Rinkaiel: Temple of the Divine Dwarf

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Truthfully, I'm beginning to run out of temporizing measures here. We need to find a way to get the characters back together. Something at the burnt-out liquor store? A serious problem with the guy who's stalking Eve? Your opinions wanted, before this thing stagnates. /OOC:]

With lunch eaten (more thoughtfully than it started) and Galina and child dropped off at the consulate, Layla and Ace found themselves with some time on their hands. "Let's swing by the liquor store on the way back to the vineyard," Ace suggested.

Layla nodded. "Sounds good. I want to get back and feed Zachary, but it's more or less on the way."

Soon the pair found themselves at the destroyed store, joined by Joe. The fix-it man had hired a work crew that was busy clearing away the rubble -- without, Layla was pleased to see, getting into what remained of the second floor. That was good. Oskar, Stevo, and their late roommates had been instructed not to leave anything around the flat that would tip anyone off that they were Gewehr, but Weed and Fritz hadn't been the sharpest tools in the shed. Oskar and Stevo would have to do the clean-up duty there themselves.

"The cops have been paid off to stay out of this place for now," Joe said. "I let them think we'd connected with a guild to do the investigation, and they were happy to stay out of it. Ironic, isn't it?" he smiled.

Layla returned the smile. "Well, there's truth to it. That outfit with Jade and Leo and Eve and their friends is looking more and more like a guild. They're still small potatoes, and they don't seem to work in any of the same areas that we do, so we can be friendly enough with them. They have some interesting magical skills that we might take advantage of, too."

Ace started to say something, but they were interrupted by a workman who came over to talk to Joe, bearing a certain artifact that one would not normally find in a liquor store ... as Layla rapidly recognized, a highly magical artifact, if one that had taken some damage.

And just what is a dead Yuuki staff doing here?

------------

The man in the touch-me-not bubble approaching the building on Barker Lane might have answered that, but he was rather occupied at the moment.

[Jack Rothwell]

Eve and Bert exited the guild at an eager pace, Eve out of a desire to get the current errand they were on over as soon as possible, and Bert out of relief that his oh-so-fun shovelling bits of wood portion of the day was done. Bert found himself stealing glances at the young woman by his side with a mixture of incredulity and surprised attraction; he'd never seen Eve adopt a feminine persona before. If he'd been more aware, however, he would've picked up on the undercurrent of annoyance in the mercenary's posture, and if he'd had better reflexes he would've been able to avert his eyes before she turned and looked at him.

"What are you staring at?"

"Nothing. You look nice, that's all."

Eve gave him a stare which would've withered a forest and stomped ahead. Bert hurried to keep up, and nearly bumped into her a second later when she pulled up short in the middle of the street.

"Huh? What?"

Eve flapped a hand at him, then raised and waved it at an approaching figure. Jade waved back.

"Hey ginger, what's in the bag?"

"Something for the old man to see, where are you off to?"

"The burned out liquor store to shovel through ash for information."

Jade smiled at the tomboy, despite the few 'issues' the pair had had in the past she liked Eve. The girl's tough persona was something she identified with. She found herself imagining that if she'd ever had a little sister then Eve would've probably resembled her.

"Well don't dirty up that dress, it'd be a waste."

"I could care less, will you show me the new weapon later?"

"You'll get first go."

"Thanks. Don't bother to knock when you get to the guild, the door's already open."

Jade furrowed her brow, but went on with a goodbye to the pair heading in the opposite direction. She arrived at the Barker Lane Guild moments later with understanding written on her face.

"Oh." She said, staring at the broken hinges. "I get it."

[Graybeard]

If Joe was surprised by the Yuuki staff, he didn't show it. "I'll take that," he said, extending a hand. He turned to Layla. "Some guy from Thranel dropped it off here. He came by looking for booze, said he was broke, but he'd swap this thing for a bottle of hooch. I happened to be here when it happened, and I gave Fritz the OK to do it." He chuckled. "The hooch was pure rotgut anyway."

Layla got the coded message. "Some guy from Thranel..." Thranel was a small town somewhere south of the Gewehr's main territory, way out in the boonies, east of where the Eisenfaust ran things. She couldn't remember the name of the mob that served as the local cops there (at least until the town tired of them and swapped them out for another band of thugs); they weren't worth dealing with or worrying about, so why remember them? But the main thing was that there were all sorts of improbable stories of ghosts and witches and elves and spirits in the woods around the little town, to the point that you really couldn't believe anything you heard about the place. The Gewehr had adopted the phrase "some guy from Thranel" as shorthand for "don't believe a word I'm about to say."

She'd want to question Joe about the staff later, but here came a pair of the characters from the Barker Lane operation, looking like they were ready to dig in on their investigation. She made noncommittal noises and turned to greet Eve and Bert.

[Jack Rothwell]

Eve barely acknowledged the Gewehr as they approached; feeling too self-conscious at the girly outfit she had on to engage in social interaction with people she didn't trust. The young merc turned away from the pair and headed inside. Bert, to his credit, took the lead and spoke to Layla.

"Thanks again for fixing me up." He said. "Has there been any new information?"

[Graybeard]

Layla simply handed him the dead Yuuki staff. "Know anything about this thing?"

[Jack Rothwell]

Bert looked at the busted weapon in his hand and nodded his head.

"That's a military grade magic staff, right? Leo told me there were some people that came into the shop before it burned down who were armed with these. Is there anything else to know about them?"

Eve picked her way through the burned out rubble of the liquor store with a deliberate disregard for the apparel she wore. She turned over charred planks of wood and kicked aside piles of ash searching for... she wasn't sure. What she did know for certain she that she wanted to get this errand over with and get back to the guild as soon as possible. The sooner she turned up something useful, the better. A tangle of blonde curls fell over her face as she leaned over to inspect a corner.

"Ohforfuckssake..." She muttered.

[Graybeard]

"That's a military grade magic staff, right? Leo told me there were some people that came into the shop before it burned down who were armed with these. Is there anything else to know about them?"

"I wasn't here when it happened," Layla said, "but you were, right?" She turned to her boyfriend. Ace nodded and described what had happened with the two hoods trying to rob the place. [OOC: I see no reason to repeat that here; just review the link as appropriate. /OOC:]

"So this must have been one they left behind," Ace concluded. "We should be able to use it to -- honey, what's wrong?" Layla's face had gone from the usual cordial-businesswoman demeanor that she tried to show the public to something rather resembling a storm cloud.

"No, this isn't one of theirs," she said. "You were there, Ace. They only had the two, right?" He nodded as she continued. "One got smashed, and we gave the other one to your friend Leo. We knew him as Martin then. Then his friend Jade went on and made something else out of it." She casually studied the way this man was reacting to the news; did he know what his own guild mates were doing? Apparently he did, because he nodded without any sense of surprise.

"So this is a different one," she went on. "And besides, that pile of rubble it came from is where the second floor caved in ... and the hoods were never up there, were they?"

The dark-cloud look intensified, and Ace and Joe both felt a cold chill as she summed it up. "Unless they had help on the inside."

[Jack Rothwell]

"I'll go and look upstairs." Bert replied. "I'll see if Eve and I can turn up anything."

The Barker Lane guild memeber turned on his heel and headed into the half-demolished establishment, noting at once the fact that the second floor had an enormous gaping hole in the cieling. Eve broke away from an uninteresting pile of rubble and gave him a questioning look. Bert simply pointed upwards.

"You'd better hope that whatevers left of the floor doesn't collapse under our feet." Eve said side-mouth. "I've been injured enough for one day."

[Graybeard]

"Don't go up there," Layla cautioned. "It's not safe." Not only might the floor collapse under you, but Joe might kill you if you started getting into his personal stuff ... not to mention whoever this staff belonged to. Speaking of which... "Has anybody seen Oskar or Stevo lately?"

Joe thought about it. "Oskar is out at the vineyard, getting the vats cleaned out, working away like the big dumb ox he is. But come to think of it, no, I haven't seen Stevo for a while." A realization was starting to dawn, and it was reflected in his face. "You don't think..."

Layla's face hardened. "I don't know, but yes, I am starting to think. And yes, I think we had better track down Mr. Stevo Gramiel and have a private, candid conversation with him."

She was going to say more, but Galina was arriving at the destroyed store with her daughter after her "meeting" with Captain Kitaura ... and her face was white as a sheet.

[Jack Rothwell]

Eve stiffed, then stopped despite herself, at the call of the woman below. Bert gave her a warning glance and was relieved to see her compose herself before making her way back down.

"Safety isn't what I took this job for." She said, loud enough to everyone hear. Bert faceplamed mentally and turned his attention to the new arrival, the fear on her face immediately arosing a morbid interest.

"Are you alright madam? You don't look well."