Falling Into Place

The party had survived the ambush in the marketplace, and Shinjiro had managed to capture the sniper who’d been doing so much damage from the rooftops. The market square was littered with the dead bodies of the thugs who’d attacked them, and several stalls were in flames, courtesy of Nicki’s Flaming Sphere. Panicked shoppers and merchants were still fleeing the scene or cowering under carts, and they knew it was only a matter of moments before the city watch arrived with an “arrest first, ask questions later” policy. Shinjiro waved everyone over to the alley behind the sniper’s building, and dropped the bound woman down to Sawyer (Zhustin desperately wanted to help “catch” the struggling female). A horse was tethered in the alley, so working under the assumption that it belonged to the assassin, they took it into custody as well. They hurried away from the scene just as city guards began pouring into the square from the other side.

They put as much distance between themselves and the square as they could, then found a secluded alleyway where Bella and Nicki could “question” the prisoner. As soon as they removed her gag, she blurted out, “If you kill me, you’ll never know who wants you dead!” Nicki delivered a Corrupting Touch just to set the stage, but the sniper protested calmly, “There’s no need to get ugly – I’ll tell you anything you want to know.” Nicki and Bella couldn’t hide their disappointment at having a cooperative prisoner, but backed off.

Hekja

She told them her name was Hekja, and that she’d been hired by a man named Jorgan the Axe. “He gave me 800 gold and a Human Bane Arrow, and told me he wanted at least one of you dead. I used part of the money to hire those other guys to keep you busy on the ground.” She glared at Shinjiro. “I didn’t count you being able to bat the arrows out of the air, or being able to … jump like that. Now that I’ve failed, I’m as good as dead if Jorgan finds me, so if you’ll let me go, I plan to get as far away from here as possible.”

“Is this Jorgan a Tian?” Zhustin asked, looking for a link to the forces that opposed them, but Hekja just laughed. “No, he’s a big hairy Ulfen. He hangs out in some of the seedier dives around here, but I don’t know where he lives.” They asked who he worked for, and she snorted. “Word is that he’s Thorborg Silverskorr’s private pet.” That name rang a bell for the party, but they couldn’t recall where they’d heard it. When they asked Hekja who she was, she shrugged. “Some rich woman. I don’t exactly travel in her circles. Story is that Jorgan was a loner living down in the Grungir forest until some big-shot jarl came down there hunting. Jorgan claimed he trespassed on his land, and beat him half to death and left him crippled for life. The jarl’s huscarls hunted Jorgan down and captured him, and brought him back here to Kalsgard to be executed. But for some reason, the Silverskorr woman offered to pay weregild for his release if he’d agree to serve her, and he’s been her puppy every since.”

Convinced that she’d told them everything she knew and that she was telling the truth about fearing Jorgan’s retribution, the party stripped her of anything valuable or dangerous, and let her go. In her horse’s saddlebags, they found 500 strange gold coins. They had square holes in the center and had odd writing and markings. Shinjiro took one look and identified them as being from Minkai.

The party decided they still needed to talk to Fynn Snaevald, to see if he could shed any light on the Rimerunner’s Guild’s possible involvement. They reached his house without any further bloodshed, and Fynn was delighted to see them. The old man listened eagerly to the tales of their battles and narrow escapes, his blood pressure rising to dangerous levels. He said he’d never heard of anyone named Jorgan the Axe, but when they told him that Jorgan worked for Thorborg Silverskorr, his mouth dropped open. “That can’t be right!” he sputtered. “I can’t imagine someone in her position being involved in this. Why, she’s the head of the Rimerunner’s Guild!”

Suddenly the pieces of the puzzle seemed to start falling into place. “Why don’t you tell us a little about the Rimerunner’s Guild,” Zhustin encouraged, and Fynn stroked his beard. “Well, they’re a trading guild, obviously. Not the largest in the Kingdoms by any stretch, but still prominent. They specialize in trade with Tian Xia, over the Crown of the World – silks, spices, tea, jade work, that sort of thing – although they also sponsor other trading missions, both here in the Kingdoms and to the south. They’re run by a woman named Thoborg Silverskorr. Her family was one of the founders of the Guild generations ago, and I knew her father and grandfather, although I don’t know the girl. Handsome woman, and shrewd, but she has a reputation as an honest trader. She’s never abused her unique position in the guild, far as I know.

“You see, the guilds are consortiums. Different traders band together to share the risks and rewards. They invest in the guild, and in turn they get shares in the guild. Most guilds are careful to make sure no one trader has a majority stake – too much opportunity to force your own wishes down your partners’ throats. But Silverskorr owns over 50% of the Rimerunners.

“Because of the Silverskorr family’s history with the guild, they’d traditionally held about a 30% stake. Some 50, 60 years ago, a spice trader from Minkai named Kimandatsu immigrated to Kalsgard and bought a junior share in the guild. Over the years, she increased her stake until she owned over 20%. When she died a few years ago, she left all her shares to the Silverskorr girl.

“It looked pretty suspicious at first. See, Kimandatsu died on a voyage to the south with Thorborg Silverskorr on the same ship. But it was investigated pretty thoroughly, and everything was on the up and up. Turned out Kimandatsu had drawn up her will years before, and it was witnessed by several prominent Tian merchants with no ties to Silverskorr. And Kimandatsu died on her own ship, with her own crew, and they all swore the old woman just got sick and died of natural causes. I don’t know what she was doing on  that ship in the first place – she was older than me!

“Since Silverskorr took over, she seems to have run the guild pretty well. They’ve grown quite a bit in the last few years, and I’ve heard she’s even made some loans to the King. I’ve got friends who are junior partners in the Rimerunners. Silverskorr can be pretty secretive about guild business, but a good trader always keeps his cards close to his vest. But she still holds regular guild meetings and reviews the books with them, and I’ve never heard any complaints.”

While the party tried to digest all this, Bella asked Fynn what he knew about Snorri’s estate of Ravenscraeg. The old trader shook his head sadly. “There have been a lot of rumors about Snorri for years now. Folks said he’d gone completely crazy. He was convinced that the end of the world was coming, that the gods were going to go to war with each other and everyone on earth would be wiped out. He built this fortress called Ravenscraeg in the mountains south of here where he planned to ride out the end of days.” They asked if he knew where it was, and he shook his head. “No, I’ve never been there, and don’t know anyone who has. You could ask the Rimerunner’s, though – they’re the ones who bought the place from Snorri.”

Thud! Another big piece of the puzzle dropped into place. The party talked about the timing of events: about three years ago, Kimandatsu had died under suspicious circumstances, leaving Thorborg Silverskorr in charge of the Rimerunner’s. About the same time, the Guild purchased Snorri Stone-Eye’s remote fortress. Marie consulted with her helmet, and Helgarval confirmed that that was also about the time rumors of the Frozen Shadows first started to circulate. Coincidence? The group still wasn’t sure why a trading guild would want to buy an out-of-the-way fortress, but perhaps that wasn’t important. The group decided it was more important than ever to pay a visit to the Rimerunner’s Guild.

But first they thought it was time to relocate. Ollie and his family had been good to them, and with last night’s poisoning, they were worried that the situation was escalating and that they might attract danger to the Hunting Serpent and its proprietor. When they shared their concerns with Ollie, he looked relieved – it seemed he’d been looking for a way to ask the party to leave without offending them. They asked if there was somewhere he’d recommend they’d go, and he grimaced. “Well, there’s an inn down the street called The Limping Dog, and it’s owner is a real asshole – always bad-mouthing me and my inn. If you’re going to cause trouble anywhere, I can’t think of a better place!” The party laughed and thanked the innkeeper for his hospitality. Sure enough, a few blocks away was an inn under a sign of a three-legged dog. (The inn had originally been called The Running Hound, but when one of the legs broke off the sign, patrons took to calling it The Limping Dog, and the owner decided it was cheaper to accept the new name than to get the sign fixed.)

While most of the group settled into their new digs (not nearly as nice as Ollie’s, but better than sleeping in the street), Bella, Shinjiro, and Marie returned to the Jade Quarter to case the Rimerunner’s Guildhall. It was a two-story masonry building with a sturdy wood shingle roof. Pairs of guards were stationed at each door, and two more patrolled the back and side of the building. The windows had sturdy-looking iron bars sunk into the stone, and sported shutters that would probably be pulled shut and locked at night. In addition, the city watch made frequent patrols through the neighborhood, and several nearby businesses had their own private security, so any disturbance would likely attract a lot of assistance. The trio returned to the inn, and the party spent the next several hours discussing and abandoning various plans for entry. In the end, they ended up deciding to use their tried-and-true approach of just winging it.

They waited until well after dark, and returned to find that the outside guards were no longer in evidence. The windows were shuttered, although dim light could be seen shining out through gaps in the shutters on some of the windows. They crept around to the side door and posted lookouts at the front and back of the building. Bella knelt down and quietly picked the lock on the door. As she removed her picks, she noticed faint light shining on her fingers, and she bent and pressed her eye to the keyhole. The narrow view revealed a long hallway, running the length of the building, with a stairway going up on the right-hand side. As she watched, a guard came around the corner from behind the stairs at the far end of the corridor, walked to the base of the stairs, and turned to his left, disappearing from her limited view.

Bella waited a few minutes to make sure no alarm was sounded, then quietly eased the door open. She could now see the whole hallway; there were a pair of doors immediately to her right, and farther down, across from the stairs, another pair of doors on the left. Of greater interest, she could seen the guard's elbow and a bit of his side – he seemed to be leaning against the wall at the foot of the stairs, facing away from her. She drew her rapier and crept stealthily into the building, with Nicki taking up her position just outside the door, finger at the ready. Bella skulked slowly down the hallway, and heard the guard humming to himself. She took a breath, and then slid the blade of her rapier between the unsuspecting guard’s ribs. He gasped, and turned to face the threat, and as he turned, Nicki hit him full in the chest with a volley of Magic Missiles. His eyes rolled up into his head, and Bella eased his lifeless body to the floor.

When no more guards came rushing to investigate, Bella waved the rest of the party into the building, and they took up positions in the hall. To Bella’s immediate right was another door at the base of the stairs, and it was locked. Bella went to work on this lock, and it soon opened to reveal an office. Based on what they recalled from their first visit, when they’d come to collect their reward for “returning” the Aril’s Hammer, this was the manager’s office. There was a desk with some paperwork, another locked door that they suspected led back to the front office area, and another door to the left. Nicki began going through the paperwork on the desk while Bella opened the door. It opened into a closet, with floor-to-ceiling shelves containing mundane office supplies.

Bella started to turn back into the office when something pricked her instincts. She stared into the closet for a few moments before she realized what was off. The front of each of the shelves was worn in the center. Letting her eyes follow the shelving up, she spotted the outline of a concealed trapdoor in the ceiling. Using the shelves as a ladder, she climbed up, and cautiously pushed the trapdoor open.

She found herself in a small cramped room, with no other exits and room for little besides the trapdoor and a heavy iron strongbox against the far wall. Jackpot! She checked the strongbox for traps, and began working on its intricate lock. Finally it snapped open, and with some trepidation she lifted its lid and peered inside.

The first thing that caught her eye were bars of gold bullion, and leather sacks bulging with coins. Once she tore herself away from the gold, she spied stacks of bound ledgers, folios of papers, and rolls of papers tied with silk ribbons. The strongbox was too heavy for her to lift and hand down through the trapdoor, so she hissed down to Nicki and soon the party members were lined up to receive the loot she was passing down.

While he’d been on guard in the hallway, Sandoval had noticed that one of the two doors by where they’d come in had been recently fitted with a hasp and a sturdy padlock. When Bella had finished looting the secret storeroom, he pointed it out to her, and her lockpicks made short work of the lock. They threw open the door, and inside was a badly battered and bruised Uksahkka! She saw the party and leaped to her feat in delight. “You’ve come to rescue me!” she cried in a loud voice, and they quickly shushed her. They asked if Ulf was also here, and she shook her head sadly. “I overheard them say they were going to take me to someplace called Ravenscraeg, where they were also holding Ulf.”

The party decided their raid on the Rimerunner’s had been extremely successful so far, and that there was no sense pushing their luck by exploring any more of the building, so they shut the door behind them and headed back for the inn. But before they’d gone more than a few blocks, Uksahkka stopped them. “I’ve had enough!” She was crying and trembling. “In the last few days I’ve been beaten up twice, attacked by a giant crab, an elemental, and assassins, and kidnapped. I don’t care how good Ulf has been to me – I can’t take any more. I hope you find him, but I’m leaving. I’m going to go back north and never come anywhere near Kalsgard again!” With a sob, the tracker ran off into the darkened streets.

The party returned to the inn and spent the next several hours combing through the stash of paperwork they’d stolen from the guildhall. Much of it was mundane business documents and financial records, but they found several items that, combined with other things they knew, began to paint a damning picture. They found a receipt for the rental of the Aril’s Hammer to Asvig Longthews, dated just a few days before they’d been attacked at Skalsbridge. They found a contract between the guild and Asvig to “acquire a Tian antique” from an address they recognized as Fynn Snaevald’s house. The ledgers detailed many financial transactions allocating large sums to “development expenses” at a location called Ravenscraeg, and they found a property transfer showing the “Tian antique” had also been transferred there. All these were personally approved by Thorborg Silverskorr. And last but not least, they found the deed to Ravenscraeg, showing its transfer from Snorri Stone-Eye to the Rimerunner’s Guild and including detailed property boundaries. From this, they were able to fix its location, some two days’ travel southeast of Kalsgard.

By this time, it was the wee hours of the morning. The party felt very pleased with their progress – they had proof that the Rimerunner’s Guild was behind much of what had happened to them (although they still weren’t clear why), and they felt they knew where both Ulf and Suishen were located. They were ready to set out for Ravenscraeg immediately, but they were also now weighted down with a few hundred pounds of gold that they didn’t necessarily want to travel with, but definitely did not want to leave at the Limping Dog. They finally decided to leave at first light, and to stop at Fynn’s house on their way out of town to leave the ledgers and gold with him for safekeeping.

They got a few hours sleep, and were just preparing to depart when there was a frantic pounding on the inn’s door. The innkeeper opened it to reveal one of the drivers from Sandru’s caravan, wild-eyed and disheveled. “You’ve got to come quick!” he demanded. They party asked why, and he gave the innkeeper a suspicious glance. “I can’t tell you that here – just come!” With no more questions, they hurried out after the driver. As soon as they were out of earshot of the inn, he gave them the bad news: “Miss Ameiko’s gone!”

They arrived at the caravan grounds to find a distraught Sandru and Koya. Sandru told them what had happened. Shortly before dawn, a fire had broken out in the corral where the caravan’s horses were kept. Everyone rushed to put out the fire, but when they returned, they found that Koya’s wagon was empty. To no one’s surprise, they’d found a large black feather in the wagon where Ameiko had been hiding. Bella rushed inside and checked the secret compartment where the Amatatsu Seal’s Warding Box was hidden; to everyone’s relief that, at least, was still there.

At least now the party felt confident they knew where Ameiko was being taken. They left the gold and ledgers with Sandru, and quickly saddled their horses. With grim goodbyes, they turned their horses to the south, and galloped off on the road that would take them to Ravenscraeg.

The PCs earned 1,786 XP for the night, putting them at 21,005 XP with 23,000 required for level 6. We’ll be at Leo’s again next week, although Roger will be on call.