Completed Bearing With It

[Jadlin Hayes]

Jadlin Hayes

70th day of Fall, 514

Jad walked the interior of the warehouse as usual, stopping to look, once again, at the commotion outside. It had not been as tedious a night as many others. This was not a result of any great change in the general stock of materials stored there. It was the fight that had occurred in the street a block away. The Kelp Bar had reopened and it seemed that the populace was trying to make up for lost time.

On the one hand, Jad shook his head with disgust at the combatants, brawling over whose boots caused the most discomfort. Apparently in their social circle, the one that suffered the most foot pain was the "real man", and all others were "Nancy Boys". One of them had clearly taken exception to this vile label and had sought to punish his detractor with "kelp breath", double vision and wild swings.

His opponent was now roaring in triumph as he swayed on his feet. Jad could only assume that the man had decided he didn't need those teeth that badly. Victory was measured in teeth on this night, it seemed. Broken noses and black eyes counted for naught.

But on the other hand, Jad had found that Kelp Beer was only a struggle for the first mug. After that it got strangely easier to swallow. He kind of wished he'd had the night off. But he understood the truth of his employer's concerns. Right now, there were undoubtedly crews of thieves making their way around town, peering in windows, checking locks and burglarizing the same people that were out right now getting drunk on kelp beer. It just annoyed him a little that HE was the one chosen, out of a dozen potential candidates, to sit with the main warehouse.

He felt a little better with the sight of a trio of Wave Guardsmen ambling up the road. They too, were on call to remain sober tonight. The crowd immediately began to quiet and behave more sedately as they came near. The victor turned and sagged a moment with the knowledge of impending arrest, but then straightened up and adopted a look of pride that seemed to say 'I may be about to be arrested, but at least I won. See how many teeth I still have?'

Jad was as surprised as anyone when the guardsmen passed without making an arrest. In fact, they offered a chuckle of empathy at the proud, gap-toothed victor. He was even more surprised when their path adjusted slightly in his direction, away from the middle-of-the-street trajectory they had been on the entire time Jad had been watching.

Surprise turned to apprehension when they turned even more directly toward the warehouse. It was not from any sense of guilt, of course. But Jad somehow had a sinking feeling his night was about to become more complicated as the three soldiers reached the base of the front steps and moved up to the door.

Jad did not wait for them to knock. He opened the door and stepped out to greet them. "Good evening, sirs. I'm afraid I have no knowledge of any search or inquiry I'm obliged to assist with tonight. I'm perfectly willing to let you in, of course, with the proper voucher from one of the owners." he offered guardedly.

The three men halted a few paces away as one of them dug for a document and handed it to Jad. "Got that right here, son." one of the other two said, as they handed it over and waited courteously to give Jad a chance to scan the thing. It was nothing so formal as a document, just a hand written letter from Mr. Pelthes to 'extend the courtesy of admittance to these three men.'

If the number indicated had not matched the number of soldiers, or if the word had been 'entrance', rather than 'admittance' Jad would have let them in and then run to get some REAL Wave Guard to arrest them for false entry and possibly impersonation. But everything was in order, so he swung the doors wide and stepped back to let then in.

x

[Jadlin Hayes]

Jadlin Hayes

The guards did not back Jad up as if to implicate him in anything, they simply spread out and started walking up and down the aisles between the double-tiered shelves. Jad watched them curiously as they would occasionally stop and lean in closely to examine what appeared to be nothing more than the actual scaffolding or shelf planks themselves.

"Uhh..." Jad ventured in some puzzlement, "Did you guys want me to...open...anything for you?" In truth he did not really relish the prospect of opening a bunch of crates or barrels, or to unwrap bundles of anything. But he could not see what could be of a Wave Guard's interest in what wood was used to construct warehouse shelves.

The guards told Jad that they did not need him to open anything at the time, but advised him to stay nearby in case they did. Jad let them know that he'd have rounds to do from time to time, but would certainly not be far or gone long. He saw the men going to more trouble than he expected, collecting scrapings and slivers of wood and bringing them into better light to examine them closer. Always, they ended up discarding them and continuing to squeeze under and in between the columns of wooden scaffolds and supports.

They paused for a few chimes and Jad was just about to approach and ask what it was they were looking for, when the apparent leader sighed heavily. "Well I guess we're going to have to start moving stuff after all. Damn, I was hoping we wouldn't have to." the other two moaned their agreement.

Jad stood in grim reluctance, "You what? You've got to be kidding. I'm not gonna let you start taking this stuff down. The letter only says to let you IN, not to let you go unloading stuff. I've got a manifesto in the office that shows what's in every slot. Can't you just look at that?"

"Sorry kid. It ain't what's IN the crates and shyke that we're lookin' for. If you think I'm lookin' forward to this, you're crazy. Have you got a block and tackle? And a hoist platform?" He waved toward the far wall, adding a gesture into the corner. "We may as well start there. Do this methodically."

"Now wait a minute!" Jad cried, "That's the glassworkers section. It's all either very breakable or very heavy. I don't have authority to go moving or digging through that stuff." He stopped as the guardsman gestured absently at his livery, as if to say that it was all the authority he, or anyone, needed to go through any or all of the goods in the whole place.

Jad stood his ground, maintaining his challenge, "Well that's fine for you, but If anything gets broken, who do you think pays for it?"

The man turned a flat look at Jad. "When we find the smuggler..." he emphasized the word, glad to see Jad's surprised jaw drop, "...he'll pay...Until then, WE search. Now go get the hoist."

x

[Jadlin Hayes]

Jadlin Hayes

The hoist was nothing grand, but it was stout. A heavily reinforced A-frame box, braced at the top, base and mid-point, Jad wheeled it in on their biggest dolly. The guardsmen helped him lift it off and set it near the shelves they were starting at. It had two platforms, that served as counter weights for each other, fine tuned by applied torque to the block and tackle apparatus. The positions could lock, so that when the weight was removed from the lowered platform, the weight being set on the top one would not make it plunge to the floor.

Jad just knew he was going to be made to take the top task, and climbed the end of the shelf scaffolding with no more complaint than vividly rolled eyes. One of the guardsmen called up to him, "Look, if it helps, you don't need to completely clear the shelf. You just need to clear enough space to move stuff around so each spot can be checked. Then you can put stuff back after it's checked."

"Aren't you going to look IN any of the crates or barrels or anything." Jad asked, unsure if he wanted to hear 'yes' or 'no'. "I mean that's where something being smuggled is most likely to be, isn't it?"

"It ain't something being smuggled, son. It's something that's BEEN smuggled. You may not know that your boss was a bandit way back. Spent some time in a prison crew back in Syliras. Has some ties to folks what ain't too concerned over shyke being entirely legal. They figure if nobody gets hurt bloody, it's all okay, even if it puts someone in another town outta business."

Jad started to protest, but the man waved him down with a gesture of taxed patience, "I'm not saying he's IN on it, kid. I'm not even saying we're sure we're gonna find anything here. But some of the people we DO know are involved, are old friends or associates of his. Now let's just get this done."

x

[Jadlin Hayes]

Jadlin Hayes

Jad was incensed and frustrated that he was not to be given an opportunity to rebuke these guardsmen that his boss, Mr. Pelthes, would never sink to such practices as smuggling to make a miza. But at the same time, he could hear the man telling him that it was best to accommodate without complaint, and show your integrity through willing and open cooperation. Jad settled for this. He knew these men would find nothing incriminating against old Tronus Pelthes.

And they didn't for the complete length of the first shelving array. Jad spent an accumulated bell of time placing one or more barrels, crates or bundles on the platform and then sliding the remaining items around the planks, letting the men scrutinize the bare shelf and braces.

Each movement of an item was a rest period for him as the men moved to examine the wooden assembly. But then there was the inevitable moving of everything back into its original position. This often involved stacking, and occasional restacking, as Jad found that he'd not put them in the proper vertical order.

The glassworker's section was the worst for having many bags of purified sand, as well as items containing obviously fragile goods. And though it was rather demoralizing to have such back breaking work right at the outset, it also made everything that followed seem easy by comparison. The art supplier did have a lot of raw wood, which was destined to be processed into brush handles and easels and such. But he also had bundles of horse tails for brush bristle material, and canvas, as well as some strong smelling liquid in small jars. Jad didn't know what this for, but knew it would make twice the mess, if dropped, that the empty, decorative jars the glass workers had stocked here.

There were garment supplies, which were unwieldy, but not really that heavy. There were paints and glues and metal as well as furniture, some of which looked brand new, while others looked in need of repair. Jad found that the discovery of what some of the items were, that he'd not previously had cause to check out, offset some of the drudgery of the labor involved.

But it always came down to the men checking the bare spots of shelving revealed by the effort of moving everything back and forth, or up and down on the hoist, that truly mattered. Jad asked several times during the course of this ordeal just what it was the men were looking for. At first they ignored him, falling back on his obligation, as a citizen, to accommodate them without complaint.

But after a few times where they got momentarily excited, thinking they'd found something, they started to get fairly disgruntled themselves. And, as men will bond from shared unpleasantness, they eventually came around to explain that smuggled goods had been found in the home of a fairly well-to-do Syliran merchant, inside of a stuffed bear. The kind you'd put in a trophy room to document great skill.

Jad could understand now how suspicion could fall on Mr. Pelthes. Though Jad had not known about any banditry in the man's past, the fact of his accomplished hunting, skinning and leather working skills did point to him as a possibility of being involved in such a scheme. He found that this knowledge made it both easier, and harder to keep on with this effort. Like the guardsmen, he still didn't know exactly what he was looking for, and truly, he hoped they'd find nothing. But the knowledge of what was being investigated gave him a clearer sense of what might be found.

x

[Jadlin Hayes]

Jadlin Hayes

It took a few bells to check off half the warehouse, which encompassed two full rows of twin-tiered shelf arrays. Jad's back was tight and sore from squatting in and on shelves, scraping heavy crates and slats across wooden planks, but the soreness seemed greatly diminished when Mr. Pelthes section was cleared.

The Guards looked at him as though they were expecting a recriminating "I told ya so" from him, but he spared them that indignity. In truth, he fully understood their mission here, and could see how they could consider his boss to be a more likely suspect than some of the other merchants that kept their stock here.

Now, though, Jad found himself intrigued by the ongoing investigation. He held out a morbid hope that they would find one of the other merchants to be the guilty party. He knew it was not a very gracious attitude, but now that his boss was above suspicion, he found himself wrapped up in the mystery of it all.

They began on the third shelf column, digging through stocks of cloth and padding, thread and yarn, mannequins and busts and more. The clothiers were soon acquitted of complicity, as were the basket weavers. So the search moved on to the modelers, whose stock occupied the remaining shelf and a half of the third column.

Jad set to sliding kits and crates replacement parts aside, to make room for the rearranging of barrels of nails of different sizes, paints and dyes of every color, and jars of resins, glue and sealing putty. There were also scraps of hide and fur, used to lend realism to models of various animals. Jad noted the musky animal smell, and was about to make the observation, when he saw the guardsmen appearing to notice the same thing.

Jad pointed out the presence of the scraps, but shared his associates' skepticism that these small bits accounted for the heaviness of the scent. They took the time to check the planks and found nothing on either of the lower tiers. But on the top tier there was an odd bit of fur, stuck in a spill of glue, that did not match any of the scraps currently in stock.

x

[Jadlin Hayes]

Jadlin Hayes

It did not take long to put the details together. Though it still needed to be documented, if possible, the fur appeared to be bear fur, and the height of the shelf was at the approximate height of the spot where a patch of fur was noticeably thin on the actual contraband-stuffed specimen back in Syliras.

Having opened the stuffed bear, the Syliran authorities had found that some of the braces used to attach padding to, for artificial muscle mass, showed signs of being leftovers from wood treated with the tars, oils and resins consistent with salt water resistant treatments. Thus they had contacted the Zeltivans by carrier pigeon, who found it diplomatically expedient to take up the search.

The modelers had a miniature rendition of a bear, looming in an aggressive two-foot stance, along with a number of other animals, in individual compartments of a storage case. It appeared to have been the model for the full size version, or vice-versa. Neither Jad nor the Guardsmen could say that this proved that the modelers knew anything about the smuggling, but it certainly gave the guards a new target for their investigation. Jad grinned at the thought that both the modelers and the taxidermist would be visited by the wave Guard soon.

There were a number of other animals that would be useful for a "smuggling through taxidermy" scheme. And the fact of there being natural animal hides involved, once again justified the men's original thought that Mr. Pelthes might have been in on it.

But now it was done, the investigation advanced to a new stage, and Mr. Pelthes cleared. The Guardsmen, of course, offered to help return those items currently out of place, and Jad was not too proud to accept. By the time the were done, Jad's shift was nearly up. The Wave Guard soldiers thanked him extensively and Jad was only too eager, after his arrest a season ago, to once again, show his willingness to aid them.

But as a last gesture, he decided to keep the little model bear as a token.

x

[Perplexity]

You have played well, but the game is at an end.

You have been bested. Beaten. Checkmate!

However, here is a consolation prize: a wealth of Experience and Lores! If you have any questions or concerns regarding this grade, please do not hesitate to send me a PM. I'll be more than happy to assist you!

 

Jadlin

XP

• Observation | +3 EXP
  Persuasion | +1 EXP
  Organization | +2 EXP
  Endurance | +1 EXP

LORES

• Social Nuance: A Brawler's Victory
  Guard Protocol: Proper Search Warrant

MISCELLANEOUS

• N/A

Until Our Next Match,
-Perplexity, DS of Zeltiva
.