The Debt

 Present:

• 

  Simone Fussell,
  Vingt-et-Un auditor

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

By Walton

We were in the city of Draser, fourth largest city in the Known World (95,000). We were trying to find Simone Fussell. She was a Vingt-et-Un auditor and 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, Goddess of Luck. 

We were at the Bedraggled Lizard inn speaking to the staff there, and the barmaid Thelma. We had spent the last few days following leads for Simone and had ended up here. That night, an hour after dark-fall, in our room, who would arrive, but Simone Fussell herself ! Large as life, and hale and hearty.

We quickly introduced ourselves as working for Vingt-et-Un Priestess Amy Fazarkerley from Toluene, and related our tale so far.

She then regaled us with her tale:

"... I was investigating the upper storey of the Globe..."

This was the storey of the Globe that we were forbidden to enter. It was for the high-rollers and one had to pay 10,000 gp just to get access. Miranda would not let us in.

Simone continued:

"... I suspected that there was some illegal gambling going on up there, that was not being reported to Vingt-et-Un. This was both illegal and a heresy. It did not help that priestess Miranda refused to give me access too. Despite this, I probed and sneaked around.  I happened to overhear a conversation between a rotund gentleman and a velour-clad older man, a wizard.

'I can not give that up! I can not give that up! Please, no!' said the velour guy.

'Ah, but you already have!'

So, cautiously, I followed the wizard. He went into Goldenton [posh district of Draser] to a mansion on Exeter Boulevard, number 143."

Simone must have been followed. Because that very night, she was beaten up and kidnapped outside the Barbaric Monkey in The Sprawl by, we already knew, Jasper the Mask. Then she was rescued at River Bend, again we knew, by her brother Tommo, then taken to the warehouse behind the Bedraggled Lizard and then on to Disen. 

Doily, thug of the Globe

A few days later, in Disen, Tommo's house "The Oaks" was raided, lead by thug Doily of the Globe. She and Tommo fled Disen, and made their way back to Draser. Here they hid in the warehouse near the Bedraggled Lizard, laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters where the ragged people go, looking for the places only they would know. (Lie la lie. Bizzzh ...)

Why didn't Simone simply send a message to Toluene? Why not tell Amy that she was okay? And report the treachery of Miranda? Well, being in Draser, and knowing Draser's prejudice towards gnomes, she mistakenly assumed this hatred would corrupt Gnomepost's raison d'etre.

Since our primary mission was to locate Simone, we were now at a loose end. So, we offered to guard Simone and to work for her, and help her investigations. We could be her muscle. She agreed whole-heartedly. So, we negotiated new rates. Of course, Sophia and I would work for free - helping the glory of Vingt-et-Un was enough reward for us! - but the other mercenary party members needed their own rewards: 500gp per week was the final figure.

So, first things first: COMMS. Unlike Simone, WE trusted Gnomepost. After all, Gnomepost runs in far more dangerous and bigotted parts of the Known World than Draser. So, we sent a Gnomepost message immediately:

TO: PR. AMY FAZARKERLEY, 21 TEMPLE, TOLUENE.

FROM: PR. SOPHIA BEAUCHAMP, WALTON FORMALIN, ET AL, OBSCENE GNOLL INN, DRASER.

MESSAGE: TARGET FOUND HEALTHY. PARTY UNDER NEW ORDERS UNLESS OTHERWISE INSTRUCTED.

This message was vague enough so even if we Simone's Gnomepost paranoia was real, the readers could not get that much information. And if they targeted the Obscene Gnoll, we no longer frequented it. But, should the message get through unscathed, then Amy would have a place where she could contact us. Amy would know full-well who the "Target" was.

That afternoon, Slim and I headed for the Eternal Goose, the front for the Thieves Guild. 

Reggie

On the way, we encountered a  group of frightened elves on the street who were rounded up by townsfolk and soldiers, and then summarily killed in front of us. This is normal fare for Draser, so I mention it here only for context.

Slim went inside the Eternal Goose and found Reggie, his contact, and he tried to find information on the wizard who lived at 143 Exeter Boulevard. Nothing.

The next day, we sent another message to Toluene. This time with no contact address for return messages:

TO: PR. AMY FAZARKERLEY, 21 TEMPLE, TOLUENE.

FROM: S.B. & W.F.

MESSAGE: MIRANDA UNDER SUSPICION.

We then went to the council records (Funken Wagnall) and got data on 143 Exeter Boulevard. It is owned by the Porshay family: Jason and Greta. There was also a Death Notice: Wizard Jason Porshay, "natural causes". Oh dear.

So, we all went to visit the actual mansion on 143 Exeter Boulevard. An elderly woman answered the door. She was Greta. Wizard Jason was indeed the guy we were after. To make things worse, they had a 16 year old daughter, Selina, who was missing. We found out that Jason had a big gambling problem and he had gambled the mansion away, and then offered his daughter a stake in a game to win it back. And lost her too. She went missing that day.

Jason couldn't handle this, so he hanged himself.

The tragic gambling debt was to the fat guy that Simone had overheard. He was named Zephyr the Turk. (The "Turk" epithet was used ironically in this case. Turk is a gnomish derogatory term for humans, from ಟರ್ಕಿ "tarki" which is gnome for dog faeces. Originally from the famous ballad "Me and Kirk and a dog named Turk" by the gnome bard Lobo. C.F. the 1971 song)

Zephyr the Turk

To rub salt into poor Greta's wounds, only yesterday, Doily, thug of the Globe, had come to the Porshay house to take possession of the ownership papers. She had two weeks to leave.

We gave our commiserations and sympathy to Greta, and promised we would help her. Then we left to go check on any town records for Zephyr the Turk. No sign.

Donk and Slim went to the Eternal Goose to check to see what the TG has on Zephyr. Reggie suggested "Try the Pits" (The Pits is the main slave district of Draser)

So, we headed there.

After some more investigations and machinations, we established that Zephyr the Turk owned a saffron farm down the Draser River, about two days' travel. He also had an interest in "special" slaves - human, half-elf & elf.

Tommo Fussell

We knew that Tommo Fussell was into saffron too, so, we headed back to the Bedraggled Lizard, and met with Tommo Fussell.

Tommo told us that Zephyr makes very high quality saffron. It needed special slave girls to pick it for some reason. We never did get an answer what made these girls special. Long fingers? Virgins? Delicate constitutions?

Tommo and Simone had some more information for us about the Globe. The Globe itself is "a Draser city asset". Arnie the hook runs the Globe. But Arfur the Lad, Head of the TG,  also has financial interest in it too.

Upon hearing the results of our investigations, Simone ordered us to go rescue the girl Selina Porshay. Presumably she was now a slave on Zephyr's saffron plantation.

"It is the least we could do to help the poor Porshay family," she said.

We tended to agree.

Fine-tooth comb

But first we returned to the Porshay mansion, and asked Greta if we could search it thoroughly. We had some fine fine-tooth combs.

Slim and Donk went up and searched the attic with a fine-tooth comb. The rest of us, searched the study. Detect Magic and Detect Traps revealed that there were magic traps on a unopened layer of the desk. Impatient to find something, Sophia touched it and there was a loud bang. She was shrunk to the size of a mouse. But that cleared the trap and we could then get into the locked section of the desk. Little squeaky Sophia rode on my collar.

We found a record of accounts and a key, both magic. The accounts ledger showed various amounts of money dropping from some account., Presumably it was Jason's gambling. They were large amounts - like -20,000 gp, -5,000 gp, -10,000 gp etc. 

WG locker key

I recognized the key as a Wizards' Guild locker key that we used in large guilds (Draser being a big city, had a big guild). So, while the others stayed and kept searching with their combs, I (with little Sophia) went to the guild. As a mystic and arcane spell-caster myself, I was fully entitled to the benefits and privileges afforded to wizards. 

First things first: I asked the desk clerk about the shrunken Sophia. He laughed in his stony voice and said he could ID her (8 hours and 100gp gem) but then would probably need a Dispel Magic, or "maybe it will just wear off".

In the WG locker room, the key identified the locker to me (think pressing the button on a car-key remote in an underground car park) and I opened it. Inside were some more books, a magical robe and magical walking stick (Detect Magic reveal). I brought all this stuff back to the Porshay mansion.

In our sympathy-driven goody two-shoes state, we gave Greta all of Jason's stuff, rather than loot it for our own greedy selves. But we did keep the books.

It was about then, half a day later, that Sophia popped and regained full size.

Sophia and I then headed off to see Miranda in the Globe. Miranda was now in the category of "hostile witness" so we were very careful what we said to her. We told her that our investigations had located Simone's trail down in the Sprawl near the Barbaric Money and that she went missing from that spot. We also mentioned our enquiries had implicated Jasper the Mask. But we said the trail went cold from then on. 

We then left, and suspected we'd be followed. So went to the Obscene Gnoll and stayed the night there.

Sure enough, we were indeed followed. This gave more evidence to the treachery of Miranda. 

We left the Gnoll the next morning, and managed to lose our followers. We returned to the Bedraggled Lizard.

Upon checking the Porshay ledger, the accounts ledger numbers had all dropped to 0. Magically. This was the unnamed entries of -5000, -10000 etc. They were all now 0s.

I cast an Identify spell on the magical ledger. It was a remote-script device and had a duplicate somewhere else. When one such ledger is written upon, using a special tuned magical quill, the other ledger mimics the writing and the entries. So, there would be an identical ledger elsewhere, and someone - Miranda maybe? - had changed these figures to 0. This was more circumstantial evidence to tar Miranda with. Our message to Amy (in Toluene) proclaiming Miranda's guilt was well-founded.

.