You Must Pay The Rent

Summary: Chay, Yelrona, and Murder run a scam on the Adventurer's Guild in the hopes of tricking Chay's hunters into revealing themselves.

Yelrona looks around to her newfound partners in... er, well, not crime, precisely, though it seems likely that there's some law against what they're about to do. Or at least that the Guild would not appreciate it, of they knew. But, anyway.

"OK. Like I said before, it seems most likely that someone simply identified Chay during that mission, but it's best to get the other possibilities out of the way first. So, like we discussed... we want to convince them that Chay is hiding out unguarded in the room I showed you and that we want to "hire" adventurers to guard him, except we're broke. Any questions?"

Murder raises her hand when Yelrona opens the floor for questions. "How much do you think they'd ask, for such a mission? 'Cause I've got a couple thousand gold, so, we can easily hire people without the guild." She rubs at her face.

Chay nods in the softskin style. He glances upwards, the first time he's looked at them in oh...the past seven, eight blocks or so. Give or take ten.

"One wonderss, ssers. Ssome of Charn sseem very interessted in the People. And one'ss own keepers were...they were of that get."

He hunches his shoulders. Tries not to. "...thiss one iss not ssure, sser. One ssupposes it would be sslightly more than a guide for the day. More, the greater level of sskill needed."

Yelrona tilts her head in Chay's direction. She's had a fair amount of experience with the Sith in Alexandria, but still often finds their speech style hard to understand with any precision. "I'm sorry, Chay, I don't quite follow. What are you saying about your keepers?"

Murder rubs at her cheek. "I think Chay means that his keepers, the ones who'd captured him, were very interested in the Sith. So they are likely to pay well to get people to come and grab him again." The Gobber sighs, rubbing idly at a bruise on her cheek. "It may be that the guild will want to charge a lot. We might not have enough."

Chay looks down the street. It's a casual gesture--too practiced, too /cautious/ were one to know him, and know the signs.

Then, back to Yelrona.

The silence stretches to the point of awkwardness, to the point he turns around and walks a few paces back down the street.

Takes a deep breath, then walks back. "Ssa. Thiss one iss ssorry, sser Murder. One wass not clear. I--" Unsteady breath. "They were nobless, ssers. The persson killed after leading a march againsst the People wass alsso noble. The noble class are the oness able to afford s-sslaves, esspecially oness of the People if-if we are not ussed in the arena or the-the magess."

Yelrona nods at Murder's explanation, looking enlightened. "Ah! That makes sense. So," she replies to Chay, trying to follow, "OK. The Charnese who imprisoned you were nobles. What do we make of that?"

To Murder she shakes her head. "That's fine... we're not actually paying anyone, so it doesn't matter. Actually, it's better if you don't show your real purse. The whole point of this, remember, is to let the Guild know where Chay is supposedly hiding, to get them to attack that location if they've actually been suborned by the Charnese as Chay suspects. We don't actually need to hire anyone. In fact it's probably better if we tell the Guild we CAN'T afford it, and then agree to go earn the money... that way they'll think Chay remains undefended."

Murder huffs and looks at Yelrona. "I was playing my part, just now." She rubs a cheek and nods to Chay. "That makes sense, really. Slave societies generally work that way. Anyone not wealthy enough to own a slave probably became a slave."

The reptilian offers a thump of his tail--though silent, in that it doesn't actually hit the earth. "It iss a good plan, ssers. And, then one may only ssay you played it well. ..." and he takes a deep breath, squares his shoulders, and looks towards the Guild's main offices.

Yelrona looks apologetic. "Oh! Sorry, Murder, I misunderstood. Right, you got it... that's _exactly_ the right angle. We just don't have the cash!"

Murder puffs up a little, and grins, "You'll be fine, Chay." She glances to Yelrona. "So... lay on, Mcduff?"

Yelrona nods. "We're all going to be fine! This'll be fun. And it's OK to look nervous... remember, we're _supposed_ to be scared!" She goes to put a reassuring hand on Chay's shoulder, then stops herself. "Everybody ready?"

"One is ready, ssers," Chay says, ducking his head. He looks towards the guild hall entry and then--reaches out, and opens the door.

Yelrona nods again and walks through the door Chay opened. "Where do we go to hire adventurers?" she asks a tall bald human sitting behind a reception desk.

The receptionist seems a little puzzled... "But aren't _you_ adventurers?"... but shakes it off. "Right through those doors," she directs, "and talk to the first available representative."

Murder nods to Yelrona, and follows along inside. She lets Yelrona do the talking, but does nod at the receptionist in answer to her question. "Is it enough?", she wonders, quietly but not so quietly that others do not hear. Her plaintive glance is directed at Yelrona.

Chay's shoulders twitch as they go inside--or is that the space between them?--once they head inside. He casts a look towards the comfortable (and well-used) waiting chairs in the main room.

Then, hunches his shoulders again, and follows the others towards one of the receptionists. Hunching doesn't help. He's still seven foot tall.

STILL seven foot, and hunching, as said receptionist directs them towards one of the several offices. The offices of course, line a wall of the massive, converted werehouses. He ducks his head. Again.

Yelrona looks anxious at Murder's question, and just gives a helpless shrug as they walk into the main office. "It'll have to be, I guess," she says unconvincingly.

GAME: Yelrona rolls bluff: (3)+11: 14

"Yes, can I help you?" A TINY Lucht woman with her hair in a bouffant nearly half her height waves them over to her desk.

Murder settles herself in one of the chairs and nods to the Lucht woman. "We're looking to hire some adventurers for guard duty. She has the details and the money." The Gobber points to Yelrona.

"Yess, sser. Thiss one..." Chay looks towards Murder and Yelrona. "Thiss one iss in need of bodyguards, sser." The tail flicks.

He looks away from them then, to the lucht woman, and then down to the earth.

Yelrona nods. "That's right. We're concerned that... some PEOPLE..." she has already scanned the room looking for a convenient map of Charn on the wall or something she could glance at, but no such convenient prop exists... oh well, you can't have everything... so she just glances nervously out the window. "Some people might want my friend dead. So we're keeping him in the basement of the... the _Duvey Fish Chowder Storage warehouse_," she whispers so emphatically that it would be hard _not_ to notice her, "but we're still afraid they might FIND us, so... we want to hire guards. REAL guards, adventurers, not just goons with swords. But... it would have to be on, you know, credit or something, because we, um... we don't really have much money."

Murder nods emphatically at what Yelrona says. "Yes, credit would be good. Maybe we could do a few jobs for the Guild to help pay. Surely our friend would be safe with some guild adventurers, right?"

The higher the hair, the closer to...Ceinara! Or something. The lucht sniffs, which takes most of her tiny height with her.

Well, she doesn't sniff per se, but she does seem to have a hockey in her sinuses. One she's coughing, and trying to clear out all of the sudden.

"Ahem. I'm so sorry to hear about your situation, but we can't do...credit..." she says, as though she's picked up a bug of some kind, "...at this time. The Merchant's Guild may be able to help you, however. Would you like directions to their offices?"

Yelrona stares glumly at her feet. "Oh. I... well. OK. I understand, of course, you... you have a business to run. And yes, of course, the Merchants! THEY'LL help us, I'm SURE of it!" she cries out, staring nobly off into the middle distance, wondering whether maybe she's overselling this. "That's a GREAT idea! Come on, Chay -- oops! I'm sorry, we weren't going to use your name, please forget I said that," she tells everyone in earshot earnestly. "Come on, let's go to the Merchant's Guild! Get the paperwork started, ma'am, we'll be right back, I'm sure!"

She heads towards the door. It really does seem like there ought to be violins playing in the background.

Chay looks over his shoulder and just--hunches his shoulders. Oh, there's no fake there! He can FEEL the arrows sticking out from his ribcage.

More than one!

He hustles after Yelrona and Murder, and OUT THE GORRAM DOOR!

Murder huffs and slides out of the chair. "Well, I guess we'll have to hide back at the Duvey Fish Chowder Storage warehouse again. Hopefully Not-Chay will be safe while we gather up the funds." She mutters a few words in Goblintalk and scuttles out the door behind Chay.