Bounty Hunters for Hire

[jedipotter]

Jarbaw Nighthill claps his hands and three half orcs come out of a back room and grab Laron Fullfingers and drag him back there and put him in a cell.

"Yea, well whatever he stole does not even matter. It not like they told us anyway. And it's not like they are paying to get the item back, they just want him. We run a business and the customer is always right.

He counts out a thousand gold coins and sets them on the table.

"Ready to get right back out there?"

He hands a scroll over Hengis Retheer, human male. Horse killer. Resisting arrest. Evasion. Six foot, dark skin and dark hair. Full beard. Several horse related tattoos, notable a headless horse on his chest. Bounty 500 gold, alive only. Dead 0.

"This guy seems a bit crazy. Hacking up horses. Not sure why. They tried to arrest him, set a trap and all. But he got away."

Spoiler: Laron Fullfingers stuff

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Nine daggers(three have a clear sticky substance on them. Two metal flasks, each filled with the clear sticky substance.

A set of thieves tools, bag of trail rations, and a waterskin.

His belt pouch has 30 copper coins, 11 silver coins and 8 gold coins.

Spoiler: XP

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You really want XP per bounty? It's gonna be low....

[esorscher]

(I don't need XP per bounty, I'm happy to level up whenever. Maybe after X number of successful bounties? Don't want to be an amazingly wealthy 2nd level character after all . I'm going to hold on to the Thieves' Tools, sticky substances, and the daggers coated in said substance. What kind of Knowledge check to ID/ where can I find someone to make such a check?)

"Hengis Retheer, horse killer." Leroy spits in a conveniently placed spitoon, making a pleasant ringing sound echo through the mostly empty place. He thinks of his horse Dharma, who, while 'just a horse', he is fond of. "Pour me a drink, then I'll get back out there." While he drinks, he asks some questions. "Who's 'they', and where can I find 'them'? Why do they want him alive only? Where'd they set the trap and how'd they lure him in?" He counts out the gold, but leaves it on the table. "One more thing, do you have platinum? Gold's a bit hard to carry." If not, Leroy will look for a moneychanger to exchange the gold for platinum coins.

[jedipotter]

Jarbaw Nighthill "Them would be the city watch. I can do better then platinum, I can give you a trade note. " He holds up a 1,000 gold trade note.

"You can find the Watchmen at the Watch Tower. I don't know why they want him alive. I don't ask many questions. So I don't know anything else about the trap."

Spoiler: OOC

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Knowledge nature or dungeoneering
Profession: apothecary

And your in such a place now...

[esorscher]

"A trade note, eh?" Leroy eyes the piece of paper skeptically. Coins had value, value he could hold. Paper money was a more dubious currency. "I think I'll stick to platinum, if you don't mind." If something happened to Jarbaw, nothing would happen to his own wealth. "I'll check with the Watch, then. Can you tell me anything about this sticky, clear substance?" he asks, holding up the flask and one of the daggers.

[jedipotter]

Jarbaw Nighthill "You want something small and portable, how about a diamond." he holds up a tiny cut diamond.


Jarbaw Nighthill looks over the flask and dagger, holds them up to the light and smells them

Spoiler: Roll

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(1d20+9)[20]

"Yes. I know exactly what that is. And I can tell you for just 100 gold.''

[esorscher]

"Come on, Jarbaw. You and me are going to be doing a lot of business together. Cut me a deal. It ain't worth 100 gold to me, but I can give you 10."

Spoiler

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I can't justify giving over 1/10th my last bounty to find out what this juice is. But if you charge me 1/10th of what it is worth, I'll gladly pay.

[jedipotter]

Jarbaw Nighthill "100 gold is my associates price. You should see what I'd charge others, ha! 10 gold? Come on! That's really cheap....like goblin cheap. See this is supply and demand, and my skills are in high demand. It's not like you don't have the money, you just got a big pay off. So 100 gold it is!"

Spoiler: ooc

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If you can't trust shady, semi-underworld, greedy, sneaky bounty hunter administrators/tavern owners, who can you trust....lol

[esorscher]

Leroy thinks it over. "I don't need to know that bad, yet. You may 'know,' but I can experiment, see what it does. Anyway, I'll be back later. Maybe I'll come back with more stuff for you to overcharge me on, we can work out some sort of three-for-one deal or something."

Leroy nods and collects his (Platinum) coins into a small sack which he keeps in a secret location on his person. He leaves a silver for the drink, then takes off, still smoking his cigarette. He leads his horse and dog through the city streets to the Watchtower, humming a slow, low song as he walks. He walks slowly until he finishes his cigarette, which he crushes under his boot as he continues. When he reaches the tower, he wraps the reins of his horse around a nearby post and walks in, his dog at his heels. To whatever Watchperson is on duty, he says, "I'm looking into the Hengis Retheer case. The horse killer. Who's in charge of the investigation?"

[jedipotter]

Desk Clerk Watchman looks you over and nods and points to a set of stairs. "You want Watchman Saulbios Nordoryar. Up the stairs, second room on your left."

The Watchtower is a large, plain, square tower. It is full of guards and workers and tied and chained up prisoners. The second floor has offices, each filled with a couple people. The second room on your left has a wide open door. Inside the small room is a quite messy office. Scrolls and bit of paper fill the shelves, bookcases, tables and the desk. Along with all sorts of items like daggers, hand shovels, axes, clay jars, tin cups and wooden boxes.

There are two empty chairs in front of the desk.

A human male, in chain mail sits at the desk writing in a book with a quill.

[esorscher]

"Thank you," Leroy says, and heads upstairs. Upon reaching the office, he says inquisitively, "Saulbios Nordoryar?" As the man looks up from his paperwork, Leroy is already sitting down in the left-most empty chair in front of the desk. "Leroy Brown," he introduces himself. "I'm looking into the Horsekiller case. Hengis Retheer. I'm told you're the man in charge of the investigation. Mind if I ask you some questions?"

[jedipotter]

Saulbios Nordoryar sits up straight and looks at you.

"Ah, well met. Sit down. How are you? Are you a victim? Or somehow connected to the case? If you have questions, feel free to ask away."

[esorscher]

"Well met. I'm an officer of the law, much like yourself," Leroy says with a slight smile. "I'm working privately on this case. I was hoping you could give me some insight into the perpetrator's activities and behavior. For start, when did the attacks begin? How many have there been? What are the details and circumstances of each attack, and when did each take place. Are there any commonalities between the attacks? I understand that the Watch attempted to trap Retheer, can you tell me more about that? What did you try, and why did it fail? I'm sure I'll have more questions for you, but I thought I'd start there."

[jedipotter]

Saulbios Nordoryar "Well, Hengis Retheer is a strange one. As far as we know he blew into the city about a week ago. And he killed his first couple of horses the very first night he got here. He is a follower of Malar and has some crazy ideas about the enslavement of animals...especially horses. But instead of setting them free, he kills them. Real brutal too, he cuts the head off and takes it with him...and does who knows what with it.

That we know of, there have been fifteen public known attacks. He goes it a night, generally a bit after sunset, but not too late. He goes to the corral or the post and kills the horse, often very quietly. Then leaves the bloody corpse to be found by the rider. And he hangs around to watch the show. The Watch was on his tail, but not too close.

So three days ago he kills the stallion of Aucaman Niconor. And he really get a bur in his saddle over it and he wants to help catch the guy. So two nights ago we set a trap. Aucaman got another one of his good stallions as bait. And Hengis took the bait. Unfortunately, most of the watchmen were overly distracted while not so pretending to drink and have a good time. So the trap was not exactly sprung according to plan, and Hengis got away.

And he went right back to killing a horse last night, number 15. "

[esorscher]

Leroy considers the facts of the case thoroughly before responding. "I imagine Aucaman Niconor is not too enthusiastic about another of his horses being used as bait. Does Retheer frequent the same stables and posts, or is he hitting a different place every night?

Where did you set the trap? Where was the last horse killed?"

[jedipotter]

Saulbios Nordoryar "Aucaman Niconor is a good enough fellow. I don't know about him using another horse, but he sure wants this horse killer caught. Hengis Retheer's attacks seem to be at random, as far as I can tell. He has killed horses at nine different locations, three were repeat spots. Though one of the repeats was our trap, so not sure if it counts.

Our trap was at the High Horse feasthall. It's a big popular place with the higher up locals and they keep the cowpokes and poor out. My father likes it, but it is not really my taste. They have a nice, private corral for the horses with pampered care and all. Apparently he disguised himself as a worker there, we found a worker all hog tied up, but not harmed except for a couple bumps.

Were not really sure why he is doing this...I mean killing horses is just down right weird."

[esorscher]

"Yeah, very weird. What's your plan for catching him? Do you have another trap set?"

[jedipotter]

Saulbios Nordoryar "Another plan? Ah, well, no, not really. We did put a bounty out on him. That is sort of a plan, right. Maybe a lucky bounty hunter will grab him for us." says with a smile.

[esorscher]

"Hah, fair." Leroy says, leaning back in the chair and thinking for a moment. "Well, I guess my only remaining question is, where can I find Aucaman Niconor?"

[jedipotter]

Saulbios Nordoryar [COLOR="#A52A2A"]"Aucaman Niconor has a townhouse over on West Road, number 16. Big white house, lots of horse statues."[/COLOR says with a shrug.

[esorscher]

"Alright then. Thanks, Saulbios." Leroy shakes the watchman's hand before departing the tower, with two places on his mind. Niconor's house, and the High Horse feasthall. Niconor's house first, though--he wanted to gauge the man's temperature, see how he felt after losing two of his horses and see what insight he could offer. He heads over to 16 West Road and takes in a view of the home, then knocks on the door and waits.

[jedipotter]

Aucaman Niconor's townhouse is a nice two level square wooden house at the western edge of town. The house looks simple and practical, and well kept up, but it's not too fancy. The yard around the house is well groomed, in parts, though most of the back of the house looks wild. There is plenty of stone work placed out in the yard, all horses, in all sorts of different poses. Two large barns, a couple of outer wood shacks and a corral complete the lands. You can see dozens of horses in the field.

A servant asks what you wish for as you approach, and runs off to get Aucaman.


A couple minutes later a human male in his 30's walks over to the side porch and waves you over. Aucaman Niconor is wearing an all leather riding out fit, complete with knee high boots. It looks nice and well, made, but is full of dirt and dust. He has no weapon on him that you can see.

"Well met, I'm Aucaman Niconor, master of these lands, what can i do for you?"

[esorscher]

Leroy extends his arm to shake Niconor's hand. "Well met, Master Niconor. My name's Leroy Brown, and I heard about your recent troubles with Hengis Retheer, the Horse Killer. Mind if I ask you a few questions?

Spoiler: OOC

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Two questions: 1) Since the watch put the bounty on Retheer, is it possible/worthwhile to try and get Niconor to hire me as well? 2) Do I need to roll sense motive checks to see if someone is lying, or will you roll those privately "off-screen"?

[jedipotter]

Aucaman Niconor sits in a large wood chair on the porch and waves for you to sit in one of the empty chairs as well. "Ah, well, not a pleasant topic to be sure....but ask away if you must?"

Spoiler: OOC

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1)There is no law against being hired by two people or collecting two bounties. After all, for lots of more ''high profile criminals'' there can often be more then one bounty. Most often bounties are just combined though.

And is it worth it? Well, let me check...more money is better then less money...so....

2)Well, the trick is I won't know when you want it done. You can't just roll endlessly. It more for when you the player either thinks something does not sound right or when you just want to ''check'' something.

And way fair warning, considering the setting just about everyone is lying and/or hiding something....your not in a city of noble paladins. For example even if you rolled a 2, you'd still get that Jarbaw Nighthill is lying or not telling the whole truth....as shocking as that might sound.

[esorscher]

Spoiler

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Got it.

"I understand you've lost two horses to the killer. And the Watch hasn't brought him to justice." Leroy says. "Justice is overrated. Would vengeance be worth something to you?" He lets his voice trail off, leaving the invitation hanging in the air.

[jedipotter]

Aucaman Niconor "Yes, two expensive horses. I don't know if you know, but I did try and help the Watch catch the killer. But the Watch is so lazy and corrupt, I doubt they could catch flies if they left their mouth open all day.

And I believe in justice....ours may not be a perfect system, but it is all we have.

So, it would be worth it to me to see him bough to justice........." he says trailing off.

[esorscher]

Leroy smiles, showing his teeth, which, while slightly yellowed from smoke, are straight and even. "The Watch may be inept, but I most certainly am not. How much would that justice be worth?"

[jedipotter]

Aucaman Niconor "Well, I'm a business man. I make it a point to know the price of things. And if we were talking about horses, I'd have the price in mind. But for a service like this, well, I will admit I have no idea what the price could be. I've never bought a service like this before. Is there some type of hoof mark to even go buy?"

[esorscher]

"My typical rate is 500 dead, 1000 alive. Gold. How does that strike you?"

[jedipotter]

Aucaman Niconor "Oh, I don't want him dead. I want him to get justice. So alive it is. 1,000 gold sounds good to me. Deal."

[esorscher]

Leroy shakes Aucaman's hand to secure the agreement. "Alright then. I have a few questions for you. I understand Retheer has killed two of your horses. When was the first one killed, and where?"