In and Out

The party was woken up by the smell of bacon and eggs. Andre was preparing breakfast while Silis studied his maps on the walls. Marla left early to finish some business she had in the city. Andre served breakfast and talked to the party. The conversation turned into an interrogation, in which Andre demanded to know for whom they work. The party, however, managed to convince Andre and Silis that they are not with the police force of Oeble by showing them the letters from Rychain. After breakfast, Weneon suggested disguising everyone, so they could walk the streets freely without fear of being recognized by Oeble officers, who were looking for them. Silis helped them with clothing and decided to show them the way to the Hungry Haunting. On their way there, Kilijan studied the weird architecture of the Underways and took notes; John looked for weapon shops; while Ketojan was looking for officers who might have followed them. They sat down to have tea at the Ta Bure tavern east of the Penthouse. Silis overheard them speaking about money trouble and suggested to include them in a score he had planned. Everyone agreed, but Silis was suspicious of Mycha, thinking he was too moral for this kind of action. Mycha, however, convinced him that he was ready to do it. They finished their tea and arrived at the Hungry Haunting.

After showing them the way, Silis told them that the Haunting opens at six in the evening. He then showed them the warehouse, the Former Kara-Tur Embassy, and told them about his plan. He noticed that the Embassy was heavily guarded and deduced that they were smuggling Makka inside. The party spent the next three hours spotting the building for the heist, after which they decided to return to Ta Bure for another tea. They were ambushed by Sigar, a halfling master thief, and his ghouls. He robbed them and disappeared. Marla was sitting on the edge of a bridge above the city street, observing the whole ordeal. She teased them a bit before showing them why she left early that morning. She gave them Marla Rings, which can produce an image of maps in front of the wearer's eyes. Furthermore, the wearers could communicate easily with one another hearing each other telepathically. She then went back to the Penthouse after some dirty remarks about watching her while showering made by Kilijan. She felt uncomfortable and decided to leave.

Arriving at the Hungry Haunting, the party met Lester and Ademia, who at first were irritated by them, but after hearing John sing, grew fond of them. When the party revealed that they had no money to pay the 5 silver entry to the Hungry Haunting, Ademia gave them 3 gold pieces. Kilijan and Mycha overhead shot after that, Ademia asking Lester to cover him for the night. While Weneon and John were partying and pickpocketing a dwarf and a halfling on the dance floor, Mycha, Kilijan and Ketojan went upstairs to talk to Grivijan, the owner of the Haunting. While waiting in the upstairs lounge to be let in to talk to Grivijan, Ketojan noticed two dragonborn, Rokvein and Lolisa, listening in on their conversation. Ketojan approached them, and the two dragonborns invited them to join them at their table while they waited. Lolisa implied that their clothing doesn’t make the best first expression and that Grivijan might think they were not serious people. When the guard let them into a corridor, which led to Grivijan's office, they waited again in front of his door. A priest in the same outfit as the priest they saw a day earlier trying to hang Marla, Severin Dauther, was waiting there as well. When the door opened, Grivijan told them to all come in. They sat down in front of the halfling’s dark Mahagonny desk, and Grivijan started talking to the priest. He told him not to worry, while simultaneously degrading him in front of the party to be thankful to have a friend like him. A guard then escorted the relieved priest out of the office, and Grivijan talked to the party about the package they came to pick up. Grivijan seemed a bit confused how they would carry it, since it was a 2 meters high and 1 meter wide wooden box. Grivijan made them sign a lease on the package, and the guards brought it down to the back door for them to pick up.

The party picked up the package and decided to take the main street, carrying it all the way back to the Penthouse. After one hour of being stared at by ongoers, they were approached by a dark elf named Rajuk. Rajuk asked them with authority what the box was about, and the party stumbled over their answers. Rajuk, who obviously was part of a fraction in the Underways, demanded to confiscate the box. However, Weneon produced a star patch from out of his pocket and pointed out that he had orders too. Rajuk mistakenly recognized Weneon’s patch for the symbol of another fraction, Djumbir’s. The party learned that Rajuk was part of the Threes, a rival fraction in the Underways, and asked Weneon why he found himself such imbeciles to carry the box, pointing to the rest of the party. He let them proceed and told Weneon to put in a good word to Djumbir about how he helped them. Rajuk even gave them three of his crossbowers to escort them to their destination. On their way, the party decided not to reveal to the escort where they were heading and dispatched them before arriving at the Penthouse. The escorts left, but the party realized that one of them was still there, watching them from the bridge. Passersby commented on the giant box in the middle of the street. The party moved it to an ally and back onto the promenade, before deciding to hide in the shadows and see if the spy would approach the box. The party was contacted at this point by Marla through the rings she gave them. She asked them what they were doing on the streets with the giant box, as she could see them from the Penthouse window. They told her that they were followed, to which she asked them to stay put. A few moments later, the party sees Marla sneaking up on the spy on the rooftop. She asks them to not attract any more attention. However, Weneon misunderstands her and starts loudly arguing with the rest of the party about the box, for he thought she meant not to attract attention to her. They hear a crossbow shot and see Marla falling from the bridge onto the street with an arrow stuck inside her shoulder. Ketojan immediately heals her, but she furiously refuses to stay and gets up to leave. Mycha desperately tried to convince her to stay, but she simply was too furious with the rest of the party and left, apologizing to Mycha and telling them that now they were even.

The party, having no clue what to do with the box in the street, left it there and retreated to watch it from afar. It was half past eleven at night when some teenagers approached the box, starting to kick it and turn it over. Ketojan emerged from the shadows to warn them not to touch it. Weneon shot a warning shot and the youngsters dispatched. Ketojan then had the idea to find an abandoned house and hide the box there. Under the eyes of the people walking by, Ketojan ripped open a boarded-up house and carried the box inside. When a passerby asked what the fuck he was doing, Ketojan replied, “none of your business”. He then overheard the man walking by telling his friend that he’s going to report this suspicious behavior. A few moments later, bright sunlight filled the entire street and officers of the Oeble police force arrived, five officers and captain Mirabel Pan. Mirabel came up to the house Ketojan was hiding in, demanding that he comes out. Ketojan complied and was handcuffed by one of the officers. Mirabel the yelled for the rest to come out too, to which nobody complied. One of the officers put a knife to Ketojan’s throat and then asked the party again to come out. When they did not comply to multiple of her threats, she gave the order to her officer to cut Ketojan’s throat, which killed him instantly. Weneon surrendered and was handcuffed, but John came out blazing and shot Mirabel’s shoulder. Seeing this, Mycha rushed out of his hiding spot and a fight broke loose. The officers managed to corner Mycha and knock him unconscious. John, aiming for Mirabel, shots her again, wounding her severely. However, before making his final shot, the officers grab the unconscious Mycha and Mirabel raises her hand, saying to John that he should lay down and surrender before loosing another friend. John surrenders his weapon to her and lays down. She handcuffs him and takes John’s musket. She aims it first at his head, but then decides to shot him point-blank in the shoulder. Not only that, but she then drags the two of them to the middle of the street. As they lay on the ground and listen to Mirabel rambling about their sentences, John and Weneon notice how, behind Mirabel’s back, Andre lures two of the officers into the abandoned house and dispatches of them stealthily. They then see a steel string being lowered towards the officer holding Mycha down. However, Mirabel notices John glancing towards Mycha and manages to warn her officer about the string. The officer grabs the string and pulls on it, making Silis to fall from the bridge. Mirabel asks John how many more there are. John refuses to talk, but then sees the officer already starting to carve a whole in Mycha’s jar. John yells out for Kilijan, who’s been waiting for an opportunity to strike. He surrenders as well, and Mirabel notices Marla coming out of the shadows towards them. Mirabel then alludes to knowing Marla, to which Marla tells her to cut the shit and tell her “how much”. Mirabel ponders for a minute and then tells Marla “500 gold pieces”. Marla produces a pouch from her bag of holding, counts 50 platinum pieces and throws them to Mirabel. Mirabel picks them up and tells her officers loudly in an official sounding voice: “So what happened here exactly, officers? This wild Doumir beast attacked two of our officers. When we arrived, we killed the beast and mistakenly assumed these people were with it. It turns out, everything was just a misunderstanding.” The officers confirm this version, and Mirabel leaves, but not before getting down to John to let him know that she will keep the musket as a present, and thanks him for it. Marla picks the locks on the handcuffs of the restrained party members. John rushes towards Ketojan and takes him in his arms. Weneon tries to comprehend what happened. Andre tends to Mycha by giving him a potion of healing. As they all try to process of what just happened, Andre takes the box from the abandoned house and heads towards the Penthouse. Silis attempts to comfort them by saying that they all should get some sleep, and runs after Andre. Marla examines Mycha’s injuries. John and Weneon ask her why she came back, to which Marla loses her mind and goes off on them. She tells them that their amateurish behavior is putting people at risk, and scolds John for being an entitled prick and not listening to Mirabel’s threats. Mycha asks her what to do with Ketojan’s body, to which Marla replies to just leave it there and that the street cleaners will take care of that. John says that Ketojan does not deserve that, to which Marla replies to leave honor and pride behind in Derlusk. “Welcome to the Underways.” Exhausted, she leaves them on the streets, mentioning to them that they own her 500 gold pieces. Mycha, Weneon, Kilijan, and John are suddenly surrounded by people walking by on the street; not paying any attention to Ketojan’s body on the ground, while the party’s thoughts are drowned by the neon night of the Underways.