Tanara continues to talk to Orel, and he starts to blurt out some details that he probably shouldn’t.  There is a meeting of the Veiled Society tomorrow night – he won’t say where, but he normally uses the entrance in the Blue Water Mead Hall, which is not far from the water front.  The password for tomorrow night’s meeting is Eclipse.  At this point he starts to look confused and Tanara is worried that revealing the information is causing the charm to break down.  Orel turns to leave.  With a single smooth motion Tanara pulls her dagger from its sheath and stabs him in the back, running up through his kidneys into his heart.  With a gurgle, his body collapses to the floor.  Tanara wipes her blade as Pavel frisks the body and removes his money pouch.  Then we drop the body into the tunnel and leave the hovel.  We locate ourselves, and return to the Rattlebone Inn.

Meanwhile Bryan has given up on waiting for us outside the first hovel and returns to the Inn as well.  In the square he meets an exciting Titus who has been having a whale of a time slaughtering rioters and making friends with the Duke’s Guard.  They both also head back to the Rattlebone.

Oin the Courageous makes it to the Hightower and reports to Sergeant Boris.  The Sergeant doesn’t seem keen to leap to deal with the problem, but eventually wanders up to the square with Oin, where the Duke’s Guard are just clearing up the last remnants of the riot.  Oin returns to the Rattlebone.

At the Rattlebone, we settle down for some dinner.  All the gossip in the inn is of the riot, but since the inn is basically pro-Toronescu, Titus doesn’t need to go into hiding just yet.  However there is a message waiting for us from Theosios.  We are apparently to go to the Jade Sea (a ship) tonight to pick up a package that must be delivered to Senator Epistolo.  It is expected that the delivery of the package will meet with interference.  We finish dinner and tool up.  We head to the docks, and establish that the Jade Sea is moored on the north side, near the naval docks.  This is Vorloi rather than Radu territory, so we are somewhat relieved.  We find the Jade Sea and are rudely abused by the watch, but he fetches the package, which turns out to be a nobleman called Symeon Toronesu.  He seems a bit aristocratic in mental faculties as well as manner – this could prove a trying evening.  However before we can depart, a dozen ruffians with swords and cudgels appear.  Expecting the inevitable attack, we are poised to defend him, when the leader bows and pledges their service to Symeon in the name of Prince Demetrios of the Beggars.  Symeon seems to accept this, so we follow his lead.  Bryan suggests that Symeon could dress as one of the beggars, and he accepts this as a ‘fearful jape’ (there is obviously quite a lot of inbreeding in his recent family tree).

We set out with the beggars and the disguised Symeon – another beggar is wearing Symeon’s clothes.  As we enter the city gate, we hear a whistle, and assume that we have been spotted.  We rapidly duck up Vintner’s Lane to try and avoid any ambush, but it seems they were expecting us to do just that, because we are ambushed at the top of Vintner’s Lane by three groups of hooded ruffians.  We split up to take on each group.  Tanara levitates in order to use he bow most effectively, especially since the group attacking from the rear has seven men and only Pavel and two beggars to stop them.  Pavel is heroic, slicing an attacking in two with his first blow but one of the ruffians is similarly effective, smashing in the skull of one of the beggars with a single blow of his mace.  Tanara assumes that he is a major threat and uses one of the Fire Arrow spells in he ring to blast him with two Fire Arrows.  They hit and he staggers, but he is still on his feet.  Next turn she hits him with two more, using the last Fire Arrow spell in her ring, and he drops dead.  Many of the other ruffians are also dead, and the last few break and run.  Pavel quickly snatches the mace and ornate gauntlets from the dead leader, and we also grab several masks, then leave quickly before the watch arrive.  Several of the beggars are also dead, but we are forced to leave them.

We suffer no more interference before we reach Senator Epistolo’s house.  We deliver a grateful Symeon and are rewarded with a pouch of money each.  We bid farewell, and commiserate Stanis, the leader of the beggars on the loss of his men before we return to the inn for some late night vittals.  Finally we check our loot for the day.  The mace is given to Titus and the gauntlets of might to Bryan.  Orel’s pouch contained 200 royals, and the pouches given to each of us by Symeon contain 500 royals each.  A good haul for the night indeed, as we turn in.