Day 22 (continued)
The party decide to track briefly into the city. There was potential for finding an ally in Soliana if they rescue her. Anaphel stays with the caravan to try and restore order.
Gage asks Lavender if any of her contacts amongst the guards will help. They head to the guard post by the south gate. Two guards are standing chatting in front of the door. Lavender straightens and the guard addresses her respectfully. She explains the situation. The guard stutters and says that they weren’t on shift then. He admits that there wasn’t anyone here when they arrived – the previous guards weren’t there. The guard doesn’t want headquarters alerted to this.
Gage is unimpressed. Lavender stares, displeased at what she is hearing. The guard is not very helpful – he says he never really talks to the night shift guards. The guard dissembles and is clearly nervous – it’s only his second day on the job. Lavender knows the guard captain is named Hodrel Heavybrew but when she asks, the guard doesn’t know. He says the captain is in the city…somewhere. Lavender asks to step inside the guard tower but he is reluctant. She insists and he quails.
The guard says that the night shift were asleep when he arrived, so he moved them to outside a tavern, as if they’d passed out drunk. He insists that no-one paid him to do this. He says his name is Kevin. She is displeased but tells him that he has been helpful. She tells him to relay further information about strange happenings to Halsen at the enclave, who will pass it to her.
Lavender gets Kevin to let Gage and Theren in to speak to the guards upstairs. Gage stays to guard the door to the guard house, sitting on a box just inside the door. She ascends the stairs to the guard tower – she can see a fair distance into the fields from up here. Two people are in the upper room and they ready their weapons.
Lavender explains why she’s there but the guards are aggressive. They give no specific information. Lavender tells them that she knows the captain, which makes them slightly nervous. Theren tells Lavender that the guards were honest and just a bit incompetent but he saw nothing from the high window. Theren sends Runcible off for a recce over the city.
Lavender asks Kevin for the name of the tavern he put the guards outside. He says it is called The Slippery Ostrich. Kevin has been trying to make conversation with Gage but he was not very responsive. They start discussing Kevin’s future. Gage advises him to ignore his mother and find what he’s good at.
Lavender leads them to the Slippery Ostrich to find the drugged guards. The tavern is a touristy tavern – fairly nondescript. There are no guards sleeping outside and nothing untoward hereabouts. They head inside.
The bartender and waitresses are inside serving breakfast. The bartender is a faerie. Gage sees a gauntlet near the door – there is a tiny piece of paper caught in it with a section of a seal on it. Gage picks up the gauntlet and examines it – he is deliberately quite obvious about this. Lavender heads over to the faerie – he has a very deep voice. Lavender explains the situation – they’re looking for some guards who came here during the night. The faerie refuses to snitch. Lavender tries to persuade him that she is not with the guard. He says that two guards came in last night but it was a bit strange – he didn’t recognise the guards at all. Lavender is honest with him about Kevin depositing the guards – he knows nothing about that but a guy did come in around 1 o’clock, just in his underpants – he was very nondescript and average. He didn’t know where he was. He asked about his location and then left. Lavender slides over some silvers and also says she’ll recommend the bar to a bard that she knows. Gage asks about the gauntlet – the faerie says that he isn’t sure where it came from. Gage whips the paper fragment out
They head outside the tavern. The seal contains a fragment of rope and the letters ‘NAV’ – Theren decides this is nautical, so they head to the port.
Temerity awakens at the tavern – the patrons applaud him as he enters the bar. He struts through the bar confidently. He asks about rumours of caravans with lots of money. The barkeep mentions a caravan that was very suspicious – some of their things have been stolen. He tells him that the caravan is down by the south gate and should still be there, as the things that were stolen were the horses. Temerity assumes that it was druids that did it – he asks where they are. The barkeep says that they’re all down in the southwest. Temerity leaves the tavern and heads down to Silvanus’ Beard.
The party heads up to Bridgeport. Runcible returns to Theren – he brings back info that in the NE of the city there are many hoofprints and they’re heading in the right direction. There’s also a lot of commotion at the port. The port looks normally busy – lots of hustle and bustle – but there’s no sign of the symbol on the seal.
They head to the harbourmaster’s office. There’s an officious looking halfling outside – she asks if Lavender has an appointment. Lavender says no and is immediately turned away Gage says that he does have an appointment – she asks for a name. Gage says that he’s here as a proxy for Silvanus’ Beard. She says that the druids are not on the list for today. Lavender says that they’re on city guard business. The halfling asks for paperwork. Lavender snaps at the halfling, who remains unintimidated. They argue and, eventually, Lavender pushes past into the offices.
Lavender knocks on the harbourmaster’s door. The Water Genasi Harbourmaster is not happy with the interruption but agrees to look at the records. Gage presents the seal fragment – it belongs to the shipping company that owns the warehouse. After butting their heads up a brick wall, they decide to call it quits on the investigation and head back to Silvanus’ Beard.