Busting Pyramids
Log Info
- Title: Busting Pyramids
- Emitter: Andelena
- Place: Market District - Alexandria
- Summary: It's midnight guard duty for both Andelena and Dolan at the markets, and the cold and wet autumn evening drives the two to go looking for something nice and hot to eat as a snack. The two Daeusites discover a stall being run by a man by the name of Jamison who is trying to sell his imported water with vaguely medicinal properties. Dolan susses out quickly that it's a pyramid scheme and that the water's laced with a basic charming spell. Smelling a rat, the two Daeusites resolve to investigate further.
The chill of the autumn wind stalks the Daeusites who patrol the streets of the Market District. It ruffles the white cloak that belongs to an Andelena of Selentia, and her sigh leaves her in a puff of slight mist, followed by a groan. Her eyes are cast up to the dark skies overhead. "It's fuckin' dark and cloudy, the stars aren't out, and the moon ain't out," Andelena grumbles. "This is a night where people get fuckin' jumped."
She looks over at her traveling companion and offers him a smile in spite of her grumbling. "But it's also the first shift I've gotten with you in a while, so I'll keep my bitching to a minimum, Bry. You hungry? We've been at this for a bit."
The only light around is the manalamps that illuminate the streets, and here, those are few and far between. The other one is the candlelit golden glow that illuminates the back of brown hair that is starting to go shaggy again, centered on the mighty greatsword harnessed to the back of the man in a breastplate. He has eschewed the open display of religious symbolism, as he so often does. Dolan prefers to reserve that for officialdom, and does so only when he thinks it will serve his ends. Otherwise, he prefers a quieter faith, if no less devout for that.
"Don't want to get stuck waiting for food if something happens," he counters, pulling from his belt pouch a small bag of dried fruits and nuts. This, he offers to Andelena. "Fernwood can be slow at this hour, and I'd rather keep my eyes sharp."
"Nah, wasn't suggesting a sit-down," Andelena replies, but she takes the bag from him. "Was kind of thinking of just stopping at one of the food stalls if we pass 'em. Keep smelling apple cider on the wind."
She shakes the pouch a little and cups the bounty that falls out, tossing it into her mouth. "But this is good," she says, and hands it back to Dolan. "Quite frankly, I'm amazed how... Y'know, how quiet it's beginning to feel again. It's like we were shoved into a pot that was getting hotter and hotter and... now it's suddenly been pulled off the heat. Do you understand?"
"Yeah. I do. It's been too damned quiet." A very different response from what Dolan might once have said, to be sure. "I don't like letting it sleep, but haven't seen hide nor hair of any of 'em." He takes the pouch back and yanks the drawstring shut, then tucks the pouch away at his belt. "We could get something hot. You buy, I'll watch."
Andelena grins at Dolan on that first sentiment, steel-grey eyes twinkling in the lights that line the street. "You sure have become a thrillseeker," she says. "Not that I'm complaining. Kind of become the same way. Just, y'know--sure, it was scary as shit, at first, but this is sort of what we trained for. Dispensing the Knight's justice and thwarting evil at every turn it rears its ugly fuckin' head. Just didn't expect it to be so... hairy."
She nods. "Yeah, I'll grab something. You holler if some fucker grows more hair and teeth than he should have, yeah?"
Andelena darts around a corner, and she looks about as happy as the kitten waiting for them at home when she receives her meals as she returns with two hot donuts, holding one out to Dolan. "Apple cider donuts," she tells him. "They smell fucking delicious."
"Yeah." When the apple cider doughnuts arrive, Dolan's flesh and blood eye blinks. "Those smell amazing," he answers, reaching to take one. He glances around, then bites down into the hot doughnut, closing his eyes and savoring the moment. "Your noise is infallible," he purrs around a mouthful. "Nothing hairy."
Andelena snickers as Dolan bites in and savors the flavor, her hands curling around her own. "Just call me slightly paranoid," she says. "After months of dealing with teethy, fuzzy fuckers, I always look over my own shoulder twice as often when I'm out here. Even if they seem to have fucked off into their own werewolf hidey-holes."
She leans against a wall as she bites in a little and hums appreciatively of the flavor. "Damn, that's good," she says. "Fuck me sideways. Can't get anything like this in Selentia."
She takes another bite and mulls over it for a moment. "I'm really... kind of glad I came here, Bry," she says. "This city is..." She screws up her face in thought, trying to find the words to say.
Dolan chews and swallows, musing on the flavor before speaking. "It's a different place, that's for sure." Chew chew chew, another bite taken. He won't take long to finish this, that's pretty clear. "Nowhere near as stuffy as Ecclesia, that's for sure."
"Nowhere near as stuffy, thank the gods," Andelena says with an eyeroll and a smile. "Here, people don't bug their eyes out too much when someone decides to talk like an ordinary person and not like someone with a polearm driven up their ass. And, you know, I had no clue what to expect when I came here."
She shoves the rest into her mouth and exhales a satisfied sigh, shrugging her shoulders as she pulls herself away from the wall. "I mean, yeah, I came here hoping to find you, which I sure did, but it was also kind of like... I came here hoping to find something 'new'. As in, something new about me. I'm not sure that I really have, but I'm still satisfied, anyway."
Dolan lets out a sigh. "Yeah, so you know that coming here wasn't entirely my doing, or my idea, right?" He takes another bite of the doughnut, waggling the last bite at her. "I've just about paid that debt off, but I've got to admit, Alexandria's been good dto me, mostly. There's some scary shit in this town, though."
"Yeah, I know it wasn't your idea, Bry." Andelena offers him a warm smile. "It's honestly water under the bridge to me now. The fact you came here, that is--not the fucker that took your eye. We're still gonna find it and skewer it."
She idly looks around the marketplace at midnight. The scariest thing present here at the moment happens to be the price that one stall is charging for a cup of water that the sign purports to be imported from the Jade Islands with vaguely medicinal qualities. "There is some scary shit, though, you're right," Andelena says, returning her gaze to her fiance. "And sometimes it's monsters. Other times, it can be people. Can get all philosophical and shit about what makes a monster and what makes a man, but I'll just say the people are at least on our side against evil."
Dolan pops the last of the doughnut into his mouth and licks his fingers, suddenly entirely serious. "Most of them, anyway," he mutters, wiping his licked fingers on the seat of his trousers. The sketchy water seller gets a long look and a shake of the head. "Sometimes men are monsters."
"No arguments here," Andelena says with a snort. "I mean, back when we were traveling the kingdoms together, we encountered all manner of asshole nobles embezzling money and resources from their people. Not exciting stuff at all compared to, y'know, hairy fuckers and demons, but still acts of evil."
She stares down the sketchy water seller for a moment before she looks at Dolan. "Speaking of probably boring evil, think we should go investigate that?"
Dolan stares at the seller for a long moment, lips pursed. "Yeah, I think we had better. Might not be able to do anything about it, but let's see what we can learn from him. Play it cool."
He straightens up and casts a dark look at the seller's stall, and adjusts the strap on the harness he wears.
The water seller is a young human man, probably in his mid to late twenties, who has his ginger-red hair wrapped up in a bun. He wears a tunic that somehow seems a little too tight on him, clinging to the slight musculature that he has on his wiry frame. When Andelena approaches him, he flashes her a brilliant, almost too-white smile. "Hey there," he says in a very laid-back way. "You wanna try the waters of life?"
Andelena squints at him--well, more accurately, at his manbun, and then at his face. "That's a hell of a name for some water," she says.
"Well, it's true," the man says. "Here, I can pour you and your guyfriend a little sample."
"Is that so?" Dolan's standing a little to one side of Andie, staring intently at the man. "I'm curious. Where'd you get it from?"
The water seller gulps a little as he looks at Dolan. The Redeemer cuts a subtly intimidating figure, after all. "Ah, well, uh, I get it from the company," he manages to get out. "I'm a representative, and I order my product from the Life Water Company at a discount."
Then he turns to Andelena and offers her another winning smile. "Speaking of which, the company's hiring, if you want to become a rep."
Andelena squints. "Wait. You're spending your own money on this water from the company you work for? That kind of seems ass-backwards to me."
"Sorry," Dolan immediately relaxes when he sees the guy cringe, and tries on one of those cheeky grins. It's not quite all there, but it is reasonable enough. "Didn't mean to frighten you. I know it's bad enough." The smile goes a little ragged. "Interesting, so they're hiring people to buy their water and sell it? Are they always hiring?" He drops his arms as he speaks.
"Ah, yeah, they're always hiring. This girl I met turned me onto it," the man says in response to Dolan. He looks a little bashful, but at least he's not scared of Dolan anymore. "I haven't turned a profit yet, but she says if I recruit reps, it'll make up for the money I spend on water."
That gets an even bigger squint from Andelena. "Bry, uh, this sound fucky to you?" she says, turning to the Redeemer.
For answer, Brydion simply grins at the young man. "Bet she's beautiful," he answers with a grin. "She's taking you for a ride, though, my friend. Girls do that to boys sometimes." Instinctively, he ducks away from Andelena, as if expecting to get punched. "You ever hear of something called a pyramid scheme?"
Andelena does make a motion at Bry like she's about to slug him, but she's grinning. No Redeemers are going to get clocked today. Then the question gets aired, and she nods. "Yeah, a pyramid scheme's where you get promised you'll get paid if you hire on more people and promise them they'll get paid," she follows up, explaining it to the man, who is turning a shade of red from embarrassment. "Sorry, buddy."
The man looks down at the covered pitcher of water on his stall counter. "I paid ten gold for this pitcher alone," he admits sheepishly. "Lyla said it'd preserve the water's unique properties. I mean, yeah, I didn't think the date she asked me out on would turn into a business pitch, but she was so excited about working with me."
He looks up at Dolan. "Do you think I can get my money back from her? Or the company?"
Some of the cheeky smile that Dolan had been wearing fades into something that on the mobile half of his face is real sympathy, and on the scarred half looks like something closer to annoyance. "Probably not, but I'll tell you what," he offers. "How much did you spend on all of it together? I can see two ways this can go. Either she got suckered herself and is trying to get herself out, or she's playing with you. If it's the first one, she might need a bailout. Get it to her and you might win her after all. If it's the second, she deserves to be pushed into the Tornmawr. You sure don't want to win a girl like that."
"Twenty gold," the man answers, shuffling his feet in further embarrassment--or maybe like he wants to go track down this Lyla and demand his money back. "The pitcher was ten, and my first two shipments of the water were discounted down to five gold each as an introductory offer. I don't really care about her at this point."
"I wouldn't either, buddy," Andelena says after a whistle at how much money the man had lost. "Out of curiosity, what's the pitcher made out of? And they ever tell you exactly how the water's special?"
The man looks down at the pitcher again. "They said it's made out of a special type of glass that keeps the magical properties of the water intact," he says. "The water's supposed to be a little magical."
Andelena looks at Dolan. "Bry, I hate to ask, but can you tell if it's magic in any way?"
At that, Brydion narrows his eyes, but nods. "I get that. Probably the best idea. Do you want to know whether it's actually maigcal or not? I can find out." This time, he waits for the young man's answer. Sometimes you don't always want to know. "Either way, I'll buy it from you for twenty gold."
Andelena will have a very good idea as to what Brydion is up to with that stunt. He's planning on going after the perps himself.
"You know what, yeah, I'd like to know," the man replies, although he looks stunned at the offer to buy it all off him. "Just so it doesn't haunt me at night, I guess. I guess even if it isn't magical, it's still water, so... At least you can drink it."
Andelena nods to Brydion's notion. She knows he hasn't suddenly developed an interest in 'medicinal' waters or overpriced glass pitchers, after all. "Just rest easy, bud," she tells the young man. "You can wash your hands of all of this. What's your name?"
The (former) water seller smiles a little. "Jamison Cleves," he says. "Nice to meet you both, uh..." He's waiting for names. If the Daeusites feel like giving them.
"Brydion Donnelly," Dolan offers, more absently than anything else. He's already pulling from beneath the breastplate the pendant that holds the image of a stylized dragon. This, he murmurs a prayer over, and stares intently at the glass pitcher and its contents. He studies that for a good half a minute, in intent silence.
GAME: Dolan rolls spellcraft: (13)+9: 22
"Andelena soon-to-be Donnelly," the Sunguard offers with a sly grin in Bry's direction for a second. She returns her gaze back to Jamison, however. "We're often at the Temple of Daeus if you need to find either of us."
Jamison puts two-and-two together. "Oh, congratulations," he says brightly.
They make some more idle small-talk while the inspection happens. The Redeemer's prayer is answered...
And there is something vaguely magical about it. But not in the way at all like it was advertised. There's a very basic charm person spell in the water in the pitcher. (The pitcher itself is just a pitcher.)
After a minute of study, Brydion absently picks up the pitcher and pours out a small measure of water into one of the small cups nearby, watching it very carefully. His flesh and blood eye narrows. "Oh, that's some bullshit," he snarls quietly. "Yeah, I'll buy this off of you," he snaps. Whatever he sees makes him very unhappy. "The glass pitcher is just a pitcher," he explains. "The water's got a fucking charm spell on it. That's some shit. We probably ought to go find that girl and find out who roped her in."
Both Andelena and Jamison go wide-eyed at the revelation of the waters' contents, but Andelena's the first to respond. "Yeah, we absolutely do," she says, glaring at the water in the pitcher. "What'd you say her name was again, Jamison?"
"Lyla," Jamison replies, now rubbing his wrist a little. "Lyla Lazuli. That's the name she gave me. She's a human girl with pale skin and blonde hair. Blue eyes. Very pretty. I met her at the Fernwood one night."
Andelena snorts. "Yeah, doesn't sound like the name she was born with," she says as she looks to Dolan. "We better investigate this."
Dolan is reaching for the coin purse inside his breastplate even as Andelena talks. From this, he pulls out twenty gold and offers them to the kid. "For the water and the pitcher," he says. "We're going to go find the ones responsible."
Jamison takes the money, although his shoulders sag a little like he's beginning to buckle from the weight of Dolan's generosity. "Thank you, honestly," he says. "I'll never forget this."
Andelena turns to Dolan and nods, taking the pitcher off the counter. "I guess we need to start with the Fernwood," she says. "Try to find this Lyla girl and shake her down for all the info she's got. Try to follow the trail from there. Pyramid schemes always have a ladder up. Just gotta climb."