Side Quest.V
Byron & Calli: Charming Words and Flowers with Thorns
On the 21st of Pharast, as prearranged, Byron and Calliandra met up in North Point to recover and finally deal with the massive pile of loot the party had been accumulating. Shops may have been starting to open back up again after the recent unrest, but not the kinds they needed, and with how dicey things kept getting they didn’t want to wait any longer. Byron had the intel on how to work the Black Market, and to her surprise, he had asked Calli to come along. “Might need the words.”
The duo make their way back to the large warehouse where they first fought together, and find that things were not as they left them. There were signs that someone else had moved in. The main double doors were freshly boarded up, and the side entrance had fresh tracks outside of it. Possibly some of Gaedren’s crew that hadn’t been there the day of the take down? Or some opportunistic punks? They holed up nearby while Byron sent his pseudodragon Little Focher to scout it all out for them.
Recent revelations played heavy on Calli’s mind, and she finally works up the nerve to ask, “When you were working for Gaedren did you ever try to kill me?”
Byron raised an eyebrow, “I didn’t know you.”
“That isn’t an answer. Before I go into this building possibly full of Gaedren’s men with one of his previous men I feel like I deserve to know if I’m still at risk.”
“… that’s fair. No, I didn’t.” He wasn’t giving a word more than he had to, but she could sense he was being honest.
“And you don’t potentially hold any grudges for any who tried and didn’t come home again?” She watched his face intently.
“No. I was just a soldier.”
“I don’t know if ‘following orders’ excuses some of…”
Tired of the questions, he cut her off. “I was there when we took Gaedren down, that should tell you my allegiance. If I wanted to kill you, you’d be dead. But I won’t,” almost as an afterthought he raises a hand and adds, “I’ll try to keep you alive.”
This declaration seems to unwind some of the cold fingers that had been wrapped around her guts over the past week. She gave him a wry smile, “Good. I promise not to kill you, either.”
He clearly didn’t expect this response. “Well now I’m not sure about you!”
Focher returned and reports what he’d seen. “Did you know there was a shark down there?! Anyway boss, there’s four guys in the warehouse, but no one down round back but that bloody great shark that was snapping at me.”
Byron nodded and simply said, “We need a body.”
Scandalized, the lady’s voice went up in register as she reacted,“Why does it have to be a body? The shops are open, I’m going to go buy some meat. It doesn’t always have to be a body!” Byron just shrugged and watched her go, returning shortly with a sizeable chunk of meat wrapped in paper. They return to watching the building.
“Normally I’d just go in and hit everything, but I’m a bit worried about you being so soft and squidgy. What’s your plan?”
It was Calli’s turn to raise her eyebrows. “Well, firstly, I’ve never been called ‘squidgy’ to my face before, so that was fun. As for a plan… We still have Gaedren’s keys. We go in and act like we own the place. You’re a bit notorious, they might not want to cross you, and the ruse might buy us time to get close so you can hit them if you need to.”
And in they went.
——————————————————
Thankfully the locks hadn’t been changed, and they’re able to walk right in. They immediately see a goon rolling a barrel, who shouts out when he spots them. “Intruders!”
Calli wrinkles her nose and with all the calm disdain of the upper classes retorts, “Intruders? WE have keys.”
The man is caught off-guard, “uhhhh,” and pauses while he tries to reassess the situation, giving Byron the time to close the distance.
The experienced pit fighter moves in and takes jabs with his words. “Explain yourself. Who are YOU to challenge me in my own building?”
The thug’s eyes go wide as he notices the tattoos and realizes who it was he’s angered, “The Korvosan Bear! I didn’t know this was yours! We thought it was empty!”
Byron lashes out with a solid cross, making the unfortunate underling see stars. The other three arrive just in time to witness it and Byron adds them to the verbal assault. “This the lot of you, then? Who do you work for?”
The now bloodied goon indicates for his colleagues to stand down, “We’re independent contractors! We’re the River Lads.”
Byron hits him again. “Inde-what? Who do you work for?”
“No one! We’re our own gang! Unless… we work for you.. sir?” he grovels.
“Go stand guard out front, get out of my sight. And you go with him. No trouble.” the first man and one of the others he’d pointed at runs back to the side entrance and Byron stalks closer to the remaining two. “River Lads? More like Pond Boys. What are your names?”
“Uh, Lenvid and Trafton. The one you smacked was Rawgen, and the other Yancy.” They shuffled nervously under the full attention of the Bear.
Byron looks back at Calli, who’d been primly watching with her parasol over her shoulder, just in case it got messy. “Do we need them for anything?” he asks.
“The boardwalk down is a bit precarious, it would be easier if they could help us spread the weight of our things.”
“Right. You two are coming with us.”
——————————————————
They moved through the warehouse and out the other side, down the treacherous wooden planks, through the wrecked out boat, and up the boardwalk under the building. The shark made itself known, causing the men to scream out. “It’s a fucking shark!”
“Yeah, it’s mine, his name is Nibbles, and if you screw up I’ll feed you to it,” Byron instantly shot back, while Calli appeased the shark with their butchered meat.
Once inside Gaedren’s lair the minion’s fear turned to wonder. “Woah, we didn’t know this was down here!”
Calli fixed her unnaturally green eyes on them and said, “You still don’t. No one does.”
They looked from her to Byron and back, and nodded agreement.
Gathering the loot was quick work with the extra hands, and they make it back to the warehouse entrance without issue.
Fitting everything in to two big sacks, they determine they no longer need the others, so Byron chases them off, promising to kill them if he saw them in his warehouse again. As they flee Lenvid complains to his mates, “I didn’t know he had a SHARK!”
——————————————————
The next stop is Ruby’s Rest, where the last of their gear to be sold is waiting. Byron fares much easier with his bag of loot than Calli does with hers, but his threatening aura keeps anyone along the way from even thinking about relieving her of it. They get to the brothel, pick up their things, and are stopped by Madame Devlin on the way out.
She explains Portia is missing. Byron and Calli initially talk over each other asking questions. Byron looks at Calli, “You know Portia?” but then all his attention is back on Devlin, who explains that while trying to return the stolen items from the night of the riots Portia had found a lead on one of the rings they recovered. She had gone to the black market the day before, but she hadn’t returned. They decide the best thing they can do is continue with their plans for the day, and when they got to someone who might know, they could ask about their missing red-head.
——————————————————
Byron explained the first stop is the tavern The Sticky Mermaid, but that she needed to understand the rules before they got there. There would be no haggling. There were multiple steps to the process, and long periods of waiting while they were vetted and things changed hands. They weren’t to try following any of the people they’d see through the day. If at any point they were considered a threat to the operation, the whole deal would be off, and likely they’d be blacklisted from trying again. Calli said she’d follow his lead.
Once they got to the pub Byron approached the bar and said he really fancied himself some, “Black oyster stew.” The barman looked them over and said he was all out, but he knew where to get some, and directed them to one of the bridges connecting Old Town to the rest of Korvosa. The pair went to their spot and began the first of their long waits. This one was to be sure they weren’t being tailed. Calli could see Byron wasn’t hiding his frustration at needing to wait very well, so she tried to take his mind off it.
“Madame Devlin is a lovely woman. Matronly. She’s been kind to me, and spoke very highly of you. How did you meet her?”
Byron’s eyes kept scanning the faces of people as they passed, but he replied, “She was a friend of my mother’s. She took me in,” a pause, “and then she spat in my face.”
Calli tried to hide a chuckle at the thought of the fierce little woman standing up to the huge fighter. Byron asks, “How do you know Portia?”
“Ah. Well, I needed somewhere safe to stay where I wouldn’t be found by my usual acquaintances. I needed some space. Ended up bonding with her over a book, been back a couple of times now.”
“You’ve been to Ruby’s? I didn’t know that.” He stopped looking around at crowds and turned to take in the pink-haired woman next to him.
Calli gave him a sly smile, “That was intentional.” She then remembers that Ruby Rest is a brothel, and it occurs to her how this might all be misinterpretted. She hastily added a bit more awkwardly, “I didn’t want it getting back to Gale. We just socialized! Food, conversation, somewhere to sleep. A visit, not a VISIT.”
Byron shrugged, he wasn’t going to judge anyone on that. “Nightingale would probably run me through. Where is he today?” He went back to staring down the people as they passed.
Calli turned her back on the foot traffic and looked out over the water. She leaned against the railing, taking in the chaotic buildings crammed in together along the shoreline. “I don’t know. I needed time away from him. He knew. He and my parents knew that Gaedren was trying to kill me and none of them thought to tell me. So I wanted to show I could do some things on my own, I guess.”
They stopped talking, then, and waited. After an hour had passed a scrawny young man passed close enough to Byron to pass him a folded up bit of paper and kept walking. The paper had the address of a clothes shop on Wave Street. This would be their next stop.
——————————————————
They entered the store and were met by a priest of Abador. The sect valued rules, and money, and had decided long ago that if the black market was going to exist no matter what they should at least regulate it. So their clergy had someone who took special oaths to act as the neutral party and facilitate the deals. He asked them for their list of what they were selling, and Calli provided her carefully itemized list. He then asked them for their list of what they were looking for, and paused when he saw Portia’s name added in large print at the bottom.
“Now hang on, this isn’t what we deal in.”
The pair explain that her friend had come to return a ring the day before and hadn’t been seen since. The priest, named Vinesh, confirmed she had been there, but giving information on people who use the market is directly in opposition to his vows.
Byron struggled to contain his impatience as he said, “She’s mine, one of my charges, I want to see her home safe.”
Calli added, softer, “She’s my friend. I need to know she’s okay.”
Vinesh shook his head and looked at a loss, “I’m sorry, but you could be anyone and just saying that.”
Taking out her Drake’s Mark, the medal rewarded to citizens of Korvosa for great deeds in service of the town, she repeated her plea, “Please, she’s my friend.”
The robed man looks closely at the medal and says, “Those are quite rare, and hard to get.” he studied their distressed faces and makes his mind up. “Okay. Go away. I’ll see what I can find out for you, and get you what we can off the list. Come back in an hour.”
They knew this was procedure, but Byron practically took the door off the hinges on the way back out of the building from frustration.
——————————————————
Instead of clearing the area like they should, Byron and Calli tucked into an alley to keep an eye on the shop. They wanted to see the faces of the next people in the chain, in case the priest didn’t come up with answers. The Bear’s annoyance manifested as an inability to stand still, and he was so focused on watching for the runners that he failed to stay hidden. Calli, knowing how crucial it was for it to all go well, was virtually invisible behind him, but could only see his large form pacing back and forth. When a duo of shady looking characters arrive to the shop they immediately spot Byron lurking, and make an obvious sign for him to stay back. They disappear into the store, and a short time later leave carrying the large sacks left earlier with the priest.
As they begin to leave Byron takes a step forward as if to follow, and Calli quickly reaches out a hand to take his inked arm. He stops at her touch, just in time, as the two runners had been watching to see if they were going to behave. Seeing they were, the black market pair pointedly turn their backs and walk off.
Calli could feel the tension in his bicep as he resisted charging after the men. She hadn’t yet been this close to his tattoos, and she took the opportunity to start taking in all the details of them. She again tried to take his mind off the plight of their friend. “Your tattoos. Have you got a calliandra in here, somewhere? Have I asked you that before? I can’t remember if I just thought it.”
He nodded, “Yeah, calliandra, daisies, roses, tulips, all sorts. Each flower is a victory. Some people think each one is a kill, but they aren’t. They’re my wins. I won’t tell you what the thorns are. There’s also leaves, buds…” he realized how much he’d said and trailed off. He didn’t understand why he kept answering her questions, he’d barely known her three weeks.
Thrilled at what was practically a monologue from him, and relieved that the flowers weren’t all deaths, she congratulated him on his impressive record. She finally spotted one of the feathery bright-pink blooms that were her namesake and briefly ran her fingers over it before taking her hand back. She knew not to press her luck by asking anything further, and they again waited out the hour in silence.
——————————————————
One of the shady men returned, went inside, and left again. Byron and Calli rushed back into the store to see what they would find.
“Good news, I’m able to give you the address I sent her to yesterday. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find much of what was on your list. Did you want to make your selections, and then you can go investigate while I put in the order for you? Or did you want to wait until you have the items to begin the hunt?”
“What would be best?” Byron asks of his team mate.
“If she’s in a lot of trouble, we may need the items. But if she’s in that much trouble, she may not have time. I’ll follow your lead.”
The normal process here was that they’d say what they wanted on the list, wait another hour, and return to take their items. If they were too late, Vinesh would assume they’d been compromised and he and the gear would vanish. There was a risk that if they hunted down Portia they might not make it back in time. When Byron expressed his time concern, the priest readily offered, “I know how concerned you both are. Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll extend your time frame to three hours, but if you aren’t back in three hours I’ll have to leave.”
“Okay, so we go scout the area, and if we need to rush in we will, otherwise we can come back for the stuff.” Calli decides.
They begin pouring over the list of available purchases. Many of the items are woefully out of their budget, some possible only if they spent nearly the whole pot on just the one item, but then the rest would go without. The party hadn’t been together long enough for that much generosity towards any one of them alone, so they did their best to spread it around. There was constant mind changing and debate over what the best possible use of their money would be, and to Calli’s surprise, Byron managed the changing price adjustments without trouble entirely in his head. It seemed he may not consider himself good with words, but he’s pretty good with numbers! Years of calculating betting odds had trained him for just such a venture. The first things they bought were healing for the party, which was Calli’s only concern. Byron found an armor piece he was after, and they found something for Trevor, too. The other three would have to make do with what was there, a bit more protection for them, at least. And then it was done, and they could get to what was foremost on their minds.
They were out the door and off down the road the moment they got the address.
——————————————————
Vinesh had said he sent her to see a man named Gilias Kreas. His location wasn’t far, just further down Wave Street on a corner with Arkona Street, overlooking the Avenue of Arms. The Posh and Turtle Inn sat opposite. They looked at the multi-storied building and there was no mistaking it. The address lead them not inside, but down. A cellar entrance door sat unremarkable and unmarked around the side of the building, with a heavy sliding bolt keeping it closed. There were no windows, but Byron was familiar enough with The Narrows to know the door might lead down into the sewer system. He asked Little Focher if he remembered what Portia looked like, and he confirmed she was one of the people who fed him sometimes, so he liked her very much. Byron sent him off scouting again to an access hatch down the road to see if he can make his way in and spot their friend.
Calli frowned, “I know space is at a premium here, but there aren’t actually people living in the sewers, are there?”
Thankfully they don’t have to wait long. Focher rushes back, “I saw her! I saw her! Boss, she’s unconscious.” He uses his tail to draw in the dirt and gives them a rough description of what’s down there. Large grates section off the area below the building, so they wouldn’t be able to go around, and Portia was on the other side of the flow of sewage from the door they were at.
Hearing she was unconscious, they didn’t want to wait another moment. Byron unbolted the door without issue and the two descended into the darkness. The door then slammed shut behind them and they heard the sound of it being rebolted, leaving them locked in complete blackness. Calli vocalized some melodious notes that manifested a glow at her throat that travelled out her mouth into the air and burst into multiple dancing lights. Byron asks Focher to try and heal Portia, who they can now see is bound and gagged on a thin walkway opposite them. Before he could touch her, though, she wakes, having only been sleeping and not unconscious at all. The little dragon started trying to cut through her ropes as she excitedly struggled against them, but struggles, so after ensuring the filth was relatively easy to see through and not very deep, Byron wades across and helps free her himself.
Portia immediately launched into explanation, “Gilias kept me to lure you here for killing his brother, and Calli I’m so sorry, he threw the book you gave me into the muck!”
Byron didn’t understand why she’s concerned about a book at a moment like this, and Calli just reassured her that she can buy her another. Looking around they saw a catwalk up above them leading to a door on Portia’s side that must lead into the building above, but it’s too high for them to reach. There’s a ladder attached to the wall on Calli’s side, but even it stops ten feet below the walkway.
As they’re trying to figure it out, the door opens, and four men file out on to the walkway, three with crossbows.
Byron immediately instructed Calli to douse the lights, and the dismissed the spell, leaving the only light what filtered through from the door above and outlined the armed men.
“Byron!” the one without the crossbow called into the darkness, “My name is Gilias Kreas! Do you recognize the name?”
“No.”
“Maybe you’ll recognize my brother’s name, Percival Kreas?”
“No. Should I?”
“You killed him!”
“I’ve killed a lot of people.”
Gilias started to sound put-out. “A crew of thieves, killed in the riots?”
Calli scoffed, “They almost killed me first, it was self defense!”
Byron remembers then the sight of her pink hair in the filth of the road after she’d fallen. “Oh I remember your brother now! He hated you! He said you humped hippopotamuses!”
Gilias hadn’t expected his victims to react in this fashion. “It doesn’t matter, he was blood.”
“He hated you so much he’d asked me to kill you, ” Byron continued berating him, “He was an asshole. You know he was an asshole.”
“Shut up! The Cerulean Society told me to drop it, too, but he was my brother. I asked around and found your description easily enough. I don’t need them for my revenge!”
“For a useless piece of shit? He’s not worth it. I was doing you a favour, really. ”
“ENOUGH! We’re going to leave you here for a little while to really think about what you’ve gotten yourself into, and then we’re going to come back and ring a gong. Dinner time for the otyughs! We’ll raise that gate and that’s the end of the Korvosan Bear!”
Time was up, they had to act. Calli focused on the man closest to her side and in a voice almost musical asks him, “Are you really prepared to make an enemy of the entire Cerulean Society over his failure of a brother?” The guard lowered his bow and says, “She’s got a point, guys.”
Byron sent the pseudodraon to gouge at Gilias’ eyes. They hear their captor cry out in pain, unable to see the creature coming in the dark.
The fight had begun. Calli quickly followed up with the hireling closest the door, “I bet no one else even knows you’ve done this, yet, you could keep his money and turn him over anyway.” There’s still a strange sing-song quality to her words, and this man lowered his weapon, as well. “That’s right, he’s already paid us!”
Little Focher breathed out a silvery mist that settled on the two men in the middle, seemingly taking hold on Gilias.
Gilias started forcing the men between him and the door back the way they came, trying to escape before things got any worse. Byron tried to climb the wall under the door, but the walls proved too slimy. The only remaining hostile thug is unable to find a target in the blackness.
But Calli can see him. Her voice carries on, “It’s just two of you now, do you really think you can take on The Korvosan Bear? He’s coming for you.” The last man turned to Gilias, “You’re on your own.”
Gilias attacked the man for his audacity, and possibly due to the mist that had gotten into him.
Byron, having crossed to the ladder, made a daring leap from the top and reached out towards where the hoped the flooring of the catwalk was. Thankfully his over 6 foot frame was able to stretch out well-trained arms and find the purchase he sought. Calli asked if he needed the lights back, and he confirmed, so she re-summoned the dazzling lights once more.
Focher made another successful strike against Gilias, keeping him busy while Byron clambered over the railing, landing between Gilias and the thug by the wall. The thug does his best to press his back against the wall to stay out of the way while Byron turns his full fury on the doomed brother.
Byron gutted the man, and once dead, lifted him over his head and tossed the mangled remains into the disgusting liquid below. He then rounds on the middle thug, who cowered back towards the door. “How much,” Byron demands, “How much did he give you?”
“It’s our money, we let you have him,” he tried to protest, but crumbled in the presence of so much rage. “Fifty gold.”
“Give it to me. Now.” The thug handed it over and stormed past the other back into the building. Byron moves forward to the man stood in the doorway. “And you. Hand it over.” This one didn’t even try to argue. By the time Byron turned around to face the last hired man behind him, the man already had his payment out ready for Byron to take.
Calli called out to the last man before he could leave, knowing that in a little while her spells would wear off and the man would know exactly what had happened to him. “When you’re remembering this encounter later, make sure you keep in mind that we know what you look like now, too.”
He nods, “Of course you do, we’re friends, right? And you’ll come see me sometime, yeah? You’re very pretty.”
“Maybe, if you’re good,” she lied. She’d likely only see him again if he chose to be very bad indeed.
Byron then commanded the man fuck off, and off he fucked. The danger having passed, he also left out the door and found his way back around to the basement door to free the other two. Portia waded across, and Calli took the first opportunity she had to magically clean the filth off both of them before grabbing Portia into a massive hug.
Calli apologized to Portia for getting her caught up in their mess, and Byron handed over the 150 gold he’d claimed from the attackers to Portia for her trouble. Her eyes sparkled at the sum. They picked up the gear from the priest Vinesh, and headed back to Ruby’s. As they traveled, they all took turns complimenting each other’s actions in the heat of the moment.
Byron turned to Calli with an appreciative look "Told you we'd need your words."
Calli seemed to glow with the praise, "Not bad for someone squidgy, eh? But the words in the warehouse were all your own, you didn’t need me at all. And at the end there, your leap in the dark? It’s the stuff of legends. I can't believe you made it! "
The big man shrugged. "Don't tell anyone, but neither can I."
He stopped suddenly and looked at Calli with a directness that made her feel like she was back on stage performing. A whole audience worth of stares from two sharp eyes.
"Calli. Your words saved us. You kept us alive. I won't forget."
Calli's words left her and she nodded. She felt a familiar heat trying to form in her face, and was ever grateful for the magic of her hairclip. Bards don’t blush.
Seeing his words had been understood, Byron started walking again.
Calli was lost in the street for a second, then a polite cough brought her back to herself.
Portia was smiling at her.
"When he gets all direct like that it's a bit disarming isn't it."
Calli the professional Wordsmith just smiled back in wordless agreement.
"Ahem!"
Portia and Calli looked at the little drake that Portia carried, forgotten, in her arms.
"I find nothing says thank you like having one's ears scritched.”
——————————————————
Back in the basement, a lone Otyugh shambled up to the gate and began stretching it’s tentacles towards the discarded body of Gilias Kreas through the bars.