Casing the joint

The party headed off to the area of the Trades Ward, where the target building was located. Most of them holed up in a local tavern, whilst the few streetwise members observed the warehouse in question. A standard edifice located on an alley corner, with a main door and an upper loading access. The rogue checked the outside and observed the lack of other access, before settling back to observe the activity around the building.

Aside from spotting a figure on a nearby roof, one who ducked out of sight - clumsily - when the rogue saw it, little occurred in the hours he waited nearby. Eventually retiring back to the tavern, the party decided on a frontal approach and returned en masse to the warehouse. Approaching the building, they found the main door slightly open and the rogue snuck in first to successfully lose himself in the piles of goods inside. The rest of the party then loudly entered posing as visiting Genasi with their human servants. Successfully distracting the occupants, they allowed the rogue to get to the loft area unobserved and then left with a few minor purchases.

The rogue remained and observed the staff close up and after a few hours left the building; but before rejoining the party back in the tavern, he crept round to the neighbouring building - the one where he'd spotted the watcher earlier - and gaining the roof quietly, he jumped the man and successfully subdued him. A short interrogation added some knowledge to that gained already, but left them short on ideas to proceed further.

A seemingly bland warehouse with little inside to point to any untoward activities - for the low value goods stored, maybe a high number of 'guards' (8 of them) and their overnight 'watch', were the only vaguely suspicious points of note. The captured man confirmed little else, excepting that a particular pile of crates in a corner were never touched and that on occasion a wagon drew up bearing some large crates and with its own crew; the hired hands were told to take a few hours rest away from the building, to return later when the wagon and crew had left after unloading.

These few points led the party to decide to confront the warehouse guards head on - they approached Guard Captain Rulathon and had him set a Guard sergeant with them incase of problem, before returning to the warehouse to investigate the pile of crates. Their arrival caused brief interest, more for their ability to enter a presumed closed building, but this subsided when the Guard sergeant upheld the party's status to be there. Moving to the crates they disamntled a number to reveal a hollow area within and a sturdy trapdoor set into the floor.