Thursday, June 2, 1066 SE
Following Sir Sergeii's announcement that the King will be arriving at the beginning of July, the population of the island has been speculating on exactly when the King's arrival would be. With no confirmed arrival date, Archduke Maxsimillian III orders that the island of Katarina be spruced up. Grants are made available to repaint and repair buildings. Orders are given to repair roads and clean up the heart of the capital so that the island can showcase itself during this first royal visit.
At the Legendary, the staff of the second crew meets in the morning. Yurchik reviews with them tonight's end of The Enchanted Rusalka, the final performance of the first crew. He announces that Sir Gregory has requested that the theater be cleaned, carpets fixed, brass shined, and that new coats of paint be applied to all public areas, so that when the King visits, the Legendary will live to its reputation as the premier entertainment venue on Katarina. The theater director also mentions that there are enough tickets left for tonight's performance that all staff members can receive two of them for free, with the goal of filling out the venue for the last show. Finally, Yurchik tells them that their upcoming performance of General Toptigin Cheats Death most likely will be the play the King sees if he comes to the Legendary, so actors, musicians, and support staff must do their utmost duty to ensure this is the best ever play put on by the second crew.
During the last pre-production meeting, Marigold suggests that costumes and props be duplicated, to ensure that they are as fresh as possible. Both Dusana the prop master and Oskana the master costumer agrees. Marigold furthermore adds that Oskana, Branna and the rest of the costume designers should review all of the costumes and make them more conservative, to avoid unnecessary trouble. Intercepting the halfling after the meeting, Mon asks Marigold to create him more smoke bombs for the play he is writing, and he also requests a more powerful version for personal use. These, he indicates, could be hidden in mundane objects like an avocado. Marigold rolls her eyes, but agrees to build him a few prototypes.
Now having an extra ticket to tonight's performance, Mon recalls that Captain Popov loves attending shows at the Legendary but usually can't afford it. He decides to drop off a ticket at the Anchor's Luck. Ivan takes the ticket and lets him know he will be happy to give it to the captain when he comes in later that afternoon.
Mon returns to the Palace and continues to clean up the bedroom he shares with Herald. None of the love letters he has found come from the mainland, and the only incriminating evidence are trinkets such as bracelets, handkerchiefs, dried roses, and the like. He's looking for a letter from someone who may not be easily identified on the island. He will then make it look like it was written in code that Herald could decipher. He draws an oak leaf in the corner, then anonymously delivers the letters to a place the Cardinal's men will find it. This way, it will point their search for separatists in a different direction. Eventually, this letter is identified as a fake eight days later, but this leads to more questions as to why was a fake delivered?
Marigold visits the nearby jewelers, and propose several designs for the upcoming royal visit, and she secures sales for a total of 78 silver pieces. She will spend most of her free time crafting jewelry.
Captain Popov attends the performance of The Enchanted Rusalka with Mon. Mon and him talk about the Oak, and relates what he has done using Herald's old letters. They both agree that a rumor could be started that the letter was intentionally sent.
During Act II, following a scene change from the indoor palace to the outdoor forest, Mon notices that the green bear has been placed in its spot, and that it is wearing a pirate hat with an arrow sticking through it, pointing in the general direction of Dukha's apartment. At the end of the performance, Mon accompanies Captain Popov to the Anchor's Luck, and they share a few drinks with Yevheniy, Vasyl, and Bohdan, the Captain's drinking buddies.
Friday, June 3, 1066 SE
After an hour of drinking, Mon departs the Anchor's Luck and heads back on the wharfs towards Uptown Road. He notices two odd things. First, a wagon drawn by a team of horses is on wharf 7, and two men stand next to it smoking pipes. They politely nod as he walks by, but it seems very early for a deliver wagon to be on the wharf. The second thing he notices is a ship sailing away from Katarina. Already the ship is midway through Spokoya Bay and is heading out to sea. It is highly irregular for a ship to depart the island of Katarina this early in the morning, as navigating the fjord at night can be dangerous.
Shrugging these coincidences off, Mon returns to the Legendary, and, climbing the secret way he first entered Dukha's apartment, he puts on the costume Branna designed outside the apartment. He casts the illusion of a fake door behind the real door, so that it looks like he floated through the door, and uses mage hand to close the door behind him. Dukha is startled at his appearance, but she regains her composure and starts crying. She reveals to the ghost that she thinks Kisa has been kidnapped. She was watching the actress get dressed before the finale, and when she left three men she did not recognize brought in a large wooden chest, which they placed in the corner of her dressing room. One of the men, who was bald and portly, left a lovely bottle of perfume with a note from an adoring fan attached to it, and when one of the other two men asked if this was the contraption the bald man had replied that one spritz of the perfume would knock the actress out completely. Dukha immediately left the secret passage behind the dressing room, retrieved the green bear from her apartment, and left it in the indicated space with an arrow to indicate the urgency of the situation.
Mon removes part of his costume and reveals himself. Dukha is surprised. She didn't suspect it was him. Alarmed by what he heard, Mon leaves the apartment. Even this early, some of the crew is hard a work dismantling the set for The Enchanted Rusalka so that the set of General Toptigin Cheats Death can be assembled later in the morning. Mon sends a runner to Pavel, and asks him to meet at the security's office with Nadie, the head of security. Asking around at the cast party for the first crew still in full swing, Mon realizes that no one has seen Kisa since the end of the performance. Examining Kisa's dressing room, Mon finds the bottle of perfume and the faint smell of arcane magic. Additional runners are sent to notify the Legendary family and the local guards of Kisa's disappearance. A message is also sent to the Cathedral hinting that Kisa was kidnapped by members of the Oak. With everyone looking for her, she may be easier to find.
Remembering the departed ship and the two suspicious men on wharf 7, Mon races back to the wharf, where he notes Ivan locking up the Anchor's Luck. The owner tells Mon that Captain Popov is still sleeping inside, by his favorite corner next to the fireplace. Mon drops 15 silver in the Captain's purse, and hands Ivan another 15 silver to settle the Captain's tab. Mon gently wakes Popov up, and he explains the situation. Captain Popov suggests they cast away on his fishing ship, the Tall Tale. He will prepare it, while Mon finds the harbor master to get information on the departed ship.
Ivan and Mon soon locate Ostap, the harbor master, who confirms that the ship that departed did not have authorization to do so. It is the Moonlight Maiden, with its port of call being Kyan, on the coast of Sezjan, about two days' sail from Katarina. Meanwhile, Branna and Marigold, who heard of the kidnapping, track Mon to the wharf. Neither the local guards nor the Cardinal's men have arrived yet, so a small crew consisting of Mon, Branna, Marigold, Ivan, and Captain Popov cast off on board the Tall Tale. Mon has a previous memory of sailing, and he is very concerned that the the boat is so rickety it most likely will sink within an hour. Branna begins working on fixing the sails, while Marigold looks for things to mend, but she soon discovers that despite its looks, the ship is sturdy and structurally sound. Not only that, but it seems to be moving rather faster than it should.
As they clear the fjord's entrance and spot the Moonlight Maiden in the distance on the open sea, Captain Popov asks whether they should use subterfuge or being brazen and attack the Moonlight Maiden. Marigold suggest that there is a stowaway on board the Moonlight Maiden, a young boy who's part of the Legendary crew, and that this is why they are chasing the ship. Captain Popov agrees that this is probably the best course of action, as he would not want to commit an act that could be interpreted as piracy.
Mon disguises himself as a town guard, and the Tall Tale pulls next to the Moonlight Maiden. Its captain is hailed. Marigold tells him that they're looking for a small gnome teen that smuggled himself aboard the ship on a dare, but that he had most certainly not expected the ship to take off in the middle of the night, and that he was probably scared of revealing his presence aboard.
Mon casts zone of truth and detect magic to see if Kisa is truly on board. The first thing he notices is that there is nothing magical at all about the Tall Tale. It is a plain ship ... He does, however, locate Kisa's heirloom magical bracelet in one of the rooms onboard the Moonlight Maiden. The captain advises Mon that a wealthy man booked passage early last night, and mentioned that he wanted to depart at night to arrive in Kyan in the morning of the sailing day as soon as his chest filled with merchandise was brought aboard. He paid the captain handsomely to take the risk of departing at night without notifying the harbor master.
Still dressed as a town guard, Mon knocks on the door and requests that the room be searched for a stowaway. The portly bald man, who identifies himself as Yakov, reluctantly agrees, and Mon and Marigold look under the bed but do not find Kisa. A large wooden chest is in a corner of the room, and Mon requests it be opened. The man complies, and the chest is filled with women clothes. No sign of Kisa. But detect magic indicates the chest is in fact magical. A close interrogation of the man eventually yields the secret of the chest. It has a secret magical compartment that is activated by using the right latch first, then the left latch second. After performing the action in the right sequence, the chest opens and reveals Kisa still sleeping. Mon arrests Yakov, and the Moonlight Maiden's captain is more than happy to accept additional payment and all of the clothes from the chest to remove this passenger from his ship. When Kisa awakens, Mon tells her everything that has happened, and she is grateful for having been rescued, but she's not very confident that the Tall Tale will survive the voyage home.
On the way back to Katarina, Mon continues to interrogate Yakov, but the only thing he knows is that he was hired by a woman to kidnap Kisa and bring her to Kyan. Once there he was supposed to be met by a representative who would pay him the remainder of what he was owed. He does not know where Kisa's ultimate destination was.
On the trip back, Mon and Captain Popov discuss many things. They talk about whether there is underwater access anywhere on the island, like tunnels that could be used for smuggling. Popov states that there might well be a few, but he'll put some feelers out. They then talk politics. Popov reveals that the Oak is in fact real, and that it is an organization dedicated to protecting the island of Katarina. There is some concerns that the King will not only bring his royal retinue with him, but also a large contingent of troops that would occupy the island. The King's views of morality being closer to those of the Cardinal than the Archduke, this could create some tensions on the island, as well as suppress some of the liberties the local people enjoy. This visit, if anything, will stoke resentment and anger at the monarchy and will cause several headaches as the Archduke navigate treacherous waters.
Back on Katarina, Yakov is arrested by the guards for the kidnapping of Kisa. Mon, Branna, and Marigold meet with Nadie to debrief the incident. After an exhaustive search of the Legendary, evidence was found that Luba had recently withdrawn a large sum of gold from her bank, and this seems to point towards the actress as the sponsor of her rival's kidnapping. However, Nadie believes that Luba is in fact being framed, as it is unlikely the actress would have this kind of money, but she doesn't know why or by whom.
With the opening performance of General Toptigin Cheats Death in a few hours, Mon buys a ticket for one of the Captain's friends to come and attend the opening night. Perhaps this will change their view of the opera as being a waste of time! Dukha sends a message to Mon that contains a receipt for a recent withdrawal of 300 silver pieces Ulan made with his bank. This would be enough money to pay for Kisa's kidnapping, and it is well known that these two positively loathe each other. Mon mentions it to Nadie, who says she will keep an eye on Ulan, but with his connection to Sir Gregory, it may be hard to pursue the investigation further without getting in trouble ...
