Lucien’s fellow leader in Duskwatch, Miss Veloce Cadoret, had quite the fitness drills arranged for a small group of our operatives, including yours truly. She even hit me in the shoulder—hard—with a wooden bokken for being late. She likely didn’t realize it was the same shoulder I’d had operated on when I was subject to a cave-in several months ago.
The drill began with swimming on the shores of the Mist. Trint was the fastest to do his 5 laps as the waves deterred our progress. I placed third, and Taryn couldn’t finish after taking a wave to the face and coughing up seawater. She was hit by Veloce’s bokken for not finishing.
Next came a dangerous obstacle course of sorts. She wished us to balance on a stone rail along the road leading to the beach. On the left side was the cobble-stoned road. On the right was a...40-falm drop to rocks. Taryn backed out, saying she would accept punishment but not balance on the rail, which had the added challenge of the rest of us trying trying to pull them off the railing.
Trint went first, and he was able to power through Valoce’s and my attempts to yank him off. When my turn came, I had thought that an attempt by Veloce to trip me would be easily down, perhaps causing me to lose by balance and fall off, or take the stone rail to my face. I was 3 falms above her on the rail, so I decided to jump. As she reached in to yank me, she ended up pushing into my legs, which caused me to hit some rocks and slide the other 30 falms to another rock.
I immediately knew something was wrong. My right knee had been wrenched to the side when I impacted the first rock during my slide, and I severely bruised my....rear end when I hit rock bottom. Literally.
The others panicked and made their way to me. Eolise gave me something which I found out was milk of the poppy, and it left me loopy and with jarred memories. Apparently Trint carried me back to Mitsu’s infirmary. Eolise, a chirurgeon, was on hand for the training, but Mitsu and other healers couldn’t be found, leaving Eolise all too eagerly putting me under with more drugs and performing surgery on my knee. I don’t recall much.
I did finally see Mitsu! Taryn fetched her right before finding Eolise.
I’ve been using a rather snappy cane for a couple of days, receiving some magical healing from Ylaziel when I visited her tavern, my limp rather obvious. I’ll never hear the end of this one...
(( The following is Lucien’s account of his last job in his journal in his usual cipher. ))
It went as near perfectly as one could expect for a scant one week of time to gather intelligence and plan. It was the second riskiest job I’ve ever pulled, the worst being a breakout of a prisoner from a maximum-security Garlean prison on an island with no preparation and crew known for its lack of discipline. In comparison, I suppose this job did seem easier because I had a veteran crew adept at the skills needed.
We were to steal a magical item called the Lamp of the Waves from the estate of Councilor Agatahr Merlitarsyn from the Limsan Admiralty. He was holding a reception, attended by none other than Grand Marshal Eynzahr Slafyrsyn. No pressure, certainly not!
Perhaps I should explain how we reached this point. The Bluewater Cartel, one of the most powerful in Limsa Lominsa and specializing in shipping and smuggling, had kept Lady Nightweave’s cargo they’d held hostage, sending a message of their displeasure that we hadn’t acted more quickly to secure their own missing cargo taken by a rogue crew of theirs. Rather than hire our investigatory services, they saw fit to browbeat us into submission, given their much greater strength over our nascent network.
This could not stand.
With the Lamp of the Waves in our hands, our plans were to plant the magical item in a Bluewater Cartel building and then ‘discover’ its location for the Admiralty, hopefully leading to Admiral Merlwyb crushing them and ridding us of a powerful nuisance while simultaneously raising ourselves as a successful investigation service. As brilliant a plan as it is mad.
I broke our crew into teams. Taryn and S’ira were Falcon. They would go downstairs at the reception and grab the lamp. We knew it would be magically warded in a gallery, with several copies mixed among the real item.
Eolise was Wasp. He would distract two roaming Yellowjackets and had prepared a concoction to put on food that would necessitate an emergency trip to the privy.
Trint was Hammer. He would distract the guards blocking the stairs from the ballroom to the gallery.
I was Storm. I would distract the councilor if necessary and keep an eye on the situation in the ballroom to cover the others.
The crew worked perfectly well together. Eolise’s treats sent a Yellowjacket and a guard running for the bathroom while S’ira and Taryn were able to improvise to get past the guards at the stairs and into the gallery, also finding a roaming guard down there and using a sleep spell on him. True to his word, S’ira was able to bypass the ward on the lamp and hopefully find the right lamp. By the Twelve I hope he grabbed the right lamp.
Once we plant the device in the Bluewater Cartel, the Admiralty will likely think they stole it for use on their own ships. Reportedly, the Lamp can create a magical fog to hide a ship as well as be lit to reveal shoals and shallows in the water, useful for running a pursuer aground.
There are still some loose ends to be addressed. Taryn (as a caterer) and S’ira (as a performer) were both spotted in the gallery before the item went missing. The catering service will come under scrutiny after two guards got sick from the food. Taryn, S’ira, and Trint have all left Limsa to lay low until the Lamp is ‘recovered’ from the Bluewater Cartel, after which the Yellowjackets should cease their investigation.
If all goes according to plan, the Bluewater Cartel will soon be in shambles, and we’ll have established ourselves as a service to be respected.
