"I'll think about it," Nicoleta taking on an air and lifting her nose up. "I might be too busy being all Queen-Consorty."
When the agressive imps appear, the monk rolls her eyes and looses her weapon. "Stupid imps. That'll be the first thing I do as queen is offer a fifty gold bounty on every damn imp in the city."
Iolaire meanwhile draws a serviceable short sword and slashes at an imp when it gets close enough.
Aurelia fumbles with her bow and tries to get it out and fire it before they close the distance, but she’s too rushed and misses her shot badly. Cursing she remarks ”Yes, please. They are such a pain in the ass!”
”I’ll show you a pain in the ass!” the imp Aurelia shot at yells. It swoops around her and stings her in the butt! The other one dodges Iolaire’s sword and Nicoleta’s fists as it stings the dhampir in the arm.
"Go pester someone else, you little s!%#s!" the monk snaps at the pests as she snaps her segmented whip at one of them.
"Yeah, pick on someone your own size!" Roz retorts. She gestures, trying to wrap the tail of the imp attacking Aurelia around its own body, but it squirms away.
"OW!" Aurelia retorts, frustrated that an imp is literally the pain in her ass. "That was a big mistake!" she taunts, moving opposite of Nicoleta and dropping her bow and slipping her dagger into her hand.
Iolaire steps over to help Aurelia and Roz.
Aurelia and Iolaire stab at one of the imps, and while the mesmerist scores what should have been a telling blow, the devil's innate resilience renders it ineffective! Nicoleta has more luck, scoring three good hits with her whip, leaving the imp badly wounded.
Before the devils can attack again, a pair of growls herald the arrival of two tiny purple-scaled dragons! Their eyes glint with a mischievous intelligence, and the sting of their tails have a silvery sheen. The drakes pounce on the imps, the first driving its tail deep into the back of the wounded devil. It groans and drops the street. The second drake stabs the other imp, causing it to howl in pain.
With the odds suddenly shifted, the surviving imp withdraws, flapping its wings to escape. Both drakes move to pursue it, and soon all of them are out of sight!
"Bloody imps! The Acadamae really needs to get a handle on those little menaces. At least we've got the house drakes to keep them in check," Rozalia says.
"You okay, Aurelia? That thing stung you but good." The oracle bends over to inspect Aurelia's rear end. On a purely professional level, of course.
Aurelia groans in pain. She bends over so Roz can look at her wound. "Is it poison? Suck it out!" she whines, "Hurry. I don't want to die from imp poison!"
"Nah, you're good," the oracle says.
The sound of passing gas comes from near Aurelia's behind. Rozalia frowns. "I hope that was the faeries."
"Oh, please," Nicoleta says, rolling her eyes. "Foreplay belongs somewhere private or on stage. Not in the middle of the street. Focus, Ladies." She can't help but grin. "And based on her behavior last night, the faeries had nothing to do with it."
She folds her segmented whip back up and then does her best to move the group along towards the citadel.
Nothing else impedes your progress, and soon you find yourselves at Citadel Volshyenek. The Citadel currently operates on a skeleton crew, as almost all available guards are hard at work in the city, desperately trying to keep order. Two nervous guards stand at the entrance to the yard, but as the queen promised, you are expected. The guards wave you through, and one escorts the you into the central keep, where a harried and tired-looking woman rises from her desk to greet you—this is Field Marshal Cressida Kroft, an attractive, dark-haired human woman dressed in red armor. She introduces herself and asks for your names as she bids you to sit.
“Ah, yes—you are the ones sent by Queen Ileosa. Greetings! My name is Cressida, and heroes of your caliber are exactly what Korvosa needs now. You’ve been on the streets. You know better than me how bad things are out there. It’s breaking my heart to see Korvosa tear itself apart like this. Every little bit of aid we can get from upstanding citizens like you helps. If you’re willing, I’d very much like to retain your services as agents of the Guard. You will, of course, be well compensated for these services.
“Korvosa’s got enough troubles as it is without my own guards losing their way. Many have deserted their posts, more concerned about friends and family than the city. I can understand this, yet not all of the deserters have family—some of them are simply using the riots as an excuse for personal gain. One such man is Verik Vancaskerkin. Worse than a lone deserter, he’s convinced a small group of fellow guards that Queen Ileosa is going to ruin the city. Whether she does or doesn’t isn’t the point—right now, we’ve got a city-wide crisis on our hands, and I need all of my guards working with me to see us through. A deserter is worse than a lost resource—it’s an infection. I can’t afford to pull any of my other patrols off duty to deal with Vancaskerkin, and I’d rather not expose any of them to him anyway, since I don’t want Vancaskerkin to infect more guards with his talk of secession, nor do I want some overly patriotic guard killing Vancaskerkin outright. I need impartial, skilled talent. Talent like you.
“Vancaskerkin and his followers have holed up in an abandoned butcher’s shop up in Northgate—a place once called ‘All the World’s Meat.’ I need you there. Try to avoid killing any of the deserters if you can, but if you must, they brought it upon themselves when they threw in their lot with Vancaskerkin. I’d really prefer it if you could capture Vancaskerkin alive and return him to me for interrogation, but if he makes that impossible, I’ll accept his body as well. Finally, see if you can find out why Verik deserted—if there’s more to it than simple personal politics, I need to know immediately. Bring me Verik alive, and there’s a five hundred gold in it for you. Dead, he’s worth only half that.”
Iolaire steps forward and nods her head. "Field Marshal. I've made some weapons for your guards. I'd like to help, however I can. I have a few other... friends. People who share our common goal to help the city." She pauses, "Is it a problem if we bring others in? More help is often better."
”No problem at all. We will welcome all the help we can get,” Cressida says with a weary smile.
At Nicoleta's words, Aurelia drops the added performance and shrugs. "Well, you're no fun without wine apparently." she says, turning away from the monk.
Aurelia listens to the Field Marshall give their orders. She asks "What authority do we possess if we need to assert it? We're not afraid to get down and dirty, but if the situation calls for it do we have an official designation?"
”You will be effectively deputies of the Guard, with all the authority thereof. And as such, I can offer you a spot in the Citadel barracks if they need somewhere to stay the night or to rest.”
At Nicoleta's words, Aurelia drops the added performance and shrugs. "Well, you're no fun without wine apparently." she says, turning away from the monk.
"Let's just say that I'm a lot more of a people person after the sun goes down," the monk grumbles from under her wide hat.
~~~~~
"Northgate, 'All The World's Meat', Got it," Nicoleta says with a nod. "Five-hundred gold for Vancaska... Vanker... whatever-the-hells his name is alive, Two-fifty dead." Her eyebrow raises in a question. "Any reward for his hangers-on?"
"There is no reward for Verik's cronies. Deal with them as you see fit," Cressida says sternly.
Aurelia has never had any real power before and smiles at thought of being a deputy. "Excellent. No further questions. We'll have your deserter in your office before you know it, Field Marshall."
You head north along the waterfront, heading through Midland and up into North Point. You can hear shouts from distant protesters and smell smoke from a fire along the way, but you are able to reach All the World's Meat safely, the shop located at 22 Stirge Street.
A sign bearing the image of a fat, smiling cow hangs above the main entrance to the shop. To the side of the shop, a large cattle pen is open to the air, and the stink of manure, mud, and animal is strong, despite the breeze that wafts through the stockade’s wooden fence. Currently, only two skittish pigs wallow in the mud of the pen. To the south stands a roofed shed containing a straw-filled wagon.
The building has two side entrances, one through the cattle pen, and one through the shed.
"There is no reward for Verik's cronies. Deal with them as you see fit," Cressida says sternly.
Nicoleta smiles broadly and stretches out her arms with her fingers interlaced. There's a distinct sound of knuckles cracking. "Noted."
~~~~~
The monk doesn't slow when she reaches the shop, pushing her way in through the front door, attempting her best to look like any other woman out shopping for meat.
Inside the shop, a long counter runs over half the room’s width, beyond which a door stands ajar. A low bench sits against the east wall, while to the north a marble-topped table displays cuts of meat before a wide, grimy window. A few flies circle in the air above the meat.
Two guards stand at attention here: a tall man with bushy eyebrows that merge into one just above his large, flat nose and a wheezy man whose leather armor doesn’t quite fit his ample frame. They glare at you as you enter.
"You're a bit too late, ladies," the first man says. "We gave away all of today's meat. You'll have to get here earlier tomorrow if you want some of that pork out in the yard."
"Aye, so kindly kick off," wheezes the second.
"Awww... not even if we paid a little extra?" Nicoleta takes her wide hat off and fans herself with it. With her other hand she reaches up and flaps her vest against her skin. If that reveals a little more of her flawless olive skin, she doesn't seem to mind.
"My friends and I are really hungry and there's no telling what we'd do for a good piece of meat," she says as she steps closer to the nearest of the men.
Really? This again? Are we going to be undressing for everything we need to do?
Inwardly, Aurelia sighs and rolls her eyes, but none of that manifests on her face. Instead, the pale-skinned woman leans against Nicoleta and pulls her shirt away from her body and then towards it again several times in a fanning motion. "Boy is awfully hot in here, isn't it Peaches? Do you think it'd be okay if I took my shirt off?"
"Don't be silly," she says, turning to Aurelia. "We don't do that until they give us some meat."
Aurelia slides her shirt halfway up her torso before Nicoleta tells her that isn't what they are doing. From inside her shirt she says "Oh. Whoops. Sorry." and slides it back down in place, looking to the men.
"Good sir. What type of meat do you have for me?" Blink. Blink. Feigning innocence, she looks out at the men, waiting.
The men stand there with shock as the two women begin to undress in front of them. "Is this really happening, Baldrago?" wheezes the larger man.
"Maybe the boss sent for them to keep our spirits up," the first man says with a grin. "You can have the pale one, Malder. I'll take the dusky-skinned wench." He reaches out to put an arm around Nicoleta. "I think we can scrounge up some leftovers in the back, if you wanna come with us..."
"Aren't you the sweet talker?" Nicoleta says with a smile. Her smile never fades, even when she brings her knee up into the man's privates. Her follow up elbow misses the mark, though.
As Nicoleta brings her knee up, Aurelia stares into the face of Malder. "Hey sweet thing, don't you mind them at all. Just keep looking over here."
"Okay," Malder says dully, eyes never leaving Aurelia's.
"Special delivery!" Roz calls, leaning around the entry to the shop and firing a bolt from her heavy crossbow. Unfortunately, a fairy chooses that moment to tickle under her arms, throwing off her aim. The bolt thuds into the counter instead. "Bah!"
With her quarry temporary dazed, she turns to Nicoleta's and whistles at him to get his attention. Once he looks her way, she stares into his eyes and says "She doesn't want your meat, put your hands down right now."
With the clear thought that there's no reward for these goons, Nicoleta doesn't hold back as she knees him again and then puts her elbow in his throat.
”Rude.” Aurelia says, looking at Nicoleta. ”I was talking to him. Hmmmphh.”. She turns and plunges her dagger into the man who is dazed instead. Getting blood on her hands, she groans. ”Blech! See what you made me do, Peaches!” as she steps back away from the bleeding man.
"Own your own blood-letting, Sweet-cheeks," Nicoleta snaps. "Besides, when else can we do this and it be legal?"
Iolaire steps into the room, sword in hand and raises her eyebrow at the banter. "Maybe finish him off first?" She suggests, eyes focusing on the door at the back of the store.
"My point exactly," Nicoleta says, turning to grin at Iolaire.
Nicoleta brings down Baldrago, crushing his windpipe, before kicking Malder. Aurelia stabs the fat man, who groans in pain but is still dazed.
Iolaire steps up and brings her sword down in a short jab which misses the man as he staggers in pain and confusion.
"Close quarters ... " Nicoleta instructs Iolaire as she spins, sending her foot towards Malder. "... requires a more ..." She follows up the kick with an attempt to punch the man. "... intimate approach."
Aurelia goes to stab the man, but his blood all over he hands freaks her out and she ends up just waving her blade back and forth to get the blood off instead.
While Aurelia and Iolaire miss, Nicoleta’s kick is enough to send the second thug sprawling to the floor. All is quiet for now.
The door behind the counter leads to a short hall. A single door exits to the east, while double doors are set at the south end. Stairs here lead up to the building’s second floor.
Aurelia groans and crouches to the floor to wipe her hands and blade off on the fallen man's pants. She looks through his pockets surprised, "Wow. I'm quite shocked at how much coin these two are carrying on them!"
Standing up and looking around she asks "Doors or stairs?"
"It seems that there's good money in meat," Nicoleta says with a raised eyebrow. She moves to the door and after looking through and seeing nothing coming immediately, assists Aurelia in rifling through pockets. "This could come in handy," she says, hefting one of the tanglefoot bags.
Once the others are ready, she looks again past the door. "If I were an ex-guard leading others astray, where would I be? Upstairs or downstairs?"
She considers her options for a moment before she moves quietly to the door to the east and listens at it.
Nicoleta does not hear anything beyond the door, so she opens it. The air in this room is stale, stinking of day-old meat and blood. Straw litters the floor, scattered to catch the drips from the meat as it hangs. Meat hooks are affixed to the walls and ceiling on metal rods. To the north is a low blood-stained table and two barrels of salt, while double doors stand in the wall to the south. An iron bar extends through a narrow hole at the top of the doors; the bar runs along the ceiling for five feet before ending at a vertical pole running floor to ceiling.
"Nobody there," she whispers back to the others. "Let's check the southern doors." She continues taking soft steps southward in the hallway to the double doors to listen there.
Nodding silently, Aurelia stays behind Nicoleta and prepares herself for action. Being behind the larger female monk she isn't able to see much herself.
The floor of this grim chamber is strewn with blood-stained straw, and the reek of slaughter is almost overpowering. The room is a killing floor. Meat hooks dangle from a metal track affixed to the ceiling that allows the hooks and their gory loads to be moved easily around the room. In the northwest corner, a large hammer sits on the floor amid a permanent bloodstain. To the south, a bloodstained grill covers a wide hole in the floor. Just north of the grill sit two large vats of water, one boiling and one cold. Two large butcher blocks stand to the east next to barrels of salt, and in the southeast corner sits a reeking vat of cast-off meat and bones.
Two more men loiter in this chamber. The first is a broad-shouldered man with long sideburns, while the second is thin and jittery with a sallow complexion. The former notices Nicoleta when she opens the door. "Hey! What are you doing back here? We weren't expecting a new shipment till after midnight," he says, placing odd emphasis on the word shipment.