Korresh -
The news from the Kingdom is gloomy. The sages are predicting an early, harsh winter, and indeed, the high peaks in the Drake Mountains are shrouded in snow. Not in living memory has there been snow in the mountains before the end of autumn. There have been massive thunderstorms across the Darkwalk Plains, and there have also been one or two gales blowing up in the Telgard Sea, and sweeping across the Horsemystr Steppes.
In Tiangchou, life seems to be continuing as normal, but there are signs that there is unrest in the criminal underworld. Many factions are squaring up to each other, and the rumblings do not bode well for peace in the city. The Mandara�s idea of putting more watchmen on the street may not have had the desired effect. Certainly, the general populace seem to be happy to see them, but it has made the activities of the Triads more difficult.
Maston seems quiet enough, although the backlash from a gale caught it somewhat unprepared, but there was a little damage. The Emperor seems indifferent to the problems faced by his subjects, and has not been seen in public for some time. There are soldiers on the streets in large numbers, and this may have something to do with the apparent peacefulness of the Inner City. The Outer City continues to be a festering sore, ruled with a rod of iron by Skaven, although there are rumours that there has been infighting in his ranks.
Tegn is still troubled by unrest. The cruel dictator has been deposed, rumour is that he has been killed. The Nobles are setting up a Council of some sort in his absence.
Apparently peaceful Kel seems to be the only city in the Kingdom that continues to fare well. One of her popular entertainers left to compete in the Music Festival in Tiangchou, but there are disturbing rumours of trouble brewing in Little Lirynn.
The spirits bring me tales of Outer Maston, the outskirts of the humans "imperial" capital. The stench of the slums is so strong, I dare say even my spiritual familiars reek of it, now. And not surprisingly, most of the news they have brought me is equally sordid.
As dung beetles squabble over their favourite repast, so, too, do the humans over Mastons dregs. And while the Emperor�s men annoy the Merchants by levying new taxes, the Thieves Guild is having their empire challenged by some fellow called Kimmel. Skaven has responded by dispatching a bevy of amateur adventurers after the man. It appears to be a two-pronged attack; the ones called J.J. and Tansy trying to hunt him down, and another, Kathria, attempting to seduce him. Currently, the goblin and the seductress seem to be on a collision course. Tansy, at least, is wise enough to wonder how she got herself into this mess.
Speaking of doomed ambition, the tale of Gen the beggar comes to mind. This man has been in places so foul he�s made my spirits glad that their noses are dead. Having been inadvertently rescued from the unspeakable monsters and horrors of the fair city�s sewers, he is now bearing up to go right back in. Some people never learn. Still, with the shining prospect of a trip to the Inner City luring him onwards, perhaps the mans frenetic determination is understandable. Certainly escaping Outer Maston is a commendable goal, as his mangy menagerie of travelling companions seem to agree. A beggar, a blind man, a goblin, and a �magical� dog. The nobles of Inner Maston have a very nasty surprise headed their way, assuming those four ever make it through the sewers alive.
Lastly, there is the tale of a woman named Jadarya, blessed with great beauty, but cursed with great misfortune. Haunted by lecherous ghosts and wicked fey, pursued by slavers, a power-hungry nobleman, and the lingering nightmares of her own past, one might almost think that some petty godling has it in for her! Having uncovered the terrible secret behind her depraved �secret admirer�, she has found that her own half-sister was the culprit. A woman driven to madness by the ghost of her sadistic father, whom Jadarya killed not long ago. It remains to be seen, however, whether she can defeat the Morgans� curse, or rescue her sisters estate. And whatever happened to the otherworldly monster, which called itself the Black Knight of Faerie? Life isn�t easy for a mage, and especially not in the slums of Maston.
The unrest that seems to plague the Outer City has not intruded on the erstwhile peace of the Inner City, but while on the surface there is peace and contentment, underneath surge currents of distrust, envy and jealousy. On the other hand, the lower echelons live in seeming peace and harmony, untroubled by the increased activity of the Imperial Soldiers, who, it would seem, are being used more and more as common thieftakers. Indeed your humble correspondent witnessed the arrest of several such miscreants down by the docks, only the other week.
It would appear that a meeting between two ringleaders and a new recruit was interrupted, by their arrest by a squad of legionaries. The three were bundled into a covered wagon and have not been seen since. Rumour has it that the large house on the Tegn Road out of which the group operated was raided at the same time. The occupants were taken away in several covered wagons, and the house now stands empty.
The recent, unusually severe, gale damaged a number of houses in the centre of the city. It is interesting to note that damage occurred only to the houses of members of the nobility. There are calls for the Emperor to make recompense to those who have suffered loss, but the Emperor has not deigned to reply. In fact nobody has seen the Emperor in several weeks. As yet there has been no denial from "official sources" to suggest that, contrary to what is actually being said, there is anything wrong with the Emperor. Your correspondent ventures the opinion that the Court Officials have taken a leaf out of the Tiangchou Book, and are playing a waiting game, to see what the silence throws up...
The washerwoman hoisted the laundry bundle to her shoulders, and set off wearily up the hill from her door. She moaned at her lot in life as she struggled on. Washing other people�s dirty clothes was not something she enjoyed � but still, it kept bread on the table.
As she reached the �better� areas of the town, she remembered how it used to be. �Kel is really growing now � I remember when it was just a few small hovels on the banks of the Ahrin Straits�, she thought to herself. She knocked at the first door she came to � �Laundry for Madam Linguard,� she called. Madam Linguard came to the door herself. You may think this unusual, until you hear her words. �Ah Lucia � come in � tell me, have you heard anything interesting of late?�
Lucia smirked to herself. �She may have money, but she still likes to hear a bit of gossip like the rest of us�.�
�Weeell! My cousin in the guard was on duty t�other night when they was disturbed twice. Don�t happen too often that. Most nights they gets to sleep through�I mean they have a quiet time. First they had a stranger come through with an �orse. They said she was quite good lookin� in a plain sort a way. Reckons they need to watch that one. Then the guard captain got all uppity and took a group of them out to look for slavers. Next thing is the girl riding out into the wilderness again, this time with the elf-healer with her. What d�ya think of that then?
��Ere, did you hear about that kid down in town. He came running back through the gates with some wild story about the abandoned house in the woods. He said the deputy sheriff was out there, and there was some weird goings on. His mother cuffed him and took him home � he probably got his hide tanned for telling lies.� Lucia bent forward, and her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. �However, rumour says that the deputy found a body out there, drained of blood� And a girl with raven hair was seen entering The Midnight Sun, but she hasn�t come out again. I wonder what Karles is up to now.
�And if that�s not enough for the guards to worry about, the thieves� guild is making noises in the streets. I reckon there�s gonna be trouble, if I�m any judge of anything. My friend was eating in The Saucy Siren the other night and a man at one of the other tables began to choke. Only it turns out it was a poison dart what did him. He pegged it there, right in front of everybody, and then to make matters worse, some strange dwarf came in and started shouting at everybody using the most foul language imaginable. Well, put everyone off their meal, it did. Turns out he was a thief or something.
Well, I better get on Madam, got lot�s of other bundles to deliver. I look forward to seeing you next week.� With that Lucia picked up her huge burden and stepped outside. �Oh yes I nearly forgot � d�ya remember that girl what�s been playin� in the inn � well she�s off to Tiangchou for that Festival thingy. I saw her play myself the other night. Wish I could afford to travel. They reckon that Festival is a sight worth seeing�..�
As we approach the table to meet our contact, the shadows at the back of the inn draw close. The light from the few candles almost makes the stuffy room smaller. A shadowy figure looks up, and the single candle on the table glints off a golden smile. It is Mai La�an from Tiangchou, instantly recognisable by the four solid gold teeth at the front of his mouth. I briefly wonder how such an identifying characteristic should be found in a man who makes his living by being almost invisible�.
�Greetings, my friends! It has been many months since I last had any information of any note about the City of my birth, and that was but a commentary on the prices that a traveller could expect to pay in the inns and taverns of Tiangchou that I sold to a merchant in return for protection across the Steppes. Suffice it to say that I have, once again, been away on �ahem� business for the Mandara, and have only recently returned.
�What I see and hear on my return has given me great cause for concern. There are rumours that the Mandara is running out of money, though how a fortune reputed to be as large as hers can be close to exhaustion, is beyond me. There are stories that she has sold her beloved Tiangchou Inn to a cabal of Rooster Samurai; there are other stories that she dreams up schemes to boost her flagging fortunes; schemes to increase trade with the rest of the Kingdom��
He sighs gustily, causing the candle on the table to gutter, dribbling a runnel of wax down one side and onto the table. He remains silent for some time, gazing into the small goblet in front of him. Abruptly he seems to shake himself, signals to the serving girl for drinks, and throws a handful of silver pieces onto the table when they arrive.
�It is solid facts that you want, isn�t it? Hearsay is all very fine but doesn�t fill the rice bowl, does it?
�Well, on a pleasant note, the Music School of Tiangchou has expanded its annual Music Festival. As normal, bards, musicians, players and actors have been invited to the City to take part in a competition to find the year�s finest performers, but the best news is that this year�s Festival is aimed much more at the amateurs. Popular music is to play a major part in the Festival, and this is entirely due to the influence of the new �Gold Flute�, the senior master of the school. Word was circulated through all the kingdoms informing all bards of the prizes and there has been a very good response, with a number of strangers passing through the customs house claiming to be bound for the School. The prizes are to be large, I am reliably informed, and well worth competing for!
�On the darker side, several weeks ago a young man was found dead outside the River Pit with massive contusions. He had been pursued out of the River Pit barely a quarter mark before, for stealing from a patron. He had been stopped by a man called Velrik (who was, at the time, fresh from a Pit fight with a Horse Tribesman, in which both fighters captured the imagination and admiration of the crowd for the equality of their match, and the way they had fought each other to a standstill!). A patrol of the Watch claim to have been in the area at the time, but neither saw nor heard anything. Nothing has been seen or heard of Velrik since a man answering his description gave the name "Vawn" at the customs house on the way into the Inner Rings.
�The Rooster Tribe is definitely doing its utmost to gain a foothold in the...um� businesses traditionally controlled by the Triads of the Outer City. Indeed, I have it on very good authority that a direct threat has been made against the front-man of the Roosters who uses the Tiangchou Inn as a base of operations. Unfortunately, men and women from the Rooster Tribe have replaced most of the more �helpful� members of the staff, so information is a little sparse.
�And on the subject of the Tiangchou Inn, a man and a woman were seen leaving the Inn late one evening, heading northwest into the hills. They were well equipped for a long journey, and although they were on foot, curiously, they had a horse with them. It was definitely a riding horse, not a pack animal. My informant cannot be certain, but the woman may be a native Tiangchounese, and the man was definitely an exiled Rooster.
�I cannot be certain, but this may have something to do with the power struggle going on within the Rooster Tribe for the succession. Oh. You didn�t know about that?
�Well, briefly, the Shogun Yamato is elderly and is extremely ill. His granddaughter, Yamato Jen Li, is fanatically devoted to him, and has stated that it is her intention to succeed to the Shogunate, by force if necessary, but not before her grandfather dies. She is the next in line, and has the loyalty and support of all her late father�s troops and minor houses, but the heads of the other four big families are unhappy about a woman becoming Shogun, even though she is a fully trained Samurai lord.
�There have been reports of a creature roaming the margins of the Black Forest, to the North of Tiangchou. It would appear to be extremely rapacious, and quite a large number of people have been killed and partially eaten by it. An expedition left the city recently to hunt the creature.
�An interesting point to note is that the snows have fallen unseasonably early, high in the Drake Mountains. It has lain, and most of the peaks are now shrouded in white.
�The last piece of information that I have is that someone was arrested and charged with being the assassin who has been murdering soldiers. I do not know who it was, but it is alleged that they resisted�ahem�rigorous questioning, admitted nothing and were acquitted. I cannot vouch for the veracity of the information, although I may have more for you next time.�
He stopped talking and finished his drink. Apparently that was all I was going to get, so I tossed the small pouch to him and he secreted it away about his person somewhere, and stood up. The golden smile glinted in the flickering light, and he said: �These are interesting times, are they not?� and was gone.
The guards roughly pulled the beggar in off the street. He was old, his hair white with age and his skin wrinkled in many lines. He was well known for being the one poor filth that was everywhere at once, always pestering and begging for money.
�Hush up, you!� The Captain barked at the old man. �Tell us the news, or you�ll be history, old man.�
The old man laughed maniacally, �Ah, ha, ha! Of course ol� Smitty is the one ye wants! Ol� Smitty is the one who knows the news!� He rocked back and forth laughing as if he was possessed, �Smitty knows the news!�
�Get on with it, filth!� The Captain said as he raised a fist, threatening the old man.
Laughing insanely again, the beggar began, �Of course Smitty knows the news! One rainy morning, there came these ruff�ins into this �ere town, as ye know. They stormed through the city; they did, and burned things down! They killed the men and did foul things to the women, they did! Oooh, it was awful, Smitty saw it all! When they came at the book house they met a fight, the bookkeepers fought them away. But,� the beggar laughed again, �the Baron was dead, the Baron Tegn was dead!�
Pausing to rock back and forth and catch his breath, the old man shortly continued, �A couple and more have leaved our walls, they leaved for Tiangchou! There be a Festival, they be leaved for the Music. Never hits me why they�s leave for music.
�Ou�side the city ther�s been these greeny greeny goblins! I�s watching them talk one day and a man came upon�em. They�s started jumping and yelling something awful, but Smitty only laughed to his�elf. They ran around him and lined up, one ran off and bro�t a li�l slave boy back wit�em to talk to�em, �tween the two species. They made some kinda deal or somethin�, and tha�s as far as I know of that story.
�There�s also a girly entered the town a while back. She�s sort�a bad with�er words at first when I heared her talkin�, kind�a nervous with the guard if ye ask Smitty. I saw�er walk by the fountain down town that�er way, toward the inns ye know.� The old man, again, took his time to rock and laugh.
�Also, there�s a pair o� fellas camed into the place a while back, lookin� like a couple o� scoundrels they did. The guards gived�em funny looks and asked�em what business they had in our fine city �ere. The pair asked for a fam�ly�I believe �twas the McRae fam�ly it was. Oh could ol� Smitty ever tell you the tales on that family there!�
Interrupting as the old beggar began to lose track, the Captain snapped at him, �Get on with it, old man!�
Laughing wildly, he continued, �Well anyway, when tha� pair wandered off down that way, a girl rode into our town �ere�She had �er hair all short-like and resemblin� a mans cut, but she sure was a pretty�un. A guard stopped�er in the street and gave�er a scare. I dun�know why she was so jumpy. She put�er hand to her sword all defensive like, uptight she was.�
With one last rocking laugh, the old man said, �And tha� brings me to my last word! There�s been this man about, with �is brownish hair and one of them goatey beards, ye know? Well s�posedly he�sa bad�un, all the guards keepin� their eyes out for that�un they are. Smitty knows the news, Smitty does!�
�Get him out of my sight,� the Captain said with a sneer. The guards took the old man out and tossed him down in the street.
�Smitty knows, he does!�
The Sergeant of the Guard was relieved when his watch ended that day. He went to the office to complete his changeover report to the incoming watch. He would be glad to go home, and remove his boots after that morning�s patrols. �Sir - Sergeant Flint reporting, sir.� He saluted smartly and awaited his superior�s acknowledgement. �Come in Sergeant. Report please.�
�Sir - I took the patrol out this morning as ordered, and we travelled around the town towards the forest in the east. The foresters report that there are elven farscouts at work, playing their usual games with unwary travellers.
�There also appears to be several parties of strangers gathering in the steppes, sir. There have been reports of a merchant�s caravan being attacked with some loss of life. They appear to have two elves in their company, one male one female. The female was injured in the attack, and the male seems to have some form of affliction for he walks lop-sided like.
�Another caravan out of Tiangchou has reported that their leader went missing, then his cousin and an elfess who was travelling with them disappeared too. They were very vague as to where and when this happened, sir, as though they were in a daze.�
The Sergeant checked his notes before carrying on. �More disturbing for us, sir, are the reports of brigands working in the area. A traveller has reported being attacked on the Kel Path - the healer rode out with her to help her injured companion. It may be slavers at work again.
�We rounded the southern edge of town and spoke to fisher folk near the shore. They reported having seen a noblewoman, camping in the wilderness with what seems to be a servant, but it�s been reported that he�s an apprentice, but of what we don�t know. They�ve reached the shore and appear to be trying to charter a passage out of Korresh. There�s also talk of a strange mixture of peoples training at the barracks of the Paladins.
�Reports coming from the North of Korresh involve movements of the Horse Tribesman. Two people (one male, one female) have left Tiangchou and are rumoured to be delivering papers to the Roosters. Horse Tribesman were involved in some sort of fatal accident, and last seen the male was trying to get on one of their warhorses.
�Finally, sir, we�ve received reports of three missing persons. One is the young deaf man who lived with his family just outside Kel. The father has reported him missing and is said to be very distressed. The other two are servants (slaves more like if you ask me, sir); one is a big man who ran off after attacking his master; the other is a runaway woman, branded a whore and a horse thief by her master.
�We then returned to the town - nothing else to report, sir.� The Sergeant stood smartly to attention again. �Thank you, Sergeant. I�ll expect the written version on my desk tomorrow morning. You may go.� �Sir!�
The Sergeant saluted once more, turned smartly and left the office.
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