Vintner's Treasure III

Writers: Danielle, Eimi, Elaine
Date Posted: 13th February 2006

Characters: Daigoro, Rialine, Catriana
Description: Daigoro follows Rialine and Catriana to see the stash they found
Location: Vintner Hall
Date: month 9, day 1 of Turn 3

"It was this way sir," Rialine said as her, Catriana and daigoro stood on the edge of the kitchens.

Daigoro followed Rialine's lead down into the darkened corridor. He was exceedingly curious what else would be in this mysterious stash the girls had found, and even more curious about what it was doing down _here_. Though this portion of the Hall was relatively unused at the moment, and he was sure there were little forgotten treasures to be found in several of the rooms, the girls had mentioned that there had been fresh footprints in the dust.

Dust... Every step they took stirred it up, and Daigoro was begining to feel a rather big sneeze coming on... **Sharding allergies...**

"Oh...here. Let's get some more glow baskets before we get too far..."
Catriana ducked into the glow storage room that she and Rialine had found, and emerged with a basket for each of them.

"Good idea Catriana," Rialine said, taking a basket. This time she wouldn't have to stick so close to Catriana.

The Hallmaster fought off a sneeze as he followed the girls further down the corridor. "You said you had followed tracks in the dust?"

"Yes, sir. But there was dust already settled in the footprints. They were faint, but still visible. Fresh, but not too fresh, if you know what I mean." Catriana bent to examine the floor, holding the glow close. "There- like that." She pointed one mark out, only partially disturbed by Rialine and her footprints from earlier.

Rialine began look around nervously, trying to make sure she did not ruin the footprints they were trying to find with her own. "We figured we couldn't be lost as long as there were recent tracks sir,"
she said in response to daigoro's question.

Daigoro bent down to examine the prints a bit more closely. Fresh, but not too fresh. Down here. Who would be carrying bottles of such value down _this_ corridor and without his knowledge. He very much doubted that Master Fielton would do such a thing. Not when he could get a servant to do it for him. Why would the Hallmaster do that without his Second's knowledge? His silent brooding, and the dust at his feet, where disturbed by a mighty sneeze. "Excuse me, ladies."

"Sir...why would anyone at the Hall steal wine? Unless..." Catriana hardly dared speak the thought aloud... "Unless it is because it was made by a woman crafter? Would someone try to hide something like that?" There. It was spoken, and she freverently hope the voicing of such would not get her into too much trouble. The bottle was a silent testament to a woman's skill at a craft, and it went sharply against the current Hall thought that women had no place learning _this_
craft, at least. Someone might want to keep such things out of plain sight, but the wine itself was too valuable to just throw away.

"We can't base all our assumptions on one bottle there, lass. I'll have to look at the others to tell you if they were all women crafters."
Though it was a valid point if the bottle did prove to all be woman made.

"Of course, sir. We'll have to see...Here- this was the room,"
Catriana gestured to the door as they came upon it.

Daigoro looked at the door carefully. "Well, I can see how they got in.
The door looks broken here." He pointed to the splittered, rotten wood around the lock.

"Like someone pried it open." Catriana glanced at Rialine, then back to Daigoro.

Rialine thought for a moment, bitting her lip seeing Catriana look at her. "To be perfectly honest sir, we _may_ have been a bit overzealous."

"Yes...but we had to force the door, even though the wood was rotten.
Whoever hid the bottles there must have had a key...the door was locked. Or they picked the lock."

Daigoro looked at the girls reprovingly. Mystery or no, it was no reason to break the door. But the door was obviously open now. He swung it open carefully. "Bring the glow over here, please."

"Yes, sir." Catriana held her glow up for Daigoro and peered into the room.

Rialine also stepped closer to daigoro, she ducked her head though.
Knowing daigoro couldn't approved of what she did.

"Well, now, this is a pretty collection," the Hallsecond said appreciatively as he picked up one of the bottles and read the lable carefully.

"What are they?" Catriana said as she continued to hold the glow up for him.

"I'd say whoever collected these bottles together has a very good eye for the expensive wines." He handed her the bottle and picked up another. "But why would they collect them all down here unless they were not _supposed_ to be collecting them."

"They aren't all made by women crafters, are they?" Catriana asked, peering at the faded label of the bottle Daigoro passed to her. "Would someone be stealing these?"

"No, they are not all women crafters," Daigoro frowned. "I would have to say we have a thief on our hands. If it was anyone who actually had the _means_ to be amassing this impressive a collection, they certainly wouldn't be keeping it in an abandoned classroom."

"A theif! Who would do such a thing?" Cat asked, thinking hard. "It would have to be someone with access to the cellars. And this room.
With either means they had a key to both, or are a very good lockpick."

Rialine was less interested in who made the wines then in how this would end. "Hmmmm, are any of the prints clear outside? Or did we trample them all," she said, thinking. "We could get a boot size at the least?"

"No, I didn't see any," Daigoro said with a shake of his head. "Nope, the trail is cold, as the trackers say. I think we should quietly remove these bottles and see if anyone comes back down here to reclaim it. At the very least we may be able to determine _where_ the bottles came from. Perhaps that could lead us to the rogue." The Hallsecond shook his head. "It is a fair mystery. Thank you, girls, for bringing this to my attention. Perhaps you'd be so kind as to lend me a hand?"

Last updated on the February 14th 2006

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Vintner's Treasure III