He ushered them to the door. Bayul knocked loudly to no avail as Blagden picked the lock with ease. Once inside, ratty set off up the stairs to explore, confirming that nobody was home and for the time being nothing appeared to be massively out of place.

Jelly told them that it was the first devil baby for a long time. They used to be a fairly normal occurrence, then they stopped abruptly - people believed that the gods had abandoned them, but now the re-emergence of a tiefling child suggests they have returned. Quizzing her further about her family, they ascertained that her parents, the ‘dragons’, lived in Lluasa. They then investigated the house. Kunai went upstairs and found the baby’s room, but was overcome by the unfamiliar paraphernalia that such a room contained, finding nothing suspicious. Meanwhile the others discovered books on leather making and lesson plans for children, hinting at the parent’s professions, as well as a mounted drawing of the young human couple.

Everyone’s searching was rudely interrupted by a loud knock the door. “City guard, open up!”, a gruff voice demanded. Ash and Galdor, with ash leading the way, arrived in the street just in time to see the group of guards descend on the house. They agreed to stay at a distance, wheeling around the side of the commotion. “Well it’s probably something Blagden s doing…” put in Ash with a sigh. Jelly made to open the door but Bayul simply picked her up and made for the backdoor with the others. Out the back door, they made their way over or through the garden fence and into an alley flanking the row of houses. There they waited for the guards to disperse. Ash and Galdor met them there, while Jelly began to complement Bayul’s muscles as she was held suspended. Discussing what they’d all learned, Ash revealed that he knew a little more; specifically that the local mythology of Taehia said that it was an epicentre of primordial magic which had relatively recently ended (at the end of the 'dark ages’), so getting a magical and/or sorcerer child such as this was a huge deal. He told this to the backdrop of Galdor hyping the story up with general sounds of encouragement and tentacle flailing.

## **Connections to Krieg**

Everyone then speculated on a possible connection with Venusto. Ash suggested that possibly he’d gained an interest in the infernal as a result of the artefacts he’d acquired from the archaeology vault. Bayul then proposed that they may get something more useful from Jelly once she’d sobered up, and got awkward as she continued to complement him. A variety of ’next steps’ were discussed: Checking out the Rosewood tavern, searching for Goltorah, waiting for Jelly to sober up, visiting the council that were informed about Venusto and going back to the market district.

A plan was formed. The ‘persuadey’ people would visit the council and see what information they had. Meanwhile, the sneaky ones would check out the wall from which Kyris fell as well as the docks. Then they would all reconvene and go to the Rosewood together. On the walk to the town square and council building, Jellt confirmed that she had no intention of stealing Blagden - and indeed in stealing babies in general. Unfortunately, her parents would eat her if she did not, while her elven sister Roxanna watched her with magic. She revealed she also had two brothers, also elves, Drennos and Ostar.

The central plaza was dominated by a massive, palatial green-domed building, while on each side were temples, coloured blue, red and yellow, representing the gods of the Triad. Bayul unceremoniously deposited the gnome down on her feet, at which point she became immediately interested in Ash’s abs. As she staggered off, Ash, Kunai and Blagden kept pace and steered her towards the place she was staying; the Seagull. When she was safely stowed away to sleep off the alcohol, they set off for the wall. They found it accessible and, seeing a few other non-guards traversing it, were not worried about being accosted for trespassing. At the scene of the potential crime, it was evident that there’d been a tussle from scuff marks and a small piece of fabric left behind that Kunai scooped up. They traced the path of the assailant to where they lost sight of him, taking them towards another set of stairs that passed into the garden district of the city. As they got back to the laughing candle to prepare disguises, Blagden branched off to explore the market while Kunai set up a makeshift crossbow range in the bar.

## **Talos Chan *(what a name <3)***

The others made their way to the imposing council building, coming across a noticeboard at the entrance detailing the names if the councillors and other notices. The reception was grand in scale and opulent and they advanced towards a well dressed half elf man sat behind a marble desk. There they inquired after ’Talos Chan’, the councillor for Justice. Barriers to seeing him all fell as soon as the archaeology guild was mentioned and the receptionist let them pass immediately with a look of sympathy “my commiserations and condolences for your loss”. On their way to his office they came across a young couple that Bayul and Elyan they recognised from the drawing earlier. The woman was sobbing as they approached - “Perhaps we can assist you?”. They were grateful for any and all help but not hopeful, having spent the entire morning with Chan already. “We will see him and find you again”, Elyan promised them.

Entering Chan’s office, they found him sat behind an ornate desk fiddling with a white stone pendant. Since the group had never actually informed the guards of the crime it quickly became clear that the councillor assumed that Kyris had jumped from the wall, which they corrected him on. His brow furrowed further, clearly even more troubled than previously. Elyan asked him for the pendant and found that it held the symbol of Ioun, the goddess of knowledge. They then asked about Venusto. Chan said he knew that he’d been on the island but had made no connection between him, the kidnapping and the death. He had been followed, and mainly spent his time at the docks and with the mysterious Goltorah. Chan further elaborated than Goltorah had once been potential commandant material but then completely dropped off the map, resurfacing only 6 months ago. The councillor appeared earnest and answered all the group’s questions: they also found that the guards that had discovered the body were Penny Stone and Masha Dobroya, that the child disappeared 4-5 days ago and there there had been no breakage on the way in or sign of entry.
They took their leave and returned to the distraught parents who had not moved. Elyan greeted them compassionately, informing them that the group was on the case. They provided a few other details about the day of the vanishing itself: the mother took the child, Dmitri, through the market district by the docks, where he was complemented by one of the sellers (a ’she’, selling all sorts of black market paraphernalia including potions), then she came home and put him to bed for his nap. When it got dark he still hadn’t woken so she went up to check on him and he’d vanished. The window had been left open, but that was also normal.

They reassured the parents once more before heading off to meet up with the group, paying a visit to the market district on the way through. Elyan picked himself out a nice outfit for the evening while the others kept an eye out for the mysterious seller that complemented the baby. Unfortunately they hadn’t elicited enough detail and the description matched a majority of the sellers present that afternoon. Finally, they checked out the Ioun stone with a seller of similar items - he confirmed that this one was a fake and that he didn’t know the effect of this one, the opal, so was probably fairly rare. The day’s investigations well underway, the subgroup made their way back to the laughing candle, blissfully unaware of the goblin up to shenanigans in their midst.