For the first time in weeks, Jonathan Chess felt like celebrating.
He had been sitting at his usual table in the Pig & Whistle tavern in the Old Town section of Stormwind when a nervous, balding gnome came into the establishment. Jon paid little attention to him until he asked a question at the bar, and the barkeep pointed at Chess.
The gnome had waddled over and taken a seat at the table.
"I am being told you are Jonathan Chess, yes?" the gnome asked, in the heavily-accented Common tongue.
Jonathan nodded acknowledgment. "Yes, my name is Chess. Jon Chess."
"I am being of the understanding that you look for a human with a blue scar on his right cheek, yes?"
Jonathan leaned forward, his attention instantly focusing on the gnome. "Yes, if it the right man."
"Ah, well the time shall test if it is so, yes? Llort Manaspark is my name, and I work in the Hall of Explorers in the library. I was hearing of this from Bill Spearshaker, who heard it from I know not where, but remembering it I did when I stopped at the Blue Recluse after delivering books to the Mage Academy, yes?"
"Go on," Chess encouraged. "May I offer you a drink?"
"Oh, hospitable are you, most appreciative am I, yes? A loud fellow speaking was, about how the Scarlet Crusade was not wrong about the burning of the new blue-skin elves, yes? He was bald as a stone, and his cheek a blue colored scar had he, yes?"
"Yes, that sounds like the right fellow. Did you hear his name, or know where he went?"
"Of a certainty, his name I have, yes? " continued the gnome. "Quoth he, 'Simon D'Arque's mother did not raise credulous fools' he said, an argument with a Worgen he was having."
Jon had not waited for confirmation but had paid the gnome on the spot. With a name, he might get somewhere! Jonathan finished his tankard of Hearthglen Ambrosia and left the tavern. At this time of day, the person he wanted was likely to be at home, asleep.
Five minutes later he was brewing coffee for a very sleepy woman who had been rousted out of her warm, snug bed, named Sloan McCoy. Sloan was the sister of a petty grifter named Lenny "Fingers" McCoy, and Jonathan had kept her brother from arrest a couple of times, providing him with forged documents proving provenance for worthless charms on more than one occasion. Sloan and Chess shared an interest in certain ingredients requisite in the manufacture of certain poisons and sometimes loaned each other quantities of those ingredients on demand, with no inconvenient questions asked.
"Sloan, you look magnificent today" Jonathan flirted. She did indeed look cute, her hair touseled from bed, and her supple, sleek form bundled in a warm bed robe.
"Jon, bad enough you woke me up; do you have to shovel shit on me, too?" she replied, her voice heavy with exhaustion. "What do you need?"
"I need a file, all you might have, on a guy named Simon D'Arque," Jon had informed the young lady, handing her a cup of freshly-brewed coffee. He didn't offer money, he didn't tell her it was urgent, he didn't try to twist her arm - she knew Chess very well, and while still a little groggy from sleep she knew better than to think Jonathan would bother her for a trivial matter. She didn't want cash - she wanted an unspecified favor. She knew it, and Jonathan knew it.
Later that day, Chess wrote a letter to the Ren'dorei ambassador to Stormwind, a fellow named Mathaeus. It read:
My Lord,
Weeks ago I reported that I was searching for two people who had organized my kidnapping and torture from Stormwind and that they had embraced the path of persecution for Ren'dorei, believing them to be Sin'dorei spies and saboteurs. This group calls themselves the Crimson Cabal, and they are responsible for numerous assaults and homicides against Rendorei in Stormwind homocides
I have identified one of the malefactors. His name is Simon D'Arque, and he works for the SI:7 organization as an interrogator. He is a former Inquisitor of the Scarlet Crusade and the Scarlet Onslaught, was captured by the Alliance forces and recruited by SI:7.
It is unclear at this time how much sanction he is given by SI:7 as a member of the Crimson Cabal.
I will send you an updated report when I have more information
-Jon Chess
He had been sitting at his usual table in the Pig & Whistle tavern in the Old Town section of Stormwind when a nervous, balding gnome came into the establishment. Jon paid little attention to him until he asked a question at the bar, and the barkeep pointed at Chess.
The gnome had waddled over and taken a seat at the table.
"I am being told you are Jonathan Chess, yes?" the gnome asked, in the heavily-accented Common tongue.
Jonathan nodded acknowledgment. "Yes, my name is Chess. Jon Chess."
"I am being of the understanding that you look for a human with a blue scar on his right cheek, yes?"
Jonathan leaned forward, his attention instantly focusing on the gnome. "Yes, if it the right man."
"Ah, well the time shall test if it is so, yes? Llort Manaspark is my name, and I work in the Hall of Explorers in the library. I was hearing of this from Bill Spearshaker, who heard it from I know not where, but remembering it I did when I stopped at the Blue Recluse after delivering books to the Mage Academy, yes?"
"Go on," Chess encouraged. "May I offer you a drink?"
"Oh, hospitable are you, most appreciative am I, yes? A loud fellow speaking was, about how the Scarlet Crusade was not wrong about the burning of the new blue-skin elves, yes? He was bald as a stone, and his cheek a blue colored scar had he, yes?"
"Yes, that sounds like the right fellow. Did you hear his name, or know where he went?"
"Of a certainty, his name I have, yes? " continued the gnome. "Quoth he, 'Simon D'Arque's mother did not raise credulous fools' he said, an argument with a Worgen he was having."
Jon had not waited for confirmation but had paid the gnome on the spot. With a name, he might get somewhere! Jonathan finished his tankard of Hearthglen Ambrosia and left the tavern. At this time of day, the person he wanted was likely to be at home, asleep.
Five minutes later he was brewing coffee for a very sleepy woman who had been rousted out of her warm, snug bed, named Sloan McCoy. Sloan was the sister of a petty grifter named Lenny "Fingers" McCoy, and Jonathan had kept her brother from arrest a couple of times, providing him with forged documents proving provenance for worthless charms on more than one occasion. Sloan and Chess shared an interest in certain ingredients requisite in the manufacture of certain poisons and sometimes loaned each other quantities of those ingredients on demand, with no inconvenient questions asked.
"Sloan, you look magnificent today" Jonathan flirted. She did indeed look cute, her hair touseled from bed, and her supple, sleek form bundled in a warm bed robe.
"Jon, bad enough you woke me up; do you have to shovel shit on me, too?" she replied, her voice heavy with exhaustion. "What do you need?"
"I need a file, all you might have, on a guy named Simon D'Arque," Jon had informed the young lady, handing her a cup of freshly-brewed coffee. He didn't offer money, he didn't tell her it was urgent, he didn't try to twist her arm - she knew Chess very well, and while still a little groggy from sleep she knew better than to think Jonathan would bother her for a trivial matter. She didn't want cash - she wanted an unspecified favor. She knew it, and Jonathan knew it.
Later that day, Chess wrote a letter to the Ren'dorei ambassador to Stormwind, a fellow named Mathaeus. It read:
My Lord,
Weeks ago I reported that I was searching for two people who had organized my kidnapping and torture from Stormwind and that they had embraced the path of persecution for Ren'dorei, believing them to be Sin'dorei spies and saboteurs. This group calls themselves the Crimson Cabal, and they are responsible for numerous assaults and homicides against Rendorei in Stormwind homocides
I have identified one of the malefactors. His name is Simon D'Arque, and he works for the SI:7 organization as an interrogator. He is a former Inquisitor of the Scarlet Crusade and the Scarlet Onslaught, was captured by the Alliance forces and recruited by SI:7.
It is unclear at this time how much sanction he is given by SI:7 as a member of the Crimson Cabal.
I will send you an updated report when I have more information
-Jon Chess
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