Gryg and Hoggar moved back but were intercepted by a batch of 20 of the Gingerbread men. They assaulted the two of them, some of them hitting, and surprisingly, some damage came about. Mebian was laughing as the rest of the party leapt from the table and slammed back to the wall. The larger gingerbread cookie stalked forward, swinging its busted broom handle as it stalked forward. Godrik levitated himself up to the catwalk to get away from the now descended horde. Hoggar stomped and gored, busting some of the cookies and the party had weapons out ready to hit them all.
It was Asher Reed, our Captain, who called to Tyr and Maglubiyet, to blast an echoing reverberating note so loud that it shattered a large batch of the closest gingerbread men. “Damn!” Dizzy exclaimed following suit, and then the same thing was done by Brading – reducing the number of cookies to a notch under 20.
The rest of the fight went much better as the group was able to fire off another sonic burst and then tear into the giant gingerbread man. Mebian was now captured and the entirety of his crimes had been transmitted to the hall of records. We wanted to get him in place to confess his crimes directly to Venains and Baelin. We would need to use a conference room at the Heart of Vitalia to have this occur. We looked through his stuff quickly and found a sheaf of scrolls acting as a spell book – but the spells were strange, things we had never seen before.
We split up, a few of us went to the Hotel to arrange with Amathadwan the room, while the rest of us knocked Mebian out and Gugg carried him in a sack through town and towards the hotel. Two others went off to the Dough Will Rise and Ragamuffins to entice the 2 bakers to come to the Heart. They did so, anticipating they were going to hire the adventuring party to do damage – when they were surprised to see not only each other there – but also Mebian.
The group laid out the situation to the 2 bakers and Mebian’s part in it. The angry small baker was adamant that this would have worked but now that it didn’t, it was time for everyone to go home as he had orders to do tomorrow. Um. No, not how this works. You are going to be remanded to custody and then put in jail. He didn’t get it, assuming that he was sorry was enough. What about his people and staff?
The other 2 bakers agreed that they would send their best journeyman to Look to the Yeast in the morning and have them run the place together for now while Mebian’s situation gets resolved. The constables had come now after being asked to and Mebian was taken away. We returned the sending head and felt that we had done a good job. So it was a bit before 11 when we chucked it all in and went to bed.
We awoke the next day, Birthmonth the 27th, and after breaking our fast, went off to go see Adjunct Rawanis. He thanked us for resolving the matter and filled us in on Mebian for a bit. He thanked us for the work they had done with and for him, but as of now, he was going to hand them over to the Outer Circle Councilor Mide; his superior. From this point out, upon completion of their jobs they will be paid for their efforts (nice) and after doing some problem solving for her, they will be sent to her boss on the Inner Circle Council, Marrions, – and then the Necrolord Duncan Eternal.
He did give us a bit of advice – for all of OCC Mide’s apparent youth, she is not a force to be trifled with. She is smart, connected, ruthless in her own way, driven, and does not suffer fools or foolishness. She is not your friend and must be given full respect at all times. We thanked him and he brought us down the hall to Mide’s office where she met with us and smiled.
Right away the back and forth was different, and we recognized what Rawanis said about her not being a friend. Immediately she let us know her most pressing problem. There is an industrial Basketweaver on 3rd and 18th who 3 weeks ago had every bit of stock, store, raw goods, and even furnishings and machinery and looms stolen. His name is Goliene and he is well respected and liked around town, employing 23 people and supplying just about every industrial and large scan weaving project in all of Grymeria. He has been a loyal constituent and supporter of the OCC Mide and she wants his issue resolved.
It seems that he borrowed 1,500 crowns from a local banker/lord who was willing to front the Basketweaver and when the month was at an end, was expecting to extend the contract for another month. It's fairly common. The banker/lord though informed Goliene that he no interest in extending the contract and he had till the end of the week to pay the 1,500 crowns or the terms would come due and he would be indentured. For 10 years.
She wants the party to investigate the situation and help resolve Goliene’s dilemma. The contract is fairly standard but the OCC Mide does not know why the banker/lord I being so inflexible.
It was about 9:30 when we arrived at Grymerian Basketworks. It was a 2 story factory style warehouse with a smaller office door and larger loading bay door. We entered and then met with Goliene’s wife and kids – working on planks of wood and sawhorses. They had a lot of paper strewn about and they were struggling to make sense of it. We could even see the office furnishings had been stolen – including the carpets.
Once they learned who we were we had a chance to meet with Goliene. He was a harried man, a bit under 6’ and in his late 40’s . He thanked us for coming and was very worried and upset. Lord Gatraise was being inflexible and even though Goliene had spoken with him 3 times now, he was adamant that in 5 days – this was going to happen.
He told us about the robbery a bit over 3 weeks ago now. The constable had come to alert him of the break in about 7. They took everything –tons of raw goods, every finished product – but most troubling were the actual looms and machines that had been taken. Some of them were 10’ tall. We walked the factory floor and could see the space where 6 of them had once stood. Right now there was only 1 weaving loom here – they had purchased it from Ashar a few weeks ago and had it in place to help clear out the massive backlog he has.
Everyone was working hard – many of them for free. Goliene admitted that if he cannibalized everything – he could come up with 500 crowns…maybe – but it would leave him in a terrible situation for next month – and Lord Gatraise was not interested in a partial payment. He did offer that if his family agreed to the indenture as well – he would reduce the time to 4 years.
He had some animates working here, one of them was his brother, Bundus. Bundus died 4 years ago and was raised, staying here with the family to work. He had been a prospector in his younger/living days and part of a 3 person crew that would go out and find possible gold mines in the Rises – in the northwest section of Grymeria. On his passing, Goliene was his executor and for now he was happy to stay here and help out.
We asked some questions and learned the constable who had discovered and reported the situation was named Clamance. And that Goliene had a friendly fence named Lolloran who was looking all over for where the equipment and machinery might be. So far nothing has been discovered.
We left and figured we’d bite the bullet and go talk to Lord Gatraise first. We made our way to the upper class section in the north part of town eventually coming to 1st and 5th. The place was macabre. Wrought iron fence, half dead skeletal trees, tall black edifice and flying buttresses and towers. There were some undead wandering the grounds cutting rose bushes and just standing around moaning. The gate guard took our name and said to wait shortly. Eventually he came back and said that Lord Gatraise was waiting for us and to follow – stay on the path.
We entered and it was more of the same. Some of the animates try to fit in with the locals – but Lord Gatraise was practically shoving the fact that he was an undead down your throats. We met him in a large office area where he was seated at a wingback chair and gilded desk. There were signs of opulence everywhere. He greeted us and seemed to know a bit about us already.
We broached the contract and our reason for being here and Lord Gatraise did his best to explain it. He was not interested in letting Goliene to get off with an extension. True, he had lent the weaver money in the past and both times he had extended terms. IN fact the extension of terms was a normal part of the deals – but in this case – he did not care. He WANTED the basket weaver to be indentured to him. For if doing so, he would get all of his property and owned items as well.
With nothing left in the Basket Weaving place, we were unsure what he meant. At this point he was pressuring Gugg, the half-ogre, to cast off his other needs and to join him. He would gladly pay 65 crowns for him to join his staff. He has a need for half-ogres. Gugg was uncomfortable and said no. Then the Lord turned to Godrick and offered to give him 45 crowns if he stabbed Gugg in the sleep tonight. He also refused. This was getting weird.
Plus he was laughing and chuckling. Like he knew something we did not. From here he made no bones about it. Getting the Basketweaver was a nice plus – but as the executor of his brother’s estate, Bundus, he would get control of that person as well. Why did he want Bundus, an ex prospector who died 4 years ago?
Because he was 1/3 of a company that registered a possible mining site that had been here-to-for looked over. And Lord Gatraise wanted it. It was supposedly going to yield an immeasurable amount of possible gold – and the Lord had been putting plans in place to make it happen. He was cackling again with glee. We pointed out, what about the other2/3rd? And he laughed aloud, burning eyes flashing and dancing, that he had already taken care of that problem as well.
So there was nothing more for it, tell Goliene that he has to report to him in 5 days and expect to be indentured to the Lord for the long near future. Now go and deliver the bad news, Adventurers. Hahahah.
Damn – we left. We talked about solutions. What kind of undead was Lord Gatraise? We did not know, but he did radiate a power. Also, as Goliene has a loan out – no other lender will give him money at this time. What about this mine? We went back and talked to Bundus and Goliene a bit, without tipping off what we had learned. Bundus was partnered with two other men for a few years before his death, Bethen and Tenet. They had prospected many sites in The Rises, but there was one that at first glance seemed to be a poor yield. But the 3 of them were convinced the veins were deeper and more robust once the talus and pyrite and nickel were peeled away. How good? They guessed 150 to 200 thousand in possible gold piece yield.
Holy crap.
It would be a 2 year venture and some 20,000 in investment to make it happen, but a 7 to 10 times return would make anyone well off. Like a Lord Gatraise. But why now, after 4 years of Bundus’ death? And what did he mean about already taking care of the other 2/3rds of the prospecting claim? We would need to visit some places and answer soon. The Office of Records, the Office of Sanctions, the Office of Portals, and the Constabulary. And we didn’t have that much time.
No comments:
Post a Comment