TAP Case Payment and Office Debris from the Drowned Man

The abandoned office smelled of old paper and a persistent, wrong salt. The TAP agent who hired you left a tidy payment chit and a note of thanks on the wet blotter where the drowned man once sat. The elevator shaft behaved strangely, and where the door overlap had warped you recovered evidence of something not native to the building: a warm iridescent scale and salt-worn equipment. Most of the material is mundane payment and trade goods the agency left or the victim carried, but a few pieces speak to the real cause of the death—an intersection with an alien ocean in the elevator's blind seam. The pouch of coins and the TAP chit will cover immediate expenses and the agency's fee, the gemstones and scale are saleable to collectors or scholars who study overlaps, and the potion and rope will help the party on their next case. Handle the scale with care; researchers will pay for a closer look, but the agency may want it returned for official investigation.