Nab Witch Job

First some loose-ends: today they released prisoners Michael Boatman and Glenda Stewart. After the party's first probe at Sam's plantation's palisade, several scores ago, these two wretches were the only survivors of a group that was tailing the party. They were captured,  questioned, and held in the party's base: Michael down in the store room and Glenda chained to Ronny's bed.

Michael was released to return to his family in Scabport.

Glenda was escorted to a coach headed for Spite, and given a one-way ticket.

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Simone Ender

That evening, after dark, Tylin [Ian] set himself up in the Tower Lookout to watch the mage clientele that frequented that tavern. Sorrow [Jeff] hid somewhere near the entrance to the Wizards' Guild Tower and Burrito [Darryl] hid around the back.

Meanwhile, back at Simone Ender's charred house, Dee Dee [Steven], Huilam [Jamie], Attlee [Kevin] and Moonlight [Chris] attempted to open the safe there that was magically locked. Out on the quiet street, Ronny [Deacon] and El Cid [Shane] kept watch.

Gnome Dee Dee had a bit of magic knowledge, and, leading a group action with Moonlight and Attlee (his skull Lido could aid in magical exploits), she eventually worked out how the lock worked, and opened the safe. Inside was lots of ashes (burned papers?), and a gold filigree brooch studded with gems. The brooch glowed under Moonlight's Detect Magic.

Later on in the evening, at the Tower Lookout, there was some excitement for Tylin. Simone Ender, herself, made an appearance with a group of mages from the tower. Tylin just observed. The mages stayed until closing time, and then returned to the tower.

The party went home.

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Simone's Brooch

Next morning, during breakfast they were discussing what to do with the brooch. Ideas came thick and fast. They were settling on "Arrange to meet Simone somewhere to collect her brooch where we can ambush her.", when the brooch, still in Dee Dee's possession, started to vibrate. She got it out, and one of the gems on it was glowing.

"Get that out of here!" screamed Huilam.

The party bailed. Moonlight and Dee Dee and the brooch hung around the docks. The rest of the group went to the Singing Clam, well away from the brooch, and made plans.

The plan was to send Tylin and Burrito to watch the Wizard's tower, and to send Moonlight and Dee Dee and brooch to the druid's grove in the Holbein Woods. And everyone else would lay low, in case their secret lair had been compromised by the brooch's magic.

At the grove, Moonlight found a log cabin and they both rested in it. The brooch started to vibrate again. This time Dee Dee touched the glowing gem.

A woman's voice: "Hello? Hello?"

The brooch kept vibrating. Dee Dee pressed the gem on it.

"Who is this?" Dee Dee said.

"You have stolen my brooch," came the woman's voice.

"No, it is mine."

"It is stolen"

"Well, I found it!"

Moonlight decided to leave the grove and find the rest of the group, to update them.

Dee Dee put the brooch in her pack ignoring the "Hello hello?"

A few minutes later, Tylin, watching the Wizards' Tower, saw four figures fly out of an upper storey, on broom sticks. They were headed directly towards the Holbein Woods.

Dee Dee saw four flying figures approach. She scurried into the cabin.

A small pellet of sulphur and wax followed her inside, and suddenly there was a huge crump! and a mighty explosion. The inside of the cabin was a raging inferno.

Leaving Dee Dee for dead, the four took the brooch and flew off.

Dee Dee would have been killed but managed to hide under a pile of wet leaves. [ Fireball does a level 4 harm - "incineration" - which is death. But Dee Dee's resistance roll reduced this to level 3 harm, and her leather armour to level 2 harm "charred". The tangible effects of this is a burned body and all rolls at -1D until healed. ]

Tylin caught up with the party, and told them about the broom-fliers so they all made their leisurely way to the grove. And they met up with Moonlight.

Having lost the brooch, their one valuable piece of leverage against Simone, they had to think up another plan.

They sent El Cid, Burrito and Attlee to Anton Chung to get more info. They hoped that the Knives' prisoner Dalila, who was formerly part of Simone's triumvirate, would know something useful about Simone. Chung would not let them see Dalila face to face, but he was happy to take a set of questions to extract from her.

So the party, conversed and came up with a set of questions, which they passed to Chung.

In a short while, Chung returned from the Knives. Most of the answers were of no use, or Dalila did not know, but Simone seemed to have a weakness that they could exploit. Like Rita, she was very much into luxuries, and she regularly shopped a Furs R Us in the Royal District.

So they hatched a plan, so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it weasel. Well, Huilam thought so.

The plan:

• Tomorrow at 5 bells there was to be a 30% off sale at Furs R Us. Huilam would make the fake marketing documentation and deliver it to the Wizards' Tower, making sure it was well-addressed to Simone.
• Simone would head to Furs R Us to go to the sale.
• Burrito, Huilam, Sorrow would be blockers pushing other people out of the way, while Tylin, El Cid and Ronny would intercept Simone as she entered the shop. The trigger for the strike was when Simone entered the shop.
• Attlee, Moonlight and Dee Dee would arrive on the party wagon Carte Blanche, and the disabled Simone would be put into the wagon.
• They would then hold Simone and someone would go contact Chung.

Daisy Crown

Simone took the bait. She turned up at Furs R Us, right on 5 bells. But she was accompanied by another woman, a buxom witch [Dragon Crown Sorceress look-alike].

Burrito went for the witch; he stuck his knife into her from the back, going for the heart. But his knife grated on something non-flesh and failed go in deep. It was enough to collapse her, and he followed her falling body, falling himself, hoping for a coup de grace, but, at that very instant, there was a loud concussive bang, and she just vanished.

At the same moment, Tylin lurched at Simone to grab her by the mouth. The theory being that all wizard spells require a verbal utterance (and the last thing they needed was to be engulfed in a fiery conflagration). Simultaneously, El Cid, assisted by Ronny, struck Simone's head from behind. El Cid was going for a knock-out, so he used his IMAG dark-fists. But Tylin's mouth grab pushed Simone off balance and El Cid's punch only glanced her head.
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While this was happening, Attlee and Moonlight started to bring Cart Blanche down the street to stop outside Furs R Us. The still-charred Dee Dee was inside, trying to keep out of the way.

Lido

The shop guards in Furs R Us by now had recovered from the shock of witnessing their guests being assaulted, so they pushed their way towards Simone and her assailants. This is where Huilam and Sorrow stepped in to block them.

Attlee was in thought-contact with Lido (his black skull) throughout.

"A silence would be helpful," Attlee screamed in his head.

Lido was never very reliable at performing tricks [ like 1 in 6 ], but this time he proved exemplary. The whole doorway, half the shop and half the road was engulfed in silence.

"How long can you keep this up, Lido?" asked Attlee in a quick thought.

"About ten minutes. Unless you say 'noise'." came the reply.

A single struggling woman was no match for the combined strengths of El Cid, Ronny and Tylin, so they soon had Simone bundled, bound and gagged in the cart. El Cid kept bashing her head into the floor of the cart, so she was concussed as well.

The cart took off at a speed, well ... walking pace. After all, the street was quite crowded.

"Noise!" said Attlee in his head. And noise flooded in.

The Furs R Us shop guards were struggling to pursue the cart, slowed by Huilam and Sorrow, and then Burrito joined in too. This gave Attlee enough time to round a corner, where El Cid, Tylin & Ronny quickly bundled Simone off the cart and into a manhole in the road. The cart continued, followed by the guards, who eventually managed to catch it up. They stopped Attlee, who was happy to oblige, and they searched the cart, finding only a burnt lady gnome.

Royal District sewers

The sewers of the Royal district clean enough to eat off. Rumour has it that you could drink the water too ("eau de toilette" as the Elves would say). El Cid & Co found a safe spot to wait. They searched the unconscious Simone. She had the brooch (rescued from Dee Dee) plus another heap of jewellery and sundry nick-nacks.

As the three were searching her, the brooch started buzzing. Not willing to risk magic detection, El Cid & Ronny grabbed the brooch and all of Simone's jewellery (probably 5 COIN's worth) and wrapped them up in Simone's cloak. Then sent the cloak and all sailing down the sewer. The buzzing brooch faded into the dark.

Then Tylin went off to tell Anton Chung of their success, Chung's words "contact me within half a day" ringing in his pointy elvin ears.

The bored receptionist in the Scabport Council foyer (i.e. the Knives HQ) fiddled though her records as Tylin stood there waiting.

"Lieutenant Chung is off on his rounds," she said. "He'll be back in a few hours. Make yourself at home."

Tylin frowned, then returned to El Cid & Ronny and the rest of the party. It would be a long wait.

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Lieutenant Anton Chung of The Knives

Two hours later, Tylin returned later to the Council. Chung had still not returned, so he waited and leafed impatiently through the reading material in the foyer. The latest musical pieces from Barque echoed about the room. Most people in Scabport could not read, so the waiting room stock was mainly adult comics ("Graphic Novels" was the current phrase du jour).

Anton eventually arrived and took Tylin aside. Anton was delighted with the news.

"You got her?" he said. "Well done! But no time to lose. Bring her here now. Side cart entrance. I'll be waiting."

Tylin rushed off.

Carte Blanche soon delivered the well-secured Simone to the Knives, and she was unloaded and carried off into the HQ depths. Chung said to return in the morning for their pay.

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The next morning, they did.

"Now you can catch us the third of the triumvirate," said Chung. "Daisy Crown. The teleporting mage"