(Sorry for the absence!)

Shroud, you know exactly where the entrance to the sewers depicted in this map is located. This is located in the Cogs, where everyone seems to be down on their luck and where gangs run amok. While the Gilded Lotus is located fairly low in Sharn, the Cogs is below even the Eberron itself. The Cogs are cavernous and completely underground. (This is the bonus for criting History. So you won't have to wander around like the other group did hah!)

"I-I see, well, I could help a bit I suppose," Daela opens a drawer as he speaks. 

"Daela is a generous sort," Kant smirks, "though it should be said that your current patron is on the hook for such things, no? Part of the job is getting involved in such scuffles, I imagine."

"Ah, true," Daela nods. The old man places 10 galifars on the table, "consider this advance payment."

At Vasha's question, Daela blinks a few times as he looks at the strange item, "Ah, it is simply a bauble of sorts. Doesn't do very much. If you hold it and speak the name of a currency, it will display what that coinage looks like. Of course, the holder has to know what the currency looks like already. A bit strange and useless, I think."

Kinnick's earlier expedition to steal the magical stones resulted in an unfortunate mishap. His attempts to open the lock to the display case of the stones in the back room of a magic shop cause magical alarms to ring. He missed a single alarm in his check, though he can't be faulted. It was a fairly high-level enchantment with many things working to obscure its signs. A bouncer-looking human gentleman bursts through the door as Kinnick is already halfway through the window back out onto the streets to make his escape. The bouncer seemed to cast a spell that caused the window to shut on one of Kinnick's feet! 

His foot, radiating with heat and pain, felt as though it had simply been chopped off. His fight or flight instincts kicked in and he muscled his way out of the bouncer's grasp. Despite the pain, Kinnick ran and climbed his way to safety.

He currently suffers from a limp which halves his speed for the current encounter! He also sustained 3 damage.

(I deserve this)

(poor Kinnik)

Jack responds to Kant,

"Yes normally that would be the arrangement, but unfortunately, the employer for this contract refused any compensation until Klekovic was handed over."

"If we hadn't been in such dire need of work, I would have refused the job, but I hoped it would be a quick job. Lesson learned."

As the professor places out the 10 galifars, Jack takes them.

"Thank you kindly professor, ever little bit helps."

Turning to his companions, Jack says,

"Well, we should head out. We have preparations to make and an item and person of interest, to acquire."

Jack stands and turns back to Daela and Kant.

"We will be in touch when we have the schema. If you do go into hiding, can I contact you through the university?"

Kinnik idly wonders what his friends could be up to inside. Stomping his right foot (which is still all pins and needles), he tries his hand at another hymn on his lyre. He nudges his alms bowl forward (with its lonely sovereign) and begins to strum... 

Performance: 12

"Hmm? Oh yes, yes," the professor seems a bit distracted, "please contact me at the university or here at my home. Send a Sivis message if you can. I'm... worried."

After that, the warforged butler reappears. He leads everyone back outside.

Outside, you all find Kinnik playing on his lyre. He plays a somber tune that has drawn up a small audience. Several people come up and drop some coins into his alms bowl.

Kinnik nets 1 galifars, 4 sovereigns, and 14 crowns from his performance.

Vasha can't help herself and draws her trusty coin, "Seems everyone has one these days," she flips it over her knuckles, flicks it into the air, and continues tumbling it over the other hand, "Fancy little trick, though. You say it only mimics what you know and while yoi hold it? Just out of professional curiosity and courtesy, but you don't usually keep a little magic trinket on display like a prized possession."

"Ah, it was a gift, so I feel inclined to display it," Daela replies.

Kinnik's eyes flick up to the group as they emerge on the doorstep above him. He finishes the last verse on his lyre and calls out to the crowd, "Can I get an amen!" 

Jack walks up as Kinnik asks his question.

"Amen my friend."

Jack indicates to everyone to follow, and leads everyone away where they are not under any social scrutiny.

"Wow! Man that was awesome!"

Jack transforms back into Olen.

"We got all the info we needed and managed to get this as well!"

Olen holds out the 10gp.

"Here that's 2gp each."

Olen hands out 2gp to each person.

"So, key info from my take on everything. One, I know exactly where the sewer entrance is located, where the schema is supposed to be located. Two, only 3 bodies where found at the professors office at the university, but there were 5 bodies when we left last night."

"As to the sewer entrance, it is one of the few places I have explored, that far down. I used to go out at night and explore the city, to get to know the lay of the land. Always good to know a few escape routes, in case you get into trouble, aye Kinnik?"

Olen gives Kinnik a wink.

"And for the missing bodies, my first thought is that we may have trouble ahead. If some of them survived, or faked there own demise, they could be coming after us, or at the very least still hunting for the schema, as we are."

Olen looks around at his friends,

"So anyone else have any other insights to add? Kinnik, anything happen while we were inside?"

Cap was rather bored with the whole conversation, and was eager to get going. However, his face brightened up(somehow, even though it's literally made out of unmoving metal) at the coins.

"Nope! Let's go!"

Kinnik's robe is halfway over his head when Olen addresses him. He touches the pouch strapped tightly to his chest (newly filled with gold, sovereigns, and crowns) and slowly shakes his head. In the basso of Sir William Stanley he states,

"The silent hours steal on,
And flaky darkness breaks within the East" 

(translation: nothing to report; time's a-wastin')

He sets off with the others with a limp, still occasionally stamping his needling foot.

"Well, if no one else has any insights, should we get moving and head down to the sewer entrance?"

Olen looks among his friends for confirmation.

Cap nods.

Vasha grimaces at the thought, "I've spent enough time running, but I would never consider sewers as a place to willingly go to."

"Let's hit it!" As they get moving, once they're far enough away from Daela's house, Copper looks to the others with a mischievous grin. "There was a TON of magic shit in Daela's office. Now I'm not saying we should plan a heist there after we do this mission but... I mean we did basically just case the joint."

"Good to know, we should let Boss know once we are done."

Olen leads the group on to their destination, deep down within the city.

Having finished turning his robes inside out and donning his brilliant physicker disguise, Kinnik hobbles along a few paces behind his friends. As chance would have it, he doesn't have to feign his hobbling to justify a staff.

(Sorry for the MIA. Now back to business.)

Agreeing on your next steps, you leave the skycoach in Cogsgate ward switching station, in Lower Tavick's Landing. Some of you might find peace as you see the floor of the city rather than sprawling bridges over heights that would easily spell your doom. The towers are wider down here than they were up above, some even merge into each other. The towers are so tall that there is almost no sunlight here, even at noon. Most streets are illuminated with ever-burning lamps, magical lights that require no fuel, which reside on posts in every corner.

There is a noticeable difference between the neighborhood you just visited to meet Daela and this place. The streets are packed with people selling stuff, working, and going from one place to the next. Aside from the street merchants, it reminds you much of the streets the Gilded Lotus is located on. You are among your people, albeit, they probably aren't criminals like you. That is to say, no one is wearing fine clothes, everyone looks either sad or tired. By their looks, everyone appears poor.

Of course, you have the ticket in your hand in the form of that map. You have to play the role of someone who has no future to fit in - people who stick out tend to get targeted by the various gangs of Tavick's Landing. 

You reach an opening in the ground. Stairs lead down to a lift that brings you down to the foundations of Sharn, to the Upper Cogs, the underground infrastructure of the city. You descend about three-hundred feet. The industrial ward of Blackbones is before you, and Shroud knows it well. Despite being underground, it is better lit than the neighborhood above. One thing you notice is that there is significantly higher numbers of warforged laborers in this ward. About half of the people you see are warforged, making Cap feel (however you think he would feel, how does he feel?). The roads are slanted downwards, the more you walk, the deeper you go. The temperature has risen considerably and only gets warmer as Shroud leads you to the sewers.

Of course, Shroud (and anyone who would like to) knows that Blackbones is an industrial ward. They do mining, smelting, and construction. Laborers scurry about with black faces and black hands. This is one of the toughest places to earn your living in Sharn.  

The sewers share vertical space with this ward. There are many sewer tunnels about. You notice them because of the smelly sewage water flowing from them on shallow canals that go somewhere else. The entrances are circular tunnels with iron-barred doors. Shroud locates the correct entrance (as there are more than just this one!) that is marked on Daela's map. It was located on the east wall of the great underground market. 

You are now at the very entrance of the sewers, which is that door on the left. (If you have trouble knowing exactly where on the map, the compass is basically pointing right at it!)

Copper grins as the group approaches the entrance. his strides become longer as he seems to get excited, rushing towards the door. "We're so close!" Just before he reaches the door, he pauses, and mumbles a few lines of gibberish. Anyone paying attention would notice the eyes of the skull carved into his axe, which is now gripped in his claw, glow green. Breath can be seen coming out of his mouth as little puffs, despite the warm temperature, and his skin seems a little paler and more gaunt. "Better." he says before swinging the door wide and entering the tunnel.

Kinnik craws softly. He came to sharn for the towers, thinking he'd be closer to the sky. Today was his first visit to skyway, and it was marvelous. The sewers are exactly the wrong direction for him to go.

He looks backwards with regret, touches a claw to the book at his breast, then limps after Copper into the tunnels.