Karl and Ezio Meet The Mafia
In the early morn, Ezio and Karl head down to an abandoned warehouse to meet with Benvolio, a ranking member of the Thieves Guild of Rome. The other members of the Danger Gang hang out about a block away, as back up. That is, except for ol' Can who's off at a library, and Martialis who is, presumably, on his way to Chrysopolis.
A knock on the door, and an explanation that they want to see Benvolio and they're in. They get led through a winding maze of crates, past several dudes eye-fucking them. But soon, they are introduced to the man himself. They proffer their letters of introduction, and Benvolio checks them out. Seems OK. Karl asks Ezio to explain that they're in town, not particularly looking for stuff to steal, but if they see a particularly ripe plum, they want to know the protocol before stepping on anyone's toes. Benvolio seems indifferent. Ezio mentions that they're from C-Town and Benvolio asks him to kill Eorl. Poor Eorl. Benvolio wants to ask the two of them their professional opinion on something. He leads them down through a trap door to a brick wall. He takes out a brick and asks them to take a peak. Karl, though wary that it may be a Cockitrice or some such, but takes a peak anyway. It turns out it's a nine-foot tall, four-armed Slaad. Karl identifies it thusly, says it's probably from Africa. The slaad, unfortunately, takes this opportunity to escape. The wall irises open and he steps right out. Everyone starts bailing out of there. Karl steps up to try to hold the Slaad back long enough that the mafiosi can escape. He starts slowly leading outside. Once they get outside, the others join in and Karl gets the shit beat out of him. Benvolio, as he runs away, tells Karl and Ezio that if they can take care of this thing, they don't need to split their take, otherwise, they owe the guild 20%. They decide it's not worth the twenty percent and run away.
Meanwhile, at the library, Can learns that Epidamnus was changed to Durakeon and that Anasthasius was born there.
The gang reconvenes at their room. With no Marty around, they are looking at a long recovery period of loafing about their Vatican digs. Their plans for laziness are soon countermanded, however, with the arrival of one Padre Pantalone, who explains that Gebertus asked him to keep an eye on them while they're in Rome. He heals them all up and asks them what they want to do. They ask about a burned out temple of Mithras that they heard about, and the Padre explains that he hasn't heard of it, although a Church of St. Orinea just burned down a couple months ago, and it was some kind of rededicated pagan temple. Sounds like a fun place to check out.
The Padre leads them across town and soon they're at the burned out wreckage. Lleryn notices some tracks of about 7 people leading to and from a trapdoor. The tracks don't look super fresh. They head down a ramp. They find a couple of rooms with charred bones, shattered columns, the like. There are some blood stains about, some of them a few months old, some of them more recent. They continue down the ramp and are attacked by a group of more than a dozen shadows. It's a tough battle, but eventually, well eventually the shadows drive off the Danger Gang. They decide to come back tomorrow with more appropriate spells.
