Entry #29 - Jean Marie's gold is recovered (partially)

[Added to Journal entry #26: Three days earlier,, after visiting the Swap Shop, Franklin went back to his room. After hearing a knock, he opens the door to come face to face with an old man. The old man holds up a paper, a wanted poster, of Franklin! "are you this man?", he asks. Franklin, finding himself a little caught off guard, expecting the knock to be from his friends, fails to come up with a good deception. Fortunately, it turns out the old man just had a personal message for Franklin, asking him to stay away from Trixie, so as to keep her "out of trouble". Trixie finds Franklin the next morning, and they chat for a bit. He finds out her family has a connection to the Harpers. She mentions a parade coming up, and she is looking for help with look-outs, as they want to do a simultaneous operation to free some slaves. ]
 
Our showdown at the Orphanage continues, as we attempt to regain Jean Marie's stolen gold....
 
Franklin and Draxon arrive late to the Orphanage. Franklin goes in, posing as an orphan, and once he hears commotion, yells for all of the kids to "go upstairs; there is a fight!". While he is able to fool the guards, tricking them into believing he is another orphan, the Madame is not so easily fooled. She tells Franklin, "I hear your friend calling you", and Franklin hears my voice calling for help, even though I am currently a block away from the orphanage, but he isn't fooled and heads for the kitchen. However, I'm close enough that I hear my own voice calling Franklin from outside of the Orphanage. Realizing there is some magic afoot, I dash back towards the Orphanage.
 
Jean Marie tries to persuade the children to leave their life of crime at the orphanage, but fails. They clearly see this as their only way forward in life. He starts to see a large gathering of kids, many of whom came up looking for the fight Franklin mentioned. A few approach him with a rolled up blanket, and also sees some start to barricade the room. Jean Marie starts to get worried at this point, but somehow manages to convince them to scatter.
 
As I head closer to the Orphanage, I send Uttu upstairs to see what's going on.
 
He sees Franklin leave through the back door, and Jean Marie starting to tie a rope to a point in the room, clearly ready to climb out the window. As he climbvs out, Uttu gets swatted by the Madame and disappears to the ether dimension.
 
We all regroup outside of the Orphanage. Jean Marie is clearly frustrated that the children won't leave their life of crime, and realized they were about to turn on him if he hadn't of left. Franklin didn't learn anything about where the money may be, and also realized he was made by the Madame. Odd tired of throwing the marble against the kid's head so left for the Casino. Franklin heads out to scout the parade route for Trixie. Jean Marie heads for the dock, upset about still being broke. His frustration showed itself when he [un]wisely picked a fight with Draxon, after Draxon laughed at him for wanting to start pit-fighting at the docks for money. As you can imagine, this didn't end so well.
 
Meanwhile, I decide to head back to the orphanage with the beggar disguise I used in Phlan. But first I spend some time to re-summon Uttu. Having resummoned him, I head to the Orphage, posing as a beggar while I send him into the Orphanage to see if he can follow the Madame to find Jean Marie's gold. He successfully jumps onto her robes. I thought things were going well, until I see the Madame start to walk directly towards me, outside of the Orphanage! I attempt to continue my ruse, but she sees right through it. She attempts to charm me, but thanks to some precognition from Savras, I alter the fates to have her fail that attempt. She seemed startled at this, and I somehow successfully convince her that if she returns half of Jean Marie's gold, she will never see us again. I follow her up to her room and sign a contract stating this. I sense some magic on this document, but with the kids swarming behind me, I see no way forward other than to sign this contract. To her credit, the Madame holds to her word and I leave with half of his gold, and my life as well!
 
I head back to the Inn to find Jean Marie sulking over a beer, and throw him his bag of gold on the table. "Here's your gold. Half of it anyway. Best I could do." He stares at me, mouth agape, "what... how...". I say "let me buy you a beer", and proceed to tell him about how I recovered some of his gold.