The Shattered City: Chapter Four

[NeoTiamat]

2 Days, 22 Hours, 41 Minutes
On the River-Front, Quartier Ouvrier, Port-a-Lucine, Just After Midnight on April 22nd, 770
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"If I may suggest," Rex's soft voice cut through the conversation, "We should do what we must do here and then perhaps we should go rest? I understand time is short, but we will not help anyone if our judgment is impaired because we are too exhausted."

“That is a good idea.” Prof. Theroux said, running a hand through his hair, which came away slightly damp. “If you can get Gauvain to give you some time to sleep, take it. Lady alone knows when you're liable to get another chance to rest.”

"You make it sound a long shot indeed, Professor, but if it might hold a clue for us then it is better than any place I have heard of yet. How would we go about finding this...meeting-place?"

"I mean where and how do we find a guide at this time of night, in this part of the city, to lead us to a place of dark danger and intrigue, that you have no idea where it is Professor?" He says watching Andre for a moment. "Ezra's bosom, I couldn't write a comedy that tragic if I tried. But on the other hand it sounds ludicrously insane, count me in."

“It is a longshot. Unfortunately when your goal is to remove an anthropomorphic personification of death from his office, without hurting anyone, there aren't exactly an overabundance of good shots.” Andre said, his voice touched with exasperation. He rallied quickly, however. “Ask the strangest people you know. In any case, ask the weirdest people you know, and maybe one of them is familiar with it. Can't hurt, at any rate.”

“You are the weirdest person we know.” Remy said with a small smile.

“Thank you Remy.” Andre said with a faux-glare. “We have, however, established that I do not know where it is.”

“Charles?” Prof. Lessard tilted his head.

“Sweet Lady of the Waters NO.” Andre said, eyes widening at the one thought of Charles Devereux attending this unknown meeting-place. “Even if he did know where it was, I can't think of anything more likely to get you an immediate and possibly fatal eviction from there.”

“Listen, I'd better depart before Gauvain arrives and decides my head would look like a wonderful conversational piece, regardless of whether it's attached to my shoulders.” Prof. Theroux said. “And... I realize this is probably utterly futile, but be careful and try to stay safe. I'll try and stay in contact.”

With those last words, Prof. Theroux hurried off into the dark alleyways, disappearing from sight.

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click... click... click...

You heard him before you saw him, but that mattered little; by the time you heard the tell-tale click of metal against stone he was close, deceptively close. Le Marquis stalked out of the darkness, his great black cloak detaching itself from the shadows and billowing behind him. In the distance behind him you could see the occasional glint of light off metal, the silhouette of a carriage and the long muzzles of rifles. Gauvain did not travel alone.

The pale man strode up to you, not bothering with acknowledgment or even the formality of asking. He simply reached out a bloodless hand to take the book.

[The Whistler]

"Good evening, M. Gauvain!" Celeste curtseyed brightly. It was truly amazing how she could rebound on a dime from her low several hours ago, but she was clearly running on more than just residual heat, at the moment. To an inveterate optimist, having a dead...whatever-Thierri-was-to-Celeste-at-the-moment sweep you off your feet, then entrust you with the task of revivifying him... Well...honestly, it probably wouldn't be an immediate pick-me-up even to an optimist, but it clearly was to Celeste. She was probably assuming that everything was preemptively excellent.

"We meet with success, gentle sir--and happy we are to state it!" Mlle. Viardot made an introductory flourish towards whomever was holding the book at present.

[yalenusveler]

"It..wasn't easy, but we managed to do it without engaging in combat." Kerrian said, not exactly happy with Gauvain's presence, but considering right now he was offering one of the few options for "rescuing" Thierri, misgivings would need to be put aside, at least for the moment.

OOC:1 healing surge spent for HP back

[DocBeard]

Tomas crosses his arms and frowns, trying not to be overtly jealous as to Gauvain's superior mastery of the dramatic entrance.

[Kaitou Kage]

As usual when he was confronted by a major threat, Rex slowly faded into the background. Here in the open, he had fewer opportunities to hide, fewer places to disappear into. But he did the best he could and slowly melded into the small group of people.

Stealth of only 24. Boo for bad luck dice.

[Nathan of the FoS]

Mercator bows politely, his face expressionless, glances at Agale, and shrugs very slightly in a gesture that says You might as well.

Perception! What color is the sky?!?[dice]0[/dice]

[Nerit]

Nerit smiled, stepped over to Agale, and peeled the black book from his hands if she could, ever so politely.

"Illustrious Monsieur, I do hope you will help Thierri Boucher recover his humanity and livelihood?" She held up the Little Black Book questioningly, an unfaltering smile on her face in response to Gauvain's utter impatience.

Diplomacy [dice]1[/dice] +13 =

[Cronax]

Are you suggesting we tamper with death more than we've already had to, Domnule?

"Certainly not madam. Such an implication could be misconstrued as libelous. It would be nothing short of naivete to assume Commissioner Gauvin intends anything less than what you suggest and we would be bordering on negligence for us not to take that into account."

* * *

"Indeed commissioner.", As soon as the repetitive tapping audibly heralded Gauvin's arrival, the Tollere's study of the curious volume had ceased and his notebook was stashed away out of sight.

Handing over the log, he said "As the good sister was just suggesting, this artifact carries the potential for mischief in the wrong hands. Pray tell what is your plan for extricating Mr. Boucher from his current predicament without further exasperating the overall situation of course?"

Diplomacy 35

[NeoTiamat]

2 Days, 22 Hours, 36 Minutes
On the River-Front, Quartier Ouvrier, Port-a-Lucine, Early Morning on April 22nd, 770
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"We meet with success, gentle sir--and happy we are to state it!" Mlle. Viardot made an introductory flourish towards whomever was holding the book at present.

"It..wasn't easy, but we managed to do it without engaging in combat."

"Good," was all Gauvain had to say. Any semblance of approval that resided in that word withered and died in his voice. For a moment he shifted his eyes toward Celeste, narrowing them slightly. "His name?"

"Illustrious Monsieur, I do hope you will help Thierri Boucher recover his humanity and livelihood?"

Le Marquis turned to regard the nun silently.

"Pray tell what is your plan for extricating Mr. Boucher from his current predicament without further exasperating the overall situation of course?"

M. Gauvain idly ran his hands across the black leather of the book, letting a few of the pages flip through his fingers. "Destroy the entity," said simply, his pale eyes staring at the object in his hands. "Now we find a way to do so without destroying its component parts."

"With immediate respect to the urgency of the matter, sir, I would like to request an opportunity to rest," Lessard said calmly and softly.

Gauvain narrowed his eyes as he examined you, assessing your current conditions. Remy took the moment to look askance of you all, wondering if he should bring up the other matter.

[DocBeard]

"Why do you want to destroy the Atropos entity, anyway?" Tomas asks, rubbing some life back into his left arm and keeping a sharp eye on the gun line the old man brought. "As far as I can tell, the spirit just keeps track of things. People still die."

Sure, a list of the true names of the recently deceased would be of use to the right sort of wizard...and this is the head of the magical secret police...for a brief moment, Tomas misses Vorostokov. And then he remembers that cannibal snowmen are not trying to eat him and shrugs off the sentiment.

"You obviously have us at a disadvantage in regards to the whatever it is and whatever it does." Tomas crosses his arms, frowning a little at their miserable position. "But the matter of whatever killed the last Atropos remains, sir. The Raji call it the elephant in the room, no? I feel it is time to address it."

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"That does seem wise, since we are all embroiled in this matter," Lia says. "Besides, elephants tend to make a mess of the china once they get restless. And they always do, in the end."

[The Whistler]

Celeste tittered. There were relatively few people who could have that verb be an accurate descriptor of something they could do, but Celeste was one of those people: to hear her laugh, you could have sworn that the group of you were discussing embroidery techniques at a garden party.

"What a delightful idiom, M. Eisenwald; Prof. Mourneswaithe! I shall have to add it to my lexicon just as soon as I am able."

She turned to Gauvain, marginally more businesslike; meeting his eyes as if she had no idea that it should have been an uncomfortable thing to do. There's a good chance that it wasn't, for her.

"In seriousness, M. Gauvain, my friends do speak sincerely. I need not even tell you how concerned our little band is about our fair Nation's supernatural difficulties...not to mention the fate of M. Boucher, entwined as he is with that same!" That last clause was particularly sincere. "In this, sir, you and we are of one will--and I am sure that we would be ever so much more adept at exercising that will if we are furnished with further information upon the matter!"

30 Diplomacy to get Gauvain to cooperate; 29 Insight to figure out what he's thinking.

[Cronax]

"The being in question refers to itself as 'Thanatos'." Agale scratched his chin at Gauvin's proclamation of intent. "I would in all honestly counsel against taking rash action against this creature until a plan of replacement has been settled. I assume you have something, or rather someone in particular in mind to take up the morbid reigns when this entity is dismantled? I would rather avoid a repeat of the unpleasantness which followed M. Chastel's untimely end."

[Nerit]

Nerit's smile dropped in an instant. She looked to the others. "Monsieur Gauvain has explained it to us," she said, and quickly summarized his words:

"On March 11th, a powerful entity was destroyed. This created a spiritual vacuum... Another entity has somehow been created, using Boucher as the focus. This entity is being drawn to fill the vacuum."

"We are going to destroy this entity... This will require magic beyond mortal ken. The book and the name are required. Beyond that we will have to search."

"...And he has agreed to return M. Boucher in the state he found him, as in, alive," or the closest thing to it, Nerit added to herself. "M. Agale makes a decent point, but we have little time.
"I believe someone had mentioned another lead," she said to Gauvain, "on how to destroy or restore this conundrum of death and life, in some...hidden place?" Nerit blinked at the others for help.

Uh? I guess you can roll Insight if you want? I mean, you can always roll Insight, that's cool.

[NeoTiamat]

2 Days, 22 Hours, 28 Minutes
On the River-Front, Quartier Ouvrier, Port-a-Lucine, Early Morning on April 22nd, 770
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"I need not even tell you how concerned our little band is about our fair Nation's supernatural difficulties...not to mention the fate of M. Boucher, entwined as he is with that same! In this, sir, you and we are of one will--and I am sure that we would be ever so much more adept at exercising that will if we are furnished with further information upon the matter!"

"Boucher is not an acceptable replacement."

Gauvain lifted a hand to his neck, thin fingers massaging his throat through the thick wool of his scarf. He narrowed his eyes at her, giving Celeste an exceptionally piercing look in response to something she'd said.

"Do you want him back, or not?" he asked, coldly.

Insight Check

"I would rather avoid a repeat of the unpleasantness which followed M. Chastel's untimely end."

"M. Agale makes a decent point, but we have little time."

Le Marquis inclined his head toward the nun, momentarily placated by the name 'Thanatos'. "The chaos was unnatural. It will not repeat," he replied, with finality.

"I believe someone had mentioned another lead on how to destroy or restore this conundrum of death and life, in some...hidden place?" Nerit blinked at the others for help.

Lessard looked at Nerit, shrugged, and cleared his throat slightly. "A meeting place, sir," he provided, "for, ah, unusual people."

"The Midnight Market." Gauvain settled both his hands on his cane, his cloak folding around him to envelop his body in shadow, and watched you as he thought. "I cannot search or interfere with it." He narrowed his eyes again. "You can."

"Do you believe you can find this place?" he demanded of you.