Ptolus: 165 Vock Row - "Rat-catchers"

[Vdou]

Through the must and the dust you can almost see Ella's brain working overtime with the cipher.

"A four one six ten... but wait, now THAT is interesting...." Ella's mumbling is barely audible over the scratching of her pen on parchment working the code out.

 

[Voca]

Mata walks over to the barricade and starts to inspect the entry, hoping to determine what means was used to break through the wall.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Pulling the barricade away from the wall, Mata sees a hole approximately a foot and a half wide by two feet tall. The black hole of the sewers beyond is filled with stones that seem to have been pried or chipped away over time. Mata recognizes both the signs of tools used to pull away stones and what look like claw marks.

 

[Voca]

"Master Nogol, could you tell us whether there was anything in this room that the ratlings might have wanted?"

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The guildmaster's nostrils flare at the question.

"Naturally, anything in this guildhouse would be of value ... no, wait, that's not true." He taps the side of his nose while he thinks. "I think this room was mostly replacement chairs and linens for festivals and the like. The patrol heard the ratlings throwing things around in here, but they didn't seem to steal much, if anything. Filthy beasts ruined the linens, though."

 

[Voca]

"Is there a complete list of the contents? And would it be possible to interview the guards that discovered and drove off the intruders?" Mata smiles at the guildmaster. "Any information at all, however irrelevant it might seem, could help us locate them and put things to rights faster."

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

"I believe the contents are all still here, except for a few items that were too filthy for us to use or clean, which we burned. The guards, I can have them sent down here." Nogol steps outside and says a word to one of the guards, who rumbles in assent and heads off to retrieve the guards. "What else do you want to know?"

 

[Wool]

Thurst quietly watches the proceedings, having little to add. He peers into the sewer, hoping his short lived studies earlier would provide insight, but instead something else occurs to him.

Thurst mumbles to no one in particular,"Do you suppose they broke into the wrong room?"

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Nogol whips his head toward Thurst, his face instantly turning pale and shading toward green.

"Ynchabalos preserve us ..."

 

[Voca]

Mata also looks at Thurst, and then at the guildmaster as the colour drains from his face. "Master Nogol, what is in the rooms on either side?"