Horand Heist
Irja explains what they want her to do; copy the 'bet book' at Horand Dog Track. With the information in this book anyone could make a lot of bets that will always pay out more than the inlay. The extra difficulty here is that copying it will be useless if the dog track found out they did so because then they'd just suspend operations and bring in new dogs. They need at least a week before the crime is discovered. This might completely rule out intimidating, blackmailing, or charming staff as the risk of them breaking down and reporting the crime is high.
Rhes Haghed has brought in a gnome, Nesmin Zimmlar, who is to do the copying as he is trusted by them and good at his job (it will likely take him between four and six hours). They have less than a week to pull this off so Irja could really use her nephew's help. She can't just disappear as the criminals gave her a magical tattoo which they can use to track her, and perhaps do even more. But she tells them she did a lot of work already; they can pull off this job and make some nice money at it.
Fortunately she has done her due diligence and thus knows quite a bit about the track.
Location
Dominating the area is a large, elongated building with a public area and a staff area, stands are built up against the public area to the north and south where the two oval tracks are. The eastern part of the main building is the staff area. To east of the tracks are the dog kennels and between those are sheds with everything needed for the dogs.
Public area
The entrance is on the west side of the building, leading to a large lobby with betting counters to the north and south. Money from the betting counters is dropped down pipes which lead to a well protected underground vault. The second floor of the building contains different food vendors and lavatories that use magic to remove any waste. The top floor is a VIP area with its own catering and a great view of both tracks.
Staff area
This has its own entrance on the east side and internal stairs. The ground floor holds staff rooms including a break room and a small kitchen though food is brought from the public food court whenever possible. There are doors from here to the counters. The second floor contains administration offices mostly and there is a door here to the public food area. The third floor is the operations center from where the races are coordinated. There is a door from here to the VIP area.
The operations center itself is divided in four parts. A balcony circles three sides of the floor from which flags are used to communicate with people on the ground, though during races there will usually also be at least one person around who can cast a message spell. It also from here the announcers commentate on the races, an intricate system is used to amplify their voice across the stands.
According to Irja's sources the bet book is stored in a strongbox in the southeastern part of the operations room every night. There are supposedly three keys to the strongbox; one held by the head of operations, one held by the vice head of operations, and one held by the owner.
Owners
The track was bought, and renamed, by the current owner about fifty years ago. This Renn Horand, married to his third wife, the much younger Mia Sabba from Haza, is no longer involved in day to day operations but he can still be found at the track multiple times a week. He has four children. The eldest, from his first marriage, is Steuner, who isn’t involved in the business and spends most of his time at his pig ranch near Botunn.
His other three children are from his second marriage. The second son, Wirlig, married to Silbe, is the current head of operations. The third son, Griech, a notorious playboy, who technically is head of client relations, only comes in when fancy takes him. The youngest child and only daughter is Piccia “Pick”, dating Sam Gänsekrote, she has recently convinced her father to let her use her experience from traveling abroad by giving her the head of marketing job.
Staff
Head of Operations - Wirlig Horand. While technically in charge, he depends a lot on the work of two of the senior staff; Peter Friedman and Karl Muller. His assistant is Jess Kannfeld, a very attractive and very organized half-elf.
Vice Head of Operations - Peter Friedman. Has been here ever since Renn bought the place and can be considered a friend of the family.
Head of Administration - Karl Muller. This dwarf was brought in soon after the takeover and is a financial genius.
Head of Client Relations - Griech Horand. Absent most of the time. His assistant is Xerb, a gnome man of indeterminate age.
Vice Head of Client Relations - Dagmara Domińczyk. From Vilda, Not much is known of her prior to joining the company.
Head of Marketing - Piccia “Pick” Horand. Has come in with all kinds of new ideas including the upcoming 12 Hours of Horand.
Vice Head of Marketing - Neb Backer. Halfling, he is not happy being passed over for the head job which he thought was rightly his.
Head of Kennels - Sam Gänsekrote. Recently promoted to this position. Is responsible for everything dog related.
Head of Security - Gerri Kellman. Dwarf wizard of some repute. She has been with the company for a long time and is both feared and respected.
Operations
There are a small number of security guards present at the track both day and night with at least one having some magical capabilities. They normally stay inside the main building, going out to patrol the grounds every two hours. A few alarm spells using the audible alarm version are cast at the start of every night shift at key locations with designated guards being exempted from setting it off.
On days when races are being held, which is usually about three days a week, extra security is brought in, often they are locals who have been doing this for a long time and are relatively cheap. On some occasions Bruised But Not Broken people are hired as well.
On non-race days the public area will be virtually empty, but the staff area will still be busy, as will the kennels. At the end of any race day the Ott will send multiple wagons with a few squads of soldiers to collect all the money made, half of it is theirs. They then transport the money to the Helfrau Schwestern Bank (HSB) in the Old Town ziek.
On both race days and non-race days the bet book will normally be on a desk in the operations center. During race days it will be consulted and updated quite often, on other days, much less so. On non-race days the operations center will usually have about six people around, on race days it can be four times as many.
Upcoming events
Yesterday there was a regular race day.
Tomorrow evening Tayon Orthryn of Thal Sivale is throwing a party at his home; at least a few Horands will be there.
Three days from now there will be a new event at the track; the 12 Hours of Horand. Thought up by Piccia “Pick” Horand, this is the first time they are organizing it. Normally most dogs will race only once a day but in this setup there will be multiple heats with the winners going through to a next round until at the end of the day there will be a final race with the eight dogs that have won all previous rounds.
Six days from now there will be a regular race day.
The Party
Lots of schemes are suggested and almost as many are rejected. In the end they decide to get a copy of the key first and then see about further steps. Fortunately Irja has done her work and can get a few of them in as catering staff. She also managed to get her hands on an invitation but they need to make sure the actual invitee doesn't make it to the party.
It turns out the invite was for Bruised But Not Broken.Quadok (Colonel) Ludwig von Bredow doesn't do parties so the invites went to one of his three Ductaks (Majors); Sani Reivred. She is a middle-aged dwarf and a well respected officer. Odrik and Zayn wait for her near Tayon Orthryn and the warlock then uses a suggestion spell; she should go visit every brothel in town and avail herself of the services. And this she does, for the full eight hours that the spell lasts.
Odrik and Izzy then use the invitation to get inside while Boldrek and Zayn reported to the catering service where both were put on dish washing duty. Odrik is hardly inside when a dwarf with a small and well-trimmed salt and pepper colored beard and mustache and hair of the same color, wearing a sort of uniform that looks like Ott issue but isn't, and a monocle, marches with ramrod straight posture over to him.
The dwarf introduces himself as Major Gower, formerly of the Ott, now retired. He's curious about this new visitor as he knows just about anyone at the Bruised but has never seen Odrik before. Our friend weathers a lot of questions and tries to get some useful information from the major, namely what any of the Horands look like, but to no avail, the man just keeps talking on and on.
Izzy has excused herself and is making her way through, looking for other ways to find their quarry. Meanwhile Zayn uses his awakened mind ability to drive one of the servers crazy. They go home in despair, leaving a server position open for the half-orc to fill. It takes some convincing and finding an outfit that fits but eventually he is sent out into the room with a tray of drinks.
He has hardly begun his job or he comes across what he thinks are a mother and daughter, both half-elves, both attractive. It’s hard to guess their ages but were they human one would say mid-fifties and early twenties. The elder of the two is wearing an expensive dress with a plunging neckline, showing quite some cleavage. The younger is much more conservatively dressed.
The older woman purrs as she puts her hand on Zayn and asks him if he knows who she is. He does not but she is happy to tell him that she is the famous novelist Salome Otterbourne, writer of the best selling Abstinence and the Hamlet. And she lets him in on a little secret; she is almost done with her new novel, One Tone of Drab.
Izzy sees that the warlock needs rescuing and finds a private spot to use her hat of disguise to turn into an even better looking male half-orc server. The novelist takes the bait and Zayn can continue with his work. He tells another server that he has a drink for a certain Mr Horand but doesn't know who that is. The server points out the man; Wirlig Horand, a rather bland looking man in his thirties, he does some rather energized right now.
Izzy decides to take one for the team and seduces the man, together they go look for a bedroom. Odrik follows and sneaks into the room, taking a set of keys from the man's discarded pants. In the corridor he and Zayn quickly take an impression so that the Rhes Haghed locksmith can make a copy of it. The dwarf then quickly returns the key.
The party decides to stay for the remainder of the party so as to not look suspicious and the next morning they meet up with Irja who now has a copy of the key to the strongbox.
The Plan
It turns out gaseous form can be a real handy spell, certainly when no counter measures have been taken against it. They don't know of any so with lots of iteration they finally decide on the following:
In the evening they will go to a landmark outside the Horand Dog Track grounds, a tree or something. When dusk falls Zayn will cast gaseous form on Nesmin Zimmlar; the gnome will then slowly make his way to the attic above the operations center. He will first fly high into the air so he can't be spotted from the ground. He will then wait right on the attic floor till the spell lapses after an hour.
Zayn will then cast the same spell on himself and join him. The warlock will then need to take a short rest before using two more castings of the spell to go through the floorboards, unlock the strongbox, take the book, lock the strongbox again and go back up to the attic. The gnome can then start his copying, they'll bring a tarp to make sure the lantern light won't shine through the floorboards.
Meanwhile Zayn takes another short rest and when Nesmin is done with his work, the warlock will use two castings again to return the original book to the strongbox. Another short rest is then needed before he can cast gaseous form on the gnome again who will then return to the tree outside the grounds where the others will be waiting. After an hour the spell lapses and then Zayn can follow him there.
All together this should take them about anywhere between eight and ten hours. Irja wants to make sure there are no surprises and insists doing a dry run. Rhes Haghed have created some space in a warehouse where they build an attic and operations center as close to the real one as possible. They then spend an entire night going through all the motions, copying a random book and everything.
Irja even goes as far as throwing in some wrenches that they could encounter on site, even throwing in some dust at the end of their stay in the attic, making the warlock and gnome sneeze. But all in all she is happy that this plan might actually work and gives it her blessing.
The Execution
To everyone's surprise the plan goes off without a hitch and early in the morning Nesmin and Zayn return with a copy of the bet book.
The Hand-off
Irja told the Rhes Haghed people to meet at a pier on the docks in the morning. She gave them the pier number of the one next to the one the party is waiting on, just to frustrate any nefarious plans. She whistles and calls them over, Scurti, Pal, and a number of goons walk over, grumbling. She has Odrik hold the gnome and his book right at the water's edge and tells Scurti; "It’s not that I don’t trust you. Oh wait, no, that’s right, I don’t trust you."
She makes sure her tattoo is the first thing to get taken care of. They send a dwarf forwards. “Rizoll,” Irja gives him a curt nod and the pulls up a pant leg, revealing her tattoo. He takes out a wand and soon enough the tracking tattoo is removed. "Can I go now?" the dwarfs says to Scurti as he walks back, "I have a theft and an angry client to deal with."
Irja asks for the money next and Pal nods to one of the goons who comes forward with a hefty bag of clinking coin. “Put it in here, it’s lead lined, just in case,” Irja says as she pulls a large backpack from behind some crates and hands to Boldrek. Once they are sure everything is in order, Odrik walks towards the quay with Nesmin who is clutching the book against his chest.
But then suddenly a thick cloud of fog covers the pier and everything around it. "The book, get the book!" Scurti shouts and there's the sound of people moving onto the pier. Then there's a loud splash of something hitting the river. Odrik pushes Nesmin and his book to the floor and keeps hold of him. Confusion reigns and it almost comes to blows.
Then someone manages to dispel the fog cloud spell and Odrik hands the gnome and his book over to the goons. As they look around they can't seem to find Irja though. They figure the backpack is gone as well but it's still there. However, when they open it, all they find is the books that they used for the practice run. "That tracks," is all Odrik has to say when he is told of the missing money.
Rhes Haghed has their book and it seems to be the real deal, so they don't care about Irja or the missing money. They go their ways and the party is free to go theirs. They go get a good breakfast and then back to their inn for some sleep they have to catch up on.
Turning the Page
It turns out there is a twist in the tale. In the afternoon the door bursts open and Scurti and some goons come barging in. He tells them that the book is empty now and he wants to know what happened. When asked he comments that the gnome can't answer any more questions right now. The party has no idea but wonder if anyone had access to the ink Nesmin used.
The mobster is very unhappy but right now he has no proof that the party was involved with whatever happened. He warns them not to leave town and then leaves the party in their now door-less room. They decide to change inns but when they get downstairs the innkeeper tells them they are not allowed to get rooms elsewhere, though he does offer them a new room with a door. For now the party accepts, though they don't like the current situation much.