Shorebound, Day 536
Mom is over her bout of Covid, she said a couple nights felt very touch and go, but at this point she seems fully recovered and is back to her normal schedule. The one person coming to the gathering with Covid infected 4 people that I know of. Grrr, this thing is still out there! Just happy she had a case on the shorter side. Anyway, on to the RPs.
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Today has been a better day, right? Well...kinda. It's not done yet. It's getting there, but tonight into tomorrow morning's forecast is looking dismal with a chance of a fight. But that's getting ahead of things....
The Xill thing was dead and leaking green stuff on the floor. We weren't dead but some of us were leaking red stuff on the floor. Rohka peeked back in, said a short thanks, and asked if we could remove the body from her vault. I'm honestly surprised she didn't ask us to scrub up our own blood too. Kromnir and Visandus looked just *done*, Aja had used up her arsenal, I was still pretty bunged up. Kiarra gave us a look and just scopped the thing up over her shoulder. This caused a chorus of "Ah, Poison!" which Aja responded to by putting a bag over the things head. One drip solved. We got some *looks* on the way back to the station house, which felt twice as far away as it had on the trip out. Day Sarg just said "Put it in a cell" when we got there. Kiarra did, and had some sort of exchange with Pratchett, who seemed to be up and about in the cell next door. I went in search of some first aid and a meal. Aja whisked around between us, patching everything up. Barely a mark when she is done. Now if someone could just find a way to make it not hurt when someone decides to stab me. I slept on this thought.
So today we went to the next place on the list, Penny and Sphynx Trust. We were met by the owner, who was happy to see someone other than the Coins guards. He asked if we need anything "extra" to make a thorough investigation. We asked what he meant, and found that they usually gave some manner of coin payment to the Token guards to come onsite for an investigation. That sounds...wrong? Anyway, we turned down anything larger than a drink and snack and followed him back to see what had happened. Thieves had come in via the employee entrance. As it was after hours, that would normally be locked. "Inside job" quickly became a consensus after we looked at the door and found no signs of forced entry. We went outside to look, where I spotted a ladder stashed behind some bushes. The bank owner kinda brushed it off, said it likely had been forgotten by the ground crew, but where I found it was in an area where there would be a blind spot both from windows inside and the surrounding buildings. Could easily have been used to get across the fence. There were some prints that Visandus studied, but it had been almost a week, so they were not very clear. Back inside, Visandus went poking around, spent some time chatting with a very grey looking fellow, surely a moneycounter. Kiarra chatted with Kromnir, watched by Aja. I held up a wall, chatted a bit too. Kiarra was curious about pirates. I told her my experience was not at all like the typical novels...but had a couple novels if she was interested. She was! Visandus checked out the office of the owner's son? stepson? nephew? I wasn't clear, but he said there was a LOT of booze in that office. He handed me a pair of boots he said were "evidence." Of what? Walking? We went over what we had discovered with the owner. Visandus asked about talking to the son/stepson/nephew, and it came to light he had been MIA for a few days. Not suspicious at all. No really - according to the owner, he insisted his son/stepson/nephew would not do anything to harm business. But he provided no address and insisted we go talk to the lone apprehended suspect, a goblin named Quigley, who had been taken away by the Token Guard.
That went disastrously. They rudely accused us of improper activity, threatened to report us for investigation out of precinct, wondered why we had spare boots, and refused to let us interview the prisoner. After pushing back in various ways ranging from diplomatic to threats in kind (Kiarra can be scary!), their day sergeant finally relented enough to check his logbook for status of the suspect. He seemed a little uneasy and said the suspect was no longer in custody, and that maybe this matter should not be looked into further. Visandus got a look at the book and later said there were all kinds of boxes unchecked and signs of improper processing. We asked if there was a contact address for the suspect and they said no. What kind of outsite doesn't take down an address for a robbery suspect? And to top it off, Kromnir apologized to their very rude desk seargent for *our* behaviour as we were leaving. It all felt very wrong. Kromnir got punched from every side once we were outside. Or maybe just by me. Still, I will take sketchy desk sergeants over 4 armed monstrosities any day.
We asked Morton about proper etiquette and were told that yeah, we probably *should* check in with a regional station if investigating outside our precinct. So we visited my old station house at the docks on our way to Gillels Tannery. We'll run all these leads down eventually. Emphasis on "run" or at least "brisk walk." Sarg gestured to where they had the newspaper article about Black Squad catching Pratchett pinned on the front announcement board. It was a bit embarrassing and yet felt nice that they noticed. They were fine with us poking about, so off we went after a couple minutes of chitchat.
We sailed up to the tannery in time to witness an argument going on outside. The owners of the tannery were in a shouting match with a person who turned out to be Elsimira, the very person they had accused of setting the fire. We got them calmed down. Aja pulled each of them aside in turn to ask some questions after Gillel ushered us into the work area behind the storefront. There was still a lot of char, and the remains of the torched float. It looked like it was going to have been very large and fancy. It was supposed to bring business, as they had been a in a bit of a downturn recently. Something had been cut out of the float. When asked, Gillel said it had been a lift mechanism. I asked if it could be used for anything else like digging and he said no, just lifting. Goblins came up again in the course of the conversation. This is getting to be a pattern. Aja's questioning led to the conclusion that the accusation against Elsimira was probably more out of jealousy and annoyance, as she was an Ex of the owner, now happily (hopefully?) married to someone else. We gave both of them an Official Watch Command to avoid each other and for Elsimira in particular to not come to the shop. As we were leaving Gillel asked "Did the boots need resoling or something?" I just shook my head.
After that we figured we would follow up with the Puddles payday loan shark. Kiarra was not pleased with the destination, but we promised to not stay too long. Turns out Chedraxis did have a beef with an Orvington relative, what is it with rich kids? Are they all bad with money? But she he did NOT actually have any useful information (that she shared, at least) and basically asked us to pull strings to get her license reinstated. We politely said we'd look into it and headed on to the Puddles Station - Stilt House. Cute name, actually description more like, it was on stilts to keep it dry. Definitely the most beat up of the stationhouses we had visited so far. Their desk sarg George seemed to be on deaths door, but was nice enough, except for all the hurking and spitting. He eventually directed us to the office of the bright eyed and bushy tailed newest Puddles beat cop, Ziraya. She was quite happy to see us, and declared cheerily that she had already cleared us for action with her this very night to go take down a smuggling operation. Oh well, I guess we are getting these leads cleared one way or another. She asked if I had brought extra boots because of the ... you know ... puddles. Shaking my head again.
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Today has been a better day, right? Well...kinda. It's not done yet. It's getting there, but tonight into tomorrow morning's forecast is looking dismal with a chance of a fight. But that's getting ahead of things....
The Xill thing was dead and leaking green stuff on the floor. We weren't dead but some of us were leaking red stuff on the floor. Rohka peeked back in, said a short thanks, and asked if we could remove the body from her vault. I'm honestly surprised she didn't ask us to scrub up our own blood too. Kromnir and Visandus looked just *done*, Aja had used up her arsenal, I was still pretty bunged up. Kiarra gave us a look and just scopped the thing up over her shoulder. This caused a chorus of "Ah, Poison!" which Aja responded to by putting a bag over the things head. One drip solved. We got some *looks* on the way back to the station house, which felt twice as far away as it had on the trip out. Day Sarg just said "Put it in a cell" when we got there. Kiarra did, and had some sort of exchange with Pratchett, who seemed to be up and about in the cell next door. I went in search of some first aid and a meal. Aja whisked around between us, patching everything up. Barely a mark when she is done. Now if someone could just find a way to make it not hurt when someone decides to stab me. I slept on this thought.
So today we went to the next place on the list, Penny and Sphynx Trust. We were met by the owner, who was happy to see someone other than the Coins guards. He asked if we need anything "extra" to make a thorough investigation. We asked what he meant, and found that they usually gave some manner of coin payment to the Token guards to come onsite for an investigation. That sounds...wrong? Anyway, we turned down anything larger than a drink and snack and followed him back to see what had happened. Thieves had come in via the employee entrance. As it was after hours, that would normally be locked. "Inside job" quickly became a consensus after we looked at the door and found no signs of forced entry. We went outside to look, where I spotted a ladder stashed behind some bushes. The bank owner kinda brushed it off, said it likely had been forgotten by the ground crew, but where I found it was in an area where there would be a blind spot both from windows inside and the surrounding buildings. Could easily have been used to get across the fence. There were some prints that Visandus studied, but it had been almost a week, so they were not very clear. Back inside, Visandus went poking around, spent some time chatting with a very grey looking fellow, surely a moneycounter. Kiarra chatted with Kromnir, watched by Aja. I held up a wall, chatted a bit too. Kiarra was curious about pirates. I told her my experience was not at all like the typical novels...but had a couple novels if she was interested. She was! Visandus checked out the office of the owner's son? stepson? nephew? I wasn't clear, but he said there was a LOT of booze in that office. He handed me a pair of boots he said were "evidence." Of what? Walking? We went over what we had discovered with the owner. Visandus asked about talking to the son/stepson/nephew, and it came to light he had been MIA for a few days. Not suspicious at all. No really - according to the owner, he insisted his son/stepson/nephew would not do anything to harm business. But he provided no address and insisted we go talk to the lone apprehended suspect, a goblin named Quigley, who had been taken away by the Token Guard.
That went disastrously. They rudely accused us of improper activity, threatened to report us for investigation out of precinct, wondered why we had spare boots, and refused to let us interview the prisoner. After pushing back in various ways ranging from diplomatic to threats in kind (Kiarra can be scary!), their day sergeant finally relented enough to check his logbook for status of the suspect. He seemed a little uneasy and said the suspect was no longer in custody, and that maybe this matter should not be looked into further. Visandus got a look at the book and later said there were all kinds of boxes unchecked and signs of improper processing. We asked if there was a contact address for the suspect and they said no. What kind of outsite doesn't take down an address for a robbery suspect? And to top it off, Kromnir apologized to their very rude desk seargent for *our* behaviour as we were leaving. It all felt very wrong. Kromnir got punched from every side once we were outside. Or maybe just by me. Still, I will take sketchy desk sergeants over 4 armed monstrosities any day.
We asked Morton about proper etiquette and were told that yeah, we probably *should* check in with a regional station if investigating outside our precinct. So we visited my old station house at the docks on our way to Gillels Tannery. We'll run all these leads down eventually. Emphasis on "run" or at least "brisk walk." Sarg gestured to where they had the newspaper article about Black Squad catching Pratchett pinned on the front announcement board. It was a bit embarrassing and yet felt nice that they noticed. They were fine with us poking about, so off we went after a couple minutes of chitchat.
We sailed up to the tannery in time to witness an argument going on outside. The owners of the tannery were in a shouting match with a person who turned out to be Elsimira, the very person they had accused of setting the fire. We got them calmed down. Aja pulled each of them aside in turn to ask some questions after Gillel ushered us into the work area behind the storefront. There was still a lot of char, and the remains of the torched float. It looked like it was going to have been very large and fancy. It was supposed to bring business, as they had been a in a bit of a downturn recently. Something had been cut out of the float. When asked, Gillel said it had been a lift mechanism. I asked if it could be used for anything else like digging and he said no, just lifting. Goblins came up again in the course of the conversation. This is getting to be a pattern. Aja's questioning led to the conclusion that the accusation against Elsimira was probably more out of jealousy and annoyance, as she was an Ex of the owner, now happily (hopefully?) married to someone else. We gave both of them an Official Watch Command to avoid each other and for Elsimira in particular to not come to the shop. As we were leaving Gillel asked "Did the boots need resoling or something?" I just shook my head.
After that we figured we would follow up with the Puddles payday loan shark. Kiarra was not pleased with the destination, but we promised to not stay too long. Turns out Chedraxis did have a beef with an Orvington relative, what is it with rich kids? Are they all bad with money? But she he did NOT actually have any useful information (that she shared, at least) and basically asked us to pull strings to get her license reinstated. We politely said we'd look into it and headed on to the Puddles Station - Stilt House. Cute name, actually description more like, it was on stilts to keep it dry. Definitely the most beat up of the stationhouses we had visited so far. Their desk sarg George seemed to be on deaths door, but was nice enough, except for all the hurking and spitting. He eventually directed us to the office of the bright eyed and bushy tailed newest Puddles beat cop, Ziraya. She was quite happy to see us, and declared cheerily that she had already cleared us for action with her this very night to go take down a smuggling operation. Oh well, I guess we are getting these leads cleared one way or another. She asked if I had brought extra boots because of the ... you know ... puddles. Shaking my head again.