Situation Report Four

General Summary

As we are considering our next move, a young woman dressed in soft leather and a hooded cape comes wandering around a stack of crates. "Err hiya don’t I know you? Well in case you haven’t recognised me", she takes off her hood and shakes out her hair which is a pixie cut with a long centre of deep red that falls down to her left shoulder, "I'm Cheryl but you can call me Cherry (like the fruit) "Now your team is making enough noise to raise the locals, and I certainly see you have a conundrum here.” Boulder looks around at Cherry like a startled rabbit, turns to sit on a nearby pallet and sits down heavily, head shaking as he looks at his boots, cursing quietly, "By Laia's tits, another woman to break my balls."

Humping the Crates

We make a rapid decision to move the three Gort crates out of the North-Eastern-most door. Crates secured in the skiff, Cherry and I quant the vessel back towards the Inn, while Ugnan and Sharna walk back. When we get to The Old Sword we decide to move the crates up into the Common room by the back external stairs. I feel a twinge; a sense that someone or something is looking at us. Cherry and Sharna do a recce around the Inn and spot a small creature drop into a canal and disappear.
In the meantime, Ugnan helps me carry the crates up and we empty the Gort into the roof void. We settle down to sleep, with Ugnan on first watch.
During my watch, I overhear a mournful young female voice outside the windows repeating a sad phrase over and over, “Unkissed, unloved, unwanted, unremembered, forgotten.” I pad to investigate by peering outside – I see no one out the window. Anxious, I wake the others, but we don’t hear the voice again.

Cherry Proves her Worth

After a fairly short but quick run I meet everyone in the tap room. We resolve to take a sample of the Gort to the rendezvous, to plan the trade handover and to warn Deltar to keep these out of the hands of children. Ugnan and Sharna, with Cherry on lookout, head over to The Crock and Bull and sit down to talk, Cherry remains outside on lookout. Feeling my shoulders stiffening up I spend a happy couple of hours splitting wood out the back of The Old Sword.
“So Ugnan, do you have good news for me about my healing herbs?” “Of course we do”, replies Ugnan before negotiating a twenty-percent rate for the value of the Gort. Deltar proposes that the hand-over will be made tomorrow at a dock that got burned and is due to be demolished. After the deal is set up, Cherry discretely follows Deltar to an old asylum called Hadeshill Asylum (locals call it ‘The Shudders’). Sometime later an extremely well-dressed gentleman comes out of Hadeshill and purposefully strides down the street. Cherry follows him into the library quarter.
Cherry continues following the well-dressed man, who she recognizes as a well-disguised Deltar. Deltar ambles over to the Estate of Beteran, a major trade rival to Alaxatan. What new deceit is this – the two houses are sworn enemies. Fair play Cherry – I wasn’t convinced until now, but that is damned impressive work.
Meanwhile, back at The Old Sword, Sharna, Ugnan and I plan for a decoy delivery in the crates, while transporting the actual Gort in old beer barrels.

A Good Deal

We opt to get to the exchange location in the old docks well in advance of the hand-over and, after an early night, arrive there well before dawn. Ugnan senses that something or someone is judging us, and we are creating a good impression. Ugnan spots a light reflected in a puddle, although it is gone as soon as he sees it – is someone invisible following us? I bloody hate weird shit like this. We prepare for the handover and after a couple of hours Deltar arrives in a skiff. He hands over a pouch of 200 gold and looks over the barrels of Gort, while I count the coin. The exchange goes to plan.
“Are you interested in another job for me?”
Deltar appraises Sylke’s dress and possible skill set before continuing, “House Elgata is a thorn in my side – knowledge of their shipping schedules means we could beat them to market.” Deltar explains that he wants us to break into their shipping office and investigate the manifests, copying out dates etc. Sylke negotiates an improved fee of 350 gold for the work. “Find out information for three ships: The Waverunner, Yrthapper and Foamfollower.”
I notice the tell-tale weapon calluses on the hands of Deltar’s accomplices who must be well-trained mercenaries. As we leave the deal, Ugnan spots what he swears is a hand disappearing under the misty water of the canal. Sylke and Ugnan discusses what the hand may be, and believe it could be some sort of water sprite.

Shopping Spree

We have a quiet, earnest conversation with Cherry about party loyalty before distributing the vast sum of forty gold to each of us. I can finally afford a breast plate and decent helm – and some more knives. You can never have too many knives.

Damn Good Steaks

We locate the office and retire to The Pig n' Poke, which has great and surprisingly cheap food and drink. After a while we discover that Hoccar Sarhana ran the Elgata house finances, although was recently sacked. Ugnan and I move over to sit at Hoccar’s table. By Cay the steaks in this place are good. After two steaks, I come up for air and see that Ugnan and Hoccar are still droning on about some other major House business. Later Ugnan tells us that, Hoccar blustered about false accusations of trading information from House Elgata to House Beteran. “Some chit of a maid led to whispers, and whispers led to me being kicked out on the street.” Ugnan weaved his magic and built trust with Hoccar – apparently Hoccar had a problem with my love of steak. What a wanker. Ugnon tells me that, Yelin is the youngest brother of Aldaran Elgata (the Head of the family) and Hoccar suspects that Yelin had him removed on fictitious stories of espionage because the Major Domo had complained to Aldaran of his younger brother's dealings with some of the servants, particularly Sigrid Holan a pretty red-haired maid. Ugnan takes Hoccar’s business card so we can in touch with him in the future.

New Mission Objective

We have our next mission. Infiltrate the serving staff of House Elgata and find the shipping manifests. Some people are stupid with their money – 350 gold for finding some paper. How hard can that be?

Report Date

19 May 2018

Primary Location

Sel-kai