[Nexus] The Black Dragon's Den XIV

[Recaiden]

The detective takes it all in with a glance.
"Yeah we're gonna want to burn those puppets so no one can get at what they saw. But let's see about the drive."
He rummages in his coat pocket for a moment before pulling out a little notebook laptop, which he'll plug the flash drive into, if Oliver allows.
"And here's your fee for that."
From another pocket, he grabs a pouch of gold (fairly small, Oliver was doing this with a discount).

"Things are looking like the cult is well-involved. Got a little dicey, but solid information. Hopefully this confirms that."

[CosmicHobbit]

Letting the flash drive be plugged in, Oliver scoops up the pouch, opens it, and begins counting the gold. He nods when he says enough is in there, then says, "Is there any way somebody could disenchant those puppets so that nobody could get into them, but they'd still be around? They'd make a pretty nice souvenir."

[Artemis97]

[Raril's Office]

"I... I see." Ilpholin says quietly. She's not entirely sure how to respond. But she roughly knows what she wishes someone would have done when Darcy had been ripped from her.

Slowly Ilpholin stands up and walks around the desk to give Raril a tight hug.

[Raril's Office]

The older drow is a bit confused when his daughter moves around the desk and is quite startled when she throws her arms around him. He stiffens and makes a gutteral sound of surprise. He thinks to draw a knife from a hidden spot in his sleeve but... no... this was a hug. A nice, friendly, much-needed hug. Raril relaxes and puts his arms around Ilpholin, pulling her into an embrace.

"Thank you." He whispers to her, before letting go. "It's good to know I'm not alone."

[Reinholdt]

[Raril's Office]

Raril needn't worry. If Ilpholin kills him, he will have the honor of being stabbed in his face, not his back.

Ilpholin pulls back after he lets go, almost smiling. She brushes some hair back over her ear, an extraneous habit now that her hair can move on its own. "Yes, well... I feel the same. Though I guess I won't be alone for a long time." She rubs her own belly as if with fondness.

"I should probably be going. I still need to research... Well everything about babies."

[Artemis97]

[Raril's Office]

Raril chuckles at that, heading for the door to properly unlock and de-ward it. "If you need anything, just ask. I don't know much about... birth... Surprisingly haven't been around it, despite the number of half-siblings you have. I don't think I've done too well at this parenting stuff, but, I'd like to try perfecting grandfathering." He says, smiling at his daughter.

[Reinholdt]

[Raril's Office]

"Hah. Yeah, I guess I need to find someone to ask. I might know a person... but I really don't want to ask them." They don't understand proper drow parenting! And she may have tried to sleep with their husband that one time.

"But there you go. Something to fight for when you have to deal with that unpleasant business. Feel free to drop by and visit any time as well. I live in that big embassy in Southside with Mister Squiggles. It's shaped like a spider. You can't miss it," Ilpholin says as she steps out of the office.

[Artemis97]

[Raril's Office]

"Oh you still have your spider friend?" Raril asks, his voice cheery, but there was a slight squeak to it. "That's good. And a spider shaped building, how could I miss it?" Why does it always have to be spiders?

As the office door opens nearby patrons will notice a hum in the air, as Raril hadn't turned off his anti-scrying ward yet.

"Take care of yourself, Ilpholin." The older drow says warmly.

[Reinholdt]

[Raril's Office]

Ilpholin can't help but giggle at her father. Oh silly dad. Spiders are your friends!

"You as well. May you have large profits today." She gives Raril one last wry smile before heading out.

[Artemis97]

[Raril's Office]

Raril scans the room, mentally double checking on his patrons, and seeing if anyone too suspicious followed Ilpholin out. Likely seeing nothing, though, he'll return to his office. The door shuts with a click, and the humming sound disappears.

[Recaiden]

Letting the flash drive be plugged in, Oliver scoops up the pouch, opens it, and begins counting the gold. He nods when he says enough is in there, then says, "Is there any way somebody could disenchant those puppets so that nobody could get into them, but they'd still be around? They'd make a pretty nice souvenir."

The detective looks between Oliver and the nearest puppet while the computer runs some analyses on the drive's contents.
"I don't think that's a good idea."
"But I guess any solid priest should be able to exorcise them. Just make sure they use sea salt, and not rock salt."

The screen flashes, and he leans over to look at the results.
"Okay, a lot of this is pretty esoteric magi-construction, got some art, some white papers, ah, here we go, a trio of personal note files. And...a portal?"
He raises an eyebrow, and then winces as that irritates one of the cuts on his brow.

[Ashen Lilies]

Cass looks down quickly as the door to Raril's office opens, and Ilpholin leaves, and Raril looks around, but gives it another quick little glances once it shuts again.

She feels... queasy. She quickly pays her drinks tab before tucking away her purse (considerably lightened after a losing streak at the card tables), and, unless stopped, leaves as well.

[CosmicHobbit]

Oliver shrugs when he hears about the priest and the salt, making a mental note to remember that. He sort of has his heart set upon getting these puppets.

He raises his eyebrows upon hearing about the portal, though. "A portal? The non-magical kind, right?" One can never be sure if something is normal or magical when in the Nexus.

[Recaiden]

The detective shakes his head.
"A grammatical portal. To a whole other- yes, the magical kind."
Although that's quite a simplification. Do you know how many kinds of magic come into play here in the Nexus, Oliver?
"And it the second log, we've got something. Not proof, but these criminals think they know the murderer. Victim's granddaughter, on the fringe of the cult. Of course that isn't proof, just another suggestion. But it tells me where I need to look."
He waves over a waiter and orders another drink.
"This portal than, though. Could be a lot bigger than an assassination. I'm gonna need backup."

[CosmicHobbit]

Oliver just sort of lumps everything magic into the same general magic category. That's what you get when you aren't a scholar and were born in a place like the Nexus.

Smiling, Oliver says, "Have you considered hiring somebody from MERC? I swear, I'm not just saying this because I'm a licensee of it."

[Recaiden]

"Well, you didn't do half bad. But from here on it's gonna take particular magical expertise."
The detective shrugs.
"I'll see if they're up to it."

[CosmicHobbit]

Oliver nods. Then his eyes go wide as he remembers something. Fishing a business card out of his pocket and putting it on the table, he says, "If you ever need this kind of thing again, you can contact me through the phone number listed there." Looking around, he smiles. "Think I might stick around here for a bit, as a bit of a reward for a job well done."

[Recaiden]

The detective nods and takes the business card, not mentioning that he already knows Oliver's phone number.
He stiffly gets to his feet.
"I'd better get started. Take care of yourself, kid."

[CosmicHobbit]

Oliver smiles and holds out a hand for a hand shake. "You too."

[Recaiden]

The detective stares at Oliver's hand for a moment; what is he up to?
Oh.
A sort of greeting and valediction gesture.
Sure. He shakes the thief's hand before heading out of the bar.

[billtodamax]

Aye, aye, 3000 for the barrel, send it to Oshurfeb. Under GLoG. There we go. That's all sorted. Still, not point hurrying back. And I'll grab a mug of your brandy afore I go. Kosh says, sliding a couple dwarven coins across the bar. He's your model dwarf: short, stocky, dressed in fine silken clothes under a set of light adamantine armour, sword at his side and a well braided beard.

[Recaiden]

Someone kicks the door open and swaggers in and up to the bar.
It's Omiko, the cat monster.
She's wearing what might seem to be a 'sexy pirate spooktober costume', including an eyepatch over her robot eye. The 'giant shark tooth' dagger is the real thing, however.
"Two bottles of spiderblood, glass of firewine, and a mug of hearthbrew." she demands, tossing down a handful of gold coins.
You might think she shouldn't be drinking at all in her condition.

She scans the room with her silver non-mechanical eye (it's her eye in the sense that she has it now; it is in her possession); do any of these folks look worth anything at all.
Well, maybe that one. Damn, that's a model dwarf right there.
"Hey dwarf. How goes it?"

[billtodamax]

The dwarf looks her up and down. It goes. He says, reserved. You drinkin' all of that lass? Ought to be careful around these parts. Dangerous folk. He's not threatening her (as much as it might come off that way) he's just concerned for her safety. Lynx-folk handle their drink just about as well as humans do.

[Deathkeeper]

At the table behind the dwarf is a tengu with shiny black feathers and a collection of blades strapped to it playing cards with a black-plated krogan with an enormous shotgun stuck to their armor. Based on the amount of chips on the table, they're pretty invested in this game, and don't notice the cat-thing-person come in.

[Recaiden]

"I was mostly planning on it."
Omiko raises her eyebrow.
"I'm looking for some dangerous people, actually." She looks around, notes the bird with all the swords.
"Get the bird!" suggests a tiny dramatical voice.
"Would you be one of them?"

[Deathkeeper]

Also seated around the tables are:
A bright green ork in a shirt that is two sizes too small reading a comic book.
A red bangaa with a spear.
A Perfectly Normal Human Lady sipping whiskey.
A bulky blue kobold in traditional kobold garb, gnawing on bones.

[billtodamax]

The dwarf mulls this over for a moment. ...aye, I might be. What for? He asks, taking a long drink from his brandy, maintaining eye contact all the while.

[Recaiden]

"Going on an adventure! Retrieving a great treasure. And perhaps some smaller treasures of opportunity along the way."
When the drinks arrive, Omiko breaks eye contact in order to uncork a bottle of spiderblood wine and guzzle down the entire thing.
At the same time, her other hand extrudes another mouth and starts lapping up the mead.

[billtodamax]

Kosh notices her hand form a mouth and wisely looks away.

Alright, I'm interested. He says after a pause. What's the target, what's the pay? He asks. Always wanted to try this adventurer thing. Rath won't mind him heading off for just a brief journey, right? At least it'll get him away from the blasted goblins.

[Recaiden]

"The temple of the sunken city of Mabhaemroph. You get two shares of the gold and an extra ration of rum along the way."
One bottle empties, Omiko then delivers the firewine to the purple voice. Details will not be provided, but this time it really would be wise to look away.

"Got any experience sailing? Doesn't matter."
She turns and looks around at the rest of the patrons.
"Any of you lot good for a treasure hunt?"

[billtodamax]

What sort of rum? Kosh asks suspiciously. This is important. Good dwarven rum, or the slop the humans brew? No matter how free a spirit a dwarf is, they will always want to nail down contract negotiations.