Pieces of the Puzzle

Jump to Comments

Ordering an ale from the barkeep, Feldard questioned the man further. “Know you then where the dockworkers find their nightly relaxation?”

“Well, there are a number of establishments near the docks. Let’s see there’s The Hand & Dagger, The Sailor’s Tap Room, The Mirror Bay Mead House, The Salty Sea Dog and Barnacle Bill’s. Might be one or two I’m forgetting.”

Feldard thanked the pint-slinger and returned to his companions table, with ale in hand, picking up bits and pieces of the gossip going around. He shook his head with a sour look forestalling any questioning from them. Good thing, none had taken him up on his bet! He drowned his disappointment with a quaff of his ale.

Saeth waited a moment, sipping her own mug, while the dwarf calmed himself. A calm dwarf was a good dwarf. Or a better dwarf, at any rate. After he’d gone through a second ale, she judged he’d cooled off somewhat.

“I have no sense of the distances underground. With your tunneling… talents–” though the swordswoman saw any talent that required you to be underground as a curse– “have you enough grasp of the distances travelled to see where the pit would be? Behind the bar? In a back room?”

Feldard considered the Elf’s words for a moment, glancing about mentally orientating himself within the tunnels. Then pointed towards the kitchen area. “The kitchen area.. though if I judge our newest friend Nicolai right, he’s already checking that out.”

Nicolai waited for his moment. The waitresses and barkeep were all occupied. He stealthily made his way to the rear kitchen area. He saw a kitchen worker open a hatch and dump some garbage. With his keen hearing, he could hear the foodstuffs and trash go into a chute and make a plop. The worker returned to other duties, so the youthful rogue made his way to have a look at the chute for himself.

Opening the hatch, he couldn’t see very far into the darkness. The chute was fairly narrow, probably too difficult to pass through for anyone larger than a child. It appeared that left this avenue of investigation closed. It appeared the refuse pit’s presence in the tunnels was due to happenstance.

“We need to find this Skevlos fellow. Perhaps down by the docks… ” He finished off his second ale and snorted, then looked towards the priest and the mage, “You are men of learning, so what make you of all this?”

Miklos spread his map that he’d made of the tunnel network out on the tavern table. Thoughts tumbling through his mind. He turned to Maruc.

“An interesting conspiracy is afoot here. We have the players; Fortunato Vorloi, a cousin of Baron Vorloi—currently at sea and has been for weeks. The Vorloi are close allies of Duke Stefan. Slain daughter Lucia Vorloi—killed violently in her own house, tried to reveal her attackers with the letters BAD/BOA/RAD/RAO, which could be Radu?” He took a sip of wine, “The Radu are a prominent Traladarian family embroiled with tensions that must include the Vorloi—if Lucia’s final message is to be believed.”

“Then there are the Torenescu—why would they wish to make a point disrupting the Festival of Lucor? What connection does there lie in the discovery of the ring? Or is it a plant as Nicolai indicated?”

“What are the motives of the Veiled Society? As you can see from my map and compare it with the map the Seath found there appears to be a conspiracy dating back weeks, indeed this times well with the departure of Fortunato does it not?”

“Theosius, our benefactor is Thyatian, as are the Vorloi. Perhaps he might be able to enlighten us further on Thyatian politics?”

Miklos mulled further on his thoughts. “What of the Butcher/Landlord Turano and his tenant dockworker Skevlos? And what of the red hair that was found in dried blood on the dagger at the crime scene, on the bloody rags in Turano’s cellar and in the purple hood in the guest house?”

“Apparently, no one at the Rattlesnake knew their garbage chute leads to a tunnel network?” Hmm, Miklos tried to formulate some sort of pattern that linked all the evidence. “Vorloi, Torenescu, Radu, Veiled Society, Lucia’s murder, Fortunato Vorloi at sea. Dispoiling the Festival. The Ring, The Dagger, Red Hair, Purple Robes.”

“The Old quarter is where all the old families resided, and therefore is at the center of this conflict” Miklos stared at the map.

“Ok here is a hypothosis: In an attempt to weaken the Duke, the local Traladarian clans conspire to cause some sort of coup by planning to assassinate or capture his close ally the Baron. They formulate a new society called the Veiled Society to cover their tracks. They wait until the Baron departs on a long sea journey and they abduct slaves to dig a tunnel from a safe house – The guest house, to the Mansion of the Vorloi.”

Maruc took a long draught of ale, “They are not tunneling experts so they go amiss and break into cellars accidentally. Still they carry on. They succeed in locating the mansion but whilst investigating the mansion in order to plan their abduction or murder of the Baron they find out the mansion isn’t empty – they are discovered by Lucia. They have to get rid of her but she recognises her attackers from their looks or accents. She is stabbed to silence her but she manages to write a message and drag herself away so that her murderers do not realise what she has done.”

“We happen upon them as they try to bury her corpse.” Maruc looked at the Mage as he thought about his theory.

“You assume that their ultimate target was the Duke himself? Via the Baron?” Miklos rasied an eyebrow.

“Also, why if they had already reached their goal would they continue digging?” Miklos downed another mouthful of wine. “No, we have only half a theory. What houses of interest lie west of the tunnel network? Perhaps this new tunnel was a ‘plan b’ after the murder of Lucia?”

“Just a thought—Lucia could have been writting ‘Baron’?” Maruc stared darkly into his beer, he felt no nearer to the solution, but it helped take his mind off the deaths in the tunnel.

The night passed quickly as the group discussed their theories and reviewed the clues they had acquired so far. Finally, last call was made and the group made their way back to the Blue Water Inn.

9 Comments

Filed under Dungeons & Dragons