The Plan of The Night

The Night Watch & the Marquis

Winter's path had been vile on Amsterdam Streets, just today for the first time in weeks, the sun made its presence known among the heavy clouds. This air change thrilled Captain Frans, as he pulled back his residence curtains overlooking the canal. Besides him, still dozing, his wife showed signs of recovery from a flu that had besieged the city for weeks.

"Today, God is with me," he thought, a sly smile curling his mustache.
"Tonight will be the end of the Marquis of Heaven."

Frans commanded a group of night watchmen whose main task was safeguarding the district's residents after the evening bell announced the curfew.
Four of the seventeen members of the company took shifts each night, patrolling the district with oil lanterns to ensure the streets were free of thieves, scoundrels, or uncontrolled fires. 

The city, always bustling with an overwhelming commercial activity, was swarmed with foreigners during peak trading seasons—sailors, merchants, and travelers unloaded goods or showed around otherworldly looking marvels for the eyes of the citizens. While this influx of coin benefited the Republic's capital, it also demanded acute protection against rogues who prowled the night mischievously, seeking easy loot before vanishing aboard a ship at dawn.

Frans took leadership of the guard two years ago, and since then, things had mostly gone smoothly, barring a few internal disputes. Although recently, maintaining order had become sort of an uphill battle, tiresome at times.

Pessimism was spreading like a plague. Grim reports arrived daily by both land and sea. Just eight leagues near Rotterdam's port, a ship sank while fending off pirates trying to seize its cargo of textiles and porcelain bound for a distant colony of the Republic.
The unending war with Spain raged on, every update brought news of Dutch blood spilled in Atlantic waters. And amid this chaos of war, illness, and woe, a sinister criminal haunted the city.

Frans Night's Watch had been incapable of catching the sneaky criminal everyone called ¨The Marquis of Heaven¨. Due to the taunting blood blotched notes he left on the victims' bodies:

"Heretics! You dare not gaze upon God; therefore, you shall not know Heaven."

Five victims had perished so far—unlucky souls whose agonizing cries got lost into the hopeless dark. Two of them were found near the Canals Market during the Guilds' Night, another two were slain simultaneously on Hilletjesbrug Bridge during the Republic's Anniversary, and the last one, on St. Nicholas' Night: a drunken wretch stumbling from a tavern, unable to stand for himself against the assassin's cold steel.