It was night. The group decided to some more reconnoitering of Sam's Estate's palisade. Rita [Ian] was assigned to one corner with her powerful REAL's light to bathe the wall and corner with the light, hoping some guards would check the illumination. They did.
Burrito [Darryl] bought a cage full of live chickens, and stationed himself at another section of the wall. Here, he tossed chickens over the wall at random intervals, to keep another contingent of the guards busy. They were. Interestingly, the flapping chickens did not trigger the Security search-light.
And the rest of the group Attlee [Kevin], Moonlight [Chris], Huilam [Jamie], Argile [Richard], El Cid [Shane] and Sorrow [Jeff] positioned themselves near a third section of the wall.
(Ronny [Deacon] was marmalading.)
First, Moonlight cast a Detect Magic upon the palisade. The entire wall within spell-range glowed with the dull preternatural light indicating that magic was present. No surprises there.
Next, Sorrow used a large pole to vault over the wall. He landed with graceful ease on the far side and started to sprint towards the warehouse.
Sure enough, a good half-minute later, the Security search-light came on and illuminated the section of wall exactly where Sorrow had crested. Then the light began to scan back and forward from that spot. There was absolutely no cover on the large billiard-table flat asparagus beds, and so, eventually, the beam found Sorrow, mid-sprint. Nearby guards started to run towards him, but he wheeled about, and headed back towards the wall, with them in lazy pursuit. He scaled a guards' ladder on the wall to catch his breath on the platform.
There was an angry animal roar in the distance, and Sorrow managed to catch a glimpse of a large beast, on the ground near the search-light source, before he leapt back over the wall. Hook horror maybe? Or a bunch of gnomes forming a gnome-pyramid draped with a tarpaulin?
The group melted back into the city streets, and headed to their secret lair. Except Rita (who couldn't move sneakily to save herself); she headed to the REAL temple.
_______________________________________________That night, Attlee heard whispering coming from his backpack. He opened it and surreptitiously took out the black skull. It was whispering, not orally, but in his head. When he held it, he could hear the words:
"Great dark, that wilt not let you go.
Go rest your weary soul in me.
Now give me back the life you owe.
That in my raging depths its flow, may richer fairer be!"
_______________________________________________
Next morning, El Cid shot down to the IMAG temple to meet up with Priestess Clara. She had conversed with the High Priest and with the Foundling of Darkness, and she had some answers about the black skulls.
"The Foundling," she said. "Has offered us some incantations which we will cast upon certain dark
crystals to imbue them with power. We can then gift them to you, and you then simply place each crystal into a skull and it will lose its Curse of Return."El Cid nodded.
"Furthermore," she continued. "The Foundling, has expressed the urgency of spreading the skulls about the city. Hence, we offer you 12 COIN for this task. It may not be easy."
"I'll tell the others," El Cid said.
"If the REALs find out," she added wryly. "It will be even less easy. The tongue of a fool breaks many secrets."
_____________________________________________________________________
Back in the lair, Esme, the group's secretary, introduced a new character.
"Meet Dee Dee," said Esme. "A gnome from Scabport. She was one of the short-listed applicants to help with the new company. But I thought she was more suited to help with our core business. We can always do with more diversity too."
Dee Dee [Steven] bowed: "Pleased to be meeting you."
 |
| Dee Dee, the gnome Slide |
[Dee Dee was a slide; subtle manipulator and spy.]
Dee Dee had a unique skill, so she claimed, of being able to spot a lie when told to her [this is a Slide Feat]. Of course, it was not absolute truth, just truth as to what the speaker believed.
Thoughts had already been forming within the group's minds as to the veracity of Olivia Bryce's claims that the yellow scab cultivars were in fact stolen by Sam's agents. Maybe she did not actually develop the yellow scabs herself, and was just using the group to commit industrial espionage and steal them off Sam.
So, Huilam, Moonlight, Sorrow went off to the Vege Scavengers plantation to visit Olivia again with Dee Dee in tow. In order for Dee Dee's ability to work, the lie must be spoken to her, so there was a bit of oral manipulation required to achieve this. After substantial, but friendly, questioning, they determined:
- A scientist or scab-breeder who develops new cultivars is called a "scabotanist" (TRUE).
- Olivia Bryce employed a scabotanist called Jack Sparrow (TRUE).
- Scabotanist Jack Sparrow developed the yellow scab cultivar (TRUE).
- Jack was definitely working for Olivia when he developed the new cultivars (LIE).
- So the cultivars were hers (LIE).
- And stolen from her (LIE).
- Jack Sparrow was now dead (LIE).
- She suspected it was Sam's agents who killed him (TRUE).
- In a fit of jealous rage (TRUE).
There was a new plantation in town that was just starting out. It was called the Scab Vultures [sic] and owner was John Moses. Formerly wheat growers, they had decided to get into the lucrative scab market, following the news that there was a new set of scab buyers in town just arrived from Spite: the Spite Agricultural Traders. They were rumoured to be backed by well-heeled financiers from Spite, and rich elvish merchants from Palantir called the Elwins.
So, the four went and visited the Vultures. John offered them wagon loads of scabs for only 20 COIN each (TRUE), but it had to be paid in advance to get this superb price (TRUE) and it'd be half a year before harvest (TRUE). All John could show now was some ploughed fields. "We are only just planting." (TRUE).
The group asked about scabotanist Jack Sparrow. John had heard of the name, and heard he had been killed, but that was all (TRUE). The Vultures' scabotanist was called Doctor Strange-pork (TRUE).
The group wrestled about whether they should (or could morally) still do Olivia's job considering the cultivars were not actually hers. They were ambivalent about this; after all, a job is a job. Already, Sorrow, El Cid and Attlee had the IMAG taint about them, so they weren't particularly adverse to continuing with the job.
_____________________________________________________________________
Huilam, Dee Dee, Moonlight and Sorrow had an invite to stay at Sam's mansion (rather than the apartment above their SAT offices in the Docks). They dressed in their finest and collected dates. Sorrow and Huilam found a half-elf date (read, "whore") each, and Moonlight took Dee Dee as his date.
 |
| Sam's Mansion, Scabport Mansion District |
His mansion had 120 rooms, and the guests were each supplied with one each. During the night, Sorrow went poking around through the hallways and rooms. He was confronted by servants, house-maids and footmen at every turn, so his exploration was limited. After a fruitless hour or two, he returned to his bedroom.
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