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Another rainy Spring night finds a
small group of locals huddled in the Red Cock tavern. The
wind howls through the streets outside, swinging the
old plaque above the door so that it might fall from
its hinges at any moment. Inside many hope that
it does, or for anything that will break the monotony
of days without a hint of sunlight, days of relentless
rain. The night was not improved by a pervading
foul stench that wafted across the city from the Iron
Temple. Not a door or shutter remained open in
the Naryard this night.
Mayla cursed as the door flew open and
the wind and rain drenched her, soaking her last rolled
smoke. She reached to shut the door as an elderly
woman stumbled inside, covered in street grime and soaked
to the bone. The hunched woman clutched the back of a chair
to support herself, shaking and terrified. "You
must help me," she croaked. "Please,
help me." Daga
and Dogsbutt moved to help the old lady. Salam, undeterred
from his labor to polish the bar top to a mirror finish
made a comment about "no
handouts", without looking up. The crone protested
weakly, "No. My necklace. I've lost it." As
Daga helped her into a chair he noticed she was clutching
her chest, but more interestingly was the fact that her
hand was ticking. Daga fetched the woman some tea
while Dogsbutt asked her what had happened. She explained
between gasps that she had been walking from
the Pra'Yard to the K'yard to answer a message from a friend
when she had slipped on the rain-slicked cobbles and hit
her head on a porch step. She did not know how long
she had been out but awoke when two young men helped her
to her feet. After
the men had left she realized that her necklace was gone.
The old woman insisted that without it, she would die.
When asked why she would die, the old woman only
answered
"old age". When pressed for details she
explained she might die within a day.
Dogsbutt grabbed his cape and searched
the rain slick streets for some sign of the woman's treasure
but could find nothing. He returned to the tavern
to learn more of the young men that helped her. She
had not had a good look at them, she explained for they
had hoods. She did notice that one had a grotesquely
bulbous nose. Without much work in Jaris these
last months there were few thieves about. Dogsbutt
headed south toward ... to see if any beggars fit the
woman's description.
With Dogsbutt gone into the stormy night
again, Daga assisted the old woman back to his house. Fatigued
from the walk the woman passed out in a chair. Moving
the clutched hand and blouse of his unconscious guest
Daga found a metal hole implanted into the woman's
chest.
Radiating out from the hole were four knotted scars
where the lady's chest had been carved and pulled open.
Mirroring some lantern light on the subject, Daga's eyes
lit up to the sight of turning clockworks and the clear
audible tick of a working machine, dying down.
The iron rim of the chest hole was perforated to
allow for a medallion-sized cap to fit snugly over the
top. Daga roused the woman from her blackout and
asked her about the friend she sought. He
learned that her name was Iveánda Navèdra and the friend
she sought was named Kulak. Grabbing his coat,
Daga returned into the wind and the rain and made the
best time he could toward the K'yard, looking for a man
he'd never met.
Dogsbutt picked his way carefully through
unfamiliar streets. The run-off was not so deep
here and he thought once or twice of emptying his boots. Soon
he came upon two beggars, man and woman and asked if
they'd seen the two young men he was searching for. He
offered the woman fruit which he didn't have, but convinced
her that he had a barrel-full "back at home" and would
bring her some if she could be of help. Despite
being hit and told to be quiet by her companion, the
woman explained that some thugs lived in an old inn blocks
further. She explained that the man he sought was
named Tellet and that his companion was Ursyd. Dogsbutt
thanked her and ran off.
The spectacled Daga talked to a couple
nightwatchmen in the K'yard. Neither had heard
of the name "Kulak", but both thought the name sounded
queer. The second directed him to a basement bar
which he nearly walked by. Entering
he was directed to a corner table where several men and
women sat. He reocognized immediately one of the
men slowly tracing a Derecauln sign on the tabletop with
his fingertip. Daga responded in kind. Explaining
that he was looking for a man named Kulak for an old woman
in his care, a middle-aged woman at the table responded
that she knew of Kular, and add that 'if certain people
learned that he had spoken with the man he sought, Daga
would be as good as dead.' Fear seized the balding
tinkerer, he thanked them for their time and left for home. He
felt terrible about not finding Iveánda's friend, but could
not bring himself to soldier on.
Dogsbutt found a man urinating in the
back of the old inn. He followed the drunken sot
into the back kitchen and took stock of the ground floor
inhabitants. Climbing up the back wall of the half-timber
building, he slipped into a dark room and staked out that
floor. In one room a man was puking onto the floor,
in the hall a woman sat snoring and splayed against the
wall. Only in one room was there candlelight and
conversation. He crept into the adjacent room and
listened for an hour or more. When one of the people
stopped to vomit from the first story window he peered
out his own window to see that it was the man with the
large nose. Finally one of the two passed out onto
the floor, and the larger of the two vacated his bladder
onto his friend before collapsing onto a bed and staring
bleary-eyed at his room for a while longer, before passing
out himself. Dogsbutt slipped quietly into the room
and found the medallion and a purse of coins. Success!
The small thief visited briefly with the unconscious
girl in the hall and then quietly climbed back
out of the old inn, returning to the Red Cock. Finding
no one at the tavern he struck out for Daga's.
The two met at Daga's front door. Inside,
Daga and Dogsbutt found the woman slumped deeply in her
chair; the ticking noise was gone. Daga hurriedly
fit the medallion into its place on the woman's chest but
the ticking did not restart. Iveánda was dead. Dogsbutt,
exhausted from the long night's adventure returned to the
Red Cock. Daga watched him briefly as he left. After
the ugly little man had disappeared in the inky rain,
the tinkerer grabbed his things and excitedly returned
to the body in his front room. After a taking
some measurements, Daga adjusted his spectacles, straddled
her chair, and began sawing the iron heart from Ivy's chest. |
