"What are you driving at?" the ancient archmage known to all only as Darksign asked querulously.
"Have patience, I beg you, lords all," the Guildmaster of Thieves said to the assemblage. "I'll come quickly enough to the heart of this, but please allow me uninterrupted speech." Here he stared squarely at the old spell-user. Darksign rubbed his long nose with crabbed fingers, nodding his assent.
"Six murders there have been. Not unusual, you might say. Not so, I would reply. All the acts were unlicensed. Each was done so as to so completely destroy the life of the victim that no spell could evoke any clue as to the murderer, let alone revive the corpse! All save one of the slain were important members of a group represented here. The assassins lost the woman most likely to succeed as their leader. The Watch lost its most promising young captain, the second most successful merchant prince of Greyhawk was laid low in this fashion. Mine own guild lost three of its own men — a master of great skill who was rising rapidly and two lesser personages as well."
The lords of Greyhawk looked at each other with concern. They shifted uneasily. Arentol allowed this pause to continue for just enough time to make the anxiety build to a point where it would spill out. Then he spoke again in his booming voice. "Each crime was reported to the Citadel. Why didn't the Citadel inform you? In fact, if I had not spoken with those of my fellows and learned by chance that they too had been attacked, my guild would even now believe that it was the only group to suffer such slaughter!"
Nerof Gasgol stood, his voice seeming less powerful, but still managing to overcome that of Arentol. "Are you insinuating that I have a part in these killings?" he demanded with a menacing tone.
"Insinuating? Nay Gasgol, I am accusing you and your henchmen of insidious murder and a plot to become sole ruler and tyrant of our city!"
There was an uproar at this, with oligarchs shouting and babbling at each other. The guards surrounding the great chamber didn't make any move, however, and the constable's shout for order brought quiet again. "I call for Guildmaster Arentol to finish his statement," the constable said to the now-silent gathering. There were a few nays and shakes of the head, but the murmurs of assent and demands from Arentol's allies drowned out the opposition. Lord Mayor Gasgol sat down heavily, and the Guildmaster of Thieves smiled.
"Yes, I accuse Nerof Gasgol and his Praefecture of plotting the elimination of the oligarchy to allow him to become the single ruler, the lone despot over all the lands of our city. I give you his plot:
"The murders were committed both to test the method and to weaken Gasgol's strongest foes. All of you know that I, and my associates, have staunchly opposed many of his schemes over the last year. The next step planned was the elimination of all oligarchs, strongest first. My guild, however, with the aid of the assassins." and here he looked at Thaddius Jenk who nodded solemnly back in agreement, "uncovered this awful plot. We began closing in on the one used as a tool by Gasgol, and then he was snatched from our grasp by Gasgol's soldiers. Even now he is held in dungeons beneath this place!"
"What purpose to confine one's own agent?" asked the Chancellor of the University.
"To throw us off the trail that led all too directly to Gasgol. If he could have tried and executed his own man quietly, then Gasgol could claim to be savior rather than the plotting murderer and would-be despot he is. I ask you all to now support me. Name me as Lord Mayor and First Oligarch. I will root out every last one of the treasonous plotters, reveal their machinations in open trial, and have those dogs executed in due course. To do so, and all of this is no easy task, I must have your confidence, your loyal support, your full cooperation!"
"And what of the army?" asked Archdeacon Elohideus.
"To this, Constable Lord Thistleby shouted in a stentorian tone. "I can speak for our loyal troops." he cried. "The soldiers of Citadel and Bastion stand firmly behind the Oligarchy and the one whom we designate as first!"
"I say we must name Arentol as Lord Mayor —now!" roared the florid-faced, bulky merchant Phildorf Gelbbeek.
"Yes, yes!" called several voices above the confusion. "Vote, vote!"
"Order!" The call came from Nerof Gasgol. The oligarchs grew quiet. He spoke to them softly. "Besides Arentol, who accuses me of these crimes? I have that right — the accusers must stand forth!"
There were nods of agreement. One or two cries of "Hear! Hear!" came forth. The Guildmaster of Thieves folded his arms, a grim smile of triumph on his harsh face. "Stand forth, my brothers, so Gasgol can count his accusers!"
Jenk arose, then Gelbbeek and Elohideus. Captain-General Murtagh shot upright. Lastly, and quite unexpectedly, Constable Lord Thistleby and Magistar Darksign stood. Seven of the eighteen oligarchs stated their accusations against Gasgol — each echoing what Arentol had already said.
"Now the vote," Arentol said directly to Nerof Gasgol.
"You seven are under arrest," a steely voice shot out from behind Arentol, and its sound brought pandemonium to the gathering.
The hour was past midnight. The windows of the Mayoral Palace were yet ablaze with light. The Grand Courtyard was still a hive of activity. Troops marched here and there in squads, going on missions directed by the new Assembly of Oligarchs. Inside the palace, in the upper meeting chamber, a final scene, the culmination of the night's excitement, was taking place. Arentol was the chief person, the center of the drama's final act.
Magistrate Vatman spoke first. "It was thanks to Gord, here, that this whole vile scheme was uncovered. Their mistake was to involve him, for he is a tenacious hunter, once put on the scent. His work enabled me to set the stage. It brought the plotters into the open. It enabled us to prepare so that they could not try force once guile failed them."
"I see. Please let this young fellow speak for himself. I would hear what wit he used to perform so great a service for Greyhawk." Lord Mayor Gasgol commanded.
Gord stepped before the assembled dignitaries and officials of the city he knew as home. He felt very awkward, for if the full extent of his regular activities were known to these persons, he would certainty be subject to scrutiny of an altogether different and worse sort. He cleared his throat nerously, then began. "At first I thought it was all a scheme merely directed at me. A plot to take from me my hard-won gains, to discredit me, and possibly to have me killed in the process. After all, the sum of one thousand orbs is one that is sufficient to arouse avariciousness in most hearts."
Magistrate Vatman interrupted. "These noble authorities are sufficiently apprised of the background of the whole affair not to need details, Gord. Please proceed from the point where we discovered you in Basil the Lock's quarters with his corpse."
"Ahem. Yes, thank you, sir. What you said, magistrate, made me think. No thief or assassin can kill another so utterly without the aid of some greater power, a magic or special dweomer bestowed by supernatural means. Another thing: A thief enlisted as a guardsman? Powers in the plot indeed! I had to find Basil's lover and learn from him just who the fence saw or talked about during and after the operation that involved me. He implicated the Assassins Guild indirectly, but it was the magus, Summer, who really put me on the right track."
"How so?" demanded the lord mayor.
"It was pretty fortuitous running into her at the inn of the Seven Quills, but I could possibly swallow that. When she said she didn't believe my story because I hadn't told her everything, but that she would help me in any event, I still thought she was possibly all right. But when she blasted Raynald's head to nothingness, I thought her a ringer for sure. I know enough about magic to know that knowing truth is not particular to that art but to that of the clerical persuasion. She didn't know it, but I was watching her all the time we were searching Sunray's — Raynald's — apartment. I saw her slide open a secret compartment and take out a sheaf of papers. I couldn't take them from her, but I did manage to get a good look at them later. When she returned to the apartment we were sharing for a time, I saw her stash them with some of her other belongings. When she left the room at one point I quickly scanned their contents. The division of the treasure taken from me was shown on one of those sheets. There were twelve shares total, and half of those went to persons outside the Thieves Guild and the Assassins Guild."