Chapter One - The Blue Nixie

[MadVlat]

John still with a smile on his face finally speaks up once again, "Your offer sounds just fine Miss Vanderboren, however I would be interested to know how long we would have promised work?"...

[mackaber]

This one time Berek does not begin to barter, 25 gold a month will easily get him over the month and if Miss Vanderbron will not need them he can always engage in other commercial activities. Also as she has said already having the backing of her family will not hurt in making him look like a respectable citizen.

[Eanwulf]

"I do not speak for the group m'lady, but you can most assuredly count me in!"

Did Shumba just say that?

[Trogdor]

OOC

arkahm is temporarily MIA, and I'm assuming Catty will join up too. So I'll move things forward.

"Thank you all," Lady Vanderboren says. "I appreciate your loyalty. As for how long I'll employ you?" She shrugs. "I hope for a long time. But that's only if I can get my house in order. I'm afraid things are in a lot worse state than I expected when my parents died. I can only promise to employ you as long as I have the means. But I hope that your assistance will help make that more secure."

"My plan for tomorrow," she continues, "is to see the dockmaster first thing, and then go to the family vault. And that was something I was hoping to speak to you all about." She seems ready to go on when Kora clears her throat and catches Lavinia's eye.

"I'm afraid it will have to be the vault first, my lady," the servant says with a glance at the piles of coins on the desk in front of her. "We're ten rings short. It looks like Mr, Vark was not so restrained in his spending as we'd have hoped." She gets a pained look on her face. "I'm afraid the household fund won't allow us to cover the loss. Not without..." She doesn't finish.

"Of course," Lavinia says with a look of mixed embarrassment and regret. "The vault first." She takes a deep breath and another drink of her wine. "And that brings me to the first task that I'd like you to help me with. The noble vaults, as you may well know, are below Castle Teraknian in the center of the city. I must confess that I've never been to any of the vaults, including the Vanderboren vault. No doubt my parents would have taken me eventually. But there seemed no hurry." She pauses for a moment and then continues. "I understand that many of the vaults are trapped - some quite extensively. And I have no doubt that ours has some protection. The ring will certainly get us in. But there may be some danger involved after that. Shall we say at the beginning of forenoon?"

"And to that end, let's see what my father left me. Perhaps it will give us a clue." She pulls the scroll out of the ring and lays it on the table. She tries the ring on her finger, sees that it's too big, then attaches it to a golden chain that hangs from her neck.

"Hmm," she says, looking at the scroll. "That's not very helpful." She gestures at the scroll. "Can any of you make heads or tails of this?"

Sasserine Coins and Timekeeping

The Sasserine coins are as follows:

Ring= pp
Sun = gp
Moon = sp
Star = cp

---

I've decided to add a little interesting flavor and am saying that timekeeping is kept by bells that are rung through the city.

Night - midnight to 4am

Morning - 4am to 8 am

Forenoon - 8am to noon

Afternoon - noon to 4pm

Middle 4pm to 8 pm

Evening - 8mp - midnight

A bell at the castle goes off city-wide to mark the spot between these categories. That marks the official demarcation between those times. Other places will sometimes ring lesser bells to mark time within these categories. One bell is rung for each half hour.

So three bells in the afternoon is 1:30.

People generally don't keep track of time in less than a quarter bell increment, and even then that's not precise. You might say, "Come over in a quarter of a bell." That's about eight minutes, but generally means 5-10 minutes.

Without much in the way of accurate clocks, people just make do.

The Scroll

[Vardaen]

Daerith sets his wine glass down, finished now with it he stands back up. "I guess it was too much to hope that Vark hadn't actually spent any of the coins. If you need help in piercing the heart of your family vault you already have our assurance of help. Besides, our payment lies within doesn't it?" He smiles only playing with Lavina and not worried that he won't get paid. He moves forward and taks a look down at the patchment. He makes a long Hmmmmm sound as he studies the writing. "Your father's handwriting? If so, perhaps it some kind of code or reminder for himself on how to use the ring it was found with?" He studies it a while then moves back to let others have a look.

Pacing around the room he taps his finger to his chin repeating some of what it says in a whisper to himself.

[MadVlat]

John studies the parchment along side the elf before moving away. "A chimera has three heads and sunrise is in the east, cyclops has one eye and sunset is to the west. Three to the left, one to the right...", he mumbles to himself. Then out of nowhere the bard utters, "It sounds like a combination of some kind. However I am at a loss as to what it all means its so cryptic"...

[mackaber]

"As long as all o them don't live in your family vault we should probably make due once we get there. So if you don't need us any more I'd make my way out and be back in the morrow?" Berek says hugging a bear mug in his thoughts.

[Trogdor]

"By all means," Lavinia says. "Go and get some rest. Please be back by late Morning. I'll have a carriage come to pick us up at the beginning of Forenoon to take us to the castle."

[mackaber]

Berek grins a sheepish grin "I doubt to miss the opportunity to get paid Lady Vanderboren. Anyways you'll need me so ye won't get trapped down in the catacombs." he then elegantly bows to all in the room before taking his leave off to see the beautiful Taverns of Sasserine for he has something to party.

[Cattywumpus]

"I will be glad to help ya my lady. " says Knarra. She then turns her mind to the scroll at hand and thinks a bit. What do Medusas, Chimeras and Basalisks have in common?