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Greyhawk - Casefile: Darkshire Defias Docket

I never should have agreed to take the case. 

Jobs had been scarce, and the wolves at the door were barely able to out-howl the grumbing from my stomach., so when I got a note handed to me in the Pig & Whistle Tavern in the Old Town section of Stormwind from Laurel Nox, I wasted no time pondering whether or not to accept, and intead made my way to the griffon rental pens of Stormwind without delay; the note had asked me to meet Laurel at the Scarlet Raven Tavern in the gloomy town of Darkshire.

Darkshire was a woodland village surrounded by Duskwood Forest.  Once a thriving, happy little picture of a rural village, the forest had been corrupted by evil and dread.  Undead creeatures roamed the countryside now, and marauding worgen victimized travellers and merchants who dared the roads. The Scarlet Raven Tavern used to be filled with farmers and craftsmen, relaxing after a long day of work, drinking beer and ale and dancing to music when a roving bard played.

Now the inhabitants who still survived were sullen and frightened, and strangers were no longer welcome.  Stormwind, hard-stretched to defend their lands from Defias, Murlocs, Ogres, and Blackrock Orcs, barely had time to spare for the defense of the village against the darkness. 

I snorted - Darkshire was the perfect place for my potential client.

Laurel Nox was, at first glance, was an attractive practicioner of the arcane, and an alchemist of no small ability She was a svelte woman with hair the color of a raven's wing, and a ruthlessness concealed behind eyes that gleamed with averice. I knew that she was remarkably capable of finding and providing potions, powders, and unguents for her clients, from healing draughts to tinctures that made the skin hard enough to dull even the sharpest of blades... but the word on the streets of Old Town was that she also could, for a price, supply various herbs and compounds of a more recreational - and illegal - nature. She also supplied me with Swiftthistle, from which I made my own vice. Thistle Tea was a stimulant I found quite necessary on long stakeouts and other places where I needed to stay awake. Probably addictive, but one did what one could do to get by. 

She was sitting by herself in the common room of the tavern (although technically, the Scarlet Raven was an inn, as they also rented sleeping rooms after the the darkness becane to encroach upon the region). She nodded to herself when she saw me enter, as if I had passed a test of some sort. She goit to her feet and steered me to a vacant table for more privacy.

"Master Greyhawk, once more it is good to see you.  Thank you for making the trip from Stormwind.  May I buy you a drink, or perhaps some food?" she said as I sat down at the table opposite her.

"No, I am fine," I said, uncomfortable.  Laurel and I had never been friendly, just a customer and his supplier, but I had watched her with customers before, and I knew that when she smiled at them it never reached her eyes. "Your note said you wanted to hire me for a job?"

"Straight to business, then?" Laurel said with, what I was certain, was a measure of faux regret. "Very well, there is a barn  at one of the abandoned farms that the local Defias are using as a base of sorts.. they have a lockbox there.  I want it."

"If all you need is a lockbox, I can tram up to Ironforge and buy you one. I won't even make a copy of the key," I joked. 

"I suppose I deserved that - I need the document inside the lockbox, but if you can get it, under no circumstances are you to read the contents.  Is that understood?"

I gave her a look of disbelief. "So, go steal a document from a Defias lockbox and return it to you. How will I know its the right one? And even if it is, what is to keep you from claiming i failed, and refusing to pay me?"

"There is only one document in the lockbox, and only one lockbox in the barn under heavy guard - just bring me that, and you get paid - no questions asked," offered Nox.  "I'll even throw in a bonus - a brock of Swiftthistle in addition to your normal fee."

That got my attention.  Swiftthistle Tea was in demand on the battlefront against the Horde, and a brick of the leaf would set me back half a dozen goldweight of coin.

"Done," I saisd, accepting the contract. 

"How soon can you have it?" asked Laurel.

"Well, if everything goes well... have breakfast with me here tomorrow.  You get to buy." I said with a confident grin.

I hoped I wouldn't have to stand her up...

*     *     *     *     *

 "Geeze... Hey Davros, are you sure this is a good idea?" whined Solly Westwhisker, , his pink handlebar mustache  quivering nervously.  Solomon, or Solly to his friends, was always nervous, but he was also a standup guy, and more importantly, he owed me money.  Solly had a weakness for the underground rat races Old Town, and when he had gotten in deep with his bookie.  When the bookie was getting impatient for his money, I arranged for his bookie to lay off in exchange for some explosive devices the bookie required for a different, hopefully unrelated activity.  Probably illegal, but I don't ask inconvenient questions if I don't have to.

So, the little guy owed me - not enough to spill his blood, but enough that I asked him to come and light off some fireworks for me.  He and I were in the rocks on the road approaching the barn, which held the lockbox.

I think maybe my appearance was making him nervous; I was wearing the dark gray leathers of the sort that Defias Brotherhood assassins liked to wear, and one of their red masks pulled down. Usually, I just carried a pair of weighted sticks capped with lead, as I was not about to kill anyone I didn't have to, y'know?  Just a few quick raps with the lead, and knees and elbow shattered, but nobody died - ususally. Tonight though, I carried a longsword and dagger that went along with the costume.  I could easily pass; after all, my Uncle Dashiel was one of them, a fact neither of us was proud of. 

The barn which held the lockbox I needed was called Addle's Stead, an abandoned farm west of Darkshire and near the deserted town of Raven Hill. Laurel hadn't been kidding - the place was lousy with Defias Brotherhood cutthroats of various kinds, both in the farmhouse, the field, and the barn. 

"No worries, Solly," I said, reassuring him. "You cut the fuses yourself, right?"

"Yeah, but..." he began, but I interrupted him.  "Look, all you have to do is enjoy that Silverleaf cigar, and when its done, stub it out on the fusebox. Then hightail it home, and your debt goes up in smoke and explosions."  

"Yeah but..."

"But what?" I said.

"But what are you going to be doing?" he asked.

"Solly, you know me.. I'm going to be doing as little as humanly possible, well out of the line of fire," I said, lying through my teeth.

"Then why the costume?"

"Oh, this?" I indicated my Defias Brotherhood outfit and weapons. "This was for my sneaking around beforehand.  My job ends as soon as you light those fuses, and then I get to go have breakfast." And if Solly, may the Light forbid, get caught, that was all he could tell them.

Solly eyed me doubtfully.  "If you say so..."

I clapped him on the shoulder.  "I say so.  Remember, smoke the stogie, and then light the stuff."  I left him there, concealed like a squirrel in a hollowed-out tree trunk, squatting on his next of acorns for the winter. Or whatever squirrels do - I don't know, I'm not one of them knife-ear druids or something.

I snuck around to the rocky hill line behind the barn, and waiting for the fireworks to begin. There was one guy who was hunkered down where two boulders were snugged up against the bole of a pine, like twho nuts next to a...well, you know what I mean.

His head hardly cracked when I hit him from behind with a sand-filled leather sap. "Good night, sweet prince, and may Angels speed you to your rest" I mumbled as I dragged him further away - and just in time, as before I got too comfortable taking his place, noises like flintlock gunshots started sounding off across the field. 

The fireworks show had begun.

Solly was a genius at maing fireworks of all kinds, and I'd spent hours sneaking around the outside of Adele Steading, planting squibs and rockets and small explosives. The fuses all traied back to the into a knot in the copper fusebox Solly had used as an ashtray. 

I tossed a few more smoke grenades at the house and barn for good measure; I hoped that in the smoke and confusion, that nobody would question another Defias Brotherhood thug going to protect the lockbox.

I drew my blades and made the barn just as a Defias spell-caster - dark ominous robes, the kind of guy in the white-mice-and-pixie-dust racket -was heading into the building, ordering the others out.  He looked my way and said "You there!  Guard the door!", and I followed the last of the others out leaving the mage alone.

I stood outside for just a few seconds before coming back in. The mage looked up at me and snarled "What part of 'guard the door' was unclear?" 

He deserved an answer.  He really did.  So I drew my flintlock and shot him in the head before grabbing the lockbox and setting the inside on fire and a few more smoke grenades for good measure.  

The lock was cheap. I had fiddled the thing open before I made Darkshire.

Breakfast was good. 

 

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