Café de Nuit

Jon and Norzak are on top of the cabin, by the hatch.

Alain is able to shimmy up the mast and position himself high enough to cover both doors [one at either end of the big cabin] and the rope tied off on the portside.

Bennnedict has finished crawling across, hand over hand. Once, he nearly slipped off the rope and fell, his feet touching water, but he made it across without taking an unwished-for dive in his heavy steel breastplate.


Jon takes a listen at the hatch before Norzak tries to open it. He can hear a woman laughing nervously, and a muffled voice- possibly belonging to a man. The words are indistinct.


Norzak finds that the hatch is latched on the inside. No matter, a minute's work with one of his tools and he's opened it. Looking down, he and Jon see the doxie with the wine cup, still drinking and laughing. She is looking at the interior door of the room, which is now slightly open. A shadow on the floor suggests a man is moving about in the other room [further inside the house portion of the boat], but they cannot actually see him from their vantage point.

After listening, Norzak shifts over the hatch, then drops down into the room! The dwarf smashes into the table, destroying it and hurling the broken wine bottle across the room. The terrified whore runs falls on the floor and screams, waving her hands in front of her face. The door swings open and Norzak spots the figure of a man standing in the darkened doorway!

Norzak has his wand ready and immediately reacts, discharging a sickly green ray of eldritch radiation in the direction of the man. The ray strikes its intended target, and the man turns to flee.

A chase ensues, causing a terrific racket as both Norzak and the man he is pursuing knock things over as the race through the darkened interior[Norzak 's unfamiliarity with the environment being compensated for by his darkvision, of course].

A moment later, the man bursts through the door facing aft and collapses to the deck.. He lies face down on the open deck, breathing heavily, apparently exhausted.


Inside the cabin, the brunette screams and screams, carried away in a fit of hysteria.

"Yer mine bub" then Norzak jumps on the man's back, wrapping his arms around his neck. "C'mon guys! I gots me a live one!"

Jonathan, seeing Norzak leap into the room, fires a cross bow bolt into the screaming mouth of the brunette whore. He has set the shot up and it goes off flawlessly lodging in the woman's open throat. She gurgles once in utter confusion before hitting the deck of the house boat with a hard thump. Jonathan jumps down, into the room, following after Norzak, ensuring that the dwarf is unharmed. He drops the crossbow and pulls his Raven footed knife. The silver blade shines meanacingly in the moonlight, thirsting for blood. Jonathan looks at the man Norzak has in his grasp and notices it IS NOT VAN DIEKS.

The whore's shrieking ceases, replaced by a hideous gurgling sound for a moment, then silence...


Outside, on the deck, the captive struggles feebly, attempting to get free from Norzak's grip, but to no avail. He does manage to twist around enough to see Jon. Anyone who spent time inside the Lorelei will recognize him right away- he's Greasy Louis, the bawd who works for Van Diecks. Louis speaks as best he can with Norzak hugging him tightly:

''You...I...unnhhhhh....Gaston....don't kill me...eunnnhhhh.''


From his vantage point above, Alain sees no activity other than that of the party and the captive. The forward door remains shut. The rope remains secure, tieing the houseboat to the pier.

Rafael wrote:In his heavy armor, Cirdan will wait what the others do,
and try not to get into the water...
If there is another way to get on the boat, he'll choose that one...

The knight finds a small rowboat tied up nearby. It isn't stealing if he merely borrows it. The knightly code permits such things. It would be especially chivalrous to perhaps leave a few coppers for the boatman, after returning his vessel to its proper place. In any case, he and Dorgio are able to row to the houseboat and climb aboard.

Jonathan stares at the dying whore until life has left her eyes. Cocking his head he looks to Norzak who has greasy Louis in his grasp.

"Quick Norzak! Take a finger from Van Dieks! This scum's death makes our quarry weaker."

Jonathan moves close to the man, whom the dwarf has trapped tight.

"Or is there a reason we should let you live? Can you help us fat man?"

Jonathan caresses greasy Louie's face with the blade, the sharp tip scratching at his flesh. Jon lets the knife dig in a little, a small droplet of blood trickling down the mans face.

"Tell us where Van Dieks is. And tell us about the DOCTOR." Jon looks to Benn and winks. "This could be your last night alive. You understand of course."

Louis wheezes until Norzak relaxes his grip enough to allow the man to draw full breath.

''Van Diecks!?! I thought he was dead. One of the whores told me your crew had done him in, so I grabbed the money-chest and ran for it. I was going to take this boat downriver- keep it all for myself. If Gaston lived, I could always claim I was safegaurding it for him.
Tell you about the Doctor? He's crazy! He digs up corpses and cuts them open to look inside! If one of the girls comes down with the pox, or someone gets sliced up in a knife fight, he'll fix 'em up for a fee. Van Diecks has been to see him a lot lately, but I don't think he's been ill. I don't know anything else. Please don't kill me!''

Norzak is still right at the man and grabs him by the hair, pulling his head back. "Ye tell us what ye know or die, scum!"

"Its a good bet that he went to see the Doc after we hurt him. We should have went to the doc's place first. We are probably too late." Jon puts his knife away. After all this is Norzak's interrogation.

A voice drips over the side of the boat, "It sounded like he was telling us what he knew. If you'd quit man-handling him, maybe he'd continue." With a grunt, Bennedict throws a leg over the side of the boat and crawls awkwardly onto the deck. He stands, brushing off the front of his breastplate, and hefts his crossbow. He looks around, taking in the scenery, before his eyes stop on the image of the dead woman inside the boathouse. "What the hell happened to her?" Bennedict shouts, the crossbow dipping towards the deck.

Greasy Louis speaks-

''What , did someone hurt the girl? There wasn't any call for that. She's just along for the boat ride. I told her to come- needed help carrying the chest. She's not important, there's no need to harm her.''

He catches his breath and continues,

'' I've told you all I know. I swear by all that's holy, I'm not lying or holding anything back. ''

ewancummins wrote:

Rafael wrote:In his heavy armor, Cirdan will wait what the others do,
and try not to get into the water...
If there is another way to get on the boat, he'll choose that one...

The knight finds a small rowboat tied up nearby. It isn't stealing if he merely borrows it. The knightly code permits such things. It would be especially chivalrous to perhaps leave a few coppers for the boatman, after returning his vessel to its proper place. In any case, he and Dorgio are able to row to the houseboat and climb aboard.

As fast as he can move in the heavy armor, Cirdan will get to the boat, drop a few cold coins from his purse on the footbridge, and then start to row...

He is so focused on the movement, he doesn't even let Diorgio get ahold of one of the paddles...

NOrzak sighs as he gets up off of Greasy Louie. "All right. I'm sorry bout tha girl, she din' deserve ta die. Adrenalin can do strange thin's in the heat of action. Now where we find the Doc, bub?"

He moves to stand next to Jon and lays his hand on the youth's shoulder to reassure him. "Save some fer the doc I bet he knows where Van Dieks is too, okay Jon?"

Rafael wrote:

ewancummins wrote:

Rafael wrote:In his heavy armor, Cirdan will wait what the others do,
and try not to get into the water...
If there is another way to get on the boat, he'll choose that one...

The knight finds a small rowboat tied up nearby. It isn't stealing if he merely borrows it. The knightly code permits such things. It would be especially chivalrous to perhaps leave a few coppers for the boatman, after returning his vessel to its proper place. In any case, he and Dorgio are able to row to the houseboat and climb aboard.

As fast as he can move in the heavy armor, Cirdan will get to the boat, drop a few cold coins from his purse on the footbridge, and then start to row...

He is so focused on the movement, he doesn't even let Diorgio get ahold of one of the paddles...

The knight's powerful oarstrokes carry him and the priest both to the side of the ship. Cirdan can easily haul himself aboard.