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| Lieutenant Anton Chung of the Knives |
"Could we have safely got Simone's jewellery?" he asked. "Without being tracked?"
"You would need a Faraday cage," said Chung. "It's a metal cage that is sealed, and has to be connected by a chain to a metal pole driven into the ground. Named after the wizard Faraday."
Then Chung outlined the job. Daisy's teleport would be a problem. But the resourceful Knives had a solution.
"A Faraday cage would work," said Chung. "But hard to get her in it! However, we can get an item fashioned to help you. A hair-net, a sack or a lasso. If you can get this attached to her, even just around a finger or foot, it will prevent her teleporting out. But ... but, first, we need a piece of her to get the item made: hair, skin, blood, fingernails, sweat, any bit. So your first job will be to get this piece."
The group nodded as their minds started running over-time.
"This entire job will not be easy," said Chung. "14 COIN for successful capture."
___________________________________________________________
When they got back to their lair, they swung past the Luscious Pixie again, and there was a new note there. From Sly Dunbar, Liaison of the Wizards Guild, addressed to Rita.
"I have power of attorney for Rita," volunteered Huilam [Jamie], justifying his opening the letter. He read it and then said: "Sly Dunbar has a job for us. Meet him at the Wizards' Guild."
So, Huilam, Tylin [Ian] and Attlee [Kevin] went to the Wizards' Tower. In the foyer of the tower, Sly Dunbar met them. But he baulked at Attlee.
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| Sly Dunbar, WG Liaison |
"You can't be comin' in here, man," he said to Attlee. "You be holdin' dem powerful jar-wobble magic."
"Who me?" said Attlee, guessing it was Lido (his magic IMAG skull).
"You be waitin' outside. We can talk over de road."
Dunbar took them to the Tower Lookout.
"Now where's dis lady Rita?" said Dunbar.
"Sadly, we 'ave parted ze ways," said Huilam.
"Dat's a pity. I trusted her. But, still, you be doin' good work for us wid grapes crate."
They all nodded.
"Anyways," said Dunbar. "We be needin' some experts to help track us some mages. Two of our lady wizards be goin' missin'." He produce some superb laminated glossy pictures of Dalila Hornsby and Simone Ender, and jabbed at them with his chubby blinged fingers. "Dese two. We have some wizard trackers after them already, man, but we be wantin' some mundanes to track 'em as well: you!"
"We be payin' on results. 10 COIN per lady. Can you do this?"
Huilam nodded sagaciously. Then he and Tylin managed to weasel out of Sly that the two missing witches were linked to a third one, and that it would be most helpful to meet her too.
"Good then," nodded Dunbar. "You be comin' back here tomorrow mornin'. I be givin' you some aid in da way of magic. And I'll be bringin' de other one of the tree: Miss Crown."
___________________________________________________________
Anton Chung had given the group Daisy Crown's residential address, so they scoped out her house.
Like Simone Ender, Daisy Crown also lived on Duke street. (Duke St was one of the significant roads in Scabport where people of moderate wealth would live. The filthy rich took up residence in the Mansion District, but the rest of high society congregated around the the Royal end of Duke street.)
Unlike Simone's burned ruin, Daisy's bungalow was intact. The party set up round-the-clock surveillance. El Cid and Moonlight [Chris] by day, and Dee Dee [Steven] and Argile [Richard] at night.
They also set up watches on both sides of the Wizard's tower. Burrito [Darryl] at the back. Attlee at the front. And Tylin inside the Tower Lookout inn too.
___________________________________________________________
Next morning, the same three returned to the Tower Lookout. Sly was there, joined by the buxom Daisy Crown. Sly introduced her to the group, not knowing that they knew her, of course.
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| Daisy Crown |
Nevertheless, she stared long and hard at Attlee.
"Powerful magic on that one, Dunbar." she said.
"Yes Ms," said Sly. "I be refusin' to let him in the tower because of it."
Daisy whispered something to Sly. He nodded.
She stood up and suddenly cast a spell at Attlee.
Attlee stumbled back in alarm, but didn't feel anything untoward. Though, the air around him shimmered in a light purple haze.
Daisy frowned.
"You are soaked in evil," she said. "It is palpable. Dripping. Coming from your pack."
Attlee sheepishly nodded, but before he could speak, Huilam did.
"He has a gift from IMAG," said Huilam.
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| Attlee's porter stout |
"Dat would explain why you REAL priestess be leavin' you," said Sly Dunbar with an abrupt laugh to Huilam.
Attlee went to collect drinks for the table. Sly and Daisy already had elvin wine, but the rest were thirsty. He got some wine for Huilam and Tylin, and some porter stout for himself. As he was sitting down with the drinks, he clumsily up-ended his entire glass all over Daisy's decolletage.
She shrieked and stood up. Attlee mopped at her chest frantically with a filthy rag, and, in doing so, grabbed some of her stray hairs (she had very long hair, so this was not difficult). Daisy shooed away his groping hands and greasy rag.
Eventually, Daisy got cleaned-up by bar staff, regained her composure and everyone sat down again. Attlee surreptitiously pocketed the hairs.
They all got talking. The group wanted to know if there were any theories linking the three women together. Neither Sly or Daisy could think of anything. The three ladies were in a sub committee of the Wizards' council, to be sure. But it didn't really have any major powers, and missing all three would not diminish the power or functioning of the guild.
Sly added: "Oh, the three are the Wizards' Guild representatives bein' on the Scabport Town Council. But I don't tink dat is significant."
"And the next meeting isn't for another two weeks," Daisy interrupted. "And there are not really any contentious issues as far as I know. And if we went missing, say, they'd need to re-assign our positions before the meeting could continue, anyway."
Huilam quizzed them on the Scabport Council make-up. There are 16 on the Council: 5 Knives, 3 Wizards Guild, 3 from the TGP, 1 from the REAL (light) temple, 1 from IMAG (dark) temple, and 3 from the group of other ten major temples on a rotating basis: Nuke (war), Olive (peace), 69 (lust), 21 (luck), Hob (fire), Aquamarina (water), FunkenWagnall (knowledge), Kliban (fate), Methuselah (time), Caribou Gorn (earth). And draws are settled by the Mayor, himself, Scarface McGee of the Knives.
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| TP beacon |
Sly took out an item and placed it on the table. It had a metallic head, the size of a cup, mounted on a wooden handle.
"This be a beacon," said Sly. "If you be findin' the ladies, one or boat, you be breakin' de head off dis. Them send us a magical signal and de Hunter Squad will be dere shorter 'n one minute."
"Hunter squad?" asked Huilam.
"A group of mages who can teleport," said Daisy. "I would suggest you take cover when you activate the beacon. When they arrive, they tend to kill anything that moves. Then ask questions later."
__________________________________________________________
Some of the party visited Furs R Us to keep up some pretense of investigating the missing Simone on behalf of the wizards. The predominant story from eye-witnesses to the capture the other day, was that two women were captured: a busty one and a slight one, and then they were bundled into a magical silent cart, which drove away and vanished. Of course, the party did nothing to dispel this narrative.
Interestingly also, there had been two other groups of questioners before the party. Wizard investigators and Knives Investigators.
__________________________________________________________
The watchers of Daisy's house didn't see anything unusual.
The house seemed to be occupied by someone all the time. It had active gardeners and groundsmen in the yard during the day, and it was lit at night. They did not see Daisy come or go by road; but maybe she just teleported in and out. They might have expected the loud POP of a teleport; though, a silent or sealed room would prevent this.
________________________________________________
Huilam, Attlee and Tylin visited Chung with Daisy's hair.
"That was quick!" said Chung. "Sometimes you lot surprise me."
He took the hair carefully.
"You need to choose now, what item you want: hair-net, sack or lasso?"
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| Lasso |
"Lasso, please," said Huilam dryly. Indeed, the group had spent many long hours debating the benefit of lasso over sack over hair-net. The hair-net was discounted pretty fast, but the arguments of lasso versus sack raged on and on. In the end, consensus wasn't quite achieved, but there were only a few sack dissenters.
"This will be ready in a few days," said Chung. "I will send for you."
__________________________________________________________
That evening, around midnight, Daisy visited the Tower Lookout with a couple of mages. Tylin maintained his spot in the shadows and just watched. Daisy & Co left at closing time.
At least this meant she was venturing out.
___________________________________________________________
Only four of the group could read: Huilam, Attlee, Ronny and Tylin [reading requires the STUDY action] so the next day, the three (sans marmalading Ronny) went to the Funken Wagnall temple to check the library there. They wanted to explore the subtleties of the Scabport Town Council constitution and meeting protocol. The party was convinced that this was the reason that the Knives wanted the triumvirate out of the way.
They checked the rules for accession to the Council.
- If a rep is not attending permanently (known dead, insane or resigned) from a council meeting, then the rep must be replaced before the start of the next meeting. The new rep is chosen by the relevant group. If this selection is not done by the meeting time, the meeting is postponed.
- If a rep is not attending but is contactable (ill), then the rep can use a proxy vote.
- If a rep is not attending and is not contactable (unconscious or missing), then the relevant group puts forward a "temporary rep". When the original returns, s/he replaces the temp rep.
All very straight forward.
The next council meeting was in 15 days' time. The agenda was not out yet, but this was understandable since it need only be provided with three days' advance.
While they were at the library, Huilam decided to do some research on Michael Stringfellow.
He had published a book, in fact.
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| Scab allergy |
A "Cartwheel" was a type of scab (the cross-section of the stalk looked like a cartwheel), and "milling" was colloquial term for harvesting scabs. Huilam had no idea what "lift showmen" were, and the book didn't talk about them.
The book had a dedication too: "To my Cellmate, Rolf Wishing."
Interestingly, in the "et al." section, the other authors, presumed scabotanists, were listed: Nigel Willem Ashcroft, Lief Hasting Cromwell, "Cowgirl" Mella Fishnet, Charlie Melting-flows, and Jack Sparrow.
"Jack freaking Sparrow!" exclaimed Huilam.
"Shhhh!" said the stern Restricted-Section librarian, a priestess of Funken Wagnall.
Tylin and Attlee wandered over and peered at the book too.
Unlike all of the scabotanists, the name "Jack Sparrow" was the only anti-anagram there of "Michael Stringfellow".
"So, Jack Sparrow is Michael Stringfellow..."
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