Meredith follows Bells suggestion of a nap, then eats and has some tea before checking her hair, washing her face a final time and heading back down with her daggers on her.....she's unsure but decides to leave the bow in the room as it may attract attention.
Bell is not taking her backpack with her but she is certain to have her spellbook, her component pouch, her staff and a boot dagger on her person. Just another girls' night out on the town. *facepalm*
Soon after 8 o’clock, Marliza returns, wearing the same clothing as before, once again unfastening her veil to speak with you, then fastening it again. “Are you ready? I am taking you to meet the one I mentioned.”
You exit The Blade and Stars and find the streets active, although there is an air of mistrust and mystery that you did not feel during daylight hours. Perhaps it is explained by the fog, long fingers of which extend overhead like ghastly claws pulling unwilling prey downhill toward the harbor. Or the smell of the multitudes, which has dwindled with the passing of the sun’s warmth, but which has also lost many of the more temperate fragrances, leaving a heavy and dank sewage smell which seem to drip through grates into darkness, there stirring up an acrid moldy odor that combines with the salty sea air steadily pushing from the southwest under the fog.
You walk along a main road, passing south of the Upper City, and turned left, downhill, toward the harbor. You begin to hear the knocking of boats on the water, and above, you notice a bright beam from the lighthouse which is all but lost in the thickening mist as it turns left and right, strafing the water a mile out to sea.
Rats scurry in the shadows, and a pastiche of misshapen and malnourished faces among long swathes of closed doors and barred shop windows is broken by a number of seaside inns, bars, and warehouses where longshoremen shift cargoes in preparation for the morning crews, or where sailors take their evening meals and their dark ale. Marliza turns at the doorstep of one such establishment, above which hangs a sign creaking on its lengths of chain, reading “The Brine Widow.”
Inside, sailors and dockmen sit quietly at the bar or alone at tables, slurping drinks or fish stew, and one pair grumbles at one another over a game of darts. Marliza casts a glance around the common room, her eyes hard as agates in the smoky lamplight, before whispering, “This way,” and leading you toward the back where there are a number of booths separated with curtains from the main room. One of the curtains is partly open, and behind it, you see a tiefling woman lock eyes with Marliza, stand, and part the curtains. She glances with penetrating eyes at each of you and especially at Little One, and then returns to her seat, gesturing for you to join her. There is not room for Little One to sit, so he says he will stand.
“I received your note,” the tiefling says. “This is your team?”
“They haven’t agreed yet,” Marliza answers.
“What have you told them?”
“I thought you could tell them better.”
“That might be so…”
A waiter – a human male with a long, balding head and deeply set eyes, wearing an apron – eyes you each warily as he places a stack of teacups on the table, then without a word steps away again, removing an empty bowl from a customer several tables away from you as he returns to the bar near the entrance
The tiefling at the table before you has red skin, cobalt-blue eyes, and curly white hair she wears in long twists. Black horns rise from her forehead in tight spirals. She gestures to a pot of steaming tea on the table and the teacups.
“Do help yourself to tea. I’m called Verity Kye. What I’m about to discuss with you is personal and sensitive. I can’t stress to you enough how important it is that you share nothing of what you hear to any other person. I have been deeply wronged, and the one who inflicted that wrong must not know I have made plans to respond in kind.” She awaits a response from each of you.
The tiefling, chin held high, eyes shrewd and piercing, begins her tale.
“I play three-dragon ante. And I make deals. Some would call me an entrepreneur. I call myself a successful gambler, with one exception, which I’ll talk about in a moment. When I was younger, I toured the three-dragon circuit for years, making a name for myself and winning numerous large tournaments.”
She pauses to let this sink in, but also, you sense, to steel herself. Her tone, though still conversational, now takes on an icy sheen that wasn’t there before.
“While on the circuit, I met a gnome gambler named Quentin Togglepocket. We… hit it off, you might say. Gamblers are usually loners. The honest ones. And perhaps, I should have kept that thought in the front of my mind after meeting Quentin, as I had for years before.
“He is quick, and he is smart. And he’s a liar through-and-through, as I later found out. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
“We kept tabs on one another for many months, and… I admit, he won my trust. We formed a plan, together – it seemed – to save enough winnings to open our own casino. Putting my faith in him? That is when my luck ran out.
“Just as our nest egg reached maturity, when we were mere days out from laying a foundation… Quentin disappeared. Oh no, what happened to him? I feared the worst. But there is more than one kind of worst, I learned.
“He was in perfect health. And had managed, through clever forgery and by calling in favors, to take all of our savings with him. He disappeared. He left me with nothing.” The tiefling frowns deeply, lost in her own dark memories, no doubt. But now her cobalt blue eyes, sharp as daggers, find their focus again.
“I knew he was only hiding. Biding his time as those of the longer-lived races can do. Waiting for me to die so he could resurface.
“I determined to take a gamble of my own. I faked my own death, a suicide, and let that news circulate. And it must have reached him. This time, he’s the one who bought the lie. He moved on, carrying out the plan we had forged together, using my life savings, alone. His “Afterlife Casino” has just opened up mere weeks ago, three miles or less up the coast from us. And his first tournament is underway. Afterlife Casino, he called it. Do you get the joke?,” she finishes, with vengeful irony.
Meredith listened to the story with interest....she was disappointed to find no hint of jilted' lovers, evil twins or illegitimate offspring were in the mix as you needed at least two of those for a truly interesting story she felt........but it was still intriguing....
" What do you think? Erudisia? Bell? Little One?"
" It sounds like we'd be doing a good deed if true......"
Bell pushed her glasses up on her nose. "Just how much as 'your half' that he walked off with?" She started to speak a few times and stopped to take a deep breath.
"And how would 'we' get in and out with your recovered coin without having the entire casino on our coattails?"
" Uh........yes. What Bell said.", said Meredith nervously worried she'd seemed too eager.
" Also......do either of you two know a Wererat? There's one following us for some reason. He has three rat friends.....they're quite nice, bit rough around the.......this isn't the place or time for that discussion.........sorry.......as you were......."
“Were…rat?,” Verity Kye asks, quirking a brow at Meredith. “No.” Marliza glares at Meredith, almost imperceptibly shaking her head, for a heartbeat, as if uncomfortable with a were-anything being brought up, period. Her features flatten quickly and she turns her gaze back to Verity who continues, in answer to Bell’s and Meredith’s other questions.
“The Afterlife Casino is a Nine Hells–themed attraction. Quentin Togglepocket is hosting a tournament there. I want you to steal the erinyes statuette he plans to award as a grand prize, embarrassing him in front of the big names at the tournament. The statuette is mine. I also want you to steal back six thousand gold pieces, a fraction of what he stole from me.
I can provide a rough map of the casino, which is only an hour away up the coast by foot, and a bag of holding for transporting coin. I will pay you each 200 gp. 100 now and 100 afterwards. I make no claim on additional coin or items you acquire within the casino.
You have just over 48 hours to steal the erinyes statuette, as the tournament ends two nights from now and the statuette will depart with the winner.
As to how… Marliza here is a clever one, and she has told me that you have magic on your side. One of Quentin’s faults is that he is cocky. He won’t expect my reprisal, and his defenses, as the casino map shows, are far from perfect. But I will not show you the map unless you agree.”
Meredith is swinging rapidly back and forth between being tempted by the excitement of doing something.....wrong and naughty and bad....but not really bad because its for a good cause and UTTERLY TERRIFIED of everything that could go wrong and what might happen to Erudisia or Little One or.....Bell.....no, nothing can happen to Bell......but maybe they could be cell mates.......she read a book in the curtained off section of the store that started like that once.....well, started to read.......then Huda Azjram had come in asking about books on flower arranging and........anyway......IT WAS SO DANGEROUS! Were they going to do this? What would the others say? Maybe they should talk privately......
She reached up and touched her cheek and was surprised by how warm it was, was she sweating? Oh gods......somebody talk soon or I will and everything will be messed up........
Erudisia sees Meredith touch her cheek.Taking it, surely, as a gesture of confidence — a sign that Meredith has some reason and aim in leading the conversation — the half-elf says only “Meredith speaks for myself, and Little One. We follow her discerning judgement.”
Erudisia sees Meredith touch her cheek.Taking it, surely, as a gesture of confidence — a sign that Meredith has some reason and aim in leading the conversation — the half-elf says only “Meredith speaks for myself, and Little One. We follow her discerning judgement.”
Meredith slow blinked as she comprehended what Erudisia had said........yep, definitely sweating......
" I only have one question. How large is the statue?"
" As long as that seems manageable then we're in, in the full understanding that we will use our own judgement as to methodology and execution."
She turned slightly making eye contact with Bell and hoping for a nod or......something........to indicate she hadn't just killed everyone.
Erudisia sees Meredith touch her cheek.Taking it, surely, as a gesture of confidence — a sign that Meredith has some reason and aim in leading the conversation — the half-elf says only “Meredith speaks for myself, and Little One. We follow her discerning judgement.”
Meredith slow blinked as she comprehended what Erudisia had said........yep, definitely sweating......
" I only have one question. How large is the statue?"
" As long as that seems manageable then we're in, in the full understanding that we will use our own judgement as to methodology and execution."
She turned slightly making eye contact with Bell and hoping for a nod or......something........to indicate she hadn't just killed everyone.
“The statuette’s size? It is a winged figurine of pure gold. Yea high,” she says measuring 10 or 12 inches above the table top.
Bell listens intently; all the while worrying over the possible negative consequences of this 'heist' for her and her friends. With a sigh, she speaks her mind,
"I can imagine so many negatives to this path. And thinking a handful of scholars are the best suited for such a brazen theft... I can not wrap my mind around the rationale.
I feel the desire to 'right a wrong'; truly I do. I just feel we are ill equipt to take on this challenge.
All that said, I stand with my friends and will aid them as best I can for they are stalwart souls and worth the risk to keep protected."
Little One’s expression is distant, and, absorbed, he places one cucumber-thick finger alongside his nose as pros and cons are discussed. In the end he nods thoughtfully, agreeing with Bell in every respect. He too agrees to join in the venture with a solemn nod. Marliza’s mouth curls with confidence and her eyes shine.
As for Verity Kye, it is hard to say whether she seems satisfied or merely desperate, but a fire lights her eyes as she acknowledges the group’s assent. The tiefling woman produces a hand drawn map and answers your questions as you study it:
Verity hasn’t been to the casino herself, so she can’t provide specific details. She obtained the map and the information she does possess from one of the contractors who designed and built the casino. She tells you the following:
Arrival. At the docks at the bottom of the map. Wooden boats shuttle visitors and personnel to and from the casino, which is built inside a cavern. The boats ply the stream that leads to the cavern. (Verity knows no other way to enter the casino.) The stream plunges out of a cliff face 100' down to an inlet to the sea at the top of the map.
Employees. The casino employs tieflings only.
Employee-Only Areas. Doors to employee-only areas have bright-green trim and are magically locked. Getting into them might require obtaining an employee pass card, which bypasses the magical locks.
Security Mirrors. Magical security mirrors throughout the casino (marked on Verity’s map with red icons) project what they reflect onto twin mirrors in the security office.
The Prize. The gold coins and the erinyes statuette are kept in the vault.
Meredith follows Bells suggestion of a nap, then eats and has some tea before checking her hair, washing her face a final time and heading back down with her daggers on her.....she's unsure but decides to leave the bow in the room as it may attract attention.
" Ladies? Are we good to go?"
Bell is not taking her backpack with her but she is certain to have her spellbook, her component pouch, her staff and a boot dagger on her person. Just another girls' night out on the town. *facepalm*
Soon after 8 o’clock, Marliza returns, wearing the same clothing as before, once again unfastening her veil to speak with you, then fastening it again. “Are you ready? I am taking you to meet the one I mentioned.”
You exit The Blade and Stars and find the streets active, although there is an air of mistrust and mystery that you did not feel during daylight hours. Perhaps it is explained by the fog, long fingers of which extend overhead like ghastly claws pulling unwilling prey downhill toward the harbor. Or the smell of the multitudes, which has dwindled with the passing of the sun’s warmth, but which has also lost many of the more temperate fragrances, leaving a heavy and dank sewage smell which seem to drip through grates into darkness, there stirring up an acrid moldy odor that combines with the salty sea air steadily pushing from the southwest under the fog.
You walk along a main road, passing south of the Upper City, and turned left, downhill, toward the harbor. You begin to hear the knocking of boats on the water, and above, you notice a bright beam from the lighthouse which is all but lost in the thickening mist as it turns left and right, strafing the water a mile out to sea.
Rats scurry in the shadows, and a pastiche of misshapen and malnourished faces among long swathes of closed doors and barred shop windows is broken by a number of seaside inns, bars, and warehouses where longshoremen shift cargoes in preparation for the morning crews, or where sailors take their evening meals and their dark ale. Marliza turns at the doorstep of one such establishment, above which hangs a sign creaking on its lengths of chain, reading “The Brine Widow.”
Inside, sailors and dockmen sit quietly at the bar or alone at tables, slurping drinks or fish stew, and one pair grumbles at one another over a game of darts. Marliza casts a glance around the common room, her eyes hard as agates in the smoky lamplight, before whispering, “This way,” and leading you toward the back where there are a number of booths separated with curtains from the main room. One of the curtains is partly open, and behind it, you see a tiefling woman lock eyes with Marliza, stand, and part the curtains. She glances with penetrating eyes at each of you and especially at Little One, and then returns to her seat, gesturing for you to join her. There is not room for Little One to sit, so he says he will stand.
“I received your note,” the tiefling says. “This is your team?”
“They haven’t agreed yet,” Marliza answers.
“What have you told them?”
“I thought you could tell them better.”
“That might be so…”
A waiter – a human male with a long, balding head and deeply set eyes, wearing an apron – eyes you each warily as he places a stack of teacups on the table, then without a word steps away again, removing an empty bowl from a customer several tables away from you as he returns to the bar near the entrance
The tiefling at the table before you has red skin, cobalt-blue eyes, and curly white hair she wears in long twists. Black horns rise from her forehead in tight spirals. She gestures to a pot of steaming tea on the table and the teacups.
“Do help yourself to tea. I’m called Verity Kye. What I’m about to discuss with you is personal and sensitive. I can’t stress to you enough how important it is that you share nothing of what you hear to any other person. I have been deeply wronged, and the one who inflicted that wrong must not know I have made plans to respond in kind.” She awaits a response from each of you.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
“Please, tell us the nature of your grievance, and your proposal for recompense,” says Erudisia.
Meredith was intrigued...vengeance was always interesting...
The tiefling, chin held high, eyes shrewd and piercing, begins her tale.
“I play three-dragon ante. And I make deals. Some would call me an entrepreneur. I call myself a successful gambler, with one exception, which I’ll talk about in a moment. When I was younger, I toured the three-dragon circuit for years, making a name for myself and winning numerous large tournaments.”
She pauses to let this sink in, but also, you sense, to steel herself. Her tone, though still conversational, now takes on an icy sheen that wasn’t there before.
“While on the circuit, I met a gnome gambler named Quentin Togglepocket. We… hit it off, you might say. Gamblers are usually loners. The honest ones. And perhaps, I should have kept that thought in the front of my mind after meeting Quentin, as I had for years before.
“He is quick, and he is smart. And he’s a liar through-and-through, as I later found out. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
“We kept tabs on one another for many months, and… I admit, he won my trust. We formed a plan, together – it seemed – to save enough winnings to open our own casino. Putting my faith in him? That is when my luck ran out.
“Just as our nest egg reached maturity, when we were mere days out from laying a foundation… Quentin disappeared. Oh no, what happened to him? I feared the worst. But there is more than one kind of worst, I learned.
“He was in perfect health. And had managed, through clever forgery and by calling in favors, to take all of our savings with him. He disappeared. He left me with nothing.” The tiefling frowns deeply, lost in her own dark memories, no doubt. But now her cobalt blue eyes, sharp as daggers, find their focus again.
“I knew he was only hiding. Biding his time as those of the longer-lived races can do. Waiting for me to die so he could resurface.
“I determined to take a gamble of my own. I faked my own death, a suicide, and let that news circulate. And it must have reached him. This time, he’s the one who bought the lie. He moved on, carrying out the plan we had forged together, using my life savings, alone. His “Afterlife Casino” has just opened up mere weeks ago, three miles or less up the coast from us. And his first tournament is underway. Afterlife Casino, he called it. Do you get the joke?,” she finishes, with vengeful irony.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Meredith listened to the story with interest....she was disappointed to find no hint of jilted' lovers, evil twins or illegitimate offspring were in the mix as you needed at least two of those for a truly interesting story she felt........but it was still intriguing....
" What do you think? Erudisia? Bell? Little One?"
" It sounds like we'd be doing a good deed if true......"
Bell pushed her glasses up on her nose. "Just how much as 'your half' that he walked off with?" She started to speak a few times and stopped to take a deep breath.
"And how would 'we' get in and out with your recovered coin without having the entire casino on our coattails?"
" Uh........yes. What Bell said.", said Meredith nervously worried she'd seemed too eager.
" Also......do either of you two know a Wererat? There's one following us for some reason. He has three rat friends.....they're quite nice, bit rough around the.......this isn't the place or time for that discussion.........sorry.......as you were......."
Erudisia remains silent, waiting to hear the figure to be ‘reclaimed’, and waiting to confer more privately with her companions.
“Were…rat?,” Verity Kye asks, quirking a brow at Meredith. “No.” Marliza glares at Meredith, almost imperceptibly shaking her head, for a heartbeat, as if uncomfortable with a were-anything being brought up, period. Her features flatten quickly and she turns her gaze back to Verity who continues, in answer to Bell’s and Meredith’s other questions.
“The Afterlife Casino is a Nine Hells–themed attraction. Quentin Togglepocket is hosting a tournament there. I want you to steal the erinyes statuette he plans to award as a grand prize, embarrassing him in front of the big names at the tournament. The statuette is mine. I also want you to steal back six thousand gold pieces, a fraction of what he stole from me.
I can provide a rough map of the casino, which is only an hour away up the coast by foot, and a bag of holding for transporting coin. I will pay you each 200 gp. 100 now and 100 afterwards. I make no claim on additional coin or items you acquire within the casino.
You have just over 48 hours to steal the erinyes statuette, as the tournament ends two nights from now and the statuette will depart with the winner.
As to how… Marliza here is a clever one, and she has told me that you have magic on your side. One of Quentin’s faults is that he is cocky. He won’t expect my reprisal, and his defenses, as the casino map shows, are far from perfect. But I will not show you the map unless you agree.”
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Meredith is swinging rapidly back and forth between being tempted by the excitement of doing something.....wrong and naughty and bad....but not really bad because its for a good cause and UTTERLY TERRIFIED of everything that could go wrong and what might happen to Erudisia or Little One or.....Bell.....no, nothing can happen to Bell......but maybe they could be cell mates.......she read a book in the curtained off section of the store that started like that once.....well, started to read.......then Huda Azjram had come in asking about books on flower arranging and........anyway......IT WAS SO DANGEROUS! Were they going to do this? What would the others say? Maybe they should talk privately......
She reached up and touched her cheek and was surprised by how warm it was, was she sweating? Oh gods......somebody talk soon or I will and everything will be messed up........
Erudisia sees Meredith touch her cheek.Taking it, surely, as a gesture of confidence — a sign that Meredith has some reason and aim in leading the conversation — the half-elf says only “Meredith speaks for myself, and Little One. We follow her discerning judgement.”
Meredith slow blinked as she comprehended what Erudisia had said........yep, definitely sweating......
" I only have one question. How large is the statue?"
" As long as that seems manageable then we're in, in the full understanding that we will use our own judgement as to methodology and execution."
She turned slightly making eye contact with Bell and hoping for a nod or......something........to indicate she hadn't just killed everyone.
Erudisia’s eyes widen minutely, at Meredith’s commitment. She says nothing, her word her bond.
“The statuette’s size? It is a winged figurine of pure gold. Yea high,” she says measuring 10 or 12 inches above the table top.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
" Ok......that seems doable....though smaller would be more manageable......I'm sure we can make do."
" Right?", Meredith queried the others, feeling suddenly very alone and exposed....
Bell listens intently; all the while worrying over the possible negative consequences of this 'heist' for her and her friends. With a sigh, she speaks her mind,
"I can imagine so many negatives to this path. And thinking a handful of scholars are the best suited for such a brazen theft... I can not wrap my mind around the rationale.
I feel the desire to 'right a wrong'; truly I do. I just feel we are ill equipt to take on this challenge.
All that said, I stand with my friends and will aid them as best I can for they are stalwart souls and worth the risk to keep protected."
Little One’s expression is distant, and, absorbed, he places one cucumber-thick finger alongside his nose as pros and cons are discussed. In the end he nods thoughtfully, agreeing with Bell in every respect. He too agrees to join in the venture with a solemn nod. Marliza’s mouth curls with confidence and her eyes shine.
As for Verity Kye, it is hard to say whether she seems satisfied or merely desperate, but a fire lights her eyes as she acknowledges the group’s assent. The tiefling woman produces a hand drawn map and answers your questions as you study it:
Verity hasn’t been to the casino herself, so she can’t provide specific details. She obtained the map and the information she does possess from one of the contractors who designed and built the casino. She tells you the following:
Arrival. At the docks at the bottom of the map. Wooden boats shuttle visitors and personnel to and from the casino, which is built inside a cavern. The boats ply the stream that leads to the cavern. (Verity knows no other way to enter the casino.) The stream plunges out of a cliff face 100' down to an inlet to the sea at the top of the map.
Employees. The casino employs tieflings only.
Employee-Only Areas. Doors to employee-only areas have bright-green trim and are magically locked. Getting into them might require obtaining an employee pass card, which bypasses the magical locks.
Security Mirrors. Magical security mirrors throughout the casino (marked on Verity’s map with red icons) project what they reflect onto twin mirrors in the security office.
The Prize. The gold coins and the erinyes statuette are kept in the vault.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
" Any idea what sort of animals they keep for this ' circus'?"
" Tieflings only.........thats going to be.....wait......a gnome who only employs tieflings.....oh, for the ' ambience"."
" Open 24 hrs I assume?"