The night of the 17th of October I had dinner with Artha. We had a pleasant evening as usual, when the conversation took a turn towards our groups past success in finding people on the bounty board. I thought this was a curious turn, since I was not the one who brought up the subject, like I usually did, in order to give myself and our party proper credit and fame on these subjects. What’s more I had already told these things to Artha in the past, and while she would always listen to my every detail with rapt attention, I did not think it likely that she wanted to humor me, with tales of glory already told. Artha didn’t work that way... At least not with me. She had always been genuine in her interest in myself and my activities. This time her interest was no less in abundance, but her reason for that interest was entirely different. Artha wanted the outlaw Enchanter brought to her, and without the local authorities getting their hands on her first. She also wanted me to find her for her, and promised a proper reward to myself and those that aided me in her safe delivery. Apparently Artha and Garroway have a long rivalry. Garroway is nothing more than scum, as far as Artha is concerned and her hatred and contempt of the man startled me. He is a pig of the worst sort, and deserved worse than what he got from Artha. Be that as it may, he is also a powerful enemy, and one Artha warned me to take precautions against. She told me that in no uncertain terms, if I was to aid Artha by delivering Arlet to safety, and Garroway were to find out about it, there would be trouble. Garroway is concerned about the events that have happened the past few months. Garroway has a large mining operation and is dependent on the price of Iron being controlled in the region. Since the House of Kamal and the house of Zais struck a deal, the price of iron will be coming down. Zais has many iron mines, and of a better quality too it seems. With trade opening up, Garroway is facing financial ruin, since his finances are not spread around too much. Garroway was pushing for a tax on iron imports, but the council of Eldars was not going for it. Apparently he attempted to entice an Eldar in particular but it didn’t come to pass. The House of Kamal is resistant to helping Garroway, because they want cheaper Iron for their war with the house of Dramar. I told Artha that I would find Arlet for her, and bid her good evening as I wanted to get started. I soon went to the shop and found Feyd. He told me that the rest of the guys were at the Ice House, talking to some guy named Waylan, that wants to have a tracking contests to prove once and for all who the best tracker is. Feyd and I walked in, and I over heard Azer asking Waylan if he was a ranger. “Hah, no. from what I hear rangers hang out with Faeries” Azer took a look at me and replied “well I know one that wears red robes” I gave Azer stink eye. Waylan laughed “Not that kind of faerie!” They came to terms, to set something up. Waylan claimed he could be found at the ice house. Just look him up. About this time Gurt came walking in, and practically the whole bar greeted him with a chorus of “Gurt!” “Hey guys!” he greeted in his usual cheerful manner. It was at this time that I gave the run down of what Artha wanted and her promise of a reward. About this time Vaprack told everyone of his little encounter with the “Harvester” and his attack on the fair skinned woman, who must have been Arlet. We all agreed to split up, and visit our different friends and contacts and see if we could find some information as to where she was. Feyd and I would go to the Gray Fox, and Herb’s potion shop, the others would go to the seedier establishments, and we would all meet back around midnight to find out what we could. At the Gray Fox I saw Elma, having a private chat with Sultan, the architect. I ordered a bottle of wine to be sent to them, and waited for their conversation to end. After a few minutes Sultan left, and Elma waved me over. I introduced her to Feyd and informed her that I was seeking information that could help me find Arlet. All I really got was information about Garroway. Apparently, he is making a bid to control iron in the area. Elma refused to do what he wanted as it would not be to everyone’s benefit. Garroway has ties to the House of Kamal, and has many mages at his disposal, however Arlet was his most prized. Her enchantment ability is impressive, and her intimate knowledge of his holdings and business dealings would make her a serious thorn in his side, should she be found by the right person. All I really learned about Arlet was that she rarely used her natural appearance, and often used an alias by the name of Ruza. About this time Zohar walked in, and wanted to have a chat with Elma about something so I bid her good evening (taking the moment to point out Zohar to Feyd, and relay Artha’s warning about him. We tried Herbs but came up with nothing. Herb is too careful to protect his clients privacy and anonymity. He said he would put the word out that we were looking for her if we wanted to but we chose against this. Vaprack, Gurt, and Azer were not getting anywhere with their search either, although they were working on a good buzz. pretty much all the information they got was useless, when Gurt spoke up. “Guys, were going about this all wrong. I have a great system to get information.” Everyone was curious, and acknowledged that things were not working out, so they all agreed to try it. “Follow me” Gurt ordered, and soon had everyone out on the street and marching towards the seediest part of town. Gurt walked right up to the door of the Black Eye (the same door he kicked in when Azer and Vaprack first met him) Threw them open and bellowed cheerfully “Hello men! How are things?” He walked into the middle of the bar, and pulled out a pouch, that was rather full, and gave a short speech. “Men, I need some information, and I have a big bag of coin right here for the first person who provides it. I’m looking for Arlet, and I want to know where she is. First person that tells me gets the gold.” Gurt looked around. No one moved or said anything. Azer and Vaprack just looked at him in amazement. “All right men, I know how it is, with you and your secrets. I’ll be at the ice house this evening. The bag of coins is still good for whoever comes up with the info first” at this Gurt turned around, motioned for Azer and Vaprack and marched right out of the bar. On the way out the door there were two thieves eyeing Gurt, that Azer noticed. One of them started to make a move for the pouch, but the other one stopped him and shook his head no emphatically, “bad idea”. Apparently Gurt is a known entity here. The group was soon at the Ice house and Gurt got himself a nice spot at the bar, and started drinking. The others gave him some privacy, while they knocked back a few of their own. It wasn’t long before a shady figure walked up to Gurt and whispered to him. “Get out of here you lying bastard. come back when you have some real info” Gurt said loudly as he flung him across the room. A few more shady looking people spoke with Gurt and met a similar fate. After an hour or so, a mercantile looking person walked up to Gurt and they had a quiet conversation. Gurt handed the man the coin, and walked up to the guys and explained himself. “ Man, Word has gotten around faster than normal. I didn’t want to give the money to a thief. The trick is knowing the right sort of person your talking to. Weed out the liars and cheats, and wait for the real deal to come around. You just have to be patient. Anyway, she’s currently having dinner at Hutton’s Haven right now.” The 3 of them went off to the restaurant and found her, in a disguise, eating with a thin looking man. What gave her away was her eyes, which were two different colors. They sent a messenger to find Feyd, and I but nothing happened, we didn’t show up. They sent another one and 30 minutes later we still had not shown up. Finally they sent pitch with a note. Feyd and I found pitch with an arrow sticking in him, and with the note. We hurried on our way with pitch in the lead. We got to the restaurant in time to see Vaprack sitting down with Arlet working his usually find diplomatic skills “... you see you can come with us like we want, or not. it doesn’t matter to me. Fact is if I wanted you I could butcher you right now and there isn’t anything you could do about it. so what do you say?” She frowned at this. “You realize that he followed you here don’t you?” “Who that harvester guy? I wouldn’t worry about him.” We went back to a private room and had a chat, all of us in a group. I informed the rest that there were snipers on the roof tops and that there were many people hidden, surrounding the place. I asked Arlet if she could turn herself invisible, which she could, and if she could fly, which she could. I gave her a note from Lady Cragthorn, and told her it was our mission to get her to go there, where she would be protected. I gave her the address, and we formed a plan. Our group would go out the front door and provide a distraction and fight whoever was out there. She would go invisible and fly to Lady Cragthorn’s house. The guards there were expecting her, and she would be protected. She agreed, and we all got ready. To aid in getting up at the rooftops I cast a levitate on Azer. I also cast a shield spell upon myself, and, once we got at the exit, I cast mirror image. I then led the way out the door, expecting to draw the first volley of crossbow fire, but nothing happened. We all quickly ran out into the street, looking for targets. We certainly made a spectacle of ourselves (myself in particular) but no one attacked us. We figured that they were not prepared to take on a proper foe, and so we headed off down the street in a direction away from lady Cragthorn’s, hoping to draw them away from us. We eventually went on a zig zag pattern through many bars, and Inns. If anyone was following us, they were lost now. The next morning (the 18th of October) I took Azer to Lady Cragthorn’s house and we checked in to see if Arlet had made it. We were let in by the guards and the butler greeted us. When we asked if Arlet was here he said that she was and would see if she would see us. He returned a moment later to say she was on her way. What we saw was stunning. Arlet had reverted to her natural shape. She had fair skin and was ravishing. She had long sandy blond hair, and was dressed in a gown that Lady Cragthorn had laid out for her. Her smile radiated, as she thanked the 2 of us for helping her. She had not known that she was so well liked by Lady Cragthorn and also told us that if we ever needed her aid, she would do what she could. She also gave us a wand of polymorphing in thanks. It held 12 charges, and had a command word of change. She also warned us that Garroway would be very upset, and that we should be careful of him. She told us a secret that no one else knew. When she left Garroway she stole a ring of regeneration from him. Cut off his fat greasy finger to take it too. He was a slimy pig, and was dangerous. He also was a child molester if we followed her inferences correctly. Artha herself was not home, and was away on business, but we did have a pleasant chat with Arlet. The butler assured us that we had a reward coming, but that Lady Cragthorn did no leave him anything or any instructions to give us anything. Perhaps when she returns, but he did not know when that would be. After a little while we bid Arlet good day. I left a few minutes before Azer did... I think he is smitten, but I doubt that he would ever admit it. End of Chapter 16
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