Session V: Vice City

13-14 Resting, 1304 AM

  With Del'Gado having returned, he informed the group of a whisper that struck him as being possibly pertinent to their task: that of Enkitan, formerly an informer for the Heshoo Gang, who had seemingly dropped off the face of the earth a year ago after becoming involved with "strange people." Imaros recognised the name, knew what he looked like, and the party made a plan to first try and establish contact with the ex-Heshoo, using clandestine communication methods deployed by the Heshoo, and thereafter to infiltrate the Red Sun antiques store and recover anything of note. Though initially reluctant to utilise less direct means, Malgrim was convinced to go along at Jacqualine's behest.   The plan for the Red Sun was for Malgrim to walk in and provide a distraction whilst Jacqualine entered the building, invisibly, to retrieve evidence. Del'Gado was the main lookout, but was also supposed to go in if Jacqualine proved unsuccessful, whilst Caerlin and Imaros held watch in an alleyway a few minutes from the store. The plan was successfully executed, and Malgrim, who displayed his Hammerite brooch, inadvertently learned from the shopkeeper that the Heshoo had some kind of deal with the local Hammerites. He also bought a tankard supposedly belonging to the extinct Axe-Splitter House from the Goldheart Deep-Hold; Malgrim could identify the tankard as authentic, but could comfortably dismiss the shopkeeper's tall stories about the item's supposed value. The tankard was bought for 70 gold crowns and a promise to not return. Jacqualine entered the basement which contained nothing of interest except a closed door, which, after she pre-emptively dispelled magic from it, was able to stealthily enter. In this room, she saw a partly-closed safe, and sensing some type of trap, cast the same spell again, after which she recovered several fiscal accounts, ledgers, and documents that seemed highly irregular for an antiques store. As Jacqualine had quickly rifled through the Red Sun's official business ledger on the way down, she could deduce that these were, at least partly, untampered accounts detailing the gang's financial situation. Further, in one section with names and numbers, likely some sort of record of extortion or ransom rates, one stood out: "Kuri Hoymat: 20000."   As this was happening, Caerlin spotted two figures walking towards the Red Sun. They seemed to be somewhat too certain in their direction, and were also very subtly concealing weapons, which he told Imaros, who was coaxed into following them. The two people noticed Imaros following them, but seemed unbothered by it. As Imaros left, Jacqualine swiftly followed, and they reconvened in the alley with Caerlin. They decided to head for the Builder's Arms in separate groups. Which they did.   Back at the large tavern, the Twilight Advocates decided to take it easy. Del'Gado struck up a conversation with two men who were playing a long game of chess, criticised their way of enjoying the game, ordered three gold crowns' worth of hard liquor, and challenged one of them to a faster-paced game, which Del'Gado ultimately triumphed in. Malgrim found the company of two local merry-goers, Ubar and Zuuth, and started playing drinking games. As Jacqualine was booking a room for the night, Iltani, the owner of the Builder's Arms, asked her for advice on how to get her friend to leave the tavern peacefully, as they were now becoming a nuisance for the other patrons. Jacqualine suggested luring them with alcohol. This worked. However, the revelry did not stop once outside, and instead the three men began playing strip-dice. Eventually, once all clothes had come off, four Hammerite Martinets confronted the intoxicated band and placed the group under arrest for a litany of public order violations. Del'Gado tried intervening, but Malgrim ran off, and Ubar and Zuuth tried running from the Martinets. The hobgoblin went up a roof and headed for the Diplomat's Refuge, with Del'Gado in tow. Once he had made it to the southern end of Judgment's Triangle, two Hammerite sentries ordered him to stop; Malgrim did not stop, and the senior officer cast a scroll of Hold Person. This did not work, and the sentries fired two crossbow bolts at him; one missed, and the dangerously drunk hobgoblin intercepted the other with his still-keen reflexes, catching it in his hand. Del'Gado saw this and used magic to impersonate the lead Martinet who took Ubar and Zuuth into custody, and pretended to have chased Malgrim all the way from the Builder's Arms. The lead sentry was content to let Del'Gado (as Malgrim blurted out his real name during the process) handle the paperwork for this affair. The pair ended up back at the tavern in the dead of night.   In the morning, Hassimir returned to the tavern. As he sat down for a conversation with the adventurers, he took out a vast amount of documents and books from his satchel, and when Jacqualine presented him with the things she recovered, he filed them alongside his material. After asking some rudimentary questions, he neatly organised the documents and placed them in the satchel, and asked Imaros to hand it off to an associate by the door. Imaros did so, and was met by two associates, who appeared to lead him away, out from the tavern. Del'Gado demanded to know what was going on, and Hassimir insisted on doing one more thing before speaking frankly: he cast a spell whilst speaking in Akkonian code that Del'Gado could only guess was military in nature. After this, Hassimir stated that he knew that the party were concealing something from him as they had been seen entering and leaving Morrowfall Redoubt twice in the past seven days. However, he revealed that he was a maralictor in the Order of the Vice, one of the two Hellknight orders in Akkon, and that he, and a number of other Hellknights, had been contracted to gather evidence against the Heshoo with the goal of dismantling their organisation. He continued to say that the Elven Kiss was being sequestered and its employees interrogated, which was why Imaros was led away. Further, Hassimir gave a brief summary on the Order of the Vice's specialisation, which was defending the Material Plane against creatures from the Great Beyond. Asked why they were essentially working as regular mercenaries, he explained that it was a question of profitability. Nevertheless, after Jacqualine gave details about the adventurers' mission, as well as revealing that they were acting as Twilight Advocates, the maralictor could provide them with a short analysis: the figure they saw in the Gloomlight Forest was likely not a demon and that cults dedicated to Vyriavaxus have historically tended to operate in the guise of legitimate associations and societies. Further, he gave them the name of a particular society that had struck him as odd: the Society of the Red Mask, one of Akk-Ur's many theatrical associations. Whilst he was unconvinced of them being involved with demonic activity, he still believed that they warranted further investigation, and a complete lack of evidence meant that no formal process had been undertaken against them. Finally, regarding monetary compensation, Hassimir informed the group that they could collect it at the Ennead Star Embassy at their discretion, using a back door if so preferred.