While the men head back to Jeppo's to ask some more questions, the women stay in the little cafe on the plaza by the castle to watch the comings and goings. There turn out to be a lot of those: deliveries mostly. While they are there, a mysterious hooded man joins them, and asks them what interesting thing has brought them to Moncanto. They dissemble, and he introduces himself as John Courage. Sasha recognizes him as a famous Miskan spy, known to be a powerful diviner, and generally considered a lot of trouble but not of the murderous kind. She asks him about Misk, and after flattering her about recognizing his accent, he tells her of the fierce pounding of the eastern sea on the shores at dawn, and how the light falls on the rocks... she is smitten by his poetry. Baba and Lucia are much more resistant. John leaves the name of his inn, in case they decide they want to share information.
Meanwhile, Gaius and Ivar inquire at Jeppo's about the Duke's partying habits. He apparently has wild (including guests re-enacting naval battles using the tables) and sometimes spontaneous parties. Jeppo, a keen observer of such things, suspects that an upcoming giant turtle arena fight will result in such a party. Jeppo thinks Ivar would make an excellent and dramatic turtle fighter. They also ask Jeppo about the layout of the castle: he has some sketchy plans but he is eating at the moment (peacock stuffed with ham) and doesn't want to get them sticky. Deciding this is fishing for some sort of bribe, Ivar volunteers to fight the giant turtle if they can look at the plans. A bit surprised, Jeppo agrees, and the spies take copy slates to the very sketchy plans while their servant minder is out of the room. Business complete, they finally accept Jeppo's offer of peacock.
In the evening everyone regroups, and then decides to check Jeppo's recommended locations for rumors (gaming houses). Ivar and Lucia head to the slums, and after not hitting it off well at a goblin fight, they fall in with some spit boys from the castle kitchens who are dicing behind an inn. From that, they learn a lot about the kitchens and comings and goings in the castle, and that the Duke is planning to cook the giant turtle and eat it in an immense amount of plum sauce. The spit boys clearly believe there will be a big party.
Meanwhile at a much more upper class establishment, Baba is mistaken for some sort of sorcerous bodyguard for the other two, but doesn't really hit it off with anyone. Gaius and Sasha try to find out if anyone knows what the Duke will be selling soon (it is known that he has some new exciting item) and Sasha starts a rumor that it's some immense diamond.
The next day section Unicorn buys perhaps the only plums left in the city for a ruinous price, and heads up to the castle to deliver them. They head to the kitchen, and Sasha is easily able to peel off and sneak about, finding her way to the viewing room (with dramatic harbor view balcony) and the basement (directly accessible from the viewing room) before being routed by some sort of jaguar living in the basement. Baba similarly is able to insinuate herself into the kitchen staff through the simple expedient of starting to help them do stuff. This gives her time to drug about half of the giant plum sauce vats with an elven herb that causes hallucinations (specially picked to work well after being in hot liquid all day). Apparently extra chaos is required to make any note-stealing plan successful.
On the way out, everyone sees a giant paper-mache turtle in the courtyard. Ivar checks it and finds that it has a trap door and seats inside for about six, and that the top of the shell is much lighter weight material for bursting out of. None of our heroes decide it's time for a Trojan turtle.