The Eye of Anubis: Book Ten

[lostboy]

"Which gives us more incnetive to visit the temple , unescorted if possible." Sascha murmers urgently.

"Yet after our experience in the alleyway, we need to be alert that this could yet be another trap, compromising us in some way and calculated to be the spark that lights off the powder keg. A walking corpse is a very blatant invitation, so, take nothing for grnated should be our watchword from now on."

[DocBeard]

"So we're sure it's him now?" Tomas, after his walkabout, murmurs. "As much as I relish the idea of painting the nearest dank alleyway red and black with the assorted humors that keep him functioning, I thought we were just noticing uncanny similarities in modus operendi."

[Kaitou Kage]

Kuzan caught the packets and gave Lia a little grin, then strained to listen to whatever Vedarrak and the soldier were saying (Listen 35).

"It might be worth telling Vedarrak about," the priest murmured, "So that the soldiers don't go tromping through the city looking for blood just yet. If it were just walking corpses, I might not be so quick to say Cavendish, but there was the matter of Hermann, too and that has Cavendish written all over it."

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"If Vedarrak sends a troop of Falkovnian butchers into whatever meat grinder Cavendish has set up - yes, Tomas, or who- or whatever eslse might be here - we risk feeding it raw materials," Lia notes. "I am not completely opposed to whittling the Falkovnians down a bit, but I would prefer for them not to rise as zombies or death knights out for our blood immediately afterward."

[yalenusveler]

"The Falkovnians are people in a bad situation. As much as we disagree with their politics and practices, they're to be honest, as much victims in this as the Akiri." It was clearly obvious by Andre's tone that he couldn't believe he was saying this and was considering the possibility that a certain ritual had been, in fact, completed.

"Going in there unprepared is essentially waltzing in with a giant sign around our necks saying "Kill us now, for we are dumb as rocks.", especially if Cavendish is involved. And it wouldn't explain the Osirian lay priests being behind the insurgency, unless he co-opted them. Also, we've the matter of Fasshad's grandfather to get in touch with. Though the rumors about him are simply that...who knows, he might have information worth knowing."

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"So, which do we do first?" Lia asks briskly - though she does make sure not to raise her voice. "Seek out the old man unfortunate enough to have been cursed with Fassahd for a grandchild, speak with the priestess of Isis to see whether she has had any word, or try a run on the temple of Osiris?"

[yalenusveler]

"Information gathering. I know Verderrak is waiting on briefings on Cavendish. I'd rather like to wait on those before charging in against him, there might be a weakness in there that we missed." Andre said, already starting into a pace. "Though how I would love to send a bolt of focused sound through that necromantic vaudevillian's brainpan."

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"You'll have to beat me to the casting," Lia says, "or perhaps we can do something together?" The Mage flexes her fingers, and a smile is evident in her tone of voice. "I have acquired some very nice tricks since yesterday. Very nice ..."

[Nathan of the FoS]

Charles is looking positively radiant this morning. Maybe it's the new jacket. It's a very handsome jacket. He was down tending to Kejser and making friends with Flea (not very successfully up to the present, but perserverance!) and came up to the meeting with Vedarrak a little late. Too late to try to direct Vedarrak's inquiry about the Tomb in a more congenial direction, alas. Or to forestall a little upflaring of the spat between Lia and Kuzan. Unfortunate. And there remains the question of how they will send the Falkovnians off on a goose chase of some sort...but Vedarrak is paying too much attention to talk about that, surely, even with his ear occupied by other business at present.

"I think we'd better have a look at the Temple," he says, fussing with his jacket cuffs to get the embroidery to show to best advantage. "If it's one of Cavendish's necromantic boils we'll want to lance it sooner rather than later."

[DocBeard]

Tomas covers his eyes-perhaps afraid of going blind while in the radiance of Charles's new jacket. "Hey, I'm all for that." He adds intelligently, trying to find something to make a quick blindfold out of.

[Kaitou Kage]

"I think I'm with Charles," Kuzan said, "We can talk to the old man after we deal wtih the temple."

[The Whistler]

"Reconnaissance is here best done in a hands-on of fashions--and *not*, I am being somewhat relieved to say, in a means that makes necessary my *particular* talents." One of the great things about inspecting a public building is not having to transform into a wolf to look at it. On the other hand...

The gunsmith frowns slightly. "...That is, unless it is *quite* heavily patrolled. Regardless, it is appearing as if it will ultimately become our greatest priority, so I too am inclined to research directly beforehand. There is nothing to say that we must go *in*..."

[NeoTiamat]

Vedarrak's Office, Falkovnian Compound, Muhar, Har'Akir
August 27th, 761, 9:52 AM; Day 163 of the Menetnashte Expedition
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"I am afraid that we will have to cut short our discussions of the Tomb of Menetnashte." Ambassador Vederrak said as he came back into the room with a grim look on his face. "Something has come up that requires my personal attention. It seems that someone, either your necromancer friend or the local Akiri trouble-makers have been having some additional fun last night. One of the soldiers disappeared on the morning water-run to the river, and I am going to lead the search."

The Kommandant crossed the room to his desk, checking through the documents on the desk and opening drawers. In short order, he removed a pistol, a slender length of black wood that appeared to be a wand, a small, neat black satchel of spell-components, and several documents. Vederrak glanced at the last of these and passed them across the table. "The incident reports you wished to see."

"Hrm. And it appears that my superiors have delivered the dossiers on M'sieur Cavendish as well." Vederrak pulled out a single piece of creamy parchment and passed it to Andre. "I'll want that back, by the way. It's a Writ of Communication, and I haven't had a chance to amanuensis it yet."

The Falkovnian Ambassador opened the last drawer and withdrew a small box from it. It was enscribed with some mystical writings, and was generally as large as a letter box.

"Stay out of trouble while I'm gone." Vederrak gave Andre a brief smile. "Everyone will be happier that way."

Outer Courtyard, Falkovnian Compound, Muhar, Har'Akir
August 27th, 761, 10:06 AM; Day 163 of the Menetnashte Expedition
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"Lieutenant, report." Vederrak said as he led you out of the main building and into the outer courtyard. The Kommandant's chain-shirt clinked as he walked. "Is the force assembled?"

"Jawohl." Lieutenant Schiffer said. Normally, Lebrecht was a moderately pleasant man to be around, if possessed of a remarkably black brand of gallows humor. There was nothing pleasant about him now. "We had several soldiers volunteer to help, so I had them saddle up."

"Good." Vederrak looked about the courtyard, where over a dozen Falkovnian soldiers were waiting on their horses or in some stage of getting saddled. "We'll find Anton. Never fear."

"Ja, Herr-Kommandant." Finding the missing soldier wasn't what Lebrecht was worried about. What condition he'd be in then... that was a different question. "Your horse is ready."

"Thank you." Vederrak turned to the rest of you. "We should be back within a few hours, certainly by dark. Until then, you have the run of the outer compound. When I return, we can continue our little chat about the Tomb."

With those parting words, and barring any outbreak of sudden volunteerism amongst the Expedition, the Falkovnians left the former manor of Snefru, leaving you standing in the outer courtyard of the compound.

===============================================

The Writ of Communication was a single piece of paper, on which someone had summarized, in an unknown hand, several accounts of John Lancaster Cavendish.

March 14th, 743.

• Two agents were dispatched Chateaufaux to recover an extant copy of the Madrigorian from a local bookseller, following an announcement in certain trade journals of the book's sale. Agents were in the process of negotiating an amicable fee when the proceedings were interrupted by a dozen of ghouls attacking the house.
  
  Once the agents and bookseller were paralyzed, a grey-skinned gentleman in a dark coat and wearing smoked lenses entered the store, whistling, secured the copy of the Madrigorian, and left a banker's order for fifteen hundred solars in payment, and departed, taking the ghouls with him.
  
  The order was signed John L. Cavendish, and the money had been entered into the local back by a non-descript woman six hours before the attack.

December 23rd, 749

• A philosopher by the name of Antonius Demarc, of Martira Bay, was found murdered in a grotesque fashion, along with the entirety of his household, save one. Demarc, his butler, maid, cook, and porter were hung from a chandelier, and had waxen candles placed upon their heads. Their bodies had been partially eaten by beetles.
  
  The sole survivor, the scullery boy, aged thirteen, reported that the evening before, a grey-skinned gentleman with 'sharp teeth' entered, accompanied by a rough-hewn fellow with yellow eyes, dressed in a dock-laborer's outfit. The gentleman and Demarc had a brief exchange, whereupon the child reports that the gentleman shot forth a wave of flesh-eating beetles from his hands, while his companion transformed into what is described as a short-furred, speckled wolf. The boy is currently placed in a local sanitarium.
  
  The spell is an unfamiliar one, but appears to be necromantic. That and the description matches that of John Cavendish. His companion is a lycanthrope, possibly a werejackal or some manner of wild dog, or possibly a Valachani maned wolf. Why Cavendish would see fit to murder Demarc is unknown.

October 4th, 754

• A professor at the University of Dementlieu, Albrecht Valmard of the Arcane Sciences department, committed suicide by pistol. Whilst unremarkable in and of itself, Valmard had no prior history of mental illness, was in good health and sound finances. He was not an agent, nor had any personal traumas that we could discover.
  
  Witnesses reported, however, that Valmard had quarreled violently with a rough-hewn man with yellow eyes a few weeks prior to his death. The subject of the quarrel was a collection of grimoires which Valmard refused to sell to the yellow-eyed man.
  
  The description of this man matches that of the man involved in the Demarc slaying, as does the incongruity of a lower-class man seeking to buy arcane tomes. No evidence of Cavendish's involvement was found, however, though it was not brought to our attention until December of the same year.

The Incident Reports I'm going to handle a little differently. They're long and detailed, but nothing you haven't really heard from Lebrecht earlier. Rather, if you've any questions about the prior incidents (the death of the two Falkovnians on the water-run, or the shooting that led to the stakings out front), you may ask me, and I shall attempt to answer, within reason, of course.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"The only thing these documents tell us about Cavendish that is entirely new," Lia grumbles, "is that he had a werejackal in his employ at one time or another. Or does someone else see something of note in these papers that I do not?" The next moment, she eyes the doors to the world beyond the compound and mutters: "And what are we going to do about getting out of here and about our business in Muhar?"

[DocBeard]

"Good question." Tomas murmurs darkly, crossing his arms and looking towards the door, then back towards the more stealthily inclined members of the group.