The next morning the BellRow Troubleshooters are sitting around the table eating breakfast when Selma Toms comes calling. Only Grig is missing, having slipped out before the rest awoke. Toms, the owner of the Bell Row Clockwerks, has some guard work escorting a couple crates of windhass calitripators on deliveries to a dozen locations across Captain’s Isle. It should take most of the afternoon he explains. This job isn’t yet paying the bills so Haugin takes the work and heads out.
Later that day Apu, Opifera and Ano return to the Three Coins in Crucible Alley to meet with Livy and her evasive lover. Maurt turns out to be a lanky Ord with a few visible scars. He is good looking and dressed in fine clothes. He carries a shortsword and a large pistol of Yammish make. The two sit hand in hand and Maurt is initially quiet but after Livy answers a few questions he turns the interogation on the group wanting to know more about the guild, where their loyalties lie, what their motivation in this case is, and how serious they are. Apparently satisfied with their answers he turns to Livy and asks her if she is sure this is what she wants to do. She nods and squeezes his hand. Maurt admits they have proven Jules is guilty however without more solid evidence the law can have no hold on a man with his wealth and position. The only sure way to see that he pays for Laura’s death is with his own. Livy interupts and in a choked voice tells the group she will pay them 200 royals for the death of Jules Sole. The three BellRow Troubleshooters exchange nervous glances and Apu balks. Maurt goes on to explain that he can has friends in the investigator’s office and in the courts and can divert any serious inquiry provided the group can make the death look convincingly accidental. The group excuses themselves to privately discuss the offer. Apu expresses his disgust and questions the group’s direction should it begin taking assassination contracts. Opifera is doubtful of Jule’s actual guilt but believes that he clearly deserves to die regardless. She and Ano convince Apu to accept Livy’s offer.
The three walk back to the guildhall in silence. As they round the last bend they find Haugin stumbling back from the Swiggling Pig dragging along a man looking for work. The man is dressed in finely tailored, but well worn clothes and wears a thin blade at his hip. He smells of wine but his eyes hint he is far more alert than Haugin. He is cagey about his identity but eager to prove his skill. Opifera jumps at the challenge and Apu and Ano join her and the stranger out in the back alley while Haugin collapses into his bunk to sleep off the night’s revelry. The stranger’s bladework is too fancy for anything coming from the Fingers. In his hands the light blade cuts and parries Opifera’s larger cutlass with ease. He strikes true and takes no counter. It doesn’t take long before Opifera yields impressed. The stranger introduces himself as Fabrizio Moretti but then adds, as a hasty afterthought, a warning not to call him that in public. The Troubleshooters are wary of this impetuous bladesman but admit his skills would be valuable, especially considering Haugin’s current incapacitation. After some delicate questions about his moral character they present him a contract and sign him into the BellRow Troubleshooters.
The plan was a good one, if a bit too rushed. Apu’s attempts to slow down the planning are thwarted by Ano’s eagerness to finish the job. Ano and Fabrizio sneak into Sole Manor and steal up to Jule’s suite on the top floor where they open a window. Apu and Opifera sit in the shadows of the connected distillery outside awaiting a signal from the other two. At the signal Apu turns himself and Opifera to air and they enter through the open window. They then see to it that the ‘grieving’ Jules takes a suicidal jump from his suite to the ground or better yet off the nearby cliff. It all might have worked too… if it hadn’t been for that damned dog.
On alert after the break in and theft of his jewelry two nights ago Jules sleeps uneasily even with the additional guards. Ano and Fabrizio steal quietly into the manor’s kitchen and through the dinning room. Ano leads the way up the stairs into Jule’s suite. As he rounds the top of the stairs he comes face to face and face with the two headed argus hound he had tangled with on his last visit. It gives off a low, throaty growl and Ano stumbles back a step. Fabrizio leaps forward and stabs at the beast hoping to finish it quickly and quietly. The blow grazes it and the hound erupts in a frenzy of barking and biting. Fabrizio brings the beast down but too slowly and too messily. As they start up the stairs again they find Jules at the top aiming a double barreled rifle at his invaders. With lightning speed Fabrizio bounds up the stairs and moves his blade to guard the man’s weapon. The two square off, with each step trying to find the best ground. Jules holds his shot painfully aware that if his finger twitches his opponent could knock the gun aside. Unseen Ano slips up behind Jules flanking him. A shout from below interupts the standoff and Ano plunges his knife into Jule’s back. Enraged Jules spins to meet his attacker and Fabrizio pushes past the two and down the stairs to deal with the newcomer. A gunblast greets the bladesman narrowly missing him. Upstairs Ano dives and thrusts nearly oblivious to Jule’s wild shots as he fires his rifle at the gobber. A bullet blows through the wall behind him as Ano sinks another stab into Jules piercing his lungs. As Jules gasps Ano pulls the blade out and sinks it deep back into the man’s chest. Recognition and terror play across Jule’s face and he mutters ‘you…’ in a feeble voice as he collapses onto the frenzied gobber.
Downstairs Fabrizio has battled Jule’s two guards back slashing across their faces. The gunman falls screaming, his eyes raked out and bleeding. The second guard backs away grimly attempting to fend off the bladesman. Fabrizio takes a hacking cut to his chest before ripping his blade across the guard’s face puncturing his eye. The guard crawls backward begging for mercy. Breathing heavily, Fabrizio limps towards him. Opifera bursts into the dining room followed closely by Apu. They watch with horror as Fabrizio pulls his sword straight above the screaming guard’s head but do nothing to stop him as he plunges the thin blade through the man’s remaining eye and deep into his head. The guard’s body twitches violently in protest for many seconds after he is dead.
Apu turns to air and moves through the lower levels of the house. His exploration is cut short by a trio of guards entering the manor basement from the connected distillery. He rushes upstairs, materializes and with jerky gestures scatters splashes of fire across the room setting drapes and couches smoldering. Responding to muffled weeping from behind a door Fabrizio enters and approaches the sobbing woman hiding beneath her covers with his blade drawn. She begs to be left alive. Opifera pushes past Fabrizio and sternly commands him out of the room. He hesitates, but conceeds. Opifera calms the hysterical woman and leads her out of the manor followed by Fabrizio. Apu hears the guards coming up the stairs shouting and is forced to abandon his firestarting attempts in the lounge. He races past Ano, through the kitchen and out the back door. Ano scampers behind them all but pauses in the kitchen at the huge mechanikal stove. With the strength of desperation he pulls and yanks at the contraption forcing away the burner input and pumping every gear he sees up to full. In the next room the guards shout and run upstairs to find Jules as they discover the bloody, mutilated bodies of their fellow guards. The stove roars to full power as it spits sparks and chunks of flaming coal onto the floor and bouncing off the walls. Ano flees the manor chasing to catch up with after the rest of the group.
For hours the blaze can be seen eating up Sole Manor and the attached Island Rum Runners distillery. Across the channel on Dicer’s island a gobber sits alone on the roof of the BellRow Troubleshooter’s guildhouse watching the manor burn and collapse around the husband of the woman he loved.
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