Root of Evil

Swift hears surprisingly well through this door, her honed senses having little trouble determining the conversation.

You seem to have gotten here just moments after the robed man, who introduces himself as Ein. His voice is sort of gravely, but there's not a noticeably otherworldly quality to it, no skeleton rasp or anything.

---

"I am searching for this person, Esvele Rosegrove, and was lead to believe you have quite a store of information here. Do you know anything of them?"

"Hmm. I don't remember them offhand, but it's possible they're in the network somewhere. If you're available to wait for a moment, I can have records confirm."

There's a brief pause before a knock on another door sounds and there's a rustling of paper.

"Is there anything else I could assist you with while we wait?"
...
"...alright then. I'll just...go back to looking at these documents in the meantime."

<insert several minutes of paper rustling here>

"Ah, here we are, thank you. It seems...fortuitously yes! This person passed through my territory several weeks ago, arriving in Fell's Edge and continuing up the Ghave to Porttown, and from there seemed to be heading into the Vercent territory." Wernstrum's voice becomes just, filled with loathing as he says Vercent.

"My magic is bound to within my territory, so I'm afraid this seems to be as much help as I can be at the moment."

"This is sufficient to aid me."
There's a rustling of cloth that indicates Ein has stood and is moving to leave.

"A...alright then. Safe travels."

---

There's a brief moment to act before Ein is at the door.

Swift very briefly informs the others and before there's really any time to consult, when Ein comes out she says, "Hello there. Pardon me for overhearing a bit when I came to check if the Lord was busy, but I heard you mention Esvele Rosegrove. If you wouldn't mind satisfying my curiosity, what are you doing looking for a person like her over in this land?"

Swift knows stuff about people:

Ein indeed opens the door and you get a better look at him. He appears to be a high elf, but the only parts of his body you can see are his face and his hands, where his feet should be his cloak billows and wafts gently, covering any sign of them.
He gives Swift a quizzical eyebrow, returning a curt, "Do you have information on them?"

Swift shakes her head and replies, "I only know they're somehow associated with the nobility of Faerun. Certainly enough to pique my curiosity though given where we are."

Ein stares at Swift for a moment, looks over and assesses the rest of your group, before stating, "I have been hired to return her home. Now, if you have nothing else to add..." He begins moving down the hallway, floating almost, you think from how smooth his motion is.

He certainly seems done with you, though whether you're done with him is your choice I suppose.

Swift shrugs, looks to Sora, who also shrugs and then the group goes into the room to see Lord Wernstrum. Assuming he doesn't say anything to stop them, Sora will hold out the blackened piece of paper and says, "We forgot we had this earlier and were wondering if you know anything about it."

Wernstrum grins and waves your group in as he spies you in the doorway. The paper is offered, and he seems intrigued and sits up to accept it. "Hmm. Some kind of black paper?"

He looks at the paper, rubs it between his fingers and tastes the dust (very bitter). He reaches into his desk and pulls out a spellbook and casts Detect Poison, Detect Good/Evil, and Detect Magic on the paper.

He frowns a bit, idly fidgeting with the paper. "Well, it's not poison, aligned, or magical as far as I can tell. It's...a very strange paper? How did you come by it?"

"We found it on the body of a dead man on the side of the road on our way here. They looked to be some sort of bandits that had been slain in a recent skirmish." Swift says, not technically lying.

Deception check: 11 + 1 = 12

Swift Insight: 10
Sora Insight: 6
Nari Insight: 11
Amber Insight: 20

He nods slightly and pulls out a sheet of paper, starting to write things down. "I see. Do you mind if I take notes? I have an awful lot to mind; don't want to forget something if it turns out to be important in figuring out your dead man's paper." He gives a little grin at his terming of the item.
"If I could ask, did he have anything else on him? Anything that might indicate this dead man's identity? It's possible he'd be in my records, and that'd make tracking where he had gotten this mystery from much easier."

---

Everyone except Sora recognizes that this man has seen through Swift's 'technically not lying,' and knows that she intentionally has tried to hide information from him. What that information is or on what scale of importance, he doesn't know, but he knows that you aren't being entirely honest.
Sora finds this man very hard to read. He must be incredible at betting games.

"No." Amber says and shakes her head. "If you can't identify what it is, I suppose we'll be going then." Amber adds. Swift looks at Amber for a moment and holds her hand out for Wernstrum to hand the paper back.

He seems surprised by this, but hands the paper back. He puts his spellbook back into his desk as he speaks. "I didn't say that I couldn't identify it. But I suppose you also haven't said things, hmm?" He gives a cheeky grin, before leaning in for a more serious talk. Wernstrum doesn't seem angry, just confused and maybe disappointed.

(Check for fucken book it out of here)

Amber scowls. She doesn't even try to hide it. She doesn't enjoy being fucked around with like this. Stupid humans.

"There are many things we haven't said and you haven't said. My favorite color is black for example. Will you be telling us what this is or not? Because we've answered your questions already and we're not here to play guessing games." Amber replies, clearly irritated, before anyone else has a chance to speak.

Wernstrum briefly has a shocked look pass over his face, along the lines of, 'excuse me, you think YOU'RE the one insulted here??' but he takes a breath and tries not to escalate the situation. "I believe it is an alchemical flare of some form. I might recommend you speak to Lord Vercent of the region to our west if you wish to learn more. While I loath him in most regards, I respect his prowess at the alchemical arts. What you do or don't share with him is your prerogative."
He waits expectantly.

"Thank you." Amber says flatly.

"We'll let Lord Vercent know you say hello." Swift says with a wry smile. Nari snickers at this.

"Well, I suppose we'll be leaving now. Good day my lord." Sora says as they start to exit.