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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 1725354" data-attributes="member: 2205">Module I: "Blasphemous Rumours" Part VIIEiji led them through the curtain behind the counter.  After a short hallway, the bath house opened up into a large room, covered floor and walls both with slick red tiles and hefty lockers.  There were a few surly old men standing in various states of undress in the room who gave them dirty looks as they entered, but Eiji shooed them away quickly.  All four of them quickly undressed, stashed their clothes and other gear in a large locker (Tson put the key on a light chain around his neck.)  After donning large red towels with the initials EK embroidered with gold thread about their waists, they continued on into the bath house itself.The main room of the bath house was quite large.  Darkly stained beams supported the ceiling, but the walls were largely made of ivory colored paper which separated several smaller rooms around the perimeter.  In the center of the room were a number of pools each lined with pale blue tiles.  It was easy to see which were hot and which were cold by the steam rising from the warmer ones.  Most of the pools had a few nude bathers sitting in them, and a few other nudes, male and female both, were in transit from hot to cold or vice versa, or to the thin rooms on the side which also exuded heavy curtains of steam.  The entire room was bathed in the muted babble of private conversations.Eiji led them all the way through the main room, warning them once or twice to watch for slippery areas of the tiled floor, then into some other rooms in the back that were very thickly walled.  He closed a heavy door in a darkly panelled room that was lit only by a fire burning in the center that heated several gray rocks.  They all sat on wooden benches around the periphery of the room, then Eiji poured a bucket of water on the rocks, which erupted in a blast of hissing steam.  The room was stiflingly hot, and all four of them quickly broke out in a sweat."Now then, that we have some privacy," Eiji laughed quietly, "what is it you are looking for?""Some information, naturally," answered Rosham glibly.  "It seems we both have the same problem, and by pooling our knowledge I think we stand a better chance of removing that problem."Eiji looked sceptical, and even a bit dangerous.  "Who led you to believe I had a problem?"The three of them smiled.  "We've been hired to look for some cargo that was apparently stolen en route to Razina by a woman with dark gray skin, no hair, and an entourage of dead people.  We are led to understand that you also recently had an encounter of sorts with this woman, and she ran off with some of your cargo as well."When Eiji smiled knowingly Rosham continued.  "I believe, naturally, that if we find one cargo we'll find the other as well.  We had hoped to find out what -- if anything -- you knew about these robberies that we could pool with our own knowledge.  That way, we stand a much better chance of recovering both of the stolen goods."Eiji laughed again.  Indeed, he seemed a much more jolly fellow than his reputation had led them to believe.  "OK, you've picqued my attention," he said, wiping his eyes slightly.  "I'll help you if you think you can recover my stolen cargo.""Err," Konrad blundered, "what was your cargo?""Just a book.""A book?" Tson blurted in surprise.  "Why would anyone steal a book?"Eiji chuckled again, although this time somewhat disparagingly.  "You really don't know much about these yet, do you?  The cargo you are searching for is also a book.  Everything this woman has attacked and taken has been a book, and she's struck no fewer than four times that I know of."Rosham, Tson and Konrad all looked at each other blankly.  "What's so special about these books, then?" Rosham asked finally."Certain books," Eiji continued delicately, after a long pause of thinking, "are not well recieved by the populace at large.  In fact, it is a death sentence from the Inquisition to obtain certain books, although its rare indeed that a case such as that is brought to trial.  It seems our illustrious government is anxious that certain accounts of what happened in the early years of our kingdom not be revisited.  I am a simple student of history, who seeks information amongst primary sources, so that puts me at odds with the government and the Inquisition, and leads me to occasionally search out books that, alas, I probably should not.  I bought mine from a discreet dealer in Cassant, who was to ship it to me via the caravan that was ambushed.  Your patron, whomever he is, must have done the same thing."Rosham's eyes lit up.  He was also particularly interested in the history of the formation of the kingdoms that rose from the ashes of the slavers and breeders that had created the Bred races, and before that, even, whatever knowledge could still be filtered down from the mythic times before the breaking of the world, and the causes of that catastrophe."Unfortunately," continued Eiji, "my operatives have not been able to uncover much beyond that -- and that is not much to go on.  We've been trying to to locate a man named Alexander Nevsky who supposedly witnessed one of the attacks, but he has eluded my men each time I've tried to bring him in for questioning.Konrad started, but at a subtle wave from Rosham, he didn't say anything.After some more discussion with Eiji, where they learned that the book he was looking for was a small little book known as The King in Yellow, they got redressed and parted ways, happy to at least have the support, even if it didn't amount to much, of one of the most notorious and powerful crime lords in the city.  That had to account for something.But it did not, apparently, account for protection from the lower elements of life in Bricktown, at least not yet.  Konrad spotted a small man behind them, limping noticably but marking their passage.  They stepped up their pace, but crossing through a narrow alleyway, they suddenly found themselves boxed in and surrounded by no less than twelve angry men, each carrying a wicked sword.  The limper had a familiar look; he was their erstwhile guide who had tried to lead them into an ambush before."This time it's personal, ya pikers!" he shouted, and the street toughs suddenly poured over them like rainwater.Because of the narrowness of the alley, they were able to keep them from coming all at once and surrounding them, at least.  Konrad pounded away at one end with his mace, but was taking a variety of vicious blows as well, while Tson tripped anyone that came near him, slashing at them cruelly with the spikes on his chain as they went down.  Rosham, on the other hand, suddenly started climbing the wall, ducking inside a window high over the heads of the combatants.  An elderly woman screamed as he suddenly appeared from the window in her kitchen, but when she saw his bared sword, she turned and ran from the room.  He quickly scanned the kitchen for any makeshift weapons he could use against the people below.Tson looked up then as a pot of boiling stew suddenly landed on his opponents, clonking one heavily on the head and scalding several others.  He took the opportunity to slash a few more to the ground.  One of the men put his sword away and began to chant.  Tson felt his body literally starting to wither and shrivel under the baleful influence of the witch.  Then a bottle of whisky, stuffed with a slashed piece of faded and grimy drapes landed right in front of the chanting spellcaster, exploding into a brief fireball and spray of shattered glass shrapnel.  He looked up to see Roshan's smiling face in the window.  Roshan saluted him."Get down here, you stinkin' gray!" Tson shouted up at him, but he was smiling too.  His chain was bloody with the viscera of the wizard.  Rosham did jump then, pulling down several of the goons that were fighting with Konrad as he fell.  Between the two of them, they made short work of those who were still fighting on that side of the alley.  Konrad leapt into combat on the other side with a yell, pummelling to death several folks that were bleeding severely from Tson's continued attention.  Tson had some more hard words for him as well.  "Get yer own bloody kills, ya daffer!"The fighting had been fierce, but quick.  The limper had somehow slipped away in the confusion.  Before more trouble came a'looking, they all decided to hurry back to their safe house, leaving the groaning and bleeding bodies piled in the alley.When they arrived, their butler took one disapproving glance at their wounds, particularly Konrad's, who were worse than the others, but then announced in a stately voice that he had found a clue on the body of the man who mummified overnight in their guest room.  In his hand was a crumpled and dirty scrap of parchment.</blockquote>

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