The party was now going to have an adventure with the other half of the group, affectionately referred to as their "B" team characters. Titled "A Star for Excellence", it was going to be less heroic, less adventurer guild, less "A" team feel which was going to make it gritty and fun. I hope!
Follows:
Half the adventuring group had been asked by the Ecclesiastic Council to participate in the rebuild, rehire, and rededication of the Sunrise Rabbits Orphanage. IN addition, 2 of the members were also doing double duty at their guilds, working on training up for the next level.
This left the rest of the group: the uneasy Tyrian half elven Fighter/Cleric Asher, the overlooked Sifian dwarven ranger Grygmiir, the standoffish dwarven Thief/Cleric Dizzy, the spring wound human Sifian monastic Connal, and the wanting Tyrian half-orcish Fighter/Thief Thon. They continued to look for some sort of work, often getting crude labor intensive jobs at best. Numerous visits to the Greater Rand Sellsword Adventuring Guild resulted in the same thing: we’re already using your group and they’ve performed wonderfully. We don’t have anything else right now for you.
They truly felt left out.
It was some luck and providence though that three of them were followers of Sif. There were three prisons in Erylond, and each of them were supported by hefty donations. And the Sifian temple was a large ticket donor. So the temple had a need, it seems that months of stolen and recovered goods had been allowed to languish in the prison’s storerooms. And because it was poorly maintained, it was discovered that various members of the prison guard were availing themselves of the stolen goods at will. This means it wasn’t being sold, thereby costing the prison…and the temple…money.
They wanted trusted members to clean up and catalogue the warehouse, archiving the goods and eventually allowing the items to be sold or repurposed as need be. So they had reassigned low level members who were not engaged in other duties to go to the warehouse and act as inventory specialists and trustees and help to catalogue the goods. This included Dizzy, Connal, and Gryg, along with 9 other various individuals.
Connal was unhappy and would have been content to go back to the temple to sweep if need be, but was informed (they all were), that their personal wants were not the focus at this time, but this important task was. So they worked, all of them, for 4 weeks or so, cleaning up the warehouse, eventually palleting the goods, and then inventorying them. Within a few weeks Dizzy had grown bored and followed the letter of the job, picking one large pallet by the door, claiming it as his own, and counting it again, and again, and again. Gryg thought it was funny to bounce an item from 1 pallet to another, which had Connal ask him repeatedly, “Just who the hell are you?”
Dizzy managed to befriend a visiting bard named Odilienne, a halfling who had worked as a postal and delivery agent for the Nadaros College, and had recently been coming to the prison to help in relations as well as delivery and messenger services. To Dizzy though, he had also seen her tertiarily associated with the local thieves guild. Not a full member but apparently related enough to be treated as such. She knew way too many dirty songs and the two of them would often spend some time each day shooting the breeze and sharing a joke or two. Which amazed Connal and Gryg who had until now, only seen Dizzy keep most everyone at arm’s length, eschewing personal contact.
As for Asher and Thon, they had gotten hooked up with the prison as well, but they were working on the outside, patching holes, filling cracks, and leveling the ground as need be. And for weeks it was cold, unrelenting, and often times, miserable work. Thon had gotten used to Asher’s poor work ethic, sighing heavily and just reminding the half-elf to just get the job done. With the colder weather, concrete patching was a rough job, with a poor attempt resulting in little actually sticking to the prison walls.
Like Dizzy, Thon also knew Odi from the guild, as well as her many visits to the prison. They too had sparked a friendship and he was always happy to see the diminutive woman show up and maybe play a song or two. On this particular day, Icemonth the 27th, Odi had come with a sad face and a need to see the Half-orc. Asher was worried at her approach, thinking she was a supervisor, so faked that he had just done all of Thon’s work, getting a withering look and rebuke in response.
Odi’s brother and the crèche that he belongs too, had been gathering stolen goods for a contact named “Moon”, storing it at a secure locker at the McGovern Warehouse. This Moon is not a patient person but something went bad on the last job and the entire group was captured. They’ve been here at the Wharf Gate Prison now for 4 days and Olo, Odilienne’s brother, asked that she come to visit him. He also asked that she bring someone(s) with her as he didn’t want anything to happen to her. So Odi had come to Thon to ask him to come with her, and Thon agreed. Asher signed up as well. The foreman then showed up and after wondering why no one was working, Thon and Asher left for the day, accepting that they were giving up the 2 commons for their work.
They went with Odi into the prison where she then led them to the warehouse section and called to Dizzy. The dwarf was pretty pissed because there was a spike missing from the count (should have been 37, was 36), and Connal pointed to it on the floor. Dizzy said that it was by the OTHER pallet and should be counted on that one. There was some back and forth and Gryg was willing to bounce more spikes when Odi had finally made herself known. She gave her spiel and Dizzy was unsure what to do.
But the Sifian manager came by and said that Dizzy was only doing 64% of an effort, and Connal was barely 73%. If you’re not going to bother giving 100%, then maybe don’t bother at all. So put down your clipboards, and think hard about how you've disappointed him…and Sif, by not giving it your all. The monastic was so angry, he wanted to work extra hard and make the manager eat his words, but was told to leave, which him…Ooooh….Urgggg….Damn it!. That’s….Ahhhh.
We talked for a bit and after hearing Odi’s needs, Dizzy commented, “One of the things I’ve learnt is that when a friend needs your help, you help them.” Which had Gryg shaking his head in disbelief, the dwarf commenting, “Really? That’s what you believe?” Which had Thon shrug and look the ranger over, commenting, “Sure. Why not. Just who the hell are you though?”
We went to the prison guards, Odi presented her not, we were told he was on the third level. Told to not hand him anything, and any attempt to help him escape would result in her or them being incarcerated next. She gave her mark (a very fancy calligraphic signature with accents and flourishes (which is now canon for Odi thanks to a great Writing check)), and we headed down with the guards to the 3rd level down. He was in the 11th cell on the right hand side. There was a barred off area where two guards with weapons and crossbows were situated; cubbies behind them with prisoners personal belongings all laid out by cell number. The gate to the cells were then opened and we were told to go in, the cell locked behind us.
Every 5 cells was another guards, armed and armored. We heard some coughing and noises behind each door. Eventually at 11 (seems to be 15 left and right cells on this floor), the ground moist and the air foul smelling, we stopped and Odi called to her brother. The Halfling came to the door and we had a chance to talk to him. He was pretty worn out looking, dirty, threadbare clothes. He gave Odi the rundown of what they had been doing. It seems that the last job they were on a boat off the docks, getting a silver bound chest, where a host of guards appeared out of nowhere. They were suspecting they had been set up.
The entire cheche was picked up…but two of the crèche had been killed here. In the jail. Under guard. And it’s got the prisoners and the guards a bit freaked out. Should not be happening. Feels that Moon might be looking to take them out, or whoever set them up is doing it. Wants her to go to McGovern Warehouse and meet with Hatring. He’ll let them know which locker is theirs and supposedly, contact information for Moon is in the locker. Dizzy and Thon knew of the warehouse and Hatring – he’s a trusted guardian for goods being fenced and traded, and his section of the warehouse is off limits.
As for the two killed, they looked like they were partially eaten and had a look of horror on their face. Lovely. He gave us his guild coin and let Odi know that would get them in to see Hatring. We left, headed off to the Wooly Rhino, and listened to some musicians play and ate and drank (Hot cider featured in heavily). We talked about it, Connal still lamenting the most likely poor review that was going to go in his employee jacket with the Temple, and a few of us brought up an experience with a mage named Granmund. He was looking for magical items to use against Grymeria and was functioning in and around Erylond, using local thugs and thieves to steal items that may or may not be magical in nature. This seemed to be the same sort of thing.
We detoured to the house and got more equipment and some armor for a few of us. Too much armor would attract attention and we didn’t want to do that. Yet.
After equipping we headed off to McGovern Warehouse, on 2nd dock. The warehouse was large (about a block wide) and we headed off to the back area, usually referred to as “The Drip”. It was chained up with slatted wood. Hatring was a middle aged human, going a bit to pot. He recognized Odi and she presented the coin. He let them in, locking up behind them, and led them through the cramped area and down the stairs. There was a small room here where a brute of a half ogre and a flamboyant looking gnome were situated. The place was damp and the smell was pretty horrid.
We talked some time with the three of them. Olo’s big sister, ghetto girl done good. The crèche had the goods in a locker number “4” but the key was with the leader of the crèche. We suspected it might be one of the ones that was killed. Without the key, we could not get in the locker. Ok, go back to the prison and get the key, or at least find out which member had it, and then get the jail guards to give it to us? We’d figure it out as we got through it.
We got back to the Wharf Gate Prison and the guards did not want to let us back in, we had already been here today – 1 visit per day. We had some discussion back and forth but Odi pulled out her recorder and played some music, enthralling the guards enough to allow us to have another visit. Also, the main jail guard was so moved by her performance, we were not asked to leave our weapons for now. As she made her mark, we noted that a single entry indicated that a Virdrid, Gnome, was here. And was visiting that level. Suspicious.
So we were led down the stairs by the one guard who chatted a bit about his fiancée, and on reaching the 3rd level stopped and looked around. The two guards behind the barred area were unconscious on the floor, the hall leading to the cells was still locked and the guards down there were also unconscious on the floor. And we could hear yelling and pleading coming from down the hall. In cell 12, the one next to Olo’s.
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