District 1: Actions

Varys shook his head in frustration, and told his men to follow him.

"Haruch, stay close. We will attack the vault from behind. Let's go."

Varys yelled "Keep fighting men! We almost have them!"

Celdiur allowed his blade to fall from his grasp, embedded in his latest victim who went writhing to the ground. He drew his mace from his waste now, determined that he would take at least one of his attackers alive for information. And execution.

Upon hearing Varys' words, he pressed hard against his nearest foe.

"We have them, Brothers! In the name of Astraea, FINISH THIS!"

One by one the former attackers now fell by the Eventide's blades. When the bloody work was done the looked around, exhausted from the fight or even the wounds they had taken themselves. The vault's floor was covered in blood and dead and dying attackers and knights alike lay everywhere. Celdiur counted six dead knights and around 30 cut down assailants. Two of them, who had been hit by Celdiur's mace, seemed to be still alive, but unconscious for the time being.

One of the remaining knights looked around with a dreary expression on his face that seemed to say "What was this as all for?" and then turned to Celdiur:

Your orders, Sir?

Celdiur seemed almost as if he were ignoring the question for a moment as he crouched next to one of his fallen brethren. Detecting no signs of life, he dragged the fallen knight's sword over to his body and clenched his still warm, armoured fist around its hilt. He passed his hand over his head and closed over his eyelids for the last time.

"Santísima Madre, cuida de estas almas honradas, ya que pasar de este mundo al otro. Vela sobre ellos y protegerlos de los lazos de la maldad y el mal. Saluda a ellos antes de las puertas del cielo como sus leales súbditos. Saluda a ellos como amigos. Amén"
(Blessed Mother, watch over these honoured souls as they pass from this world to the next. Watch over them and safeguard them from the snares of wickedness and evil. Greet them before the gates of Heaven as your loyal subjects. Greet them as friends. Amen)

"Rest easy now my Brothers. You have done your duty"

Celdiur rose to his feet, retrieved his own blade and then turned to the questioning knight. With a solemn look upon his face, he answered.

"Now, my Brother, we finish what we have started here, lest the deaths of our kin be for naught. Sibrand, you and the other squires are to take these two wounded criminals to the Chapter House. Imprison them until they awake. Then make them talk. If you lack creativity, im sure Lord Azlanek has many a suggestion he would be willing to share".

Celdiur spoke these last words with the hint of a twisted smile upon his face.

"Take your wounded kinsman with you when you go. What remains of our company will continue our search here in the sewers. Though first we must locate Alain and his companions. Let us hope that he has stumbled upon something that we have not. We will return later for our dead. This was no place for a warrior to die, nor is it a place for his final rest. The rest we will take to the surface and burn, for that is all that sinners deserve"

Celdiur took one last look upon the grisly scene before heading for the nearest tunnel, wiping blood from his face as he went.

Varys motioned for Haruch and Rocorad to follow him, and began his search of the vault and it's surrounding tunnels.

Varys whispered to Rocorad, "Gather up anything that seems to belong to the leading villain. I want to test something out on Dhez'ral."

He then spoke out loud, "Celduir, let us examine the desk for anything of importance. These schedules and warnings seem too accurate to be true, and I fear that our suspicions may be right about Dhez'ral."

Celdiur nodded in silent acknowledgement. The group began to raid through the desk, searching for anything that would provide them an answer.

Varys frowned.

Turning to Celduir, he said "It seems Ghalvas has been moved very recently. With luck, we may be able to catch them at their 'meeting place'. Do you have any clue who O. P. or their meeting place is?"

Celdiur glared at the note as if it were his greatest enemy, as it had revealed information to him that made the deaths of his comrades seem almost hollow, dying to save a man that was not even here. After a few moments he turned to Varys.

"I have a gut feeling I know who this O.P. is, and if not him, then he can certainly tell us the identity of our illusive foe. Come, Brothers. I believe we need to have a word with the "good" Captain himself".

Without another word Celdiur turned and began to walk briskly away from the scene, the note clutched firmly in a clenched fist.

Alain and his men took care of the wounded, carrying them back to the chapter house, while Varys, Celdiur, Rocorad, Haruch, two further knights and a slightly confused Jamal made their way to the captain's house. In the streets people gave the group of grimly looking men with blood-stained armour wary looks and exchanged whispered questions about the knights' possible destination. When the guard recognised them and Jamal, the gate was opened and they entered the courtyard. Notified of their arrival Dhez'ral hurried out of his office, but the hopeful look in his eyes vanished when he saw that Ghalvas was not with them.

Noticing the traces of a fight he asked:

What has happened? Have you been attacked?

Celdiur eyed the Captain suspiciously, though he was slightly taken aback by Dhez'rals reaction. So calm, so...believable. An innocent man, or a damn good actor? We shall see...

Celdiur approached the Captain warily, his right hand on his sword hilt, his left hand out in front to offer Dhez'ral the note found in the sewers.

"Aye, and a fight that cost the lives of many of my Brother knights. We..I believed Dhez'ral to be held by them, though we found only a bloody melee. That, and this letter, of which I can make no sense".

Celdiur glared straight at the Captain now.

"They were waiting for us, Captain. Someone gave them warning as to our assault. This O.P. I believe to be behind this, though I know not his identity. Though perhaps you will be able to enlighten me?"

Dhez'ral turned pale as he heard the news and upon mention of O P his lips became a tight line.

Then it's really him, he finally said. Octavius Palatina has Ghalvas.

He sighed and continued:

I think I need to tell you something, but we had better discuss this in my office.

He turned and beckoned for them to follow him. In his office he sank to his chair and started:

Octavius Palatina was or rather still is a marauder captain who was for many years the scourge of the lands south and west of Singal. I am from Derakhte Ghermez and I was 16 when Octavius raided our village. I was out in the fields and when I returned the village was but a smoking ruin, my parents killed, my brother Ghalvas gone - taken by the marauders to be sold as a slave in Singal as I learned later.

He paused for a moment.

Yes, you heard right. Ghalvas is my brother. He was bought and set free by a priest of Vata and subsequently became a cleric himself. I myself left the village with what little was left of my possessions and joined the city watch of Singal, since I wanted to fight people such as Octavius. As I rose through the ranks, I finally got word that Octavius might be hiding the eastern part of the city, so I moved to a post here and have been searching for him all the time. Unfortunately I have never seen him and there is only few people who would know his face that don't serve him. When I by chance met Ghalvas again as he was passing through Singal, we made a plan. Since he had seen Octavius when he was taken years ago, he would preach on the market place and meanwhile scan the crowd, so as to find out whether Octavius was here.

Obviously Octavius was there, but he found Ghalvas first and kidnapped him. His informants must be very good, since he usually knows what is going on, where my men are patrolling and obviously he also knew about your assault on the underground vault...

He sighed again and fell silent.

For a moment Celdiur couldnt bring himself to speak. He felt almost as if he was back to square one now that his theory about the Captain's guilt was proved false by Dhez'rals statement. So this is why he gave up his position of wealth and comfort to come to this run down area of Singal. Astraea, forgive my blind judgement.

"This is indeed a revelation, Captain, a shocking one i'll give you that. I am truly sorry for the predicament you find yourself in. I...I know all too well what it is to have those that you hold dear torn away from you so cruelly".

It pained him to recall the visions of Rivelothe even now.

"But rest assured Dhez'ral that this will soon be over and your brother freed. This Octavius has suffered a crippling blow this day. A huge number of his marauders lie dead in the sewers, feld by our blades, and he knows now that it is no longer safe for him to operate from below the district. We've flushed the rat out, now all that we must do is snare him in our trap"

Celdiur took a seat upon a nearby stool to rest his legs, still weary from battle.

"We took two of their number prisoner, and had them taken back to our Chapter House. It wont be long before they begin talking. Hopefully then we shall know how to find this warlord"

Celdiur paused for a moment before grinning, a look of cunning about him.

"Though should that fail, I believe the plan that you and your brother devised to snare him may just work. Octavius is well informed. By now he will know the names of Varys, myself and our companions. I can make that work to our advantage. I will take to your brother's podium and from there continue his work. I'll call the coward out. If he does not wish to lose face he will have no choice but to accept my challenge. When he and his men come, we will be ready for them. What say you my friends?"

He said this whilst looking at Varys, though it was clearly an open question to all present.

Varys frowned, thinking.

"I don't believe he knows my name of yet, as I have taken great care not to release it to anyone I do not know personally. Therefore I believe I may be of assistance in finding this scum."

He turned around and looked at Celduir.

"If you think that would work, then by all means go ahead. I don't believe the risk is worth it, however. What if he hires assassins? Then what? He could simply be hiding in the crowd and send men to do his work for him. He isn't an honorable person. He isn't a knight, nor is he even slightly concerned with his appearance and honor. I will take great pains to assure your safety on the podium, but I don't believe I can stop everything. However, I myself will try some different methods of finding this rat. I assure you, if I find him first, his body will be strung up in the market or at the gates of Singal with the most horrific wounds I can muster. I will frighten the rats of this hellhole so bad that they won't desire to come anywhere near this district in the next decade."

With that, Varys, or Sevar as known to the captain, finished and waited for Celduir's response.

Dhez'ral shook his head.

He kidnapped Ghalvas because he would have been able to recognise him and thus was a danger to him. Since you can't identify him, he won't leave his cover for you, I fear.

Varys turned to captain.

"Do you know what he looks like by chance?"

As I told you, I have never seen him face to face. Unless you manage to find someone who would recognise him, I fear we will have to find other means of identifying him.

Celdiur stood up.

"Then we'll just have to hope that the two we captured can provide us with some answers. Or, perhaps..."

He turned to "Sevar"

"What are these other methods that you speak of, Sevar?"

Varys turned to Celduir with a malicious gleam in his eye. "Oh, nothing much. Just some simple skullduggery, underground work."

He turned to the captain. "Do you have any leads where you think we can start? Anyone you know that might know this man's face, by any chance?"

No, I'm afraid. As far as I know, only few of his victims survived the ... encounter. Ghalvas is the only person I know that knows his face without being one of his men. But you said you had captured some of his men? Maybe one of them had direct contact with him?

Varys smiled.

"Celduir, you may not want to accompany me, but if you so desire to, you can. I want to....interrogate them myself."