Tuesday, June 14, 1066 SE, continued
Having changed clothes, Mon and Luba head to Khoroshim for their lunch date with the Marquess of Sidorov . Mon hopes the Marquess might know some juicy gossip about Verushka, the Archduke's eldest daughter, that they can use when they entertain her the following day.
Arriving at Khoroshim a little after noon, Mon and Luba can tell at a glance that the place is packed. The sidewalk has been occupied by scaffolding as workers paint and spruce up the building's facade for the King's imminent arrival. As they stand on the wide sidewalk in front of the famous restaurant, they can see a large crowd occupying all of the tables inside the dining room. The rich and famous are here, enjoying a good meal at Katarina's premier restaurant.
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| Khoroshim |
Entering through the masterfully crafted wooden and glass front doors, Mon leads Luba to the reception area where the Maître D' stands. A thin and tall bald man in his early 50s, the Maître D', whose name tag reads Jeronim, looks at both of them and then politely inquires how he can help them. Mon responds that they have a lunch invitation to eat at the Marquess of Sidorov's personal table. Jeronim politey asks for their names then requests they wait a moment. He leaves the reception area and heads through the dining room to the northeast corner. After a few moments, he returns, and, taking two menus, he entreats them to follow him. He promptly leads them to a small booth in the corner, where the Marquess of Sidorov is sitting with a short lady of the same age.
Spotting Mon and Luba, the Marquess stands up and offer her hand to Mon, who promptly kisses it. She motions to the lady sitting with her, and introduces Fayina Sirenko, her childhood and best friend in the whole world. She then unceremoniously asks Lady Sirenko to move over. The Marquess joins her against the north wall, and she tells Mon to sit next to her. Luba ends up on the edge of the booth.
The Marquess immediately questions Mon as to why he wasn't in the performance last night. She and Lady Sirenko had attended, and she was disappointed to see that her favorite actor had been replaced with his understudy. Mon tells her what happened to him last night, which explains why he wasn't at the play. They then discuss Matviyko and his more than decent performance, then Mon and her discuss his fall. Luba confirms what happened. The Marquess opines that it must have been a ghost that assaulted Mon, then she tries to reason through what would account for both the salt and the seaweed that covered him, considering there are no salt mines on Katarina. She then mentions there is a ghost that haunts the cemetery close to her estate.
Meanwhile, Jeronim returns and politely inquires as to whether everyone has made a selection. Since they had no time to look at the menu, both Mon and Luba peruse the fabled offerings at Khoroshim. Noticing the prices, Luba whispers to Mon and inquires as to who's paying for the meal, considering that the prices are more than most actors at the Legendary make in a week. Mon conspiratiorally leans towards the Marquess and politely explains their predicament. The Marquess laughs and tells him she would not think of them paying for the meal, since she's the one who had invited them. Relieved, Mon asks what she recommends. She suggests the lemon roasted haddock, the lobster bisque, or the leg of lamb with a brown mushroom and onion sauce, but really everything here is delicious, and she has never had a bad meal at Khoroshim.
After a moment to consider, Mon turns to Jeronim and orders the ham that has been marinated in Elvish honey and baked with gold leaf and white truffles and garnished with saffron and beluga sturgeon caviar. Impressed at his selection, the Marquess orders the same, while Lady Sirenko orders tender, braised and slow-cooked veal shanks fall-off-the-bone tender and served atop a bed of saffron-infused risotto, garnished with gremolata for a burst of fresh flavor. Luba orders the haddock. Offered the wine card, Mon takes out a bottle of wine from his coat, and tells the Marquess this is the type of wine they will have at the auction next Saturday. The Marquess tells him to put the wine away, Jeronim will be upset. Instead, the Marquess requests Chateau Durso's Starfall. Mon asks for a glass of Vampire's Kiss while Luba points to the Kraken's Ink. Lady Sirenko sticks with water.
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| Vampire Kiss |
With the food and drinks now ordered, the Marquess questions Mon about Kisa's kidnapping. Mon walks her through the timeline, expanding greatly upon the protagonists of the whole sordid affair and describing in great details . After he is done with his tale, the Marquess mentions this would make a great play. Mon replies that indeed it would, but due to non-disclosure agreements with the Legendary he can't discuss upcoming plans, though he strongly hints that such a performance is indeed in the works. The Marquess then abruptly switches subject and begins to talk about Marigold and the jewelry the halfling is crafting for her, and about the dresses Branna is designing for her, before turning to the topic of the upcoming wine auction. Putting her hand which is surprisingly warm on Mon's arm, the Marquess inquires whether Sir Gregory might be willing to part with three or four of the recently discovered wine bottles before the auction, at a premium, of course.
The Marquess shifts the conversation again. She mentions in a collusive tone that she has crafted a clever alliance with many of the other nobles on the island. They have planned only one social event per night, to ensure that the King will have limited options for entertainment. This way, she reasons, she and her fellow nobles are insuring the King will be in attendance to many of these events. Mon remarks that this is a great idea, which makes the Marquess blush.
As the Marquess drones on, Luba suddenly drops under the table. Mon has barely enough time to register this when Khoroshim's grand window shatters under a violent sonic explosion, followed by seven additional explosions. Glass spreads everywhere, cutting people and embedding itself into furniture and walls. Tables and chairs are broken and sundered, and booths are heavily damaged by the impacts. A shockwave throws Mon violently against the back of their booth, while a large splinter of the table closest to the window grazes him, ripping his cheek. Lady Sirenko, who was in the corner, is miraculously unharmed, but the Marquess of Sidorov receives shrapnel to the head and collapses on the booth's seat, blood flowing freely down her face and staining her dress. Luba screams, more from the shock than from being in pain, though her right hand has some minor cuts on it from the rain of glass that spread from the window, and her face has several small slivers of glass now embedded in it.
For a second or two Mon is stunned. The silence in Khoroshim's dining room tells him that others are having a similar reaction. Then pandemonium erupts as people sporting various injuries react to the event. Bodies litter the dining room floor inside Khoroshim. Outside, part of scaffolding fronting the building collapses, trapping one of the workers. Jeronim, who was standing at his station welcoming guests when the incident occurs, rushes through the dining room to help the Marquess. Having recovered her wits, Lady Sirenko seizes the Marquess's left arm, while Jeronim takes the right arm and they carefully walk her through the shattered window outside. Mon cradles Luba and follows them to Svetozar Plaza, where they all sit on a bench. The Marquess never lost consciousness, but clearly she has been psychologically as well as physically impacted by this incident, as she seems not quite all there.
As Lady Sirenko fusses over the Marquess and expertly bandages her wounds, Mon takes a look at Luba. He gently pulls the slivers of glass from her face, but this is too much for the actress and she falls unconscious. Chaos has erupted in front of Khoroshim, as hundreds of onlookers come to help and to gawk at the catastrophe. The information quickly reaches the Legendary that something wrong has just happened at Khoroshim. Hearing the news, Marigold grabs Pavel and other stage workers and heads out with them. Branna takes fabrics that can be used as slings and as bandages.
Arriving at the scene, Marigold notices that the front facade of the restaurant is in danger of collapsing on the rescuers who are pulling the wounded and the dead from the dining room. She stands on Pavel's shoulders and casts several mend spells on the restaurant's facade, holding it in place longer. As she maneuvers the large carpenter from one spot to the next, she notices that there are seven clear shockwave zones within the restaurant.
Branna spots Mon and the Marquess as she rushes through Svetozar Plaza on her way to Khoroshim, so she stops and assists Lady Sirenko with bandaging the Marquess's wounds. As she proceeds to the vicinity of the restaurant, she bumps into Pavel, who gives her a hand giving first aid to some of the wounded. Branna realizes that most of them are part of the island's nobility.
With the City Guard and the Cardinal's men responding to the site of the incident, one of the latter stops by the small group in the park and inquires if there is anything he can do for them. He prodigates some healing to the Marquess, but at the same time expertly removes her gold necklace. Mon has a sharp eye, however, and he then pickpockets the guard, retrieving the Marquess's necklace.
Using his magic abilities, Mon charms the guard, and he makes a statement that he clearly saw a man closely resembling Matviyko hurling something in the window, and that the man seemed intent on committing an assassination, but of whom, he wasn't sure. Mon retrieves the golden necklace Mon then asks the guard what his name is, and the guard replies that his name is Tarasenko.
The rest of the afternoon goes by in a blur of activities. Lady Sirenko secures a cab and heads back to Sidorov Manor with the Marquess. Search and rescue operations end near sundown, with four dead nobles from inside Khoroshim and one dead worker from Low Town. Seventeen others were critically injured, two of them servers for the restaurant, and the rest of them part of the Katarina nobility.
As Mon, Branna and Marigold discuss what happened, Mon retells the incident as he remembers it. It becomes clear to them that some sort of sonic weapon was used. Marigold speculates that this type of weapon would have most likely been crafted by an artificer and infused with magic. And she knows the person who might be able to tell her who could pull something off like this on Katarina.
Marigold heads to the props workshop and finds Dusana, the prop master. She retells what she saw while at Khoroshim and recounts the conclusions she, Branna and Mon arrived at. Stroking his beard, the halfling prop master considers her question, before telling her that the only person on Katarina that could create such an item is the artificer Artem, who works for Stal Steel, the main industrial concern on Katarina. Artem is renowned for building pumpkin sized bombs that project sonic energy in a specific path, a process very useful in mining to minimize the risk of a collapse or an unplanned explosion. Alarmed, Marigold heads straight to Nadie's office, and warns the security chief that there is a danger to the Legendary. The assassins behind today's attack could very well target the theater and hit the lobby on opening night, when it will be filled with nobles and, most likely, the King as well. It could very well be that today's events were but a dry run for something much bigger.
Due to today's events, Sir Gregory decides to cancel the performance tonight. For the first time in years, the Legendary goes dark. So do two of the other theaters. Only the Starlight elects to stay open on this somber night.
Worried about the Marquess, Branna decides she will go visit her to make sure everything is okay. She asks a pageboy to go with her, and the pageboy agrees, provided that there is candy involved. After a long walk that takes them past the ripped facade of Khoroshim, currently guarded by Dima and the city guards, they arrive at Sidorov Manor where they are greeted by Olehiv, the Marquess's butler. The butler politely informs them that the Marquess is currently sedated and in bed, and that Lady Sirenko is taking good care of her. After a short conversation, the pageboy impatiently coughs, and Branna wonders if the butler may have a candy or two from the pantry. Olehiv invites them in, and bring them to the kitchen where he serves them each a large portion of fudge. They talk about the relationship between Lady Sirenko and the Marquess, but Olehiv's reminiscence is interrupted when the bell from the Marquess's room rings. Branna and the pageboy, whom Branna did not not notice is actually Duhka, return to Katarina. Branna does notice, however, that the pageboy only ate half of the fudge, and has carefully wrapped the rest and placed it in their small backpack ...
