The Mad God's Key (Bront Judging)

[Rystil Arden]

I should hope that whomever is responsible for this outrage is made to pay for their actions. Violence may indeed prove to be necessary, but employment through me is contingent on drawing as little official attention to yourselves as possible."

"Worry not, Lord Provost Altamaic, sir. Not only will our search be discreet, with the only options for outcomes distinct, our search shall also be discrete!" Alysina puns, giving a bit of a cute tilt of her head, which spills out a bit of her hair from her scholar's robes, and smiling just a tad guiltily at the pun.

 

[Someone]

I should hope that whomever is responsible for this outrage is made to pay for their actions. Violence may indeed prove to be necessary, but employment through me is contingent on drawing as little official attention to yourselves as possible."

"Seriously? Since you are hiring mercenaries for your job instead of recurring to the authorities, I seriously thought you wanted your business to have the attention of the legal powers."

"Seriously, in no time you'll have your stuff back here tied of hands and feet, and the culprits quietly dispatched."

 

[stonegod]

Weapon nods at the common Cyran greeting, but lets his living companions do the babbling.

 

[GwydapLlew]

"Seriously? Since you are hiring mercenaries for your job instead of recurring to the authorities, I seriously thought you wanted your business to have the attention of the legal powers."

"You would be surprised, sir, at the lengths some independent operatives will go through to make as large a spectacle as possible." The Proctor gestures at the door and utters a word and it closes securely. He offers a smile to the assembled quintet and shrugs. "An affectation. I dislike constantly having to get up to speak with Talia.

"As you are aware, I have a task that needs handling. Our good University is currently undergoing a ... public relations crisis, and going to the City Watch would be inconvenient for me at this time."

Altamaic leans forward as he rests both hands palm-down on his desk. His dark eyes flash angrily as he recounts his tale. "Early yesterday morning, a valuable book was stolen from the University Library. The criminals who perpetrated this act also murdered one of our students - we can only assume that the robbers were caught red-handed, and silenced him. Your task will be to find this book and return it to me. If the thieves resist, then I would ask that you remember that the student they callously murdered was naught by eighteen and unarmed."

"In exchange for performing this deed, I have at my disposal five letters of credit at House Kundarak for 100 gold coins apiece." He pauses and waits, anticipating a response from the five in front of him.

 

[Rystil Arden]

[SBLOCK=OOC]Oh, wow--the total reward is 500 divided by 5 then? I thought the 500 mentioned was per capita--that's rather low. But of course, Alys can't back down anyway. Still, never hurts to hedge.[/SBLOCK]

"Only eighteen...those callous dastards!" Alysina replies, angry that a young innocent has been murdered in a senseless burglary, "Still, I guess this book isn't quite so valuable--I've seen people drink one-use potions worth more than 500 gold. It seems almost absurd that someone would go to such lengths as to kill for something like that, let alone brave Morgrave University's security to do so...Hmm...this might be a clue..."

"Still, if the culprits have gone far, an investigation could get expensive--can you tell us what exactly is in this book? It must be something of interest but not any great value, since I know if it were truly valuable, you'd be offering more for its recovery, partly because you're a nice guy, partly to keep the University from looking terribly stingy, and partly because it isn't good business sense to ask people to recover something extremely valuable and then offer a reward far lesser in value than the object itself--fortunately for you, you have found a trustworthy and intrepid band of detectives, but if not for that, you would run the risk of not recovering the item were the recoverer to discover that significantly more could be made with almost no risk by finding the item, selling the item on the black market for its true price, and then reporting failure in the mission. I know you're one of Sharn's most brilliant minds, so if I thought of that, you must have realised it long before this."

[SBLOCK=OOC]Rolled a 25 in trying for a bigger payoff. Perhaps higher with circumstance bonuses or gnomish assistance.[/SBLOCK]

 

[Someone]

[sblock=ooc]Morgrave must be having a crisis - my other characters is also looking for a book stolen from the university[/sblock]

"You would be surprised, sir, at the lengths some independent operatives will go through to make as large a spectacle as possible."

"Not my case" affirms Tam. "That goes against my training, and personal interests"

"we can only assume that the robbers were caught red-handed, and silenced him."

"They were probably rouges" jokes Tam

"In exchange for performing this deed, I have at my disposal five letters of credit at House Kundarak for 100 gold coins apiece." He pauses and waits, anticipating a response from the five in front of him.

Tam pauses and looks aroun, waiting to see if any othr is going to haggle the offer.

 

[GwydapLlew]

[sblock=ooc]Morgrave must be having a crisis - my other characters is also looking for a book stolen from the university[/sblock]

[sblock=OOC]Amazing, isn't it, how crime goes in waves, and it all affects later plot? Oh, the joy of a persistent world. [/sblock]

 

[Rystil Arden]

[SBLOCK=OOC]Is that other one Head of the Class? I think I remember seeing that proposal, since my only character was on an adventure at the time. Anyways, Alysina rolled rather well on her haggling, so we shall see if we can't make that offer a bit more enticing (since right now, it's pretty lacklustre when split by five).

As for Morgrave and books, it seems there are just a few stereotypical elements that always wind up appearing in many Eberron adventures. Apparently a battle or chase on the bridges/towers of Sharn is pretty common too.[/SBLOCK]

 

[GwydapLlew]

[sblock=OOC]Well, your initial roll made him Friendly to the party, and he'll have to contest the Diplomacy roll, but I'm waiting to let Patlin and the others post input before determining the circumstance modifiers. [/sblock]

 

[Rystil Arden]

[SBLOCK=OOC]Sure thing--hopefully since this isn't exactly a quest of charity where returning the book is actively Good-aligned, our resident Paladin won't try to offer free services or anti-haggle (plus Rionus seems too much of a gentleman to try that one). [/SBLOCK]