Prince Plot

Hildraft took a moment's time to look up the crysmage books he'd found the day before. One was a copy of a book written by one Forlendel, an elven crysmage, who appeared to have lived around the same time as Galoriand and Elverandil, and described his preparations to use the Blood of Nilmarien in the final battle with Cain. The fact that his book was continued after that point by a different hand - one of his apprentices - indicated that Forlendel was one of the casualties of the imprisonment of Cain, so long ago.

Returning from the Library in the early hours of the 16^th, the heroes immediately set to work analysing the information gleaned from van Helsing's precious work. Working in shifts, they alternated sleep with reading and practicing, mastering the technique of the Inner Strike. This consumed the whole day.

Greeting Kelson, he laid the copies of van Helsing's writings, and Soped's history, before him and told him what they were. Within a few breathless moments, all the Karennal Renders that were in the building were bent over the table, studying the technique with passionate interest.

Once they'd paused for breath, Sack moved on to his other reason for being there, the need for some battle-tested vampire hunters to bolster the rather green Thornal branch. Several were eager to go, but when Sack indicated he was planning to transport them by stuffing them in his Bag of Holding while he teleported back to Thornal, most shied away, preferring the long, hazardous ride through the Desolation; only his old comrades Luregon and Greygill, veterans of the chaotic time in Karennal when the Kingmaker was waxing, were willing to trust the half-orc that far.

Helping the two into the bag, Sack touched his helm and leaped for Thornal. The first try was almost the disaster Kelson's men had feared; he arrived on the edge of the Desolation near the southern border of Tellare, nearly three hundred and fifty miles out. Swallowing, he tried again, and this time made it back to the group's lodgings without mishap.

There he found that they had a visitor. He was a young lad, Rolc’s age, but what a difference! Smart, well-fed and groomed, dressed in a clean white tunic with Pelor’s sun on the front. Naming himself Ciorev, the lad explained that he was a messenger sent by Dran Trasutor, at the Order of the Golden Fist, bringing word that ‘what you asked us to watch for has been encountered’, and a request to join Dran at the College for more information.

Leaving Luregon and Greygill at the rooms to study the manuscript and practice the Inner Strike, the three heroes set off to the College of Paladins, to find out what Dran Trasutor had to say.

Arriving at the College, the group were greeted by Dran, who told them that he had spread the word of what was to be watched for after their visits, among the paladins of the order and their known, trusted friends. On the evening of the 16th, a disturbance happened at a run-down dive called The Angry Hare, in the Poor Quarter. A detachment of the Night Watch was called out, and the disturbance quelled, with several people taken into custody. One was very strange, and caused the young officer of the detachment, one Callis, who was in training to enroll at the College, to send word to the Order as well as writing a report for his own superiors.

Dran sent a pair of his best knights down to investigate, and they discovered that what Callis had arrested was in fact a vampire spawn - the first seen in the city for eight years. Perhaps unwisely, the pair decided to interrogate the creature immediately, and managed to wring quite a bit of information out of it. It told them that a Gangrel called only Slaughter, assassin for the high clan Lasombra, was in Thornal preparing the way for Cain’s return. It had met with another vampire, the spawn's sire, a recently-turned one called Volstat, (Dran paused here and filled in that Volstat was a respectable merchant living in the city until just under a year ago, when he died of apparently natural causes and was buried normally. His body had subsequently vanished) and given him his instructions along with ten vampire warriors in service to Lasombra to help carry them out. Volstat was to scatter his forces across the city until the night of the 20th - the birthday of Crown Prince Crixus. While Crixus’ official birthday would be celebrated by a rather dour banquet at the Palace on the 22nd, the Prince was planning a private party with his friends, a rakish group of young blades, at a lively tavern "downtown" called The Jealous Wench. Volstat was to ambush him there, slay his companions, and take Crixus alive - the Spawn didn’t know why - and take him to the Vintares Gate east of the Imperial Palace to meet Slaughter. All went well, but this spawn was "hidden" in the Angry Hare, and became accidentally embroiled in a bar brawl. The knights pushed the creature for more information, but overdid it, and it died.

Mulling this over, the group discussed the implications with Dran, and a concentrated session of planning ensued. Although none of the blades were directly affiliated with the Golden Fist, two were sons of prominent knights; no-one felt this made them reliable enough to trust. Three were sons of senators - Scipio, Seneca and Procrustes' sons - but the danger of one of these being the vampire meant they were not necessarily useful either.

The idea of throwing the whole thing at the feet of the Emperor and letting him take over was mooted. Requests for an audience were submitted to the Imperial Household via both Dran and Ruld Grenark, but both were pessimistic; this sort of thing was known to take weeks to arrange. Surya suggested that if New Tellare were to declare war on the Empire this might get the Emperor's attention, but the others persuaded him that there were practical problems with this, and the idea was shelved.

Both Dran and Ruld were asked to try and find out who owned the Jealous Wench.

Sack, disguised as an Erlyid again, went down to the inn itself, and investigated. The place was as down-at-heel as he'd expected, with a mixture of low-class Erlyid citizens and the occasional foreigner drinking and roistering. No slaves were in evidence, nor anyone from the upper levels of society.

The main bar had an upper floor, with cheap rooms, a "best" room, and a common floproom, doubling as a function room. Sack approached the landlord, and hired the "best" room and three of the cheap ones for a five-night stretch, straddling the 20th. He enquired about the function room, but was unable to rent that for the critical night, not even for a considerable hike in price. He asked to see the rooms he'd hired - a stroke of genius, as this gave him a good tour of the building.

Dran and Ruld had had no luck finding out who owned the Jealous Wench, so Sack turned the problem over to the Thieves' Guild. Ten minutes later he had his answer; Senator Gravincia owned the whole block.

When he returned with this information, Dran warned the group to be careful around Gravincia; he was head of the Imperial Secret Service, and a shark - utterly ruthless at his job, dedicated - as were the Golden Fist - to The Empire at all costs. This news took the group aback for a moment - after their earlier brush with the ISS they had to conclude that Gravincia would know who they were; was it unwise to go and see him? Finally, they decided to go anyway, Sack posing as a rich half-orc noble from Orcland wanting to buy property in the Mother of Cities, the others as his bodyguards. A card was sent to the senator's town house, and a meeting was agreed for 11am the next day.

That night, Sack returned to the Jealous Wench, and ate and drank, preparing to spend the night.

Arriving seperately, Surya and Hildraft started their program of becoming known at the Wench, drinking and eating and causing no trouble. Of course, to start with, they attracted considerable attention, but interest waned once they failed to do anything remarkable, and soon the locals weren't giving them a second glance.

Leaving the building, Sack climbed a nearby wall and reached the Thieves' Highway. It felt good; he hadn't been on the rooftops for a while. The mighth sea of rooves stretched around him as far as the eye could see, and for a moment his thief's fingers twitched at the potential. Then he shrugged and went back to business. The buildings around the Wench had the usual thief-sign, tiny coded marks describing the building's features for a Guildsman. When he silently leaped onto the Wench's roof, however, he was surprised to find there were no signs at all. Odd! Returning to the inn, he turned in for the night.

Next morning, they followed up the appointment at Gravincia's town house. Ushered in, they found the senator in a pleasant, well-appointed, bright room opening onto a small garden. Greeting them with politeness, Gravincia had them seated and provided with drinks to taste, before asking them what they wanted.

Working through Hildraft as his "advisor" and "interpreter", Sack made his pitch, asking about buying the block, and sprinkling his sentences with the words "princely sum", "blood", "royal blood". Absolutely deadpan, the senator responded, keeping the matter entirely on the surface level of trading in a rather dodgy block of buildings in the city. Over the minutes, it gradually became apparent to the half-orc that the affable, almost buffoonish air of the man concealed a mind like a steel trap. Gravincia was entirely aware of what Sack was doing, and was playing the same game - no more, no less.

Finally, he held up a hand. "Gentlemen," he said with a smile, "you did well, but you are not property magnates, are you? I know my job -" Hildraft interrupted, "We didn't kill any of them!" he pointed out. Gravincia grinned. "I know," he said.

"I am aware of the tales being told by certain ... ambitious young watch officers," he continued smoothly. "I shall be glad to have the Prince under my roof, fairy stories notwithstanding. I am in control here, my foreign friends. Security will be increased -" This time Surya interjected, "What troops will you use?" he asked. Gravincia eyed him; "Who said I was using troops?" he replied. "Are they better than the tails you put on us?" the Tellaran asked. Gravincia chuckled. "You have met my best.... decoys," he answered.

He stood up. "Trust me," he said reassuringly, and with massive assurance, "I shall have more than sufficient force at my disposal." Surya looked him in the eye. "There will be far more evil than the three of us there that night," he said. "I don't believe you are evil," shot back the senator. Surya raised an eyebrow at this rather unusual expression of confidence, and the heroes took their leave of the senator.

To plan their own operation for the night of the 20th....