So after arriving at Arkenfels, we got a room at one of the local inns, then headed to the tavern of another one, hoping to make contact with the seedy underbelly of the city. I decided to kill two birds with one stone by putting the moves on our waitress and seeing if she could point us in the right direction. Her name was Gweneth, and she was “kinda cute”, with her snaggletoothed smile being the only thing keeping her from being “pretty cute”. Now, I did just recently become a baronet, and should start carousing with a higher class of woman, but hey, bar wenches need love too! I wasn't gonna not throw it in her if she was so willing.
In any case, she did actually know someone, her brother Arim. We met with him a few hours later and laid things out, how we were looking for something or someone that might lead us to Duchess Parnth and how we were looking to support her against Veris/Melfir. He said he'd look around, and my divinations determined he was a trustworthy soul and that he would end up actually providing useful info, so we set up meeting for the next day. With that done, I could turn my attentions to his sister. After her shift was over, we went back to my room for some bed rattling fun.
After I was finished with her, joined Grey in some larceny. Apparently, he wanted to rob a warehouse in order to get his hands on some expensive stuffs in order to have something in hand when contacting the local “businessmen”, the merchant/smuggler types. I believe he was trying to make a deal to make contact with someone who would allow us access to their secret storerooms, which I could then use to gate in supplies and wot-not if we ever do ally with Parnth. Anyways, after the thievery, we met up the next morning with the businessman Grey got into contact with, a man named Stelios. I used my Boyo alias with him, playing the part of smuggler wanting a place to store goods I'm trying to bring into the country.
Later in the day, we met up with Arim. He said he knew of a contact, the Duchess' niece, a manifest named Folcina, who could prolly help us get a hold of Parnth, but she was currently imprisoned. The jail was specifically geared towards holding manifests, so it would be tough getting in, but, we figured out a plan. We slowly tunnelled close enough to the prison that we wouldn't set off any alarms. Then, Grey mocked up a portable gate frame, which I opened a gate to, and then he quickly popped out of the tunnel, and he teeked the gate into the prison, right by Folcina's cell.
Cassie and I popped through, kicked down her cell door, dragging the gate with us for a quick getaway. There was only one guard with her in the cell, a manifest trying to look like a scary, fiery skeleton. His mistake, he looked so threatening that instead of being frightened off, it only spurred me to hitting him fast and hard to take him down quickly. I got extremely lucky, dashing in in a flash, too fast for him to mount a defense, and eviscerating him. He was gravely wounded, and Cassie quickly followed up with a devastating blow that finished him off.
Grey and Trent popped out of the hole to head to the other cells and free the other prisoners. Now, in our scouting out of the place, we knew there would be about 4 guards and 3 manifest prisoners. So we only had three more guards to worry about. As I worked to free Parnth's unconscious and cute-ass niece, two more guards showed up, a big bearded guy with a huge axe and a smaller swordsman type. Cassie held them off at the door, but unfortunately, the sword guy managed to dispel my gate. So, we had to fight our way out. But, I was confident we could. I freed Folcina, but the other guy, unable to get past Cassie and his companion's melee, blasted me with a wand that drained me of power.
Luckily, Cassie managed to finish off axe guy, so even though I was getting low on mana, we could double team the other guy. As he and Cassie began dueling, I quickly rushed in from the side, jumping onto and off the wall, my blade swatting his out of the way so Cassie could get a hit in past his defenses. Then I rolled around behind Cassie, and did a double feint- I tossed my parrying dagger at him to distract him, and then rushed in with an attack. To him, it prolly seemed slow and clumsy and that he was easily able to defend against. But that was the whole point. In blocking my attack, he was wide open for another of Cassie's blows, and he was quickly felled.
With that done, we went to check on the others, and Trent had managed to knock out another guard. It was a hot blond clad in a skimpy chainmail bikini, and really, what is it with our opposition and their penchant for such revealing armor? Not that I was really complaining. We freed the other prisoners, a lieutenant of Parnth's. as well as a bandit leader who I guess was a thorn in the side of Veris in this area. We looted the bodies of the fallen, stripping them of armor and items. Sure, that left the guard chick nekkid, since she wasn't wearing all that much, but who knows what enchantments the armor might have, we couldn't let her keep it on just in case. We cuffed her with the magic blocking shackles used in the prison, and threw a blanket over her to preserve her modesty, not that I hadn't enjoyed an eyeful already.
We exited the prison and ran back into our tunnel. I gated us through a couple of places before finally ending up in Endlebar where we could talk. Despite the dramatic and violent rescue, Folcina still wasn't ready to trust us, thinking it might be an elaborate trick. so, we offered to gate her anywhere. Well, not anywhere, I told her a few places I could gate to in Upper Thalia and let her pick from there. She first wanted to go to Dimmersdel, which I thought was crazy, given Veris and Melfir just got married there, and it was prolly crawling with hostiles looking for her. Well, not her specifically, but people allied with Parnth. But then we remembered the gate near the Gravath's farm, so I teleported there to see if it was safe, and then opened a gate back. The freed prisoners took their leave, but not before we gave Folcina a letter for Parnth that we wished her to deliver. As they left, I gave Folcina a wink, saying I hoped to see her again.
With that done, we still had the last guard with us. I asked her her name, which was Lena, and then we questioned her about Veris. She didn't really know anything, she's just a soldier. She had her job at the prison, and she didn't really care one way or the other about the recent regime change, she had no particular loyalty towards either party. So, we questioned her on what she would do if we were to let her go. She didn't have any family or friends left back in Upper Thalia, so she supposed she would just start a new life wherever, since she was a manifest, it wouldn't be too hard. I figured she was being truthful, so we let her go.
As she left, I offered to buy her dinner, kind of a “sorry we beat you up and made you lose your job” thing. She thought it was almost ridiculous, given the situation, but eventually acquiesced all, “What the hell,” her day had been weird enough already. So, I took her to a nice restaurant I knew of in Endlebar, because I was definitely wanting to tap that hot ass. I almost forgot she was a manifest, remembering she would be a tougher nut to crack, but my charms eventually won her over in the end, and we got a room at an inn nearby. I think there was some pent up aggression there though, because we had some rough kinda hate sex. But it was definitely nice.
I woke up before she did, and feeling slightly bad about upending her life like that, I dropped off a pouch of gold pieces on the night stand. Of course, on the way out, I realized, she might get insulted and feel like a whore, but its not like I actually care. Its not like I'll see her again!