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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Seravin" data-source="post: 1947381" data-attributes="member: 6783">More ReportsShortly thereafter the building caught fire.The barrel-chested Watch-Commander, Dolan Jessup, stopped, re-read that last line and swore vehemently.  Lieutenant Brand had just paid for a whole lot of trouble and he probably didn’t even know it yet.  Sighing, the older, graying officer looked glumly at the report in front of him.  Soon he would have to give his version of the report to his Grace, Duke Hilmaron, and he wanted to be able to give the report without flinching under his Grace’s piercing stare.The events were still a tangled mess and only a handful of people really knew what happened.  It was Latina’s own miracle that the fire hadn’t spread further; by all accounts the fire brigade had been slow to respond, hampered by the fleeing criminals.  Hyla only knew how the cache of alchemist fire kept getting saturated with water.  Dolan sighed again and looked mournfully at the report and started scanning it again from the top.  In another hour he would have the heroes in his office and he wanted to make sure he asked all the questions that Duke Hilmaron was certainly going to answer.The complaintant’s (identified above) brought in the accused just past the second bell.  They claimed that they had been set upon in the North East quarter in an alleyway off of Chance Street.  The complaintant’s further alleged that the accused had three other allies who had gotten away in the ensuing fight and further that one of these allies was a wizard of some power.  There were burn marks on two of complaintants (Field-Captain Kellron and Journeywoman Jallarzi) as well as strong odor of lightning.  The accused refuse to talk at all either to confirm or deny guilt.I sent two men to confirm the identities of the complaintants and received written verification from Colonel Megara of the church of Sarath, Master Wymeah of the Library, and Watch-Herald Ladea brevetted to our own organization.  While awaiting confirmation of the identities I ordered that the prisoner be placed in a cell.  While searching the accused for weapons and contraband, Watchman Rok discovered a black silk cord wrapped around the accused’s arm held in place by a copper pin tipped with a garnet.  Watchman Rok reported this immediately and I recognized these as the insignia of the assassin group known as the Black Sashes; though I recognized that this was not definitive proof of being an actual assassin I allowed this to influence my decisions in aiding the complaintants.Herald Kestral indicated that while investigating the whereabouts of a bard’s harp she had come across suggestions of a criminal conspiracy to capture or kill a stonemason by the name of Marik Lorland.  The conspirators had somehow been wrongly informed that this stonemason was involved in some sort of wrong doing though she did not appear to know exactly what kind.  Lacking any evidence to take to the Watch, she and her friends decided to rescue the stonemason themselves by magically taking his place while he was spirited away to a safe place.Dolan snorted.  He had some very pointed questions to ask this Kestral Threndy.  Somehow he knew that she was involved more deeply then she had admitted to the Lieutenant.  She was probably very pretty and had distracted the young idiot from asking all the correct questions.  The Watch-Commander sat back and took a drink of tea from his rapidly cooling mug.  Calling Brand an idiot wasn’t really fair, but he was young and it showed.  The Lieutenant was the younger son of one of the lesser earls living in the city and had decided on a Watch career; his family had ‘helped’.  Fortunately the young man was competent, if still green and was capable enough in enacting his day-to-day duties; these circumstances weren’t day-to-day though and it was unfortunate that Brand had done almost everything exactly right.After everything had been verified I allowed Squire Ashimar and Herald Kestral to speak with the prisoner alone.  I had a guard posted close enough to hear any call for help or to invervene in case of any untowardness; the guard reported that all went peacefully.*  Afterwards, Squire Ashimar and Herald Kestral reported that the prisoner refused to speak about why he was apparently after Marik Lorland but that he had been given his job at the Blue Diamond, a tavern in the North-East quarter.  Still lacking any evidence or a direct confession I nevertheless dispatched a squad to the Blue Diamond and allowed the complaintants to leave to take care of other business. **It looked okay on the face of it.  The Watch-Commander had been a member of the watch for over twenty years.  He knew exactly what the dispatched squad would have found when they arrived at the Blue Diamond.When the squad returned they noted that all seemed normal at the Blue Diamond, though the squad-leader noted that some of the patrons seemed extremely on edge and that there seemed to be an abundance of coin on some of the tables.Watch-Commander Jessup was well aware that some wealthy families involved themselves in criminal activities, and given their resources were more than able to plan for the long-term; he was also cynical enough to believe that the best the Watch could do was keep the worst of the excesses in check.  No doubt the squad had been spotted the moment they appeared on the same street as the tavern, giving the owners a chance to hide any blatantly illegal activity.  The older officer contined to skim the report.Just before nightfall the complaintants appeared again, this time alleging that upon visiting the Blue Diamond they found that it was also acting as an untaxed gambling house.  Given the previous squad’s report and the credentials of the complaintants I thought it best to personally investigate the charges.It was decided that I would accompany the complaintants in plainclothes while the rest of my squad would hang back under the cover of heavy cloaks.  If I was able to verify their claims that the establishment was involved in running games of chance we would then signal my squad to make arrests.The complaintants admitted that they hoped to use the arrests and the ensuing chaos as a chance to search the premises for evidence of the presumed assassination attempt against Marik Lorland.  I deemed that there was a reasonable chance of this and agreed to let them search while I and the squad made the arrests.The Watch-Commander couldn’t suppress another snort.  That was the Lieutenant’s youth and inexperience speaking.  Assassins weren’t hired with written contracts that outlined that some poor deserving bastard needed to be killed which were then conviently left lying around.  Assassins were hired with soft words and much gold and perhaps a few favors.  There had been zero chance of finding any evidence of why this Edath suspect had been hired to kill Marik Lorland. Lieutenant Brand was obviously too young and trusting; there had been no evidence of the assassination, but life was for learning and moving on.  The Watch-Commander just wished he could be more glad about what they did find.It started snowing on our way to Blue Diamond which hid our approach quite well.  Upon arriving at the tavern Herald Kestral and I entered the establishment after convincing the door guard that we were there to game and it was okay.  We were admitted without incident and I observed at least ten games going on in the common room.  Within several minutes after seating ourselves I noticed that two games ended, whereupon a portion of the winnings were sent to the front counter and given to the bartender.  Upon this partial evidence (I was awaiting a full confirmation that the establishment was not licensed for gambling) I paid the bill and left with Herald Kestral.  As soon as we were outside I signaled my squad and Herald Kestral’s allies.  I then directed half of my squad to the rear of the building.  Once set I then knocked upon the same door we had just exited to gain admittance and announced myself.  The doorguard opened the watch-window and immediately slammed it while raising an alarm inside.  My half of the squad and I proceeded to try and enter the tavern.  At about the same time Squire Ashimar noticed a concealed entrance into the building nearby.  He and his comrades entered the building that way and were able to free up the main entrance enough for us to enter.  Once inside Squire Ashimar apparently discovered another secret door leading to a basement.  Field-Captain Kellron led his group downstairs to investigate.  Shortly thereafter the building caught fire.Secret doors.  Untaxed gambling.  This Blue Diamond reeked of trouble.  Watch-Commander Jessup could only hope that whoever had the funds to hire a wizard and a group of assassins was now too busy to hire the same group again to go after a simple Lieutenant.  What with the rumors that the soldiers were going to be deployed north (In the winter!), he couldn't afford for there to be any trouble in the city.---*I don’t recall much of the conversation, but Kestral and Ashimar went in to talk with Edath (their assassin prisoner).  I seem to recall that this was the first time that Kestral tried to use all three of her ranks in intimidate; rather ineffectually.  It wasn’t until she and Ashimar teamed up that they managed to get anything at all from him.**Notably Kestral immediately met thereafter with Watch-Herald Ladea to arrange a ‘sister’ to backup her story with Grandal about her sick sibling.  She had realized partway through the questioning of the assassin that portions of her story were being checked up on.  By the end of the day the Herald’s had adopted a small eight year old orphan girl named Erica who agreed to accept ‘Beth’ as her sister.  Kestral made a point to spend time with the girl during her remaining time in Corlean.  After starting this process the group went onward to the Blue Diamond. </blockquote>

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