Messantia.

[Neromez]

 Spring, 13th  year of King Milo’s Reign.

TROUBLE IN THE HOUSE OF FLORENS

Cadronus Florens has asked Artimus to find a missing Gladiator known as Pavelus the “blade“ as he had gone missing after a night of satisfying a well paying admirer. To make matters worse he was also scheduled to fight  Quchato in the Arena .
   
  Two hours after dawn that day Artimus,Riven,Titano,Ymira and the stygian Mekrimun made their way to the villa in the hilltop prefect that the gladiator was last known to be staying and Aya , under Artimus’ orders set off to make sure the Gladiator Quchato would not make his appearance in the arena also.

  At the Villa, Artimus’ group found numerous bodies of servants and also the guards for Pavelus dead  in the hallways of the Villa. The most startling find was the dead noble woman who was found to be Gabriela Drusus.

  In the bedroom of the murdered noblewoman were strange blood trails that led to the far wall and then suddenly stopped halfway up the wall as if the blood had gotten on a painting that had then been removed. Also a blood trail was found by Riven that led out of the villa and down the cliffs to the jetty. The group then surmised that whoever had taken a boat from the jetty must have rowed to Crane town so this was the next destination.

  After some quick bribery of the private guards on the crane town docks by Artimus the group followed the trail to a small brothel named Shivka’s rest. An investigation in the brothel led to a standoff between the group and the possible assassins as well as the resident bouncers. With enough information gathered and other possible leads the group left and headed back to the Villa.     
 
  While at the same time in the arena prefect, Aya had by a stroke of luck come upon a servant girls outfit and had infiltrated the Gladiator school Circus Rotunda and has found Quchato. Aya waited for the right time to strike and was able to render Quchato unconscious with poisons purchased from old Taising Tao in the river prefect. She made her escape and headed back to Artimus’ villa .

   After some snooping around and mind altering courtesy of Mekrimun, Artimus’ group was able to find out that the painting that had hung upon the wall in the victims villa was recently painted by an artist at the great messantian museum not long ago, it was also of some great gem that apparently would bring luck to those who looked upon it.

  Once back at Artimus’ villa the party planned their next moves.

[The KAT ATTACK Stanton]

      Next session:



The group made an appearance at the Royal museum and found out information on the  painter and the stone which was known to be called “heavens river”.
  Also the painter seemed to have something odd about his movements and his pallor which resembled an embalmed corpse.
Artemis acquired an invitation to the spring gala of house Maecylus and also returned home to find an invite for his retinue to come too.
    Ymira had her first victory in the arena with the gladiators of the Miklos school.
             

[mooremit]

And yet nothing about a young new dashing noble who also will attend the even.  This somewhat mysterious stranger happened upon the group just as they were about to make their way from the arena district to the Museum.  His connection to the group is simple "I have vested interest in the continued business of House Florens, this is why I have come to...'assist' your group in matters pertaining to House Florens".

[Neromez]

 (man am I pissed, wrote a huge synopsis then crash so now you all get the short shitty version, sorry)

 Mekrimun and Ibn made themselves uneasy allies in the caravaneers abandoned cemetery at midnight on the night of the full moon. They defeated a handful of petty thugs with sorcery. Ibn was brained by one of the thugs wielding a  cudgel.

 The next day riven "one eye" successfully made inroads at the museum investigating the "painter" and the stone of heavens river, though it cost him a fair sum of silver. A list of names was transferred  to Riven by the curator of the museum of those who recently had paintings done.

   Aya was visiting her favorite locations in the city when she overheard two mercenaries asking a innkeeper in dockside about a giant red haired wench that fit the description of Ymira quite well. The reason was not found out as the two men continued down dockside asking about the flame haired northwoman.

   So the eve of the Gala was at hand and Artemis and all his companions loaded up into waiting carriages and made for the Mycealis Villa. The train of three carriages came to a grinding halt after an apparent accident involving a merchants cart happened on their route in a narrow dimly lit avenue in the bazaar prefect, "AMBUSH!" the group was attacked by a band of thugs that was being coordinated by an assassin.

 "BATTLE"! at the end of the encounter all the attackers lay dead thanks to the quick blades of the group and the mind bending sorcery that was wielded by Mekrimun and Ibn.

[Neromez]

After some cleaning up from the ambush the group made its way to the spring Gala of house Mycealis. The spring Gala turned out to be a fairly light hearted affair with plenty of rumours and information to be found.
 
  The rumours and information collected for the whole case pertaining to the "painter and the missing gladiator" are:

 *It was heard that Pavellus the gladiator was seen at the Rolling barrels inn at the dawn hills crossroads, where he killed three of the kings patrolmen and a number of others attempting to escape capture. He was then seen the night of the Gala defending a sewer worker from a gang of thugs from Dockside. After the fight both he and the sewer worker disappeared into the sewers via a nearby outlet.

 *On the body of the assassin was found a small wooden case containing  petals from a black tulip. Through necromantic conjurings of Salah the group found out that the assassin was in fact after Artemis.

 *A Shemitish acolyte of Asura was arrested two days prior to the Gala after making a disturbance at the museum by accosting the painter and was being held in the Kings Prefecture cells, Artemis and Salah were able to talk to this man by posing as interpreters for the High Constable Patrius Hannor. Through this they made the discovery from the Shemite that the "painter" is Corralides,a high priest of  Asura and that his soul had been trapped in the void by the black Ring of Set. The Shemite was led to the outskirts of the city and let go free after this.

 * There have been great fortune and misfurtune bestowed upon certain houses of late, coinciding with the appearance of this jewel known as the river of heaven.

 * Some time ago a lacquered ornately painted set of cards was found on the body of another assassin/thug that could prove interesting what they are for.
 
 * the "slave taker" Giovanni Eres has been hired by Priam Drusus to find and capture the missing gladiator, also Priam blames house Florens for the death of his wife and is very vocal about it. The contract is rumoured to be in the vicinity of 50000 silver.

 * There is a fairly unknown merchant that has been buying up and out assets from the various merchant houses that have had ill luck of late.  This merchant does all his /her dealings via representatives  from a mercenary company that has recently come into Mesantia after a extremely profitable campaign in the south of Stygia.

 *   
 

[Neromez]

Well after this night many tongues will be wagging and many rumours will be started.
   A great merchant prince  is humbled by a waif with a blade and the operatives of many a house get their hands dirty in the dark streets of dockside. One can feel the tension amongst the noble classes these days as a cloud of uncertainty and distrust looms over messantia waiting to break and cover all in a deluge of blood and betrayal.

(and still a renegade gladiator runs free in the underbelly of the city of riches)    

[Neromez]

So the lure of the city below captures the hearts of the group and into the sewers they descend. Already some of the horrors that lurk in that night haunted domain have assailed the group attempting to tear them limb from limb.
  Will they succeed in finding the renegade gladiator or will they become part of the countless numbers that have vanished after entering the city below.

[Chun]

Observation my good people (while we wait for Aya to return from her scouting).  I can't help but notice that the route down below was infested with those unsavory vermin.  It also occured to me that there were but four ways out of that system of the sewers.  One, the way we came in, which was locked,  barring greater intelligence and a rather unlikely understanding of advanced lockpicking, I doubt said vermin got their sustenance from that direction.  Two, the caved in area near their lair, and though it seemed sufficiently pourus enough to allow seepage, I find it unlikely that it allowed them egress for hunting.  Three, the rushing, poorly maintained downstream flow,  though surely they can easily navigate down the flow, unless they had a great deal more akin to salmon then they appeared, that would be one-way hunting. 

And finally, four, the ladder we came up.  Considering their humanoid form, I suspect that the ladder was navigable for them, thus they hunt the sick up here, which seem to have an open doorway to their predatory neighbors.  Bearing these facts in mind, and noticing that they aren't paying undue attention to our means of entry, indeed they leave that very unguarded doorway open, this leads to an alarming conclusion.  Someone, either the ill or the Slave Catcher himself disposes of enough unfortunates by this path, to feed that rather, formerly, sizeable host.

Merely a thought my stalwart companions, merely a thought. *smiling pleasantly*