Ghosts and Vengeance (Running Man IC 1.5)

[DoctorGlock]

Party 2

I figured it would be better to separate the two parties after some folks brought up concerns via PM. So continuing...

The strange metal bars might provoke some curiosity, but no answers. You have never seen the like and neither has your somewhat-leader. 'Maybe it's worth something. Your find, your keep,' Co'av says. 'We have the correspondence. Let's head back to base and Zalo can take a look, see who and where our next target is.'

It takes about 40 minutes to wind through the slums into the sewer networks where the small Irshedai compound has sprung up. Throughout the maze of warrens and tunnels cookfires burn, spitted meat lied cracked and roasting, though it may be best not to think too hard on what in many cases. Some dark elves developed rather... unconventional... tastes during their ordeals during the war. The base is filled with music, both the old folk songs of a people in exile and the newer, cruder and darker ones that have risen to take their place.

For all of that, it has a lived in and home-like quality. It had sprung up during the occupation and was used by partizan forces during the war. Abandoned afterwards it was re purposed by Irshedai affiliated partisans whose war had not yet ended.

A cart full of weapons rattles by on its way to the docks as you cluster around a table lit by lamplight and Co'av lays down the papers. 'Not much,' he says, 'but I think we stumbled into something a little bigger than the usual camp guard.' As you look at the papers you note that they are written in gnomish, but the linguestic slips and tone are very clearly elvish, as if translated but only in part.

All is not yet lost Mr Harris, you have more than enough opportunity to settle your debts. Simply guard the reagents with your life and do not let them fall into the Authorities' hands. By the time your anniversary rolls around you can look once more with pride upon the world.'

Vague enough to be utterly useless. The next it a little better, you had found it sewn into an inner pocket before relieving its occupant of material concerns. A number of passports, all with the same picture and different names.

Vance Harris, 87, Half-Elf. Nationality, Briadoch. Occupation: Roofer...

Mearen Galen. 124. Elvish. Nationality, Sorish. Occupation: Coach Driver...

They go on and on. 4 sets of false documents total, each describing an innocuous profession and a quiet, neutral and above all uninvolved country. Coav reaches into a drawer and pulls out a thick file, thumbing through it until he pulls out a dossier.

Herr Mearen Gealith. 124.
Unterlieutenant 12th Elfensturm

The pictures and physical descriptions are a dead match for the rapidly cooling corpse in the slums.

'Feanwe's right hand scum himself,' Co'av says as he pops the final few papers on the table. A ticket for an airship flight dated three days hence heading south to the jungles of Aretina. And a hastily scrawled note with the following: 10:45, fisherman's nook. 'So just who would be giving him orders, hmmmm?'

[lenon3579]

"I wonder what those 'reagents' are...He was instructed to guard them with his life and not let them fall into authority's hands... and then it seems that it fell into ours... or mine" He takes those weird metal bars and examine them again, but closely and with more attention and less hurry now.

[Zergrinch]

Zalo stares at the scrawled note. Fisherman's Nook... Does that sound familiar to him?

Spoiler

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General d20 roll because I don't know which ability applies. (1d20)[16]. If there is proficiency, add 3. If it's an intelligence ability, add 2. If wisdom, add 5. If luckstone applies, add 1.

[OmnivorousOgre]

As Co'av finished his presentation of the papers, Jaken quietly had a closer look on them. He was delighted to have this chance to properly inspect them, and a little surprised since Co'av seemed to have a "finders, keepers" attitude. Unfortunately he had never learned Gnomish, but that didn't stop him from trying to look for clues in the documents. Comparing the handwriting in them to see if they were written by the same person, the age of the paper, the kind of ink that was used... anything that could potentially reveal where they had been made or other information that could not be found by reading alone. Meanwhile, he was already trying to recall if the maps of the area he'd read had mentioned any permanent settlements in Aretina.

Spoiler: Rolls

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Investigation: (1d20+5)[24]

[Alegast]

Faera looks at the metal bars with renewed interest. "Well, if I get in my hands those reagents, I can sell them in the black market for a hefty sum". She walks slowly to where the other are and watch them with a boring glance. "Have you found something interesting, loktriamen?" she asked flirty, while at the same time she had a closer look to the papers Jaken was studying.

Spoiler: OOC

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"loktriamen" is drowish for guys.
Investigation check: (1d20+1)[11]

[DoctorGlock]

Spoiler: Zalo

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Fisherman's nook is very familiar to you. Down by the docks, but not quite part of them, it sees very little presence by law enforcement, making it an ideal place for shady business and smuggling, as well as the normal collection of junkies, dead drunks, and dead bodies. Given its reputation, you'd think the watch would have cleaned it up ages ago, but it isn't a blight on the wealthier part of town, so it isn't their problem. It's a knowledge roll, and i think luckstone applies.

Spoiler: Jaken

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Aretina is a developing nation that remained ostensibly neutral during the war, but offered shelter and trade to elvish forces. Permanent settlements could describe one of seven sizable cities, but only one has an airship strip. Bursos, the capitol. Dmurti has been running into a wall trying to get OSS and other international police forces in. Being a neutral nation, they were never at war with allied forces, meaning they never had to surrender. Which means sending forces in would be a violation of Aretina's sovereignty, and thus an act of war.

Spoiler: Faera

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Nothing. You know roughly where Aretina is on the map (you know, that jungle place southwest of here by a few thousand miles), but the geopolitics are not something you've ever really cared about

[Zergrinch]

Zalo turns to the lead investigator. "This Fisherman's Nook is by the docks. Not a very safe place to be, señor, but nothing better if you've any unsavory business. Might be worth investigating, at least? Maybe find something.'

[OmnivorousOgre]

Jaken, having ignored Faera's tone, only briefly averted his gaze from the papers to address her: "Nope. Nothing so far." At this point he was admiring the quality of the forged documents as much as he was trying to study them.