Dante’s Ravine Hideaway

Leading a battalion of sixty well armed and armoured men, the slate haired and stone faced; Captain Ash closes in on the location garnered from the local (but barely tolerated) Thieve’s guild by the surprisingly helpful adventurer; Fortu. 

The camp had supposedly been in a ravine, just a day-and-a-half’s ride North from the Capital and the adventurers’ intel had proven itself to be accurate, as two of Captain Ash’s outriders had triggered defensive warning traps.

Near fatal defensive warning traps!

More serious, their element of surprise was gone.

Lord Urdurel’s orders were clear though; there’d be no turning back at this point. Pressing on cautiously, Captain Ash leads his men further down the valley, until they come within sight of the Assassins’ tree hidden camp. 

On foot now with shields raised, they circle the camp and simultaneously advance from three directions, with two of his trusted sergeants commanding the other two twenty man squads, but the resistance they expect, doesn’t come.

His soldiers encounter a few more defensive traps but no people; no servants, no Assassins. Despite it only being two days since they’d been given this ‘secret’ information, the camp was empty. By the look of the place, the Assassins had left in a hurry, but despite it only being recently abandoned, the mission, his mission, was still an abject failure.

Worse; where had all the Assassins slunk off to, what were they planning and who were they currently attempting to murder?

Captain Ash scowls.

“Someone warned them we were coming. Someone high enough up in our government and party to our internal military messages. The only possible conclusion is that there’s a spy high up in the inner circle. A traitor…. Lord Urdurel is not going to react to this news well.”

Finaghan Begins Again

Lounging in the back-room of the (formerly secret) bar, his feet still casually up on the desk, the head of the Stowanian Thieves’ guild, watches the Dwarf, the Halfling, the demi-Elf and the armoured Human walk back up the wooden stairs and out of his (now compromised) hideout.

It had taken Finaghan decades of lying and scheming to claw his way up to being named head of the Cottis Thieves’ guild. Dante’s recent splinter group of Assassins though, had rapidly become a painful thorn in his side. A thorn that the four Adventurers had kindly volunteered to tweeze out for him. Not just offered, but paid him fifty gold pieces for the privilege!

A paltry sum considering, but the feeble bribe still tickled him.

Dante had always been… difficult, arrogant, always chaffing against his authority, but with the resurgence of the Witches, his attitude had shifted into something much more… condescending. It hadn’t been long before the older man had poached a large slew of his Thieves’ guild minions for his competitive Assassins’ guild. Nearly a quarter of his members!

A loss in number that had greatly diminished his influence and the guilds’ power. Mostly though, it was a personal and professional slight that Finaghan couldn’t let stand.

Allowing Fortu and his adventurer friends to take care of this… problem, also overcame the sanction against guilds working openly against other guilds.

Finaghan smiles. Losing a lowly lookout and having to establish a new base of operations, is a small price to pay for getting rid of ‘old-man’ Dante. With him gone, most of his traitorous ex-Thieves’ guild members will come cringing and scurrying back.

He might even allow them to rejoin… after a certain amount of grovelling and an additional ‘buy-back-in’ fee.

Shouting over to one of his trusted barmen, Finaghan calls out.

“Bring over a fresh bottle of rum. The best we have; I feel like pre-celebrating a certain forthcoming victory!”