Radiant Cross Hospital

Hectorious now looked at the knight with disdain.

This lowly commoner is a free citizen of Ethos and only owes allegiance to our duke and the king, while you are a landless knight of an order that until recently had no land or home of its own. Only our duke's generosity let you settle down in the old hospital and I believe you have fallen prey to a certain misconception regarding the importance of your order. As for the alleged importance of your documents, you seem to be mistaken, too. If I direly wanted to read Noldor writings I'd just visit Quigfen or consult the libraries of the Raven Spear.

Now, I've had enough of your presumptuousness. Remove yourself immediately from my house before I call the city watch.

You insult me, you insult my order, you insult my commander.......

Fine we are both of equal status in your eyes then? I therefore challenge you to a gentleman's duel. You may choose the weapons and I will of course strip my armor.

THe knight was enraged at this point and ready to go.

Meanwhile, in the background a knight gulps.... He whispers to his comrade and proceeds to run in the direction of the palace.


Said knight arrives at the palace and through very firm insistence reaches the Harlequin. He, out of breathes quickly and succintly sums up the current crisis. The Harlequin curses and turns to the lady,

"My lady one of my knights has engaged in some especially egregious behavior that must be addressed immeadiately. I am very sorry my lady but I must cut this meeting short. Perhaps we can arrange meeting at some other point? I will make sure to get those writings along with translations as soon as possible."

The Harlequin strides very very quickly out of the chamber room before breaking into a jog when he gets outside. He can only hope he can stop his fool knights behavior before it is too late.

Slightly startled Lady Luciana bid the knights goodbye.

When they arrived at Hectorious house they perceived several guardsmen of the city watch, perhaps a dozen in total. The enraged knight was just being led out of the house by two guards, while the three others argued with a watch officer. Drawing nearer they were just able to hear the officer address the knight held by his men:

You are accused of having - with weapon drawn - threatened a citizen of Ethos within its very walls as well as challenging him to an illegal duel. You are under arrest for questioning until further notice!

The Harlequin winces at what he hears.

He walks over to the guard captain and begins a very quiet conversation with him that the others cannot hear.

"What exactly happened here?"

This knight threatened a citizen of Ethos with a drawn weapon and even challenged him to a duel. Such challenges are only allowed between nobles and are generally forbidden within the city walls in order to keep peace and order. We are taking this man with us for questioning.

With that he gave his men the command to line up again, ready to march away to the city watch barracks.

Craig the Lame, watched from a distance as the whole commotion took place. Something the Hecotrious said must have enraged his Knight. From what he had gathered from his other knights, Hecotrious seemed too defensive. Does he have something to hide?


Get all of our Knights off the streets back to the hospital. Get them to guard the Noldor scriptures for now. I'll see what i can do.

As he watched the Knight being led away by the city guards, he began to formulate a plan to sneak into the Scholar's home at night. He had to find out what was going on. He surveyed the area. Patrols had to be on high alert in this area.

He called for two other knights and told them them to slip into commoner's clothes and told them his plan. At midnight, they will roll a cart laden with barrels of wine as a gift from the Lord of Ethos. However, in one of the barrels, he will remain hidden inside.

Craig the Lame scowled. A snag in the beginning already? He peered around the walls of the house, his eyes adjusting to the darkness. Seeing no potential points of entry, he sighed. If he were to sneak in broad daylight, it would just create another fiasco. If he were to force his way in, the public would believe that it is an act of revenge by the Ebony Gauntlet. He could not risk that.

We're going back to the hospital. I want eyes on Hectorious at all times beginning today at dawn. Follow him without your armor. Tell me his location, his haunts and anything you can learn.

When they arrived back at the chapter house something caught their eyes: A piece of parchment was pinned to the main gate with a dagger, whose handle ended in a wolf's head. The scrawled message on the parchment said:

You're missing something.

Craig the Lame's blood ran cold. The parchments, some of them had to be missing when the Scholar knocked it off, as one of the Knights had told him.

He limped towards the gate and glared at the message. He pulled the dagger out.

Get this examined. Ask around the blacksmiths. And keep your armor on. Whoever did this knows that we're going to find out anyway.

Check the Noldor writings that we acquired before and see if we are we missing anything. Keep the rest under heavy protection. We can't afford any mistakes now.

Craig surveyed the surrounding area wearily before making his way into the hospital

Craig frowned in frustration. It was really bad timing that the GrandMaster was away at this crucial point. He had to do what he could possibly manage for the time being.

Time to visit that smithy. I want four of you guarding my back. I'll try to persuade him to talk to me about the dagger. Remember, keep your distance from anyone as much as possible.

Craig then donned his old Radiant Cross armor and hefted his heavily battered Radiant Cross Shield, hoping that his less intimidating appearance would gain him some answers.

Let's go. Time is not being kind to us.

With that, the five knights left the hospital, the four burly Ebony Gauntlet Knight guarding Craig's back.

As they made their way to the smithy the quality of the houses along the streets visibly worsened and eventually they found themselves amidst the slums of Ethos.

The smithy itself was a downtrodden building with the smith working in a small backyard. He ceased working when he saw them approach.

Well, what can I do for you? We don't get such wealthy-looking customers here all day, you know.

Craig the Lame ordered the Ebony knights to stand guard outside with a wave of his hand, and removed his helm. He briefly addressed the surrounding, and turned to the smithy.

Good day to you, good sir. I hope i'm not bothering you.

He drew out the clumsily-wrapped dagger and unwrapped it partially, careful to only allow the handle of the dagger to be visible. He then placed a hand on the handle of his sheathed claymore.

You don't happen to know whom this belongs to, do you?

When the smith perceived the handle Craig could see his eyes flash shortly, but he immediately gathered himself again, adopting an indifferent expression.

No Sir, he said, I'm afraid I cannot help you with this.

You don't?

Craig's voice turned into a menacing growl and he limped closer towards the smith, his eyes boring into those of the smith's. He dropped the cloth, allowing the blade of the dagger to reveal itself.

Then let me warn you, that if i do not get any satisfying answers, i am inclined to let the four gentlemen waiting outside have their fun until i get what i came for. I'm sure that they wouldn't have any problems with tearing this place down.

The man's face changed to a shocked expression.

Alright, alright, Sir, no need to get angry. I did make this dagger. You see, life is hard here in the slums and I have to accept every contract I'm offered, so I forge weapons for the Reds when they ask me. The wolf is the smybol of the local cartel. Please, good Sir, don't tell anyone I told you of them or I'm done for.

Craig the Lame nodded, understanding the plight of the smithy.

Thank you for the information. We'll have this area monitored. You can continue to take their contracts, but i expect to be informed if you are expecting them.

Craig the Lame nodded curtly to the smithy before heading back to the hospital. Before doing so, he ordered two of the knights to lay low within the area and monitor for the Reds' activities.

The smithy:

After some time the veteran gave Matthew a thump and pointed down the street, where three figures in leather armour had just turned round the corner.

I bet my weekly share of ale they'll be heading for the smithy, he grumbled.

The Hospital:

Later that day a squire came running to Craig, carrying another dagger and parchment.

Sir, he said puffing, this was found stuck in the kitchen gate.

The message read: Now you know who we are. Clever boy. The deal is simple: You'll get your parchments if we get our hospital back. PS: Your friend is quite well... yet.

Scums, Craig roared, smashing his gauntlet onto the desk.

He rushed out and ordered 10 of his men to fall in.

Listen up. The Red Brotherhood know that we have extracted information from the smith, not that i haven't been expecting it. However, they are threatening the life of the smith, who is perhaps our only lead. I want you all to rendezvous with Matthew. Inform him that he will be leading this mission Keep the smith alive. If any Reds come to take his life, try to take one of them alive.

The Gauntlet's force has been spread out too thin. He can't afford to send any more men out or the Hospital would be too ineffectively guarded.

Keep watch here, Craig commanded the sentry. I'll be back soon.

With that, he headed out for the city's taverns, intending to get some answers on the Red.

Matthew looking quickly at the veteran and then down the street suddenly gulped. Being newly inducted as a knight of the ebony gauntlet had it's benefits, but it when your as green as grass it had its negatives.

Matthew said to the Veteran, "Look mean, and pull out your crossbow."

Now Matthew usually wouldn't of been giving orders, but the veteran was not officially part of the EG, which gave Matthew a seniority over the veteran retainer. Matthew pulled out his crossbow, and loaded a bolt, thinking to himself, why do I have to be the god damn hero

So moving toward the abandoned house on the other side of the street across the smithy, they attempt to take positions inside, hoping that the newcomers didn't see them. The rickety old house swayed as the wind eerily seemed to pick up. The boarded up house showed no signs of use, and no openings in the windows.

Matthew stood looking through the small opening in the basement watching the men talk to the smith. Matthew had three options to decide on what to do, he could either wait and follow them when they left, or interrogate the smith on what transpired, or take them prisoner by force and make them give answers. Hmmmm, Matthew thought and then looked to Willard. Willard was a big guy, he survived this long for a reason.

"Okay Willard follow me, and once we get out of here, I want you to train your crossbow on them. We only need one prisoner, so if one tries to get away, take him out, at t his close range, we should be able too." said Matthew with a very calm tone, disguising the fear he actually felt.