DeepBlue's Vagabond - Act 1

[Too_many_tamale]

In spite of her near-delirium, Len takes the trouble to eye the broadsword skeptically. She has always taken her weaponry seriously.

Although glorified above any other arm, swords are the last resort on the battlefield as their inherently close quarters fighting is difficult to control in the thrashing chaos. That's one place Len would prefer to avoid no matter what is at her side, however.

Not about to complain and suspecting that its at least a better fit than the bow, she reaches out and closes her hand around the blade. Its sharp, but thankfully not too much so; a good pair of gloves will let her half-hand this weapon like a master.

Oh, all right...

Suppressing a frown at how light and just plain inadequate the weapon feels, she shoves it into the goatskin sheath and roots through the clothing bin for some gloves, as well as anything in cotton. Wool is itchy.

Spoiler

I know, I know. A 4 lb blade wouldn't be trivial to you or me, but Len's accustomed to swinging around what amounts to gym dumbells.

Still weak from her episode last night, Len remains tuned out of Flare's discussion and tucks the weapon under her arm, burying her nose in the map.

[The Great Skenardo]

Harold Betruger
Harold snaps his fingers.
"Y'know, if you're having trouble figuring out what I need as far as disguise goes, I'm sure I can pick up something at the theatre. Negotiate it as an added bonus on our fee, maybe. Maybe even a good set of noble's clothes or guardsman's uniforms. Possibilities..."
However, he rolls his eyes as Flare lays out his intentions.
"Tax office; bad idea. Not only do you have to time things just right, and there aren't many reasons why money would be leaving the office in the first place." Harold rubs an eyebrow.
"Shipping magnate or banking office; much better. With the right letters of recommendation, the right bearing and the proper clothes, they'll even hold the door open for us as we leave. Money's always going in or out of those offices, and a few transactions can be slipped by quite easily."
He waves a hand.
[color="blue"]"But that's for later. To tell you the truth, I'm somewhat intruged by this theatre mystery. Besides, as a musician and performer, I feel it is my civic responsibility, nay, my duty to ensure that it gets back up and running.[COLOR]

Harold browses through the bin for something...elegant, as well as something official-looking.

[Deepblue706]

Spoiler

The Chest contains the following:

3 Explorer's Outfits
2 Artisan's Outfits
2 Scholar's Outfits
4 Traveler's Outfits

[Too_many_tamale]

Still poring over the map, Len also reaches into the bin and fumbles around for some fresh clothes. She accidentally grabs a nice shirt in Harold's hand, leaving faint black smudges.

"Aww, sorry." Which somehow reminds her: "Say, don't forget to share your loan idea with Wyatt and see if there's anything to it."

She finally finds some plain traveling clothes, which she adds to the bundle under her arm. Making several abortive attempts to re-fold the map, she meanders by Fargrim while the paper squawks torturedly under the abuse.

*rumple-rumple-crunchity-crunk*

[The Great Skenardo]

Harold Betruger
"Ah, so it was a Chimney you got into a fight with." He sighs and looks down at the besmirched shirt sorrowfully. "Nevermind. Let it pass. I suppose around you folk, I should get used to the idea that clean shirts will be a rare luxury."
Nonetheless, Harold picks up a scholar's outfit and carefully folds it away.
"Mr. Wyatt," he says, straightening up. "Those letters?"

[Deepblue706]

Wyatt points to the envelope that he earlier pulled from his mess, which now stands on a mountain of papers on the table before him. "In there. It's not sealed. I ran out of scroll cases, thought that'd hold it fine enough."

[The Great Skenardo]

Harold Betruger
"Hmm." Harold reaches forward and examines the envelope's contents. "I'll be needing either a scroll case or separate envelopes for each one. Some sealing wax would be nice, as well. The look is everything when it comes to this sort of thing. Can you provide it?"
Harold concentrates on the letters, determining the tone of the message, and noting the signee.

[EvilRoeSlade]

Flare glances at Harold and nods briefly. "Well, go ahead and pick the softest target you can find. Shouldn't be too hard to bribe our way in with all the corruption, should it? Now, you didn't get weapons for me or Harold. Can you give us directions to a shop that sells them?"

[Deepblue706]

The letters seem well written, and multiple signees can be noted. You count several for each name: D'Anrise, DeBenedetto, Capolici... "I'm kind of in short-supply as far as containers go, around here...but yeah, I can pick up some more, if you give me some time." He scratches his head. "As I said, those are forgeries - show them to chumps, and you'll be fine. Try flashing them in big-time establishments, however...they might simply get you into trouble. We made a bunch with different names so that if one gets seen-through, you still have others to fall back on. Sound good?"

He turns to Flare. "I gave you your licenses, you can reclaim what weaponry they didn't lock away for evidence, over at Magistrate Eisen's offices. From my understanding, that means anything held by you, Fargrim, or Harold is accessable. Again, if you'd like me to provide you with more equipment, you're going to have to owe me."

[The Great Skenardo]

Harold Betruger
Harold tries to recall if he recognizes any of these names.
Local knowledge - (1d20+5)[12]
He nods.
"Yes, these are be used sparingly, of course. My main concern is that they seem to be a fairly official endorsement of whatever I happen to be doing at the time. You know the kind of thing; credit advances in someone else's name, license to pick up small shipments, etc."

[Deepblue706]

Harold cannot readily recall any information on any of these names, but they sound vaguely familiar. They could easily be minor lords who simply don't stand out amongst the "titans" of the noble sect.

Wyatt nods. "Yep, those should work in most cases. If you look through them, you can see for yourself - they're pretty generic: "Please assist the bearer of this letter to the best of your ability", etcetera. Don't expect for everyone to go brain-dead with one of them in their faces, though. While most people won't give you too much of a hard time, there have been some clever scammers around the city - and people are beginning to catch on to old techniques. Just make sure you give it a real effort."

[The Great Skenardo]

Harold
Harold nods, thoughtfully.
"What would you say, for example, to this idea; An elegantly dressed man with a pompous bearing enters a financial institution and spins a story of the noble...Capolici, let us say, who has found himself in a stitch of financial embarrassment. A party is being thrown in noble circles, and certain purchases need to be made of the very finest of wines to impress a potential patron. The lord Capolici finds himself embarrassingly low on cash with which to purchase these wines, and in short he needs a fairly-large cash advance with which to buy from the foreign dealers in port. It is paramount that the lord Capolici maintain his image as a free-spending fellow, and so the advance must be kept...discreet. A small bribe may be in order for the clerk in question to keep the matter secret. Possibly a few intimidating flunkies in uniform would be present, ostensibly to carry away the advance, but also to emphasize the...necessity for discretion. The urgent nature of the advance is also emphasized, as the party is next week and the wine merchants will be leaving port soon."
Harold steeples his fingers together.
"Comments, anyone?"

[ByeLindgren]

"That sounds like a good way to get some money on the side, but we should still focus on the easy job first. If we go for both jobs at once, we're more likely to screw up somewhere. Also, I'd like to hear from Wyatt if that plan is one of the 'old techniques' he was talking about." Fargrim pauses. "Taking a fake loan or not, we should focus on surviving this ordeal and table any other agenda we might have, no matter how deathly important it is." Fargrim eyes Flare quite obviously and discreetly nudges Len.

[EvilRoeSlade]

Flare smiles softly at Fargrim. "I guess you're a lot braver when you're backed into a corner. But I think we'll have to do something drastic soon, and it would be nice to have your help." He steps toward the doorway and then pauses. "I'm going to get my things. Are you coming Harold?"

[The Great Skenardo]

Harold Betruger
Harold sighs in an aggrieved fashion.
"of course the ambitious and risky job waits until we've cleared out all the easy sources of cash. Don't do illegal stuff if you don't have to; first rule of making money."
He scratches his head, though as Flare makes his inquiry.
"Do I need to? I don't even own a weapon, except for that flimsy crossbow, and that was just for show. Seems to me you folks are more than capable enough when it comes to sticking people with pointy pieces of metal." He pauses.
"Well, except you all got caught. Other than that, of course."

[EvilRoeSlade]

Flare shrugs. "When we fight again, I don't think you should count on anyone protecting you if you just sit around playing your mandolin. And we might end up in combat at that theater. It's a situation where we really don't know what we're getting into at all. The Magistrate's office... that's across from where we were held I think..." He steps out the door, leaving Harold to decide whether or not to follow.

[ByeLindgren]

As the outfits are brought out, Fargrim takes a look at one of the traveller's outfits. Hm, not bad. He grabs it for his own and puts it in his pack. He looks at his outfit and the map Len's been eyeing for a bit.

"Well, except you all got caught. Other than that, of course." Caught on a lucky swing... "If my weapons aren't being held as evidence, I'll go and pick them up." He starts to walk out and pauses, saying to no one in particular, "Of course, that means I'll have three weapons, one being a two handed spear. But Wyatt said those are hard to conceal, so I guess I'll just sell it off." He smiles and continues walking.

[Deepblue706]

Wyatt scratches his head. "But...concealing weapons is what I was saying not to do..." He shakes his head. "The old techniques I were referring to were regular fast-talks, anyway. People know to ask questions. Or, at least, in some situations." He turns to Harold. "But you seem to have a good idea of how to work that kind of thing, anyway. Still, might not persuade just anyone."

[Saterus]

Ritan Drenathy

Caught? We were only caught because we were surrounded by cowards. It'd take some sort of heroes to fight their way out of such a situation.

Grabbing a inconspicuous set of clothing, Ritan rolls his eyes at the mention of not concealing weaponry. "We'll be sure to use the letters only when necessary. The less we use them, the less attention they'll draw and the fewer people will remember their use," says Ritan. He sets the pants down on the table, unfolds the shirt and checks the length of the arms. Carefully refolding them, he does the same with the pants. A few inches too long, he refolds them and grabs another pair of pants from the chest. Satisfied with the new pair, Ritan says, "I think everything is in order. We only have two weeks. We'd best not spend it all sitting around here." Ritan moves to follow Flare out the door.

[The Great Skenardo]

Harold Betruger
Harold gives Wyatt a weary sort of knowing glance
You see what I have to work with?
Aloud, he says
"Yeah. It'll take a lot of bluster, some luck and some incompetence on their part. Luckily, there's no lack of incompetence about these days."
He takes a deep breath.
"So. Are we ready to do some sleuthing? Yes, I'm sure that's actually a word. Don't ask."

[Too_many_tamale]

Len triumphantly rolls up the map in a scroll just as Fargrim lumbers out the door grumbling something about spears. It takes a moment to sink in, but she finally puts the pieces together.

"What do you think they'll do when he tries to fraudulently claim your spear at the Magistrate's office?" she muses to Flare. With a start, she realizes that she'll never see her medallion again if the consequences are what she expects.

"Hey, get back here!" she yells down the hall after Fargrim. "What about agenda-ing deathly tables and--Get back here!"

[ByeLindgren]

Fargrim turns around, a bit confused.

"What are you talking about? I don't think it's too terrible to get my spear back. I bet other people are grabbing their weapons as well. Why don't you yell at them?"

[Too_many_tamale]

Len walks out with Fargrim.

"I apologize." she says, adding in a low whisper. "But I'd be a fool to let you go to a pawn shop alone after what I told you."

She pats his chest pocket where she last saw him put the necklace for emphasis.

"Like you said; lets table the other agendas for now. Shall we go to the theatre?" Len smiles pleasantly.

Spoiler

Not that I'm the boss of you or didn't understand your last post, but it would be nice to get on with the theatre job so that the others don't have to sit through more haggling.

But if you've got something cool planned, then feel free to shove Len aside

[Deepblue706]

Spoiler

So Flare and Fargrim both seem to intend on going to the office - Len is suggesting otherwise, and Ritan walked out the door, but I'm not assuming which direction he's taking because that didn't appear to be specified (followed Flare out the door, but beyond there?). And, Harold has made no moves for the door.

Will anyone be splitting up? Or, would you guys like to have more time to persuade one another what exactly would be most "prudent"?

[Saterus]

Spoiler

I didn't think we were splitting up. I figured I'd follow Flare out and wait for the others. Presumably outside Wyatt's office, and then we'd go off to find information about the theatre. That's my take on it.

[ByeLindgren]

Spoiler

Actually, I assumed Len would be the one haggling for the big 2h reach weapon she lacks. As of now, I'm assuming the weapons-pick-up process can be done in a nice narrative post, and we can move to the theater from there.

"Yeah, yeah, you're keeping an eye on me. Let's get going. The sooner we get those weapons, the sooner we can start 'interrogating' some theater patrons." Fargrim again starts to amble towards his weaponry. After a few seconds, he turns around. "Aw, not even nervous laughter?"

[Too_many_tamale]

Spoiler

I vote for Len and Fargy splitting off from the others and meeting them at the theatre later. It seems to fit best with everyone's original intentions and maybe there could be a narrative opportunity to expose a little more about who's tailing the group or some other shizaster

"No laughing for me until my stomach settles down." Len says wryly as they exchange waves with the rest of the group and walk off.

And then awkward silence. Not much you can say to someone holding your life on a string. Then again, Len always finds something to pour gas on the fire.

"You're hard to figure out." She comments abruptly.

[ByeLindgren]

Good.

"You sure hold a high opinion of your ability to read people. How long have we even known of each other's existence? We're all still trying to figure everyone else out - sort of natural for a bunch of freed prisoners, I 'spose." Fargrim speaks casually, ignoring the issue of the medallion for the sake of conversation. "Speaking of which, you think the sorcerer is serious about robbing the tax offices? Part of me says he's just messing with us - throwing out the line and seeing if anyone takes the bait."

[Deepblue706]

Spoiler

Yeah, my intent was to simply skim through the office bit and then go straight to the theatre - but I hesitated because I didn't want to step on any toes.

And no one's actually tailing the group. I made an unclear message to Lindgren which was supposed to result with Fargrim realizing he now had that chain. But, he chose to find it before I actually said he got it, so I just kinda said nevermind about that jazz.

Besides, I said the sound was a chain (and I thought I said Fargrim surmised the sound was indeed that trinket? Perhaps not. If not, I apologize, and would like to declare that to be canon). Nobody tails someone while wearing a suit of chainmail.

At Magistrate Eisen's office, Fargrim and Harold have no trouble collecting their weapons upon showing their licenses. Unfortunately, Flare's spear was not to be found, as it was not held - it may have been discarded after being damaged.

Spoiler

Flare had another weapon, yes? I am at a computer where not all of my notes are available - so I cannot readily find the link to his sheet at this time, and since there's nothing "big" happening, I didn't think it necessary to ask. Anyway, everything is there, sans the spear.

-------------------------------------------

With the map at your disposal, you find yourself easily navigating the bustling streets of Porto Giedion. It is not long before you find yourself in the large and prosperous avenue where The Silver Arch is said to be found. To either side of this grand street you can find numerous high-class inns that house richer folk, no doubt prestigious because of the countless many who have come to seek what entertainment this magnificent city has to offer.

Before long, you spot your destination - a somewhat smaller, but distinct looking theatre, at the far end of the avenue. As you stand before it, you note that it is somewhat neglected. A sign reading "closed", in red, is hung upon the door. "E-Excuse me?" You turn to see a young man dressed in modest, but clean, attire. "Are you here to deal with...uhm...the disturbance?"

[The Great Skenardo]

Harold Betruger
Taking the initiative, Harold steps forward with a beaming smile.
"Indeed. My name is Harold Betruger, Musician, Problem Solver, and Solver of Problems related to music and other associated arts. These," he says, indicating with a sweep of his hand the strange hat-wearing man and the rather rough-shaven fellow, "are a few of my associates. May we come in, sir...?"