S2 E7: Closing in on Answers - and Bargains

General Summary

In which an offhand remark to a merchant uncovers an unexpected clue.

• Largely a shopping episode, taking advantage of recent gains and a walk from the Chapel of Brogas to the Beggar's Dice, which passes by any number of curio shops, fortune tellers, puppeteers, smithys, raincoat-sellers, fish stands, lion-tamers, and purveyors of magical items. Many things are procured (and we can roll for the pack of seeker darts and inescapable whip LeChat would have been looking for at the next game).
• In the course of shopping, Tatiana acquires a dreadful Marionette named Rombau from a Leonin Oddies and Puppet merchant named Lorandar, though he was quick to point out she could rename it to anything. It seems normal enough, if rusticly-made from wood blocks and scraps of cloth and unintentionally hideous; but in the course of discussing it, Lorendar mentioned he had seen a customer, some months ago, who was memorable for having his hands on upside-down, the fingers and thumb aimed upward rather than palms-down. 
• Lorendar also identifies the poker chip as coming from an unlicensed gambling den in the Delta called the Queen's Hive, a very dangerous place. And Cobalt learns that a large quantity of stainless steel and aluminum has been traded through the Artificer's guild to buyers in the Nest - the opposite of the usual direction, where metals smelted in the Nest are sold elsewhere (it was multiple merchants but for the sake of simplicity we can merge all that detail into Lorendar).
• The party recognizes the flipped hands as a distinctive trait of a Raksasha, the reason KC had mentioned it in the first place, which creates a tantalizing clue - while this city might have any number of other devils and demons creeping about in its alleyways and moldy shrines, Rakshashas are rare, solitary and obsessive fiends who delight in punishing the descendants of families which have wronged them. This profile seems particularly suited to whatever the real story is behind the hidden 'DeSauvigny' mausoleum - a trapped, shiny and spotlessly maintained tomb to a family no  one has heard of - under the empty bookshop across the street from the Beggar's Dice. And they've already seen a different, lesser fiend - the succubus masquerading as Solara Nantez.
• Once back inside the Beggar's Dice they find Slonsky nursing a glass of lager and munching a sausage, bringing him haltingly up to speed on their most recent exploits but discovering that Essi's death is still unreported, and the big news story is that Solara Nantez is missing - that in fact, Watchmen went to the Essi Estate as the last known place she had been, and found nothing particularly out of order there. 
• But Slonsky wasn't there himself, and party can't be sure how thoroughly the grounds were searched, if at all. Asking a bunch of questions will arouse suspicion. But it seems as though the Drow assassins that went upstairs while they were escaping somehow cleaned up the crime scene, possibly even finding a way to masquerade as Essi himself. Having seen that Nantez was actually a Succubus, they also are safe to assume she can appear as a man just as easily as a woman. Eldara knows how trivial it is to use a convincing disguise when people are looking for someone else, not for the person you're pretending to be.
• As the discussion turns to the possibilities - indeed, probabilities - of things being somehow tied up to the 12 Ruling Families, Slonsky suggests they try to get an audience with Jubliana Stroud, with whom he has some kind of acquaintance left undisclosed. He suggests, since she's been in the council for hundreds of years without aging a day, that clearly there is something up with her, but he cautions that she is a notorious recluse and rarely participates in council activities. She must have knowledge going back much further than current events. The word 'Vampire' gets thrown around. 
• Slonsky knows that there haven't always been 12 families, but he's no historian, and it's not the sort of information that goes into library books, at least not in any accurate fashion. But the name DeSauvigny might be around in court records, property deeds and the like, so he will check when he goes back to the central duty station. He does mention that the Watchmen found gas traps in the sewer, and pitiful cots and signs of people living down there, but evidently either they didn't find the mausoleum or he puposely doesn't mention it.
• This leaves the party with a number of leads to pursue - they now know the location of all three of the casinos whose chips Coyle Daine had on him when he died - the Beggar's Dice where they are now, the Dragonfly, a riverboat casino on the other side of the Elven District, and the Queen's Hive, in the delta. They also have the name and address - in Marble Court, an Exultant-Only district - of Jubliana Stroud, who may have information of great interest, but who also has as yet no need to simply give this information to them. Slonsky can get them day passes to the district, good for a 24-hour period.
• Exiting the Beggar's Dice into the night they realize after a moment that a number of shaggy humanoids are swarming out of the unblocked sewer drain and dragging people back with them - bodies litter the large cul-de-sac. The eyes of the creatures fall on them - with more intelligence than simple beasts should have, and a hypnotic quality that is noticed by Tatiana and Eldara, but only affects Cobalt and LeChat. 
• Roll Wisdom saves - and initiative!

Report Date

24 Oct 2023

Primary Location

Elven Quarter, Orendarium