July 1 - Orus defend us from assassins, fools, and hotheads!
I was going down to the stables to play with Mandy when Primus came
dashing toward me, puffed up to three times his size, clawed my skirt, and
practically pulled me toward the woods where Decimus likes to walk. I
hurried after him, and found Decimus, all but dead, bandaged with strips
of a peasant's tunic, and a note addressed to Tamara pinned to him! I
healed him at once, of course, but I should have taken the note first, for
he spotted it, snatched it off, and read it, then - with that dratted cat
running interference for him, though you'd think he'd care more about his
master's health than that - hurried off for Tamara's room. Tamara is
still as sick as a dog from whatever it was she ate last week, and he
burst in on her and started yelling, which had the predictable result of
making her cry; then when I came in and told him to calm down and come let
me finish healing him, he told me - well, never mind what he told me. I
had a servant pick up the money he threw at me and take it to his room. I
was afraid he was dashing off to do something rash, so I spotted Alfredus
and told him to keep an eye on him. Fortunately, he went to the library,
with a detour to the pigeon coop, and is still there. I sent supper in to
him, and they say he is still jumpy and angry, so he can sit there and
stew in his books for a little longer.
Meantime, I read the note, and got Tamara calmed down enough to answer a
few questions. The note - in her native language - warned that if she
didn't "keep her part of the bargain" next time either she or "lover-boy"
would be dead, not merely wounded. Obviously this related to the matter
she told me in confession a couple of months ago, which she still hasn't
seen fit to confide to Uncle, as I advised her. If I'd realized her
brother's servants had found her out I would have pressed her harder. She
admitted that she had been approached and warned to make herself
ineligible to inherit her father's position before we even came out here,
and could give no coherent reason for not telling me about it. I confess
I'm powerfully angry with her myself, but every time I am about to give in
to the temptation to give her a piece of my mind, she vomits again. I
have given her a dose which should make her sleep.
When I came out, I realized that in all the commotion I had completely
neglected the assassin who precipitated it. I sought out Robyn in his
accustomed workspace, where he was working on Alfredus's new bow, told him
what had transpired, and asked him to track the assassin for a short
distance and see if there were any point in pursuit. At least, that's what
I thought I'd asked him. I must not have been clear, because Robyn was
gone for a couple of hours, and returned saying he'd lost the trail, but
the villain seemed to be on the way to the nearest market town. Since he
was spotted by several people in the intervening villages, we have a fair
description of him. He is not of the League himself, and therefore was
probably only a hired thug returning to the town where he was hired.
After gaining such a long lead, and with both Tamara and Decimus unfit for
duty, we decided against pursuing the wild goose, which I pray we don't
regret. Decimus used the pigeons to send a message to Uncle, saying
Orus-knows-what, and I suppose it would only muddy the waters further to
send a second one. I admit I long for him to come home. This is beyond
me.
July 2 - Uncle is home, but we're not much closer to a resolution.
Decimus finally came out of the library this afternoon and went straight
to the baths, so I went in to straighten up after him. He had dug out the
emergency spell books and presumably was teaching himself something, which
ought to be a soothing and constructive activity; but when I met him at
the door of the baths to finish curing his injuries he threw more money at
me and talked rather wildly about not wanting to be beholden. I talked to
him as mildly as I could, but he stormed off his room to pack, and then I
heard the welcome sound of Uncle's teleport spell in the foyer. I tried
to give him the precis of events as calmly as possible - Orus knows he'll
have his fill of excited people before he gets to bed tonight - and he
went off to speak to Decimus first. The result is that Decimus is not
running off to join the legions and there is no open position on the
staff; though it remains to be seen whether Tamara will find herself
employed when she recovers. Uncle is closeted with her now. Decimus
sought me out and apologized, and submitted at last to having his wounds
treated properly - he's lucky they didn't infect and leave him as sick as
Tamara. Lucky, too, that Alfredus, realizing that my feelings had been
hurt by Decimus's behavior, offered to "speak" to him about it, rather
than merely taking it on himself to do so. I must be more careful
expressing myself around Alfredus. I'm not positive he understands why
it's inappropriate for him to beat the living daylights out of Decimus for
insulting me.
July 3 - Still no final disposition, but Uncle is sending everyone but
Tamara to Brigantium to deal with a problem there, and no doubt by the
time we return all will be worked out to his satisfaction. Decimus is
still in a very uncertain mood, and Tamara seems more upset that he's
angry at her than she is about anything else. She is keeping food down
better now.
(In Brigantium) July ? - It seems that someone is paying agitators to stir
up strife among the racing factions, primarily between the blues and the
greens. We met today with the proprietor of a "blue" tavern, an orcish
retired gladiator named Brax, who says he is continually having to throw
people out for unruly behavior. There is a dark gentleman with a small
mustache who is frequently seen with people who later stir up trouble.
Robyn is looking for Gaius, who will no doubt know more about it. At the
moment, the plan, such as it is, is to attend the races day after tomorrow
and then conduct an extended "pub crawl" to observe the situation and act
as seems proper.
July ?+1 - Gaius is looking healthy, but his appetite is not noticeably
lessened. Our information as to who hired the unauthorized ambushes seems
to have put him in good with Milo, as intended. I can't believe I
deliberately advanced the boy's life of crime! I must look into getting
some proper schooling for him. Gaius, who regularly hires himself out to
cheer for the various factions, says that he has himself been approached
by the "leaguer dude," who goes by the obvious pseudonym of Colomos. He
has not accepted agitation money, though he likes sports riots, because he
doesn't think Milo would approve. I gave him some silver for expense
money, and a discreetly worded note to inform Milo of what we were doing,
to reduce the possibility of our running afoul of each other. I hope my
scribe's hand is anonymous enough. It would be distinctly embarrassing if
- well, it's all in Orus's hands.
Most of the world is down the coast enjoying the clean beaches and fresh
air, of course, but there are enough unfortunate remnants of the patrician
class in town that I was able to get good advice on how to dress for the
races. (Local gossip update.)
The day after Race Day - I hope I can keep the events of the last 24 hours
straight. On the whole, I believe we've done well.
We attended the races and started the evening in Brax's, as planned. He
has apparently thrown enough agitators out to discourage them, because
there was no action to speak of. At the second place, however, we
witnessed the activity, and Alfredus confirmed that the agitators were
paid. Before things got too ugly, I used a "calm emotions" spell to
defuse the situation, and the agitators gave up. Just to make sure, I
paid the band to play "Take Me Out to the Races," a rousing and harmonious
tune to which everyone would know the words, before we followed.
In the next place, the agitators recognized us - I'm afraid I looked a
little out of place, despite my best efforts, and people tend to remember
Robyn's ears - but their attempt to deal with the situation backfired on
them. One of the men threw a tankard of beer at Robyn and accused him of
being a blue troublemaker, which, since we were in a green tavern, should
have started a fight; however, Robyn responded by dealing him such a
mighty blow in the face that the fellow crumpled at once, and then,
addressing the startled crowd, said: "Did you hear what he called me? A
blue!" The patrons approved of this show of intemperate partisanship and
crowded around to buy him drinks, under cover of which Decimus and I, with
the cooperation of the landlord, carried the unconscious belligerent into
a back room.
He had nothing suspicious on him, so I cast "Detect Thoughts," brought him
around, and combined tending him with a gentle interrogation. He had a
concussion, and though not quite devoid of suspicion, had no real
objection to letting me know that, in case of trouble, he was supposed to
report to his employer at a low establishment called the "Ready Wench." I
advised him that he needed hazard pay if he was going to be expected to
sustain blows like that, made him repeat the instructions for tending his
concussion twice, and hired a burly young man to accompany him straight
home. We then met Robyn and Alfredus at the front of the building, and
repaired to the Ready Wench.
A fight was brewing here, as well, the greens who frequent it having
apparently realized that there were agitators among them, and resenting
it.
I, with "calm emotions," and Alfredus, by challenging all and sundry to
take him on in one-on-one combat, attempted to defuse the situation here,
too, but it was pretty well advanced, and someone had already called the
vigiles. While we were occupied, Decimus and Robyn spotted one of the men
we'd been following looking around for someone he evidently could not
find, then ducking out; so Robyn consumed an invisibility potion and
followed him.
The rest of us were prevented from following him for some time by the
arrival of the vigiles. Fortunately, my appearance stood us in good stead
here, since the vigiles had come to prevent the disruption of the peace,
not to prevent a patrician priestess from retrieving a strayed member of
her flock before he got himself beaten to a pulp. On the way out, we saw
Gaius in the grip of the law, and, reading an appeal for help in his
countenance, collected him as well. He assured us that the vigil was
merely apprehending him on general principles, and for my own peace of
mind I will believe him. He told us that he had determined that Colomos
was headquartered in an empty warehouse in a certain district, and
directed us to it. Presuming that this was where Robyn would follow the
agitator, we arranged for Gaius to come for the rest of his payment and
sent him (I hope!) home to bed, and proceeded to the district.
It took us some time, stumbling around in the dark, to find the warehouse
in question; and by the time we did, Robyn had already followed his quarry
to it, followed him to Brax's (where he was supposed to be finding out who
we were), arranged to have him stored in a cellar until a more convenient
time, and returned to the warehouse. We peered through a crack in the
building wall and observed the League agent sipping wine while four hired
thugs played dice. I besought Orus for more information on the agent, and
found that he was indeed evil, so the possibility of precipitate action
resulting in embarrassing consequences seemed obviated. Withdrawing, we
agreed that now was as good a time as any to quietly remove them from the
scene. I was to cast "hold person" at the leader while Decimus cast the
underlings into sleep, Alfredus ran for the second exit from the room to
prevent any escapes, and Robyn physically assaulted anyone not affected by
our spells. The spells, however, functioned perfectly, and our attack was
over bloodlessly almost before our foes knew we were present.
We proceeded quickly to immobilize our prisoners with pieces of their own
clothing and disarm them. The only magic in the room was a dagger on
"Colomos's" person, which I still have in my possession. The other room
was not so much a bedchamber as a barracks, and we found nothing more
incriminating than the enterprise's paychest. Since he seemed clean and
far too refined for the setting, it is likely he has a better room
elsewhere, but we had more important questions to ask.
Alfredus and Primus kept watch. Robyn returned to Brax's to obtain a
sedan chair and arrange for the discreet removal of the thugs, who
presumably will join the ranks of the merchant marine, a worthy profession
that they should find more secure as well as more honest than picking
fights in bars.
I used the "Prevarication's Bounty" scroll in my reticule and explained
to "Colomos" the consequences of lying, which he elected to evade by
simply not answering questions. Decimus and I tried several methods to
goad him into speech, but all were to little avail, though we did satisfy
ourselves from his demeanor that he not only was not working for Tamara's
family, he doesn't even know who they are.
This does not seem to have cut any ice with Decimus, who spoke quite
intemperately. I thought at first that this was merely a pretense for
interrogation, but there was a certain enthusiasm to the way he invented
dire fates that Uncle could inflict upon him if he were uncooperative that
I find disturbing.
It was not quite midnight when we got him home in the sedan chair, secured
him in the handy room Uncle has reserved for such occasions, and set a
guard on him. We took all his clothing save the silk shirt next to his
skin, made sure he had sufficient water, and left him to contemplate his
estate. I took the precaution, probably unnecessary, of telling the guard
not to let Decimus in to see him. I also decided to take only Robyn with
me this morning to interrogate him. I can really only deal with so many
"bad vigiles" at once! Robyn's air of silent menace seemed to work quite
well on him, without any of the extravagant frills that Alfredus and, in
his current odd mood, Decimus, like to throw in.
I let the servant pass him his breakfast first, then stood at the door and
spoke to him. He seemed to have slept badly. Though he clearly wished to
be defiant, he could not resist the power of Orus. Under the influence of
"Zone of Truth" spells, and prompted by my Commands that he "confess" I
learned that he is working for the Council of Leagues, that the purpose
was to stir up sufficient rioting to do major property damage and cover
sabotage such as the burning of grain shipments, that he was to be
contacted in a few days by a person whose identity he does not know, the
specific passwords and countersigns to be used, and a few other things
that I didn't even ask. He kept talking after I ran out spells, having
apparently gotten used to it. I then instructed the servant to bring him
some coffee and reported to Uncle. I have also sent down a copy, in the
original tongue, of a work by a League convert which I think he may find
interesting.
On the way up, we met Decimus with a box full of rats which he proposed to
dump into the cell with the prisoner. Apparently he kept Primus at it all
night. I deflected that, and then he started agitating to serve taboo
foods. I am very worried about Decimus.
Uncle commends our work and says he will turn the prisoner over to the
authorities as a spy. I have of course recommended mercy, but mercy must
be tempered by the results of the "Detect Evil" spell. I think a few
years of confinement, and the company of good books, would make a world of
difference in his life, but I fear my opinion will be in the minority.
It's not as if we have no spies or saboteurs attempting to commit mayhem
in the life of the League, after all, and it must be difficult indeed not
to grow up evil in such a country.
Things to do:
- Identify the dagger and discuss its disposition with Uncle; check
availability of pearl
- Speak to Decimus; arrange to keep him busy - it might be as well to have
him do the identify spell
- Arrange a priestly visit to check on the
agitator with concussion
- Find suitable schooling for Gaius
- Explore possibility of supplying prisoner (I never even asked his real name!) with
reading matter and/or occasional visits to assist him in seeing the glory
of Orus before his probable eventual unpleasant end
- Locate poetry reading for Alfredus to attend
