So far, the trip had been relatively uneventful save for the ambush, and now the party had a goblin prisoner named Derrick. This truly is a strange party I've gotten myself into, Aralynn thought.
Soon, however, the party was approaching Agemön, their destination.
Jack the wagon driver spoke up. "We're almost there! I'd take down the canvas cover if I were you. It's truly a sight to behold: Agemön, the city of the elves." Following his suggestion, Aralynn and Grango released the bindings of the canvas roof of the wagon, grabbing the fabric and placing it down by their feet.
"There," Jack smiled, pointing to the city with his free hand that wasn't holding the reins. At first, Aralynn couldn't see anything through the dappled sunlight gently filtering through the canopy of the forest they were traveling through, but once they emerged from its leafy cover and onto the grassy plains, she could make out the unmistakable metropolis.
In the sunlight, the harbour city glistened, its elvish architecture almost reaching for the sky, twisting and winding in marvellous shapes. The elegant rooftops of shorter buildings were surrounded by a heavy gated stone wall that looked like it would be impervious to any siege, and a winding river drifted its way through the middle of the city. It truly was marvelous.
Trotting through the radiant grasslands, the horse cart brought them to a side gate, where Jack waved his merchant's license to the guards at the entrance, and they were waved through. The horsecart navigated the well-kept stone paved streets, rolling underneath the towering buildings above. The city was even more busy than Calyr: the streets bustled with vendors and common folk, and children played among the paving stones.
Soon, they arrived by the harbour, seabirds cawing, and the sound of sea merchants and crews preparing to dock and set sail waived their ears. The sea breathed like a leviathan, each time a gentle breath sending breakers gently washing over the pier and beach, seaweed streaming with beads of water like glistening hair after a shower.
Soon, they grew close enough to make out a lonely stone tower by the coast. "That's where we're headed," said jack. "Cyren will be waiting for you all there." The tower was up on a rocky outcrop overlooking the harbour. After a slight detour around the pier, the horses dragged the wagon over to the outcrop and arrived at the base of the tower.
"Hang on," gulped Perona. "I need to-" As soon as the wagon halted, she practically leapt off of the wagon, ran to the side of the cliff over the sea, and barfed up a rainbow as the contents of that day's breakfast forced itself back up her throat. "Aughhhhhh…" she groaned. "No more wagon rides for me. Ever. Even if I have to walk."
Grango laughed. "How do you still get wagonsick?"
"Maybe because I'm not you- aughhhhhhhhh." Perona managed, before hurling over the cliff again.
Grango smirked. After waiting for a while for Perona's rainbow-fuelled madness to finish, the party formed up once more at the entrance to the tower along with Jack, the wagon driver and their newfound prisoner, Derrick.
Staring at the entrance, Hadarai paused and turned to the party. "I'm getting a sense of deja vu," he said. "Mind if I go first? In case our elven friend pulls the same trick twice in a row."
Perona gave him a thumbs up. "By all means, go ahead. I don't want to get shot by an arrow today for the second time." Hadarai pulled out his shield and threw open the door, bracing for an incoming arrow. When no arrow came, he looked up, then quickly ducked as an arrow whizzed over their heads.
"You know what, Cyren? We love you too. Love how you keep on trying to kill us," Amon sighed sarcastically.
"Well, that's half the fun, isn't it? Come on up." Cyren lowered his bow and started trotting up the staircase. "Oh, and do be careful- I might've accidentally hidden some bear traps around here."
"I'm sorry- bear traps?" This time Grango raised an eyebrow. Or was that an eye crest?
"Yes, yes. Bear traps. Now are you coming or not?"
- - -
After making it up the stairs and ladders to the top of the stone tower (luckily not losing any limbs- perhaps Cyren was only joking after all?), they looked out over the harbour and the glistening sea from a view platform. Cyren walked up to the railing and pointed out over the sea. Visible among the rocks on a nearby island was the crudely elegant form of the Devil's Hand casino. Cyren pointed out with his hand. "That there is the Devil's hand. Have you still got the blueprints of the layout?" he asked.
"Yes." Amon pulled them out of a hidden pouch.
"Very well. Hold on to them." Cyren turned to the rest of the party. "As you all know, your mission is to pull off a heist. You will infiltrate the casino as regular gamblers- which I'll get into later- and navigate through the casino to the vault. You are to break in, and once you're in you are to locate a specific item: it appears to be a card box. On all sides, it has pictures of different expressions of a joker's face- laughing, crying, smiling, neutral, scared, and insane. That deck of cards has been used for many things. If you recall the night of Crawling Insanity, that was a result of the deck."
Aralynn, in her time in the imperial army, was in fact recalled from the front lines to deal with the night of Crawling Insanity. One night, anomalous creatures started appearing out of nowhere in a residential district of one of the empire's biggest cities, Yveri. The horror of the creatures could not be described in words, and anyone who tried to do so would go insane, biting out their tongue in the process.
They tore apart the city, causing mass casualties, razing a portion of the city to the ground until finally an archmage was called back from the front lines to deal with them. Why was I never given this information about the deck? Aralynn wondered.
"If you know of that night- and I can see many of you do, we must make sure that they can't be used again. Other than that, there are many magical items inside that vault, not to mention the mountains of gold. The properties of all the items inside the vault are unknown; you are not to attempt to use them in any circumstances. Please don't become the next catastrophe. That being said, if possible, liquidate as much as possible inside the vault." Cyren finished.
"Now. Onto some more specifics. The casino is extremely high security, and has some of the highest quality magic monitoring and intervention methods possible. The Devil's Hand employs a security team of battle-hardened and sentient automatons, ready to deploy at any place, at any time. They also have magical observer orbs- these orbs act like eyes, relaying anything they see to a responding magical screen in a control room."
Amon spoke up. "Sounds like a pain. How are we going to block these orbs? I assume they aren't going to let us waltz in and shoot them with arrows."
"Brilliant question. And to answer that, I have but a single word: balloons."
"Balloons?" This time, the question came from Hadarai.
"Yes, balloons," replied Cyren. "You see, the casino's owner has a bit of an… extravagant streak. Inside, there'll be balloons available for purchase. You all have some gold on you now: use that one gold piece I flicked you all this morning to buy a couple. Once near an orb, simply sidle up and release a bunch. That'll keep the eyes obscured. However, try not to show yourselves when doing so: you don't want to seem suspicious."
Amon held up the blueprints and squinted. "I assume these red circles represent the orbs? And the cones represent what they can see?"
"Great observation; you aren't useless after all. Last but not least: the ferry fare. As you can see, that's the Devil's Hand's barge, which transports its applicants over to the casino. You'll need to have 50 gold coins for this part; I hope you saved up those that Irene gave you."
"Just want to milk us dry of coins, huh," Perona huffed. Aralynn shared the same sentiment.
Cyren shrugged. "It's not my fault that you have no concept of asset management. Regardless, getting back on topic, you will need 50 gold coins. 10 gold coins will cover the ferry fare."
Aralynn leaned against the wall. "10 gold pieces just for a ferry…" Internally, Aralynn was losing her mind. How the heck do people afford that?
"Oh, shush," Cyren waved. "The rest of the gold pieces you will exchange for tokens in the casino which can be exchanged back and forth. This'll let you blend in."
"Is that all?" asked Perona.
"Yes," replied Cyren. "Oh. One last thing. However harsh I may seem, you have the greatest potential out of all the recruits I've seen so far. I trust you all to get this mission done- not only for the Brass Hand, but for the rest of the common folk. I bid you farewell, recruits. And good luck."
His eyes flashed. "You'll need it."