OOC Are there healing drafts?

Guilliame knows about Granny's salves, which promote healing. But they are not something that have ever been sold in the shop.

"The shop doesn't sell healing drafts. Is there anything else you need to know, sir?"

"No, no," the man says as he applies the wax seal of the sheriff to the document. He then hands the page back to Guilliame and says by rote, "The sheriff of the Scholar's Ward and the king of Engle thanks you for tax money and will endeavour to make the best use it for all the people's of Engle." He then looks up and gives Guilliame a smile, which also seems pretty perfunctory. 

The two then stare at each other for an awkward moment before the man suddenly remembers the other reason Guilliame is here.

"Please take a seat, Master de Guilliame," he says gesturing to a long bench against the outer wall. "The sheriff is with someone at the moment, but I will tell him you are here as soon as he is free."

"Thank you."

Sit down and have a look at anyone else who is waiting around.

As the clerk steps out of the shopfront to tell the sheriff that he has someone waiting, Guilliame finds himself momentarily alone.

But only for a moment as the door opens and in steps an elegantly dressed Sorian woman whose first act is to scan the room and then peer at Guilliame hautily.

[OOC: Make a straight Wisdom check and then a Perception check.]

Wisdom:

4

Perception:

7

This striking-looking woman is unknown to Guilliame. She is richly dressed and is wearing lots of makeup and he catches the strong scent of perfume. However, there is something odd about her hair, which makes Guilliame believe that her long black tresses are actually a wig.

As he looks at her, she smiles and briefly closes her eyes to open them in the distinctive manner of someone using the See the Arcane cantrip.

"Blessed day, Master Magus," she says after a moment in a voice with a slight lisp. "Do you like what you see?"

"Blessed day to you madam."

Do a see the arcane.

Guilliame also closes his eyes and then opens them with his mage sight active. Strangely, the woman has no aura of magic around her head—as Guilliame has, and all magi of his experience who are not drained of power have. Instead, her entire body glows.

The woman is about to say something else when the door behind the counter opens and the clerk comes back into the room. The woman gives Guilliame a little smile—and winks at him—before turning to the clerk.

"Good morning," says the woman, acting more demurely in the presence of the clerk. "Is this where I can pay the tax for my family?" 

"Certainly madam," replies the clerk. "Do you have your assessment letter with you?"

"Yes," replies the woman as she starts delving into a shoulder bag hanging at her side.

[OOC: If you want to, Guilliame can spend some time trying to analyse the aura surrounding the woman's body to see if he can tell it if is a spell and perhaps determine which school of magic the spell is from... If it is a spell he is seeing.]

I think that would be a bit rude. Try to think of whether Guilliame has seen similar before. For example does Wamzut/Attina look like this?

Quote from Guilliame >>

I think that would be a bit rude. Try to think of whether Guilliame has seen similar before. For example does Wamzut/Attina look like this?

[OOC: Wamzut's aura didn't look like this (it just looked like a powerful, but normal aura around his head) and Guilliame never got the chance to look at Attina's aura.]

Guilliame turns his mage sight away from the woman and lets it lapse while the woman goes about her business.

[OOC: Does Guilliame pay any more attention to the woman?]

Go over to the woman and quietly ask

"Excuse me madam. I couldn't help noticing your unusual aura. Do you mind if I ask about it?"

Guilliame waits discreetly until the woman has finished paying for her family's taxes—he can't help but overhear that her family name is Hazluk and that the money due is in excess of fifteen Engles, which the woman pays without complaint—and then intercepts her as she is heading toward the door.

In response to his polite question, the woman glances at the clerk, who is looking at them both in a rather bored manner, and then replies in her slightly lisping voice, "Unlike yourself, my gifts are minor, but I was taught to protect myself using my magick. Now, unless you have any other questions... I have errands to attend to."

Before Guilliame can say anything in reply, a small bell rings behind the counter and, in response, the clerk says, "Lord Tambor will see you now, Master de Guilliame."

"I won't keep you. Forgive my curiosity."

Head off to meet the Lord.

The woman sees herself out, after which the clerk opens a second 'hidden' gate that allows Guilliame access to the area behind the counter. Once beyond the counter, Guilliame is shown through the door that is there into a short corridor with three other doors leading off it: one at the end and two halfway along the 30' corridor on either side.

"Lord Tambor is through the door on the left, Master de Guilliame," says the clerk with a bow before he closes the door, leaving Guilliame alone in the corridor.

Go to the first door on the left and knock.

Knocking on the left-hand door, Guilliame hears someone say, "Come."

He opens the door to see a square office, roughly 30' by 30' containing a number of bookshelves and a large desk covered in papers at which a tall, thin Sorian man is seated, quill in hand, referring to the pages of a large book.

The man—who Guilliame last saw wearing armour and carrying a sword the night the Granes were attacked (see here)—looks up and says, "Ahhh, de Guilliame. Thank you for coming. Take a seat please. I will be with you in one moment." He then gestures with the quill towards one of the two seats in front of the desk.

Guilliame takes the proffered seat and then takes the opportunity to glance around the room, which is a strange mixture of both the scholar and the soldier. Books and scrolls there are in plenty, but there is also a sheathed scimitar on a smaller table next to the seated man, who is in the process of writing some sort of notation into the book in front of him. 

[OOC: If Guilliame wants to, you can have him use See the Arcane cantrip and/or roll a Perception check for him to learn more about the setting.]

Just have a look around.

4

As Guilliame looks around, he sees that the scholarly aspects of this office are clearly entirely devoted to the task of collecting taxes for the king. The bookshelves are full of books with past years embossed on their spines: tax records for those years, perhaps. The papers on the desk, Guilliame notes, are mainly assessment notices similar to the one that he has just paid for. The warrior aspects of the room that he noted previously all seem to bear the marks of the royal Engelian army, officer's regalia mostly... except for the scimitar. It is something different again, its sheathe is expensive and the pommel on the handle is a large reddish gem, no doubt worth a fortune if it is real. Guilliame's observations are interrupted when the man at the desk begins to speak.

"Master de Guilliame," begins Lord Tambor as he finishes what he is writing and looks up. "From both my own experience and what my guards tell me, you have involved yourself recently in at least two local incidents where you put your own life at risk to prevent a crime." Putting down his quill, Lord Tambor then asks, "Please tell me why?"