The Great Parisian Jewel Robberies

Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: The Great Parisian Jewel Robberies

• aka: To Catch A Thief

GM: Marc H
Season: Spring 791 WK
Level: Low

Party

1. Braegon, Earth Human Male (Official Scribe)
2. Aqualina, Water Human Female (Actual Scribe)
3. Drover, Earth Human Male
4. Fred, Celestial Shadow Dwarf Male
5. Glass, Illusionist Human Male (Leader)
6. Logan Bury, E&E Human Male
7. Villa, E&E Human Male

Time on adventure

01/01/91 to 15/01/91

Employer

Captain Jon Baptiste

Mission

Track down a magic using thief in the (fairly non-magical) world of Musketeer-France.

Plane

France

Places Visited

Paris

The Adventurers Club

The Hotel Rene

Hotel du Rone

Residence of Madame Focan - 23 Park Avenue

A diamond house

The Le Blaze restaurant

Major NPCs encountered

Sergeant LeClair

Monsieur Rene Artois

Mirium Carone

Caroline McLeod

Monsieur Sanda

Monsieur Varatouse - Binder liason

Monsieur Picard

Original Scribe Notes

Media:Snsp9102.zip

Scribe Notes

31/12/90 My first adventure - at last. We had to go to France, in order to find out who had pinched some jewellery. The chap who announced it had a strange way of sounding his words. He said that the local police are baffled and magic may be involved. So the Adventurers Club of Paris were asking the Guild for help. Soon after that I met my fellow adventurers. They turned out to be: Glass - He's a 5'4" human male looking about age 30. He's got brown hair, brown eyes and looks a little overweight. He was wearing a moderate grey cloak & outfit with blue boots. He said he was an illusionist, philosopher, spy, and troubadour. He also said he had been to France before. Braegan - Av height, medium build human male. He has white hair but I saw some red at the base of each hair. He was dressed in leathers and was carrying a club. He said he was an Earth Mage and a Healer. Vila - Another human male (in fact I was the only female) looks about 20, 5'4" white hair, light build and scrawny and moderately dressed. He's an E&E mage and a spy. He says he's fairly stealthy and a non-combatant. Drover - A rather nondescript person. Another Earth mage, 5'9" average weight. He prefers not to fight and he's a trainee healer. Logan Berry - 6'1", skinny, long straggly hair (at least mine is neat), dull coloured clothes in greens & browns. Another E&E and also a ranger. He reckons he's a non-combatant. Fred - Until this guy walked in I thought I was the shortest in this party. He's a dwarf (the only non-human) and looks scrawny. He's a ranger and a Celestial Shadow mage. Aqualina - I'm a short (5'1") human female, and was dressed in my aqua skirt & black boots as well as my fur coat (which I kept wrapped up in - it's cold here). I've got long black hair, green eyes, and a dark complexion. I told the others I knew water magic and was an excellent swimmer and beginning navigator. Just after we finished the introductions the gentleman, who had been speaking, walked in. He said he was Captain Jon Baptiste and briefed us on the situation. The language of France is French, which is like Elvish. To help us we were given some rings of Elven Speech which added 4 to our rank (Glass turned one down - he was already proficient in the language). We were told not to lose them. They were to be returned when we finished. We were to be paid 3000 sp per person for this job, 1500 in advance as we needed to be outfitted to their fashion. We also decided Glass was to be the party leader and Braegan was the scribe (I was going to volunteer but my spelling is rather bad. I'm practising however - that's why I keep a diary) France is a low mana area - especially in Paris. This meant it was going to be harder to cast spells. I'm not worried. Unless there's lots of water around, not many of mine are very useful. I intended relying on my natural agility. The Adventurers Club was providing transport but we had to pay for accommodation and other expenses. Captain Baptiste also explained about things called guns. They were shaped devices that, when loaded and activated, shot a small projectile rather rapidly towards a target. They were usually used as weapons. Another common weapon are swords. We were warned not to annoy people dressed in red or blue. The red ones are the Cardinal Guards and the blue ones are the Kings Musketeers. Both groups are skilled and serve to uphold the Church (some sort of religious group called Catholics) and the Crown (to do with the ruler - somebody called a King). They both ruled the area. We were also told it was illegal to duel in Paris but people do it anyway. I asked about local bodies of water. Baptiste replies that the River Seine flows through the middle of Paris but they're not quite sure if it can still be classed as water. He reckons, that at some places, it's thick enough to walk on. He doesn't think that there's any life in it but I was welcome to find out. I said that I'd think about it - if there was time. Braegan then asks about the local religion and a philosophical discussion breaks out between him and Baptiste. Baptiste hands Braegan a book and explains that this book holds the answers. I was hoping that the journey to France was going to be by sea but Baptiste explains that we are going to use a rune portal. However it could only be used once a fortnight - something to do with the stars he thinks - and the next opportunity is tomorrow. We were asked to meet him here early tomorrow morning with the equipment we wanted to take. .2.

01/01/91

Baptiste led us down a set of stairs, and into the Guild kitchens. We followed him to a door. When he opened it we saw lots of carrots. No wonder carrot had been on the menu a lot recently. We had to squeeze our way through the maze of carrots to get to a cleared space at the far end. Sitting in the middle was a stick. Baptiste told us to go up and touch the stick then keep walking. Glass went first. When he touched it he disappeared. Some of the others followed then it was my turn. I went up, touched the thing, and felt very dizzy and sick. Somehow I was able to continue moving forward. It was like I had dived deep and come up too fast. Once the room stopped moving I saw no carrots. Also there were lots of little sticks on each wall except one (the one ahead of us). Each stick had some writing on the wall next to them. Glass and the others were waiting by the blank wall. When we were all through, Baptiste banged on the wall. A door opened (seemed to be part of the wall) and we stepped through. Baptiste said that the room was meant to trap anything that might come though by accident. We dropped off our backpacks at the reception desk and Baptiste asked if we wanted breakfast. That was being put on at the Adventurer's Club dining hall. Many of the others decided to have bacon and eggs. I decided to stick to fruit. We were asked what we wanted to drink so I asked for coconut milk. The waiter was rather sorry that they didn't have any but would cocoa do? And would madame like it hot or cold? I asked for hot - as the air still felt cold. They came back with a steaming mug of a brown liquid. I tasted it. Delicious. Must get some more of this. .3. We could stay here for a couple of days. After breakfast, we were shown to our rooms (5 + a bathroom). I got one for myself. The others worked out who was sharing with whom. Soon, the tailor (Claude) and two helpers (one male, one female) turned up to measure us for our outfits. Glass arranged for what was needed. Glass and I settled on: a riding outfit, a day dress, an evening dress, three sets of underwear, a fur cloak, a stole (that goes around the neck) and a fur muff (that's for keeping the hands warm. Glass said that it's good for hiding weapons in). I was then taken to my room by the lady helper. She measured me all over. The tape was cold. Yuck! The others were sorting out their outfits. Claude said the outfits would be ready tomorrow night although Fred's one may cause problems because of his size. He would come back a little later on with the costs. We were also visited by a gentleman with an outrageous French accent. He said he was Kit Barrington-Smyth and he was a weapon salesman. Once he found out we all understood English (what he called Common) he switched to that. He wanted to know if we wanted to buy anything. Glass got rid of him and his catalog. I decided to have a bath. I found out that the bath was just long enough to stretch out in. Being short can be nice. I was able to mix the hot and cold water to get a comfortable warmth. Ahhh! Luxury! From time to time I decided to totally immerse myself for several minutes at a time. When I got out of the bath it was lunch time. Glass had arranged for us to try out some of those pistol thingys. When we finished lunch (I had fish - cost 9sp) we all went down to the pistol range. There was quite a lot of noise. We were given something to wear over our ears to help block it. I tried one of the smaller pistols. I wasn't strong enough to stop it from flying out of my hand when it fired. I think I'll stick to my trusty knife. When we got back the tailor was waiting. I found out that my outfits were going to cost nearly 1400SP. Ye Gods! The gentlemans' ones were only around 300SP each. Glass offered to help pay for some of it. I'd just cover the cost of the extra bits. So I ended up paying 1140SP. Thank goodness for that cash advance. We do get to keep them afterwards. We decided to wander out to the back garden. It could be seen from our balcony. It was a multi-levelled set up. There were lots of strange (some looked vulgar) statues and a pond with a fountain. In the pond were lots of little golden fish. I amused myself just watching them. A while later I heard some noises in one of the lower areas and hurried down to see. It turned out to be a sword fight display between D'Artagnan (one of the King's Musketeers) and another gentleman. It was a competition between the Swiss school of fencing and the French school. They were prancing about and posing for the ladies. It reminded me of the rituals that the warriors of my native land would go through before a fight. The battle went on, over various obstacles. The two combatants would hurl jests at each other. Finally D'Artagnan took a wound through the arm which marked the end of the bout. I saw Braegan go and help him. After watching the battle I went to my room for a while. The tailor returned just before dinner time. He said that our outfits were ready except for Fred's. Glass was thinking of going out for dinner and dancing and we were welcome to join him. We decided to change into evening wear. I took the packages with my name on them into my room. They seemed rather large. I opened them. No wonder they were so costly. There must have been lots of fabric gone into these. And where do these bits go? I was sitting on the bed trying to puzzle all this out when there was a knock on the door. It was Glass. He wanted to know whether I needed any help getting dressed. I said yes. He replied he would fetch a maid. A short while later a young girl (about my age) came in and we managed to sort out what was what. I was aghast at the many layers of undergarments. Are these all really necessary? I didn't like the bustle and corset at all. The corset was on rather tight. I felt I could only take shallow breaths. The bustle was just uncomfortable. I soon got the whole lot on. I felt constricted and not very happy. The maid wanted to know if I wanted my hair put up. I usually prefer to leave it loose. I thought that if I'm going to dress like a French lady I might as well have the hair done as well. Finally I was pronounced ready. I still felt silly but decided what the hey. The shoes had raised heels so I carefully stepped out the door to the common area where the others were waiting and made my way down the stairs carefully. I had one hand on the railing and the other on Vila's arm. (He offered it - what a gentleman). Downstairs we met up with Baptiste. He was also planning on going out. He suggested an Italian restaurant and invited us to join him. We accepted. We took a trip in a Hansom cab and arrived at a place where we were served with something called pasta. It wasn't too bad. Afterwards Baptiste took us to a gambling place. Drover and I saw a group of ladies sitting around one table and giggling. We decided to see what they were doing. They were playing a card game called poker. A group of men at the next table were playing the same game. They looked very serious. .4. Well we hung around for a while. Glass had gone. Saw him going out the door with a lady helping him. Maybe he wasn't feeling well and she was a nurse. A short while later Braegan left as well. Some of the others were gambling. I just watched and tried to listen to conversations. Maybe someone might say something about the thefts. I ended up talking to a lady who was wondering where I had come from. Uh oh! I think my dark skin is a tad noticeable here. I said I was from the southern area of France. I don't think she believed me. A few hours later we returned to our rooms. I had to get the maid to help me get undressed as I managed to knot the cords holding the corset on. Maybe I'll try to get away by not wearing that thing next time. I also asked her to release my hair. Once she left I went to bed. 02/01/91 Next morning I awoke and did my morning exercises. I then tried to purify in case I wanted to cast a spell. However I wasn't feeling up to it today. So I went and had another bath instead. I decided to dress in the blue day dress. This one was much easier to put on. I like it. It must have been about mid morning by the time I got down to breakfast. Most of the others were there. Braegan was back although there was no sign of Glass still. Vila joined us a little later on. We decided we had better get on with the job and go and visit the police to find out anything more about the theft. Captain Baptiste had already given us the name of the investigating officer, Sergeant LeClair, and where we could find him. So we went out to find a cab. The first cab we hailed looked rather small to hold the six of us. Vila wanted to ride with the driver but the driver wouldn't allow it. Then he reckoned he wasn't going to take anyone of my kind. Stupid git. It turned out he was referring to the colour of my skin. We let him drive off. I hope the old fool becomes shark bait. Maybe I'd better have a word to Glass. Maybe he can think of a way to lighten my skin colour to match the other people while we are here. I don't want to stand out too much while we're looking for these jewels. We managed to get another cab without too much difficulty. It was a squeeze. Vila rode up top. I ended up sitting on Drover's lap. We drove over a bridge over the river. Looks rather brown. I tried to determine if that was water in it but I wasn't sure. Maybe I will have to have a closer look at it later. We arrived at the police station and managed to find our way to where LeClair was. We had to wait a short while in a room with some rather tough looking people in it. Shortly LeClair showed us to his office. First off he had us sign some detective licenses then showed us the file containing the case history. Unfortunately that was no good to us as it was written in French. Glass was the only one who could read it. Glass was missing. We managed to arrange for a copy to be made in Common. LeClair told us that over 280,000sp worth of jewellery had been pinched. We had been hired by the latest victim, a Madame Mirium Carone. There had been seven other similar robberies. One couple had moved out of Paris. The police had tried using Locate spells to try to find the missing items but, to no avail. They suspected that the jewels had been moved quickly out of the city. .5. LeClair had recommended some accommodation at a nearby residence, the Hotel Rene. It was located two blocks off the boulevard and it was run by a Monsieur Rene Artois. The cost was 240sp per month. We arranged to stay for the month. By the time we moved all our gear to the new place Glass had returned. The guys shared three twin rooms while I got a single to myself. Not long after that the case notes arrived from Sergeant LeClair. There didn't seem to be many clues revealed here. The eight robberies were: 17/10 - Mr Metrand c/- Hotel du Rhone - A jewelled chess set 23/10 - Mr Pardeau c/- Hotel du Rhone - A bracelet 12/11 - Diamond house - uncut diamonds stolen from the vault. The door and windows hadn't been tampered with. 14/11 - Sebastian Jude c/- Hotel Club d'epee - A sapphire tie pin was stolen from the hotel safe 30/11 - Caroline McLeod c/- Hotel du Rhone - A necklace and hairpin. A small scrap of blue fabric was found. Also the thief had dropped Caroline's buckle. It had contained a rank 20 whitefire which had gone off killing her dog Dougal (in reality a half devil familiar) 25/12 - Dominic Sanda - weddings rings stolen from ensuite 25/12 - Monsieur Picard - He had left his walking stick at the restaurant Le Blaze. It had two rubies in it but when he picked it up from safekeeping the rubies had gone. 27/12 - Mirium Carone - A diamond. It was last seen locked in a box. Glass decided that we should go and see Mirium Carone and then on to the Hotel du Rhone. I wasn't feeling very well so I stayed behind. I also wanted to ponder on what to use as a disguise. By the time the others returned I had tried various combinations of makeup but had not been satisfied with the results. It's far easier to darken skin tones than it is to lighten them. Glass thought I'd be better off with a cantrip but he said he wasn't sure that he could do it as he wasn't good with cantrips. The others had investigated Mirium Carone's and Caroline McLeod's thefts. Sleep dust had been used on both of them and sprig marks, from boots, had been found under Mirium's window. The thief had borrowed a ladder from the shed, used a spell to open the French doors and sleep dusted Mirium (she was waking up) before taking the box. The scrap of material found had a concealment spell aura on it. Also they discovered that Mirium was an E&E mage and Caroline was a Pact Mage. All the items stolen were magical. Our current theory is that the thief is an E&E mage .6.

03/01/91

Well I tried the disguise cantrip, while in the bath, but I think something went wrong. As well as my skin becoming lighter, my hair became blond and my eyes turned blue. Oops. Oh well we'll see what happens. I went down to breakfast and was the first one there. The others turned up later and sat at the next table. Maybe they didn't see me. So I went over and asked to join them. I think my disguise was too good as they didn't seem to know me. Vila helped me into my chair (what a gentleman he is) while the others just looked. Glass suddenly realised something had happened while I explained what I had done. After breakfast we call on Monsieur Sanda. He's having his breakfast at the time so we wait in the sunroom. Later on he arrived. He showed us the replacement rings he had made and also showed us to the ensuite. It's a small room with only one door to the bedroom where Sanda and his wife were at the time of the robbery. They had only left the rings in the ensuite for five minutes. The only window is a very small high one, just enough to provide ventilation. We detected no magical effects on Sanda and he didn't know of anyone who wears anything bright blue. We also detected no signs of the door being forced or of any opening spells being used. We had a look around. The window is just large enough for a bird or small animal to get in so we speculated on the possibility of trained monkeys or trained birds for a while. Glass noticed that the jewellery box has one leg missing. There's no sign of it inside and none of the servants remembered it missing. Logan used a Locate to try to find it which indicated a spot on the wall, just under the window. We went outside and Glass appeared to float up. He found the missing leg stuck in the ivy, which was growing up the wall. Meanwhile Braegan was making strange sounds. Turned out he's talking to the ivy. The ivy reckoned something small had climbed up it. A monkey? We went to the Hotel du Rhone and spoke to Caroline McLeod. She's in her mid 20's with raven black hair, green eyes and wears plaid. She said she's Scottish. However she reckoned she didn't see anything before the sleep dust got her. Vila suggested that we hypnotise Mirium, in case she saw anything. Glass wanted to check for magical residue in the other rooms but remembered that the police had already done that and found nothing. Meanwhile Braegan went and talked to Metrand's dog, Sanson. He had been sleeping in the room where the theft took place. Braegan reported that the dog mentioned small white people on the ceiling, who usually don't move, but that night, one did move and took the chess set. Braegan, with Glass's help, identified the 'small white people' as the cherub figures on the ceiling. All the cherubs look intact but I wondered if an extra one had been planted. Now the theory is shape changing half-devils. Could the thief be a Pact mage with an E&E half-devil familiar? Later on, we found out that the when the hotel safe was robbed, the sleep dust trap had been triggered but the ward wasn't. Not sure what to make of that. Vila went off to hypnotise Mirium but she didn't see anything. .7. Braegan had gone with Vila and had got a lead. He said that we needed to go to the Adventurer's Club and ask about the Binding College. Now that was one College I hadn't heard of at Seagate. Meanwhile Vila had decided to go and do some investigating on his own. We went to the Adventurer's Club and spoke to the receptionist who wanted to know if we wanted to hire one. We replied that we just wanted to find out a bit more about the College. He directed us to see the Binder Liason, a Monsieur Varatouse. Monsieur Varatouse told us that he was actually a Shaper but he knows quite a bit about Binding. A Binder animates things and fashions golems. Only the small golems can obtain spells and skills and the Binder needs to work with others to add those effects. He told us that there may be a Binder at the University, a Doctor Juno. There is another one in Calais, five days away on horseback but quicker by river. I like the sound of that. Later on we speculated on the possibility of the thief being an adventurer and reckoned we should find out if there has been any similarity to any crimes elsewhere. Our next stop is the police station. We hired a cab, were driven to the station and paid the driver to wait for us. We went to see Sergeant LeClair. Braegan was the one speaking to him and when the subject of Binders came up I noticed that LeClair became very edgy. I was about to ask Drover to DA him but Glass decided to check the cab and take Drover with him. I resolved to say something to Glass at the first earliest opportunity. That opportunity arose when we were going down the stairs, however it was Drover I spoke to. It turned out Glass had noticed something odd as well and had Drover check it out. However his DA didn't work. Neither did Braegan's or Fred's attempts. Fred and Glass disappeared. Logan put a Locate spell on LeClair, as soon as we got outside. This showed that he had moved downstairs and was, rapidly moving away from us. Logan set off down the street. The rest of us (Braegan, Drover and I) basically looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, then got into the waiting cab. Braegan asked the driver to follow that person, discretely. So the driver unhitched a horse (he had two) and rolled down the window blinds. Now the cab looked like a brewery wagon. So we followed Logan. A bit later on we caught up to him and told him to climb on board. Other noises indicated that Glass & Fred (still invisible) were also getting on. A short while later Logan announced that the arrow just changed direction. At the same time another cab went past us in the opposite direction. LeClair must be inside. We decided to follow and shortly saw LeClair walking down the road towards the police station. We kept going as not to arouse suspicion. Once we got to where we started, the driver retrieved his other horse and changed the displays so that it looked like a cab again. We then headed off in the direction where LeClair had been going. After a short while we encountered a park with houses surrounding it. The road runs around the park. There is a sandy area at the end of this road and we discovered wagon tracks. We also noticed two sets of footprints. One went out of the cab, to the horses, and back to the cab while the other set went to the cab. LeClair must have met someone here. Logan is going to try to track where those footprints came from so he put on a wolf mask. He explained it helps enhance his senses. Braegan made him invisible. A little later on Glass reappeared and told us to follow him. He can see Logan. The trail led us to a grate outside the front gate of one house. We thought for a while that was the place but Logan then found the trail had actually started four doors down - at number 23. We retreated into the park and watched, discretely, as Glass went up to the door. He knocked and it was answered. However he can't get any answers out of the occupant. Logan put a Locate on him as well. We went back to the Hotel Rene after asking the driver if he could find out who lived there. Later that night we got an answer. The place belonged to Monsieur Focan. He had died but his widow and the servants are still there. Madame Focan had previously hosted a charity function that Mirium, Caroline and Monsieur Sanders had gone to. Could there be a connection? .8. Braegan reckoned we should go and see LeClair and get a search warrant for 23 Park Avenue and see what his reaction was. We'd be able to follow him and catch him in the act. Not sure what act Braegen was on about. Glass reckoned we should talk to Baptiste first to get the legal situation. He told us we should all get some rest. Glass, Braegan & Logan went to the Adventurer's Club while the rest of us retire to our rooms. There is still no sign of Vila. 04/01/91 Glass had managed to obtain the name of a French policeman. He is connected with the Adventurer's Club and is staying at the Hotel Rene. He should be able to help us. Also if we can get enough evidence on LeClair we can have him arrested. I saw a newspaper with an interesting looking ship on it. I buy the paper and show it to Glass. Maybe another robbery had occurred recently. Glass had a look but there was nothing relevant in it. The ship was a new, fast, French cutter that had been recently launched at Calais. The article said that it should be faster than the British ships. We decided to check out the other robbery sites in case further clues come to light. The first one is the diamond house. We discovered it is a rather black building. Inside we saw that the room was black. Trays of small diamonds were displayed. There seemed to be no one there. Just then Braegan noticed a large person with black skin and wearing black and carrying a black stick. Turned out there were four of them in the room. Uncanny. Couldn't see them even when we knew they were there. Glass arranged to see the manager. He took us through a series of doors, all of which were warded. None of the wards had been tampered with. We finally reached a room where people were busy making jewellery and cutting diamonds. The next door led us into a room where the watchman stayed the night. Beyond that was the vault itself. The walls, ceiling and floor were bound earth. The uncut diamonds had been in a casket in the vault. The only unusual thing found was some soot had spilt out of the potbelly stove in the room. Braegan and Drover started DAing things looking for clues. But none of their DA's went off. Then Fred decided to have a go. The other two scoffed at him because he had even less chance of getting it than they did. However he did it. I hoped that Braegan's head wasn't too sore after he hit the wall with it. The look of Drover's face had to be seen to be believed. However there was no clue to be had. We left the diamond house and decided to check out Le Blaze restaurant. For some reason this place made me wary. All the food was on fire. No place for a self respecting water mage. I bet the fire mages would enjoy this place. He spoke to the attendant. He did remember Monsieur Picard's cane. Braegan asked him whether anyone had handed in any human shaped figures. He did recall an umbrella being handed in with a Greek 'thinker' figure on it at about the same time. Glass asked to have a look at the registration book but no familiar names were seen. The desk clerk did tell us that Monsieur Picard had came in with a lady. No residual magic was detected. I reckoned we should examine Picard's cane. So we went to see him. We met a guard with material wrapped around his head who conducted us to the lounge. There we were served tea and coffee by a dark skinned lady, wearing a large cloth wrapped around her and a red dot on her forehead. Shortly Monsieur Picard arrived and, on Glass's request got the staff. No magic on it. We noticed some scratches on the ivory head where the jewels were. He told us he went to the restaurant with Madame Focan. Ah ha! Another connection. He remembered her umbrella with the Greek statuette on it. We went back to the Hotel Rene to decide what to do next. Glass decided to write down our theory then stake out number 23 tonight. If nothing happens then we should confront LeClair. If something happens to us then the notes will be safe. Braegan also sees the policeman and asks him to come looking for us if we aren't back tomorrow morning. While Glass wrote, the rest of us prepare. Drover decides to start casting Lesser Enchantments on people for added help. However he suddenly forgot everything. Backfire! Braegan DA's him and determined that it will only last a day. We decided to wait until Drover recovers his memory. Vila returned later on that night after a fruitless outing.