IK:Crossfire
Attendance: Randy, Ryan, Joe, James, Herman, (Justin, partially) - 600 XP
4 breastplates (200gp@ | 800 gp)
4 battleaxes (10gp@ | 40gp)
840x80%=96gp share
2 shares to slush fund
3,000 gp for dagger (428.57 @)
Tirotin's Journal
After a pleasant, if cold, night camping, I woke to the farmgirl talking lovingly about acquiring a frog familiar at some point in our travels. I dread to think about the horrible croaking such an animal would produce every morning, and began to inform her about the mistake she would be making, referencing the lecture series on marshland animals I took a few years ago, but she seemed unmoved. Perhaps she failed to understand the relevant terminology. In any case, talk soon moved to the selling of the equipment we had procured from our recent battle, and so we decided to journey back to the city.
Upon reaching the city gates, we entered without too much trouble, and immediately set about finding a place to sell the magical dagger we had acquired. I knew that the Quad was an excellent local place to sell such items, but the stupid urchin child managed to convince my companions to go instead to the Waterfront, with its horrible junk shop market. That's democracy for you.
We wasted four hours wandering about the district, unable to find anyone who would give us a reasonable price, but eventually Leto pointed us in the direction of Rodget's Invocations, a nasty little shop that Leto himself refused to enter (citing something and nothing about trouble with the city gangs as 'reason'). Caitlyn convinced the goblin Dook who follows us around to stay on the street too, out of sight of the shop owner. A jolly good thing too. Dook later related a conversation he had had with some locals about the criminal underworld. Apparently there are three big gangs in the city: the Gertens are local mafia, the Black Hands are untrustworthy middle men, and the Griffins a group of unorganized thugs. Hopefully we can avoid them as much as possible: uneducated sorts are really most tiresome.
In the shop - well, Rodget claimed it was a shop - I set about finding ANYTHING of any value while Caitlyn used her feminine wiles to talk about the dagger. Somehow Rodget had laid his hands upon a quite remarkable scrying stone, which I managed to appraise for its real price with little trouble. My companions were unimpressed, demonstrating their general lack of knowledge and ill-refined tastes. I can but hope that I shall educate them as I travel with them. My persistent lectures seem to fall on deaf ears, but one day they will look back on the time they spent with me with fondness, I feel sure.
Rodget sold us(!) some cleaning supplies for the dagger, as he wouldn't touch it in its current state. Caitlyn, as the female in the group, dealt ably with this matter. She will make an excellent wife, one day, if she can learn to hold her tongue. Upon completion of this task, Rodget told us that whilst he would buy the dagger for 1500gp, the symbol (one I was surprised to find I did not recognise) might mean that the dagger was worth considerably more than this amount. He suggested we head to the University to find out more about it.
Setting out to that institution, we split up to save time. Caitlyn stuck to her troll 'companion', and they asked questions of the History department; Jameson went to the warfare department; Dook went to the Alchemy department, and I spent some time lecturing some students in the Arcana department, although the scholars there seemed strangely uninterested in all I had to say. Most surprising.
Both Jameson and Caitlyn and Tolmec found out that the dagger had connections to Ogroth, and although the History Professor was interested in buying it from us, his department budget did not extend far enough to pay us. We then went to the Quad to try and find a buyer, but no-one offered more than the 1500gp that Rodget had offered us, even after I prayed to Morrow himself to intercede for us, and so we returned to his 'shop'. Kindly, Rodget decided to pay us 3000gp for the dagger, given that Professor Duramir was so interested in buying it when he had the funds, and we managed to sell the rest of the items we had at a most reasonable price. All in all, we got a considerable amount of money for our items, and after splitting up to buy equipment, we met once again in a gun shop. I bought a fine light crossbow, which I hope will be of some use to us; Dook laid his hands on a gun (I can't help thinking it's a mistake to let such creatures deal with firearms, but sadly I cannot change the world by myself; perhaps once my memoirs are published, the world will listen with a sympathetic ear to every piece of advice I have to offer.)
We suddenly heard a scream in the street; rushing out of the gun shop, we found ourselves in a rather sticky situation, stuck in the middle of a street brawl between the local gangs. Two figures in front of us looked as though they were killing each other, after some shenanigans I did not pay attention to concerning double agents in their organizations, and three groups of thugs appeared from different sides of the street.
Innocent, we tried to leave the scene discreetly, but after being threatened by the Griffins, Caitlyn called out that we had nothing to do with the deaths on the street; the Griffins believed us, but unfortunately in failing to attack us gave the other groups the impression that we were complicit in their schemes. We were forced to defend ourselves against the Gertens and the Black Hands. Dook took a couple of villains out with some well aimed gunshots, Jameson ran around chopping people up with that large sword of his, Tolmec began chanting in a rather inspiring way, but unfortunately I was unable to successfully hit any of the criminals with my crossbow due to a rather peculiar butterfly and rainbow filled smog that appeared as if from nowhere. At some point in the middle of the battle, the artificer Fergus appeared and helped Dook by enchanting his weapon, and in no time at all, there were bodies strewn about the streets.
Suddenly the city watch appeared with an enormous War 'Jack, belching out black smoke that made me feel quite ill. Naturally, I dropped my weapon and began proclaiming my innocence; Jameson and Caitlyn had disappeared somewhere - together? - and so I explained to the guards, on behalf of the goblinoid and troll, that we were innocent. Fergus had been quite injured during the fight, and I decided I should probably heal him; we repaired to the glorious temple of Morrow to recover.
When we returned, we met Father Dumas who was eager for news about our investigation. We indicated that our evidence pointed to his niece, the delightful Alexia. Unfortunately, we failed to notice her skulking about in the upper area of the church, and while she was coming down the stairs, she must of practiced the magical arts in some way (as Caitlyn, in a rare insightful moment, noticed); she really looked more beautiful than ever.
Alexia dismissed our evidence, claiming that she was carrying on an affair with a member of the Gertens clan (a brute known as 'Mario.' These people have no flair for originality in their names); she felt this explained her secretive behaviour, as Father Dumas obviously wanted nothing to do with such a dreadful organisiation. He was quite taken in by her, but none of us were fooled; we know she is guilty of this crime, and must find some more evidence to convince the poor Father. He insisted we carry on our investigation, but my compatriots are getting a little tired of this quest: he will not listen to reason. We turned in for the night, and I wonder if tomorrow we should raid Alexia's room looking for evidence.
I read a chapter of the romance novel 'The Feisty Farmgirl and Andrew the Academic: a love story' I have been enjoying of late. The lead character bears a striking resemblance to a member of our party, and thankfully there are no trolls to pollute the plot.
