Café de Nuit

"Well, I for one don't feel like chasing them across Povero," Alfonse says, "They'll turn up at the Friar eventually. Assuming they haven't been hung, of course."

He looks at Titus and Damien. "Do you have any other business? Perhaps we could let Lord Aldron know of our...ahem...progress."

ALFONSE


DAMIEN


TITUS

Adam wrote:"Well, I for one don't feel like chasing them across Povero," Alfonse says, "They'll turn up at the Friar eventually. Assuming they haven't been hung, of course."

He looks at Titus and Damien. "Do you have any other business? Perhaps we could let Lord Aldron know of our...ahem...progress."

"As you say, signore."
Damien shrugs. "But maybe we should go look for the alleymen first? We were just supposed to find out if somebody sent them. Still getting paid to do that. "
He chuckles. "And maybe with Tom and Fild busy, we can use a...what's the word? Subtile? A subtile approach. If luck's with us, we could learn something to bring to him. Better news than ' half of us got jailed.' "

Titus

"I take it you two work for this Lord Aldron, then?" Titus says. "I happen to know the last location of one of the supposed allymen our friends... rather indiscreetly encountered. He also happens to owe me a favor. Perhaps we see if we can't find him and ask nicely?"

alhoon wrote:Fild pays 2 follaros for a soap and more-than-a-minute shower.

FILD
AFTER ABLUTION


The gnome has finished cleansing, drying, and dressing himself.

And now...?

ALFONSE

"As you say, Damien. Perhaps a lighter hand will succeed where an Arquebus and Crossbows failed."

He listens to Titus and slaps him on the shoulder. "Sounds like a plan. Shall we be off?"

FILD, Water-sellers
Fild clean and dry goes to the water-seller guild and knocks the door. He's armed and armored but he plans to explain he's an adventuring plumber. He doesn't expect much to come but perhaps they will have someone to chase rats or something out of the drains even if they don't believe him (or need his talents) as a plumber.

alhoon wrote:FILD, Water-sellers
Fild clean and dry goes to the water-seller guild and knocks the door. He's armed and armored but he plans to explain he's an adventuring plumber. He doesn't expect much to come but perhaps they will have someone to chase rats or something out of the drains even if they don't believe him (or need his talents) as a plumber.

A boy admits Fild to the offices of the Water Sellers & Carriers.

He escorts the gnome through a cool, dimly lit hallway with blue tile floors, to a side chamber where a balding, stoop shouldered clerk sits behind a high desk.

The clerk looks down at Fild.
"Yes?"

Fild explains his position and inquires about employment.

The clerk shuffles through some papers, coughs twice, and re-stacks the papers.
"No work for you today, looks like. But you can come back in a few days and check again. We do hire outside the guild for special jobs. Just don't have any of those right now."

Fild is elated. "Oh, thank you kind sir!" He gives as formal bow as he can and leaves.

THE SLEUTHS
ALFONSE
TITUS
and
DAMIEN

The three men return to the scene of last night's fracas. A thin trail of white smoke puffs from the chimney of the house in the vineyard.
The visitors find a man (Titus knows him as Rocco ) cooking pungent fish soup in the hearth of the main room.
The man smiles when he sees Titus's face.
"Come in!"

Their host does not seem to recognize Damien or Alfonse. He expresses gratitude for Titus's aid last night.
" My brother is doing better. He's sleeping in there--" , Rocco indicates a side room.
" We should probably clear out, in case those maniacs come after us again. Tomorrow or the day after, when my brother can be up and about again."

Titus and Alfonse are able, with some subtle help from Damien, to draw out more information from Rocco. The man admits, after some hesitation, to having been mixed up with " a bad crowd." He expresses scorn for his former compatriots, who ran off and left him in the lurch. They did, at least, leave him and his brother their share of the common store.
During the conversation, Rocco uses some strange expressions that neither Titus nor Alfonse understand, but at which Damien winks and nods.

Rocco asks Titus to check on his brother. After the cleric provides some further aid , Rocco becomes even more forthcoming with information. He says that the burglars who attacked the vineyard were probably working for a " posh nob" he and his buddies "brawled" with in the streets after the man refused their offer of a paid foot escort. When asked, he claims he does not know the identity of the man, and that nobody put them up to it.
(He swears that last bit on his household gods.)
"You piss off some rich guy and he hires killers to come after you. Grudges! I'm thinking about becoming one of those venturers I've heard about. Bashing gobbelins in dungeons can't be more dangerous than...errrrm...helping people who get lost in the back alleys."

After a meal of fish soup, surprisingly good wine, and crusty day old bread, Rocco bids his guests farewell and goes back to tending his brother.



Outside, once they've stepped over the low stone fence of the vineyard, Damien tells his two companions:

"He gave me a bit more in thief-talk. Seems to me like he isn't lying about not knowing the target and not being set up. If he actually knew that we were working for somebody as big as Aldron Folbre I'm sure he'd soil his trousers and drag his brother out of there on a bed sheet. Nope. I think this Rocco guy is just a mugger who overplayed his hand. Sounds like the rest of his gang bailed on him last night. I guess we can ask the others about whatever we missed, when we see them, and sort of work out how it all matches up."

FILD

The gnome spends most of the rest of his day scouring the Market District for clues about fighting-men for hire and the politics of the aristocratic families.
What he learns:

Savelle supporters have clashed with Holbin supporters in tavern brawls several times this summer.

Folbre's men have mostly steered clear of such squabbles, though on two recent occasions they have played peacemakers by buying drinks for the house and making jokes to lighten a dark mood.

The Council is debating a law to restrict the open carry of unbound arms to the Watch, citizens of ''honorable families'', licensed guards, and certain other parties.

ewancummins wrote:FILD

The gnome spends most of the rest of his day scouring the Market District for clues about fighting-men for hire and the politics of the aristocratic families.
What he learns:

Savelle supporters have clashed with Holbin supporters in tavern brawls several times this summer.

Folbre's men have mostly steered clear of such squabbles, though on two recent occasions they have played peacemakers by buying drinks for the house and making jokes to lighten a dark mood.

The Council is debating a law to restrict the open carry of unbound arms to the Watch, citizens of ''honorable families'', licensed guards, and certain other parties.

FILD,
NEAR WAREHOUSE DISTRICT

As evening draws on, the gnome feels his guts rumble. His thighs cramp.

Poisoned? No. He just hasn't had a bite to eat all day, and only drunk a mug full of cool water.
Thus, Fild's body signals to him that it's time to either break into whatever rations he has packed (only what he would have carried on a nocturnal raid, or such bread and cheese bits as he won in the rigged fight with Barth).

But as the gnome squats in an alley mouth looking through his bag for food...


...he hears squeaking and scurrying behind him in the short, dead end alley.
Shrill, piping voices cry out,
"Food! Get food! Get food!"
Sounds like burrower-talk.

Near Warehouse
Hungrily Fild eats a large bite of Cheese. Then he gets a few cramps of bread and says to the rats. "Here, have some" and throws the worse part of bread further down.

alhoon wrote:Near Warehouse
Hungrily Fild eats a large bite of Cheese. Then he gets a few cramps of bread and says to the rats. "Here, have some" and throws the worse part of bread further down.

Chittering answers him.
Bright little eyes appear in the shadowy end of the alley.
Rats.
A dozen or more, big, black rodents with twitching whiskers and long, scaled tails.
The creatures dart out to seize the bits of bread Fild has tossed.

The gnome feels something land on his lap. Squeak!
He looks down and sees his cheese has vanished. Casting about, he spots a big rat running around him on the left, headed for a busted drain cover with the cheese hunk in its mouth.

The other rodents withdraw, screaming,
"Food! Get food!" And making the tittering sounds that serve their kind of laughter.

ALFONSE

"Sounds like this has all been a waste of time," Alfonse says, "What shall we do for the rest of the day? Check the Friar and see if the others are there?"

Near Warehouse
"Rats!" Fild exclaims in anger. After shouting a couple of insults to the rats he starts to head towards the Admiral's arms. However, he's first and foremost looking for a vendor to get a snack or a drink of water on the way.