"Sure thing. Out the door, right on Main, take Main down to Market. You'll be looking for the large building to your right on the corner of Market and Salmon." Corporal Blackard grins at Tac then nods in Talashia's direction. "There's enough of us left to step up the patrols, but you're welcome to join in of your accord. Old Tom Maggard's gone missing but the rest of us wot as are staying behind can do."
"Never showed up to watch the North Gate. Left here plain enough, and it plenty of time to get to his station, just never showed up by all accounts." Corporal Blackard shrugs.
"Never showed up to watch the North Gate. Left here plain enough, and it plenty of time to get to his station, just never showed up by all accounts." Corporal Blackard shrugs.
Tac's brows furrow as he hears this news. He glances to Elyra as he asks the Corporal, "Do you happen to know what size boot Maggard wore?"
"Uh, no." Clearly thrown off guard, the good corporal looks askance at Tac. "Sorry, I see what you're driving at, Mr. Tac, but I can't say as we keep up with one another's footwear 'round these parts. Now, in Korvosa..." The Corporal winks, his good humor returned.
"Uh, no." Clearly thrown off guard, the good corporal looks askance at Tac. "Sorry, I see what you're driving at, Mr. Tac, but I can't say as we keep up with one another's footwear 'round these parts. Now, in Korvosa..." The Corporal winks, his good humor returned.
"Anyone else disappear?" Asks Elyra. "Any other -- Strangeness?"
Corporal Blackard shakes his head. His close-cropped copper hair doesn't budge an inch. "No, no other bad news. We'll know more about how many we lost later today after Father Zantus finishes his count at the temple."
Hate to hustle you all, but I think we've spent enough time on talk and need to be moving outside so that Taran can re-join the group and we can get on to something else.
Tac nods. "Thanks much, corporal," he says, moving toward the front door. "Guess the question," he says to others as he moves, "Is whether we hit the North Gate again or Sir Korvaski. I'm maybe more inclined toward the noble, but ... all right, now this is getting to be a habit!"
Tac's thought is interrupted as he catches sight of Sandstone outside the mayor's office. He crosses his arms and jokes to the others, "It's like he heard the Mayor ask us here this morning. Oddest coincidence."
Tac's thought is interrupted as he catches sight of Sandstone outside the mayor's office. He crosses his arms and jokes to the others, "It's like he heard the Mayor ask us here this morning. Oddest coincidence."
The look Elyra gives her cousin is at once obviously significant and utterly inscrutable. "Let's drop the coins off," she says. "Maybe they'll tell us something about what to look for elsewhere."
Lying in the shade beneath a hay cart across the street from the garrison, Sandstone is quietly napping when the group first emerges from the public building. Woken by the sound of the engineer's exclamation of surprise, the tawny collie perks up his ears and raises his head to look around groggily. Catching sight of the group on the stairs, the canine rises, yawns widely and shakes himself fully awake. He pads out from beneath the cart and begins wagging his long tail as if in greeting.
Talashia nods at Elyra, missing the subtext about the dog.
"Coins it is, but lets follow up on this missing watchman. So soon after the attack, it seems more than a little strange for one to just vanish like that."
She smiles then as the dog comes over, and she heads over towards it, hand outstretched to give it a pat.
Sivan nods. "Coins first, then the watchman." A bit hesitantly he kneels next to the dog. "Good boy, do you remember me?" If 'he' doesn't move away, Sivan will look if he has a bit meat to spare.
__________________
Signature
Hi I'm a comic and rpg nerd. Don't hurt me, please.
Walking down Main Street from the Garrison, the group picks up Market and follows Market to the lower level of Sandpoint, closer to the bayside docks. The closer to the bay the group gets, the stronger the smell of salt air grows and the pitched sounds of seagulls get sharper. A large wooden building bearing a placard denoting it as "The Sandpoint Mercantile League" sits, as Corporal Blackard promised, on the right side of the byway at the corner of Market and Salmon.
Judging by the milleu of folk who congregate on both the outer wrap-around porch and inside the mercantile, the exchange is a gathering spot for arranging for both overland and sea passage as well as a stopping point for messengers. Inside the mercantile, separate counters run by an assortment of clerks offer inquiries into land ownership, building construction, and the founding of new business in Sandpoint proper or in the outer Hinterlands.
Tac
Tac is well-versed with the workings of and services offered by the Sandpoint Mercantile League. The League is owned and managed by Sandpoint's four noble families, the Valdemars, Deverins, Kaijitsus, and Scarnettis. The families contract with Sir Jasper Korvaski, a knight of Abadar and himself of the large city of Magnimar, to run the day-to-day operations at the League. Sir Korvaski's romance with Cyrdak Drokkus (director/proprietor of the Sandpoint Theater) is one of Sandpoint's worst-kept secrets. The relationship between Korvaski and Drokkus has angered the Scarnetti family--easily the most conservative family in Sandpoint. The Scarnettis want Korvaski out, and if the local wagger is true, it won't be long until Sir Jasper's services are terminated.
At any rate, Sir Korvaski is almost always found at the Mercantile League and, though formal and somewhat officious, is accessible through the clerk who runs the Land and Title counter within the League.
The stray collie pads alongside the group as they make their way towards the waterfront; seemingly unconcerned with their intended destination. Arriving at the Mercantile League's building, Sandstone draws somewhat closer to the engineer and follows the man inside the public establishment unless someone blocks him.
Along the way, Tac is in fine form, rattling off information as if he's giving some kind of final exam. A final exam he finds far more interesting than most students do:
"It's actually such a turn of luck that we're going this way," he says, smiling to his cousin as he begins to impart. "The Mercantile League is quite the Sandpoint enterprise. All four noble families come together under it, though of course Sir Korvaski is there to manage the daily issues. Which, actually, is a wonderfully interesting turn all its own.
"Talashia, you'll probably be especially relieved to find out Sir Kovarski won't be repeating that awkward run-in you had with the gentry we met yesterday. You see... well, it's sort of a secret, but it seems everyone knows, so you might as well find out from me, I'd think. Sir Kovarski happens to be romantically linked to Cyrdak Drokkus, the head of Sandpoint's theatre.
"Of course, I guess the Scarnetti family heard the same thing, and I've heard tell poor Sir Kovarski may be on the way out because of it. Shame a body's leisure activities can muck so with one's job. I can't for the life of me work out how off hours frolicking impacts accounting skills."
Linear Mode
And yet another word from our sponsors
