By Basilio Mura, Nor Eastern Correspondent

28/3/282- Patrons of Big Bessie’s Barroom, Billiards and Burlesque who gathered at the establishment for its grand reopening at its new location this weekend were no doubt expecting a leisurely evening of music and drink. What they got however, was something completely different.

Noted bard and mandolin player Gerard P. Shanahan took to the stage at 20 hundred hours to begin his set. According to audience members, the performance started well.

“He opened with Poulain’s ‘Moonwave Ebb and Flow’, my favorite piece,” said Marlane Vousan, who attended the performance with her sister. “It was such a somber number, and lulled us all into a sense of calm serenity. It felt like everything bad that ever happened or could happen had been washed away…or so I thought.”

According to others in attendance, after the third song a group of men at the bar became restless and started to heckle Shanahan.

“A bunch of lewd luddites, the lot of them,” said Guilanne Pierot, a student at the Academy of Alchemists and Alliterators. “Sods started shouting senseless disparagements directed to deflate our delight. Dismay descended promptly thereafter, as the miscreants misjudged Shanahan’s sense of self-esteem.”

Shanahan, an outwardly jovial man by most accounts, is also known for a short temperament when it comes to performing. He also just happens to be a dormant member of the Nor Eastern Subterfuge Society.

“He tried to keep it peaceful, he really did,” Miss Vousan said. “But the more he asked them to quiet down, the more they acted up. He seemed sad. And that made me sad. That’s when the knives came out.”

The bard, having had enough of the drunkard’s disruptive behavior, leapt from the stage, a pair of daggers appearing in his hands almost from nowhere. Onlookers say he didn’t immediately start killing, however.

“I think he just meant to scare them,” said Reynard Houlcombe, the owner of the establishment. “But they weren’t scared. Things…escalated after that. Bastards never stood a chance. It was just a flurry of blades and blood. Now I have five dead bodies on my dance floor. Shanahan grinned the entire time, too. I think he might have enjoyed it.”

Members of Oeil de Fleur’s police department arrived at the scene shortly after. They escorted Shanahan from the premises, but authorities say he was not placed under arrest.

“Shanahan is protected by a complex judiciary code that puts him somewhere between an average citizen and a diplomat,” Inspector Volain Duustois told us. “Put simply, we have no jurisdiction. He has been handed over to Nor Easter’s intelligence service for judgement. I don’t expect much to come of it, however.”