Off to Disen

  Present:

• 

  Simone Fussel,
  Vingt-et-Un auditor

  Sophia Beauchamp (half-elf priest 21) - Ian
• Joe Manco (human fighter) - Shane
• Balder Dash (gnome wizard) - Jamie
• Slim Jim (human rogue) - Darryl
• Walton Formalin (half-elf mystic of 21) - Andrew
• Red Feuersturm (human temple fighter of Hob) - Chris
• Donk Platebreaker (human fighter) - Jeff
• Malcolm Gandhi (gnome thief) - Kevin

By Walton

So, we were in the city of Draser, largest in this area, and fourth largest city in the Known World, with 95,000 people. We were trying to find Vingt-et-Un auditer Simone Fussel. She had gone missing many weeks ago under suspicious conditions. She had been sent to Draser to audit the books of the Globe casino. Divine law insists that all casinos and gambling establishments pay specific pecuniary homage to Vingt-et-un (hence the audit).

We were in the Sprawl, outside the Barbaric Monkey tavern. We had determined that Simone had been attacked here, and dragged away by three thugs one of whom was Jasper the Mask. 

So we sent out our feelers to locate Jasper: Slim went off to the Thieves' Guild, and Sophia went after a bunch of street urchins, using her charm and wit (and cleavage).

It turned out Jasper hung out in the Pits - this was the area of Draser where the great slave houses were located. He frequented an inn called the Defeated Seagull. So, we went there.

As with most places in Draser, there were "No Gnomes, Dwarves or Hobbits" signs on the door of the Defeated Seagull, so we had to leave Gandhi and Balder (with their embroidered kobold monikers clearly visible) outside on leashes, with Donk guarding them. Sure enough, exactly as claimed by the urchins, Jasper the Mask was here in a back room, surrounded by some bully-boys and whores.

The infamous Draser
Tower prison

I approached and questioned him. After much cajoling, pleading and faux threatening (and lucky rolls), Jasper admitted to us that his group of thugs had been hired to grab Simone and take her to "the Tower". This was about four weeks ago. The Tower was a tall prison in Draser, to hold criminals, villains and non-human scum. 

Jasper continued his tale: on the way to deliver Simone, his group was set upon by another "vastly superior" group of assailants. They took Simone off Jasper's gang, and spirited her away. 

"I barely escaped with mah life!"

This happened near River Bend (where the Draser river does a very sharp ox-bow and is the site of the main river docks).

We further questioned Jasper, but didn't get any more salient information. He would not reveal who had hired him - even with more cajoling [ and good Persuade rolls ].

"More than mah life's worth," he muttered.

Jasper the Mask

While we were inside questioning Jasper the Mask, outside the Defeated Seagull, Donk was confronted by a toff called Hugh Le Bron who wanted to buy both "slaves" Gandhi and Balder (as a "pigeon pair"), for tens of thousands of gold pieces each. Donk politely declined this generous offer, so Hugh gave Donk his card for future consideration.

We headed to River Bend. There were a few inns near this spot:  the Bedraggled Monkey, Limping Sahuagin, New Onion Inn, and the Lively Turtle Bar. But we didn't find any more information about a fight that occurred four weeks ago. Understandingly - there are fights and altercations every night around here.

Gandhi had been tasked to watch the Seagull after we left - he being the best of our hiders and sneakers. Sure enough, later that evening, one of Jasper's thugs left the inn suspiciously; so, Gandhi followed.

This thug went to the Globe casino; being a gnome, Gandhi could not follow. 

He returned to us to report. So... it seems Simone's attack was was an inside job then...

SO... 

With that lead on ice, we went after our other lead from last time. Simone had a brother called Tommo Fussel. He lived in Disen, a day or so Funkenwards of Draser. Disen ho!

Two days later (en route, we helped some unfortunates fix a wagon wheel), we arrived in Disen.

Disen was a small rural town, pop 320, with two travellers' inns here: The Porcelain Ferret and the Old Boot. The proprietor of the Ferret knew Tommo. Tommo lived in a cottage in the town called "The Oaks", there being three elderly oak trees in the yard. 

Tommo AND his sister - who matched Simone's description(!) - had been seen here two weeks ago. But that night, there had been a fire in the cottage, and the two not seen again. No-one had done any investigations about the strange fire. We don't even think they called the Sheriff.

Sophia and Donk spoke to proprietor of the Old Boot, Graham Greene: A group of five horseman were seen in town around the time of The Oaks fire. Further pushed, one of their descriptions matched a chap called Doily, from the Globe in Draser.

So, we went to visit the cottage the next day. 

Slim, our tracker, checked the stables. Some old horse tracks leaving.

Gandhi explored the three trees, and tied some yellow ribbons around the old oak trees. Then put the blame on me.

There was a well - empty, nothing significant.

The fire damage to the cottage was not too severe - the fire never took hold. It was a stone building, so some of the roof was holed, but no structural damage. We broke in and started searching.

There was a hallway, one bedroom, a common room with kitchen and a locked office - Gandhi narrowly avoided a death-poison needle trap in here. After that, Sophia and I started to use multiple Detect Magic and Detect Trap spells in every room.

In the fireplace in the kitchen, a brick slid and opened up a vertical shaft going down below the fire hearth. So we all went down below - even Joe.

There were more traps down here, both mechanical and magical. Gandhi found (by himself!) a trap in the floor dropping him into a pit with spikes. Lucky for him, rather than get impaled or sodomized by the spikes, his fat gnome body got wedged between two enormous spikes.

In a bedroom down here, we found two trunks, and a wardrobe with expensive cloaks and out-door gear. So, we helped ourselves to the finery.

There was a locked desk which was trapped. Rather than attempt a dangerous trap removal (no magic helps here) Gandhi used his hole-saw to get into the drawers from the back.

Bag of Dust

There was a wealth of information here. There were lots of papers and documents. It turned out that Tommo is a saffron dealer. He owns a warehouse in Draser (in the Sprawl), and owns a share of a Draser inn the Bedraggled Monkey. 

We found some magic thieves tools - this gave a hint as to Tommo's profession (but why not carry said tools on himself?). There was also a Bag of Dust (TM), and a large magical long knife (short sword).

In another room, there were three beds. We spotted a secret door on one wall, but there was a magical trap on that wall and on the ceiling. Suspicion was that it triggered from that wall or the secret door. Dead reckoning made us suspect it lead to an escape tunnel to the outside. 

Summary:

My current theory is that the Globe doesn't want to be audited, so they tried to disappear Simone Fussel; rather than kill her, they got her sent to the Tower prison using Jasper the Mask. But her brother Tommo found out about this, and he sent some of his agents (maybe even helped himself) to Draser. They were the ones who waylaid Jasper's group in River Bend, and retrieved Simone. And then they brought her here to Disen. But then the Globe sent out some more bully-boys (the five horsemen) to here to get Simone again (presumably to kill her outright this time). But Tommo spotted them, so he and Simone took off (hence the tracks in the stables).