Goblins, Slaves, and Evil Wizards

Summary: Yelrona, Murder, and Morgan discuss racist attitudes towards Gobbers, the wizard from whom Morgan stole her new flute, and Rona's ongoing investigation of the Veyshanti Slave Trade, which Morgan agrees to help her with.

Yelrona is, inexplicably, STILL perched on THE SAME ledge outside an open window of a warehouse building, scribbling notes in a notebook.

A Goblin squeezes from between two buildings, the grin of her face suspicious. She pauses to brush dust and dirt from her sky-blue dress, and from the pale green skin of her knees. Murder looks a little rough, some bruising evident on her arms and legs, and several gashes, some with thick scabbing. Spotting the Elf, she stalks quietly towards Yelrona, popping into her view with a cheerful "RAWR!"

GAME: Yelrona rolls perception-10: (20)+20+-10: 30

Even massively distracted as she is, Rona turns out to be hard to be _really_ hard sneak up on. On the other hand, she enjoys playing along with this sort of thing. So while she hears the Gobber's footsteps before her presence is revealed, she shrieks "EEEEEEK!" when Murder pops up. The notebook flies up into the air, and she jumps off the ledge, landing lightly on the ground below, laughing. "'Rawr', indeed," she says, "are you a monst-- oh! Are you hurt?" The notebook lands nearby, ignored for the moment.

Murder cants her head lightly to one side, and huffs. "You ain't fooling me, I saw your eyes pick me out. And we.. do get called monsters quite often, we Goblins." She grins brightly and nods a little. "Yeah, just a rough encounter out in the brush. I came out on top though!"

"I did, it's true," Rona agrees as she picks up and pockets her notebook. "But what would be the fun of pointing that out? And called that only by the ignorant, I hope," Rona replies, though truthfully she knows better than to think so. "And congratulations! Do you need healing?"

Morgan has arrived.

Murder chuckles and shakes her head. "I shall try harder to startle you another time." She grins brightly and shrugs. "I can't really blame people because the majority of Goblinfolk are, well.. you could consider them evil, I suppose. But like, a permanent state of don't-give-a-fuck. Chaotic, I suppose? As soon as stab you in the face as help you." The Gobber gestures to their surroundings. "Though, I would hope that most folks would understand that many of the Gobbos here in the city aren't like that. We understand we have to behave in order to live here. But yeah, I've gotten some, well, what you would call mean comments. But they usually shut up when I give in to my rage and my eyes glow red. Drawing my blade in a slow and menacing fashion works too."

The Gobber stretches and winces. "No. Nothing's broken except a bit of pride and my skin in a few places. Been trying to be tougher, like my da, Baz. He follows Kor, and while I do follow Angoron, I like to seem tough."

"Something to look forward to!" Rona replies cheerfully. "And, yes, I would hope that would convey the basic idea that they'd overstepped the normal bounds of social grace," she adds with a smirk. "My mother would get much the same effect with an arch 'I beg your pardon?' but I never quite mastered the trick of that." She pulls a short sword out of her pack. (Not her belt, and it's awkward to get out... she clearly doesn't have it there for combat.) "I've never really thought of it as a tool of diplomacy, admittedly. I'll have to try that. And... I would think being a follower of Angoron would be plenty tough enough for anyone, honestly."

Morgan comes down the path with a lute in her hands as she is playing badly but you can tell she does not care. And she does not care that she is getting some strs, but at least she is not singing this time. She does walk towards the two ladys she knows but stops playing.

Murder draws her blade slowly from its spot on her back, the blade making a scraping sound. The sight of her with a blade almost as long as she is tall does add, a little, to the menace she can manage. The blade gets returned to its place. "Well, yeah, we do have that reputation. But Baz usually does just enough healing to not die, and to not get infected with something nasty, and leaves the rest of it to heal on its own. So he has scars and stuff. Which I am working on. And these bruises are a bit of a badge of honour so.." Her ears suddenly point straight up, and then angle back a bit, and she gets an odd expression on her face, a cross between someone shoving something cold onto her back and someone having stepped on her foot. Blinking, the Gobber looks around, her gaze settling on Morgan. "Oh. Hello Morgan!", she manages to say, cheerfully.

Yelrona nods admiringly. "Yeah, that definitely works. I will admit, one of the hardest things for me to master when they retrained me as a Ruffian was the art of intimidation... it's really not in my nature, honestly. I ultimately found that a maniacal laugh counts for a lot." She gives a...

GAME: Yelrona rolls intimidate: (3)+8: 11

...mildly intimidating maniacal laugh, to demonstrate, before turning and waving to Morgan.

Morgan smiles and nods "Hello you two." she does not seem concerned about weapons waving around "Behave you two, or let others set bets first."

GAME: Murder rolls Intimidate: (17)+9: 26

Murder puts her hands on her hips, and lets loose a maniacal cackle for the ages, sounding very much like a hag. If people were not scared off by the baring of blades a short time ago, they are definitely on their way when the maniacal laughter starts up between the two. The Goblin looks quite pleased with herself when she's done. Cute and terrifying in one small package! She glances to Morgan a moment, and shakes her head. "I think Yelrona would probably beat me pretty handy. Elves tend to have some advantage in their age, usually."

The area does seem to be clearing out rather quickly. "I'd rather not find out, to be honest."...says Rona.

Murder eyes the flute. "So taking up music, Morgan?"

Morgan shakes her head "no I stole this lute from a mage that uses it to swon women, he was getting on my nerves." she holds the lute out for any one to play.

"He was using it to what?", Murder wonders, leaning in to sniff at the instrument, but she declines to take it. She shrugs. "Are Elves prone to blushy silence when it comes to things sexual?" This directed at both Yelrona and Morgan.

Yelrona smiles. "Not in my experience. To be fair, my experience is atypical... I've never even been to Llyranost."

Morgan shrugs "I grew up around humans, gnomes and Lucht. They tend to be open more about things."

Murder nods. "Yeah, I suppose they are a bit more open." The little green woman peers at Yelrona. "So what were you up to, Yelrona, before I interrupted?"

Yelrona takes a minute to remember, then "Oh! Nothing of consequence, just recording some impressions. There's a lot going on, it helps to keep it somewhere other than my head," Rona replies evenly. "As for rates, well, it's like anything else... the more skillful the practitioner, the higher the rates. I can find you a carpenter who'll build you a house for 2 coppers a day, but I wouldn't recommend living in it when the rains come."

Morgan thinks what Rona just said and wrigs it in a leather bound book "I think I am close to owning my own house. I found a broken down one, and I can fix it up."

Murder hmms, "But two coppers a day is quite reasonable a price. I don't expect it'd get built very quickly, though." She chuckles. "But I could manage that price, I think." The Gobber squints at Yelrona, "So what do your friends do, then? Is this some guild you're speaking of? And uh, what impressions where you writing down?" She looks to Morgan then, "A broken down one? Is that really safe to live in?"

"No less safe than exploring undead dungeons, I suppose," Rona muses. "Or fighting wars. Though it's possible that my notion of reasonable amounts of danger is somewhat distorted by my choice of profession," she adds with an amused grin. "Anyway... I was thinking about your friend," she nods to Murder, "and his concerns about information security, and what we might do to assuage those concerns." She nods her head in the direction of the Explorer's Guildhouse. "Or confirm them."

Morgan nods to Murder "its not that bad shape and I can fix it up with magic and a book on carpentry." she puts her book away "I alo been recording quaots I hear time to time."

Murder peers at Yelrona. "Undead dungeons? How can dungeons become undead? Ooor do you mean a dungeon full of undead? That would make more sense." She rubs at her cheek and looks the direction the Elf gestures, and nods. "Ah. I see. Any leads on that, at all? I've been distracted lately." The Gobber smiles at Morgan. "Well, if you need help with stuff, I could lend a hand?"

Yelrona smiles. "Yes, I meant a dungeon full of undead. And no, little progress. I haven't wanted to move forward without consulting with your friend... it _is_ his safety on the line, after all."

Morgan pretends not to follow what they are talking about or maybe she doesnt and dont care. "I will let you and any one that wants to help or I can quilt in to it."

"Yeah, he is off doing something with his kin, an important hunt. I was supposed to go too, but I got uh.. distracted and plans changed." Murder lets out a huff and shrugs. "Once he gets back, we can start some heavy sleuthing, yes? She nods to Morgan. "I'll be your gopher... go fer this, go for that, yeah?"

Yelrona nods. "Ah, yes... he mentioned something about that, I had forgotten." She pulls out her notebook and makes a quick note. "See? That's why it helps to write things down," she adds with a grin. "And to be honest, with the Veyshanti situation emerging, I've had quite a lot on my plate already."

Morgan sighs "I have work and study on my plate... gad I want a travel adventure."

Murder hmms and shrugs at Morgan's comment. "It's not about finding time, make time. Go off somewhere and have an adventure. But you may find that sometimes, despite how boring it might be, the city is rather nice. I enjoy it. But then, I tend to go outside of it more often than others." She nods to Yelrona, and taps her temple. "I write things down up here." Her head cants to one side, "What Veyshanti situation?"

Yelrona sits down on the road with her back against a mana-lamp. "Where would you want to go?", she asks Morgan, then "Well... the Syndicate seems to be engaging in the slave trade with Veyshan," she explains to Murder, "in exchange for smuggling a variety of illicit Veyshanti goods. Which I figure has _got_ to involve someone in the shipping industry, there's just no affordable way to do it otherwise. So I've been trying to narrow down which players are involved."

Morgan sits down next to Rona "I dont know I have not found a lead of a place to go. And when I do I will ask friends to go with me."

Murder elects to remain standing, perhaps glad that now she's the tallest person in the area. She nods to what Yelrona says. "Aaah, you did mention that before. So we should get someone inside the Syndicate and see what they are up to. Dunno how difficult that is or who could do it, though." Running a hand through her hair, she looks to Morgan. "Try Am'shere. It's hot, muggy and full of life. But then, it is a jungle after all. But so much life. Flowers bigger than your head... eh, some of them will try to eat you, if they can. Best to go with some knowledgeable Sith-makar, though."

Yelrona smiles at Murder. "Are you volunteering? Honestly, I've tried. The Guild is easy, I'm pretty much a member at this point... I could say the same of the Sunset if it weren't for a particular DOLT of an Arvek... but the Syndicate is _very_ particular about who they do business with." She considers it. "On the other hand, as you said before, being a Gobber _does_ have certain... reputational?... aspects that might come in handy here."

Morgan looks up at the time and says "Crap I have to go, see you both when ever." she says a few arcane words and floats in the air and then flys away.

Murder waves to the departing Morgan, and looks back to Yelrona. "I... could do it. But, well... we are short on time. Being sloppy could ruin everything, even get me killed. And while I am not scared of Death, I would be rather annoyed to die uselessly, you know?" She shrugs. "I don't think we have enough time to do it properly. Though, hmm, I might probably be able to get into the Sunset... for obvious reasons."

Yelrona nods. "As far as I can tell, the Sunset is not involved in this particular matter. And I agree, infiltrating the Syndicate is dangerous, even more so if done quickly. So..." she shrugs. "So really, all I know how to do is track their actions by where they've been, and look for patterns. I've been tracking shipping manifests, figuring that as we find locations where the Syndicate has _kept_ slaves, I can cross-link them with what ships have docked nearby at the same time, and narrow down the targets. Get the list small enough and we can infiltrate the shipping lanes themselves, or spy on them clairvoyantly."

Murder stretches and nods in agreement. "Lots of legwork though. What can I do to help you out?"

"Keep your eyes open," Rona replies promptly. "If you're willing, two of us can keep a closer watch on shipping lanes than just one... if we are lucky enough to spot slave shipments being loaded, that tells us what we want to know, but like I said, keeping track of what we see can eliminate companies from suspicion, which gets us to the same place in the long run. "

Murder listens intently to what 'Rona is saying, and she nods. "So where should I be watching? You've got an idea of where to start? I'll happily watch ships all day. Well, for a few days at a time, I think it would get dull pretty quick and I would get bored and then suddenly I'd be distracted by something shiny and..." She blinks and nods.

Yelrona nods. "It is _insanely_ dull," she admits. "But every bit counts. Here, let me show you..." She pulls a wadded-up piece of parchment out of a pocket and unfolds it, to show a large grid of obscure notations. "These are the shipping lines that come in and out of Port Alexandria," she explains, pointing to a list of names, about at third of which have been crossed out. And these are the docking ports in the District," she adds, pointing to a rough sketch of the District waterline, with docking points labelled. "The red circles are where abandoned slave-holding pens have been found," she points to three circles, "and this grid shows which shipping lines have docked in those areas... which, as you can see, is most of them." She rattles all of this off quickly, with the air of someone who has been spending way too much time thinking about it.

Murder blinks and stares, her eyes almost glazing over. Reaching up for the paper, she looks to Yelrona. "Could I have this? Annnd can you write all that down?"

Yelrona laughs. "What were you saying before about writing it all down in your head? Yes, I can make you a copy of the relevant bits. By Tarien's Testicles, I wish some Artificer with a practical bent would invent an automatic scribe!"

Murder chuckles and shrugs. "I do remember many things. But this is too important for me to accidentally forget. So..." She rubs one of her cheeks. "If I had been working on this for as long as you have, it'd be easier to remember."

Yelrona nods. "No doubt. Sorry, I didn't mean to tease you. Or, well, OK," she admits, "I _did_ mean to tease you, but I didn't mean anything by it. I really do appreciate the help. And if there's anything I can do for you just let me know."