Chapter One - The Vanderboren Vault

[Trogdor]

As Daerith moves forward and puts a comforting hand on Lavinia's shoulder, she responds by putting her hand over his. "Yes," she says, regaining a bit of her composure. "You're quite right." She takes a few deep breaths and gives Daerith an appreciative smile. Then she stands up again and gets back to business.

"Let's take account of where we are first," she says, "before we fret. I appreciate your offer," she adds with a look at Daerith, "though I'm not certain you can speak for everyone." She actually manages a smile after that. "Let's count out the coins and assess the gems. That will give us an idea of my assets; I'm all too aware of my debts. And you're right about the ledgers. My parents may not have been the best at handling money. But they were fiendish record keepers. I can't imagine they would have been lax in recording their financial dealings. They were so good at documenting everything else."

[MadVlat]

John stays quiet and leans on the wall of the inner vault staring somewhat agitated as Miss Lavina goes from chest to chest in search of her families fortune. It is not until the young woman takes a seat that the bard says anything at all. "It is a poor attempt at humor fate has dealt you Miss Lavina, but a deal is a deal. However, I am not unreasonable. A few coin for food and lodging will suffice for now and the rest when you have had a chance to put your families affairs in order. A fairer bargain you cannot ask for. I know it may seem callous of me to ask but one must eat from time to time". John nursing his sore arm as he speaks...

[mackaber]

This whole affair leaves Berek quite uneasy. For a Dwarf a deal is a deal and a contractor who can't pay belongs in the Dungeon thus the Rogue's voice is rather grim as he speaks "Well if you was a Dwarf we'd take what ye got and lock you in here if it ain't enough. But since you're not I'll have a look at those gems and tells yet what they're worth without chargin ye another penny. Good thing I almost got myself killed for a broke contracter... At least yye still got's a pretty ship and house to sell. I hear prices on the market are currently soaring." with that Berek takes the chest with the gems without further asking to evaluate them.

OOC

I hope I got myself a rank of appraise at Characzter creation put at least Berek will get a +2 Bonus

[Eanwulf]

The secret to the vault's combination having finally been solved, Shumba appears to be rather happy with himself and his companions. Even the news of Lady Vanderboren barely having enough money to pay the party seems to do little in the way of lessening the half-orc's exuberance. "Don't joo worry none m'lady," Shumba exclaims in reply to Lavinia's statement, "joo can pay me when joo are able to!" "Heh," he then adds, "I'm just glad dat we got the damned thing open!"

After surveying the scene a little bit longer, Shumba's curiosity gets the better of him and he finally interjects. "Forgive me m'lady, but do joo think that your brother might have paid the family vault a visit? After all, didn't joo say that he was away for some kinda reason? Maybe he needed some of da money for his journey?"

[Trogdor]

"Vanthus?" Lavinia replies in a questioning tone. "He wouldn't have been able to get in without a ring." She holds up her hand to show the one she wears. And this is the only one. "My mothers replacement ring won't be delivered for weeks." She shakes her head. "Besides, I'm certain my parents told him as little as they did me about the vault. Without my father's clues, he couldn't have figured out the lock."

[Vardaen]

Daerith has spent many an hour in the the University's class rooms day dreaming of time in the gladiator arena instead of focusing on his studies. Thankfully not all his time was spent with his head in the clouds, he does remember 'Accounting Basics for the Noble Castes', arather boring class on mathematics and book keeping. So he takes up the top ledger and flips to the final entry, trying to check dates, amounts, and other details important to determining the amount of coins that should be in here. His finger poised on one of the number he narrows his eye at Berek when the dwarf speaks. "You unsympathetic overgrown creeton! Lady Vanderboren just learned that her family fortune is missing, but she still offers to pay you in full, and to suggest she should be thrown in jail? I should lock you in this vault and let you suffere if I didn't think you'd make love to the stone work in here." He wags a finger at Berek, "John and Shumba and myself are all willing to defer payment for a bit, but you go right to highway robbery! I don't know where you get off making statements like that, but you better rethink your mindset dwarf, or you'll wish you did." The tall slender elf looms over Berek as he's taking down the chest to assess the gems, "AND I'm checking your pockets before we leave so don't even THINK about steeling a few of those!" For the time being he lets the comments of Vanthus go without comment.

[mackaber]

"Pah ye long eared son of a donkey!" Berek barks back apparently completly unimpressed by the Elves harsh words. "I'm a buisnessman and almost got me killed in the process, and just statin how we Dwarves do buissness. And next time ye call me a thief be sure to hop on a big strong tree me axe can't chop down first or hide in Lady Vanderboren's underwear cause that's the only place you hobby adventurer want to go with this whole ordeal!" with that he turns back to the gems inspecting them meticulously, a very sour look on his face.

[Eanwulf]

It is all that Shumba can do to stifle a most outrageous guffaw as he hears the two heroes quibble and argue. Man I hope this leads to a fight, the half-orc ponders silently to himself, Nuthin serious mind you, but a good scrap is always appreciated mon!

After gazing upon Lady Vanderboren's most assuredly appalled appearance however, and Shumba quickly rethinks his thoughts adding. "Bah, this ain't the time or da place for joo two to have a tumble mon! We've got bigger fish ta fry! Let's see what we can do to help Ms. Lavinia and get on with our day!"

[Trogdor]

"Now, now," Lavinia says, holding up her hands. "Please, don't argue over this." She looks at Daerith and says, "I appreciate you standing up for me. I do." The she looks at Berek. "But he has a point. If I can't meet all my debts, the house and everything in it will have to go. Berek is acting no worse than most of my other creditors. Your group did risk your life for me; and you deserve payment for that." She smiles. "Besides, if I am going to go broke, I'd just as soon see that you all get your pay first, before the jackals swarm around me."

"But it hasn't come to that yet," she adds, pointing at the gold, gems, and books. Let's dig in and see what we can find." Quickly you all get to work tallying what wealth Lavinia has available, and seeing what the ledgers say. The coin is easy. Between gold, silver, and platinum, there's a bit under two thousand suns in coin. And both Berek and Lavinia are good enough with gems to figure that there's about half that value in gems. So the immediate cash flow concerns of House Vanderboren can be taken care of, including your fee.

Beyond that, the ledgers offer some additional promise. From perusing them, it becomes clear that Lavinia's parents made it a practice of doing dangerous favors for a variety of important people and organizations in Sasserine, yet they rarely bothered to collect the rewards. Instead, they allowed their patrons to keep the rewards with the understanding that they could be called due at any time in the future. A few entries show that the elder Vanderborens did this to allow more flexibility in collecting what was their due. Occasionally there are entries showing that debts were forgiven in exchange for helpful services or even for no apparent reason at all - at least no recorded reason. One entry shows a sizable debt being paid by a grant of quick passage on a patron's ship. Another shows an organization's debt being forgiven in exchange for an artifact of some sort. Other debts were, you surmise, forgiven for favors the Vanderborens chose not to write down. Thankfully for Lavinia, however, her parents were quite active in the past few years. Although a number of debts are marked as forgiven, the number of outstanding rewards owed is quite large. If Lavinia can collect even half the debts listed, House Vanderboren will be in a stable position for some time to come. If she can collect more, then she might even be in a position to expand her house's fortune.

But the ledgers also show something else, perhaps the reason that Lavinia's parents were so cavalier about collecting their debts. According to the records in the ledgers, there should be far more wealth in the vault than you found. Up until their untimely death, Verik and Larissa Vanderboren kept meticulous track of everything they put into the vault or took out of it. At present, according to the books, there should be tens of thousands of suns in the vault, as well as a number of magical items and curios of significant monetary value. A great deal of the Vanderboren wealth is clearly missing.

"I don't know what to say," Lavinia says, once the review is done. "I suppose it's possible mother and father cleaned out the vault before they died. But they gave no hint of it to me. And it would be so unlike them to have done it without marking it in the ledger. And I don't know how Vanthus could have gotten in here without this ring." She shakes her head slowly from side to side. "I fear we have to assume the worst. Most of what was in here was stolen."

But then her attention is diverted as John opens the coffer with the thick pile of documents. They're all in what you have come to recognize as Larissa Vanderboren's neat handwriting. But instead of the common alphabet, these are written using Elvish characters. However, it's in a language that neither John nor Lavinia understand. They pass a few pages around to the group, and both Daerith and Shumba immediately recognize the words as Sylvan. The documents appear to be notes of a journey to an unnamed tropical location. For in addition to copious notes cataloging daily observations, there are also several maps of jungles and coastlines, as well as dozens of sketches of exotic creatures and plants.

"These must be from one of the trips my parents took when I was at the Thenalar Academy. Once Vanthus and I were grown, my parents would often take trips lasting months. Sometimes they told us where they'd gone; other times not."

OOC

Recall, a sun is a gp. That means she has about 3000 gp in cold, hard cash.

[Eanwulf]

Shumba is at an apparent loss for words as the party discusses their findings. The only thing helpful the half-orc can contribute is merely a simple question.

"Should we go back and examine your parents' boat further? Perhaps it has some clue as to your inheritance's whereabouts..."