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The sun is just beginning to go down, casting the narrow alleyway into a dim shadow.

Ferran, Karl and Giorgio are preparing for their stakeout. At one end of the alley is the canal, a short sprint from the Saint Antonio bridge. Out the front of the woodcarver's shop and home is a short flight of stairs. Up and down the alley are many shopfronts, most of which have begun closing for the night and are packing away their stalls and signs. A quick walk around the woodcarver's shop reveals that there is a second door at the back and there are second story windows at both the front at back. The lights are on in the woodcarver's shop as well as most other shops down the street.

[OOC: Describe how and where (front? back?) you are each hiding and roll Agility+Stealth. You can use Sharing Successes p16 if you describe how you are doing so. Ob is 2.]

Karl and the others enter the workshop through the front door. After a quick glance to make sure the woodcarver is alone, Karl goes straight to him.

Before the man can say anything, Karl grabs his shirt with both hands. With barely an effort, he lifts the man up until he is almost off the ground.

« Now you listen to me! Some men are going to come in and try to beat you up. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow night. We are going to stay here and take care of them.
Here is what you are going to do: stay in your room and keep quiet. And if anyone ever question you, you will deny you ever saw us yesterday or today. Or we will come back for you. Is that clear? »

Karl waits until the man nods or make any sign that he understands the situation.

« Now close your shop. And extinguish all source of light. We want the place to be dark.”

At first Felle the woodcarver looks like he is going to resist but Karl advances on him too quickly and the fight leaves him. He stands stunned, nodding to Karls instructions. "Y... Yes, sir."

Felle's wife comes rushing down the stairs, obviously on edge. Felle says to her "Stay calm dear. The men from earlier have come back. Just do what they say and they won't hurt us." Felle follows Karls instructions closing the shop and extinguishing the lights before he takes his wife back upstairs and leaves you to organize the lower floor as you see fit.

Once Felle goes upstairs, Karl prepares the first floor. He makes sure the back door is locked. He also breaks the front door's lock so it does not close properly.

He than moves the furniture around to have plenty of cover to hide. He moves a tall desk close to the front door and hides behind it. His plan is to wait until Blasio gets inside the room to spring the ambush and blocks his escape route. He has both his dagger and his club ready.

Giorgio takes up a position by the the door so that when it opens, it will block line of sight to him. He has chosen not to draw his weapon, instead relying on hand to hand combat techniques.

Waiting in hiding is tense at first, but as the hours tick by boredom threatens to take over. A few times during the night you hear footsteps outside, only for them to move on down the alley.

Eventually, a few hours past midnight, Karl hears something at the front door. The sound of footsteps on stone, more than a single person. They stop outside the woodcarver's door. Someone says in a hushed voice "Pssst! Is this the place?" and another voice answers "Yeah. Get out of the way so I can open the lock." The talking stops and you can hear the sound of people moving around past each other before the second voice says "The hell? The lock is already broken open...". A Third voice answers "Whatever, it just makes our job easier. Let's get this over with." None of the voices sound like Blasio or anyone else you recognize.

The door creaks open slowly, letting in enough light from the street to dimly illuminate the room but Karl and Giorgio have hidden themselves well. Three men enter; they wear black cloth masks with eye holes cut out but otherwise have casual clothing. In their hands they have batons, but you notice they each have a dagger on their belt as well. "Try to find the stairs, they will be on the second level." the first man says and they begin spreading out around the room.

Ferran picks up the heavy chest (OOC: we can assume its a chest, right?) and the moment any of them starts up the stairs he throws it on the assailant. Then he takes out his dagger and rushes to melee range.

Giorgio looks over at Karl with a slightly horrified expression.

"I think I heard something pop on that one" he says in German as he points to the man on the ground at his feet.

The three men spread out around the room, looking for the staircase in the dark. When the first finds the staircase and looks up he locks eyes with Ferran. He only manages to say "Watch --" before Ferran hurls a large wooden chest down the staircase at the man. It strikes him the shins with an eye watering thump but he manages to stay on his feet. At the sound of the commotion Karl and Giorgio each spring from their hiding places to surprise the other men closest to them.

At the front door Karl sees the men are wielding batons, and chooses to use his club. He jumps over the desk he was hiding behind and takes a big swing with his club at the last man to enter. He aims for the head, hoping to drop the man with one blow, so that he has time to help the others. Taken off guard the strike connects, knocking the man out instantly. The man's face is mangled, a shattered cheekbone and broken teeth. Karl quickly takes the man's baton and dagger and throws them to the other side of the workshop just in case the man wakes up before the rest of the fight ends. To make doubly sure, Karl also seizes the man's right hand and snaps one of the finger.

Giorgio, in the middle of the shop leaps on the third thug. He goes in with his bare hands, grappling the man and seizing his baton. It doesn't take much effort to overpower him and knock the weapon out of his hand by slamming it into the wall. Giorgio follows up with a left hook at the intruder's face but the thug manages to duck under it in time. Giorgio responds by picking the man up around the waist and twists him in the air, body slamming him over an ornamental desk. The man tries to resist but lands awkwardly with his legs turning in two different directions. He clutches his groin quickly before moaning and passing out where he landed.

Ferran draws his quillion dagger and rushes at the man at the bottom of the staircase. He positions himself so that the banister of the staircase protects his flank but also allows him to corner his target at the bottom of the stairs. He strikes with his dagger using an icepick grip and grazes the man's scalp and ear; a surprising amount of blood is soon covering that side of his face. Ferran presses the attack, this time taking a stab at the man's belly but his target manages to knock his arm to the side before it connects. Trying to use this opportunity to make an escape the thug attempts to sidestep around Ferran to get closer to the door, but Ferran cuts him off, again penning him into the corner. Ferran goes for another powerful thrust, this time aiming at the man's neck. With no room to dodge in the corner, the blow connects with it's target. He is pierced above the collarbone, luckily missing major blood vessels but still bleeding heavily. Ferran gives the man mercy and shouts to him "Stop moving villain and you'll live to see another day!" The intruder, barely even realizing what as happened, drops his baton and collapses to his knees, clutching at the blood that is coming from his neck. "I yield." he manages to gasp out.

Ferran, Karl and Giorgio each look around the room to see if any of their fellows needed their help but the ambush was brutally effective. In matter of around 10 seconds the ambush has come to a decisive close. Two men lie unconscious on the floor, for now at-least, and the third has surrendered and fallen to his knees.

Giorgio looks over at Karl with a slightly horrified expression. "I think I heard something pop on that one" he says in German as he points to the man on the ground at his feet.

Karl takes the lead:

"Giorgio, tie the two men that are passed out."

Karl tosses the rope that he brought with him.

"Ferran, put some pressure on his neck. We don't need any man dying just now. We need some answers and IF (Karl takes a pause) he cooperates, we will let him live."

Karl grabs any piece of clothe or rag lying around the workshop and rushes to the bleeding man.

Ferran nods in agreement. He cautiously bends over the fallen invader and takes away his weapons.

"You heard the man. Let me tend your wounds, and no sudden moves. We don't want you to bleed to death."

Then Ferran removes his mask and tears in half. He gives the stranger one half and says.

"Press that hard on your neck if you want to live."

He then goes behind him, presses the other half to the wound on his head and walks him to the room where Karl and Giorgio are.

Giorgio looks back and forth between the two broken thugs.

"I don't think they're going anywhere, but you're the boss tonight."

He grabs the men by the backs of their collars and drags them over to a corner. As he ties them up he whispers to the man whose testicles he destroyed: "Sorry friend, but you were asking for it." He subconciously places a protective hand over his own groin as he walks over to Karl.

"How do you want to handle this one?" he asks.

Karl removes the mask of the two guys tied up.
"Take a good look at their face and remember them."

The three men surrounds the man with the bleeding wounds.
Karl takes a hard look at him and he makes sure he notices his club still slick with blood.
"Now you tell us everything you know about tonight. And start with the name of your employer..."

During the process of dragging around and tying up the incapacitated men they come back to consciousness, but realizing their situation do not put up any resistance.

Taking off their masks, you see these three men before you.


The first is the one Ferran stabbed in the throat, which apparently hit the man's windpipe. Every now and then he coughs up a small amount of blood but you don't think he is in danger of bleeding to death.
The second, who once would have been called the most handsome of the three, suffered the broken cheekbone, teeth and finger at the hands of Karl.
The third, Ferran immediately recognizes as one of the men that left Saint Mark's Fencing School accompanying Rocco the Red after the incident earlier in the day. He is currently barely able to stand following the damage to his groin.

When Karl pressures the dark haired man for answers he coughs up some blood before replying. "Rocco. Rocco sent us. Standard 'we know where you live' intimidation type shit. We weren't here to steal anything, I swear."

Ferran steps up to the bearded man.

"I know Rocco sent you the moment that mask was off. Now, which one are you? Rambaldo or Valentine? Because I can swear that I saw you the other day with Rocco at the fencing school. As I recall the brute exclaimed that there was work to be done before storming out of St Marks. Time to explain yourselves. Obviously you can tell us more of what's happening here and most importantly why."