03. January 12, 2020

Jaindoh’s Guardsmen, from Guards Barracks #1

Jaindoh reports our concerns, she is so impassioned that she persuades the guard at the desk that there’s a serious problem afoot. He listens, eyes widening as she gets louder and more impassionioned. He says “wait one moment,” then returns with four guardsmen. He says “Jaindoh, hero of the people, take these men with you and get to the bottom of this!” and the four guardsmen follow us from the barracks. Their names are Roberarry, Dayhat, Lewison, and Wanstien. They are normally on night shift, but since the fire and the murdered guardsman since this morning, they are all hands on deck and ready to assist Jaindoh however is needed.

Castle Ward Investigation

As it is too late in the day to return to Phalantar’s, we eight go to the Castle Ward’s guards barracks to get more information from their investigation. Cam explains what we know--and asks if they can tell us anything further. We speak to Azelenaus. He doesn’t give us any information. We give up and go home. We ask our four guardsmen to run patrols in Field Ward, to help ensure the safety of the occupants. Since nothing exciting came of it, Jaindoh’s four guardsmen are recalled to their regular duties.

In the morning, Cam takes bread to his urchins and asks them to keep an eye out. Jaindoh and Reddy tell people they will help anyone experiencing emotional or physical after effects from the fire. Hakon goes to the Endshift Tavern. The barkeeper offers that to work off some of his tab, Hakon could help with a rat problem down on the Breezeway, in the basement of the very last shanty on the cliff.

A House Full of Surprises, But Not Any Rats

Hakon agrees to do it, and recruits his friends to help. We enter the house. It is abandoned. We don’t see any rats. But we enter anyway, and go down. It is empty. As the first two cross the basement to the far end, the air suddenly feels as if it is charged with static. There is a chest at the far end; the static sensation seems to build; Jaindoh and Hakon hear something whispered, and then the chest suddenly disappears and a giant spider appears in its place! It bites down on Jaindoh’s armored forearm, unsuccessfully trying to inject poison. The fight is on! Before Hakon kills the spider, Cam goes down, paralyzed from its poison. Luckily, he’ll recover in about an hour.

However...we hear someone on floor above us; the door slams with the sound of it being bolted. Then the sounds of a lantern smashing, and we smell smoke. We belatedly realize the situation was a setup and a trap, and someone wants to kill us. Luckily, there is also a secret passage in the corner, activated by a pressure point, with a 20-foot passage up steps. We push the pressure points on the bolthole door above us, some dirt rains down on us, and we slide the trap door aside, and we are now inside the city walls (which are 40 feet high), so no way to see who set the shanty on fire. We are in a small grove of trees by the wall, and are at the back entrance of an inn called The Maiden’s Tears. We prop Cam up comfortably, and talk over the situation while he recovers. In 70 minutes, Cam is recovered. He convinces us that since it’ll take too long to get around from North Ward into the Field Ward to the shanty, we should return through the tunnel to see if we can discover anything.

The fire is over, but there are witnesses talking to someone. A stern voice asks “are you sure?” and someone responds “the barkeep told him about the job to get rid of rats by someone who wanted to buy the building; but it looks like he set the place on fire, just like he set that outhouse on fire.” The stern voice (likely a guardsman taking statements) says that if Hakon isn’t dead from the fire, he’ll question Hakon when they find him.

Who Wants Us Dead?

We decide to lay low, since people might assume we are dead. We need to use our “deaths” to our advantage. We can use Cam’s network of urchins to help gather information and spread rumors of our demise or our continued well-being. But first, we need to set up a trap to try to lure our enemies in; and second, we need to see if the barkeep will describe who told him about the job (and was he paid, or just passing on what he thought was real information).

Cam and Hakon return to the burnt-out shanty via the secret passage. Nobody has disturbed the wreckage to try to search for bodies. He burrows out; there’s no place someone could hide. But Jaindoh remembers the two figures we saw in the tavern, that nobody else saw, that disappeared without any trace, and wonders if they were involved.

We think that maybe an invisible person was in the room at first...and they whispered to summon the spider. And then invisibly walked out after our backs were turned.

The Urchin Network

Cam offers money to about 8-12 urchins, to listen for us. He also offers to have the Shelter set up one square meal a day for them.

The only interesting thing they heard is that a noble woman had an accident in a carriage traversing through Field Ward..they had to call in healers to help her and carry her away. The urchins managed to grab trinkets from the carriage.

So they didn’t really find any information, but Cam gives them some coppers for listening anyway.