The Danger Gang's False Flag Operation Comes To An End
As the rest of the Danger Gang beds down, Martialis and B The Beholder head back towards Calpe. Outside the city walls, Marty spies a man climbing the city walls. He has B teleport him to the other side; right in this guy's gob. The guy shows his bite mark and Marty Charms him. The guy explains that he's coming from Diaspolas. An eagle just showed up and slaughtered all the homing pidgeons. Marty tells the dude to tell Narcis that Artaky is somewhere in town, then changes into a rat and books. He searches about for ratsbane and find that there's a few areas of town that makes him uncomfortable; unfortunately, he can't get too specific. He changes back into man form and starts to stroll out of town when he notices someone sneaking up behind him. It's younng Troylus. Marty tells him to beat it, the leaves town himself. He meets up with the rest of the gang and they ride out to investigate Diaspolas.
Upon their arrival they swing by the only inn in town, the Gemini. Martialis and Gershom do a quick sweep around town with Detect Magic, trying to see if there's anything magical in town. No luck. Meanwhile, Arben (in disguise as a chinaman) picks up the rumor from a local bar patron that an Egyptian Sultan's wife recently gave birth to a lizard, even though this birth date was chosen by the royal vizier and astrologer. This same astrologer also predicts that the world is going to end in twelve years. Arben tucks that info away for later. Marty and Gershom show up at the bar; time to track down local thieves. Arben has Saint Simon bite his arm, then stops the bleeding and show the bartender his mark. He tells him the guys he's looking for are upstairs, third door on the left.
Arben heads up stairs and knocks on the door, only to have it answered by Margareta. His clever chinaman disguise fools her, but someone inside recognizes his voice. It's Norwit. There's also another guy, introduced as Komenos. Arben comes in and he and Norwit rap about what's been going on. Norwit seems genuinely upset that Eorl has been killed. Norwit seems worried about Octopuses. He's been in Lebanon doing research about the apocalyptic rumors he's been hearing and found out enough that he wants to talk to Eorl about what he knows. In any case, he pays Arben 250 gold for the work he's done and asks him to kill Xenon and Gershom. He'll be in town for another hour or so, then he's heading back to Calpe.
He also mentions that Bardas Phocas is in North Africa and Basil II is in the middle east. He still wants to place Bardas Phocas on the throne so that he can use him against the evil octopuses.
Arben agrees and apologizes for the whole mix up again. He heads back downstairs and has everybody outside.
Leaving out the complication that Norwit is on to the whole octopus thing, he tells the rest of the gang the Norwit is upstairs with only two guards. If they want to get him, now looks like they're best chance. They don't have the best spells they could for fighting, but everyone is hale and hearty. They decide to give it a spin.
Arben and Can head up to the room and try to talk some bullshit. Then everyone else bursts in and start fighting. Unfortunately, thieves are always hiding in the shadows, and two more pop up to fight our boys (Narcis and Klaus specifically). B the Beholder helps out by paralyzing a few people and teleporting away the wounded and the wounding. Soon both Can and Arben are dropped, falling unconscious and bleeding. Then Norwit changes into a man rat and summons a huge swarm of rats.
Through the whole fight, the thieves guild members keep on telling the gang they're being stupid. Xenon stands toe to toe with Norwit and does some good damage to him, but the rat man gets his licks in as well. Gershom soon falls to the thieves steely knives. B has been teleporting people to safety , and does the same for Gershom. The next round, Norwit changes into a rat. "Plan B," yells Martialis, and B teleports Norwit into an emptied out wine jug. A truce is declared. Everyone heads down to the street. There's a lot of talking. The guild members explain that they believe Martha Madeye, Ruth, Theodulf, and Hippomache are out to assassintate Eorl. Everyone agrees that this fighting should probably be called off for now. They agree to go to Chrysopolis to further negotiate a truce under the watchful eyes of the Bogatyrs. Arben agrees to be the hostage while the gang hangs on to Norwit.
As they ride out of town, Narcis reveals that Norwit has some beef with Halcyon. Apparently, Halcyon once heard about a con Norwit was running in Germany and screwed him over. This bad blood makes Chrysopolis a less than ideal location for negotiations. Everyone agrees that if somebody wanted to kill somebody, they probably could have done it by now (especially the thieves). They head to a clearing and exchange hostages. It's agreed that they will start corresponding by bird and everyone will stay off eachother's turf until further notice. Arben also refunds his assassin's fee ("without even being asked," he emphasises). Narcis admits that he can't tell if everything worked out the way the Danger Gang wanted or if they're just a bunch of idiots. The Danger Gang rides off laughing like madmen.
Martialis asks B if he could take them to the barn where the guy he met before ended up. B leads them to an isolated farm. Arben goes to talk to the farmers, since the last thing anybody needs in this state is surprises. He knocks on the door and a woman answers, "Welcome to Lugurixia". Arben groans and asks to see the lord of the manor. Lugurix hobbles down the stairs on crutches and greets the Bard. It seems that the locals saw him fighting the Modrons and, due to his monster fighting prowess, declared him their lord and protector. His realm of influence covers both this farm, and one other that is non-contiguous. He graciously agrees to let the Danger Gang stay in the barn. Martialis is surprised by this state of affairs, but not too surprised. Everybody decides to bed down for some much needed rest, everyone except Xenon, of course.
