Symbol of Eventide - A Knight's Padded Oath (Private for theJozza)

[Purestarfall]

Alison listens to the job proposal, as she worked to piece it all together. Finally, as the innkeeper finished explaining the job Alison remarked to him as she did her best not to give away any sort of bargaining chips that she might be able to use later on "Well if you're looking for an escort job then we're able to do that. But there's just a few things that I'm wondering about, if you don't mind me asking. You say that the people doing this are a new guild...are they a formally recognized guild among the actual guild houses here or are they just upstarts that say that they're a 'guild'?" The question was a pressing one to Alison, as she didn't want to go so easily into something that may upset the balance of the city as a whole and potentially lead to the guilds trying to subdue them.

"And if they aren't actually a part of a 'guild', then I would also like to know if they happen to have any rumors to them that they have ties any kind of criminal organization like the thieves guild. If there aren't any, then please tell me so." And if they were just some people that wanted just to muscle into this and were just thugs that just wanted to act bigger than they were then it would be easier to deal with. But considering that they had the means to bribe the harbor master before the fees come into play, the idea of them just being simple thugs seemed less likely to Alison.

[theJozza]

"Afraid I can't tell you much lass," the innkeeper shrugs. "They are secretive bunch a bastards I'll tell ya that much. Never even seen one of them get drunk while they're here. More than that they school like fish, never seen one of em alone either. Though on the other hand I ain't heard of them running afoul of the city guard or the trade guild."

"Only cause they're lining the pockets of all them," the serving girl sneers as she steps forward. "They might not get drunk, but they still talk plenty while they're here. I tell ya da," she turns to the innkeeper, confirming he's her father, "they got far more planned for us and the city than taxing our shipments. And the rich bastards and our useless guards are gettin' keen to look the other way!"

"Settle down now Myra," The man grunts. "These ladies are just here to help us get this month's catch. Let's not complicate this." The daughter walks away sulking, and Eliza feels a slight pang of something. Much as she loved her own father, she could certainly relate to having her concerns or thoughts dismissed out of hand. "So what do ye say ladies?" the keeper turns back to them. "Two days from now you escort my brother's catch and you can stay here for as long as you like. Might even be able to throw in a few free meals.

Eliza strokes her chin. She feels it's a good deal considering they want to save their money and aren't sure how long they'll be staying, but she also knows that Alison made some good points about not crossing an official guild, or if this group is as underhanded as the young woman suggests perhaps it could be even more dangerous.

[Purestarfall]

The padded knight without any armor right now would just listen to the back and forth between the innkeeper and his daughter, though she was interested in what she she did say about the topic. "Sir, we are just talking right now no? The way I see it, it's not overcomplicating things if we're just talking. And if these guys happen to be more threatening than they seem at first glace, I would like to know about it before I do take up your job." Alison politely and elegantly stated to to innkeeper, using all of her noble training on how to present herself and her augments, as she informed him that she was more than likely to take up the job no matter what. They did still need a room after all.

With that all said, Alison then turned to the daughter and asked her "So you say that they have loose lips? In my experience, that's sloppy and no real good criminal group would ever comment such a grave mistake. If they did, then I think I want to show them exactly why that's a bad mistake." Finding a nearby empty chair, she would take it, spun it around so that the backrest was instead in front of her, and sat down on it as she leaned forward on it and rested her arms on the top of the backrest. "I want to know everything that you overheard from them, no matter how small it may seem." She then told the daughter as Alison knew that knowledge was power, and if she was lucky they might have some blackmail to use that could save them later on if worse came to worse. If nothing else, they would know going in just how on guard they should be.

[theJozza]

Upon hearing Alison's request, the daughter immediately perks up and walks back, grabbing a chair herself.

"With pleasure, milady," she says. Her father starts to say something, but instead just sighs and shrugs. Clearly as long as he gets these two to guard his shipment he doesn't care what his daughter talks to them about. "See I got friends all over this city. Other servers, maids, even dancers, and we've all been sharing what we've heard and seen from those bilge rats. We've all been keeping an eye on em, cause we know they got much bigger plans than squeezing us all for a little extra gold." Her father rolls his eyes at this part, which causes Eliza to also turn to Myra with a bit of solidarity.

"Please continue, Miss Myra," She says encouragingly. "What sort of insights have you and your friends gathered on these strange men?"

"First of all, they're recruiting," Myra says, her tone getting more serious. "When they first came here there was scarcely over two dozen of the blighters, now there's at least 3 maybe 4 times that much. Out o work sailors, unlucky fisherman, former guards, even prison conscripts. That's why they always have such big groups in places like here, I've seen many a man get roped in out there in our very tavern, and me friends have where they work too. Second, I heard a rumor from one of me friends that they've started to offer folks..."special deals" in exchange for not having to pay their fees."

[Purestarfall]

As Myra explained everything to them, Alison instantly got the impression that something screwy was happening here. A small group just seemingly muscled their way in almost overnight and just focused on just recruiting every man they could properly gain. That wasn't the sign of how a proper criminal crime group typically recruited, as otherwise the people being brought in having any sort of possible loyalty to them would end up being likely to backstab the group if they had to or just in order to get a better deal. That, and the fact that they've been 'taxing' the population and the thieves' guild didn't step in yet since it was a source of money being taken from them.

"I see. And do you know what these 'special deals' are? I must admit that I'm a bit surprised that the thieves guild hasn't done anything about this yet. You'd think they'd come down hard on any upstart group that tries to cheat them out of money." Alison stated to Myra as she made mention to that. However as Alison leaned forward in her chair a bit, she heard as her body let out a quiet muffled fart come from her behind that thankfully only she could hear. One of the downsides of her loss of incontinence, randomly passing pass right before she messed herself. And sure enough, the fish that she had earlier started to come out as poop into her awaiting padding. The knight clearly felt the gooey mess as it oozed out around her butt, though she had enough training in keeping her composure that she didn't have much a change in what her face gave off other than for her now having a light blush. She hoped the questgivers didn't end up smelling it, but thankfully the diapers she wore did a good job of keeping the smell locked inside of it.

[theJozza]

Eliza had of course grown quite accustomed to both the smells and sounds Alison made when she was using her diapers, and as such could tell what was happening with her partner. Fortunately she always made a point of insisting Alison used the powder, and moreover said powder was actually enchanted by her to be extra smell stifling. This wasn't a perfect cover but it would last long enough for the innkeeper and his daughter to finish their story...hopefully.

"Well a friend of mine who dances at the red cutlass overheard one of their lieutenants talking to some fisherman," Myra says leaning in more. "Said they'd be exempt from the fines, if they agreed to tie their boats in the guild's dock and let the guild use them whenever they weren't," she pauses and looks around the room, including to her father to let her point sink in. He does seem to react a little to this, suggesting this is the first he's heard of this point. "And believe it or not at least some of them took the deal! You have any idea how hard it is to get a fisherman to agree to something like that? Takes a heck of a lot more than a few hefty fines."

Eliza nods, starting to look more and more focused. Granted she'd grown up in a farming community not a port, but she did have a few friends and family members who had left the village to go to see so she was fairly familiar with that mentality, or at least enough to know that Myra was absolutely right. Furthermore, the idea of some strange group squeezing struggling fishermen and sailors certainly did not sit well with Eliza.

"Lady Lusterstone," she speaks up turning to her partner. "While there is clearly more for us to learn about this, I feel that we owe it to the people of this city to investigate this group, and accepting this assignment could prove a good way to begin that. I think we should accept their terms."

[Purestarfall]

"I don't know about pursuing this beyond this point. We shouldn't think that we owe people things when we haven't even benefited from them or even gotten to know who they really are yet anyhow." Alison told Eliza as she got out of her chair. She knew that Eliza had a habit of being too emotionally involved into stuff that tugged at her heart-strings, and that she had to, at times, be the one to stop them from getting involved with stuff that they shouldn't be. "In any case" She then let out as she turned back to the innkeeper before then telling him "I heard nothing that makes me doubt that we'd be able to handle your job. Even if the thieves guild is involved here, I know ways to outwit them if it comes to that. So keep us updated on it and we'll be ready to move when the time comes. Oh, and the key to the room please? We do have to get settled for the night and start having to plan for it."

Her gameplan was already starting to form, to be made more defined once she got more information. Which given her luck, it would be during the actual mission itself. If these were just simple thugs, they'd just trash any of them that were unlucky enough to spot them. If they were affiliated with the thieves guild or something like that then they'd have to think up a distraction to allow the cargo to slip away undetected if they were ever spotted. All in all, she could think of harder things she had done before.

[theJozza]

"Oh you're right of course Lady Luster-stone," Eliza replies, feeling her face heat up a bit over her little declaration. She did believe that a true adventurer should always rise to help help those who are in need, but she also felt that she has somewhat embarrassed herself by making such a proclamation in front of strangers. However, neither the innkeeper or his daughter seemed to react that much, with the former smiling at Alison's statement and handing her the room key.

Once the two of them are alone in their room, Eliza sits down on one of the beds and turns to Alison. "Lady Luster-stone, I realize I may have spoke hastily," Eliza says. "But surely don't you think we should just leave this situation alone? I mean if these people are willing to extort both gold and services out of the people of this city we can't just turn a blind eye. What if they begin forcing more out of them? Or forcing them into their service...I realize there's still much we don't understand but it's just..." she pauses and sighs. "It's just back home I heard many stories about things like this. Guilds and nobles coming to towns or villages and essentially taking over and no one being able to do a thing. Ever since the crown became so weak it just seems that common folk have no protections."

This wasn't the first time Eliza has shared her contempt for the current king. After the previous monarch and his original heir died at sea in a storm the crown had passed to the third son, who was far from qualified or ready for such a post. Eliza in particular felt that he had done next to nothing to help people from her social strata, and she did regularly share such notions with Alison, who fortunately also had her own misgivings about him.

[Purestarfall]

"Eliza, I know you want to help people in need. I do. It's not like I have an issue with it." Alison stated to her as she went and sat down in the other bed and feeling her poopy mess shift around her as she did so. "But you have to see this how I see it too. I haven't told you the details but you know that my family has ties with criminal groups regionally. A motto of our family is "Family over oaths". Doing something that could hamper what one of them is doing is a good way for the whole family to shun you, and being a hero tends to do that with their classic line of work. What if this group so happens to have some sort of tie to them? Hell...I had to work my butt off to convince them that I wouldn't stop them even if I became a knight. I had to always double check before doing something 'heroic' just so I wouldn't lose ties with my family. It's not easy!"

However afterwards, she just let out a sigh and fell down the rest of the rest into the bed she was on. Eliza knew this from the month she had spent with Alison so she expected that she had hit her breaking point of sorts. Alison had a bad habit of sorts, she could be very presentable in public but once she was in private...she just tended to crash if she had any real amount of stress built up over something. The normally stoic, insightful knight...started to act a bit childish and needy as a way to defuse her stress. Something that she had been doing more often ever since she had lost her continence. "Eliza, I need a change...change me please." She would let out to the mage in a slightly more weak, childish, cute tone compared to her normal one as she visably relaxed as she waited for Eliza to come to her and do it for her, something that confirmed to the redhead woman that Alison was indeed having one of her 'childish' moments.

[theJozza]

Eliza sighs and nods as she hears Alison vent. It wasn't the first time she shared the complexities of her noble family and it's "business". She hadn't been surprised of course, even living in her small farming community she knew full well that any noble family with significant clout was bound to have their hands in dirty business of one sort of another. However, she knew that Alison while she knew about her family's dealings had never had a direct hand in their more underhanded businesses, her decision to become a knight proof of that. That being said, while she did typically follow Alison's wisdom to the letter she felt strongly that she wouldn't be able to just let this go.

Brushing those thoughts aside, Eliza can't help but smirk a little at her companion's shift into her "little girl" persona. The first few times it happened it had been something of a shock to see her hero in such a state, but she figured that in all likelihood it was a side effect of the curse she was under. Furthermore, as much as Eliza admired Alison she found it was a little enjoyable to become take the lead in their partnership whenever they were alone.

"Of course, your padded ladyship," Eliza coos, her tone and demeanor now shifting as if she was talking to one of her little sisters. She walks over to their rooms wash basin where she wets a towel, then she approached Alison conjuring a fresh diaper and pulling the baby powder from her satchel. She pulls of Alison's pants revealing her full diaper. "Goodness your ladyship," Eliza chuckles as she pulls it down and starts wiping her clean. "Perhaps we chose a wrong inn. Fish seems to make you extra stinky."