From the Desk of Samuel Assineli

[Phil (Storyteller)]

Blackmail, Murder and Plot!

Well, that sums up part of my New Year’s Eve at least, not that I did anything of that sort of thing personally, how was it for the rest of you? I do hope you enjoyed yourself at the Prince’s soiree - well as much as you could, deprived as you were of my presence.

Now there may have been certain scurrilous rumours to the effect of not being invited to the Prince’s celebration, or that I had nowhere better to be than the Low Court but that was most certainly not the case. Some of you may remember whatshisname, our former assistant? My condolences. Well owing to his lack of anything approaching a personality he’s been sent off to polish the silverware or something or other. I don’t know, it’s Rosa’s job to sort that out.

Anyway, back to my favourite topic, me. Yes, I paid a little visit to the Low Court for New Years, mostly in search of whatshisname’s replacement, and to my surprise they weren’t the illiterate, unwashed pack of fools that I’d been lead to expect. Indeed there was more than one Kindred there that night doing their best to maintain the proper standards of behaviour, as well as someone dressed as a squid of all things. It was a simply fascinating outfit and quite possibly one of the highlights of the evening.

Moving on, in service of my goal for the evening I brought along a little word game of my own design. Our eventual winner was one Chris Baxter, whose charming response was "Petia Genkova...tried to sabotage the High Court New Year's Party...by wearing last Autumn's fashions!". Something for us all to enjoy there, no? It’s true there was something of a surprise when our first winner turned down the position, but there’s no accounting for some Kindred’s poor unlife choices now is there? I’m certain Mr Baxter will be an excellent assistant for the Harpies and look forward to all that he’ll achieve in the role.

Oh, back to the Blackmail etc. It was lovely to see the Low Court coming together to answer Ms Mendel’s call to investigate the tragic, senseless demise of Ms Akiyu. I’m sure all our thoughts are with her sibling at this no doubt difficult time and we can only hope that the successful capture of the culprit will act as something of a salve to her wounded spirit.

And what a capture! Sadly I wasn’t present to see the deed done, but I did get to keep up with how events progressed through one Mr Carter who acted as something of a nerve centre for the operation while a Mr Slater seemed to be in charge on the ground as it were. There were even a couple of The Movement involved in it all. How nice, if unexpected, to see them showing an ounce of care for the stability of our community and city. Between them all they managed to discover the rat, rather fittingly, hiding in the sewers. Once he was found it wasn’t long before the Hound’s faithful dogs drove him back to the surface and into Ms Mendel’s custody. Fine job all round it seems.

Once he was safely in hand there was some talk of blackmail having occurred, but that’s something for the Sheriff and his Hounds to investigate. It certainly wouldn’t be proper of me to speculate on the whys and wherefores of it all now would it?

So, we’ve reached the end of this missive. Until next time my friends, do take care out there.

Samuel Assineli.