Seravin's Tales of the Night Below (Two Updates this Week - 07/24/07)

[Seravin]

You're welcome, and thanks for the compliment.
Good luck to your group and the trolls - hopefully they're using fire this time.

To everyone else, I should be posting soon. Between the holidays and some personal things, I haven't done any writing for awhile. I'm hoping to change that soon.

 

[Seravin]

More Reports

Shortly thereafter the building caught fire.

The barrel-chested Watch-Commander, Dolan Jessup, stopped, re-read that last line and swore vehemently. Lieutenant Brand had just paid for a whole lot of trouble and he probably didn’t even know it yet. Sighing, the older, graying officer looked glumly at the report in front of him. Soon he would have to give his version of the report to his Grace, Duke Hilmaron, and he wanted to be able to give the report without flinching under his Grace’s piercing stare.

The events were still a tangled mess and only a handful of people really knew what happened. It was Latina’s own miracle that the fire hadn’t spread further; by all accounts the fire brigade had been slow to respond, hampered by the fleeing criminals. Hyla only knew how the cache of alchemist fire kept getting saturated with water.

Dolan sighed again and looked mournfully at the report and started scanning it again from the top. In another hour he would have the heroes in his office and he wanted to make sure he asked all the questions that Duke Hilmaron was certainly going to answer.

The complaintant’s (identified above) brought in the accused just past the second bell. They claimed that they had been set upon in the North East quarter in an alleyway off of Chance Street. The complaintant’s further alleged that the accused had three other allies who had gotten away in the ensuing fight and further that one of these allies was a wizard of some power. There were burn marks on two of complaintants (Field-Captain Kellron and Journeywoman Jallarzi) as well as strong odor of lightning. The accused refuse to talk at all either to confirm or deny guilt.

I sent two men to confirm the identities of the complaintants and received written verification from Colonel Megara of the church of Sarath, Master Wymeah of the Library, and Watch-Herald Ladea brevetted to our own organization. While awaiting confirmation of the identities I ordered that the prisoner be placed in a cell.

While searching the accused for weapons and contraband, Watchman Rok discovered a black silk cord wrapped around the accused’s arm held in place by a copper pin tipped with a garnet. Watchman Rok reported this immediately and I recognized these as the insignia of the assassin group known as the Black Sashes; though I recognized that this was not definitive proof of being an actual assassin I allowed this to influence my decisions in aiding the complaintants.

Herald Kestral indicated that while investigating the whereabouts of a bard’s harp she had come across suggestions of a criminal conspiracy to capture or kill a stonemason by the name of Marik Lorland. The conspirators had somehow been wrongly informed that this stonemason was involved in some sort of wrong doing though she did not appear to know exactly what kind. Lacking any evidence to take to the Watch, she and her friends decided to rescue the stonemason themselves by magically taking his place while he was spirited away to a safe place.

Dolan snorted. He had some very pointed questions to ask this Kestral Threndy. Somehow he knew that she was involved more deeply then she had admitted to the Lieutenant. She was probably very pretty and had distracted the young idiot from asking all the correct questions.

The Watch-Commander sat back and took a drink of tea from his rapidly cooling mug. Calling Brand an idiot wasn’t really fair, but he was young and it showed. The Lieutenant was the younger son of one of the lesser earls living in the city and had decided on a Watch career; his family had ‘helped’. Fortunately the young man was competent, if still green and was capable enough in enacting his day-to-day duties; these circumstances weren’t day-to-day though and it was unfortunate that Brand had done almost everything exactly right.

After everything had been verified I allowed Squire Ashimar and Herald Kestral to speak with the prisoner alone. I had a guard posted close enough to hear any call for help or to invervene in case of any untowardness; the guard reported that all went peacefully.* Afterwards, Squire Ashimar and Herald Kestral reported that the prisoner refused to speak about why he was apparently after Marik Lorland but that he had been given his job at the Blue Diamond, a tavern in the North-East quarter. Still lacking any evidence or a direct confession I nevertheless dispatched a squad to the Blue Diamond and allowed the complaintants to leave to take care of other business. **

It looked okay on the face of it. The Watch-Commander had been a member of the watch for over twenty years. He knew exactly what the dispatched squad would have found when they arrived at the Blue Diamond.

When the squad returned they noted that all seemed normal at the Blue Diamond, though the squad-leader noted that some of the patrons seemed extremely on edge and that there seemed to be an abundance of coin on some of the tables.

Watch-Commander Jessup was well aware that some wealthy families involved themselves in criminal activities, and given their resources were more than able to plan for the long-term; he was also cynical enough to believe that the best the Watch could do was keep the worst of the excesses in check. No doubt the squad had been spotted the moment they appeared on the same street as the tavern, giving the owners a chance to hide any blatantly illegal activity. The older officer contined to skim the report.

Just before nightfall the complaintants appeared again, this time alleging that upon visiting the Blue Diamond they found that it was also acting as an untaxed gambling house. Given the previous squad’s report and the credentials of the complaintants I thought it best to personally investigate the charges.

It was decided that I would accompany the complaintants in plainclothes while the rest of my squad would hang back under the cover of heavy cloaks. If I was able to verify their claims that the establishment was involved in running games of chance we would then signal my squad to make arrests.

The complaintants admitted that they hoped to use the arrests and the ensuing chaos as a chance to search the premises for evidence of the presumed assassination attempt against Marik Lorland. I deemed that there was a reasonable chance of this and agreed to let them search while I and the squad made the arrests.

The Watch-Commander couldn’t suppress another snort. That was the Lieutenant’s youth and inexperience speaking. Assassins weren’t hired with written contracts that outlined that some poor deserving bastard needed to be killed which were then conviently left lying around. Assassins were hired with soft words and much gold and perhaps a few favors. There had been zero chance of finding any evidence of why this Edath suspect had been hired to kill Marik Lorland.

Lieutenant Brand was obviously too young and trusting; there had been no evidence of the assassination, but life was for learning and moving on. The Watch-Commander just wished he could be more glad about what they did find.

It started snowing on our way to Blue Diamond which hid our approach quite well. Upon arriving at the tavern Herald Kestral and I entered the establishment after convincing the door guard that we were there to game and it was okay. We were admitted without incident and I observed at least ten games going on in the common room. Within several minutes after seating ourselves I noticed that two games ended, whereupon a portion of the winnings were sent to the front counter and given to the bartender.

Upon this partial evidence (I was awaiting a full confirmation that the establishment was not licensed for gambling) I paid the bill and left with Herald Kestral. As soon as we were outside I signaled my squad and Herald Kestral’s allies. I then directed half of my squad to the rear of the building. Once set I then knocked upon the same door we had just exited to gain admittance and announced myself. The doorguard opened the watch-window and immediately slammed it while raising an alarm inside.

My half of the squad and I proceeded to try and enter the tavern. At about the same time Squire Ashimar noticed a concealed entrance into the building nearby. He and his comrades entered the building that way and were able to free up the main entrance enough for us to enter.

Once inside Squire Ashimar apparently discovered another secret door leading to a basement. Field-Captain Kellron led his group downstairs to investigate. Shortly thereafter the building caught fire.

Secret doors. Untaxed gambling. This Blue Diamond reeked of trouble. Watch-Commander Jessup could only hope that whoever had the funds to hire a wizard and a group of assassins was now too busy to hire the same group again to go after a simple Lieutenant. What with the rumors that the soldiers were going to be deployed north (In the winter!), he couldn't afford for there to be any trouble in the city.

---
*I don’t recall much of the conversation, but Kestral and Ashimar went in to talk with Edath (their assassin prisoner). I seem to recall that this was the first time that Kestral tried to use all three of her ranks in intimidate; rather ineffectually. It wasn’t until she and Ashimar teamed up that they managed to get anything at all from him.

**Notably Kestral immediately met thereafter with Watch-Herald Ladea to arrange a ‘sister’ to backup her story with Grandal about her sick sibling. She had realized partway through the questioning of the assassin that portions of her story were being checked up on. By the end of the day the Herald’s had adopted a small eight year old orphan girl named Erica who agreed to accept ‘Beth’ as her sister. Kestral made a point to spend time with the girl during her remaining time in Corlean. After starting this process the group went onward to the Blue Diamond.

 

[Seravin]

There's a couple more parts to this. Hopefully to be posted by Sunday.

 

[Capellan]

Y'know, I don't remember the Night Below boxed set being anywhere near this interesting -- good stuff, Seravin

 

[Seravin]

Y'know, I don't remember the Night Below boxed set being anywhere near this interesting -- good stuff, Seravin

High praise, thank you.

I have to disagree a little bit, but I was enthralled with Night Below from the first time I picked it up. The module provides an excellent framework with lots of interesting bits here and there. Of course being a framework it fit easily in my home brew, but on the flip side it required a fair amount of fleshing out. And to be fair, what makes this game memorable for me is the players.

Like I said earlier, this section of the adventure didn't actually work out in play very well. We blew about three 4hr sessions just doing the various investigations and a few of the players got bored with the format. Still the end game was pretty satisfying overall.

After this I started using email between games when it was important for the players to know what was happening and needed to respond but would otherwise take too much gametime to go through. This worked out well for us.

 

[Seravin]

Den of Thieves

The Blue Diamond happens to be the name of a very expensive restaurant in the heart of Kalta, the Imperial capital city. Over three centuries old the restaurant is known to have some of the best cooking in all the empire. Moreover, the restaurant has proudly hosted at least one meal for every heir to the throne since its opening. The name itself has gained enough fame that almost every major city of the empire has its own Blue Diamond; some owned by the original owners in Kaltta, others by complete unknowns.

The Blue Diamond in Corlean is a long way from her namesake in Kalta, both in distance and spirit. According to the Imperial building and tax records The Blue Diamond is a small tavern and inn that rents space out of a privately owned building; a small carvan outfit and two shops also share space within the large building. The actual owner of the building is a small merchant house that moved its operations to Jeralin some three decades ago. Rent is collected every quarter and sent south to Jeralin via the caravan office. The actual owner of The Blue Diamond is currently unknown.

One of the first things that Kestral noticed upon arriving at The Blue Diamond was that it was across the street from the Holtson warehouse where she ran her jobs as Beth; just as importantly it was across a narrow alleyway from the warehouse that she and Ashimar had broken into two nights previous.

The building itself is a long two story affair with a small stub jutting out of one long side, forming almost a ‘T’. Contrary to Lieutenant Brand’s report the front of the building is the long flat side, while the back side where the stub comes out is where he actually entered to get into the gambling room.

Looking at the front of the building at the rightmost side there is the shop called ‘The Emporium’ which sells anything and everything a traveler might want; from good luck charms to warm blankets to traveling cookpans. The owner also rents out the space immediately above his shop as well as a small basement just below.

Immediately next to The Emporium on the left is the Blue Diamond tavern operation. Behind the bar is the kitchen and meeting room. Directly behind the tavern, leading into the part of the building that juts out the back is the caravan office, though there is no obvious direct connection between the caravan office and the tavern rooms. Oddly enough there is also no obvious way to the second floor immediately above the tavern; though the caravan outfit rents the space immediately above their offices as well.

Next over to the left of the tavern are the entrances to the private rooms and bunks that the Blue Diamond rents out. At the back of a long hallway, past a door, there is the gambling room though the room itself has a private entrance from the back of the building. The gambling that goes on in the gaming room is mostly small time and the room is more valued if only because the people who frequent the place keep to themselves.

Finally, on the far left of the building is a Mertaf’s Pawn Shop whose entrance is at the rear of the building. Mertaf has a reputation of buying anything, no questions asked. The front of building is rented out by The Blue Diamond as well as the whole of the upstairs.

When Lieutenant Brand arrived with Kellron and friends they went to the back of the building and straight to the entrance of the gaming room. Having been there just hours before Kestral was able to gain immediate entrance with the Lieutenant; it didn’t take long for the Lieutenant to verify that the house was getting a piece of the action.

Gambling in and of itself is not illegal in Corlean, but Duke Hilmaron wants to make sure that it is fair and that the city gets its fair share; as such all establishments that host games of chance must declare itself on the city tax rolls. For various reasons, most involving greed, The Blue Diamond chose not to do so. Given that no trouble happened on the nearby streets and that its clientele was unlikely to go to the watch, the risk should have been minimal.

When the Lieutenant tried to enter a second time, this time in his official capacity with his men in tow, the door guard panicked and slammed the door shut and called out the alarm. This was the first mistake.

The second mistake was made by the on-site guards the owners happen to employ to deal with ‘problems’ that sometimes came up within or about the tavern; problems aren’t tolerated near The Blue Diamond. The four guards on duty this night responded to the ruckus at the back of the building by pouring out of their little guardpost right into Kellron and Ashimar’s waiting blades. The fight didn’t last long and is only worth mention in passing.

The door the guards came out of (which wasn’t as concealed as Lieutenant Brand’s report indicated) led through a little guardroom into a private meeting room and the Diamond’s kitchen. This led to the main tavern which people were trying to escape from. In the ensuing chaos the group saw not only a person trying to use a secret door that led between the tavern and the gaming room, but another secret door that led into a concealed hallway that led to stairs leading down.

That’s when things got interesting.

 

[Seravin]

As the title of the last post indicates, I used the 2ed product called "Den of Thieves". It came with a great foldout map and some nice descriptions of how a thieves guild might look.
I recommend it just for the map alone, but I like the write-up of the guild also.

 

[Seravin]

I'm changing things around a bit. While writing the next chapter this is what came about instead and it more properly goes here. I'm moving the chapter 'First Basement' to the next post.' It's what I get for posting as soon as I write and I hope this isn't too annoying.

The Guild
Let us call this group of criminals reported by Lieutenant Brand 'The Blue Diamond Guild', though the head of this guild would never have given the ogranization such an obvious name. The leader, Father Dark, is first and foremost a businessman who understands that flamboyant names and activities do not lead to contined business and thus continued profits.

It was in the name of business unhindered by any moral considerations that Father Dark and his lieutenants diversified into prostitution, gambling, loansharking, and other questionable so-called soft crimes. None of these activities when properly regulated were illegal in the city of Corlean, but there is a high profit to be made when these activities are not regulated. Even better, few people complain about these crimes; and for those who do complain, well…there are other crimes that are less soft.

Robbery, burglary, extortion, bribery, and murder were performed at first to cover the primary activities until someone realized that these crimes are also high-paying profit centers. Smuggling, fencing, forgery, and managing petty pickpockets were just natural extensions of business as usual after that.

Naturally these activities required many degrees of secrecy. To that end Father Dark has ensured that there are many layers between him and the ‘clients’ of his organization. Cllients only know of the establishment which provides the particular vice they participate in, and only the proprietor of the establishment knows who collects the daily cut. Employees know better than to talk to anyone else of what they know. Just in case however, Father Dark only ever appears amongst his employees wearing a black silk mask that completely covers his face. How he sees or speaks unmuffled is chalked up to magic.

The one weak point is that all large businesses need a place to collect and account for the monies. Further, the most loyal employees are those whose living and lodging depends upon the success of the business and all of this requires infrastructure. The building in which The Blue Diamond resides answered these problems for Father Dark quite nicely, for it had been built over one of the ruins of the city that had existed on this same location millennia ago. These ruins were quite extensive and formed a small network between several buildings in the neighborhood. The existence of these connections were hid over the years and used for many different purposes until Father Dark consolidated his influence and power over the neighborhood and ‘inherited’ the buildings.

 

[Seravin]

You've probably already read this chapter. The new chapter is the previous one. After I wrote it I saw that it went better before this one as an explanation of what the party went up against. My fault for posting this a chapter at a time instead of waiting until it was all perfect. Though if I had waited for that I never would have posted.

The First Basement

Wooden stairs creaked under the clanking weight of Kellron as the armored paladin of Sarath made his way down the hidden narrow stairs. Four steps from the bottom he paused and turned his head to get a glimpse of those behind him. “Looks clear.” He called back in not quite a whisper.

Unsaid was that Kellron in his armor was most likely the loudest person in the entire building. Anyone who heard the warrior was undoubted hiding in the shadows went for a chance to strike.

The stairway opened up not quite in the middle of the back left quadrant of a large, wide-open room; obviously a meeting hall of some sort. The entire room was paneled in wood, even the ceiling, though they knew they were at least eight feet of earth between the ceiling and the floor of the building above. The room itself had a ceiling height of about eight feet and it was lit by the flickering light of torches that produced no smoke.

At the opposite end of the room from the stairwell was a simple dais, completely unadorned and probably used for giving speeches and directions. Between the stairs and the dais were a number of simple, dark wooden benches worn smooth and glossy with use. The back wall opposite the dais (behind the stairs) was lined with simple tapestries which held abstract patterns.

As Kellron stepped into the room Ashimar quickly slipped past him. Both warriors had their weapons out and they quickly spread out as Jallarzi and Kestral made their way down the stairs and into the hall at a calmer pace. Panther had stayed above to provide an extra pair of eyes in case anything happened.

Ashimar and Kestral caught each other eyes and after a slight gesture and a nod the young man went to explore the dais while Kestral went to look at the tapestries. “Why don’t you two check out the benches?” Suggested Ashimar. The paladin and sorceress both nodded; content to at least be doing something.

“What do you got?” Keststral called out to Ashimar.

“Just a concealed podium.” Said the young man with disgust, standing up from behind the dais.

“I got a concealed door. There’s a room behind this tapestry and it has stairs.”

“Too simple. Let’s check the walls.”

Kestral shrugged and she and Ashimar began to examine the paneled walls and Jallarzi and Kellron split up to help them.

Ashimar and Jallarzi found the first secret door near the dais where the tell-tale scrapes on the floor gave evidence to a section of the wall that swung away. Kestral and Kellron found the second door, also near the dais, opposite the first. Opening both doors revealed narrow wooden corridors lined with doors.

“Explore some more, go up, or go down?” Asked Ashimar. “I think down.”

“The good stuff is always down.”

“Down.”

“Down.”

“Down it is.” The four friends quickly made their way past the tapestry and down their second flight of hidden stairs.

And thus the first basement of The Blue Diamond was passed. Most of the folk who used the bedrooms and offices were out ‘working’. Those who had come back after the dayshift had ended were mostly in the offices finishing up the countings of the day take and passing along the tips they had found out.

When the alarms were raised much evidence was destroyed and a few minor trinkets made their way out with several hundred coins. For as the heroes had learned criminals did indeed make their lair near the Holtson Warehouse, it was just that the entrance to their lair was across the street under The Blue Diamond.

 

[Seravin]

The Second Basement

By the time Lieutenant Brand and his men had secured the tavern and gaming room of the building, magical alarms placed by Father Dark began to alert the people in the basements below. At almost any other time of the day or night the Lieutenant and his men might have been ‘dealt’ with in a suitable manner, possibly never to be seen again. Two things prevented this however.

The first was that it was early evening, meaning that the members of the organization who worked the night trade were out and about performing their assigned tasks; while those who had ‘worked’ the day were still out and about relaxing. Because of this there were very few people on hand.

The second reason was that the people capable of making the decision were out on a mission of their own this evening. There were at least four (maybe five) strangers in town causing trouble for the organization. Night Sashes had been hired to deal with the problem and several senior members were out with them. Rumor had it that The Scabbard was going to be a bad place to be this evening.

Quentin Weelak is a private, cold, and calculating man well into his third decade. The wide-shouldered, dark-haired, dark-eyed man is the night taskmaster assigned to overseeing all robberies and extortions within the North-East quarter of Corlean. He carries out his duties with a cold and ruthless, impersonal efficiency; and as such is highly regarded and not a little feared by those who work with him.

On the evening The Blue Diamond was raided Quentin was leading his crew through a rehearsal for later that evening in the third basement training room. When the alarms began to sound Quentin waved for his five men to follow him upstairs to see what was going on.

--

Quentin and his crew had just made it to the second floor training room when Quentin’s keen ears caught the pounding of feet coming down the stairs. He held up his hand to stop his men and waited to see who was coming down in such a hurry; perhaps they had information on what was going on above.

It didn’t occur to Quentin or his men that anyone had found the secret doors, so the taskmaster was surprised when four strangers spilled off the stairs into the room. They were an odd lot, led by a man in a simple chain shirt adorned with a Sarathian symbol and bearing a rapier, followed by another apparent Sarathian in full plate armor, a white-haired woman bearing a white staff, and another umimpressive looking woman.

Both groups stopped and stared at each other for a full heartbeat wondering what to do for a minute. The lead stranger with the rapier quickly spoke up however, allaying Quentin’s suspicions. “You folk need to get upstairs quickly.” Ordered the young man. “The Watch has raided the gaming room upstairs. We were told to get everyone out safely.” The young man spoke with authority and with no hesitation.

Quentin thought it over in his mind quickly. He didn’t know the man but it was certain he was one of the assassins sent to deal with the troublemakers causing Father Dark so much trouble. No one else would have those orders or know how to get down here. He eyed the four competent looking strangers again and almost felt pity for the poor souls these assassins were going to kill tonight.*

“Right.” Responded the taskmaster. “Thanks for the heads up.”

“Not a problem. We’ll sweep the rooms below for any stragglers.”

Quentin nodded and waved his crew onward. They slipped past the assassins and made their way upstairs through the secret ways out of The Blue Diamond. Quentin was most chagrinned that evening when he finally realized that those ‘assassins’ who had warned him were the adventures Father Dark wanted dead. Being a practical man however he was just as glad he had fallen for their ruse; he had no desire to face any of them in a fair fight.

Thus unwatched, the four friends availed themselves of the stairs down and completed the second basement of The Blue Diamond; ignoring any possible secret doors and the hidden offices and quarters beyond.

--
* I believe this was Ashimar’s first and only bluff check. He didn’t have any ranks and his Charisma is only so-so. I think there was a fourteen point spread between the opposed rolls before any modifiers for believability.