Phantom Thieves - Calling Card

Log Info

• Title: Phantom Thieves - Calling Card

• Emitter: Fidget

• Characters: Warrick, Reithak, Thoth, Carver

• Place: Nobility District

• Summary: Amidst rumours that there have been a series of audacious thefts among the nobility, by a group the gossips have been calling the Phantom Thieves, a few adventurers are hired under hush-hush circumstances to provide unspecified 'Security Services'. It seems they would like to keep what it is they're hiring you for as quiet as possible.

Outside the Koreen mansion four armed guards shuffle anxiously beside large metal banded wooden double doors, the two heavy knockers with a gem embedded at the lowest point in each loop. The guards are clearly expecting you, as you get a brief nod on arrival, and then the doors are swung open to display an ostentatious entryway, a large open room with a central staircase that winds up to an upper balcony on each side, with side doors leading into other rooms on both the upper, and lower levels. Art decorates the walls, a mix of family portraits and landscapes - some of which are fairly awful.

Your host and prospective employer, Amarn Koreen, a human of wealth and fine birth, is not yet in attendance, but a handful servants in elegant monochrome suits and dresses haunt the edges of the room, one takes notice of the arrivals and gives the slightest nod of the head to acknowledge your presence and make sure you know you're where you're supposed to be.

You're left hanging for a few minutes in this room, quiet unless one of you breaks the silence.

One human man in a blackened scalemail with an armet helmet tucked under his shoulder is that of Warrick, his large crossbow slung over a shoulder by the strap in one hand, and a notepad held in the other.

The Eldanar idly looks about, a brow raising at the art. "Hmm," he grunts. "Wonder who made those?"

A large brown egalrin in a somewhat flamboyant white robes steps up behind the others, taking a look around. "Goodness, quite the abode, isn't it?" They whistle loudly, taking in the foyer and nodding to the servants. "Curious too, but hey, better to support people trying things, right? Just gotta keep working at things." She adds to the guard.

"What a loa' of pompous shites." Carver grumbled, the wealth and privelege of the building's very decor souring her more than the salty taffy she is biting the absolute piss out of the entire walk through the estate. She is wise enough to pitch her voice to a grumbling canter, like a huffy stomping pony, but it is no less a rant. "Got more money'n sense, all blood cut off by tight trousers and sticks up t'arse." She gives an uncomfortable shrug of the shoulders, her hide armor and heavy furs giving the Dran teenager a larger silhouette, even if it is a slouchy one. "Bet they fornicate on gold coins, like weird gold pervert."

The small bird-like War Golem which normally would be click-clacking along with the rest of the group, has situated itself upon Reithak's shoulder, but smaller. It is working on what looks like a delicate small tool for some kind of purpose, and has gone 'smol' in order to better manipulate it.

When the group passes by the guard, it waves its small hands at the crew, then turns back to focus on its own work for a bit. The moment they are left hanging, Thoth just... continues its work. Appreciating the moment of silence and moment to focus without Reithak moving quite so much.

Eventually, it looks up at the art as others point it out. "This one wonders if their goal was the Abstract patterns of Gerbard Reicher." Pause. "This one believes it is incorrect in its own assessment. This is, what I believe, can by factually stated as being 'just bad'."

In response to one of the queries about the artwork, a nearby butler-looking servant with a good ear replies, "An artist in the family, for that one, sir. Second in line of the prior generation, Lezn Koreen. There are a few of his most entrancing pieces amongst those in the mansion." The line is delivered in a polite but stiff tone by the young, lanky man.

"Lord Amarn Koreen!" announces one of the maids loudly from the upper balcony as she swings open a door to welcome in your host. The man, tall and lean, with salt and pepper black hair, and some of the wear and tear of the early signs of aging, strides out with a clicking step, and stops halfway down the stairs at a mid-landing in the centre of the room, leaning lightly on the round orb of the cane you'd heard clicking as he approached.

He lifts the cane and gestures at the door with the tip, then clicks it back down onto the wooden staircase, apparently instructing his guards to step outside and close the doors, as they do just that.

He reaches into his pocket and produces an envelope, already opened, and begins to read from the letter inside.

"Greedy hoarders of wealth and power, the Phantom Thieves will take from you your most valuable possession and release it into the world once more" Lord Koreen recites, his frustration blatant in his sneering tone, despite the dramatics.

He continues, clicking as he walks down the stairs towards the group, "We will show your true powerlessness to the world in thirteen days time, you may prepare, but you will not be prepared!"

"Childish nonsense." He adds, finished reading from the letter, and he glances among the adventurers arrayed, and holds the paper out to Warrick, "But nothing some talented adventurers can't handle, I'm sure."

Thoth pecks a bit at the tool it is working of, then jumps off of Reithak's shoulder right at its spell is ending, growing back to normal height and pocketing the device inside one of its body's little hatches.

It then looks to the butler which, even with its Reduce Person spell having faded, no doubt is still quite a lot taller than the avian War Golem.

The host approaches. Thoth turns its head and notes it stopping half of the way down for a moment of poignient gravitas. It goes over the bird's head.

The rest steps out, and the ticket is revealed. "This one presumes you have called us here on the Thirteenth day?" It asks at an even tone.

GAME: Warrick rolls urban local: aliased to knowledge/local+2: (3)+5+2: 10

Warrick looks mildly amused at the small golem, but he can't help but have a flicker of a smirk cross his lips from Carver's frustrations. "Lezn Koreen, got it," he nods towards the servant.

But the call gets his attention to shift that way. "Lord Koreen," he bows his head as the man enters. His pen ends up taking further notes, a brow raising as the letter spells its intent. The ex-guard adopts an impassive face, gained only from years on the job having to deal with, simply put, stupid things. He takes the paper, looking it over. "... sure."

"There is some rumors about this group that does exactly this," Warrick adds, looking to the group.

"Don't assume things right away miss, could be more to it you know." Reithak shrugs, not entirely disagreeing, but not wishing to push anything for the time being. "Hey, hey now, let me know before you're hopping off!" The large egalrin shrugs as thoth is now a back to normal size. "Well, hard to say. Maybe Simony could offer some tutoring? Painting isn't my strong suit."

"First I'm hearing about something of the sort, but I'll take your word for it, then!" The egalrin nods to Warrick. "So, you're concerned about thieves, and you think they're planning on coming through soon?" They ask the lord of the house. "You think that it isn't an empty threat then I take it?"

Carver looks around, and then back where the house's security has disappeared off to, then wrinkles her nose. Something stinky? General malaise not only with the house but everyone in it. Whatever it is, she punctuates her inner monologue with another chomp of her taffy. "Never 'eard of no Phantom Thieves but seems to me they got an eye on more than your, eh, arts and crafts plastered everywhere. Whassits your most valued possession?"

Lord Koreen scoffs, "Wait until the 13th day? Heavens no. I want you to be sure that these Thieves are stopped, captured, and dealt with - I won't settle for last-second efforts. No, I need you to ensure that this place is locked up tight by the thirteenth day so there can be no slipping through. What an embarrassment that would be for the family." He does a double take as the bird golem embiggens right in front of him, but after a momentary look of bafflement, his eyes move onward to Reithak.

"As your leader noted," (Was he talking about Warrick? The eyes flick over to the apparently eldest of the group) "These vagabonds have struck before, so I expect them to make the attempt, and since they are still on the loose despite such foolhardy announcements, they must be quite the scurrious little rats."

As to that last question, the most highly valued items in the manor are the original artworks, some even by famous names among the nobility. Though of course we have valuable jewelry, and a few magical items that have been passed down the family. I can have one of the staff produce you a inventory for you to peruse before you leave, if you wish."

GAME: Warrick rolls linguistics: (8)+5: 13

Carver leans closer to Warwick, her taffy-breathed conspiracy breathing into him. "They done said possession. I ain't so book sharp but even I knows that means one thing they got their eyes on. He's being cagey. Nobody wants their terrible paintings. They look like baby vomit."

Warrick raises a brow at Koreen. Leader? He couldn't help but feel a twinge of pride at that. Which is quickly squashed by how uptight this noble is being. The feeling is discarded as he looks the letter over. "I doubt it's any of those," Warrick mentions. "What did they ransack before? May we see that? These kinds of rings tend to have tells." Experience talking.

He glances to Carver. Did they always look so young? Or was just Warrick getting to that age. "You're right. Most prized, singular," he echoes aloud. He just nods, and looks the writing over again. "... this is written shoddily. As if someone just learned how to write. Or just young. Can't be a kids though."

"This one is glad to hear this." Thoth is used to people like Koreen to have waited until the last minute to decide to do anything. It may not know much about society, but it knows that biologicals love waiting until the last moment!

Taking note that Koreen seems baffled by it growing larger, it considers that this person before them isn't too familiar with magic.

It then looks towards Warrick and then Reithak, tilting its head. An inventory would be lovely of course.

It takes note of what Warrick remarks on, and suggests; "Or has trouble writing due to a difficulty?" It asks for his analysis. "Too large fingers, or having trouble holding a quill?"

"I'd be taking thieves a bit seriously if they announced when and where they're going to show up, and still haven't been caught after several such instances. Kind of impressive in a way, you know?" Reithak considers. "You've got a point there, though. S'not plural, unless it's a spelling error?"

"I'll take a look at the inventory now, just in case." The egalrin offers. "But yeah, anything in particular you'd not want stolen above anything else? Surely there's something important to you above most other things."

"My requests for information from the other possible victims have not been answered yet, perhaps you might have more luck in finding out what they don't want to become public knowledge. I'm sure you have methods of finding things out." Lord Koreen says, hinting at both overt and underhanded options for information gathering. "Vena", he instructs one of the maids, "Have an accounting written up of our most valuable items." To the adventurers, he adds, "To be reviewed and then destroyed of course. No need to provide these, or future thieves with a hitlist."

The instructed servant hurries off to get the requested information.

Warrick sighs quietly. "We can do what we can, sir," he neutrally agrees. "Sure. It'll be destroyed."

He shifts his weight to his back foot, looking at his notes, as well as the letter. "Sounds as if we'll have some time to ask around. I'll hit up some guard posts I was at stationed at in the past. Maybe see if we can see what was stolen at other estates," he elaborates to the party.

"This one is largely concerned with the fact that the target is unknown. In such a large place, with an unknown target, this one will have a hard time setting up Alarms and Arcane Locks." It remarks to the group present.

"This one will need to purchase the scrolls somewhere in order to ensure it can cast those spells of course." But it is clearly familiar with them.

"Well, we've got time, right? That's always a good thing to have when making preparations." The large egalrin hums to herself. "I'll give those notes a read over I think. You want someone to come with you Warrick? If you get to talking with any of those nobles, maybe I can get them to spill the tea on what's gone missing."

"Because, you can trust all of our discretion on these matters to ensure the security of your valuables. That's what we're here for, after all." They add with a sweeping bow.

Carver raises a hand to the sky.

"Yes, I should hope so, you'll be paid well for your work, and more if you succeed. Capture or dispatch the criminals. Keep my staff appraised of your actions, and you'll have access to some resources for reinforcing my defenses." Lord Koreen gives them one last appraising sweep of his gaze, then turns to climb the stairs once more, receeding with a click, click, clicking of his cane back into the gaudy mansion.

-End Scene-