Lady Dezhia

She answers Arus first. "Of course I went to see the Waterbaron but nothing came of it. I'm not sure she lifted a finger to find him. If she cannot keep the city's nobles safe, perhaps ..." She bit her tongue. "I support Nestra".

Then, turning to Zhu she first mulled the question about the lady in a purple dress, "Perhaps she's a member of the Hands of Yartar? I do not know where to find one of those ladies but looking for a hardened woman in a sordid place might be a good place to start!"

"As for a golden goose? I have not heard of that name."

The conversation continues for quite a bit and as her guests probe about Artan and the rest of the family, it becomes clear that Artan is the son she least respects. He is excluded from most of the family business. Lady Dezhia is a widow, Artan's father died when Artan was just a small boy. Her two other sons, Martyn and Urzales run the day-to-day operations and were often away on business, as they are now.

Much as they probe further, it is soon clear that she does not have any more information to impart.

<Bern>

It becomes clear to him ... as he listens to the information and the subsequent debates ... that there was something going on that they didn't yet have the information to understand.

"Artan ... being the youngest", he begins "... should not have been a 'target' for someone trying to 'gain control' ... unless they wanted to 'own' him before 'they' took out the other two", he offered.

Arus

"An interesting point thou raiseth, Bern." Arus says, nodding to the ranger before asking Lady Dezhia, "I take it no ransom demand was received?"

If no ransom, then the kidnapping was likely political so the next obvious question must be: What is Artan's political affiliation? Though it might be best to ask Artan that himself.

Lady Dezhia

"No. He just disappeared. No ransom request was made, but I was starting to think it was meant to take us out and make us afraid - an intimidation."

Zhu

"And when was the last time you communicated with your older sons, if I may ask?" She asks the matron. "As they are out of the city, are you sure they are safe?"

Arus

So it's political then. If they speak to the Waterbaron, she can probably tell them how the kidnap victims are affiliated. Yartar doesn't seem like the kind of metropolis to have organised political parties but there are always factions of power in any community.

He'll share this notion with the party in private but for no Arus says, "The Hands of Yartar are a female-only thieves' guild. I know one of their number who contracts for the Lionshield.

"We need to speak to Aldis, the Lionshield's proprietor... Two fish, one hook?"

Lady Dezhia

"They both left Yartar before Highharvestide," she said coldly, as if not sure why the question was asked. "We are fortunate that there is opportunity for our enterprise to grow. I hope they are safe. How would I know for sure? How could anyone? "

Kriv

A slight nod at Jaleira's look: A preponderance of Noble disappearances was both indicative of skulduggery and opportunity. So, what of the town's leadership in general, and the present political situation that might warrant such a move?

"Lady Dezhia, you say explicitly that you support Nestra. As outsiders to the town, we are not well versed in the intricacies of its leadership. Is there an alternative to lending your support there?"

Jaliera

Finishing her slice, she does for a moment consider the remaining contents on the plate but decides that three would really be over doing it. It looks like they might have a lot of investigating to do, always nice to get involved in an investigation. She glances at Arus when he mentions the female-only thieves guild. She has never heard of such a thing.

Zhu

**Very odd.** She muses. **There are all sorts of ways for her to know, from the sending of mundane messages to quite simple magical means, all of which a woman in her position would be absolutely aware of and would have been expected to have used in the past. If she thinks her youngest was taken to intimidate her House, her very next thought should have been to both warn, and ensure the safety of, her other sons.**

She glances in Kriv's direction with a raised eyebrow.

Lady Dezhia

She cannot suppress a snickers at Kriv's question, "Alas, are there not rivals that compete for power in every city in the Realms? But I do not know of anyone that has dared to express a desire to supplant her. She is elected for life, so such an objective would be construed as a direct threat to her. Nestra is not one to react ... casually."

Kriv

The Dragonborn took this all on board impassively, sharing a glance with Zhu.

“Good to know. When was the election, and are there any other candidates from it still active in town?”

Perhaps it was a poll of the gentry, perhaps merchants could vote, it mattered little. With so much power as a consequence, it was probable those involved had long memories and deep ambitions. As a potential area of political friction, it needed to be looked at and preferably eliminated as a lead, as poking around in such things was hazardous.

ooc: I should have been a bit clearer about things. Most of you have heard of Nestra Ruthiol. She is a power broker in the Realms. Consider her to have the same level of notoriety as Sadiq Khan or Mario Cuomo. That being said (I'll be vague to not mess up Forgotten Realms lore by making stuff up)...

Lady Dezhia
"The election was a very long time ago, it seems almost a lifetime. As you would expect, there was competition for the title, a lot of it. Power is alluring."

Jaliera

She muses privately on things that cannot be said in public.

It seems Lady Dezhia is attracted to power herself. Would that be to the point of making a play against her own son if that could be manipulated to her own advantage. He did not stay captured but ended up next to a busy trade route. Granted he has some sort of magical disease but the Lady might already possess a cure for it?

It seems farfetched but it the lengths that some folk will go to to achieve their aims never fails to surprise her.

DM
The conversation lasts a bit longer but no further important information is gleamed from it. Having accepted the challenge, the party needs to decide how to proceed. You leave the estate and are now standing outside the property gate and are free to decide where to go.

Arus

Arus leads the way back to the lower rent side of town. The side of Yartar he's familiar with.

As they walk, he talks.

"We need to speak Aldis at the Lionshield. He's an arms dealer. I have a shipment to hand-off and we want any information he has on dubious, new customers in the Savage Frontier. Or any big thefts."

He walks some more, nodding a smile to a passing gentlewoman.

Which reminds him. "Aldis hires women from the Hand as security." The triton explains to the party, "I know one quite well. Scimitar Sally. She'll be at the Lionshield too. I'll ask her about the golden goose."

To the Lionshield Coster!

Jaliera

For the moment Jaliera is content to tag along with the others.

"We should also look for any rumours of other nobles being taken. There were hints that there might be more. So there could be more money to be earned and also more information to be had."

She pauses.

"Do you think the lady of the house back there is above kidnapping her own son to divert suspicion?"

<Bern>

"I didn't get the feeling that she was lying. Buuttt ... she may not have told us everything that =we= might want to know", he said with a shrug.

Kriv

"I'm going to have to speak to the Waterbaron as a matter of necessity. It won't hurt to let her know we'll be operating here for the moment, and to see if there are any potential leads of which she is aware that additional personnel would be able to pursue."

Pondering Jaliera's observation, he mused,

"It's difficult to see a beneficial outcome for her in that regard. That skin malady, her suspicion on our arrival and how swiftly it faded once it was clear we had a reasonable explanation which seemed to catch her unawares... I'm not sure she could have done what was done to him, not without involving enough people to render a conspiracy impractical. Plus financial outgoings at every stage, the uncertainty of him being found, the impracticality of not simply having him killed if she really wanted to get rid whilst inflicting him with a potentially lethal condition. I could be wrong, but it doesn't have that feel to it."

Arus

"I think when we found Lord Artan we interupted not a kidnapping but a murder.

"He would've eventually washed up somewhere, too diseased and too far gone to save, and his death would've been attributed to hedonistic folly."

An ambiguous end, suspicious but not obviously foul play. Just enough doubt to get away with it.

Arus nods to Kriv. The dragonborn will surely have better luck at obtaining an audience with the Waterbaron.

"The Waterbaron will confirm which political faction Artan and the other missing nobs all support. And that will make their political rivals our prime suspects."

Assuming they can trust the Waterbaron, but as a traveller in foreign lands Arus has a developed decent lie-detector sense.

Zhu

She'd been holding her council until they'd left the Estate far behind. "I will need to pay a visit to the Waterbaron as well, so I can go with you when you go Kriv. As for the Lady, does it not seem odd to you that if she truly believed what happened to the boy was a threat to her house that she made no effort to warn her other sons? No matter they are out of the city. A woman of means, like her, would know of numerous methods of contacting her sons, both magical and mundane, yet she seemed to not have even thought to bother with trying."

<Bern>

"Well according to 'the story' the elder sons were away on their missions before the 'abduction'", he submitted. "So I don't see how they would be involved ... and it is not 'beyond belief' that she didn't want to use those obvious means in order to avoid 'alerting' others", he said with a shrug.

[[ technically ... you can do that. But it is a lot of work for you. You would have to create threads and then cut and paste from the PMs. And you would have to 'update' as the PMs were replied to :-/ Sorry there isn't an easier 'solution' <sigh> ]]

[Since you're planning to post the PMs to the game forum anyway, you could just create topics for each player character and encourage others not to read them until the appropriate time.]