Title: The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
Characters: Greff, Codrus, Felix, Kodrin
Date: Early Vor, 1332 Avard
Synopsis: A cat burglar with arcane powers walks through walls and escapes the Guard every time she gets caught or is cornered.
20th of Vor, 1332 Avard.
William Kavris had found a great many dozens of leads in his searches through logs and books and scrolls. Trying to track down so many links was driving him mad, as he could almost see the pattern that was there. Worse, the Guard had assigned him a damnably assertive corporal that refused to leave his side; the corporal took his duties seriously.
Meridian Explorations was still running in the green, financially, but its number of members had swelled considerably. Several teams were out chasing some of William's many leads, and each cost money. At ten silver a head, per day, plus the manse and research and books and purchases and more… Money was becoming an option. William had a lead on that.
In the meantime, there were the usual requests for free aid from quite a many sources, as well as a cat burglar tarnishing the reputation of mages. The burglar was, as near as anyone could tell, using some sort of arcane powers to walk through walls, escape the Guard, and break into or out of places.
William summoned his lead ME agent, Greff, a former bouncer, drunkard, and barfly that found his calling in finding a way up out of the gutters. Greff was given the options and William trusted in his lead agent. Greff chose to remain in Chasadan for awhile and fix ME's reputation, first, before moving out of the city.
The new Guard corporal actually proved a boon, there, as he had access to all of the Guard's files. The cat burglar only struck between midnight and three, and had been operating for just over a week. Wealthy victims had a record of losses, from emeralds to golden lockboxes to crystal heirlooms, with each heist worth more and more money.
Greff and the team he picked from among the ME members in Chasadan decided on a bold plan that would either expose the cat burglar or send 'her' into hiding. The Guard files had indicated a description, of a woman clothed all in black, with green eyes and a build of about 120 pounds. Her face had been obscured, and she had been armed with a long blade and something on her back – perhaps burglary equipment or a pack.
The plan was to have Roswyn create an arcane trap that would hold even an arcane cat burglar – and even if Roswyn couldn't create such a trap, then the rumor might lure the cat burglar to Roswyn. The gnomish inventor was a core member of ME, and Roswyn being implicated in the cat burglar mess was not helping ME in the least. The arcane bracers the burglar was using seemed to have touched off a rumor mill that Roswyn was willing to sell anything to anyone. Worse, the bracers could have been made at Lok Magius by any number of mages, or even made elsewhere.
Given that ME was founded by the Ducal Mage of the Janis Plains, the onus against the arcane amidst thousands of former Inquisitors that used to hunt mages only added to the cat burglar problem.
Greff's team made sure to spread the 'reassurance' of the cat trap at Roswyn's throughout the city, and also checked with a number of jewelers. Felix, a mage from Lok Magius assisting the Ducal Mage, caught a bit of information from one of the jewelers – the stolen items had all been sold through his shop, and he had a daughter that worked at The Order tavern.
Felix checked The Order out and nearly fell for the jeweler's daughter. He bought an expensive bottle of chilled elven wine imported from Banoc'bae as a gift for Greff, to keep talking with the woman named Kayda. And Kayda seemed quite interested in Felix – and the tower of the Ducal Mage. She indicated that she got off shift at midnight, and might could meet him.
Felix made sure to check in with Greff, who assigned Althis to watch over The Order and tail Kayda.
Roswyn was able to make a collapsible cage that could fold up into a cube that fit into two hands. The cage could expand and shrink, but could not catch anything – nor would it hold up to a significant blow. But, it would significantly hinder anyone caught in the cage if it were collapsed while they were in it.
Later that evening, after Maroth had set, after midnight, darkness enveloped the city. The occasional light was seen on the other side of shutters, and some of the streets in the city were lit, but otherwise there was only darkness and starlight.
Althis snuck by Roswyn's to indicate he had lost Kayda as she left The Order. Greff had Althis head off to the jeweler's to see if Kayda would appear there. Not long after, Kayda appeared near Roswyn's, skulking down an alley and sneaking into the shoppe.
Codrus, the hulking minotaur, had been set up right next to the bait. Kayda and her bull's eye lantern, however, spotted the minotaur – and she decided to run. Most people run from a minotaur with a giant axe.
Unfortunately for Kayda, Greff was already on the roof, waiting – and Felix was on a nearby roof, as well.
Greff sprinted across the rooftops and landed in a roll right in front of the fleeing Kayda; Codrus the minotaur went through the window with a charge; Felix hurled a red-black bolt of the arcane right at Kayda's feet; and Corporal Kodrin was right on the heels of the minotaur with his sword drawn a shield of steel ready to bash some teeth in.
Greff's rapid punches stunned Kayda for just a moment, and then Codrus used his axe to sweep her off her feet so hard that joints crunched.
Despite landing on her butt, a wicked shortsword was out in a hurry, and she rolled around Codrus with that blade cutting into Greff and the minotaur. The wounds burned with pain, indicating a poisoned blade.
Felix's arcane bolt sent ripples of red and black lightning out that coalesced into red-tinted webbing in the darkness of the night. The webbing reached out and held Kayda, letting Kodrin get in close with his shield before him and his longsword stabbing out in an attempt to maim the cat burglar and her shortsword.
Greff slipped past the webbing, and with Kodrin and Codrus to support him, managed to get a line tied around the fiery, feisty hell-cat of a woman. Within moments, she was subdued and weaponless.
Kayda surrendered with several deep cuts, but she would live with no permanent damage. She was brought to her father's, the jeweler, where Corporal Kodrin summoned several additional Guard and a Guard healer.
Kayda's father had been a world-class jeweler in Kur Maeth, traveling with the Inquisition to help in divine focus instruments, crowns, scepters, and the like. When ArchPrelate Talon Bhramord defected to Rakore during the War of the Four Winds, Kayda's father went with the ArchPrelate – and suffered a catastrophic loss in finances.
Having built up a small shop from scrap in just a year and a half, her father was doing well – but Kayda wanted him to do better. She was stealing back items he had sold, in the hopes of smuggling them out for sale elsewhere to help drum up more business for her father – especially if the items he had sold originally had to be replaced. The plan was not brilliant, but it might have worked had she not been caught.
Her ability to walk through walls stemmed from two sets of bracers that let her breach through walls using arcane powers. The bracers – one set was used as shin guards – had been obtained when she stole them from a shipment bound for a man named 'Kagen'. Her shortsword was not poisoned, but had a plant extract on them that would make the wounds burn, often distracting victims long enough for her to escape.
Her shortbow, which she had never had time to bring to bear, was heavily enchanted. It, too, had been stolen. She had found out about it and the bracers by working at The Order tavern, raising all kinds of questions in and of itself.
20th of Vor, 1332 Avard.
Date: THU06OCT2011
Dinner was lasagna, courtesy of Sam's. Sommer was feeling under the weather – as one should when pregnant – and so we let Caileb sub in for her. Caileb did not enjoy the role-play aspect of the session, but he enjoyed trying to put the hurt on anything that didn't comply with the orders of a Corporal of the Guard.
RPG System: Dungeons and Dragons, 4th Edition.
All characters were 15th level
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