Trap from Trila

I had been at sea for over a month now and I could Finally see Trila in the distance. "Alrighty, boys!" Voyage shouted, "I know you're all excited to spend some coin, but we got work to do here first, so if you plan on spending it all spend it wisely and keep an eye out for the captain when he comes back now ya hear?" I laughed the rest of the crew shouted in excitement as we finally arrived in the city of passion and pleasure. As I entered the city I saw how colorful and full of life it was. I saw men and women of all kinds singing and dancing with such joy, I saw painters fill an entire wall with a beautiful mural of this colorful city with fireworks in the air. As I was distracted by all the sights and sounds I didn't notice this young half-elf woman pull me into this dance with so many others.

"Come on now stranger!" one man shouted, "don't tell me you don't know how to dance!" I laughed and joined in the dancing, I bounced around I swayed and swung people around, a male tiefling and his friend, a male half-elf wearing the most bright pink and sparkly eye make-up came right up to me after the dance was over and kissed both my cheeks with intense purpose, "by the gods I've never seen someone dressed in such dark clothing to dance like some free spirit." the tiefling said, "Indeed, where do you hail handsome stranger?" the half-elf asked me, "I'm from Ulvenguard." "oooh. So you're a dangerous individual I imagine?" I chuckled, "in a way. I've come by order of the mayor of the city to take care of a...certain someone giving the city trouble." "ah, you mean Mr. law and order. Well, luckily for you my sister can show you where to find the mayor." the half-elf whistled loudly to another half-elf woman who was doing some sort of acrobatics on the balcony of a building.

I watched her leap and spring down to our level, "Yes my dear brother?" she said bowing gracefully, "dearest sister, would you kindly take this handsome stranger to the mayor's house?" she smiled, "oh most certainly." she motioned me to follow her. For the next few hours, we walked the city streets that were still full of colorful individuals living their best lives and having the most amount of fun I have ever seen. I even saw one of the bards playing in one of the many bands play his lute with great expertise all while giving a tiefling a passionate kiss.

As we turned the corner I could see the mayor's house in the distance and a large man was standing there, from what I could tell, he stood at about five to six feet tall, he had a large round belly and a long thick beard with a curly mustache, "Oh ho! Now now, children that's enough! I'll have plenty of sweets prepared for you next time." the children surrounding the man left disappointed but still somewhat happy that they all had a bag full treats with them. "I'm guessing you must be the mayor." I said walking up to shake the man's hand, "Ah, no, I'm the mayor's husband, my name is Francis Stanford, how do you do my boy." I shook his hand, "oh, my mistake. My name is Shane Crowfeather, I was sent a letter to "assist" a particular person within the city." "Hmm." he looked around, "let's get to the office shall we?"

I nodded and thanked the half-elf woman who guided me here. "Anytime mister." and I watched as she cartwheeled away. We began to walk up the stairs to the mayor's home office as Francis spoke to me about most of the situation, "you see he first came here about three months ago, we thought he was simply visiting like so many out of city folk, and who were we to judge? Of you were some uptight noble we don't care we'll still treat you with kindness and love, and we make sure you leave feeling loved and maybe not so uptight. Yet he came here with such commanding intent. He said he used to be a soldier for goodness sake." "You think I'll have to fight him?" I asked. "No, no, my wife has a plan she wishes to discuss with you in detail."

"Ah, I see. But please continue with whatever else you may know." he stopped for a moment and took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his brow, "oof, not as spry as I used to be. But anyway," he said continuing to climb the remaining stairs. "Most of what I know so far can be explained by my wife, here we are, the door to her office, do let her know that I've gone to lie down for a tad bit." I nodded and watched him walk to what I would presume to be his room. I knocked on the door to the office and from inside I heard a voice say to come in.

As I entered the office, sitting across from me behind a large desk was a rather beautiful woman with platinum blonde hair and eyes as blue as the sky, "Ah, Mr.Crowfeather, please take a seat." I walked over and took a seat on one of the chairs in front of her desk, "it's good to finally meet you in person, I am the mayor of the city, Alice Stanford, please feel free to call me Alice." "Thank you for inviting me Alice, so what can you tell me about this noble. Your husband, who I should mention has gone to lie down, mentioned he came here about three months ago and used to be a soldier?" "Ah yes. Sven Longdragon. Last of his Noble house and well...he's just the worst."

"Well what's he done?" she sighed, "he's stated to me that when he is good and ready he'll contact his fellow soldiers to send an army to take the city by force, have all the painters paint over their works on the city walls, turn all the theaters into barracks and training facilities for new soldiers, basically turn the whole city into an army camp ready for war and conquering the land. He says he wants to be the new emperor and he'll start by building an army here, then anywhere else that would be easiest to conquer, then ally with Ulvenguard to finally march directly into the empire of Vescolar and demand the throne." "As much as I dislike the empire, being an Ulfuguardian and all, I can't just sit here and let some madman take over and possibly kill innocent people if they don't comply,"

Alice smiled, "I'm glad you see my point. However, there is one more thing before we discuss the plan I have in mind." "And what is that?" I asked, she then handed me a file with Sven's gathered information, along with it was a sketch of what the man looked like, he had short hair along with a goatee and wore a rather big coat. "I spoke about it briefly in the letter, but do you remember how I mentioned he as quite hypocritical about the establishments here within the city?" "I am aware of that, why?" "Since he is the last of his noble house as I have previously mentioned, he goes to these establishments to...well, secure a new line." "Oh? Oh! Oh…so he…?" "yes, with multiple women, however, it's specifically muscular, or at least rather physically fit women he is after."

I was confused, "What do you mean by that?" I asked her, "Well what I mean is that he specifically asks for women who are physically fit, you know big muscles, great stamina, pretty much an all-around perfect athlete. He does so because he wishes his heirs to be both physically and mentally superior. To do that he wants to find all the physically strong women and have them all bare him an heir for him to eventually teach all kinds of subjects, from simple things taught in schools to battle strategies and whatnot." "Ah, now I see, but why is this important?" "You see I have a plan, throughout our conversations I've mentioned if he has ever tried to build an immunity to various poisons. He confidently said he didn't need to as he would have others test it for him." "So you plan to poison him while he's in a brothel?"

She nodded, "well, not me exactly, as I have hired you, you will be the one to do it. However, it's not that simple of a plan as you can imagine." "Indeed, I didn't imagine it would be as simple as wait until he's not looking to poison his drink and wait for him to walk away." she laughed at the idea then picked up a round and smooth stone with a strange rune on it. "Is that a sending stone?" I asked, "it is, now then, let's see if it works." she held it in her hand and brought it up close to her mouth, "Vaninir? Darling, would you kindly come to my office please?" within a few seconds I heard footsteps approaching the office, and a beautiful half-orc woman came in.

"Mr. Crowfeather, this is Vaninir. She is one of the many fine women who work at the establishment that your target frequents." "The pleasure is all mine Mr.Crowfeather," she said as she extended a hand. I took her hand and gave it a gentle kiss as one would do when addressing royalty. "Quite the gentleman. I assume the mayor is filling you in on her little plan to get rid of Mr. Law and Order?" "she is, and pray tell what is your part to play in this whole endeavor?" "You see Mr. Crowfeather, Vaninir used to be a cleric, she was trained to fight and like all clerics build an immunity to poison. She gave up this violent life to pursue this line of work." "I didn't like all the violence, but I did enjoy making people feel better and happier and what better way to do that was through this?" "And how does this all tie into poisoning the noble?"

They both looked at one another, a devious smile on their face, "our plan is for you, someone the noble has never seen to buy the man a drink, a server will bring this drink up to the room in which our lovely lady Vaninir will keep him busy until he feels a bit tired, he will ask her to drink first," "which I will." "then when he sees that it is safe for him to drink he will take it and for an hour he will feel invigorated and will likely go for a much longer while with Vaninir, but once his rush of energy is over, the poison will take effect stopping his heart and killing him instantly." I thought about the plan for a moment, "It seems like it might work."

We all shook hands as we agreed the plan would go down later tonight, the mayor even gave me a free room to stay in at one of the inns near the brothel itself. There I waited for a man in a large brown cloak to enter the brothel to spring the trap.