Journal Entry 9.03 Graykar's Interrogation

Graykar finds out he has history with Chrailis, possibly Si'Nassa herself. He is placed under house arrest at Dame Imokan's. He makes friends with the Borkjä.

General Summary

After waking in his windowless room, Graykar tries the door. It is locked from the outside and without his tools, outside of forcing the door, he is probably stuck. No matter, he has been in locked rooms before. He sits on the bed and waits.
After what seems like hours (just two actually) two individuals enter the room. They are dressed in black robes, each having a yellow sash of with the eye symbol of Coterie Pramkia Ertis.
They stand there briefly before the one on the left begins speaking. “You intrigue us, Sir, for you have changed significantly. Si’Nassa let you live on the promise that if you ever returned, she would not deal with you pleasantly. And now after almost 200 years, you have returned. She made her choice – her mother over you. Do you honestly think she will have changed her mind?”
Confused at their words, Graykar is nevertheless not caught off guard. Realizing that they might be referring to past memories, he plays along. “Time can be fickle. It's not for you or I to claim any "change of mind", we have only to adapt to the current reality. While I do not wish to incur her wrath, I need her assistance. I have lost much of myself having been spun back out in so many lives. I find myself somewhat adrift, and seek her guidance to remember who I am to best chart the course ahead.”
“Well, Mr. Graykar, you present an intriguing challenge. Fi’lanazierk has left the city, so she isn’t available to visit to help verify just who you are. As of now, we can’t tell if you are more medium who picks up on previous memories, you are a true reincarnate, or the same individual who is simply regenerated from time to time in new forms.”
Graykar remains motionless, staring them intently as if he is the one in charge. Mentioning the 2nd eldest daughter of Si’Nassa stirs something in his memory, though he can’t quite place it.
They continue on, “So speaking of Fi’lana – she has left to investigate this matter of which you have just returned. This dark godling you have found. While it is out of Si’nassa’s range, she considers those elves to be friends and has a fondness for them. Chrailis may be sending aid in some form.”
Graykar nods and is secretly pleased that Chrailis will likely be sending help to the elves. While he hasn’t met many of them, he felt he close comradery with some of the elves in Kerlostra. The men leave, promising to be back.
While he waits, servants bring him a decent meal and drink. He requests for any reading material to help pass the time and they bring him a local gazetteer featuring music and dance write-ups of the nearby theater district.
Then a human servant arrives with his gear, telling Graykar, “You are being released. A small group of the Stone March will escort you back to Dame Imokan’s abode. She has promised to keep you there under house arrest until such a time as we determine what to do with you.”
Along the way, while walking down a narrow almost abandoned street, the Stone March guards suddenly start walking funny and babbling. After a few seconds, they just stand in place, staring at nothing.
As Graykar looks around trying to discern a threat, he feels cold metal touching his neck. He is certain it is a blade. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees no shadow. Whoever is holding the blade is invisible. He feels a warm breath on his neck and then hears a feminine voice whisper, “Greetings Grayakr. I don’t’ have long before they break the spell. I have a message for you. The Borkjä wish to meet with you. Two nights from now, at midnight, they will be at the center of the Harper Canal bridge off of Slide street.
Do you acknowledge receiving and understanding this message? Yes or no, no questions. And I leave.”
Graykar simply says, “Yes.” The warm breath and blade disappear. Graykar hears a single slight scrape of a boot as the messenger sneaks off, nothing more. A few moments later the guards recover and begin escorting Graykar back to Dame Imokan’s once again, none of them seeming to realize that they were just temporarily bewildered.
Waiting two nights, Graykar then sneaks off for the meeting.
He waits for over an hour at the center of the bridge, staring out over the canal. No one shows. It begins to mist, then rain vigorously.
Graykar thinks to himself, “This is awkward. Not at all inconspicuous – waiting in the rain at the middle of the bridge.” Still, he waits.
The rain lets up and he waits another hour with nothing happening. True, he is a little wet but the mako leather duster he gained from the pirates performs wonderfully as rain protection. And it is warm out, so overall he is not upset. Finally giving up, he turns and leaves the bridge, crossing over to the opposite side from the direction which he came just in case a trap was laid for him on his return journey.
As he walks back to Dame Imokan’s, a figure approaches from his right and walks in step with him. Believing this to be his contact, Graykar doesn’t react.
“You know – we had two bets going. One was whether you would last out the rain storm on the bridge – one of our weather witches had seen it coming so we chose that time intentionally. The other was if you would leave or exit by the same direction you entered the bridge.” This is said by a bald skinny male human with a black goatee.
Graykar smiles, somewhat amused. “And tell me, did you win or lose?”
“I won on whether you would stay – lost on the direction. My friend Cecil got both right. Take a right up here, we are going up three blocks to Margalene Stree. The take a left.”
Graykar follows the directions as they walk. “Well, you obviously know of me. Graykar is the name should there be any questions. And you are?”
“My friends call me Gordan,” he says.
“And your enemies?” Graykar asks.
“Nothing – because I leave them all dead.” Gordan looks up at Graykar and doesn’t see much of a reaction. “Sorry – bad joke. My enemies call me Gordan also. I see you are a man of the rapier also – perhaps we can cross swords sometime.”
Graykar and Gordan arrive at their destination – a small tavern called the Thrown Copper. Graykar follows Gordan down to the basement which actually turns out to be a good-sized training gymnasium. “You know what, let’s test you swordsmanship while we talk, you up for that?”
Graykar agrees and the two begin fencing.
Gordan is quite accomplished, actually a lot better than Graykar knew was possible with a sword. As they fence, Gordan begins speaking.
He asks what Graykar knows of the Borkjä and then begins to fill in the gaps. The Borkjä are indeed interested in taking Si’Nassa out of the picture. They believe that she is keeping the city from its true potential and because of her, many live in poverty. In particular, they believe the aristocrats have essentially created a system of social slaves who voluntarily work so the Aristocrats can live in their fancy stone mansions and castles. As they fence, Graykar notices that Gordan sometimes refers to the Borkjä as we, but also as they. Something is off here, Gordan isn’t fully on board with the Borkjä movement.
After a while, Graykar steers the conversations to that point, asking about Gordan’s true affiliations.
“Well, here is the crux. And we are not alone in this room – three others are watching from the shadows. What I am about to tell you will depend on whether you leave dead or alive. We are Borkjä, however, we have slightly different designs on what needs to happen that the majority. We believe there is a corrupting influence in the Aristocracy – one which we mean to put down. However, we believe that Si’Nassa is vital to the health of the city. The two things are not as tied together as many think – she would be just fine without the Aristocracy. They merely use her and their supposed connection with her to maintain power. "
"The Borkjä leadership has taken an active interest in you, sir Graykar. All of us have been watching you for some time. Largely because various members of the Aristocracy have been watching you – did you know that? You have some importance we don’t’ understand. They believe you might have ties which can be exploited to serve the overall goals. I, on the other hand, believe you are not disloyal to Si’Nassa. In fact, I believe you may actually wish to aid her. How we determine your loyalty determines the next few minutes of whether you leave alive or dead."
"So – I am your contact. I have been tasked with recruiting you, which I am doing. However, I am recruiting you to actually aid Si’Nassa, not harm her. If you will agree, you will help run some side missions for the Borkjä. In the effort though, certain special tasks will be assigned – extra things done or left undone. If you agree to this, we will aid you in other ways. For instance, I know you have been looking for grave dirt from a lizard man burial ground. I have a lead on some. Not sure if it is legit, but I found some for 5000 gp. But I can do better, I believe I have a contact who knows of a lizard man encampment far to the south that actually buries their dead rather than cannibalizes them, as is there custom. In addition, I see the makings of a great swordsman. I am prepared to train you personally if you wish."
"The risks will be great – to all of us. The Borkjä wont’ hesitate to kill us all if they find out we are not completely loyal to their goals. I am trusting you – so I ask that you trust us. If we succeed, I will redirect their goals to terms friendly to Si’Nassa.”
Graykar uses all of his sense motive skills and as far as he can tell, Gordan is being completely honest. How do you wish to react? Outside of directly attacking Gordan, your reaction will not get you killed – so feel free to react as you feel your character would.
"You are right Si'Nassa is not the problem, the people in power maintaining a slave class in all but name and a few who would like to push it further are the problem. So if changing that is your goal, I am your man.
Graykar continues to train with Gordan for the rest of the night. For several nights after that, Graykar sneaks off, knowing he is taking a considerable risk breaking his house arrest and joins Gordan for further training.
In turn, Gordan gives Graykar a few small tasks, mostly messenger duty or retrieval of a package here and there. For a single night, he is tasked with following a man in a yellow cloak. Interestingly, this man visits Spango’s for a brief moment. With him, he has a small backpack when he enters. When he leaves, the backpack is gone. Now really curious, Graykar pays close attention to where the man goes after that. He crosses the city and heads deep into the 14th tier slum area. In the middle of this is a rather opulent house for the area which he enters after knocking a pattern on the door. Graykar spends the rest of the evening watching and doesn’t see anyone leave.
Graykar makes a return trip on his own to stake out the building and begins to believe it might be a temple of one of the forbidden gods. He relates this to Gordan later who agrees, they believe it might be a temple to Letheria. In all likelihood the authorities know about it and allow it to exist, rather having a known threat verses an unknown threat.
Once Morvion returns and tells his tale, a missive arrives from Coterie Si’ Unas stating that after review of the matter, Graykar is no longer considered a threat and free to come and go as he pleases.

Report Date

29 Jul 2018