"He went that way!"
"Is there a reward for his
capture?"
"What happened?"
"He's stolen documents from the Varykite
Ambassador!"
"It was one of the Underground!"
"No I heard it was an assassin trying to
kill Raidin!"
"I heard it was a member of the Black
Network trying to make a deal with the Varykites which didn’t work
out!"
"Does it really matter, there’s gold
to be earned here!"
So far, all was going to plan. No one knew
who was responsible or what really happened, my employer would get the
information he needs and I would get away scott free. I was to meet my
contact behind the graveyard where he would provide me with a new
disguise and an alibi.
Behind me, I could hear the assembled mob
becoming most unruly and arguing with the guards about which path I
had chosen for my escape. I recognized the voices of many of my fellow
adventurers causing a majority of the distractions.
I smiled as I turned the corner. This was
going to be easy!
"Ah, here he is now!"
A trio of nasty looking longswords surrounded
me as I wisely skidded to a halt. Before I could react, I heard a
spell being cast and I felt the impact as my arms and legs refused to
move. A Web! The rearing horse symbol of my captors told me that they
were some of the Varykites, I suppose Raidin managed to get a few
across the bridge before the Constable stopped him. Were they going to
kill me? Their smiles held no clue.
The Ambassador raised an eyebrow slyly as he
advanced. I knew I had no chance to fight. I felt someone dig through
my cloak and pull out the scrolls. "See my friend I told you we’d
find him here." I knew that voice. It was my contact! That
double-crosser! "Thank you," the Ambassador said to me as he
pulled out his sword. "Now let's see if you can escape from
this."
I screamed in pain as I felt the sword enter
my side. With the killing blow complete I knew there was no escape and
there was nothing I could do while held by a web.
I slumped to the ground and lay there, life
leaving my body. At the last I heard the footsteps crunching the
gravel as they walked away and everything went black.
My vision returned as I felt the effects of a
life spell restoring my vigor and bringing me back to life. I started
to open my eyes and get up when I heard "I command you to
silence, With mystic force I web you" and felt the magics brought
forth from my contact’s hand affect me.
I opened my eyes and saw my contact looming
over me. "Well you did your job boy and I don’t think I want
you dead but you can’t remember this anymore, I command you to
sleep." I fell once more though the web spell held me up, through
the haze of sleep I felt him grip my mouth forcing it open and the
sickly sweet taste of a forget-me-not being poured down my throat. As
I swallowed the dregs of the elixir I heard his voice say, "The
phrase is," causing my mind to be receptive to the memories he
was about to implant. "The exchange went perfectly, then you were
ambushed by Varykites."
Well now I wouldn’t be able to catch him at
this, he’d get away with it, unless...
"Hold!" I yelled. "I need a rules
marshal."
My captor blinked and looked around. Sometimes
it takes a second or two to reorient yourself after being your
character for so long. "Well I’m on staff and a marshal,"
said my contact or should I say Matt now. "But since I’m
involved let’s get another marshal. I think its Frank’s turn to be
the wandering marshal, I’ll call him on the walkie-talkies". He
pulled out the walkie-talkie and called Frank over. In a minute he
came by with a white headband on signaling that he was out of game and
a staff shirt on saying he was on call for dealing with any question
that might need answering.
Matt told Frank to come talk to me. He's one of
permanent staff of the game and they dedicate themselves to
entertaining the players and don’t play here at their own chapter,
playing at other NERO chapters around the country instead. He’s also
a marshal and it’s the marshals who can make interpretations of
rules and can resolve disputes. "Frank," I softly whispered,
"What happens when the forget-me-not can’t explain everything,
like the fact that my contact wasn’t ambushed alongside me, does
that let me throw off the effects or be suspicious."
Frank smiled. "No, the way forget-me-nots
and forget-it-wells work is that you need to make up a story
completely consistent with what is currently occurring. You can’t
for example wake up to find yourself obviously attacked but not
include an attack on you in the story. Forget poisons are one of the
hardest topics to deal with IG it requires good roleplaying and the
ability to avoid metagaming the truth that you know. I’m glad you
asked before you went ahead and acted on an idea, thank you."
"Its no problem," I said, "I just
want to make sure whatever I do is by the rules. Thank you for
clearing up the confusion." He nodded and then he stepped back to
avoid anything that might happen in game from this point on.
I turned back to my captor, and as the marshal
said "3.. 2.. 1.. Lay on!" I stood there until I felt the
web vanish as my contact broke line of sight with me. I then lay there
for the ten minutes until the sleep spell wore off and the poison
locked and could no longer be removed. My contact had dragged my
body away where it wouldn’t be seen and then watched for a while
until he was sure I wasn’t going to be saved and then left. When the
sleep spell wore off I got up saying to no one in particular,
"Damn Varykites at least they didn’t finish the job, good thing
they didn’t check to make sure I was dead and not just
unconscious."
I walked back to town and into the common
hall where I got an ale I really needed, I paid for it with the coins
I received as a reward for the job I did. Looking around I saw some of
my friends and there sitting in the corner was my contact. I went over
and sat with him, he looked at me and said, "good job, interested
in another?" I looked back and remembering only that he paid me
for a job well done, I said, "of course, another job acquiring
what you need?"
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