People of Pavis report - Chukel Last updated: 1998-06-12 A Letter from Chukel by Xavier Spinat This letter was fund on a dead body lying next to the road between Pavis and Aldachur. Who the man was and how he died is still a mystery. From Chukel the Clever To Leana the Lucky My dear Leana, yes, after so long a silence, here is a letter from your good old Chukel. Oh! I know what you're gonna say: stick by the rules. No names in our letters. But don't be so damn nervous! For Lanbril's sake, what's the point in being champions of thievery skills like us, so awfully competent, if we can't afford to take a little risk from time to time? Maybe it's just that I'm getting old and that I miss my young days of brash adventuring and danger. But enough small talk. I have to tell you about the changes in Pavis, well, if you prefer, in the city of P. ... You know how much we Lanbrili are active in this town. Business is good. I've never liked this hazia thing too much, but I must admit that it was a good basic trade for the gangs, enabling them to earn some easy money even when no opportunities were available. Well, you know how I feel about the gangs: brave but reckless youngsters and ambitious but stubborn leaders... I think they're the death of the creativity and the personal initiative which make thievery an art rather than an ordinary trade... But still, the gangs are necessary to the structure of our community. I've always made it a strong point not to belong to any gang. My, you know a Master-Thief is way beyond such petty hierarchy! In a gang, I would be nothing but the leader. I never had much of the "I'm the boss" mentality. So here I was, as usual, doing my job free-lance, and carefree, under my fake identities, when I heard some rumors that G., the leader of one of the main gangs, was looking for me. In a while, I got rid of my "civilian" outfit and went to G.'s den, in Badside. He was expecting me "just to talk" he said. He went straight to the point: "No more free-lance in P." He gave me two choices: either join a gang or leave the city. I wanted to argue, alright, but he was as lucid as a hazia-addict and kept on saying: settle down or leave... So I laughed. I mean, what else could you expect me to do? Such a preposterous offer. It sounded to me like a kind of bad joke. I first asked him: "What has changed? Everything was going just fine until now. Why change the rule?" "The past was the past", he said, "and the rules are clear; if you want to stay here, you must join a gang." I then explained that my joining a gang would benefit one gang only and harm the others: wasn't I the one who trained each and every thief in P.? Who would be the teacher for the gangs I wouldn't join? How would they reach higher levels of mastery in our skills? G. didn't seem to care. "The rule is the rule." I argued that, as the only Master-Thief in P., I had to have a special status in the rule... "Impossible" I finally added that if I was to belong to a gang then, fine, I'll be my own gang. The Chukel gang. No territories but where I stand. And just one member (well, actually, something more like eight if you count my covers). G. seemed quite confused with this idea. "You can't create a gang" was the only answer he could find. Well, I laughed again. "And what about the new gangs who appeared last year? What about the gang war that lasted for months? What about the agreement you now have with those gangs who didn't exist one year ago? What's the difference with my plans?" He suddenly was very silent, but I want on, still laughing: "Or do I have to fight my own gang war just to settle this?". It was clear that neither he nor I had anything to add after that, so I went to the door. All I can tell you is that G. wasn't laughing at all when I left... He gave me two days to make up my mind. That's all he said. What I understood is that G. was planning to rule all the thieves in P. It should have occured to him that such an overt take over would never succeed. He should never have tried me for his first target. Well, he was my problem, but the solution was simple: I just "happened" to meet H. and K., the leaders of the younger gangs, and I explained my view of the situation to them. Of course, since they were a little less blinded by ambition, they understood my point very clearly. Rules were something to unite us, not something to fight about. As proof of good faith, I proposed to them that, since Election Day was near, we should show to the world that the thieves of P. were not simply unscrupulous hazia dealers like G., but rather skilled and dauntless robbers. They accepted and it was the beginning of days of excitement: together, we spent our nights breaking into the houses of the mighty and into the richest temples. Of course, the extra activity in the city helped us to go unnoticed but still, with the help of those promising young men, I managed to do things I would not have dared to do alone, especially with so little preparation. It was... exhilarating, as if we could just choose a place, find a way in and get out, our arms full of gold and jewels. The part I liked the best was breaking into the mayor's house. We stole the Burgermeister's necklace and planted hazia as evidence against her. Then we managed to deal with her... In disguise, I told her about the hazia. She wouldn't believe me at first. She didn't even know what hazia was, if I understood what she said. But when she eventually checked her home, she panicked!! (It was some lunar plot against her, she thought) She didn't hesitate much when it came to buying back the insignia of her office. Of course, this matter was less lucrative than emptying the Lokarnos temple, but well, I reached an age where fun is more important than money. If only you had seen how the mayor, this "honest citizen" reacted when I told her that an official inspection was about to discover hazia in her home... Tis the kind of thing I'll never forget. But enough of this... I want to tell you a little more about these so-busy and crazy days, in particular about some bracelets I had stolen and that everybody was looking for. Because of them, I had to change identities so often that I almost got confused sometimes: I just couldn't remember who had met me under which guise and what we had discussed. But, well, all this plotting turned out to be a little hard to follow: some wanted the bracelets to celebrate a symbolic wedding, some preferred to have them destroyed to prevent the ceremony. The jeweler wanted to have them back because he hadn't been paid for making them... After a while, I got tired of negotiating for these pieces of jewelry: I had to meet various people at least three times, under several covers, just to make them believe that the bracelets were lost or destroyed. I eventually sold them to the jeweler, a strange man who wasn't the least dismayed by the idea that he was buying something he had made himself, and which wasn't paid for. I must confess that he had obviously a very good sense when it came to illegal transactions. Haggling with him was quite fun and I look forward to dealing with him again. I wouldn't call him a friend because he's so corrupt, but we certainly shared some views about the way the city had to be ruled and he convinced me to help him in his manipulations of the election. But it was too late, I think, to do anything serious about it... So, you see, it was quite a busy week. And now that I have too much money to spend, I've decided to leave the town for a while: with all these robberies, and this bracelet thing, and also some problem I had with the Sun-People because of hazia, some fresh air can only do me some good... I've got so many things to do: visit all my friends, spend some time in the Empire to practice my accent... So I may come and see you for a few days, quite soon after you get this letter. See if there is any opportunity in your town. Just because I'm not at home doesn't mean I don't want to work! And if a joint attempt could do some damage to H.I.F.'s reputation and make him lose face, it would be worth some effort. I hope my short stay in Aldachur will be real fun. See you. C. H. is Harli, played by Christian Klass K. is Knobbi, played by Jerry Kraemer G. is Grandpa, played by Volker Wagner The Mayor was played by Martina Lueneburg The Jeweler was played by Gunnar Kotsch Back! Send email to nilsw@ibm.net