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Index | Time Under Chaos | Game Logs | Crisis: from the Docks to the Dungeon

Continued from Breakfast on Amber Docks: Crisis

The wound was not liable to prove fatal, but mixed with the blood that was oozing from the wound was a strange, evil-smelling ichor.

Mandor glanced over as Vikund was removing the clothing.

"Let me know what you find," he said curtly. "It might be of interest later."

Vikund didn't recognise it. The smell seemed somewhat reminescent of a drug from a plant that grew in Eregnor (and whose sale was most stringently forbidden in both Kashfa and Begma - it was one of the few issues on which the two countries could agree.

Vikund took a swab of the foul-smelling liquid and offered it for Damien's inspection. "Recognise this?"

Damien accepted the cloth with the tips of his fingers and wafted its scent into his nose with a delicate waving of the fingers of his left hand.

"Why yes, I do believe I've read of this substance. I, of course, have no notion as to how this narcotic alkaloid preparation found its way onto my knife... a gentleman has no need of poison," he said with a smile and meaningful glance towards the crossbow from the Ramblin' Queen.

Vikund followed his gaze and gave a low grunt, cleaning the wound as best he could.

Dawn knelt to examine Johann, and her words confirmed what Damien had said.

Damien accepted the cloth with the tips of his fingers and wafted its scent into his nose with a delicate waving of the fingers of his left hand.

"We could increase the dosage if you think it advisable," she added, looking from one to the other. "And if you can tell me what he's had already."

Vikund rolled up his own, smaller medical kit and pushed it into Dawns' doctors bag before taking out some small bottles, each of which he examined in turn.

"Use this with double the normal dosage," Vikund advised, handing her a bottle of clear liquid.

Dawn raised her elegantly crafted eyebrows but nodded.

Damien watched carefully as he selected the bottle, and nodded crisply at the suggestion. He was busying himself running his hands through Johann's hair and feeling around inside his mouth. In the process, he produced a few small sharp objects, smaller than a coin, another garotte wire, and a few lockpicks.

"Do you think we should blind him now, to be on the safe side? We needn't employ hot irons-- a caustic compound would provide the desired effect just as well," Damien suggested clinically as he looked up to measure Vikund and Dawn's reactions.

Dawn busied herself with her preparations, preferring to ignore the comment. Vikund gave Damien a long, hard look before answering. "I don't think that will be necessary," he answered. He then put his hands in his pocket and produced a slim case of trumps, which he offered to Damien. "Here," he said. "You can take charge of these."

Damien shrugged at Vikund's reticence to blind Johann and accepted the case. He cracked it with one hand and removed its contents before fanning out the cards and glancing at what they depicted.

"There should be at least one more, plus sketches," Damien remarked.

"There are," Vikund said, "but I have further use for those. We'll discuss it en route, if you like."

"As long as you're confident we've retrieved them all," Damien said with a shrug. "I imagine he would be rather cross with me, should he manage to escape," he added with a thin smile.

Meanwhile Dawn had finished giving Johann his injections and was packing up her gear. "I'll need you to come with us, my dear. There are matters I need to discuss with you and I'd like his wounds re-dressed when we get him to his new lodgings." He stuffed a few more bundles into the sack and tied it as Alex brought up the carriage. He hauled the unconscious Johann to his feet. "Do you mind getting the door for me, my good fellow?"

"Of course, if you are willing to carry the heavier end," Damien said as he tipped his black felt tricorn and opened the door.

"Naturally," Vikund answered, and heaved Johann's torso into the carriage, pushed the legs in afterwards and went back to retrieve the sack of belongings. "Don't spare the horses," he informed Alex, before hopping inside to arrange the unconscious man into a more comfortable position.

Damien helped with his legs, then climbed into the carriage while Vikund retrieved the bag.

If Dawn hadn't already got in, he offered her a hand into the carriage. When all were settled, he stuck the roof of the carriage to signal the driver to begin the journey. He settled himself in the corner and checked his pocket watch.

Damien had positioned Johann on the floor of the carriage so that he rested on his stomach with his restrained feet and arms in plain view.

"The Right Honorable PM found his first evening on the Queen intriguing?" he asked.

"Doubtless he did," Vikund replied, "and no doubt he will be visiting again shortly."

"How much do you know about Johann's links with the Queen?" he asked. "It will save me a lot of time, and perhaps some innocents a lot of pain if you could clear that up for me."

"I'm curious... how you intend to use that information," Damien said as he glanced towards Dawn, then back to Vikund.

"The very reason Dawn was placed on the Queen was to find out if there was more than the requisite level of hospitality being granted to fugitives," Vikund explained. "Either there are geniune grounds for suspicion in regards to Johann's latest activities, or there are not. If you know the answer, I'd appreciate your confidence. Dawn is well versed in the art of discretion, so don't worry that what you say will go beyond this carriage." Dawn looked slightly nervous about the direction of the conversation, but nodded her confirmation.

Damien smiled widely without showing any of his teeth and traced the lines of a knot in the woodwork without taking his eyes from Vikund.

"So you have grounds for suspicion, but don't know if they are genuine, is that it? Or is it that you are hoping to learn whether there are matters you may safely omit from your report to Mandor?" Damien asked before exposing his incisors as his smile widened.

"No intelligence picture can be considered complete," Vikund replied evenly, not returning the smile. "Other perspectives are always welcome. If you'd rather keep your findings to yourself so be it. That in itself tells me something I did not know before."

"Actually, I imagine you had already deduced I had a vested interest in retaining credit for my own discoveries, if I have made any. I have committed quite a bit to my ruse," Damien said as he nudged Johann's unconscious body with the toe of his boot, his own smile fading.

"Surely, if you have placed an ear on the Queen... Caine must have done so as well. But again-- I'm still not telling you something you don't already know," he said as his smile returned.

"Fair enough," Vikund replied, turning his attention to the passing streets, as if they could not pass quickly enough. "Dawn, could you check our patient, please?"

As she moved to comply, he mustered a smile. "I guess applying a little more pressure in a sensitive spot might yield a little extra," he commented. "As for our friend here, once he is safely housed and his future health assured, you may do with him as you please. After so much investment, you might want to savour the moment."

"The moment was on the docks was the climax-- all that is left is denoument of the trial, and the execution," he said to Vikund before turning towards Dawn.

"I am quite sorry that your fine work will be so quickly spoilt. What would you say to Vikund's question-- if there is a traitor aboard, apart from you, who do you think it is?"

"A Lord must always look his best, even for his own execution," Dawn replied in her city drawl. "As for traitors, Sir, it's not my place to judge. I only say what I see and hear. The king and his ministers can make up their own minds."

Vikund smiled and returned his attention once more to the window. "To be a traitor one has to turn one's cloak," he commented. "I don't think you'll find anyone like that on the Queen."

"Ah, I see... then I should have asked if there were any loyalists on the Queen, perhaps? No need to worry... I know of nothing which goes beyond Ornellia, or Ornella-- whatever her name was, and then somewhat against her wishes. I persuaded him she was unreliable," he added.

"The staff on the Queen are loyal to themselves," Vikund replied. "It shows a little desparation that he would have to put his faith in a courtesan, albeit a highly skilled one. I guess today's events bear that out. Hardly the calculated act of one expectant of victory; more someone looking for a martyr's death."

"I should think Renaissance women such as these would find their skills well-suited to revolution," Damien remarked as he gestured towards Dawn's medical bag.

"I'm pleased you have such confidence in the neutrality of the Queen's staff, but as to that other matter, you do me something of a disservice. He had every reason to believe I would be there to support him... and I did get his back, did I not?" he asked, the smile not quite reaching his eyes.

"Oh yes, you got him good," Vikund admitted. "I hadn't really thought about which precise point you decided to betray him. It hardly matters; the end result in the same." He glanced out the window again. "Almost there," he said absently.

"No change," Dawn diagnosed, and returned to her seat.

"I'm curious... if you were in the same position, if your life and career depended on betraying a lover, or a cousin... wouldn't you make the same decision?" Damien asked, his smile knowing.

"If our places were reversed in the same scenario, probably not, if I were honest. I'm afraid I'm a bit lazy in that regard. If there are others on hand who can do my dirty work for me, I'm more than happy to let them," Vikund replied evenly. "I'm not the man of action you are, cousin."

"Yes, I agree it was quite gauche to dirty my hands so... but there are personal matters of which you are unaware which made it essential," he said as he rubbed his own back and looked out the window himself. "But it seems... we are agreed as to what is sometimes necessary, regardless of whose hand holds the knife."

"Quite so," Vikund replied. The carriage began to slow and Vikund whipped the carriage door open to take up a position on the long step, where he could both see and be seen. "Hoy there," he cried to the men on duty at the castle gate. "Muster an escort. We have a noble prisoner on board."

The guards seemed prepared with an escort - some advanced warning must have been recieved.

"Where to, my Lords?" asked the guard captain respectfully.

"The best, most secure cell the castle can provide," Vikund replied, "and fetch a stretcher and bearers if you'd be so kind." He then resumed his seat, determined to enjoy what remained of the journey in relative comfort.

Damien nodded his thanks after Vikund had issued the instructions. He produced a small tin from his pocket, deftly opened it with one hand and extracted a pinch of its contents with the other, which he promptly sniffed up his left nostril. He offered Vikund some with an extended hand and a raised eyebrow.

"No thank you," Vikund replied, watching as the carriage went the last part of the distance and drew up in the courtyard, where the extra security was palpable. He hopped out while the sergeant-at-arms organised the escort and went to see the driver. "Your efforts are appreciated," he said to Alex, "and I'm pleased you can return the carriage to Madame in one piece. Do send my regards and tell her I will be along as soon as my business here is concluded."

Alex turned from his own inspection of the heightened security and nodded agreeably to Vikund. Normally, he would worry about leaving one of the Queen's staff alone in this lion's den, but accepted that Dawn would be alright with Vikund.

Vikund returned to the carriage to collect the sack of Johann's belongings and cheerfully carried it over one shoulder.

As soon as Damien was out, Alex was on his way back home at a more leisurely pace then he arrived.

Damien nodded absently to Alex as the carriage rolled away, still not taking his eyes off of Johann and the security detail. At a gesture from him, one of the porters tossed a sheet over Johann, and all assembled walked single-filed through the sally port. Johann, Damien, (Dawn?) and Vikund were both preceded and followed by several guards. At each intersection of hallways, the guards vigilantly checked for ambush.

Much of Amber Castle had not been constructed for defense, but the designer of her dungeons had certainly not had aesthetics on his mind. Whether it was Oberon, Dworkin, or Benedict who had penned the original lines, however, was irrelevant. Johann was being taken through a succession of reinforced iron portals which were defended by well armed and alert guards. It would take an army to break him loose.

Rather than descend the central stairway which terminated in the empty Pattern Chamber, they were taking a series of narrower passages. Although efforts had been made to keep it clean, aeons of torch lighting had stained the walls and ceiling a bleak black, and it seemed as though they were descending into the bowels of Kolvir itself.

Finally, they reached the doorway to the cell.

Vikund waited patiently for the guards to open the cell door, while Dawn stepped so close she was almost his shadow. Her dislike for the place was etched on her face, but she voiced no complaint. As they stood, their breath misted in the cool subterranean air.

Damien raised an eyebrow, and the shadow of a smirk crossed his face, at Dawn's reaction to the opened cell door, but most of his attention was on the men around him and on the possibility of a partisan leaping from the cell. When this did not transpire, his movement towards the hilt of his rapier became a fastidious straightening of an invisible wrinkle from the lines of his trousers.

Three guards confirmed Damien's conclusion, clearing the spartan cell and giving Damien and Vikund the 'okay' sign before beginning their search for dangerous objects smaller than a person. Damien motioned for the porters to bring Johann inside.

"This cell has appropriate arcane protections?" Damien asked Vikund and the sargeant in charge.

"The protections will need to be re-assessed by an expert practitioner," Vikund replied. "This cell hasn't been used in a while."

As the porter set down the stretcher, Dawn set down her bag. After once more checking Johann's vital signs she set to work re-dressing the wound. "I should like to remove the rest of his clothing, in case I missed anything," Vikund said to Damien, producing a knife from his sleeve, "unless you have any objections?"

"I believe we ought to be a bit more thorough than that, especially if she has rubber gloves. We'll need to induce vomiting to see if he has swallowed anything useful as well," Damien said as he brought forth a perfumed hankercheif. He might have a rather novel idea about what 'we' meant.

"Yes 'she' has, my Lord," Dawn replied with thinly disguised annoyance. "I also have lubricant if you require it."

"I expect most of the Ramblin' Queen staff have rubber gloves and lubricant on hand," Vikund chuckled, as he began cutting the seams of Johann's trousers.

Damien chuckled darkly and got to work. Several minutes later, the pile of strange objects which Johann might intend to use to escape had grown.

After removing the gloves and placing them to one side, he withdrew a small bag from his pocket.

"These beans are a very interesting item... harmless when injested in Amber, but in certain shadows they have a most unpleasant growth rate," Damien said as he went about the work of force-feeding them to Johann.

"Any escape should be short lived," he added.

"You should get out more," Vikund commented as Dawn completed her work on the bandages. She collected her bag and stepped towards the cell door, as if eager to escape. Shortly, Johann had been stripped to his underclothes and his clothing bagged with the rest.

"Unless you have further need of me, I have other business to attend to," Vikund said then. "I daresay the Prime Minister will want to question him, so please don't damage him any more unless you have to."

"I -do- have something of a vested interest in his not escaping... but have no fear, I have an interest in him standing trial as well." Damien explained.

"Good," Vikund replied, hefting the sack of belongings. "I think His Majesty deserves a good show."

"You know where I am if you need me," he said, before offering Dawn his hand and escorting her out of the dungeon.

Continue to Council in the Star Chamber -- Damien
Continue to Harbourside -- Vikund
Continue to Harbourside#alex -- Alex
Continue to Harbourside -- Dawn
Continue to Johann's Interrogation -- Johann