Café de Nuit

Bennedict looks at Raen and the others with him. "What advantage we had from stealth or surprise is gone," he says, "I'll step inside to talk, but be ready in case I need your aid."

He steps in through the door, holding his crossbow up in front of him. "You have the advantage over me, sirs," he says, "You know my name, but I do not know yours."

BENN steps into the kitchen of the Dead Fish.

Men at the table, their faces all but invisible under deep hoods, watch him.

And his maidservant stands in the inner doorway, just across the table, with his baby girl in her arms!

Tilda and the servant would certainly have been caught in the path of that lightning bolt.

Jonas peeks around the maid's nightshirt.
"Papa, nice men help."
He dashes across the floor and hugs his father's legs.

One of the four 'nice men' gets up from the table and spreads his hands.
"Monsieur Gehrman."

Benn's eyes have adjusted to the flickering candlelight. He makes out the man's bright eyes, long lose, twitchy mustache and feral grin.

"We're kin to Ignatz. See, a man tried to break into your office earlier tonight, but Ignatz, he went after him. Almost caught him, too, but the burglar threw stinking, stinging stuff in his eyes and ran away. We were coming to your house to tell you when we found your maid running in the street with your pu--with your little ones."

The maid, pale and shaky, nods as the cloaked man finishes his brief account, tears rolling down her face.
"Master Bennedict, I'm sorry, but they said it was better if you found us on your own, or they found you, than if they put out that we were here tonight...I'm sorry. I don't understand all this."

Raen watches the scene unfold. He doesn't get a good look of these men but he sees the child and the non-threatening manner everyone acts.
He feels heat raising to his cheeks as he realizes what he was about to have done... He would have destroyed Benn's family, perhaps Benn's sanity with it and would have wounded and killed allies. Of course, he would probably have been stricken by a curse, rightfully. If not by the powers that be that govern the affairs of mortals then by his grieving friend or a dying innocent man.
He looks around and bites his lips. His first instinct is to disappear in the night. But how would that resolve anything? Bennedict would rightfully mistrust his temperament after this; literally a flip of the coin saved his kids and servants from death. Was he as bad as the Kargat? Death first - questions later? Didn't he left Darkon to do good?

Kat stretches and rubs her eyes.

"Time to face facts: We've lost him. Or them. Or it. Let's just hope the other group had better luck. I got a few samples for the alchemist though. I'll drop them off with him..." Kat looks up at the sky... "Tomorrow morning. In the meantime i guess some of us at least should go back to Master Gehrman's house to report."

KAT
SARA
HORNSBY
SMALL DETACHMENT OF GENDARMES

kintire wrote:Kat stretches and rubs her eyes.

"Time to face facts: We've lost him. Or them. Or it. Let's just hope the other group had better luck. I got a few samples for the alchemist though. I'll drop them off with him..." Kat looks up at the sky... "Tomorrow morning. In the meantime i guess some of us at least should go back to Master Gehrman's house to report."

The gendarmes helping the party listen in silence as Kat speaks. Heads nod, and voices mutter agreement.
The senior man looks to Dorgio with a weary expression on his unshaven face, and says, "Sir, we'll do as you think best for now, till we hear new orders from our superiors."

ALAIN'S PARTY


SEARCHING THE GRIM BASTION




The survey of the partly ruined stronghold takes hours to complete, as Alain and his party walk through each section and check for unstable masonry, rotten beams, and any other hazards that might be found in the place.

Alain makes note of the quarter or so of the upper building that is too damaged to safely use without major repairs.
Patching the roof and hauling debris out of the interior rooms will take time, and he'd be well advised to replace some of the wooden structures, but about three-quarters of the upper levels can be used without any big structural work.
His team finds multiple vermin nests--but nobody actually sees a live rat.


Going down a dark stairway into the bowels of the pile, Alain finds an entrance into the maze of tunnels and cellar chambers where his old adventuring group battled Van Diecks and the other gangsters and cultists who were behind the kidnapping and robberies aimed at the Sancerre family.
And there were walking dead men, too.
Jon 'killed' one of those.

Searching the cellars takes longer, but Alain finds several suitable chambers: dry with thick walls that should absorb sound and withstand accidental explosions.

He finds something else, too--the old portal chamber. It's much as he recalls it- large, shadowy, multiple corridors, and the pool-like portal in the middle.
One thing is new. There weren't all these chalk drawings on the floor around the pool-gate, or on the room's walls...
Alain knows mystic sigils, summoning circles, and the like when he sees them, even if such isn't the focus of his own magical training.
Someone has been trying to break the barriers between this place and...Somewhere.

The black surface of the magical gate resembles a mass of frozen ink: black, whorled, and cracked.
Closed, it seems.



In one of the alcoves of the room, Wat finds a bedroll and some items.
''Smells like roses."
Wat holds up a small bottle and waggles it at Alain from across the flagstone floor

Bennedict swiftly engages the safety on his crossbow, slinging it and snatching Jonas up into his arms, grateful tears appearing on his face. He crosses the room to the maid, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder and looking down to the baby to make sure she is also whole and hale. "They chose wisely, very wisely, and you will always have my gratitude for what you've been through, and for keeping my children safe."

He turns back to the mustached man, holding out his hand. "And for you," he says, "You've earned my eternal gratitude as well. Ignatz...well we've always had a professional relationship. I am grateful now to call you friends. I hope that Ignatz is ultimately going to be alright."

Adam wrote:Bennedict swiftly engages the safety on his crossbow, slinging it and snatching Jonas up into his arms, grateful tears appearing on his face. He crosses the room to the maid, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder and looking down to the baby to make sure she is also whole and hale. "They chose wisely, very wisely, and you will always have my gratitude for what you've been through, and for keeping my children safe."

He turns back to the mustached man, holding out his hand. "And for you," he says, "You've earned my eternal gratitude as well. Ignatz...well we've always had a professional relationship. I am grateful now to call you friends. I hope that Ignatz is ultimately going to be alright."

''It's a pleasure.''
The man's grin widens.
''And I think Ignatz will be fine. He's already got sight back, but his eyes are irritated.''

alhoon wrote:Raen:

Raen enters the building, his moves slow by shame. He approaches Bennedict and quietly offers a short apology for the disaster that he nearly placed on him. He simply states "I apologize for endangering your loved ones with my recklessness." Then without waiting for an answer he would look at the face of every person, realizing he may have killed friends and allies in a moment of poor judgement.

Benn's allies seem to avoid Raen's gaze, drawing their hoods close, glancing away, or stepping back into deep shadows.




























..................................................





ELSEWHERE IN PONT-A-MOUSEAU





The knife whispers as it leaves the sheath, hilt hard and cool in his hand.

You need this.

The woman, so close, yet unaware of his presence, walks on past the alley mouth, reeling a little.

Soon it will be time to return home.


But her thick golden hair, the perfume drifting from her skin, the white flash of her shoulder in the light of the lantern she carries thrust out before her to guide her steps...

He doesn't like to hurry.

She's almost past his position now, almost out of sight around the corner of the building on his left.

He steps out.

She turns slowly.


He smiles, palming the blade in his right and retrieving his coin purse with his left hand.
Clink-clink.

The harlot giggles.


There's still time...


END OF CHAPTER