Radiant Cross Hospital

The man looked up again, now with a slightly angered expression on his face.

You wouldn't be the first to cause trouble, nor would you be the first to find yourself smacked on the head and thrown into the harbour basin, he growled.

"I'm not sure threatening me is the greatest of ideas, my friend. You see, your 'friends' back there are only wearing leather armour, and their weapons did not seem to me to be sophisticated. Whereas I, am wearing full plate armour and happen to be heavily armed. I am a master crossbowman, how much do you wreckon one of them drops before he gets close enough to so much as brush an attack against me?" Savan never lowered his eyes from the barkeep, and his right hand was no on the hilt of his bastard sword.

The barkeeper eyed Savan's equipment awkwardly, reluctantly acknowledging the truth of the knight's words.

Alright, alright, he grumbled, beckoning Savan to follow him. He pushed open the door to the backroom and called for the thugs.

This guy direly needs to talk to you lads, he said, don't ask me why. You can go in, he added, turning to Savan.

Savan stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. He looked at each of the thugs in the face, sizing them up before he spoke. "What do you lot know about the Red Brotherhood? More specifically, some rather important documents of mine that I appear to have...misplaced."

The men were sitting at a roughly worked table in the middle of the room, each of them with a mug in front of him. Apart from that the room was empty but for some old wine bottles in a corner. At the back side was another door, closed. The men selves were rather unremarkable. All three of them tall and heavily built but certainly way more clumsy than a trained fighter.

They exchanged some looks, then one of them, a bald man with a piggish face, spoke up.

Well, Jett let ye in here, so I guess we're fine tellin' ye. We works for de Reds, ye know, keepin' dis place nice an' quiet, so they can make deir deals an' wutnot. Sometimes one of dem comes here to give us orders, but of dac..docu...wutever I dunno nuthin'.

"Alright then, i'll need to be informed of your latest orders. What are your masters up to? Have they made any deals recently?" He asked, pulling up a spare chair and sitting with the three thugs.

Oy, ye got a lot o' questions. The man scratched his head. I heard dere'd been some trouble lately, but us, we got nutin' to do wid it, nay.

Whaddabout the old codger? Ye know, them brought him in some days ago? interjected one of his fellows.

Ah, yeah, almost forgot dat one! He turned back to Savan. Two nights ago dem brought us dat old guy. Was all gagged and fettered, he was and we was to guard him. den, next day, came Pelfor, one of deir capt'ns, ye know, and took him away again.

"Can you tell me where he took him? Did they tell you? and what did you hear about trouble lately, I know that good men like yourselves would have nothing to do with it, but a man can hear a lot working in a tavern." Savan stated, looking interested.

Nah, we dunno where dem reds come from or go to. Sec...Sacu...

Security! interjected his fellow again.

Yeah, Se-cu-ra-teh, dat's what dem says. It's for se-cu-ra-teh dat we dunno deir hiding places.

He paused for a moment, as if to remember what the other question had been.

Aye, about de trouble, right? We heard dat some knights of the peony gruntled or whatnut pissed off de reds by takin' away deir hops...hesp...whatever-buildin'. Donn ask me what a gruntled peony looks like, dough.
But ye can ask Pelfor all dat, he knows bedder, I'm sure. If yer lucky, ye'll find'im here t'night or t'morrow.

"I'll do just that. Thank you for your help, my good man. I hope you don't mind if I wait with you?" Savan asked, moving his chair a bit further into the room so he could sit in shadow, his black armour would make unnoticable to someone just entering the room, and he laid his crossbow down beside him, leaning against the chair, allowing for him to quickly fling it up and aim.

Savan waited in the backroom for hours. At first the thugs were rather awkward and Savan's presence seemed to keep them from their conversations, but with time passing they just returned to their usual talks of everyday life issues, simple jokes and one or the other petty banter. The hours passed, but no one showed up in the backroom. Savan had almost lost hope and thought he'd have to return the other day when someone knocked at the door and without waiting stepped in in the same instant.

The man wanted to address the thugs - as usual as it seemed - but suddenly perceived a shadow in the rear corner. Startled his hand cautiously moved towards his short sword.

Who the hell is that, Quintus? And without waiting for an answer from the thug he went on, now talking to Savan directly. Who are you and what do you want?

"That depends entirely on you who you are." Savan answered, propping his crossbow on his lap, aiming it at the stranger, his hand ready to squeeze of a shot. "and what your motivations are."

The man's expression grew rather angry, his mouth tightened and eyes glaring at Savan but he knew better than to defy a man with a crossbow trained on him, so he gulped his anger down.

Pelfor's the name and my business is a red one, he hissed through barely parted teeth.

A smile cracked Savan's lips. "Excellent, that means you can help me. I am investigating certain documents, certain valuable documents that may be of Noldor origin. What can you tell me?" Savan tapped his crossbow to emphasize that he wasn't messing around.

You ..., Pelfor seemed to realise something, you're one of those knights. You already know our terms. You get them back as soon as you clear the hospital again.

Savan's smile did not waver, "You see, I don't much like those terms. You see, we have been without a chapterhouse for a very long time. So, I present my own terms. You tell me where these documents can be found, and I won't have you hung for a slaver. Now doesn't that sound appealing? Or, if you prefer, I can put a bolt in your knee, and then another bolt in other, quite important" Savan gestured to the man's groin "...places. I will have those documents, the only part of this story that is open to interpretation is what happens to the unfortunate red whom I stumbled upon in a tavern."

Pelfor gulped, but this time not to swallow his anger. The three thugs were too startled or afraid to do anything anyway and just sat there dumbfounded. Finding no hope of support from them Pelfor nervously said:

Wait, wait, you ... you see I do not know where my superiors have kept these documents and the other stuff and the scholar, but... well, I ... I could go and tell them of your... your determination, so ... so as to convince them of m...milder terms?

"I fear that would not do, I don't think they would listen. You see, they have many men and I am but one. How about this, you come with me, back to the hospital. There I will get a small unit together, and we will disguise ourselves as Red's. We will go with you to your superiors, and smoke the rats out of their nest. If you do well, there may even be a reward more valuable than your life." Savan never looked away from the Red when he spoke, his smile was gone now however, he looked nothing but determined, his crossbow still trained on the man.

"There's a smart lad." Savan said as he stood up. He told the Red to lead, keeping his crossbow trained on Pelfor's back. "I trust you know where the hospital is, so I don't need to give you directions." He nudged the man with his crossbow, a gesture telling him to go. "Out the front door, if you please."

Past the startled tavern thugs they went, out through the taproom, Savan holding Pelfor's wrists with one gauntleted hand and pointing the crossbow at his back with the other. A wave of commotion rippled through the room when they came out of the backroom, but none of the customers seemed to be brave enough to act - or maybe the Reds had not paid them enough to do so. In the end it did not matter. No one seemed to be keen on a closer relationship with a crossbow bolt or a morning star.

They passed out of the tavern, down the muddy road leading from the harbour district to the upper town. Most people shunned away from the heavily armoured knight and his captive but halfway to the chapterhouse Savan chanced upon a patrol of the city watch. Seeing the crossbow the men spread out, alarmed. The Sergeant called out for him.

Hold there! Who are you and what are you doing with this man?

Savan cursed under his breath and turned to the city watchmen. "This man has been taken into custody by the Knights of the Ebony Gauntlet for questioning. He is part of a group that is believed to have stolen artifacts from my order." Savan kept the crossbow pointed into the Red's back and whispered into his ear "This will go best for you if you stay quiet."

The sergeant watched him awkwardly.

How can we be sure you speak the truth? Can you prove to be a member of the Ebony Gauntlet?

"Look at my armour, and the sigil I bear. I am a member of the Gauntlet, and I have the skill with a crossbow to reflect on that." Savan shifted his weight slightly. "The Gauntlet train, walk, and run in extremely heavy armour, look at the ease with which I move. Do you think a common outlaw would be capable of this?" Savan asked, watching the men pointedly.

The sergeant eyed him. Maybe you speak true. If you really are a knight of the Gauntlet, however, you will certainly not refuse to let us accompany you to your chapter house. Men, fall in line!

Pelfor sighed under his breath as they moved off towards the hospital again. This was definitely not his lucky day.

Soon after they arrived at their destination and the watchmen left them after the porter had recognised Savan.