Captain Fouquet Chapter 2.5 'Of Services Rendered'

This game was played on 12th May. 2011. Present were; Jan, Oleg, Palle and Goeg.

Having followed Anton Fouquet and his companions to the Gin Dock, Rufus watched from a dark alley way as the crew of the Lady Trueblood busied themselves about her decks. Unsure what they were about he decided to attempt to cripple the ship by cutting her steering ropes. An examination of the river disuaded him from this course of action however as it would have meant swimming to her rudder and climbing up it, and Rufus was an indifferent swimmer with little confidence of his abilities in the fast moving tide. He decided instead to find some pitch and attempt to set fire to the ships stern hoping this would serve his purpose.

Seeking along the docks he came to a ship yard where the vast hull of a carrack loomed behind several buildings. A fence surrounded the property and as he approached, a guard dog began barking and challenging him. No one seemed to take any notice of the dog however so after so pause for consideration, Rufus stabbed the hound to death with his rapier and stole into the ship yard. Finding pitch was easy enough as the scent lead him straight to one of the smaller buildings in the yard. Gaining entrance to the building was not so easy however and the door proved too solid to simply kick open, so Rufus broke and climbed through a small, tight window.

Inside the building was dark and with only the lightning outside to provide illumination, Rufus was unable to find a convenient vessel to transport some of the pitch which was stored in several large barrels. Resorting to a pair of wooden buckets, he found it difficult to exit the building whilst transporting two buckets of turgid pitch. Eventually, after having dropped the first batch, he succeeded with a second, but only by breaking yet aother window after the first had became smeared with congealed pitch. With slightly soiled clothes, he then made his way back to the Gin Dock only to discover the Lady Trueblood was being warped out into the centre river (in order to avoid the ships moored ahead of her), was no longer attached to the dock and the City Pilot was coming aboard her.

Rufus decided to carry on with his attempt by setting fire to his buckets and lowering them into the river from the nearby Bridge of St Agnes. The weather was still foul and setting light to the pitch was something of a problem, but Rufus solved this by ducking into the nearby Old Sea Man's home with a quickly improvised torch and lighting it from their fire place. Having accomplished this, he gently lowered both buckets into the river, allowing the current to carry them towards the carrack's stern. The first was swamped by the water and extinguished but the second reached the ship. Unfortunately, it missed the stern and floated along the ship's counter, much to the surprise of her crew. Cold, wet and some what disapointed Rufus then returned to Misteline's apartment.

Whilst Rufus was galivanting around the docks, Misteline, Maramduke and the Faustini brothers had regrouped in Misteline's apartment and were busy. The brothers were removing Father Caltrop's dagger from Pietro's shoulder whilst Misteline examined the samples he had taken from Anton Fouquet's workshop. Dividing these in to two seperate groups, he then hid them before sitting down to copy a note book which Giancarlo had stolen from Fouquet's workshop.

Upon Rufus's return, it was decided that he would also break into Anton Fouquet's workshop with help from Giancarlo, and subsequently the two men returned to the workshop where after some bickering Giancarlo stole several more things, including a golden paper weight and a strange brass and glass contraption. After this brief burglary, Giancarlo returned to Misteline's apartment and Rufus returned to his own place to change his clothes and burn those which were filthy and pitch marked.

16th Marts. 1625

Every one awoke with the rising sun, and the Faustini's immediately set about the pantry. Misteline and Rufus went to Rufus's studio to hide half of the samples taken from Anton Fouquet's workshop and to investigate Father Caltrop's room where they found nothing had changed, and so they then returned to Misteline's apartment where they ate breakfast. As he ate, Misteline wrote a letter to Marshal Quartermoon to tell him about the nights events and warn him about the Lady Trueblood. This letter was then taken to the Citadel by Marmaduke, who eventually handed it to a secretary. In the meantime, Misteline noted the elaborate artefact of brass and glass that Giancarlo had stolen from Anton Fouquet's workshop, but apart from noting its general resemblence to a half made oil lamp he was unable to identify it.

Rufus went to see Belinda, leaving Misteline under the protection of the Faustini brothers, and found her in the company of her brother Pedro, and in some distress for having heard of the death of Diego Monte-Banquo. Rufus, whilst comforting Belinda, noted Pedro's wooden expression and concluded that the Faustini brothers had probably done away with his competitor, possibly in conjunction with his Godfather. Luigi then arrived bearing the flowers Rufus had charged him to find the day before. Despite these distractions, Rufus managed to get Belinda alone and promised her eternal friendship. Belinda however had other emotions in mind and soon they were both professing their undying love to each other.

Misteline and Giancarlo, breaking the law!

Back at Misteline's, the wily old artist became aware that Giancarlo was not present. He searched around the house for him and found him picking at the lock to Doctor Giffshank's apartment. Never one to pass up an opportunity, Misteline joined the young Castelopean and together they entered the uppermost apartment of Mrs Crimpstock's house. Within, the two men found a wealth of ancient paintings, sculptures and other objects d'art, which were so old and rare that despite his experience, Misteline was unable to accurately identify. Very quickly Misteline found a library containing something like two hundred books and manuscripts, and quite a few loose sheets of paper that indicated Doctor Giffshank was prone to writing verse.

The next room proved to be Giffshank's bedroom and here Misteline discovered an erotic print hanging on the back of the door and a dusty box under the bed. The print proved to be of a paederastic nature and the box, much to Giancarlo's disgust, contained three exotic phalluses, one of bronze, one of wood and a third of marble. The box was replaced and the two men then entered the next room which was Edna Shufflewick's bedroom. Here they found clothes, a lot of jewellry and another box under a bed. This box was bigger and locked with two seperate locks. Giancarlo reckoned he could open it, but it would take time so it was decided to search the next and last room first.

The last room proved to be locked and without an apparent lock but a thorough examination soon showed the lock to be concealed in the wall rather than in the door and Giancarlo soon had the door open. The last room proved to be a study, dominated by a desk upon which sat a remarkable model which Misteline immediately examined but was unable to fully understand. Scattered around the room and upon the desk were a great many papers illustrated by mathematical diagrams and equations and though he struggled to make sense of them, Misteline recognised them as pertaining to geometry, curves and the trajectories of heavenly bodies. It seemed to Misteline that Doctor Giffshank was working on some kind of armoured cupola containing a weapon. The model on the table appeared to be a tubular object, mounted on a slide, underneath a metal dome shaped shield. Misteline helped himself to Giffshank's notes.

Whilst Misteline was engaged in the study, Giancarlo worked on the strong box and such was his skill that despite the expensive locks had it open within thirty minutes. Inside was a considerable sum of money, at least twenty thousand crowns, and the two men immediately divided it between themselves. Misteline took his share down to his bedroom and hid it there for the time being, whilst Giancarlo tried to sneak his share past his brothers. He succeeded, but only until he reached the hotel where his swag was discovered by Pedro.

Marmaduke, fetched a wagon and a horse to move things to the 'Eel and Spindle', and brought them into the courtyard but before anything could be loaded Marlowe arrived and explained to Misteline that Marshal Quartermoon had received his letter and he would do what he could to find out where the Lady Trueblood was heading for. Rufus returned as Marlowe left and the three companions debated what to do next. Misteline was certain the house was being watched and that the presence of the Faustini brothers was all that was keeping them safe. Rufus was less cautious and favoured some form of direct action rather than idle chatter.

Misteline hid the money and jewelry he had stolen from Edna Shufflewick in a bronze statuette (a study for his great equine statue) and this was placed on the wagon whilst Rufus and Marmaduke moved various things back and forth from Misteline's studio to Marmaduke's workshop in order to obfuscate any observors as to what they were about. Having done this, they then mounted the wagon and set off for the 'Eel and Spindle' with Rufus examining houses along the way, making a great deal of looking for a new home for his happy future with Belinda.

Misteline went to find Nicolet to ask her advice with regards to giving Father Caltrop his money back, but Nicolet had little to say on the matter so Misteline returned to his home, which was still occupied by five Faustinis, and set about some small experiments with the black powder samples taken from Captain Fouquet's workshop. Sure enough, they proved to be either inflammatory or downright explosive.

As they returned a few hours later, Rufus still loudly commenting upon suitable buildings in the Garden District, Maramduke noticed people were rushing by with concerned faces. Something appeared to have happened to affect the public mood, and sure enough, at the next crossroads, they encountered a town cryer who was shouting the news that the dreaded plague known as the Sot had arrived in Serrensima.

Thus ends the second Chapter of Captain Fouquet