You'd think we'd be able to avoid trouble in Gulltown right? With Lord Gerald Grafton ruling the town, while not exactly a staunch ally (he did support the Targaryens after all), you'd think we'd be safe for a quick layover? Apparently, buying horses in Gulltown ranks up there with being attacked by the undead in the valley of the dead on the danger scale. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Predictably, once he's given leave by Joy, Rha takes off towards the nearest whorehouse. Probably about time he gets a volume discount at the Rogue's Delight back in Seaport when we get home. We leave Marrok and Ser Oswald at the ship to guard the gold. I doubt the Gentle Men will be tempted to make off with the gold given their reputation, but you never know if they'll decide that this, this is indeed the time to strike out on our own! 10,000 Gold Dragons sounds like a decent way to start our new and independent lifestyle.
The rest of us head for a decent inn [noterte ikke navnet], keeping up our disguises at least for the time being. I suggest we head out to the ranch to buy our horses right after finishing our meal, which meets with some grumbling but everyone acquiesces eventually. Somewhat surprisingly, the ranch actually has 40 horses for sale, and we get a decent price for the lot - 1500 silver stags is right on the money. We agree to have the horses delivered in two days at the crack of down at the harbor. Which, as it turns out, was about 1 hour too late...but more on that later.
We swing by the ship when we get back to town. At first nothing seems amiss - but when we go to check on the gold, we notice that the lock to the storage room has been tampered with. Marrok noticed one of the workers down in the ship but was unable to stop him. After asking around some, we get a vague description of the guy: around 35, tall, grey-haired, woodsman-y with two shortswords in his belt. I talk to the foreman who says he's one of the many at the docks looking for work and not familiar to him. Apparently he's been asking around after someone matching Joy's description (young, blond, amazingly beautiful etc) for the last month or so. Very interesting indeed. I give him some silver and ask him to check around town.
To be on the safe side, we decide to forego the pleasures of civilization (again to the consternation of a select few in the group) and stay at the ship. Joy, Caradog and 5 of the mercenaries head towards the inn to get our gear. The inn is in quite the uproar when they get there. Apparently one of their fine serving wenches were killed and the innkeeper himself suffered from a nasty head wound. Someone who from the description sounded very much like our unknown thiefling has apparently kidnapped lady Joy's lady in waiting/pleasure thing Velena!
In classic "we must have justice and we must have it now" style, some poor fellow has been pointed out as the guilty party by the town guards, on no other grounds that he was conveniently nearby and is a nobody. Lord Keith ventures to try to talk to the man, but the guards are having none of it. Apparently our dear lord lost his temper (most shocking, I know) and revealed who he was, which obviously made things much easier - at least in the short run. Having jumped ahead again, they now learned from the fellow that the greyhaired man was the one who spirited Velena away. Rha manages to track some blood trails found on the scene, and an old lady informs him that the greyhaired man handed Velena over to two accomplices who set out on horse and cart.
Rha and the rest follow the tracks after the cart, which they find left abandoned in an alley by the city walls. Tracks lead from there into a courtyard nearby - where our much sought after bad guys are found. The grey haired man is there, as well as three compatriots and Velena. Greybeard runs away at once, and after a short fight the two remaining thugs decide that yes, discretion is indeed the better part of valor, and take off as well. Given that the mercs are in heavy armor and they are not, they manage to give their pursuers the slip.
Luckily, lord Keith briefly manages to contain his wrath against all things in life and question the one man who survived. By contain I obviously mean that he smashes the fellow's hand when he doesn't start talking at once. After this friendly reminder to spill his guts, the thug says that he and his friends was hired by captain Grey to look around town for Joy a month ago. He's fairly sure that Grey wanted to kill Joy. He's got no clue who he is (besides a name, Horgan Trent) or who they were supposed to kidnap. His usefulness spent, lord Keith sends him off into the not-so-loving arms of the Stranger. Velena is obviously in a state. Joy does her best to comfort her, and manages to calm her enough to get a better description of Grey. Apparently, she's seen him in Seagard...though with black hair.
On the way back to the ship, Joy bumps into Rhaena Grayton, the lord's eldest daughter. She obviously invites Joy to the castle, but our girl manages to convince the airhead noblegirl (are there other kinds?) that she's on some sort of undercover mission or the like and slips away without giving offense.
When they arrive back at the ship, I offer to tend to Velena's wounds and get some info out of her at the same time. Given that I know the seedy underbelly (such as it is) in Seagard better than anyone else in our party, I manage to connect her description of Grey to a name: Fenton Pyke. Indeed, Fenton's done a few jobs for me...he's a freelancer and pretty much a thug, though admittedly quite talented at thugging. Most interesting.
We also decide that discretion is the superiour way to go through life and make ready to leave a day early. A lot of the mercenaries are out on shore leave, and one is nowhere to be found. I go out with lord Willard, Marrok and a few mercs to the local pleasure establishment. We eventually find him, killed and tortured in a back alley.
It's time to find our foreman, who might have more info on Fenton's whereabouts. Apparently he's found at the Shattered Sail...where Fenton hired the thugs. Veeeery interesting...Me, lord Keith, Marrok and 6-7 mercs go there. The foreman is surrounded by 6-7 guys. After some deliberation we walk right in, only to discover that the two thugs who gave us the slip are also there. Lord Keith tries acting friendly/non-aggressively and fails spectacularly, leading to most of the bar reaching for their weapons. Luckily, he's also very good at shouting and being intimidating, so after revealing his identity everyone calms down.
After talking to the foreman some, I'm convinced he's innocent. He's seen Fenton in here, but without his grey-haired woodsman disguise. Keith talks to the hired thugs (giving his word that he won't kill them, which might actually mean something coming from him). One of them saw Fenton talking to one Dameon Shett, the knight of Gull Tower, lord Grafton's right hand man. Mother save us...if Grafton himself, or at least Shett, is behind this, we are in grave danger indeed.
Everything happens quickly now. We decide we can't wait for the dawn to leave. Lord Willard, the captain and two mercenaries goes to wake the harbormaster. He's understandably slightly upset at being woken up in the middle of the night, but curiously mollified when he receives 5 gold for his troubles and hands us his best navigator [los].
Meanwhile, Rha and Marrok ride out to the farm to get our horses, paying the rancher a small fortune to get them down to the harbor at once. Riding back to the ship, they spot Daemon Shatt rounding up his personal guards. Apparently we are know wanted by the law as known criminals/troublemasters or the like.
The rancher arrives with the horses, we start loading them unto the ship as fast as humanly possible. Shaett and his guards come rushing down the harbor towards us, forcing us to abandon six of the horses - but we get away! We might not be welcome in Gulltown anymore, but we, and more importantly Joy, is safe. The captain is nearly in tears, cursing us for making him unwelcome forevermore in Gulltown. Given Joy's status his rudeness would be enough to cost him his head, but being a Braavosi he's either oblivious to this fact or more likely doesn't give a damn.
We decide to head for Maidenpool instead, deeming Saltpan to be too unsafe a goal. The journey home will be longer, but likely safer. As well, we are on relatively friendly terms with the Mootons of Maidenpool. Luckily, the journey there is uneventful. As we disembark the captain is up in arms about how little we paid him for his troubles (apparently 50 gold is not enough), dropping a crate of gold in the sea and so forth. Joy pays him back by quite accidently dropping the 50 gold into the sea as well. Sputtering, he just sails out (while Rha dives back down for the gold of course).
By now, we've caused quite a stir at the harbor, enough for one of the Mootons to arrive. It is none other than Wallis Mooton, the heir apparent and judging by Joy's barely concealed lustful gaze, quite the stud. We are, obviously, invited to the castle. Let us hope no more assassins lurk in the shadows...
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