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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 1608855" data-attributes="member: 15043">Well, that oxman must be rather well off, Rose thought, watching the cart turn several from her house, and stop in front of a rather quiet, and expensive hostel.  Maybe he runs a logging firm, and he’s checking things out in disguise, she reasoned.  Her father was busy doing that at this moment, traveling to Irulas to check on several magic shops and taverns the Dice family owned.  He was a fairly good actor, and loved to show up at his taverns acting like a drunk to test their reactions before revealing himself.Nah, her mind dismissed any idea of spycraft regarding the man and the oxcart.  He must be delivering some firewood, she reasoned before making a turn onto her own street.The Dice family lived in the most expensive section of Kulloden, in a three story home made of the local pink marble and white brick.  There was enough money that Rose could have easily had several manservants following her for protection, but it was a protection she disdained (like the others in her family).  Her father was well liked throughout the Valley, and the family had no living enemies.  Besides, they weren’t nobility, and no one would really want to cross the head of a large Mage’s Guild, or her husband, who had exaggerated his legend to the point that many assumed he’d slain a dragon, and fifty armed men  in one battle, armed with only a rapier!That thought made Rose laugh.  Dad, in a fight with fifty armed men?  She grown up hearing the stories of how her mother and dad met, of their true exploits, which were impressive.  Several dread assassin’s slain, a noble safeguarded, and immense wealth accumulated at the expense of demons, a dragon (which was slain with extensive help).  What he didn’t tell anyone (but Rose’s mother Elenya freely told family friends) were the other stories.  How for a while the famous Shaun Dice had a cat’s tail due to annoying a wizard.  How he and the current Empress engaged in various contests in feats of arms, which she invariably won.  Of his quips that always landed him in trouble.As the sun began to set below the mountains off to the city’s west, she jogged through the ornate gate to the front of her home, gilt “D’s” marking the top of the wrought iron fence.“Good evening, Lady Rose!” one of the two family housekeepers called from the window, and Rose gave a wave back at Melinda.  A few seconds later, she had the door open before either Melinda or the family butler could get it open.“Food will be ready in about fifteen minutes,” Melinda called, “and your mother says-““Wash my hands!  Yeah I know!” Rose called back, already dashing up the stairs to the guest room where Ari was staying.  He’s probably fidgeting around again... gotta make sure he doesn’t get into dad’s...When she threw open the door, her eyes beheld what looked like mayhem.  Objects and books laid strewn about, covering the floor.  On the far wall were little pieces of paper with various insects pinned to them haphazardly, as if they were put on in a hurry.  At a desk sat a young man, who looked maybe 15 or so, with several books and papers piled in front of him, reading intently.  His skin was a brilliant shade of lavender, his eyes sky blue with hints of yellow.  His hair was a multitude of colors, seeming to shimmer on his head as he snapped around with an enormous grin.  Small specks of color seemed to fall from him as he moved.“Rose!  Is it too late to go out to the woods?!” Ari asked excitedly.  When Rose nodded, his face only showed crushing disappointment for a few moments, before he gestured to the papers to his front.  “I went into your dad’s room, and I...”“Ari!” Rose rolled her eyes.  Dad didn’t want him running through the rough draft of the stuff he’s writing!  “Pop told you not to go reading through that!  You’ll mess up the order he has things in!”“Its so interesting though!” the young prismatic dragon in human guise protested.  “I never knew your parents did so many things... running around, swashbuckling!” he waved his arms about as if he had a blade in his hand.  His antics erased what little anger Rose had, and she started to laugh.“C’mon, ya nutcase,” she grinned.  “Food’s downstairs in about fifteen minutes!  After that, we put dad’s stuff back, in order!”“Yeah, I have the order memorized!” Ari announced proudly, causing Rose to raise an eyebrow.“Uh huh, sure you do.”“Where’s your brother at?” the young dragon’s overly active mind had already jumped to another topic.  “He was supposed to teach me how to play the flute tonight!”  The dragon’s human voice betrayed slight annoyance at Shawn’s failed promise... but more curiosity at his present location.“Keeping the early drunks busy,” Rose replied, leading Ari downstairs.  “Someone needs to, until the headline entertainer arrives.”  Another aspect of her father and mother being out of town was that she, her brother Shawn, and Geoffrey needed to pick the week’s entertainers.  Today it was some lutist named Marogie.As they reached the bottom of the stairs, both Rose and Ari could see the last of the day’s pedestrian traffic on the streets, heading to their destinations.  No one inside the house noticed the man walking by outside, leering at their home entirely too closely, before the specter walked by, heading to his final destination of the day.“Dammit,” Raven grumbled as the evening sun grew redder.  Two people on nags, riding towards the west, her mind repeated in frustration.  Too bad two thirds of the damn city is that way!Her amorous admirer could not tell her who the two people on nags were, only that it was highly unusual for people so shoddily clothed to be coming from a noble manor like that.  Which automatically means they are important to House Erelion at least, Raven grumbled.“M’lady... your friend approaches,” one of the guardsmen next to her whispered.  HE had been pretending to look at a set of silverware, and slipped the notice to her without raising any eyebrows.These guardsmen know about discreet, at least.  She gave a momentary glance towards the east, and saw several more cloaks coming towards them, one of which held an orangish colored young man’s face.  As they walked by, Raven and her small group immediately fell in step with them, slipping into the evening rush of crowds attempting to get last minute errands done.“City watch folks stopped the carriage in question at the Monsecarl gate,” Royukgan said quietly, looking ahead as if focusing on what lay at the end of this immense boulevard... the Temple to Hieroneous the Righteous.  “And inside they found a rather richly clothed servant,” he gave a slight sigh.“Dammit,” Raven swore in Common before adding a choice phrase from Dwarven.  “Anything of use in the carriage?” she asked, before realizing if there had been anything pertinent, useful or the like in the waylaid vehicle, Royukgan would have said so.“’Fraid not,” the young man responded.  “The gate commandant, once he discovered who I was,” he motioned to the signet ring Vintressa had given him, “said that they had only recieved orders to detail all carriages leaving the city.  He said he reported it already, its just making its way up the chain of command.”“Ugh.  Which means Diogenes would not have found out until tomorrow morning, likely.  A day wasted!”“Likely,” Royukgan agreed.  “In my father’s home, all the gate commanders report directly to the security chief... no sector commanders, or district commanders,” the prince appraised.  “It’s so much simpler!”“Does your father’s capital have over a million people within its five rings of walls?” Raven replied.  At the prince’s silence, she gave a slight smile under her hood.  “I thought not.”“So then,” Royukgan said rather suddenly a minute or so later, “We come back knowing precious little more than we left out with.”“Well, I think I have a description of two people we should be looking for.  Dressed shoddily, riding on nags.  Along with the descriptions of a couple of the ‘dozens’ of messengers that left.”  After she gave the descriptions to Royukgan, he grunted.“Hmph!  That could describe any one of tens of thousands inside this city!” “Umhm,” Raven sighed.  “We’ll have to meet up with some of the other canvassing teams... and see what they have drummed up.  Or who knows... maybe someone from the palace might know something... perhaps Hemmel met people on a regular basis on something?”“I somehow think those leads will be hard to track,” Royukgan disagreed.  “From the descriptions Valaron and Vinny gave me, he was a consumate professional.  An assassin with no need for magic or weapons.  The ultimate threat.”  Royukgan shook his head.  “Someone with strength like that is hardly an amateur that would leave evidence behind.  A true ninja.”“A what?” Royukgan paused a moment, before shaking his head and smiling again.  “Nevermind.  I’ll explain later.”“Whatever.  We were the most likely ones to get any kind of information... I think we were the only ones that used subtlety,” Raven groaned.  “Vintressa was right about Diogenes.  He’s blunt and to the point.”Royukgan winced at what she meant.  Soldiers dressed in bright Imperial Guard uniforms were more likely to inspire intimidation than correct answers.  “He is a field general.  He does what he knows I suppose,” the prince replied quietly.  “I highly doubt any kind of information would be obtained by them.  I don’t think they’d be able to find where Heaven’s Rain left puddles!”“What?”Royukgan rolled his eyes at Raven not understanding a turn of words that anyone in his homeland would have immediately caught.  “Nevermind.”A few minutes of confused silence passed between the two, before Raven jumped into another topic, that had piqued her interest.  It would still be another few minutes before the teams would meet at the large fountains in front of the Chalice Temple to Pelor, and she thought she might as well grill Royukgan while he was relatively captive...“So... how serious is it between you and...” she left the princess’ name unsaid.  We are in public, after all.“Me and...?  I... um... well...” he immediately went back into the same stammers he’d given the night before, just before all hell broke loose.  “Kinda... okay!” he acknowledged her glare that he couldn’t see, “Its very serious!”“Umhm,” Raven nodded with her voice.  “I see.”“I mean... she’s nice, she’s pretty, she is no airheaded fool, and she enjoys many of the same things I do,” Royukgan said matter of factly.  “In fact, last night’s chaos interrupted our plans for a favorite past-time of ours.”“What?!” Raven’s mind jumped immediately as deep into the sewers as possible.  A trait from her father.“Chess?  Have you heard of it?  You know... knight takes priest?  Checkmate?” Raven could imagine the prince rolling his eyes at her bawdy thoughts.  She searched her own memory, and out of the fog, she did remember an empty chessboard set out on Vintressa’s bed.I guess he’s telling the truth.A soft jab from Royukgan told Raven they were approaching the fountain.  A few minutes later, the massive cascading tower of water and marble loomed in front of them, water flowing from marble reliefs depicting the sun’s rays, the kind, warm face of Pelor looming above it all.  In the evening light, the massive Temple to the Sun god cast the entire plaza in shadow as its bright copper and gold columns caught the suns rays in their brilliance...  the long stretch of Pelor, and the shadow showing his leaving for the day.A rather large bevy of guards, all clad in the brilliant red uniforms of the Casalad Rangers, bows strapped to their backs, stood waiting.   All moving about the plaza gave them a wide berth......save Raven, Royukgan, and their small retinue.“M’lord, M’lady,” one of the men, clad in bright, shiny plate mail, stepped forward.  “I am Captain Fuldcris.  I am compiling the report for General Diogenes on the information our searching this day has turned up.”  He gave their cloaks and rather plain clothing a look of slight disdain.  “Perhaps your snooping about has given you more information than our... nothing?” As the evening crept onward, and the blazing orange of the setting sun burned bright over Iskeldrun, two pairs of eyes watched a raven haired, green eyed girl canvassing the street.  The eyes observed the two men in black cloaks always within arms reach of her; silent, seeming to look at wares or talk to strangers, but always mindful, always watching.  Word quickly spread through a select group that someone was about, asking questions about the morning’s events.Two more pairs of eyes watched her friend further down the road, a boy with a orangish tint to his skin, dark black hair, and yellow eyes.  Their ears caught whispers of his speech on the wind, and lilting, distant responses to his queries.  Hand signals flashed quietly, unnoticed, and quickly feet scurried away, with information to report.Other eyes watched with interest as Master Chamoval’s small, innocuous goblin form set about dealing with the few customers his ramshackle store recieved that day, and now watched as he closed up shop.  The goblin untied two nags that had been left there all day, and kicked the old animals until they cantered up the street.  The eyes watched as Chamoval locked up his shop, and the lights in his street level shop go dim.  Above, lamplight petered out from his windows, and these eyes took note...Sometime later, once the dead of night had settled, dark figures quickly gathered around the building, shapes in dark cloaks that momentarily revealed the glint of blades.  Quick hands quickly broke the old lock fitted over the door, and arcane words undid the unseen, magical lock covering the same.Swiftly, silently, the figures stole into the shop, deftly avoiding the numerous shapes of books, antiques, and other items that littered the ground.  Silently, these figures rose up the stairs...Chamoval might have been ‘civilized’ for his kind, but some effects of his race still were with him.  One such thing was a preference for meat far rarer than most humans would have consumed.  And tonight, to celebrate the departure of his friend, he’d saved up a relatively moist, but now thoroughly rotten, piece of lamb.  Goblins ate their food ferociously, no matter if it was already dead, and Chamoval was no different.  His teeth cracking bones, and gnawing on the succulent flesh distracted his mind from what little sounds were coming from the stairway.  His confidence in years of procedure made him not carefully check things.Thus he was summarily surprised when five different swords suddenly pointed at his throat.  And when he was rudely spun from his table to face his bed across the small room.A few seconds later, a young woman, her long red hair tied in a crown around her head, sat down on his flea infested bed.  To his immense surprise, the fleas seemed to flee her form, and he could swear he saw the tiny insects leaping onto the floor and scurrying into the woodwork to get away from her.“Master Chamoval,” her sweet alto sounded, a not so pleasant smile on her face, “several friends of yours entered this place, and never left this morning.  Pray tell, where are they now?”  Her head inclined to the side, as if she was asking a polite question.  Her hand resting on the hilt of a rather large sword indicated her statement was anything but a polite request...</blockquote>

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