A Small Favor

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Synopsis

Vaelin d'Thuranni is an agent of House Thuranni who has recently been relocated to the House Thuranni enclave in Sharn, the City of Towers. She is currently working as House Thuranni's liason to a new client, an unusual and powerful half-fiend man named Malcyus who is on a personal quest to find his father. While following up on a lead in the city, Vaelin receives a request from her superior in House Thuranni - there is a Thuranni-owned nightclub in lower Northedge, which also serves as a brothel catering to various tastes, that hasn't reported in for two months. They don't believe there should be much of a problem - Madam Lania is a remarkably competent manager - but they just want a trusted agent to check up on things. Vaelin heads to the club incognito, Malcyus in tow.

Meanwhile, a low-ranking assassin/thief named Kalthas, of the House Tarkanan organization, is comissioned to steal a case of documents from the same club. Apparently, the madam of the club, which is called the Nine Hells, is in possession of these documents. It is unknown as to what the documents are, or who wants them so badly. On his way out of the safehouse to his mission, Kalthas is stopped by the safehouse's "janitor," an elderly half-orc who may or may not be a legendary thief in semi-retirement, and warned that he is the third thief to be sent after those documents, the first two having been killed on the job. For reasons unknown, he gives Kalthas a map to a secret entrance to the lower levels of the facility, as well as a wand of invisibility.

Vaelin and Malcyus arrive at the club and observe several unusual behaviors amongst its employees. Several of them seem to be moving oddly, and those that they speak to seem to have difficulty expressing emotions besides a strangely disturbing devotion to the club and Madam Lania. The pair makes their way down to the lower levels of the club. En route, they encounter James, a well known dancer who Vaelin has worked with in the past. James had been scheduled to dance here tonight for several months, and he had also noted the odd behavior of the staff. They attempt to make contact with the local Thuranni agent, Valerie, but when they locate her, they discover that she is so completely terrified of...something that she refuses to acknowledge them as allies or speak of anything untoward at all.