The takeover of the old Shadow Clan structure seemed easy enough. It had been abandoned, and, from the looks of things, not recently. Cobwebs hung thick from the stone walls, sometimes spanning the corridor in a few places. How much difference could a few years have really made? Lord Roth had just completed his tour of the lower chambers, and was waiting in the courtyard, where his ordinary was cleaning a bit of rat blood off of his gauntlet with an old rag.

He could see Lord Izumi crossing the courtyard from the entrance to the keep, smothering his torch with a massive hand to prevent it from burning up entirely.

"Anyone?"
"As abandoned as the rest of it, I imagine."
Roth nodded. "... All right. Anything glaring?"
"The roofing is all wooden lumber. It's collapsed in the great hall and what I presume used to be a throne room. This place is pretty much cleared out, it looks like." Izumi handed off the torch to his own ordinary, who hurried it back to the stockpile in one corner. "... I imagine the locals weren't too fond of the old masters."
"They'll be more fond of us, I imagine. Let's get to work." Roth straightened up. "Tommy, run along to working quarter and look for any labourers who aren't otherwise engaged. Offer them each two hundred and thirty gil for a day's labour. Look especially for carpenters and engineers. Then run down to the dock and help the others bring up the ship. I want it landed in the courtyard; it should fit comfortably."
"Yes, m'lord." His ordinary replied, and hurried off to run his errands.

"Come, Brother Knight. Let's start planning. Word was sent for Ciel and Paris?"
"Yes, Grand Cross."