It's nice to be in Sharn again. We've spent several days here, and I've been working hard. I made a quickbeam staff for Colvin, and after that I didn't see 'im too much... best as I can figure, he got caught up in a quest for the Silver Flame, not that I've been spendin' much time lookin' 'round for 'im what with all the work I've been doing. Mostly I've been putting a lot of hours into this chest, and it's really coming along as a beautiful piece o' work. Of course, the enchantment itself never takes long, but you can't rush the process of really crafting a fine item down to the details. Having finished the outside and done all the inlay work, once I finish the lining, it should be complete. I've talked to Wynelle about setting up a business arrangement and I think we have agreed on terms that will be beneficial to both of us. It was great to meet up with her again, have a pint, catch up for old times' sake.
The others have set off on a small rescue mission to recover some slaves, and I stayed behind so as not to miss the convention at Morgrave University. I haven't been to one in years and couldn't really pass up the chance. Of course the others understood, as the better I get at my trade, the more beneficial it is to them as well. Anyhow, we also found out about a moneybroker behind the slaves that's here in town, so me an' Aurora are going to look into that in the meantime. Pr'aps my... other skills will come in handy in acquiring information or infiltrating if necessary. And it's always useful to have someone with ye who's handy with a weapon (or two!).
Thanks to my connections with House Cannith, the guards of the town hired us to track down the moneybroker, a man by the name of Aaron Black. We learned that he's rich, likely to be living in the Upper City or the Skyway under an alias. We were offered 10000 gold to capture him alive, and 6000 if we turned in his dead body. They said he was likely to have bodyguards.
With that, Aurora and I started asking around in the Lower City, where we learned that Black has dealings with the Black Market (no pun intended, I'm sure), where deals in slaves and drugs. We also learned that Aaron Black was a drug supplier in House Thurani. That led us to suspect that he was involved with darker deeds as well, given House Thurani's reputation as a house of assassins. From my previous travels to Sharn, I thought that maybe we should then look in House Thurani's group of estates in the Upper City. We went sightseeing around that area, and found ourselves confronted by three thugs (human-looking) who tried to extort 1500 gold from us in exchange for them not reporting our activities to Black. We didn't really want to pay them 1500 gold (first and foremost, I never carry that kind of money to begin with), so after a bit o' fast-talking, I decided that the best way to continue sightseeing without arousing their suspicion again was to pose as Aurora's son.
As Aurora an' I walked past a shop in the Middle City, we saw a man with a long mustache using some sort of device along with a stand consisting of a long tripod and a spyglass. He must've made it 'imself, as I've never seen anything quite like it. Taking advantage of the ability of the young to speak out-of-turn, I inquired about it in my new form as a young boy, but the man shushed me (though he did answer a couple of questions, saying that he could in fact see things up in the Upper City and Skyway through his lens). Then we heard a "pop," and the man went away. We followed the direction we best figured the spyglass was pointing at, and didn't see much but a scrap of rubbery substance that had been magical in the past. Aurora an' I figured it musta come from one of the flying things tied to an air elemental, as they have them all over the city carrying messages, advertisements, and so on. While we were looking, we saw two of the ruffians who had tried to extort us, but they seemed to take no notice of us.
We got to see a huge ship fight in the Upper City, where a ship of warforged were chased off by another ship carrying half-elves and one warforged. We saw a half-elf woman on the second ship shooting with her wand at the first, and the sky was filled with explosions. In the crowd watching, we learned that this isn't terribly uncommon here, where rogue warforged attack dragonmarked houses (usually House Cannith.. bah!), and House Lyrander defends.
None of this, however, was helping us to find Black, so we decided to go to the library and check out the genealogy records. Here we learned that the family had started out as an offshoot of the Phiarlan line, and had changed their name and joined House Thurani as it started out. The Black family had sought favor with the royalty of Breland but had been turned down. The long an' the short of it is that one of the Black ancestors had a residence in the Skyway, and we thought that'd be a good lead. We watched the house for a bit, and we saw ship come down from the house into the Lower City. We followed it and saw 3 elven men go into a circus. I learned that the bouncers at the circus don't like kids much. As we were leaving, we then found ourselves jumped by a dwarf-looking guy and two human-looking types, which we later learned were wererats. Anyway, they looked a little weirded out about attacking a kid, especially once I gave one of 'em a solid bolt with my crossbow. I think one of 'em figured it out, but it was too late for him and we took 'em down. Along the course we learned that they worship the Keeper among the Dark Six. We found an Adamantine Mace, some thieves' tools, two daggers, a short sword, and a card with the Thurani emblem on it. It said "Knock twice then thrice to gain entrance to the back of Black House." Hm, this made things easier. We followed the three elves out of the circus and watched them go into the Cogs. Aurora an' I decided that we had learned enough and didn't want to risk our cover by chasin' 'em, so the next day we went to Black House. I disguise myself as one of the human forms of one of the wererats we killed.
So we knock twice. Then thrice. They let us in, easy enough, and don't take much notice from there out. So we wander up some steps, there are hundreds of 'em it seems. We find a hidden door in the wall that leads to a hidden elevator shaft. Apparently Black was superstitious, as there is no floor 7 nor was there a 13, but there were 20 floors so maybe I wasn't so far off on my guess as to how many steps there were. Aurora an' I talk about it, not real sure where to start, but we figure the old man probably lives on one of the top two floors, so we stop at Floor 19. The elevator leads to a short hallway which dead-ends with another door, and we see a horn coming from the wall and goggles into the wall. I didn't find any traps an' Aurora's a pretty brave lady as she just put it on without even knowing what-all it did, but she told me she could see into the room from there, and this is how we learned that Black used the secret elevator and the equipment to spy on the servants and on the goings-on in the house. Aurora said the maids were getting ready for breakfast, and talking about how Lord Black had headed out in a huff earlier in the morning. She said she could see the two elves we'd followed into the Cogs, murmuring something about how there's an issue among the royalty in Breland relating to the King's health and the royal line. Apparently Black had received a letter from the Breland throne and had retired with it up to his room.
...and that's about all we needed to figure out that the next floor up is where Black's room would be found. Up we go, and this hall was also short but led to a corner, and we could see a foot stickin' out. Now we weren't sure if it was a guard or what, and also weren't too sure what else to do, so Aurora drew her weapons and got ready, while I shot at the foot with my crossbow. Well, what else would we do, eh? Anyway, the shoe goes flying off and we realize that the owner is long-since dead. We found 200 gold, a jeweled dagger, and a vial of poison on the skeleton.
We found a secret door leading into Black's quarters. He wasn't there, so we decided to look around. On his desk, I found an open envelope that contained a letter addressed to him. Enclosed was a picture of a young man, who Aurora said was Black, as she said she had seen a portrait of the same man, though much older, when she spied into the dining hall. The letter said,
"Dear Mr. Black,
Long ago your grandpa sought benefactors and was rudely rejected. If things happen as I desire with your assistance, things will be better. Also you can deal a devestating blow to Phiarlan. Lord breland has a daughter connected to the rival house, and I do not want to compete with her. Signed, "Uncle""
We were tryin' to figure out what all this meant when a man came in and shot at the wererat. Oh wait, that was me. Aurora an' I chased him down out of the house and he got into an airship. We got a taxi ship and followed, an' as we got close, Aurora leapt onto his ship. I'm not as fit as she is and wasn't about to go leapin' from ship to ship at high speeds thousands of feet into the air, since I don't have any sort o' a deathwish. But I shot from afar with my crossbow and when our driver managed to get us close enough, I walked carefully from one ship to the next. We learned from Black, as we exchanged shots, that the skeleton we had encountered was an assassin that House Tarkanen had hired to assassinate Aaron's father, who had failed. Little did he know that the same poison that was intended to kill his father would have an effect on him, as I animated the poisoned dagger and directed it to attack him from behind as Aurora attacked from the front.
Now poisons, if they aren't stored in the right environment can lose their efficacy over time. Certain environments are worse for 'em than others, of course, but still without the proper storage the generations had taken their toll, and the once-lethal poison merely made Black turn sickly. However, with Aurora swingin' 'er weapons all 'round in front of his face, it was a bad time for Black to become ill. We were just about to capture him when he... took a step off the ship, plummeting to the ground below.
Oh, I cursed. I didn't even want to look... bastard just cost us 4000 gold because now we'd have to deliver 'im to the guards scraped up off the pavement. But I did look, because we needed to know where he was goin' to land.
And I saw him, not plummeting, but floating gently down like the lightest of feathers. An' by now, of course, he was too far away for me to be able to shoot him. But then, we saw him get shot with somethin' else, and fall unconscious. We told our driver to go down, and we grabbed 'im where he was. We didn't find any bullets on his body, but we did find one of those rubber jobbies from before in his shirt. Yep, that old man with the long mustache had seen the whole chase and did 'im in.
We tipped our driver handsomely, for his skill and speed. 20 gold from us, and he was tremendously grateful. His name was Ralph, and he gave us a whistle which he said would be able to summon him to us from wherever we were. He said if we summoned him from afar, like a few days' travel, we'd have to pay handsomely for the service, but given how excited he was about the 20 gold, I think a hundred or two gold would make 'im a very happy man. I wonder what he'd think if we summoned him from a place as far as Cragwar?
Black had 6 platinum on 'im, and we turned 'im in to the guards. When we asked for our reward, they looked nervously at one another before a brave one admitted that they didn't have the funds to cover it. They offered us property in the Lower City instead, which they valued at 4000 gold. We have to choose between two places: a repossessed warehouse in Dura and and repossessed brothel in Cliffside. I like the idea of the Cliffside property since it has more rooms an' I like my privacy an' quiet for working. But I'll have to see what Aurora wants to do. Maybe we should even check the properties out first, make sure they're all clear like the guards say they are.
