Tiglath wrote: ↑Sun Nov 10, 2024 12:16 am
Vesper
ateno wrote: ↑Sat Nov 09, 2024 10:58 pm
Eris wrote: ↑Sat Nov 09, 2024 9:58 pm
"A silver and a bun, you said?" Dee speaks up finally.
"Four buns more like it, Ill buy a dozen and you handle the silver?"
Vesper nods
"Good enough" she introduces herself to the baker (presuming John or Mary)
"I am Vesper these are my comrades and we are here to see to your rats. We have the paper from the guildhall".
Once the Bakers are found buns can be purchased for the "Bun Street Irregulars" and they can be paid their silver.
"I'm Mary." says the very young woman behind the counter as she accepts the paper from the guildhall and looks at it,
"You're here about the problem we've got in the basement."
She notices the group of waifs outside her door and calls to them in an exasperated way,
"End of day, round back not during working hours now or out front. You want to draw the Guard over?"
"We're on a job!" says Dee proudly,
"Wanna get paid!"
"Shoo! Round the back quick now!" Mary comes out from behind the counter and waves her apron at the children who all dart into an alley next to the shop except Dee who grabs Vespers coat tail and says,
"Not 'till I get paid!"
The silver passes to Dee inside the shop and then the buns to the other children...at the back door. Once the transaction is done, Dee gives Vesper a grin and what could pass in some places for an attempt at a curtsey before skipping off down the alley following the rest of the children. These are penny buns, large and tasty looking with a hint of honey coming off them.
OOC: Who pays for the buns you're giving the kids?"
Mary sighs and shakes her head,
"Dee and Quint Rogers are a cut above the rest of that lot, but their Pa is a sailor who hasn't come back and their Ma was a server at The Willows who got herself killed a couple months ago. Now what chance have they got?"
"I hand out stale loves, buns and such to the needy, but I can't do that openly since we got the new Chief Constable. He won't allow 'beggers, peddlers, or vagrants' on his Market Square.'
Walking back inside, Mary goes to the front door and puts a closed sign up and locks the door,
"It's just me running the shop so I have to close up when I go out or aren't available." she looks up at the ceiling, adding "Normally, Da would handle things like this and I'd keep running the shop, but now he just sits in his chair won't do much of anything."
"But none of that is your problem or why you're here! So, then, let's show you the problem." Mary leads you into the back where the baking is done. The room is packed with large bags of flour and casks and other things leaving little room to move around.
"I moved everything I could save up here and so far the rats haven't gotten through the door, but I hear scratching, so they are still trying."
"This way." she leads you to a door, takes a lantern down from a hook next to the door and lights it, then leads you down a short set of stairs to a basement. There are scratches on the wooden door and on the stairs themselves. Here in the basement are the ruins of several bags of grain and flour with their contents scattered about. There are also several broken casks where contents have seeped onto the stone floor. The light from the lantern doesn't illuminate the whole basement leaving the back and edges in deep shadow. You don't hear any sounds coming from the shadowed areas, but you see distinct tracks through the flour on the floor.
"I've tried traps." Mary runs fingers through her hair,
"They work some, but the blasted rats just eat the remains and more show up. There's got to be a swarm of them coming into here from somewhere."
"If I go public with this, it'll ruin the business, but if I don't take it to the Merchant's Guild and just muddle along waiting for the City Inspector to eventually come for his payoff, er inspection, he'll see all the bags in the kitchen and want to know why. When I tell him he'll shut us down, or demand more money than I can pay him to keep quiet, and we'll lose the business anyway." she says looking at you,
"That's why I thought about the Adventurer's Guild...you folks...you aren't connected to the City so you don't have any sort of responsibility to turn me in. You can just fix the problem."
A little desperately she adds
"You can fix the problem, right?"
) 
