New Jobs

S.A.T., the Spite Agricultural Traders, i.e. Huilam [Jamie], Sorrow [Jeff], Moonlight [Chris] and Dee Dee [Steven] (and Huilam and Sorrow's lady-escorts), awoke in Sam's mansion. Ensconced in their lavish bedrooms, they delighted to music wafting down the hallways. The music was from a string quartet performing in the dining room. The piece was Barque's Shoulder Prelude in Eb Minor (from the Well-tempted Clavicle). "Barque" was John Sebastian Barque, of course, the famous Bar-oak gnome composer.

During the lavish breakfast, Huilam asked Sam if tours were possible of the plantation warehouse and the seedling rooms. Sam said not often, but he would make an exception for SAT, especially since they were interested in the yellow scabs. He told Huilam he would arrange a time with Miss Prisk.

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Later that morning, with everyone now back in the party's lair, Rita's [Ian] long-overdue casting of Detect Evil took place. As well-augured, Sorrow and El Cid [Shane] glowed dull purple (the frequency of pure evil is 780 THz). And Attlee [Kevin] glowed a spectacular throbbing bright purple.

"Will you repent and turn from this vile evil?" asked Rita. "We can have you purged in the REAL temple and cleansed of your foulness; cleansed of your dark miasma."

Tylin Brooks

The three didn't think they were evil at all, and of course refused.

So, Rita said she could not sanction or condone their darkness. So, she tended her resignation, there and then, and left the Budgie Smugglers for good.

"I will be at the REAL temple," she said.

After Rita had gone, Esme, the party secretary, piped up and said she had a new applicant in the latest cohort drive. An elf from Palantir called Tylin Brooks [Ian's new character]. He worked for the Elwins, who was a trading company in Palantir.

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El Cid and Attlee went to IMAG temple to see Priestess Clara.

While they were waiting for Clara to arrive, Attlee said: "If Rita has left us, why can't we do the IMAG jobs?"

El Cid shrugged.

Priestess Clara soon arrived and El Cid told her that, regretfully, the group would not be doing the IMAG "skull distribution" job.

Clara was most put out by this.

"The Foundling will not be very pleased," she said. "Nevertheless, El Cid, you may go. However, we require Attlee to stay. The Foundling wishes to converse with him after dark."

Attlee stayed.

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That afternoon, SAT (Huilam, Sorrow, Moonlight, Dee Dee) arrived at Sam's Plantation. Miss Prisk greeted them, and took them through a tour of the experimental facility. Here they saw all the various scabotanists doing their trade, and saw the many trays of scab seedlings and cultivars. including the yellow scabs. Sorrow took note of the building itself - a large warehouse made of the fantasy-equivalent of corrugated iron and colour steel (read paper-mache, wicker daub and extruded gypsum-clay) with a slate roof. On top of this structure was the search-light (probably light stones and illegal optics) and the security observation centre.

Sorrow asked about the owl bears and Miss Prisk said "Oh yes, we have some beasts. Security is important."

Afterwards, they met with Sam Baxter again and talked shop. SAT offered him a deal that they would be sole buyer for the yellow scabs. Sam said, if experimentation proceeded to plan, that they would be mass-planted in half a year, and the first crop would be ready in one year. He stated 45 COIN per wagon would be a reasonable starting place, for yellow scab futures. And he'd want a pre-order of at least ten wagons. But he'd need to see some money up front, of course.

The group realized that this was venturing outside the Budgie Smugglers' raison d'etre and comfort zone. After all, they are supposed to be "daring smugglers" rather than "honest scab traders". So they agreed to his suggestions and claimed they'd be back.

"We give up that job?" mused Huilam on the way home.

"Let it stew."

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That evening, after dark, at the IMAG temple, the Founding arrived to see Attlee and his black skull (the one found in the Fort Eugor keep office). The skull could talk to Attlee in his head, and over the last few days, the two had bonded. The skull was called Lido, and it could give Attlee the occasional one-off gift. But not continuously; sort of like a battery. Nevertheless, Attlee was discovering the "warm joys of IMAG":

The warm joys of IMAG

The Foundling also suggested to Attlee that he should commit himself to IMAG and become a fully-fledged priest.

"Then 'the piss never turns cold'," said the Foundling. "But, it IS a big commitment. It is a one-way path. For to leave IMAG is the path to annihilation of the soul. So, it requires, as the Funk and Wagnalls say,  'informed consent'. I offer this choice to you. IMAG calls you. Lido calls you. You will receive great power. And Lido will be your 24/7 guide."

Attlee thought about this for a minute.

"Do I have to choose now?" he said.

"No. The offer stands always," said the Foundling. "Lido will help you."

________________________________________________________

Lieutenant Anton Chung

There was a pile of notices stuck to the party notice board in the Luscious Pixie tavern. Esme had been so busy with SAT and the new offices, that she had neglected to check them. And none of the group had remembered.

Lieutenant Anton Chung, of the Knives, wanted a word. Chung no longer worked as a gate guard and was now stationed at the Knives Headquarters in the Royal district. So the entire group headed there.

"First off," said Chung. "I am please to announce that the Budgie Smugglers are now 'preferred contractors' to the Knives."

Smiles all round.

"I have some of jobs for you," said Chung. "You know the Scabport Prison?

"On Prison island, at the mouth of the Scab River?" said Sorrow.

"Aye," said Chung. "It's run by us, and mainly for political prisoners and hostages. There's a prisoner in there called Michael Stringfellow. Want him to vanish. So you sneak in, and off him. Don't leave the body; no trace, no questions. 11 COIN."

Simone Ender

"The second job is linked to Dalila Hornsby. 'Member her? From Fort Eugor. We want you to capture another witch; this one's called Simone Ender. She's a minor notable of the Wizards' Guild. Hold her alive somewhere safe and then get me within half a day. Be careful of her; if she gets a spell off, you'll be toast. Literally."

He handed them a small picture in a silver frame.

"Here's a recent portrait," Chung continued. "And we have an address for her in Downtown district: 112 Duke street. This one pays 10 COIN. Oh. If you pull this one off, there'll be one more witch of the triumvirate to nab."

"As usual," said Chung tapping the side of his nose. "The Knives and me will disavow all knowledge of any of this work."

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Scabport Wizards' Guild tower

When the group got to Simone's Downtown house, it was a burned-out abandoned ruin. This had happened a while ago: four weeks according to neighbours.

They did a thorough search. In one of wrecked rooms was a wall-safe. Moonlight cast Detect Magic on it and the safe glowed. Sorrow suspected a magical trap. No-one was brave enough to go further, so they left it.

In the tiny Wizards' District of Scabport there is only one inn called Tower Lookout. It did indeed look out over the Wizards' Guild tower. This inn was frequented by wizards, as expected (wizards are recognizable by their velour robes). A few of the group passed time in here to see if she was about, and asked some surreptitious questions.

Someone thought about a more direct approach. Since they had done work for the Wizards's Guild in the past, they remembered their contact there: Sly Dunbar, a WG HR jobsworth. And asked him some surreptitious questions. Yes, he knew Simone, and yes, she is living on the tower.

"Why do you need to talk to her?" asked Sly.

Scab Score 3

[This was the first Tuesday after the lock-down, so most of us were together again. Richard, Chris and Steven connected via Discord, and so we had the screen with all three on Darryl's TV.]

It was night. The group decided to some more reconnoitering of Sam's Estate's palisade. Rita [Ian] was assigned to one corner with her powerful REAL's light to bathe the wall and corner with the light, hoping some guards would check the illumination.  They did.

Burrito [Darryl] bought a cage full of live chickens, and stationed himself at another section of the wall. Here, he tossed chickens over the wall at random intervals, to keep another contingent of the guards busy. They were. Interestingly, the flapping chickens did not trigger the Security search-light.

And the rest of the group Attlee [Kevin], Moonlight [Chris], Huilam [Jamie], Argile [Richard], El Cid [Shane] and Sorrow [Jeff] positioned themselves near a third section of the wall.

(Ronny [Deacon] was marmalading.)

First, Moonlight cast a Detect Magic upon the palisade. The entire wall within spell-range glowed with the dull preternatural light indicating that magic was present. No surprises there.

Next, Sorrow used a large pole to vault over the wall. He landed with graceful ease on the far side and started to sprint towards the warehouse.

Sure enough, a good half-minute later, the Security search-light came on and illuminated the section of wall exactly where Sorrow had crested. Then the light began to scan back and forward from that spot. There was absolutely no cover on the large billiard-table flat asparagus beds, and so, eventually, the beam found Sorrow, mid-sprint. Nearby guards started to run towards him, but he wheeled about, and headed back towards the wall, with them in lazy pursuit. He scaled a guards' ladder on the wall to catch his breath on the platform.

There was an angry animal roar in the distance, and Sorrow managed to catch a glimpse of a large beast, on the ground near the search-light source, before he leapt back over the wall. Hook horror maybe? Or a bunch of gnomes forming a gnome-pyramid draped with a tarpaulin?

The group melted back into the city streets, and headed to their secret lair. Except Rita (who couldn't move sneakily to save herself); she headed to the REAL temple.

_______________________________________________

That night, Attlee heard whispering coming from his backpack. He opened it and surreptitiously took out the black skull. It was whispering, not orally, but in his head. When he held it, he could hear the words:

"Great dark, that wilt not let you go. 
Go rest your weary soul in me. 
Now give me back the life you owe. 
That in my raging depths its flow, may richer fairer be!"

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Next morning, El Cid shot down to the IMAG temple to meet up with Priestess Clara. She had conversed with the High Priest and with the Foundling of Darkness, and she had some answers about the black skulls.

"The Foundling," she said. "Has offered us some incantations which we will cast upon certain dark
crystals to imbue them with power. We can then gift them to you, and you then simply place each crystal into a skull and it will lose its Curse of Return."

El Cid nodded.

"Furthermore," she continued. "The Foundling, has expressed the urgency of spreading the skulls about the city. Hence, we offer you 12 COIN for this task. It may not be easy."

"I'll tell the others," El Cid said.

"If the REALs find out," she added wryly. "It will be even less easy. The tongue of a fool breaks many secrets."
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Back in the lair, Esme, the group's secretary, introduced a new character.

"Meet Dee Dee," said Esme. "A gnome from Scabport. She was one of the short-listed applicants to help with the new company. But I thought she was more suited to help with our core business. We can always do with more diversity too."

Dee Dee [Steven] bowed: "Pleased to be meeting you."

Dee Dee, the gnome Slide

[Dee Dee was a slide; subtle manipulator and spy.]

Dee Dee had a unique skill, so she claimed, of being able to spot a lie when told to her [this is a Slide Feat]. Of course, it was not absolute truth, just truth as to what the speaker believed.

Thoughts had already been forming within the group's minds as to the veracity of Olivia Bryce's claims that the yellow scab cultivars were in fact stolen by Sam's agents. Maybe she did not actually develop the yellow scabs herself, and was just using the group to commit industrial espionage and steal them off Sam.

So, Huilam, Moonlight, Sorrow went off to the Vege Scavengers plantation to visit Olivia again with Dee Dee in tow. In order for Dee Dee's ability to work, the lie must be spoken to her, so there was a bit of oral manipulation required to achieve this. After substantial, but friendly, questioning, they determined:

• A scientist or scab-breeder who develops new cultivars is called a "scabotanist" (TRUE).
• Olivia Bryce employed a scabotanist called Jack Sparrow (TRUE).
• Scabotanist Jack Sparrow developed the yellow scab cultivar (TRUE).
• Jack was definitely working for Olivia when he developed the new cultivars (LIE).
• So the cultivars were hers (LIE).
• And stolen from her (LIE).
• Jack Sparrow was now dead (LIE).
• She suspected it was Sam's agents who killed him (TRUE).
• In a fit of jealous rage (TRUE). 

They then went and visited the Ochre Turnstiles again to ask about Jack Sparrow. Lou Serna knew of Jack Sparrow (TRUE) but he'd had no dealings with him (TRUE), but he had heard that Jack had been drowned in the Scab river (TRUE).

There was a new plantation in town that was just starting out. It was called the Scab Vultures [sic] and owner was John Moses. Formerly wheat growers, they had decided to get into the lucrative scab market, following the news that there was a new set of scab buyers in town just arrived from Spite: the Spite Agricultural Traders. They were rumoured to be backed by well-heeled financiers from Spite, and rich elvish merchants from Palantir called the Elwins.

So, the four went and visited the Vultures. John offered them wagon loads of scabs for only 20 COIN each (TRUE), but it had to be paid in advance to get this superb price (TRUE) and it'd be half a year before harvest (TRUE). All John could show now was some ploughed fields. "We are only just planting."  (TRUE).

The group asked about scabotanist Jack Sparrow. John had heard of the name, and heard he had been killed, but that was all (TRUE). The Vultures' scabotanist was called Doctor Strange-pork  (TRUE).

The group wrestled about whether they should (or could morally) still do Olivia's job considering the cultivars were not actually hers. They were ambivalent about this; after all, a job is a job. Already, Sorrow, El Cid and Attlee had the IMAG taint about them, so they weren't particularly adverse to continuing with the job.

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Huilam, Dee Dee, Moonlight and Sorrow had an invite to stay at Sam's mansion (rather than the apartment above their SAT offices in the Docks). They dressed in their finest and collected dates. Sorrow and Huilam found a half-elf date (read, "whore") each, and Moonlight took Dee Dee as his date.

Sam had a large cadre of staff: one servant per setting at the table for the banquet, and plenty of footmen and guards. The meal was a full ten-course degustation masterpiece with matching wines, and it was superb. Sam's PA Miss Prisk was at the table too, plus Sam's wife and three oldest sons and their wives.

Sam's Mansion, Scabport Mansion District

His mansion had 120 rooms, and the guests were each supplied with one each. During the night, Sorrow went poking around through the hallways and rooms. He was confronted by servants, house-maids and footmen at every turn, so his exploration was limited. After a fruitless hour or two, he returned to his bedroom.

Planning for Scab Score 2

Rita [Ian] was first to notice: Sorrow [Jeff], El Cid [Shane], and Attlee [Kevin] now had a "dark glow" about them. This was especially noticeable on Attlee. When looked at directly, the three of them looked fine, but out of the corner of your eye, it was like a dark cloud cloaked each one. Those three had the IMAG boon. But so too did Ronny [Deacon]. However, Ronny had not had any dealings with the black skulls in the well chamber (a counter this was Argile [Richard]; he had had dealings with the skulls but he didn't have an IMAG boon). So maybe it was both that gave the dark glow.

Attlee was struck down by the marmalading, so he was put onto the grill.

While they had been busy with Fort Eugor, a stack of notices mounted up on the party notice-board in The Luscious Pixie.

Olivia Bryce

One was from Olivia Bryce of the Vege Scavengers. So Sorrow and Argile headed out to The Sign of the Ambidextrous Nymph. Olivia was there with a guard. She had been badly beaten; sporting a black eye and torn lip. Her guard had his arm in a sling.

She said some street thugs had done this. She didn't recognize any of them, but at the end of the beating, one of them had hissed "Next time your butt-boys probe us, we will be back."

"I don't know if this was because of you lot," she said. "Maybe coincidence? I doubt it. Anyway, how are you progressing on MY job? Have you recovered my yellow scab cultivars from that thief Sam?"

Sorrow sheepishly admitted that they put her mission on ice after the reconnoitre (when they climbed over Sam's Plantation palisade), and did other work instead: the Fort Eugor job.

"But we will be right on your job now," Sorrow said. "It has our full attention."

_____________________________________________________________________

There was a note from REAL Priestess Colleen Sanford. So Rita went to the temple.

Rita asked about the dark glow around her party members.

"Oh dear," said Colleen, alarmed. "They have the mark of IMAG. You better turn them from this path else their souls will be lost forever."

Rita promised she would do something.

In the Skull district sat the Scabport graveyard. The graveyard had been here ever since the city was founded, and it filled most of the district leaving only a few dozen streets for housing, markets and the odd tavern. Skull district was not a very desirable place to live, so only the poor, the wretched and down-trodden lived here.

The Wraith King
(artist's drawing;
indicative)

With more than a thousand years of interments, the graveyard itself was now bulging at the seams. These days, only the poor took their dead here; rich folks normally opted for interment in the relevant temple's tomb, dissolution, cremation, or burial at sea. The graveyard was safe during the day, but one would not want to venture in there at night. It was a poorly-kept secret that a being called the "Wraith King" "ruled" over the graveyard and, it was claimed, the entire Skull district. It was said that the Scabport Council allowed this so long as he (or "it") "caused nay trouble". In return for causing nay trouble, the goodly temples (especially REAL) were forbidden to "clean out the undead scum".

With this in mind, the REAL temple had their own policy: they allowed their priests into the Skull district provided that they only provided succour for the poor, and that they kept numbers low. Crusades and undead pogroms were not allowed.

"As an acolyte, dear Rita," Colleen said. "We want you and your group to do some investigations in Skull. We've recently had some reports of foul things from the graveyard wandering the streets to steal away babes and innocents."

Then she added with righteous ire:

"If this's true, then we ARE authorized to call in the Paladin Force ... to cleanse the streets with REAL's HOLY LIGHT and REAL's HOLY FIRE. And that won't break our 'greement with the Council. So, get us some evidence! Your contact is a man called Chang Billet, at The Chilling Thought tavern in Skull."

9 COIN.

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There was a note from IMAG Priestess Clara. So El Cid and Ronny ventured forth to the IMAG temple.

Here, they met up with Clara in the clammy IMAG meeting room, where she whispered from within her sphere of darkness. El Cid asked about the dark glow around him, El Cid, and Attlee. Clara paused, and when she spoke, her papery voice was smiling.

"I noticed this on you straight away," she said. "This is SUCH good news! You and your lucky friends have the beginnings of the Pall. This is what we priests are cloaked in all times. May IMAG's darkness prevail!"

She added joyfully: "With training now, you could become priests yourselves!"

Foundling of Darkness

"No thanks," muttered El Cid.

Clara had another job for them. The current representative of IMAG, the Foundling of Darkness [see Fake Kidnap Score entry] had sensed "a disturbance in the dark" which came from the vicinity of Fort Eugor. El Cid told Clara about the skulls from the well chamber. She noted that the Foundling had mentioned "objects of desire"; presumably it* meant the skulls. The job was to collect and distribute all these objects of desire about the city. When El Cid pointed out that the skulls magically returned to the pile whenever one was taken, she frowned.

"I will talk this night with the High Priest [Dark-eye Shadow]," Priestess Clara said. "And the Foundling of Darkness too. Return tomorrow for an answer."

El Cid left to return to the party's lair. Ronny was blocked by the guards and asked to stay back by Clara; she had need of his services.

Ronny arrived back at the lair, half an hour later, a shaking wreck. He was clammy and drained. His skin was crawling with imaginary maggots, and he was stinking of jelly-fish venom and butterscotch.

* = The Foundling of Darkness phases between non-binary and gender-fluid, and its preferred pronouns were "it", "pincer" and "mangrove".
_____________________________________________________________________

The next note was from Anton Chung of the Knives. He had been promoted. Not just to sergeant, as everyone expected, but all the way to Lieutenant. The Budgie Smugglers had made the Knives Preferred Contractors list, so he had some more work for them.

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Esme Deciduous

Before the Fort Eugor scores, the Group had begun a long-term project to create a front company with Olivia's score in mind. The raison d'etre of this company would be to buy scabs to sell in Spite. This company had now come to fruition and they christened it "Spite Agricultural Traders". They further dedicated some effort to make a legal paper-trail that would survive first-blush investigations [the game mechanic for this is to create another long-term project "debt"].  They hired an office in the Docks area too, and assigned their half-elf secretary Esme [cohort expert] to man it.

Now that Spite Agricultural Traders was running, Huilam [Jamie], Sorrow, Ronny, El Cid, Argile, Moonshine [Chris], and Burrito [Darryl] (in fact, all of them except Attlee and Rita) went on a trip to another scab grower, the Ochre Turnstiles. They met and schmoozed with the boss of the Turnstiles, Lou Serna, and indicated that they were a new scab buyer from Spite and were interested in buying scabs. Olivia had briefed them on the necessary technical questions so that they wouldn't fail muster as bona fide scab buyers. From this meeting, they got a benchmark price metric for a wagon load of scabs: 30 COIN (NZ$30,000).

Miss Prisk

Next, was the trip to their target: Sam's Plantation. Olivia had given the group some normal scab seedlings which they secreted in a hidey-hole in their wagon Carte Blanche. If all went well, then maybe these could be used to swap for the yellow scabs.

But when they arrived at Sam's Estate, the gate guards ordered them to park Carte Blanche outside the gate in the wagon park. Then all seven were ushered through the gate-house where they had to surrender all weapons, then they were shown into the scab tasting room. This was a stone's throw from the big warehouse where they suspected their target yellow scabs were.

A well-dressed half-elf lady arrived to talk with them. She introduced herself as Miss Prisk and she was "Sam's chief seller". She took their details and was very interested to hear about the new scab buyers from Spite. She brought out some scabs and gave them a tasting "can you taste the artichoke?"  There was always a handful of guards present.  After a bit of small-talk, the best price that Miss Prisk could give was 35 COIN for a single wagon load. But that would drop with more bulk, of course.

Samuel Baxter

Eventually, Samuel Baxter, the owner himself, turned up with two body-guards; muscle-bound half-elves with no necks. Sam was interested in seeing the new buyers from Spite, and he asked some inane questions. Sorrow came from Spite, and Huilam and Moonshine knew the city, so the three could answer the tricksie Spite questions. They did get Sam to mention about the yellow scabs, but he would only say that they were under development and that it would be a long time before Sam's Scabs could achieve commercial production.

Yellow scabs

Sam asked where they were staying in town, and when they said the apartment above their offices in the Docks region, he said they ought to come and stay in his mansion in the Mansion district.

Fort Eugor Score 4

Huilam [Jamie] and Burrito [Darryl] and the rent-a-crowd hung back down by the Falshot residence waiting for the signal. This would be a light from the roof of the Fort Eugor keep.

Rita and Ronny were back at the party's secret lair, lying on the marmalade grille [Ian and Deacon not here this week.]

Moonlight [Chris], Argile [Richard],  El Cid [Shane], Attlee [Kevin], and Sorrow [Jeff] snuck up the hill, and down the tunnel into the well room. Sorrow climbed the well and set up a rope ladder, then he, Attlee and El Cid, crept across the courtyard and made their way to the end of the keep. Then Sorrow went up the three stories and onto the roof. Attlee and El Cid joined him, and then they signalled to Huilam and the distraction group.

WG witch Dalila Hornsby

Huilam led the rent-a-crowd up the hill to make a hell of a racket and shone lights. Burrito took pot-shots at the guards. This ensured all the courtyard guards were engaged, and gave Moonlight and Argile enough time to scurry over to the keep's main door.

Lucky for them, it opened just as two more guards came out (presumably, to aid the other guards). Argile had his sword out and he engaged them both, pushing them back. Moonlight hurriedly shut the door behind them, and moved to help Argile fight.

Meanwhile, on the roof, El Cid had abseiled down the side of the keep and into the bunk room. In here, was their prey Dalila Hornsby (the Wizards' Guild witch) and a guard. His daring attack totally surprised them, knocking Dalila back to the wall, and dropping the guard. Sorrow and Attlee joined him soon after. Dalila was concussed, and the stunned guard was hacked down and killed.

Toby Archer (deceased)

Out in the corridor, El Cid engaged the commander Toby Archer. Toby was supposed to be a top-sword, but with an expert chop of his double-sword, El Cid beheaded the poor guy. The guard behind him saw this and surrendered straight away. El Cid stuck his sword through his throat.

Then, while Sorrow was binding Dalila for transport, El Cid and Attlee did a quick search of that floor. There were no other souls up there, but they found another supplies ledger, a spell book (guessed it was Dalila's), another TGP seal-stamp, some petty cash, and a black skull (like the ones in the pile in the well room, but, strangely, this one hadn't teleported back to the pile). Attlee claimed this for his very own and promptly put it in his pack.

Toby's decapitated head's ears had two thick gold earrings, and he had a large TGP signet ring; El Cid took these.

Back on the ground floor, Argile had by now fought and killed the two guards, and Moonlight had been severely injured.

There were also two men on that level, injured and lying on camp stretchers. Argile questioned them, but they didn't know much. He butchered them in cold blood.

The three upstairs lowered the bound Dalila down the ladder shaft, and joined her. Then the whole group, plus the captive, crept out the door and across the courtyard, back to the well. They lowered Dalila down the well, and everyone followed. Then, out through the tunnel, past the rock-fall, outside, down the hill, and back to the Falshot residence. The whole score had taken less than half an hour.

Since it was only a few hours into the night, and not too late, Corporal Chung's shift would still be in progress. So, "no time like the present", and the whole group went to him. They handed over Dalila, Toby's head, the spell book, the ledger, and the TGP seal-stamp. Chung was very pleased.

The next morning when he handed over the chest of silver and gold, he extolled their virtues.

"The powers-that-be are very pleased with your work," he said. "The Budgie Smugglers will be employed for many future Knives missions. I am due promotion too."

[ Downtime activities took the rest if the night. ]