Downtime and Investigating a Bank Heist!

We spent the next week doing various tasks during some much needed downtime! At the beginning of the following week, Lt. Lavarsus called us to speak with him & Sgt, Ollo. Sgt. Ollo explained that he had learned some more info about the upcoming heist. They figured it was going to happen to one of 3 businesses. The Orvington Moneychangers, the Penny & Sphinx Trust or the Stonesworn Savings and Loan. They gave us some files to go through to learn what we could about the companies. We took them with us to peruse. Looking through the documents we found there was information on more than just the 3 they had listed. There was also information on quite a few more possible targets. We also found a request for help from the Puddles. We set to reading, trying to ascertain why these they felt these 3 were the most likely targets. The Penny & Sphinx Trust was upset by the lack of thoroughness of a recent investigation by the Token guard. The Stonesworn Savings and Loan were upset that the Token guard did not follow up on a complaint about a suspected excavation near their location. Elisan noticed that one of the complaints from Chadraxa's Cheap Loans was against the Orvington Moneychangers. The request for aid from the Puddles was from a volunteer militia member named Ziraya al-Shurati. She was requesting formal aid to crack down on a ring of smuggler's. There was a vandalism complaint from Gilel's Tannery that had been marked with a note stating "waste of time" in the hand writing of Lt. Lavarsus.
After some discussion about how we should proceed, we decided we should check out the possible excavation near the Stonesworn Savings and Loan. We headed for the Savings & Loan to ask some questions! We met the owner, Rohka at the entrance. She explained she had been hearing scratching in the vaults. It turned out that there were some Ether spiders in the vault. She asked for our help to eliminate the spiders. Kasper had heard of this sort of creature before. He knew they could travel between the ethereal plane and our own quite easily. They did indeed have a poisonous bite that would slow their targets. They were about the size of a horse. They speak Aklo. After telling us about these things we decided we could try to talk to them first, as Jensen could speak Aklo. Approaching the vault, we opened the door slightly. Jensen called in to announce them. The spiders responded in Aklo & were quite happy to be escorted out. They explained that they had hidden in the vault to avoid a creature called a Xill. Once we got them slightly outside the vault a creature none of use recognized appeared and started attacking us. The spiders took one look and quickly disappeared, leaving us to fight this creature. It was quite tough and kept threatening to lay eggs in the guards, speaking in Aklo. Jensen was horrified, but they managed to defeat the creature. Rohka was happy for the help and gave them a reward of a few items from her adventuring days. After finishing up with her, we decided to head for the Puddles to find Ziraya al-Shurati to speak with her about the smuggling ring she had requested help with.
She told us she was investigating a smuggling ring run by a man named Percen Droan. He ran a sweatshop with all but slave labor. His workers would not provide any information as they are afraid of his overseer, one Kepsie, a Bugbear. She suggested we run a night time raid on the place and round up any smugglers we found in the sweep. She explained, and we knew, that our assistance had been ok'ed by Sgt. Ollo. We agreed. With not enough resources we chose to investigate the vandalism complaint at Gilel's Tannery & return to the Puddles the next evening. When we arrived, an Elven man was yelling at a human woman. They were both being separated, more so the man, by a large human man. After unsuccessful attempts by Elisan and Jensen to break them up, Kasper cast a spell and calmed their emotions. Kasper began asking questions to find out what the problem was. Apparently a float had been burned down. The Elven man explained that there had been history between the woman and the large man, but that now the 2 men were married. He explained he was the Tanner here. He felt that she was jealous and had decided to burn down the float. The woman explained she was a doctor in the area & had nothing to do with the burnt float. The Elven man was Gilel. The large man was named Ysen & the Human woman was named Elsimara. Investigating the area where the float burned, Jensen was able to tell a mechanical piece was missing that made a depiction of Aroden rise up above the float. It appeared to have been taken, and the float burned to cover up the theft. Jensen noticed some paint on the door frame. He could not make hide nor tail of it, but Kasper recognized this as a grease paint typically used by clowns. Gelil told us where he had bought the mechanism. It was an odds and ends shop in the foreign quarter. A Gnome, named Xycrix, there explained to us what the device was and how it functioned. He said it could rise up to 8 feet and could probably lift a "couple of Elephants". It weighed about a couple hundred pounds and it would take a very strong person to carry single-handed. He was quite distraught to find out that the device had been stolen and would not likely be on display at the parade. By now it was the end of the day. We headed back to the guardhouse to rest.