Jakkin

Seamus waves you off as you insist that you are not an adventurer, a tinkle in his eye as he declares.

“Well, we are all on the adventure called life, are we not?”

This was a running joke between you two, as he often teased you about going out on adventures, even when you were just going on a short voyage to Palin’s Cove to unload and pick up cargo for some merchant. Seamus is one to talk though – he was an actual adventurer for about a year before nearly getting eaten by a pack of ghouls convinced him that was not the life for him, and he should take up tailoring instead. The tailor/shopkeep raises his eyebrows as you mentioned knowing his latest gorgeous adventurer patron.

“You . . . know her? Really? Ha, if you had asked me I would have said she was much too good for an old seadog like you, Jakkin! But I suppose that’s your famous charm working its magic – still too leggy for me personally, but I’d wager you’d be the envy of every man in Korvosa!”

Seamus had revealed his own preference for gnomes, of all things, after the one and only drinking night he had gone out on with you. So it was not faint praise that he was offering here – unfortunately, those notable looks could also attract the wrong sort of attention in the shadows as well. Seamus mulls over your questions for a moment, not answering as he sifts through his memories rather than trying to hold anything back.

“Come to think of it, she did buy a dagger as well. Didn’t need the scabbard though, as she already had an empty one . . . I’m thinking your “friend” might already be in a spot of trouble if she “misplaced” her first pigsticker. Afraid that you’ll not be able to pick her out of a crowd on account of my clothes though – I don’t have the fanciest clothing here, and she picked out a simple tunic and pair of pantaloons to replace her frilly dress. Oh, and she bought a dark grey cloak to replace her sodden one. She left the dress behind though – figured I’d try to patch it up and I dunno, kept it in the back in case she ever came back?”

So saying, Seamus went into the back of his small shop and returned with “Elli’s” abandoned dress, which was indeed still quite damp, and had a long, jagged tear down most the length of the skirt – a tear ringed with what appeared to be bloodstains. There were several other smaller rents in the fabric as well, which look like some sort of tooth marks. Seamus was going to have his work cut out for him trying to repair all of this damage, but you’d seen him work miracles before so perhaps he could pull it off. The major concern right now was finding the girl, who indeed must have run into some sort of trouble between the torn-up dress and missing dagger. Seamus adds more cause for concern with his next revelation, delivered after he sways on his feet for a moment, and reaches a hand up to rub at his temples.

“Ah, sorry Jakkin. Got dizzy there for a minute. I just remembered something else. While we were having tea, she asked if I had heard about any dens of criminals from the other adventurers that stop by. I didn’t want to tell her, figured she had already gotten into enough of a scrap for one day, but well . . . she was *very* persuasive! Unfortunately, the only real “den” of criminals that I know about is in Eel’s End. And you know who runs Eel’s End.”

Everyone knows who runs Eel’s End - Devargo Bravarsi, the so-called King of Spiders, who ran everything from drugs to gambling to prostitution out of his ship-bound lair at the end of the docks, the ancient scuttled dreadnaught Eel’s End.

“I think I may have given the young girl very bad directions to follow, Jakkin. Probably should have led with that, but well, she asked me not to tell anyone about our conversation, and she was very persuasive! Not sure why that seemed so reasonable a request five minutes ago . . .”

Seamus trails off, lost in thought as he replays the conversation in his head, then shrugs.

“Afraid that’s all I have to offer you.”

(OOC: You can move on to the next section as well, since I imagine Jakkin will be joining the others at this point.)

Everyone

Meeting up at the Fishery, the group shares what information they have gathered thus far. From what everyone has collected, it seems clear that Handmaiden Elliana came here to the Fishery, fell through the floor, damaging her dress and injuring herself on the jagged timbers before falling into the water below. She was then attacked by something, likely a Jigsaw shark, but managed to fight it off or otherwise get away from it at the cost of her dagger. She then healed up and went to Seamus’s shop where she got a change of clothes, a new dagger, and directions to Eel’s End. But where was Ileosa in all of this?

There was a way of getting an answer to that question, and after getting recommendations on the exact wording to use in his message, Aliani unfurled the scroll of Sending and began attempting to activate it. Which he had some trouble doing, between stumbling over some of the unfamiliar magical wording of the magic and the fact that the Shelynites had decided to “beautify” the scroll by adding in flowery script that was hard to read and blended in with some of the sketches of flowers and birds doodled around the margins. But he manages to activate the scroll finally, and as the words on the paper burst into arcane flame and melt away to leave only an empty page with doodles around the edges, he speaks out his message to Queen Ileosa.

Sabrina concerned, insists immediate return for preventing Seneschal Andaisin. Requests party rendezvous forthwith. Can provide assistance. Provide location and status? If endangered, details of threat?

There is a long pause as Aliani awaits to hear a message back from the queen. A pause which stretches out into seconds, and then minutes, until finally he is forced to conclude that wherever she is, Queen Ileosa Arabasti has either chosen not to respond or is unable to do so. Which leaves the only real lead as Handmaiden Elliana, who seems to have gone into Eel’s End as her next stop in this ill-fated hunt for Gaedren Lamm.