The Stranger

Present:

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

By Donk

The group briefly debated the merits of exiting the basement of Tommo's place via the magically trapped secret door, and then we all clambered back up the ladder hidden in the fireplace. Slim lingered at the back, looking wistfully at the secret door for a minute or two, then followed everyone else back up the ladder. As the stone hearth slid quietly back into place it was decided that we needed to retrieve our equipment from the Porcelain Ferret, and head back to Draser as quickly as possible.

The timing of the events here in Disen, when combined with our previous discoveries in Draser, indicated that Simone had been snatched off the street the day before her audit of the Globe Casino books, then almost immediately rescued by Tommo and taken down to Disen to hide. They had been discovered here in Disen after a few weeks by Globe hoods and fled back to Draser to hide out there. Tommo had been seen in the Eternal Goose, talking furtively with Reggie the barman, after the Disen fire, and we knew he owned a warehouse down in the Draser Docks, and was part owner of a tavern somewhere there also. [This ownership information had been found in the various papers and documentation the party had located in the basement of The Oaks, Tommo's house in Disen, now partially burnt down]

And off we went. 

It was a two-day trip back to Draser, so we negotiated with a farmer close to nightfall and stayed in his cosy barn. There was a small incident in the night when three Orcs and six Goblins tried to rustle the farmers cow herd, but we successfully dealt to those, and delivered the heads to the farmer and reassured him that his barn and field were under excellent care for the night. He was most appreciative.

We did notice that one of the Orcs was wearing a Draser Dragoon emblem roughly stitched onto his leather jerkin, so we ripped that off him with a view to report it to the militia once we got back to Draser.

"What if they hire Orcs in the Dragoons?" wondered Slim out loud.

"Let's not bother reporting it" suggested Walton, "They may have carte-blanche to raid farms"

"But if that was the case, surely they would just take them in the day. Why bother sneaking about at night?" prompted Slim.

We eventually arrived back at Draser after nightfall and didn't bother reporting anything. We decided that our old Inn, the Obscene Gnoll, would be perfect as a base to follow Tommo's property ownership leads, and even managed to get our old rooms back. We planned to head off to the Docks district in the morning and settled in for a quiet night.

Surprisingly, it was a quiet night, and in the morning we all trooped off to the Docks district on a hunt for Tommo's warehouse, and the Bedraggled Lizard Tavern of which he was a part owner. Malcolm was pretty sure that no one was following us, and the Docks district was pretty busy, even in the morning. So, we blended in with the crowds, kind of.

We found the Lizard, which looked like a nice cozy place, and directly across the road was a large warehouse that Walton figured was Tommo's. Despite Slim's protects to the contrary, we all popped into the Lizard for a drink. Even the Gnome slaves were allowed inside, although Walton kept up his pretend abuse of Malcolm, "to maintain appearances". He had him on a leash!

"Can you pretend a bit gentler?" whispered Malcolm after one of Walton's more enthusiastic thumps.

The Lizard was a nice cozy place, friendly towards our Gnomes (and other slaves), the female barmaid was helpful and cheerful, and we decided we should relocate from the Gnoll so we "could be closer to the Docks". Wink ...

Red, Slim, and Sophia stayed at the Lizard, while the rest of the party went back to check out of the Gnoll and transfer our equipment. Sophia struck up a conversation with the barmaid (Thelma) about potential transport to Hackerton [We had also discovered that Tommo was a saffron trader, with quite a bit of commerce to Hackerton, so a Hackerton transport seemed a safe course of investigation] 

The Stranger

Red and Slim had settled in at one of the tables with a few beers, and scanning around Slim noticed a darkly clad hooded figure sitting quietly in a back corner of the barroom. He was occasionally sipping from a tankard and smoking a pipe. A flickering candle cast shadows across his face, and curls of pungent smoke from his pipe masked any potential scents. His eyes seemed to be resting steadily on them, with an occasional glance across to Sophia at the bar.

"Mmmm", noted Slim, "A suspicious stranger"
"Subtle, or direct?" asked Red.

"Direct" replied Slim, standing up and purchasing a new tankard of beer.

Slim dropped into the seat next to the stranger, pushed over the beer towards him, and launched into a long tale about going on a hunt for a missing friend. The stranger was silent for the whole tale. then rose up and walked away. He did say a quiet "thank you" as he left, but nothing else.

"Mmmm" noted Sophia, "An Elvish accent"

That evening the stranger was back in the bar, and Sophia noticed he was drinking a fine elvish wine. There were plenty of others in the bar, including a bunch of slaves, but no one else was drinking anything like the wine the stranger had. Except Sophia. She asked Thelma at the bar for the same drink as "that guy". Thelma asked a question in elvish, and Sophia replied in elvish. Sophia took two elvish wines over to the stranger and had a quiet conversation. They talked about Tommo, and the saffron trade. Sophia mentioned looking for a "special" saffron.

While this discussion was going on in the corner, Slim was checking the whole place for anyone else that might have been paying undue attention to Sophia and the stranger. Only Thelma at the bar was paying any attention, and she whispered something to her associate barman. Slim sidled up to the other barman just after that and let him know that he was trying to get in touch with Tommo, and with the person he is protecting. 

The other slaves became very angry

Balder (as Donk's personal slave) mingled with the other slaves, who appeared to be generally happy with their lot, and happy that this Tavern was so friendly to their plight. But they had noted that Walton (as Malcolm's owner) was not a nice person, and very aggressive and disrespectful to Malcolm. Balder was happy to encourage their discontent, and Walton was soon the target of some very angry glares!

Walton chose not to acknowledge the negative attention directed towards him and gave Malcolm a good cuff around the ears.

Then he decided to retire to our rooms for the night.

The next morning Walton gave Malcolm another cuff round the ears and told him that he needed to head out and reconnoitre the warehouse.

"Try and break in and see what's going on in there" Walton instructed.

"Holdy on" suggested Balder, "I can be making you invisible"

With a wave of his hands, Balder cast his Invisibility spell, Malcom disappeared from sight, and then the door to the room swung open, and clicked closed again.

Everyone made their way to the outdoor deck, ordered some breakfast from Thelma, and settled down to wait. Ten minutes of invisibility, plenty of time for a decent scout!

A minute later, a loud klaxon sounded from across the road. Heads swivelled towards the side door of the warehouse, which suddenly slammed closed with a crash. 

"Oh deary me" muttered Balder, "I hoping Malcolm not being inside dere"

We figured that we should wait out the ten minutes before taking direct action, and just before that time wound down, Malcolm's voice sounded from under the breakfast table.

The warehouse side door

"Moof over" Malcolm whispered, "Giff me some space"

"I unlocked the door in a flash" Malcom continued, "But as soon as it swung open an inch, woop woop"

"I just keep walking along the street" he concluded, appearing on the bench seat between Walton and Balder, "And there are definitely people inside dere!"

Sophia wrote out a short note stating that she was on an assignment from VINGT-ET-UN to locate and rescue Simone Fussel, that she knew Simone was likely to be with Tommo Fussel, and that our references from VINGT-ET-UN could be verified at the Lizard at any time. Sophia then slipped across the street, past the side door of the warehouse, with a slight pause to slide the note underneath the door.

Sophia then wandered up to the bar, and let Thelma know that we were on an assignment from VINGT-ET-UN and were looking to find and rescue Simone. And that we also knew about Tommo and his ownership of the warehouse, and part ownership of the Lizard.

Some hours later, we noticed that the main warehouse doors had swung open, and a team of stevedores had begun to lug out transport boxes and load them onto two barges tied up the adjacent dock. Each barge had a couple of guards, and the stevedore crew looked to be about six or seven strong.

"Ghandi, get over there and check out the inside" commanded Walton, with another cuff around the ear.

Balder cast Invisibility on Malcolm again, and he disappeared for another reconnoitre attempt.

Just shy o ten minutes later, Malcom was back with some exciting news. There was a large guy inside the warehouse giving orders, and the others had called him Tommo! This was it.

"Oh" added Malcolm, "Dey vill be lugging oot some people sized crates soon!"

"Probably smuggling slaves or elves out of the city" suggested Sophia.

"But" gasped Walton, "They might be smuggling Simone away too"

Sophia leapt up from our table and strode purposely across the road, past the stevedores, and in through the warehouse doors.

"Where's your boss" we faintly head from where we were sitting.

And then the large double doors of the warehouse pulled closed with a thump.

"Let's charge" suggested Slim.

"I'm ready" noted Donk, hand dropping to the hilt of his sword.

"Hold on, hold on" commanded Walton, "We know its Tommo in there, she'll be fine"

"It was Tommo in there, wasn't it Ghandi" asked Walton.

"Oh yes, absolutely was Tommo" stammered Malcolm.

"I bin seeing him with my own eyes" confirmed Malcolm.

"Of course, I never seem him before" clarified Malcolm, "But he be looking just like Tommo"

"Anyway, de offer guys, dey call him Tommo" 

On Walton's reasoning, we decided to wait for fifteen minutes, enough time for Sophia to talk her way out of trouble, and then we would charge in and smash through the warehouse doors in a glorious rescue attempt.

After ten minutes, while we were all staring across the road at the warehouse doors, with Balder providing a minute-by-minute countdown [Wizards all carry an accurate chronometer to assist in their magical stuff], the stranger wanders out of the main bar, hood up, and speaks to Walton.

"Your Sophia is fine" he said.

"She ees just concluding some discussions with our Monsignor Tommo, and will rejoin you shortly"

Then he slipped back inside the Tavern, before Walton could even formulate a reply.

Twenty minutes later, the warehouse side door swung open, and Sophia emerged. She bustled across the street and slumped back down at our table.

"She is there" Sophia reported, "Simone is there. She will meet with us tonight at 8pm in our rooms"