>>5126028For a moment, you consider giving him some serious money, twenty-talents. Narcotics are supposed to be a profitable trade, after all – but you decide against it, partly because this is your money, and partially because you do not want raise any more questions – such as why this smuggler was selling laudanum in Midden to Lepers at great personal risk to himself for a fraction of what he could sell it for to some “distraught” widow or something. No doubt that guards would be asking themselves that anyway, but there is no need for you to draw attention to it. It is a fair question though, and the answer that you have come to – that the smuggler was here because of your father, just leads to a lot more questions. Was this smuggler one of father’s ‘professional friends’, or … well, suffice to say that none of the other obvious answers are appealing, though you feel really conflicted about hoping that a confederate of father’s died. Not to mention that he sold drugs and murdered a Leper.
After some thought, you decide to hold on to the stub-club. It is a well-made weapon, and you would feel much more comfortable about going into a fight with it than the pin-stilettoes. It will just have to be another mystery for the guards. There is something else though … the snuff box that apparently belonged to the late father of the captain of the Euthyphro. You swiped the thing just on a whim as you left the cabin with your swag, but the crier that you passed earlier specifically mentioned this thing in his spiel, with a reward for its return equal to the price on you head – one hundred twenty fraying talents, equal to a decade and three months’ worth of wages for a gravedigger. That is a life changing sum for any Imperial Subject, and even an Imperial Citizen would not scoff at that kind of money. A reward that large makes this thing dangerous, dangerous enough that you are seriously considering just giving it back – in a way that would hopefully tie the knock-over of the Euthyphro to the smuggler. Now that would definitely raise some questions too, but that crop of questions would have to lead any investigation away from the Midden. Before you make any decision though, you decide that you should investigate the thing first, to make sure that there is no other reason beyond sentimentality that it is so valuable to the captain. You unlatch the lid and take a look inside. You have no experience with tobacco, and you have never even seen snuff before, but the dark brown, finely ground powder matches the description you have in your head. It is dryer than you imagined, however. You poke around inside, looking for something, anything … but there is nothing. There is nothing in the snuff, no hidden compartment, no secrets. What etching there is on the box is not particularly ornate, and there is not even any inscription on the inside. He really must want the thing just because it reminds him of his father.
