Timorial Dark-Iron awoke to find himself sitting in his chair at his desk. Blinking he rubbed sleep from his green eyes and brushed his dark red hair back into a semblance of order. His one-room office in Haven was in the same state I had left it disordered, books and maps were piled on the single sofa in the room next to a bookcase with voids where the same books were taken from. The file in his hand was one on the recent case he worked on, he was hired to find his wife of 5 years turns out she ran away with another man leaving him with a broken marriage and his two children with a broken home. He sighed and placed the finished file into the closed-case basket on his desk.
Timorial looked at the top of his hand hovering above the basket, on it was a symbol that resembled a star yet there were small differences points that extended further than necessary and angles to wide or narrow the priests and scholars call it a fractal pattern. I sent a spark of will into the symbol and the world fell away to be replaced by a screen on it where categories and information.
Level 1
Class: Warlock
Patron: Yavea
Profession: Detective
Spells
Borrowed Knowledge
If a piece of knowledge exists within the city the caster can recall that information from the city. Lasts 30 min.
Yavea’s Fall
A moment of the fall of Yavea is projected into the mind of a creature within sight. Causing panic and mental trauma.
Ability
Dwarf Resistance
Do to fighting with the ancient enemy the dwarf race has resistance to mental and poison attacks.
Summon Familiar
Requirement: must be a caster.
Your patron gives a creature to be under your control. The creature can be summoned anywhere that is not dimensionally locked.
The caster can peer thru the senses of the familiar and The familiar can pee thru the casters.
The familiar is sentient.
Skill
Better Memory
Requirement: Scholarly Profession must be selected.
The Scholar can recall information quicker and clearer than normal.
Cold Read
Requirement: Mental Focused Profession must be selected.
Able to gather a great deal of information by analyzing the person's body language, age, clothing or fashion, hairstyle, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, level of education, manner of speech, place of origin, etc.
Law Instinct
Requirement: Lawful Profession must be selected.
ability to determine if the user's action is illegal or not.
REP
25
EXP
45/100
He willed it away and he was staring at his hand again, the episode took only a moment. The last case had only raised his experience by five. His progress was slow, he didn't expect a rapid rise, but he felt his reputation should have risen more as he was a Class Holder. A Class Holder were the ones that acquired a Class Stone most commonly from a dungeon. The stone when consumed allowed access to the akashic records, which allowed the user to advance certain abilities in line with class and profession. The class Fighter for instance could perform difficult deadly maneuvers that would take years to develop in a single day, and the profession Librarian could take an ability to learn a variety of languages or be able to copy a book in a day.
Also by completing actions that align with the chosen class and profession of the Class Holder they gain Experience. Experience is the value of growth that a Class Holder has, the more the grow the stronger the abilities and skills they may get. For instance, with the previous example the fighter and librarian. With each book copied, read, categorized etc. The Class Holder will gain experience that will level both the Class and Profession, The class Fighter on the other hand can only gain experience by killing.
Which is why most Class Holders farm the dungeons by killing monsters they can gain Exp quicker than there profession but also raises the chance of getting killed. Because while you may get quicker results from killing monsters you also have to worry about rival Class Holders as killing a rival will earn you just as much as killing a monster if not more. Which is why accidents are quite prevalent in dungeons, and why I try to stay far away from it. However, that doesn’t mean that if your out of a dungeon you’re safe either. Haven the City I live in is a free city A City State beholden to none filled with corruption, organized crime and gang violence death is as easy to catch as a cold.
I was jostled from my thoughts when a knock came, I looked to the front of the office of a knock on the solid oak that just resounded with another knock. He jumped off the chair standing at 4 ft 12 in impressive for a dwarf adjusting his shirt and tie as he walked across the room to make himself look a bit less disheveled. Opening the door he was surprised to see a male Ork his green head shaved, and beard trimmed wearing the standard plate with a red sash typical of a captain of the watch uniform and a female Human wearing goggles on there forehead and a padded vest covered in stone dust.
“You are the detective right, Dark-Iron?” I nodded and waved them inside closing the door behind them “Before you start I'm not a soldier nor an adventurer so if you are interested in recruiting me to the Watch or some adventuring party you may leave now.” he waited a few seconds to be polite when they continued to shift uncomfortably he leads them to the two chairs in front of my desk I then continued “Alright then you have my attention, may I have your names” the human shifted her goggles as the watch captain cleared his voice “I’m Captain Brooks of the city watch and this is Miss Aglentine engineer for the Interborough Transit Habitation Company” the human nodded pressing on the captain said “I’ll be to the point we have lost family and friends at the Dourfield Mine and we want you to find out how, why, and where they are now.” I blinked that was a lot with little information. He walked to the other side of his desk and sat down. “Start at the beginning please.” the human shifted her goggles and began “Well, me and his wife we both worked together see, for the Dourfield Mine ya know”.
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He nodded everyone knew the Dourfield it is a mine where it now stands however it used to be a sanatorium. When it used to sit there many a tale was spun of illegal experiments and abuse. till a fire started from one of the patients took out the entire place and burned it to the ground since then nothing grows there people say it's cursed but the land owner seemed quite unwilling to foot the bill for some cleric or priest to check the place for them. When the government bought it, they declared that they would dig another route to the Underground Passage Network just below the city but above the undercity. it’s as the name suggests, an old ruined city under Haven so old in fact that it became a dungeon. Adventurers love it for the wealth and magic left untapped despite the ghosts and face-eating monsters that have taken roost there.
“Well we started about a year ago digging a new path to the Underground Passage Network, at first all was going well we had accidents that are normal for a dig right but then things started happening.” “Things?” “Yeah, when we passed the sewers and broke through the foundations of the city it started the lights would periodically go out for unexplained reasons sometimes even exploding into fires that threatened workers one time even killing some workers and disfiguring another. But one day as we’re working our way forward they didn't send their minecart back we went down and looked and found nothing but their tools no hardhats nothing. When we told higher-ups they said they would ‘handle’ the situation come to find out they charged the family a grievance charge on the family for their relatives leaving without cause.”
Yep sounds like a coverup then again it could be bureaucratic stupidity at its finest I could almost hear my brain cells dying from the sheer stupidity at that. “Anny that his wife finally had enough after the disappearance and demanded an inspection of the tunnel. She was denied though citing that the situation did not call for such an extreme for mear layoffs and accidents. then something happened a week ago last Thursday I arrived at work at my usual time but found that it was closed up with Interborough Transit guards all around telling me that a cave-in occurred and all work was halted I went home and called up some of my fellow diggers but I can't reach them, call there families and they're worried because they can't get a hold of them either. I don't know what to do I'm sitting there when” Miss Aglentine points at the Watch Captain.
”He came.” Watch Captain Brooks nodded “As Miss Aglentine stated I did arrive to ask what she knew of the incident as my wife was among the number of those missing and I can confirm with Miss Agletine stated she was becoming more and more frustrated with the situation. My superiors refused to allow me to search the Dourfield mine let alone question their guards” This stinks to high heaven and reeks of danger and corruption the Watch were the DeFacto army of Haven and its Law Keepers that's made up entirely of Class Holders, you just don't tell them to back off.
To come to me there desperate as I thought this a Ding sounded and the world fell away to be replaced by a window.
A quest has appeared
Mystery of Dourfield Mine
Find out what happened to the missing miners.
Find out why the Watch is held back.
Reward:
40 EXP
35 REP
“we took a collection to pay your fee” she replied taking out two bags and disgorging pieces of silver and copper onto my table. Captain Brooks then showed an open locket inside which was a picture of the captain, an orc woman and a baby. “I’ll take the case.”
A Dark Iron oath is their bond and he had taken the case and he would see it through. But I needed more information to get that one must go to a font of information namely an info broker and one that I have some history with that I needed to meet which meant one thing a journey to Neon Town. In Haven, there are multiple districts set up in a haphazard way with multiple multi-racial municipal districts, but certain districts will be predominantly one race which will create a specific district Neon Town is one of these. Haven is filled to the brim with refugees from the war between the three technomancy races the Kobolds with their Tesla rods and Clockwork Golems, the Gnomes with their power armor and mechs, and the Goblins with their Holosmiths and Hard Light Constructs.
He walked through the district as it rose up around him towers, buildings, and the bridges themselves were covered in light. The walls were covered in moving light displaying the news of the day or displaying a sign for the business they were on, solid image constructs of fish and birds flew through the sky brightening up the street further as they flew above bridges over the rivers or between the buildings were made of light which were strong enough to take a fully laden carriage across.
He saw the building he was looking for a neat little two-story diner easy to miss as it was nestled between two larger buildings. He walked inside and walked to the counter sliding an electrum coin with a stylized skull to the bartender. The bartender saw the coin quickly covered it, pressed a button under the counter, and motioned to the back. There are places like this where the shadowy underside of the city where deals and schemes here Fixers reside. Fixers are an intermediate between the shadows and other parts of society. Fixers have numerous contacts, and some also have secondary specialties, such as smuggling, fencing, and so on.
Timorial went to the back where the manager's office was, knocking politely on the elicited a come in, walking inside he saw a skinny Goblin sitting behind a desk he wore a coat with pulsating bands of light seeming to have been woven into it with a collar standing up around his neck his jet black hair neatly combed back. “Dark-Iron, what a surprise how can I be of service?” I stood at the front of the desk as there were no other chairs around it was one of those psychological tricks to put people making them uncomfortable and easier to figure out. Ashot was an expert at psychological manipulation rumor had it that he used to be in military intelligence for the Goblin Hegemony before leaving, for his current occupation a Fixer a go-between with figures wanting jobs done and those who get jobs done. “Need info on the new tunnel that Interborough Transit Habitation Company is making at Dourfield.”
Ashot steepled his fingers and closed his eyes “Dourfield... yes I know of this.” the goblin said still with his eyes closed, “what info are you looking for?” “Anything linked to the disappearance of the miners and engineers” Ashot nodded and opened his eyes “This information is quite expensive the best question is perhaps... how much do you want this information?” a loaded question if there ever was one “I’m willing to pay within reason.” Ashot leaned back in his chair “ I had sent an associate of mine to get this same information but found that they were more equipped than expected and are now stuck behind enemy lines so to speak. Get them out of this trouble, help them get this information, and the information is yours simple with a hefty bonus I might add.”
“simple doesn't mean easy, the moment either of us interferes then there will be a dozen Watch called to grab us. Even if you take the watch out you'll have a dozen security detail, and workers no not going to do it.” as I turned around to leave the Goblin piped up “Eyewitnesses are no concern I assure you I also abhor unnecessary bloodshed.” he reached under the table to retrieve a necklace simple in design, it was a little teardrop shape of glass suspended by a chain. “this will create a holo construct right above your face altering the look of it to outside eyes you'll never be recognized.” that changes things the ability to not seen and yet be seen is a boon. “as to your concern of the security if you're worried about hurting a humble working man trying to feed his family do not be troubled the company hired out a gang to defend their property, all I assure you have blood on there hands” that was telling most companies hire to guard their property from gangs they do not hire gangs to guard their property unless they want to be able to cover up what's inside. “Do you accept my terms?” a locket with a mother and child stared back at me in my mind “Yes.” The Goblin nodded and began his tale.
He called in his secretary who produced a logic crystal basically they operate as condensed magical relays of information that can directly reproduce the information stored within or accept new information to be stored. With a spark of will from Ashot a lone figure appeared “This is Qola a goblin Classless of no small skill who will gather the information on Interborough Transit Habitation Company.” She stood a head shorter than he wore the same coat with pulsating bands of light seeming to be woven into the clothing and had a gauntlet that covered the hand and partially went up the right arm the fingers of it were tipped to points extending past the fingertips. “The plan was to gather Work plans, zoning documents, material lists, and worker rotations information such as these calls for us to find a way around the perimeter of the property without being seen and then navigate to the main records room where the files are located then we find them scan them into a logic crystal and head out all hopefully being undetected. However, something happened and she was discovered we are running out of time to retrieve her and the information. A cart is outside to take you directly there, hurry.”