7.05a: Exploring the City

[Ruben]

Ruben chuckles in embarrassment for overlooking his recognizable nature.

"You'd be amazed -- once the knit sweater comes off,I'm nearly invisible. But we might be ale to kill two birds with one stone. Nathaniel, I seem to remember an old clothing store a block or so off the docks -- it's been closed since the owner had an unfortunate, and unsolved, accident a year ago or so. If we head over there and make some noise about opening it, we should attract the attention of the people we'd like to meet with ... And I'll have the chance to change before they arrive."

[Joshua]

Nathaniel nods and shudders. "If you'd like, although, perhaps you could do the illegal activities without me and I could meet you for lunch somewhere..." He smiles but looks nervous.. "I guess we could go now, if you want..."

[Wyvern]

Alys tilts her head and asks, "And what approach would you suggest instead?"

[Joshua]

"There are plenty of stores, and a number of other bad places. If you're willing to explain to the authorities, I guess I'm okay. Just, I'd rather not be arrested." Nate looks down a little then looks up. "I'm in a lot more danger than either of you. I can't simply state what I'm doing is legal and even if you do that for me, my family has to pay for the hit in reputation."

[Wyvern]

"Hm. It would be less likely to give us justification to simply take the information we want - but we could go with a more straightforward hammer-and-watch method; have one of us," a quick gesture excludes Nathaniel, "keep watch outside to see if they send out any messengers to this hypothetical coordinating party, while the rest simply walk in and demand a complete accounting of what they've accomplished over the past, say, month - look over the books if they have any, find out exactly how they operate, find out if any of their funds are vanishing in unusual directions, that sort of thing."

"We're lucky this is a new city - there shouldn't be extensive underground passages yet, and whoever goes inside can simply check the cellar; if there is such a passage anyway, that's at least evidence that they've got something to hide."

"And yes, the justification is important - not because we technically need it, but because of the value of leading by example; if our actions seem capricious or arbitrary... well, that's a bad example to set if we're trying to make things better. Now, if you have the finesse to rifle through someone's memories without causing potentially serious damage, then we can certainly do that anyway. But I don't."

"The other flaw to that plan is, of course, that whoever stays outside is likely to be bored; I'd give it good odds that, if someone is organizing these groups, the individual groups have no way to contact them. Perhaps I could just set Tinder the task of keeping watch; they shouldn't have anyone capable of slipping past him."

[Joshua]

Tinder does nod out of one of the nearby shadows. He has, apparently, been here all along. (With ridiculous stealth and shadow-walking, not in Vaarsuvius' familiar kind of way.)

Nate nods. "That seems better. And will likely get a more honest answer. Hiding such information from you is punishable by death." He pauses and adds, "Dworkin really likes knowing what's going on. He had a few executions five years ago of people who were merely hiding something. Dworkin made it clear that the executions were for the crime of hiding, rather than any actual wrong being done."

[Wyvern]

"Interesting. I had not known that. And it makes me slightly more curious about what the merchant's guild considered worth trying to try to sweep out of our sight... But perhaps that should be discussed later; it's unlikely to be particularly important, and there's no need to put Nathaniel in the position of having to leave out details when his guild asks for a report."*

Alys looks towards Ruben, clearly waiting to see if he has any thoughts on what plan of action to use when approaching a protector group.

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*Footnote: Just in case it's not clear, this is meant more or less as said; it's a courtesy to Nathaniel, not an implication that he can't be trusted. (If anything, it implies that Alys thinks he could be trusted if it were necessary.) Plus, it also says that Alys doesn't mind if his report includes the fact that she may investigate more closely later.

[Ruben]

Ruben nods, and silently begins to shift his attitude and outlook to prepare for the more confrontational approach. He generally doesn't invite confrontation himself, but he's persuaded that there's a benefit to cutting to the chase, and he would be profoundly uncomfortable seeing Lady Alys pursue the protection rackets without assistance,

[Joshua]

(After all that discussion of where to go, I feel kinda bad about this possible side-track. Still...)

Nathaniel leads you to one of the bad neighborhoods. (This one is relatively close to the docks, although it's a good half-mile from the waterfront. It is also fairly central to the city.) One notable building you will pass before getting to the police station is a fairly well built church. It's easily twice the size of any other buildings in the area (although smaller than a large warehouse). It is adorned with some white marble and a seven pointed star at the top.

At prompting from Alys, Nate will explain, "This is one of the churches that have been opening up. It's not devoted to Amberites or the Unicorn or anything else that I'm aware of. I never follow religion that closely, it creeps me out."

[Wyvern]

"Hm. Probably worth investigating later, then; I may have little personal use for religion, but there are certainly enough people out there who find it... strongly motivational. I suspect this is a case where it would be best to approach in disguise, though; I'm not particularly interested in granting them any possible prestige from being able to claim we showed up."