Catacombs Chase

Vere returns without Frais.

Cordelia looks back at her newfound relatives. "I'm ready if everyone else is."

Merlin nods. "I am ready. We should get underground quickly, once we cross the river. We are hardly inconspicuous."

"I believe Frais is what he appears to be," Vere tells them. "A Parisian, originally from the country, who came to the city for a better life. From labourer to guard to enforcer among criminal gangs, eventually hired on by the monks. He knows little about them, he was paid not to be curious and was happy enough with that arrangement. I would say he fell into a criminal life more by chance than design, simply because they were the ones who were hiring at the time. As for loyalty..." he shrugs. "About what you would expect. I have emphasized the dangers in disloyalty to members of the Royal Family, and that made an impression on him. But the only way to ensure his loyalty would be a few years of service and good treatment. His life experiences so far have emphasized the importance of looking out for himself first of all."

He looks at Celina. "Whether to bring him along or not should be your decision, I think. His knowledge of the Klybesians might be useful, and I think the chance of him betraying us is very small. If it were I who had offered to take him on I would bring him with us, but that may be due more to my natural curiosity to observe how he behaves than from any more logical motive." He smiles slightly.

"He confirmed that the Klybesians have some ties with the Parisian underworld, but has no idea of how involved that may be. His useful information on the Klybesian organization was minimal."

He nods at the door. "I told the guards to give him better equipment and bring him here. He should be arriving shortly."

Jerod is silent as he waits for Celina's answer, having leaned his spear in a corner with a note taped to it for the pages to return it to his quarters....he would appear to not be taking it with him.

Ossian alse stays quiet.

Celina takes the assessment with sublime enthusiasm. "Thank you, Vere. I am going to compromise based on this. We left guards at the chapel with Papillion. We'll take Frais with us and I'll assign him to safeguarding her. He'll be near enough, above in the chapel, if we cross something we want his input on. We shall go into the depths without him."

Frais arrives and bows awkwardly to the assembled nobility and royalty.

And when Frais arrives Celina says, "There you are. You are attending our further investigation. The danger increases, Frais. I'll introduce you to Papillion. Your first duty to keep her safe for me and aid her at her station. Ready? We go."

Celina asks Merlin to lead on through Paris to the guards left with Papillion at the Catacomb of the Martyr Pierre. Merlin wants to keep a low profile so he directs the Art of Avoiding Notice.

Frais nods. "Yes, my Queen."

Merlin takes the group to the carriage house and piles everyone into one of the curtained carriages that allows them to leave with some anonymity. They cross the river and are amongst the smaller roads off of the main boulevards of Paris. They stop beside a stairs down to a tributary of the Seine. Down the stairs is an entrance to the catacombs, one of the few that aren't in a church or cemetery. Merlin takes several turns and eventually ends up near the door to the monks area, where Papillon and a number of Parisian guards hold the entranceway.

They have not been rushed en masse, but it's clear that there are defenders who are inside and ready to fight, if the guards (or anyone) advances.

Papillion is here, and is perfectly happy to have Frais act as muscle and protector.

Celina puts a hand on Frais' shoulder and Papillion's shoulder and says, "Good. Learn from her, Frais."

Vere thinks he has a pretty good idea how far it is from here to the chapel at the Abbeye, and it's concerningly close.

Merlin nods and explains to his cousins, "We hold the first anteroom, taken by force earlier tonight. The troops held here while we followed Celina's compass."

During their trip, Jerod has been silent, mostly getting a feel for the area that Merlin was guiding them to, as well as getting a sense of how imposing the local Pattern conditions are and how much impact it will have on the use of powers, not just in enacting things like Sorcery or Pattern, but what might happen if Jerod can activate Pattern - would it be blunted, or would it further impede others (ie: he reinforces local order *more*), which means he might be able to use Pattern but judiciously.

Once at the ante chamber, upon hearing that there are forces for the monks waiting for them, he listens to the details from those in attendance as that is reported, pulling on a set of dark gloves.

"So they have had some time, but not so much," Celina says. "Rushing in sounds fun, and I'll be right behind those who are more practiced. I can refine Celina's Compass to not register Family Blood that is within 15 meters of me. That might give us a pointer to their stocks?" She looks around for a response.

"The more info, the better things are when we rush in." Jerod says. "Ready when you are."

Vere nods, but says nothing. He is mentally calculating the three dimensional geography of the catacombs they are in, and will be watching carefully to see if their efforts end up taking them in the direction of the Abbeye.

Ossian is generally on his watch and looks for signs of the Klybesians, for example symbols and out of place technology. He is especially interested in cables.

"If we meet the guy called Chew" he says "hit him hard."

"If we run into Chew..." Jerod says, finishing with his gloves, "...then the mission changes. Get him anyway we can."

Celina says, "I'll try spells after we best this next obstacle then. Ready."

"Who's Chew?" says Cordelia. "What does he look like?"

Ossian pulls put his sketch book. His pencil works with lightning speed, capturing Chew's looks with surprisingly few strokes. And a few moments later he has a portrait to show to Cordelia and anyone else who wants to see.

"He's an enemy to the family, on a personal level."

"If he is there, alive." Jerod says, looking at everyone there deliberately. "He's no good to us dead."

Vere nods. "His name has come up often enough that he is clearly a high priority target. I would go so far as to suggest that if it comes down to a choice between allowing him to escape or killing him, we allow the escape, hoping to capture him another day. He has information we need."

Celina consults Ossian's sketch and then nods once. "As you wish."

Cordelia nods.

Jerod pulls up the hood for his coat and unsheaths his blades, double edged and silvered.. Apart from his face, everything is covered in black. "Let's go." he says. "It's rude to keep your enemies waiting."

And with that, he goes to crack the door and check out the situation. Barring getting shot with arrows at that point, he's going to be moving forward.

Celina positions so the men are first and she can learn while being a support fighter. Her tactical plan is not engaging the first rank of foes but targeting the exit of leaders to the rear, or the use of missiles into the general melee.

Vere follows, all senses on full alert for anything out of place.

Jerod looks through the door and sees about what he expected (no, not a flight of arrows), which is to say a makeshift barricade. Being in the catacombs, the barricade is slightly macabre, and mostly consists of coffins and burial goods. Clearing it is going to take some doing, and that doing will expose the clearers to attack through and over the barricades.

The hardest part of clearing it is going to be the two guards at the top of it. They've got spears, and they've seen the group. They've got enough discipline not to throw their spears, but it's not clear how they'll do in the face of actual combat.

Merlin looks at it. "I might be able to magically light it afire."

"Fire and underground catacombs...." Jerod says, slipping his swords effortlessly into their sheaths and collecting a pair of darts in each hand which are then hurled at each of the two guards. "...let's not choke ourselves out of the fight just yet."

Two of Xanadu's billiard balls have appeared in Vere's hands, but he waits to see the results of Jerod's darts before taking any action.

Celina slips to left flank so she has clear view of the barricade and readies for something tossed at Jerod, Vere, or Merlin over the soon to be downed Spearman. She pulls up Density lynchpins to ruin any flammables or gas attack.

Ossian holds his rope-and-hook, waiting to see if someone escapes.

Darts fly towards the two guards. The one on the left ducks his head to protect his face, and takes the darts in the helmet, causing a ringing sound and some swearing, but no damage.The one on the right tries to dodge to the side, but moves into the arc of the second dart and takes a hit to the face. He drops down, bleeding and swearing. A different head pops up, attached to a more wary guard.

"Begone, you can't drive us out with darts!", say the new guard in provincial French. Her actions belie her words, since she's carefully not providing a clear target. She still could make things difficult with the spear if the group got close enough to dismantle the barricade.

Merlin seems to be contemplating driving them out with darts, just to make a point, as it were. It's what his father would do.

They seem to be sizing up the opposition, but they aren't running. Yet.

Vere has been judging the angle of the various rocks of the tunnel, and he now throws a billiard ball at a projecting block of stone behind the guard who just yelled. He has calculated the force and trajectory to ricochet off the block and strike her in the back of the head with sufficient force to render her unconscious, taking her helmet into account.

The ball sails rapidly over the barrier and spins in a low arc until it hits the projecting block, and deflects right into the back of the guard's head. She slumps forward over the barricade. The other guard hunkers down, only his helmet and spear are sticking out. He can probably still see through the barricade.

They still haven't attacked, but they're much more careful now not to expose themselves.

Jerod looks at the barricade for a moment. "If they had missile weapons, they would have used them by now." he says. "Only one left based on appearances.

"I'm going to go up and attract their attention. I'm pretty sure if I start dismantling a barricade, they're going to try to stick a spear in me. I won't let that happen...so everyone, see what you can do when they decide to make themselves noticeable with their pointed sticks."

And with that, Jerod, being vaguely impatient and in a very dark, stabby mood due to as yet unresolved old issues arising, heads off to the barricade. Based on what he has seen of their equipment, and their weapons, he'll approach close enough that if a guard is going to do something with the spears, they'll try, but he'll be looking to avoid getting poked. As he approaches he should also be able to be an idea as to what kind of apertures they have constructed in the barricade using the coffins and such, and where they would have weaknesses or blindspots where they cannot attack, spots he can use to approach to his advantage.

Vere advances along one side of the tunnel. While unlikely, he is watching for any sign that the guards are smarter than they look and actually did have ranged weapons that they had cleverly refrained from using until now. If anyone appears to be about to use such a weapon on Jerod they will get a billiard ball thrown with full Amberite strength to the head.

The guards are keeping their heads down.

Ossian throws his hook over Jerod's and over the barricade, whipping it downwards. He will nudge probability so that a guard is caught by the hook, either in his/her clothes but prefferably the hook goes into the guard's flesh. Ossian then pulls the guard over the barricade.

Probability nudging this close to Corwin's pattern is not going to work, but Ossian does get a good grasp on the top of the barricade. He can pull on it or free his grapple hook for another throw.

Celina holds back but assesses the materials of the barricade. She calculates the pit size for the barricade and guards/weapons behind it.

Jerod approaches the barricade, scanning it for weaknesses. He sees where it can be shaken and eventually toppled. He sees where they have built gaps to allow themselves to stab outward with spears. He's pretty sure there are at least two but perhaps three fighters left.

As Jerod steps up to the barricade, a spear darts between two coffins at his chest. He's well aware of it and can dodge, deflect, or catch it as he will.

Jerod leans off to the side enough to allow it pass by, catching it as it passes and helping it along on its journey with a very strong (for him) pull...and if all goes well, helping the wielder along as well into the barricade (guard, meet immovable object).

Barring the possibility that the wielder is sufficiently strong enough to hold onto the spear means Jerod will have one now (he leaves his in Paris and still he finds one...coincidence maybe). Regardless of whether the wielder let go, or was pulled violently into the barricade on their side, Jerod flips the spear and thrusts it back through the point between the two coffins to strike at the wielder.

Regardless of success or failure in regards to striking the guard, he retains control of the spear and motions others forward, trusting that those more comfortable with close quarters work will accept the invite.

Celina slides along the Catacomb chamber wall, ready to use it as leverage for a spring into the fighting. She remains behind - out of fouling her Family's moves for now.

Ossian draws the line taut and plucks it with a free finger, making a low pitched note, thus letting Jerod know something is afoot. Then he pulls down the barricade.

As soon as it comes down he start running.

At Jerod's signal Vere moves from stealthy walk to full speed run, leaping up to use a small projection of the passage wall to propel himself towards the ceiling. He flips in mid air, hitting the ceiling upside down, and immediately propels himself downwards and forwards behind the barrier and any guards behind it. He lands in a roll, comes to his feet, and quickly scans the area for targets and dangers.

Jerod stabs, Ossian pulls and charges, Vere throws himself forward like a billiard ball. Merlin holds back with Celina, a dagger in his hand ready to throw.

There is a crash as the barricade collapses, rocked by the body Jerod has pulled into it, Ossian's line, and Vere's frontal attack.

Jerod's earstwhile opponent is bleeding from a gut wound where he's been speared.

Cordelia leaps when Vere does, somehow following a flatter arc, and lands on the last standing defender. The defender goes down almost immediately clutching at a badly broken leg.

"That was an insultingly low number of defenders," says Cordelia. "We didn't really exert ourselves."

Regenlief nods, also feeling under-exercised.

Celina nods once in agreement. "Trust. Things will certainly get more complex soon."

"Assume that it will not last." Jerod says flatly, moving past the defenders to check the area and secure any approaches from further in. "If it lasts, we can say we won the lottery.

"Secure the area. See what's here folks...do what you do best." and he looks over at the defenders. "Vere...need some questions asked. Defender strength, contigency escape plans, warnings they may have in place to warn them we're coming. Plus anything else you think important."

He turns slightly, looking at Cordelia. "Do you have your mother's gift?" he asks. "Can you sway those with weaker minds, to make them more amenable to questioning?" If she signals in the affirmative, then he motions for her to proceed.

Cordelia smiles. "Who do you think turned Celina's new friend to our side?" She looks back towards the door. "Even these guards, they aren't the enemy. There's no victory in defeating a handful of desperate soldiers left, probably to protect the people we really want while they flee."

She looks at the ruins of the coffin barricade. "No one expected this to hold us, just to slow us." His daughter sighs, and sounds like her mother and Cambina and somehow Eric as well. "Yes, I can suggest to these soldiers that they should answer our questions."

Jerod nods as Cordelia heads over to Vere before turning away to check the area they are in, ways in and out. Though he can hear what is happening, he is somewhat unfocused, his outward breathing a trace ragged.

He closes his eyes for a moment, regaining control of his breathing and his emotions, too many old memories of loss surging up from the past, too many images of the three people most important to him, gone now forever. As always, insane thoughts race through his mind, what-ifs reviewed hundreds, thousands of times to see what went wrong, how could he have changed events, some little piece of information, some event or action that could have been different.

But the result is always the same, a cold certainty that nothing he could have done to change what happened, that no malice or fault guided his actions on those days. And as always, it brings him no comfort.

His eyes open again as his breathing settles, his fist unclenching as the tension fades a little. He turns slightly to look at Cordelia for a moment, and images of Carina and bright emerald green hair come to mind. And he knows when this is done he must speak to her. For all their time together, there had never been children or a consideration of them...a choice he had made unilaterally. Perhaps it was a good choice, the life of a Prince not being the best to raise a family, the fear of loss a powerful one when one makes life choices. But as he watches Cordelia he realizes that a good choice isn't a sufficient justification. He knows that if Marissa had not died that day in the fortress ruins...he would have stayed.

The woman he loves more than anything deserves better than choices based on fear.

Vere collects his billiard ball, then turns to questioning the conscious guards. He'll judge them individually to decide if they will respond more honestly and quickly to threats, bribes, or reason, but he is not wasting time on them and will go to threats quickly should it prove necessary. If they are locals then realizing that they are opposing members of Corwin's family should be enough to convince them that loyalty to their employers would be foolish.

As Jerod said, he is looking for numbers, capabilities, and dispersal of defenders, anything on the upper levels of the monks currently in the base, their contingency plans in case of a raid such as this one, and their means of communications.

Cordelia joins him, and one terrified guard stands up, calmly. He's a better choice than the man with the broken legs who was screaming until he passed out, or the woman who lies bleeding beside him.

"My Lord, my Lady, what may I answer for you?"

Cordelia lets Vere do the questioning, but the soldier speaks more freely than Vere would've expected. Threads, bribes, and reason are not necessary, merely asking gets answers.

Vere glances briefly at Cordelia, but continues with his questioning without any comment on the soldier's volubility.

The guards were stationed at the top and bottom of the complex, and in between doors and passages had been sealed off when the Monks arrived. The guard, Baton, thinks there were still secret ways in and out, because the Monks came and went without passing through the top or bottom doors. He describes the layout of the stairs (two main ones that ran through the whole complex, plus smaller ones that joined floors where convenient). He believes there are 30-50 people here, and he's seen a dining hall that could hold twice that many. He knows that the elite guards have crossbows and are excellent swordsmen, for all that they are foreign mercenaries. The Monks and the elite guards talk in strange foreign tongues.

There is another monastery on the surface, but it is a cover to allow the special monks to mingle freely in the city. Their real home is on the far southern coast, where they don't even talk like decent Parisians.

A voice whispers in Vere's ear. "I'm sure you think this is important, but who is going to return all these coffins to their loculi?" Cordelia looks over his shoulder, but says nothing.

Vere nods as the guard finishes his explanations, then asks quietly, "I suppose the other barricades are similar to this, made of coffins that could be grabbed quickly? And that no one gave any notice of where exactly they were from, nor any thought to the desecration?" He sighs, then turns his head to look over his shoulder. "Replacing them will be a long process, and will have to wait until we have dealt with the business of the living, who have neither the time nor patience of the dead."

The ghost sizes him up. "Do you so swear? On pain of a haunting?"

Ossian walks past the barricade, checking out the area, scouting ahead. He will stop at doors, listening.

Celina glides past the interrogation.

She explores the passage until the voices of Vere and the guard, Baton are thinning and then returns to the barricade. "Ready when you are," she says to the group.

Ossian and Celina both go ahead. Merlin stays back with Frais, while Regenleif joins Cordelia.

This level is dedicated to mundane tasks. Barracks and commissaries line the space, and between them are niches for coffins, just like the ones that were used in the barricade.

Nothing more sinister than staff meetings and roll calls seem likely to have taken place here. Possibly a few HR interviews. Or, at worst, payroll.

Frais says "They'll have crossbowmen a level down, across the central shaft."

Ossian returns: "We need to move down, there is nothing to see here."

Vere turns and speaks, facing no one that the others (except perhaps Cordelia) can see. "The desecration offends me, and I would see it put right." He shrugs slightly. "I cannot promise a definite timeline on that, but I can swear that I will see to it that it is done, as soon as I am able. Things might progress sooner if I had more information on the leaders here, as they are not only the ones who ordered this shameful mistreatment of the honoured dead, but enemies of the King of Paris, and we must deal with them before anything else can be done."

He looks the ghost over carefully, looking for clues as to who they were in life.

Jerod waits for a few moments, having noticed Vere now speaking to ghosts, and not being surprised given the circumstances.

Celina listens closely. An alliance with the Catacombs dead is a clever gambit.

The ghost was a woman of means, and wears (or wore) brocaded robes of rich, heavy fabrics and gold jewelry. At a guess, she was interred here long before Corwin drew a pattern and founded the city.

It hesitates. "We cannot go below this level, but we can make them rue their choices if they step outside of their protection."

Cordelia nods, but doesn't say anything in response.

Jerod notices Cordelia's behaviour and his eyes flicker from her to Vere and then back. "Can you hear who Vere is speaking to?" he asks her. "Can you see them?"

Cordelia turns to her father. "Mostly no and yes, but only if I concentrate and they want it to happen. They're not exactly here, and they're not exactly across the veil, at least not completely. It's hard to explain. They're something between echos and anchor lines."

"Protection?" Vere lifts an eyebrow. "What sorts of protections do they use, that guard them from you?"

The spirit looks confused. "Something affects us. It presses us away. We cannot move on, we cannot rest. Who is going to return all these coffins to their loculi?"

Celina exchanges a look with Merlin and mouths, 'salt circle'.

Merlin reads her lips, and waits for her to explain further.

Ossian listens. He was contemplating picking up one of the coffins to use as protection against crossbow, but reconsiders.

It would work, but it might annoy Vere's new friend. And they're a bit unwieldy. Ossian could take a table or chair and break it up just as easily. Or borrow his mother's shield.

There is something about Cordelia's comment about the veil, about echoes and anchors that elicits a slight frown from Jerod. It is not disapproving...more like a concern that is personal.

"I think there will be a quite a bit to talk once we're done." he says quietly, looking to see the outcome of Vere's discussions.

If Cordelia agrees or disagrees with that sentiment, she doesn't say so.

Celina does not wish to disturb the information flow to Vere, Jerod, and Cordelia. She steps closer to Merlin, whispers, "Salt mineral, crystal anchor carrying a magic charge, it was circled around the mausoleum we broke into to free Cordelia. We should keep an eye out for minerals in unexpected locations or containers."

Merlin nods.

Ossian strikes the legs from a table, making a large makeshift, if somewhat unwieldy shield.

He has a versatile but unwieldy defense against spears, darts, arrows, and swords. And a missile weapon if it comes to that.

Vere glances at Jerod briefly, then at Celina, then returns his attention to the spirit. "My Uncle is King of Paris. I tell you that the coffins will be returned to their proper place, as soon as my other duties allow for it. It sounds as though you are being held here by something these monks have done," he glances briefly at Cordelia as he says this. "If I can discover what that is I shall also try to undo it." He frowns a moment, then asks, "Do you know the name Pastorale?"

The ghost gets thicker, and more coherent. "That's a description, not a name. I knew plenty of pastoral people. Universally dull and unsophisticated and not worth your time. Who would burden a child with that name? Imagine having 'Unsophisticated Idiot' carved beside your final resting place for eternity."

Celina looks at Ossian, then Jerod, "We want monks more than guards. If we wait for more information the monks will have left. They are not here in great numbers but they'll exit knowing they can find Paris again."

Vere nods at Celina's comment. "We must leave," he says to the ghost. "If you do not know Pastoral, wife of Osric, mother of Reid, possibly daughter of Basina, then I have no further questions at this time, and thank you for your attention."

The ghost fades.

"Basina of Thuringia", says Cordelia, looking at Vere. "Early Merovingian queen. Legendary. Didn't exist, according to my tutors. Who are all those other people?"

Vere looks at Jerod and Celina, leaving it up to them to delay while answering Cordelia's questions, move on to the assault of the monk's lair, or combining the two and talking while descending.

Jerod takes a look through the doorway to get a look at the stairway down, enough to determine lighting, open door positions, spots for crossbowmen and the like plus the number of steps and approximate number of floors so he can calculate a speed of descent if he moving at full speed. His preferred approach, assuming the stairs either go around a central cylinder (or rectangle like in a building stairwell), would be to take a few steps, bounce across to the lower descending stairway piece, rinse and repeat.

"If we want the monks, then we need to move faster." Jerod says. "So worrying about displeasing some ghosts isn't going to help us. My suggestion, since we can't use sorcery or Pattern, is to toss lots of coffins or large debris pieces at them to keep their heads down while we get in their midst. Or rather, a couple of us get in their midst and the rest follow."

"We want monks," Celina says. "I suggest we use our superior fitness to use the void center of the Stair, dropping from edge to edge. This is so like the palace in Rebma. I can go first and show you."

Jerod continues his study of the stairway as he listens to the others. When he hears Celina's comment, her offer to show everyone first "how it's done", he looks back briefly, an amused look on his face.

"She wasn't seriously including me in that comment, was she?" he thinks to himself before returning to the stairway task, smiling a bit more.

"We get the idea." Ossian says with a grin. He lifts his table top. "How many levels do we go down?"

Jerod's reconnaissance turns up several useful facts. First and most importantly, nobody is shooting when the door opens for him to look into the stairwell. Almost equally importantly, there are four or six levels before the bottom of the stairwell is reached. It could be a hundred foot drop. It would kill most shadow people. But they aren't most shadow people.

Jerod relays the information as he sees it, including the less than lethal fall.

"Ready for your flying leap, folks?" he asks, because barring someone saying something that seriously stops him, once everyone is ready to go...that's exactly what Jerod does.

Celina goes out to the stair, takes one look down, and steps over the rail/barrier to cling to the 'inside void' of the stair's rectangular shape. She winks at Merlin. "Dive! Dive!" She bounces away into the void at an angle that delivers her a second later at the next lower ninety-degree rail/barrier. And then again. Again, picking up speed as she spirals downward.

Ossian follows. When there is two levels left he will drop straight down, landing with the table towards a door if he can see one. He readies his hook...

Vere follows them, watching for any sign of reaction to their advance.

Cordelia is also over the railing, but Frais hesitates. Cordelia is graceful, almost fluid, as she dances from rail-to-rail after Celina, matching her pace. She doesn't unfold her parasol.

Merlin does something and is sort of walking down the walls. His legs seem longer than they should be.

Regenleif is not as graceful, but bounds firmly behind them all. She is, however, singing.

Celina notes the martial cadence of the song. It lifts her courage in this unfamiliar underground.

At the bottom, Ossian faces a door with a table shield between him and it. Regenleif looks at him. "We should force the issue", she says.

Celina nods once at Ossian. She also takes a reading of the sorcery flow here now that they are so deep.

Jerod readies another set of darts as he waits for a decision to be made on the door, rolling them in his hand in preparation for a throw. if needed.

Vere glances up to see if Frais is being sensible and just running down the stairs after them.

Frais is being sensible and staying at the top, with Papillon, like he was told to do.

Jerod, having waited a moment to see if Ossian responds, decides he wants to do something more than rolling darts in his hand, and moves up to check the door for anything untoward (ie: things that might go boom).

Jerod detects nothing, but smells chemicals in the area. Either embalming fluids or science, it's hard to tell.

"Clear the opening." he says, once the sweep is done and flips open the door, moving to one side in case someone on the other side has something nasty waiting.

Ossian advances behind his table shield, preparing to throw his hook along the floor to catch guards at their legs.

Celina moves to the opposite side view angle of Jerod, looking through the doorway. She stays clear of Ossian and Regenleif to facilitate.

Vere backs up and moves slightly up the stairs, so that he has a downward view towards the door and a clear shot over Ossian's head. He prepares billiard balls.

The nastiness comes in the form of a flaming bottle of alcohol. Medical grade rather than drinking, but still a definite improvised firebomb. It splashes against Ossian's table and pools, still flaming, on the floor.

Vere or Ossian could try to hit whoever threw the Molotov at them, but they're mostly around a bend in the corridor. Others who are ready could also attack them.

Once the flaming bottle clears the door, Jerod sprints in, hurling the handful of darts for anyone who wants to stick their heads out. Vere and Ossian need a target unless they move from where they are, so maybe one of the monks will oblige if they engage Jerod.

Ossian also darts forward, but not before making one throw with his hook trying to hit whatever is around the bend. One of the perks of Ossian's weapon is that it can hit around corners. If he catches someone with the hook, he will pull the victim out in the open.

Vere remains where he is for the moment, watching for any signs of sneakiness from their enemies.

Cordelia lets the people at the front deal with the enemies. She and Merlin put out the fire from the remains of the molotov cocktail.

In the inner room, Ossian's hook bites into someone. There's a pretty big crash and a man is dragged across the floor in front of Jerod. He's wearing a monk's robes and bleeding from a head wound. Also a hook to the side wound. Something smells of acrid chemicals.

He's struggling to get up, and he has a knife. Judging by how he's holding it, he's not an expert knife fighter.

Unless he's really faking, this monk won't be a threat. Jerod will hit him once, hard, in the upper arm holding the knife, immobilizing the radial nerve and making his arm useless. He is not trying to kill the man, but he's not worried if something should break...it can be fixed.

Once that target his hit, Jerod pulls his blades as he scans the room, surveying for threats and exits while the others approach.

Celina starts prepping a variant of her previous blood compass spell. She starts by visualizing her father and whispering to him how order is served by capturing the blood samples before they are removed by defending dupes of perfidious monks. She repeats the Invocation three times. Then punctures her palm three times. Then drops three tears into her palm.

She excludes Family within 3 to the third power, 27m so she can track while staying with the team.

Ossian jogs forward, collecting his rope as he goes. When he reaches the monk he says "Sorry" without conviction, and yanks the hook out. If the monk starts screaming, Ossian will punch him. He follows Jerod into the room.

Vere follows Ossian and Jerod, alert for signs of traps or surveillance.

The monk, who is now unconscious, seemed to have been alone. They have once again left one behind to slow down the pursuit.

There's a corridor ahead. It's long and stretches into the darkness.

There's a rumbling sound.

Whatever Regenlief says, it's not in Thari. It's probably a curse in her native language. "Do these craven monks wish to bring the catacombs down on their heads?"

Cordelia replies, "They may prefer being buried alive to being captured."

Merlin nods. "They are correct, if that is their assessment. But perhaps it will be both."

"He won't be important." Jerod says motioning to the monk as he looks down the corridor. "No one with knowledge would be acting as cannon fodder.

"If we keep going, we may end up somewhere else. We need a decision on Frais and Papillon, plus the others...give them a time limit to wait or to return if we're not back. Maybe give them this one for questioning later.

"Either way, some or all of us need to keep moving."

Celina closes her hand. "Papillon understands the mission. She'll hold until someone updates her. The guards helping up there will stay on task until then or until Lance comes to see what the delay is."

Celina adds, "That rumble could be machines tapped into the Seine. I've seen drawings here in books. Let's keep going."

Vere nods. "I would not be at all surprised if they have made arrangements to have these tunnels flooded or collapsed. We lack time, so I vote for moving forward quickly." He shrugs. "It lays us open to traps and ambush, but better that than be drowned due to an excess of caution."

Ossian nods and says "Voting finished", before darting down the corridor, snatching up whatever light source the monk had.

Jerod looks at Celina as Ossian heads off. "Youngsters..." is all he says as he follows.

Regenlief smiles. Perhaps she's proud of her son, running headlong into battle. It is traditional, after all.

Celina tries hard not to smile, succeeds, and then follows. She touches Merlin's shoulder once as she moves by.

Merlin follows behind Celina, with Cordelia and Regenlief at the rear. At the front, Ossian comes to a closed door. It's not a very sturdy looking door, but it would be an ideal spot for traps and ambush.

"Leave this place, evil ones!", shouts a voice from the far side of the door.

If that was supposed to banish them, it didn't work.

Ossian gestures to the others to stand back. With the hook in one hand he breaks the door. Depending on construction and flimisness he will lift it of its hinges throwing it further into the corridor (first choice) , break it at the hinge side (second choice) or just kick it in (last choice). He will throw his hook at the first person he sees.

Jerod will be off to the side awaiting the door removal, looking mildly amused. "Evil ones?" he mutters. "I'm a Prince, I deserve better insults than that."

Vere is ready to render people unconscious via billiard ball as they appear.

Celina is a coiled predator wrapped in a smooth candy coating. She holds herself centered. She mutters calming cadence to her eagerness to engage the monks.

The door explodes into the room with the force of an angry amberite and various pieces of door hardware and cheap wood strike assorted monks, followed shortly by an angry amberite, who tosses a hook into the nearest monk, biting into his leg and coating the floor with his blood. He's not being very quiet.

In a far corners of the room are two monks with crossbows. They've got the drop on Ossian and can't really be seen from the doorway. There are a half dozen monks in the room and they are holding back, waiting for Ossian to be shot.

Once Ossian clears enough space to allow entry (which unfortunately may be due to getting shot), Jerod moves.

The "thunk" from the crossbow strings will tell Jerod there are missile weapons, but that will also tell him that whoever fired has to reload so he will be moving fast and picking the biggest group once he has available targets, meaning the half dozen monks get his attention, leaving the corner point crossbowmen to the others.

Against a group of targets, Jerod is not looking for lethal damage but to inflict as many cuts, thrusts and concussion effects as possible in the shortest amount of time.

Ossian pulls at the rope with full strength, throwing himself backwards. His goal is to provide as small area as possible for the crossbowmen to hit and pull the monk on the hook towards himself as a human shield.

Celina voices a proposal to those in the rear ranks with her. (Cordelia, Merlin, Vere, Regenlief) "Calculated layered defense. They will keep at it while the leaders get out with anything of value. I think I can run up behind Jerod and vault over that combat to get behind them all and split their attention. I feint at their backs then continue down the passage to interrupt the next choke point."

Celina smiles at her nearby Family.

Vere nods. "Excellent plan," he says. The moment the doorway is clear he rushes in, assesses the situation, and simultaneously throws a single billiard ball from each hand at the heads of the two crossbowmen.

Several things happen at once. The crossbow bolts fly with an underwhelming 'chuff' sound. Ossian is hit by one, while the other sticks into the remnants of the door. Ossian falls backwards, winning his tug-of-war with the man he'd hooked. That monk is pulled into the path of the oncoming Prince Jerod, who slices, stabs, pommel-strikes, kicks, and head-butts a group of knights who thought numbers would prevail.

Vere's billiard balls either hit or suffice to suppress the crossbowmen, while Cordelia and Regenlief close. Merlin follows Celina, who has opened a door into a hallway that is full of choking dust and rubble.

They've pulled down part of the ceiling.

Vere circles the mass of fighters engaged with Jerod, taking down one of the crossbowmen with a vicious blow to the neck, and comes up behind Merlin and Celina.

The vigor that Celina had bottled for the dash deeper into her enemies awkwardly escapes her in a husky growl. "Pearls!"

Jerod works his way through the knights as quickly as possible. Once they are down, and assuming there are no further targets, he'll take a quick look at the hallway, assessing the effects of the cave-in and comparing it to the grinding sound they had previously heard.

"Crap." he mutters. "We'll want prisoners. We'll need to know where that leads."

Jerod doesn't think it would be loud enough to do all of this. That was a smaller rockfall than this. But it definitely could've raised this much dust.

"This is a trick. They may not even have gone this way," says Cordelia. It's amazing how silently she moved up behind the people studying the rockfall.

Still assessing, Celina adds, "They had this prepared for months, meaning there is a stockpile ahead of things they could not get out of here quickly. I cannot clear this with sorcery. We're too close to the dominus of Pattern."

She falls silent and the hiss of falling dirt seems peaceful.

Celina barks a laugh. She turns to look at the others. Her eyes twitch greener in the uneven light. "We go over it."

Celina begins to carefully explain her idea to use Pattern to adjust the fall before them. The volume of the hallway still exists but in a narrow passage above the hill of debris. Jerod and Merlin can sculpt the weakened material above (with probability) and they will push forward in a climb past this.

Merlin looks concerned about the proximity to Paris, but he's not going to gainsay his sister.

Ossian assesses his wound. How bad is it? He rises a bit gingerly, and breaks the arrow shaft so that it will hinder his movement as little as possible.

"Keep moving!" he urges his cousins.

Ossian barely notices it. Perhaps that the adrenaline of the fight hasn't worn off. He may have a scar, but other than needing to stop the bleeding, he's OK. It's annoyingly painful to move, but Ossian can grit his teeth through it if he has to.

Regenlief moves amongst the wounded knocking them out. Probably knocking them out.

"Sit down and get bandaged. Need you functional and not bleeding." Jerod says to Ossian. "Don't knock them all out. Need one to question." and that is directed at Regenlief.

He looks at the rockfall, not phased by Cordelia's approach...in fact smiling just slightly...an old memory surfacing of older times...better times, and muses for a moment. "That'll delay us...especially given proximity to Paris...working Pattern can be done but it'll be very slow. So we'd either give up, or take time digging or time working reality. But eventually we'd get through and then find more of what they had to hide or where they had gone. But unless Shadow is very strange here, you won't get an escape path into Shadow like we've seen."

He pauses to look around the rest of the room in detail. "Look around, ...check for a separate exit, something concealed. Air flows that shouldn't be there, that sort of thing."

Vere closes his eyes for a moment, visualizing his position in space and his relationship with Paris both above and below ground, analyzing probable vectors of connecting tunnels and passageways. Then he opens his eyes again and begins circling to room, looking for any signs of another exit.

Ossian follows Jerod's advice. If no one has time to help him he will make a (very fancy-looking) bandage from his shirt. Then he follows the others.

Celina assists Ossian. She's very handy with wounds and bandages.

Ossian and Celina make a very fancy looking bandage from his shirt.

Vere is certain where he is, and based on Merlin and Celina's prior descriptions, they may be above Cordelia's tomb. Based on the layout, there might be an exit on the floor, but the ceiling or walls will just bring him into another part of the same complex. The most likely spot is near the edge of the rockslide, and it wouldn't take much to clear it.

There is a trap door in that obvious place. A bit of rock-moving will allow it to be opened, if anyone so desires.

"Here!" Vere calls out. "There's an exit here." He begins clearing rubble away from it.

Jerod lets Vere take charge of the moving of rubble, assisting only if absolutely necessary. He knows Vere can handle it and too many people in close proximity will slow things down. He turns to see if Regenlief has left any of the monks intact and conscious before looking at Cordelia.

"That was a good call." he says. "What made you think it was a trick?"

Cordelia accepts the compliment with grace. "What Celina said. They wouldn't have had time to determine that we'd come this way and set up a deadfall at the exit, and it's not a natural place to prepare one weeks in advance, so they were opportunistically taking advantage of an existing rockfall to make us give up or search somewhere else." She shrugs. "And I was willing to be wrong, but my instincts said I wasn't."

Ossian picks up his rapier, steals a dagger from the nearest dead monk, and proceeds to investigate the room. He wants to figure out if the rock slide was a part of the original contruction, or improvised now.

Celina thinks all these men they felled are guards and not monks, but she'll move between the downed bodies taking another look at them now. Any clues to their being religious converts or monks will be noted.

If she finds religious neckwear or other tokens of the Klybesian Order, she'll grab them for later use. She'll also take blood samples of anyone who appears to be a monk/proto-monk under their gear.

Celina is attentive to Vere's discovery and stands waiting as things move forward.

Celina thinks these are perhaps junior monks, because they are young and unlike the guards above, unarmored. When one wakes up, perhaps she can ask.

Ossian thinks there were two rockslides. One a while back and another one recently that was pulled down over the trap door to hide it. Since there were monks in the room, they could've done it after someone left.

Vere clears and opens the trapdoor and sees a long drop, perhaps 50 feet or more, into a large, perhaps natural cavern below. It should be pitch black, but there is some sort of glow, as if from magic or natural sources. Merlin and Regenlief come over to look through Vere's trap door. There's no immediate signs of a way down from here.

"They have to have a way to get down," Vere muses aloud. "And they must have planned to use this in an emergency, so it should not be too difficult to access." He searches for any sign of a mechanism or hidden switch along the top and sides of the opening.

Vere spots a smooth iron ring embedded in the rock next to the trap door in the ceiling.

Merlin looks as well. "Could that be a primitive pulley?"

Cordelia looks once Merlin sats something

"Hmmm. I never saw a sky-rope when I was down there."

Celina pulls a dagger and draws blood from a finger on each of the young monks. She has a mirror dazzle bead to dab into each tiny crimson spot. She blows on them to dry the fluid before tucking them away for later.

Ossian checks his rope. He ties it around a dead monk, trying to make it look like the body is climbing. "Lets lower this and see if they fire at it."

"Slowly." is all Jerod says, looking at Cordelia. "Do you recognize that down there? The glow?"

"It's pretty common where the catacombs hit natural caverns. Down there, it just looks like the gloaming. That cavern has exits that lead to the surface."

Once he gets an answer, Jerod will tilt his head slightly as he stares into space for a moment as if he is...listening. He pulls up the Pattern but not in an active way to try to change anything in the area. Instead he is feeling for interference effects to his efforts, looking to identify what might be trying to interfere with his efforts. Since the Pattern operates on the rules of the reality, he is looking to see if something down there might be getting in the way...either magic (which doesn't like Pattern naturally), or a stronger Pattern influence outside of the general background effects of Paris as a whole.

Jerod listens for echos of the pattern and doesn't find any, or at least not any not attributable to the pattern of Paris. While it's not as if he's looking at a Pattern in a pattern chamber, he does feel like he's asking a Triton "How wet is in this part of Rebma?"

Vere nods in answer to Merlin's question. "Perhaps a platform or lift of some kind that they used to descend, and then pulled the rope through so it could not be brought back up. We can run a rope through it and use it to descend as well." He nods at Ossian. "Once you have determined if they are waiting to attack us at the bottom."

Ossian lowers the body as fast as he would an Amberite, not giving the monks time to think.

No one shoots it. It reaches the ground and now Ossian has a rope anchored by a dead monk on the cavern floor below.

Celina readies one of her dazzle beads, anticipating a descent by her cousins. She'll whisper, "If you are going to slide down, I can try to blind them as you go."

Regenlief snorts. "The ones who fled are still fleeing. If they were not cowardly, they would've been up here fighting with the ones they abandoned."

Jerod comes back to the present, satisfied there is no magical influence or other "real" dangers present... monsters not withstanding.

"Assuming we have light by which to see, let's go." he says. "We need to go meet them and say hi."

"Ready," says the currents of Celina.

Ossian ties the rope and starts climbing down as fast as he can.

Vere lets Ossian get about ten feet down before following.

Regenlief follows in good order, with only a side note to Merlin that she misses being able to fly.

Cordelia also descends, her parasol extended to aid her balance, and one hand on the rope like a break on a heavy cable.

Merlin heads down as well.

Ossian arrives at the bottom first, and finds where a wooden platform has been dragged away to the side. There are no signs of monks, but there are footprints.

Cordelia points in the direction the footprints go. "That leads to the stream, and further caves. Back that way is where my mausoleum is."

Merlin says "We should not go to the tomb. It might re-entrap our cousin."

"Is there an escape path back in the vicinity of the mausoleum that the monks might be able to utilize?" Jerod asks, making a very clear note of the direction of the mausoleum.

Is there any indication as to the number of individuals based on the footprints (identifying variances in footwear to identify unique individuals), the speed of their travel (using specific variants and determining stride length accordingly) and the direction they are proceeding (the type of footprint and heel/toe configuration for direction).

Cordelia nods. "Of course. The way I came up with Celina and Merlin is there. It might require climbing gear, but it was our path out until you all called us. Or they could be hiding in my mausoleum."

Vere kneels down and examines the tracks carefully. He is looking for any sign that they are fake, or were created earlier, to lead pursuers in the wrong direction.

Celina notes how quietly everyone is taking tasks. She goes to one knee and listens with her ear to the floor. Sound travels far with so many hard surfaces.

Ossian turns to Merlin. "Would the mausoleum be dangerous to us also, or just Cordelia?"

Merlin shrugs. "It is hard to analyze their magics here. It imprisons the mind, not the body, sapping the will to leave. It is a very cheap jail, when it works."

The mausoleum is near the center of the big, poorly lit cavern, and the cavern slopes dow to where Cordelia is pointing. The sounds of running water are hard to avoid, and the faint sounds of the city and the waterworks are the only indicators that they're under a city at all, much less the seat of a vast pattern-centered kingdom.

Celina doesn't hear anything but the sound of running water. Either the monks have moved on or they have gone to ground.

Vere doesn't think the prints are deceptive.

The prints tell a clear story to those who are examining them. Three people, in a hurry, heading downwards and towards the back of the cave. They may be carrying something. Most interestingly, at least one of the prints looks as it was created by a boot that was factory-produced; the tread is not something that matches anything that Parisian bootmakers could produce.

Vere says, "Three people, moving quickly, possibly carrying something or someone. One is wearing boots that most likely came from a shadow with factory production of goods."

Jerod nods, staring at the mausoleum for a second, imprinting its image and position in his mind so he can return in the future, and he will be at some point.

"Follow the prints." Jerod says. "Stay silent unless we need to talk, keep your eyes and ears open in case the monks are still around and simply hiding. If they are, we catch them here, otherwise it's a race."

He looks at Vere for a moment. "Keep an eye on the prints as we are proceeding. If they are carrying something valuable and don't want us to find it if they are captured, they may try to secrete it somewhere. A change in their tracks might indicate they've done that."

The Mausoleum is a circular building with a shallow domed roof, which has a big hole in it. The majority of it is underground.

It is built in a style common to the South of France, and does not remind Jerod of his efforts for Marissa, except in ways that all mausoleums look similar.

Celina nods once, at "it's a race" and prepares to move very fast.

Cordelia snaps her parasol shut and tucks it under her arm. Regenlief and Merlin head into the gloom after the monks.

The tracks are not hard to follow, and lead towards the stream at the back. If they have a 30 minute lead, it's probably half gone by the time they reach the stream.

The stream has carved a channel deep enough for shallow boats to be rowed along it. There are two boats beached here and signs of a third being dragged into the water. The two remaining boats have been attacked with an axe, rendering them somewhat less than useful as boats.

Merlin surveys the damage. "They probably are not planning on staying underground. Do we know where this river comes out?"

Vere closes his eyes for a moment, visualizing exactly where he is in Paris, picturing the stream and the speed and direction of the flow of its waters, and correlating that with everything he knows of the waterways of Paris. Are there any likely matches for an exit to the surface?

Most things run into the Seine, because that's the way the watershed works. Vere is sure they haven't gone far enough south to be in the Marne's watershed, and they were on the left bank, anyway. Upstream, this might be fed by a river or a canal, but down here, the only way it can go is to flow is to the big river.

Which doesn't make sense, because they are much deeper than that can be, and if it was connected, The Seine would flood this place.

Perhaps this is a separate system from the rivers above. Vere thinks that on a very large timescale, these catacombs and this stream will collapse the river above them, perhaps catastrophically. For them, anyway. Or the monks could do it by themselves.

As to where the cave system may connect, there are supposedly caverns connected to the abandoned stone quarries to the west of town. Vere estimates that they are no more than one to two miles from the end of the caves that connect to the catacombs and the sewers of Paris.

Celina studies the dark water. "They aren't far ahead. That water is not deep, so it is fast and cold. If it goes far enough, we can use spells to warm and dry us. I say we swim it full out. We can catch them."

Ossian grins. He examines his bandage. Does he think it would work to swim? (Water and wounds are not always a good idea)

Ossian thinks it's a shallow enough wound that he'll be fine. He has plenty of energy and there's no sign that the monks poisoned their blades.

"We are below the water level of the Seine," Vere tells his companions. "This cannot run to the river without violating several laws of physics. It may run to a shadowpath and another world, or else to an underground lake."

"We have two who cannot navigate paths." Jerod says, "So if we go, they need to pair up with another who can guide them if we get pulled into another Shadow. We also need to consider whether securing the existing area is required, or if Papillon and Frais are going to cover that with the guards they've got."

He looks at Ossian. "How is that? Honest please...if it gets worse that doesn't help anyone while we're chasing them, especially you."

Ossian grins "It's shallow, don't worry about it. Are you up for a swim?" he asks his mother.

Regenlief leans into her spear. "I'd rather fly over it, but we go where the fight is. It's the Valkyries' way."

Cordelia looks at the stream. "The legends say we cannot cross running water. They don't say anything about swimming in it." She looks at Merlin and Celina. "Perhaps the reason I couldn't escape before you arrived was that I was not yet reckless enough for mad schemes like this."

"The legends will vary based on the world." Jerod says. "In some legends, there is no effect, or only minimal ones.

"If we're doing this, we need to go. That or find another route."

Cordelia nods. She takes off her skirt and leaves it as too impractical to swim in. The parasol likewise is abandoned by the boats.

Celina says, "I'm willing to lead and watch for traps. The water is my friend." She gestures to the broken boats. "Anyone who isn't practiced at swimming should grab a nice piece of wood to offset their own buoyancy or gear."

Celina moves to the waters and tests the temperature and current with a foot ankle-deep. If no surprises result, she slides into the water without a sound and starts to move slowly with the current.

Vere follows closely behind her. "I've swum since before I could walk," he says. He raises some water to his lips and tastes it, judging its relative purity or contamination, salinity, and mineral composition.

Cave water, heavily filtered by limestone, is salty and bitter, which is what Vere expected. It doesn't taste like the waters of the Seine and the Marne, which is also what Vere expected.

Jerod listens to Celina and then Vere and after a moment turns to look at Ossian.

"They're not trying to make it competition about who's a better swimmer, right?" he asks quietly and totally deadpan. "Cause that means they're turning into me. That's just so wrong."

Then he smiles and waits for others to head into the water, taking the last position in the group, so if something happens up front he can make a determination of how to respond to any threats that might be arising.

Ossian judges the weight of his rapier, and picks up a piece of the smashed boat, before jumping into the water. Gracefully of course.

Merlin also jumps in, as do Cordelia and Regenlief. Merlin says "I did not expect it to be so cold."

"I did," says Regenlief. "It reminds me of home. The Goddess Brita would fix this river, were she with us."

Soon the entire ensemble is swimming downstream into the darkened gloomy cave, following the river towards unknown destinations.

Jerod keeps an eye on the people ahead and is curious as to how Cordelia is doing with her swimming, given that she indicated she can't cross water, so she's probably not had a lot of lessons.

The second cave is slightly lower, but the stream runs in a channel deep enough for swimming. It's not hard to make progress, just slow. And this cave is darker than the prior one.

The third cave is where the group starts hearing a rumbling sound, and the stream becomes shallower and faster. There may be rapids ahead.

Vere thinks the river has taken them distinctly west of Paris, near the abandoned quarries of the stonemason's quarter. How Paris came to have abandoned quarries after a year and a half of Corwin's Paris is anyone's guess.

Merlin listens to the rumbling. "I think that is not a good sound," he says.

Jerod also has a very good understanding of water and its flow given his background. Listening to the rumble and the swiftness of the water means a definite possibility of rapids. A swimmer, no matter how strong, could be pulled under and trapped against rocks.

"Shoreline now. Don't delay." Jerod says, his voice firm and unyielding.

He remains in the rear position to ensure that everyone gets out, especially Cordelia.

"We are headed in the directions of the quarries," Vere tells his companions. "From the speed and sound, I suspect a falls of some form." He follows Jerod's advice and heads for the shoreline, keeping an eye out for any of their members who may have trouble making it without assistance.

Ossian swims towards the shore. Is there any sign of the third boat?

Celina feels the draw of the violent waters ahead, but she obeys Jerod and makes note of her mood.

She easily cuts to shore and grabs the edge so as to help anyone that is too sodden to easily climb out of the cold water. When all are safe she pulls herself up and out.

With assistance, needed or not, everyone is quickly out of the water on the shore. It's dark and everyone is dripping wet.

Merlin says "I will try..." He makes what seems to be an extreme effort and produces a blue glowing light. It's not unlike the ones in Rebma, but this seems to be a struggle for him to keep light. "Find the path quickly, my cousins."

Celina notes that magic is back but suppressed.

"Not much of a choice," says Cordelia. "They went upwards from here."

The boat is pulled up and out of sight of the river, as if the monks hoped it wouldn't be seen and any pursuers would reach the rapids and the fate Jerod avoided.

The caves are clearly no longer part of the catacombs, but there is a trail up from here.

Jerod dumps his remaining jacket to remove weight as Merlin pulls up his light. "Final stretch I think. Let's go." he says and he heads off up, setting as quick a pace as can be done with the group.

Celina joyfully paces just a stride behind Jerod. She palms dazzle beads into her left hand.

Vere follows them, eyes darting side to side while he looks for any indications of traps on the way they are taking.

Ossian draws his rapier and follows.

The path is clear and there are no signs of traps. The way forward eventually ends at the back end of a stables. There are a half dozen horses here, and stalls for half again that many. There are a few young men here, but they don't seem inclined to fight and seem visibily scared of the group, especially the drawn swords. One of the young men is shielding the smaller boys behind him.

Jerod sheathes his weapons as he approaches the grooms. "We may need mounts, depending on info." he says absently to his group, not the grooms.

"A group came through here carrying something." he says to the single young man acting as a guardian, settling into Prince mode neatly. "They are fugitives from the King. How many came through, what were they carrying, in what direction did they depart and how long ago?"

The boy looks at the swords and briefly considers his options. He touches his forelock and speaks. "Three men, my lord. They took horses and supplies and left to the south, within the last watch."

Vere frowns and consults his inner compass. Does this all make sense as still being in Paris, or have they traveled a shadow path to somewhere else?

Vere can't be sure, but his compass thinks they are pretty far to the west of Paris, and probably at an abandoned mine now being used as a stables. They are everywhere.

Celina checks the empty stalls and gear nearby. She looks for horse brushes and other items that would resonant with the horses that were present not very long ago. She'll grab tuffs of hair and twist them into knots.

Celina thinks there have been horses here recently. She finds tufts of hair. Merlin leans in. "Clever. We can cast with those if we are sufficiently far from the Pattern."

Cordelia eyes the horses with distrust. Regenleif looks like she considers them too small.

Jerod nods at the information. "What's your name son?" he asks. Once he has it, he will repeat one of his questions, his tone a bit less...strict, though still containing a firm tone of command. "These three men...were they carrying anything?"

"Charles, my Lord. I did not notice if they were, I was organizing the horses." He looks back at the younger stable boys. One of whom pipes up. "They put a large book into their saddlebags."

That doesn't sound heavy enough to be whatever they took away from their building below Paris.

Vere is kneeling down by the exit of the stables looking at the hoofprints of the last horses to leave, judging the weight they were carrying and any distinguishing features of their shoes that will assist in tracking them.

Vere thinks he has a good feel for the hoof prints. He doesn't learn anything immediately, but he feels prepared for later.

Ossian draws a rough sketch of Chew in his sketch book in a number of seconds, and shows it to the stable hand. "Was this guy among them?"

Charles looks. "No, My lord."

Jerod frowns, looking back at the others, Merlin, Cordelia and Celina in particular. "Book isn't big enough....did we miss something on the way out?" he asks them, then looks back at Charles.

Celina frowns.

"We will need your remaining mounts. Advise your master that an expense can be sent to Palace for payment and that they were requisitioned in the name of the King's nephew, Prince Jerod."

He stops for just a second before continuing. "These men...the mounts they acquired? How did they pay for them? Did they say anything amongst themselves that you might have heard? Names, places to travel to. Any detail, no matter how small?"

"My Lord, their order keeps us on retainer, and we will bill them if they have run over it. They usually send messengers from our stables a few times a month. Three horses in the same night is unusual for them.

"And I am sorry, I do not know much of their business. It's not a thing they would speak of to stablehands. They came and went someplace coastal, or at least sunny, but it was not a monastery I could find for you. I can tell you that only one of the three who rode out tonight was a good rider."

Jerod nods an approval at Charles' comments, making sure that Charles recognizes it. "No doubt their order will return in the future for business. Tell them nothing of our interest in their people...we were never here, and no one inquired after their affairs." he says, heading over to the others after that.

Celina says, "If the large item was prepped for water they could have dumped it to the bottom of the stream to pick up in a few days. I'm willing to go look while you chase them down."

Vere turns to making sure the horses are ready for travel.

The horses are ready for travel, or will be once saddled, save for one that looks to have recently arrived and is only half groomed. It'll probably be fine.

Ossian frowns. "Be careful, Celina. Assume whatever they go could be a trap."

"Take a couple with you, just in case." Jerod says to Celina, motioning to the others in the group, but not including Cordelia. "Can any one else use your prize hair sample for tracking our quarry?"

Celina looks briefly at Cordelia and raises a questioning eyebrow.

"Should I stay with you?" Vere asks Celina. "I am well versed in tracking." As he speaks Vere attempts a small working of Space, attempting to fan a light breeze across the stables. It is purely an attempt to measure whether they are far enough away from Paris' Pattern for such Sorcery to work easily.

It's difficult, like using the Pattern on the lower slopes of Kolvir was. The breeze is feeble and doesn't go as far as Vere expected it to. Vere feels he could press harder, but it might fail and worse, might fail in ways that put Vere in the middle of the failure.

Celina responds to Jerod, "Probably Ossian, Vere, Merlin, maybe Cordelia but she's not necessarily adaptive to local magic."

Cordelia nods. "You magic seems more channelized than mine. I have to research spells and cast them. You all just throw power at things. I would need to find a spell or a teacher in order to track that object. "If my choices come down to more time in caves and a night chase on horseback, I'm for the latter."

Jerod nods. "I'd rather the same as well. You're still a target and what the monks may have below ground is unknown. I don't want you risked in that environment unless there's no choice. Above, we're chasing three targets more interested in fleeing than fighting."

"And assuming we catch them I want you there. I am hoping you have all of your mother's talents...they will come in handy when asking questions. It's usually easier to glamour someone than to use force."

So Celina then smiles at Vere, "Yes, come along. If we find the object that's good for family. And if we fail at that, we'll need your skills to reconnect with Jerod. Or take other action against the Monks."

Vere nods at Celina's words, then looks at Jerod. "We shall search for whatever they hid. If we do not find it, we shall attempt to follow you. If we do find it, we shall make the determination of whether it is more important to return it to the Family or to catch up with you. Or," he smiles slightly, "Depending on whether we run into other Klebesians or discover other information about them during our search, we may do something entirely different. Does this match your expectations of us?"

Jerod nods. "Agreed. You're at half numbers so extra vigilance down there. We'll set the palace as our rendevous for completion of our respective tasks."

He looks over at Ossian and Merlin. "So, what your pleasure? More spelunking, or a night chase on horseback?" he says, echoing Cordelia's expression.

Ossian grins "I'll chase. I'd like to find out where they are going."

Merlin contemplates. "I shall accompany my sister. Paris is our father's and it is right and fitting that we take care of it."

Cordelia grins. "Three on three it is. I don't have to have my mother's gifts of prophesy to say they would be smart to split up, if their goal is to get word to someone that they are exposed."

"Then let's get to the chase." Jerod says, collecting one of the mounts. "See how close we can get to them before they decide to scatter."

"Be careful." he says to Celina and her cohorts.

Ossian chooses another horse and mounts up. He whispers in the ear of the horse "What do the monks know about horses? You know you are faster than them."

Regenlief takes the largest horse. It still looks like a normal person riding a pony. She grumbles.

Cordelia finds an entirely suitable black mare.

And then, following Vere's directions and Charles', they're off.