Session 17: Fair Deal

Flamesday, 3 Sunfall, 998 Y.K.   Relic was pacing the halls, deep in thought, when he bumped into Giff, Boroman's bodyguard had come to ask the party to break fast with Lord ir'Dayne, if they were so inclined. News of Imre's betrayal had reached him, and he wanted to ask for the party's help. Relic roused Medya and Milli, the latter of whom was still feeling the aftereffects of her encounter with reedpaste. Bell had spent the night in contemplative polishing, while Spark walked the grounds and meditated on her newfound connection to Relic through Master Kohai's stories, and to the farway land of Rokugan.   Boroman's suite occupied half of the top floor, a cavernous space filled with priceless antiquities. Lying in the middle of a bed sized for a human, a halfling of astounding age -- easily 150 if a day -- lay in soft bedclothes. With Giff's help, the ancient form of ir'Dayne Boroman sat up in bed and smiled at the party. "Imre was one of my trusted advisors, and Dorein one of Shensari's best friends. To find out they were selling us out -- literally -- angers and saddens me, but more importantly it emboldens me. Everything he's touched has to be gone over, decades of records. To that, we need to know if anything else has gone missing. Giff tells me there's no progress on the Watch case. I don't like doing it, but I'd like to ask you to execute a letter of marque. We need to search Imre Levalle's house off Chalice Center for any records that pertain to the Foundation before he goes into hiding and takes his -- our -- discoveries with him. This will greatly help us speed up our search."   If Watch Captain Aunde Picesta was nonplussed at the party's presence in her office, she was livid at the halfling's blatant pulling of rank. However much she fumed, however, there was little she could do to challenge the halfling's legal scribblings. With great reluctance, she authorized the party to execute their assignment, angrily adding her own signature and telling the party to finish by day's end. With that, the group made haste to Imre's estate, three buildings on an acre of land enclosed by a two-story fence. An arcane lock secured the main door, and the guard on duty smugly informed the party that only Imre had the key. Her face turned sour, however, when Zer cast knock with the key of openings, and the gate swung wide.   Almost as soon as they stepped into Imre's demesnes, however, the psion's head began to pound. The space was littered with portal magics, fouling Zer's sense of direction and distance. The first of the shorter buildings consisted of a tavern-like structure with tables and chairs for a meeting space, complete with central firepit and rooms above. However, where the kitchen of the "tavern" would be, there existed only a single door; opening it gave Zer a brief swell of a headache as the group peered through to the kitchen... in the main building. The second short building turned out to be a barracks and servants' quarters, with a similar portal and another headache for the psion.   It was in the main building, however, with a gaggle of Imre's guards pressed tight to the players, that the party found Imre's real secret: a door to the study that, from the inside, opened to a brick-lined tunnel lit with everbright lanterns. This T-shaped hallway appeared to be beneath the buildings above, confirmed by checking the otherwise unremarkable doors leading up to the main house and the tavern. At the center of the long wall, Bell discovered the mechanics of a secret door just tall enough for a dwarf to easily enter. Milli approached the portal and said she could fit beneath it with minimal crouching, so of course it was Spark who crawled through first, bumping her head on every turn in the darkened tunnel.   An arrow embedded itself in the floor next to Spark's head as she exited the cramped and twisting corridor, and Dorein told her unexpected visitor she was in no mood for guests. The forged monk offered a trade: Imre's crooked books for a strong headstart. Imre's co-conspirator demurred, but when Spark pointed out Imre was in jail already, she decided freedom was the better part of valor and shared the combination to Imre's safe in his study. She then asked the party for twenty minutes of privacy, which they granted by returning to the dwarf's office and opening his safe. There, alongside five solid bars of Aundair gold bullion, the dwarf's scratchy runes laid bare his double-dealings on behalf of the Aurum.   On the way out, Bell grabbed a fireplace poker and claimed it as evidence, all while staring one of Imre's mercenaries in the face. The guard protested, but Bell insisted, marching all the way to the front door with it and leaving an increasingly flustered and angry guard behind her. As the front door slammed shut behind her, she drove the poker into the ground, wedging shut the massive door behind her. "You were right; you can keep it!" she called behind her as the group returned to the Wayfinder Foundation headquarters, to return Imre's private records to their legal claimant, and Relic's friend's employer.   Ander took the books from Relic at the door and said he and Shensari would get started on documenting what was lost, and what might yet be recovered. He thanked the party for their help and said Boroman was touched that you'd take his letter. He hoped Imre had given Relic enough to go on, and he wished the group well on their journeys. From there, the party went to House Cannith's stronghold, to which Morran had retreated after Raelvan's attack on the party just after they'd all arrived. The guard at the Cannith's front gate waved the party inside, saying only he'd been told to keep watch for Morran's friends and send them to Jorlanna directly. From the looks of the group, they had to be the ones.   d'Cannith Jorlanna, matriarch of Cannith West, met the party in the main hall, where she sat at a table, studying a thick sheaf of papers. As Bell and the others approched, she rose and thanked the party for rescuing Morran; she's lost a lot of family of late, and she hated “The Old Man” for her own reasons, so she could relate to his pain. She got one look at him and found him a worktable, with full run of the labs, as long as he could play by the rules. Morran was family; Jorlanna knew how much that meant.   Given the party’s willingness to help him out, Jorlanna hoped she could convince them to take an easy “visible muscle” gig. In two days, on Crownsday eve, she was hosting a fancy dress party with some very important guests, and she'd gotten a lot of pointed questions from one of the party's sponsors about on-site security. She has House Cannith's personal guards for security of the private areas, but she needs to put on a show in the party space itself and some of the grounds, and thanks to an old grudge she can’t hire house Deneith. She's made a few hires, but she could use all the support she could get. The party offered their tentative assent, and Jorlanna told them the other team had assembled at the Spade and Sparrow, and that they could ask for Dowser.   While Relic and Spark went to the inn to meet up with the rest of Jorlanna's hired security, the rest converged on Morran's lab, where they found their fellow forged-to-be scrawling frantically on a chalkboard, the join of his forged arm healed but the arm itself in tatters on a workbench, next to two other failed designs. Morran himself seemed to be in a daze, muttering beneath his breath as he scrawled ever-more-erroneous figures; he'd worked through the night, his arm having failed him after a mere few hours in the lab. Milli spotted several mistakes in the other mage's work and circled them, while Bell attempted to encourage the decreasingly coherent Morran off to bed. Zer did attempt to spike his coffee with a potion of sleep, but Morran seemed only to notice that his coffee tasted of the stuff and that, after "at least two potions of haste," they'd have little effect.   That was when Bell carried the other alchemist to his room, whereupon he protested exactly once before passing soundly asleep.   Meanwhile, Relic and Spark met up with Dowser, the very same forged that had met them in Eston. After Relic and Spark introduced themselves, Dowser introduced his crew: Feder Nyenne, Mageblade; Giri Toldorath, Warshield; Enna Helmworth, Assensing; Gwyr Calailaimë, Recovery; Orett’aashta, Tracking; and Tanner Boroman, Morale. The other forged said the gig was legitimate; there was to be a meeting on-site that was likely to be the real target, but that's where Cannith’s inner security would be focused. They'd have access to the space in the morning, from two- to three-after-sunrise, to walk through the space they'd be guarding and make their plans.   Business settled, Dowser released his crew for the evening, and reminded the party that they'd need to look for formal dresswear. Spark said she was quite comfortable with her coat and gloves, and Dowser said he knew of several taverns with dancing circles. Relic said his simple robe was all he had, so one of Dowser's crew -- an elf calling themself Gwyr -- volunteered to take Relic shopping for a new wardrobe. When Relic said the rest of the group might benefit from the same, Gwyr extended their offer, and Relic quickly invited the rest of the party along. While the rest of their group went with Gwyr to get clothes for the evening, Spark and Dowser went out dancing on the night before their "easy muscle" gig.