Author

nicked (Nick Dablin)   Missions
Author

Briefing

"No man knows till he has suffered from the night how sweet and dear to his heart and eye the morning can be."
- Bram Stoker, Dracula

"Alas! for this gray shadow, once a man—
So glorious in his beauty and thy choice,
Who madest him thy chosen, that he seem'd
To his great heart none other than a God!"
- Alfred Tennyson, Tithonus

I recently paid a visit to an associate of mine, Lyle, who works at the City Museum, in an attempt to find a buyer for some antiquities I happened to have come into possession of. The man has delusions of nobility, and is usually on edge whenever I, a common criminal, go to meet him. This time however, he was clearly deeply worried by something and was acting even more flustered than usual. I wasn't going to pry, but partway through appraising my goods, he appeared to reach a decision, and started begging for my help.

Lyle's daughter, Marianne, recently got a job as a servant at the country estate of Lord Oswin Pavoni, a noble and explorer. Everything had been going fine, and she seemed happy with the work, until five days ago when she didn't come home. When he went to the house to try and find her, they told him she had disappeared and was missing, but would not let him in. Now the Watch have sent a detective to investigate, but no-one is telling Lyle anything.

He wants me to break into the house and find out what happened to her. He didn't have much to offer in return, but to sweeten the deal, he told me about a secret vault rumoured to be hidden somewhere in the house, and provided me with a list of valuable artefacts that I could get a good price for, were they to be liberated from the Pavoni estate.

Lyle's a useful man to know when I need to shift rare antiquities, and it couldn't hurt to have him owe me a favour. He's provided me with a map of the house and an advance on the artefacts I brought him so I can buy equipment. I'll be going in by dropping over the wall near the back of the estate. Once inside, I'll need to find out what happened to Marianne, and of course, locate that vault.