The Missing Sister
Kuhl smelled frying bacon as he approached the back door to the Trollskull - heard the sizzle of it through an open window. He opened the door, entered the pantry, and only made it three steps towards his room upstairs before turning and heading to the kitchen instead. There he found Dariya grilling eggs and sliced potatoes as well as bacon. He stood for a moment, watching and breathing in the mouth watering aroma.
"Would you look at that," Fargas said from behind the half-elf, making him start in surprise. "Up to his elbows in elfmaids, catgirls, and aasimar damsels yet still covets our halfling lasses as well."
Whatever expression Kuhl's face held made his friend laugh.
"That was a joke," he said. "But the guilt on your face makes me think maybe I should be worried."
"A good cook," Dawnbringer mentally said. "Brilliant idea really. I'll tear you down with workouts and she builds you back up with hearty cuisine. It could work."
The commotion caused Dariya to turn from her cooking.
"Normally I'd approve of a sweaty muscular man spying on me," she said, an eyebrow raised, then she made a face. "But not in a kitchen. That's just disgusting. Out! Upstairs with you and get cleaned up for your guests."
She accompanied her order with waves of a greasy spatula.
"And such spunk as well," Kuhl's sentient sword telepathically said. "Too bad Fargas met her first. Ask her if she has a chef colleague friend."
"My guests?" the half-elf asked, confused, and ignoring Dawnbringer.
"Customers of your stupid detective agency," Fargas said. "I told them you were off for your morning run and workout, but that we could make them the Trollskull breakfast special while they waited."
"But the Trollskull isn't open for breakfast?" Kuhl asked, confused.
"I could tell they had coin to spare and improvised," the halfling said. "And they didn't bat an eyelash at my price. Now get upstairs, clean up, and change into something presentable."
"The detective agency is more Sky's thing," the half-elf said. "She isn't upstairs?"
"Oh, I am sure she is," Fargas said. "Did you miss the part where I said they had coin to spare? So, I wanted to wait for you to come back. Convince that crazy tabaxi to charge more than two copper nibs a day!"
Kuhl knew that would be a lost cause. He doubted Sky would remember to collect anything at all.
"And make sure to sneak by as you go through the tap room to the stairs," his halfling friend said. "First impressions are everything you know. Wear one of your nicer doublets."
"In his case the sweat plastered look isn't a bad first impression," he overheard Dariya saying as he headed towards the double swinging doors to the tap room.
"Hey!" Fargas said. "I thought you preferred them shorter and chubbier."
"Maybe I do and maybe I don't," she said back. "But a halfling can look, right?"
"Most definitely," her boyfriend chuckled.
In truth, Kuhl wasn't much of a sneaker and the stairway to upstairs was all the way across the common room. So, even though Fargas had tucked them in the turret shaped portion used for patrons wanting a more private gathering, those waiting for him watched as he crossed the room, and he studied them in turn.
"Interesting group," Dawnbringer observed in his mind.
Interesting group was putting it mildly as it included a draconic male with white crystalline scales, a rangy giant of a man with a gray cast complexion and spiky blue hair, a lean red eyed sun elf with pale skin and fine blond hair that seemed washed out and muted, and a pair of constructs etched with lines of glowing runes - one male and made of golden metal and lacquered wood and the other female also partially built with wood but having silver metal.
Kuhl saw right away why Fargas thought they had coin to spare. All but the silver female construct wore finely tailored robes, each of a different color scheme - a mix of white and black, blue and red, black and green, or green and blue. His curiosity roused, the half-elf ran up the steps, taking them two at a time, to get cleaned up and change as quickly as possible. A visit to the washbasin then to his room on the top floor, and he was back down and knocking on Sky's door, breathing hard while brushing the fingers of his other hand through his wet hair. It took a couple of tries before she answered.
"Kuhl?" she yawned, blinking bleary golden eyes, and giving a languid stretch. "How many times do I have to tell you I don't want to go on your runs?"
"How many times?" Dawnbringer questioned in his mind. "You've asked her a total of once."
"There is a group waiting down in the tap room with a case," he said, again ignoring the internal commentary of his sentient blade.
Sky's eyes instantly widened to alert inquisitiveness. Backing into her room, she beckoned him to follow. He only made it as far as the doorway.
"This is why she is so agile," Dawnbringer observed. "Her room is a trip hazard obstacle course."
It was true. Discarded clothing, flyers pulled down from all over Waterdeep, and odds and ends like a mostly unwound ball on yarn littered the floor of her room.
"Is that a kite?" the half-elf asked, pointing.
"Thought the children would like to fly it at Phaulkonmere," the tabaxi said, picking up her favorite leather tunic from the floor, beating it free of clusters of shedded fur, then shrugging it on over her linen shift.
"The children flying a kite," Dawnbringer mentally said. "That would be cute to watch."
"What sort of case?" Sky asked, now hitching up and belting a pair of short breeches with a slit for her tail. "Lost item? Missing pet? A series of riddles in a will hinting at the location of a hidden inheritance?"
"I don't know," Kuhl said. "Haven't spoken with them yet. But I did see them."
His description brought on a peppering of other questions.
"A dragonborn?"
"Definitely some dragon ancestry, but different than any I've seen. He has crystalline scales."
"Another is a half giant?"
"Maybe."
"Nimblewrights?"
"Perhaps, but they didn't look like the ones on the Sea Maiden's Faire and the golden one wore robes like the others."
Sky hopped on one foot as she pulled on her last boot, nearly toppling due to the mess strewn across her floor, then made her way to the mirror, kicking articles of clothing aside to corners as needed.
"So much easier when we were traveling," she grumbled. "I either left stuff behind or shoved it in my Bag of Holding."
Licking the edges of her hands, she preened for a moment in front of the looking glass on her dresser, smoothing down tufts of fur on her face and head.
"Well," she asked, turning. "How do I look?"
"Actually," he said. "Pretty good."
"Surprisingly good," Dawnbringer mentally said. "No one would know she just got roused from bed and pulled on bits of rumpled clothing from the floor."
The tabaxi flashed a sharp toothed smile, scooped up a sheaf of parchment and a charcoal pencil from her dresser, then slipped by Kuhl out of her room. He shut the door on her chaotic clutter and together they headed downstairs.
"Should have realized you'd only need three plates," Fargas was saying as they approached the mostly seated group.
The silver metal and wood female construct still stood protectively behind the robe wearing one of gold metal.
"I'll eat my brother's," the giant of a man with spiky blue hair said.
He plucked up the plate before the golden construct and set it next to the one already in front of him.
"I'll bet you will," the halfling said, eyes taking in the height of the seated man. Then his face scrunched in confusion. "Wait, did you just say brother?"
"I did," the giant said.
He forked in a bite of yolk covered bacon and potatoes, obviously savoring it.
"Oh," the halfling said, understanding dawning in his expression. "Of course. Brothers-in-arms and all that."
"Actually, he just means brother," the crystal scaled draconic one said. He had a very pleasant and cultured voice and wore robes of blue and red. "Although half-brother is the appropriate term as we are all children of the same mother. Different fathers obviously."
"Obviously," Fargas said, nodding sagely. "But…"
He cast a doubtful look at the two constructs.
"Let me guess!" Sky said, sitting at the table. "Red Sky in the Morning and this is my assistant Kuhl."
As his was the second name introduced, the collective gazes of their guests glanced at the tabaxi but settled on the half-elf.
"Hello," Kuhl said with a tight smile and a small wave.
"You are the wielder of a legendary blade," Dawnbringer thought in his mind. "'Hello' is a bit underwhelming as an introduction."
"Well met?" the half-elf asked in his mind.
"Not much better," the sword thought back.
"The five of you are on a quest to reverse a curse and turn your brother and sister back into their biological forms," Sky finally said, tail lashing. "Sort of like that puppet show with the wood carver who wanted a son, but you want to be changed back. Personally, I'd recommend against it. You both look sleek and amazing with your silver and gold alloys, glowing rune lines, and lacquered wood. But your choice. How can the Red Sky and Nightstar agency help?"
"I am under no curse," the golden construct said, his hollow voice emanating from his chest while his mechanical jaw worked in a mimicry of speech. "I was crafted in this form at my inception. But as I designed and constructed my shield maiden, Ancilla, I thank you for the compliment."
"You built her?" Kuhl asked, sitting next to Sky at the long table. "Impressive."
"A passion project," the green and blue robed construct said.
"He literally means passion project," the giant of a man said. His robes were of black and white. "As in, Koger designed and built his own girlfriend."
"The thought and planning that went into her design, Vorskar," the golden construct, Koger apparently, said, surprisingly able to put a hint of venom in his hollow voice. "Is beyond you. Best you keep your opinions to your chosen field - meritless scribblings full of circular logic."
"Trickster's Toes!" Fargas said, also taking a seat at the table. "I'm from a large family and recognize that tone. You really are brothers. How does that work?"
"Our mother is a genie inflicted by wanderlust," the crystal scaled brother said. "As she has the ability to polymorph and is addicted to love, a wide variety of offspring has been the result."
"Yes, Embrie," the pale gold elf said with a roll of blood red eyes, speaking for the first time. "Addicted to love. That is one way of putting it."
He wore robes of green and black and had barely touched the breakfast in front of him.
"My father is a crystal dragon," the draconic brother, Embrie apparently, said, ignoring the interruption.
"Cloud giant," the big one, Vorskar, said through a mouthful of food, raising a hand.
"Mother spent some time as the muse for a Lantanese artificer," Koger explained.
The sun elf scowled as gazes shifted to him expectantly.
"We're not here to give our family history," he said. "We're here to either hire them to help find Sophiya or not."
"Ah, missing persons case," Sky said, nodding. "Who is Sophiya?"
"Our sister," Vorskar said.
"What does she look like?" the tabaxi asked.
"Her father is human," Embrie said. "Mother a genie, so blue-skinned and white haired, but she usually dyes it red. Typically wears white robes."
Sky started sketching and for a time they all waited. An uncomfortable silence descended, broken only by the scratching of the charcoal pencil.
"Look something like this?" the tabaxi asked.
She had drawn a young woman with flowing long hair, which fit the fairly broad description given, but Kuhl didn't see the purpose. People had a wide range of appearances. But the brothers traded startled looks.
"How did you…?" the sun elf asked, trailing off. "It's a fairly good likeness. Do you know her?"
Sky shook her head.
"I based the drawing off Ancilla," she said, nodding towards the standing shield maiden construct. "I figured Koger would instinctively base his design off what he knew well. A mother or a sister."
"I never noticed!" the giant brother laughed. "She is based off mother and Sophiya. What does that mean I wonder?"
"Probably made it look like mother and sister so you wouldn't try and sleep with her," the sun elf said.
"Oh, I tried," Vorskar said. "Ancilla just isn't one to be seduced by great poetry."
"Innate good sense and taste," Koger broke in with his hollow voice. "Is part of the rudimentary consciousness imbued into her."
"Skillful deductions," the crystal scaled Embrie said, milky white gaze still studying the drawing Sky had returned to the tabletop. "It is no wonder you came so recommended. I will admit, I had my initial doubts."
He looked around the Trollskull tap room, seemingly indicating it left much to be desired as an office for a detective agency. It was probably a good thing Fargas hadn't escorted them up to the dust filled and mostly empty library Sky still used as an office.
"Someone recommended them?" Fargas asked, eyebrow raised and voice skeptical. "Who?"
"Vincent Trench," Vorskar said. "We met with him early this morning to fit in his schedule. We told him about our sister, about the tracking rings, and he took notes like she did."
"But did not draw us any pictures," the sun elf said.
"Then promptly told us time was of the essence with a missing person case," the giant brother continued. "And he was too busy. But he knew another detective agency who could help."
"Vincent Trench didn't want the case?" Sky asked, voice thoughtful and tail lashing.
At the collective shake of heads, she nodded to herself.
"Tell me about these tracking rings," she said.
All four brothers raised a hand, displaying simple silver rings, unadorned with gems or markings.
"A concession to our mother," Embrie said. "They actually don't track us as we each follow our pursuits across the planes. But if they are taken off, then the spell is activated, and their location is revealed to the bearers of the other rings. Less than a month ago, Sophiya's ring was removed."
"We journeyed here as fast as we could," Koger said in his hollow voice. He dropped a matching silver ring onto the table top. "But we were each a long way away, both in distance and by planar relativism. By the time we got here and tracked down the ring, it was for sale in a trinket shop."
"Planar relativism?" Dawnbringer asked in Kuhl's mind. "That is the second time they have mentioned planar travel."
He had noticed that as well. Apparently unusual parentage was just the beginning of strangeness with this family.
"We should get the location of that shop," Sky said. "It's one of our best leads."
"The owner of the trinket shop has already been questioned," the pale sun elf said, red eyes narrowing as he stared down at the ring. "Very thoroughly. You'll get no insight there. She doesn't remember how the ring came to her store."
"We should look into it anyway," the tabaxi said, shrugging.
Embrie gave her the location of the shop and she wrote it down.
"You said one of your best leads," the golden construct said in his hollow voice. "You have others? How is that possible with such a meager offering of data."
"Call it a hunch," Sky said with an enigmatic smile of sharp teeth.
"A hunch," Koger said. "A biological's feeling, usually erroneous and based on flawed logic."
"Oh, her hunches are actually good," Fargas said. "Usually wrong, or as you say erroneous, and completely based on flawed logic. No logic actually. But they typically lead somewhere."
"You just don't understand my method, Fargas," the tabaxi growled.
"I don't think you understand your method,'' the halfling replied. Then he seemed to notice the shared glances of trepidation among the brothers and tried to backtrack. "But they are effective. Why just the other day you saved that bookseller's cat."
The expressions on their prospective clients grew more worried.
"And located Lady Remallia Haventree's misplaced portable hole," Fargas added, but cringed as he seemed to realize he was making things worse.
The frowns around the table deepened.
"And found and rescued Lord Renaer Neverember from his kidnappers," Kuhl put in. "For which he said he is eternally grateful."
They had never been hired to rescue Renaer. Had really just stumbled across him in a warehouse they illegally entered in a search for someone else. But it wasn't a complete untruth.
"Nice save," Dawnbringer said, mentally voicing her approval of his lie by omission.
Apparently, she was right, because now at least the brothers traded looks of reassurance.
"So," Sky said. "Why is your sister in Waterdeep?"
"We don't know," Vorskar said with a shrug. "But she is a Lorehold Seeker. She was likely hunting for some forgotten relic to bring back to Stixhaven for study."
"Strixhaven?" Fargas asked.
"A school for the arcane," Embrie said. "All of us are graduates from there. Sophiya as well."
"Like a school for wizards?" the halfling asked.
"Something like that," the pale sun elf brother said.
But the hint of condescension is his tone indicated, in his opinion, Strixhaven was nothing like that - but that he didn't consider it worth his time to educate them further.
"If she is after an old relic for study," Kuhl said. "It strikes me that someone might have considered what she was after to be their property. Did you visit the magistrate's office to see if she'd been arrested?"
"First place we visited on coming…" Vorskar said, trailing off. "Hello?"
His gaze, and the gaze of the other brothers, now focused over Kuhl's shoulder. The half-elf turned in his chair to find Aleina and Jhelnae standing there.
"Hello yourself," the half-drow said with a smile and inquisitive tilt of the head. "Who are your friends, Kuhl?"
"I find it necessary to point out his use of 'hello' as a greeting," Dawnbringer said in the half-elf's mind. "Much more impressive than yours."
"You know," Kuhl thought back. "Strangely enough, it doesn't feel like something that needed to be pointed out."
It was Sky who answered.
"Not friends," she said, writing notes on a piece of parchment and not looking up. "Clients. We're very busy at the moment."
"Well they certainly are an eye-catching group," Aleina said. "I mean I came down the stairs and I was like, whoa, who are they?"
She bit her lower lip, apparently regretting everything she just said and looked to Jhelnae for some kind of rescue. But the half-drow gave her a raised eyebrow look indicating she was on her own.
"Well," the aasimar said. "Anyway. We're off to look at a certain tower for the Open…certain someone. You two want to come along?"
The tabaxi looked up from her parchment, golden eyes squinting in thought.
"The tower?" she asked. "We would like to go. We might learn something there. But…"
She looked towards the brothers and the half-elf noticed she said we, speaking for him as well, but then again he didn't want to leave Sky investigating on her own. This seemed like it was going to lead far beyond something like searching all the pockets in Lady Haventree's closet for a portable hole.
"Come on, Aleina," Jhelnae said, tugging at the aasimar's sleeve. "Let's leave them to find their lost trinket, or pet, or whatever."
The drow caught Kuhl's eye and the hand she held by her side communicated in drow sign.
"Trouble?"
"Unknown," he signed back under the table. "Hopefully not."
Keep an eye on her?
I will try.
Where Sky was concerned, it was all that could be promised.
"Ummm," Aleina said, finding herself in the unenviable position of carrying the conversation while her friends surreptitiously communicated. "Well – it – was – very – nice – quite – nice – actually – to – meet – you – all."
She had been forced to draw out each word of her leave taking as the back and force signing went on, then gave an overly bright, obviously forced, smile.
The two gave waves, then moved towards the door to Saerdoun street.
"An aasimar and a drow" the draconic brother said once those in question were out of hearing. "You two keep exotic company."
He glanced at Sky then looked at Fargas and Kuhl and seemed impressed.
"The aasimar," Vorskar said. "She is a bit touched?"
He tapped his temple with a finger.
"Aleina?" the halfling asked. "Most definitely very touched. The other as well, truth be told."
"He is so dead if she finds out about this," Dawnbringer observed in the half-elf's mind.
"A pity," the pale sun elf said, pulling his blood red gaze from the closing door to the street. "But back to Sophiya. Do you need any more information? Or do you have enough to get started?"
"Let's see," Sky said, staring down at her notes. "Blue skinned and white haired, but probably dyed red. Working likeness to show when asking around."
She brandished her parchment containing her sketch.
"Missing for less than a month," the tabaxi continued. "Relic seeker. Likely dressed in white robes. I think we have enough to get started. But in case we have some more questions, where are you staying?"
"The Golden Harp," Koger said in his hollow voice. "Leave any messages for us there. We'll be conducting our own search as well of course."
"Golden Harp," Fargas said. "Nice place."
Silence fell and the two groups - brothers and shield maiden construct and companions - regarded each other. Then, with a scraping of chairs, the new clients of the detective agency stood and made their way out of the Trollskull.
"Tricksters toes!" Fargas said. "You forgot to get a deposit for services. Good thing I had them pay for breakfast up front."
"You have a hunch on finding their sister?" Kuhl asked. "How?"
"Just a feeling," Sky said. "Let's go visit Vincent Trench."
Not sure if this works. You'll have to tell me.
This will lead to one of the faction quests, but I'm trying to mix up how they get involved with the events instead of it just being faction quest giver.
I have no idea why I made up a whole family with regards to the delivery of the quest. Blame DnDBeyond character builder. Much like the Troupe from Beyond the Pale, I don't plan on having them stick around too much unless readers find them fun and want me to try and work them back into the narrative at a later point.
