Ok, the bunch of you watch the house burning. Suddenly, the window to the apartment springs open and the baker screams for help. The flames haven't reached the second floor yet, but they're heading that way and the smoke is getting thick.
What do you do?
"My Lord Blackstar... What exactly were you doing upstairs?" The muscles of Hutch's jaw clench, and he clasps wrists behind his back. "Is- is this death... ordained, or personal?" You've never seen doubt show on Hutch's face before.
I had hoped to do this quietly, and thus leave you four blameless. Halthar often makes hard demands, but those are not the burdens of us all, but mine to bear. Velaris says quietly You four should regroup at the chrch. I will remain behind to see the task to conclusion
to the woman he says Too much fire. Nothing anyone can do. Make peace with your creator.
If anyone is going to help her, now is the time.
Hutch waits in the light of the fire as his shadow re-gathers, then leaves before the bell tolls.
Tarnikos isn't one to get squeamish when there are deaths that need happening and he isn't one to be skeptical when Velaris says what needs doing. He leaves with the rest of the group.
Mender is not, on occasion, cruel. He draws the bomb he made from his satchel, activates it, and throws it right below the window. He then turns and walks away.
He makes it halfway down the alley when it detonates.
Briar stares at Velaris for a long time, her jaw clenched. Finally, she takes a few steps towards the bakery, but Mender's explosive implement makes her intervention futile. She gives Velaris another heavy look before turning away and stalking into the city, in a different direction that the rest are taking.
And we're back to downtime! Well done, everyone. A nice, simple gig...or was it?
+2 coin for your offertory
Arson for a dark god doesn't pay super well...
+1 rep. She's just a baker, but that ghost fire was pretty savage.
Despite the explosion, this was reasonably well contained. +2 heat
Killing involved +2 heat
Total heat: +4 heat. (That puts you at max heat, better burn that down or your wanted level will go up)
Flipped: Every time Mender tries to visit his apothecary friend Stazia, her shop always seems to be closed. He gently asks some mutual friends and they indicate that she heard about this little escapade and felt the need to distance herself a bit. Something about how she can't "afford to be associated with the Diamonds if she wants to walk through Crow's Foot safely."
You can try to flip her back to your side in downtime.
Everyone gets two actions. Here's a recap of your current situation and what's going on before you start taking actions.
Current clocks (that you know about)
Allies and enemies
Lord Scurlock considers you his agents now. (2 status)
The Dimmer Sisters are still neutral (0 status)
The Weeping lady is fond of you (1 status)
You have a contact in the Red Sashes. They're currently neutral but doing jobs for them will pay in coin and in status (0 status)
The Grey Cloaks know you've taken some of their turf. It's not war yet, but any more hostile actions may tip that over. (-2 status)
Halthar is very pleased with your actions last night, at least that's what Velaris tells you.
You managed to clock on to the Spirit Wardens radar. They don't really know who you are, exactly, but they're still not super pleased with your antics.
Mateas Kline, a Severosi nobel may have some jobs for you.
Bazo Baz has not yet heard your names. Pray to Halthar that it stays that way.
Aaaaaaand...go!
Aaaaaaaaand...go!
Hutch buries himself in his work. He's been writing his flock, and assembling notes about their needs. Before he can leverage this network, he needs to gain their trust. To do so, he needs to demonstrate the network's value, pay it forward, as it were.
Velaris goes looking around the edges of the Lampblack/Red Sash border, and waits for a skirmish to down a red sash or two. he waits on the edges, until the fighting stops and the dead are abandoned, and plants a few items similar to things the bluecoats would have found at the bakery. muddy the waters a little, you know.
Later, Velaris goes down to the Black Mastiff, a known bluecoat bar in Charterhall, to mingle with them, and maybe drop some false leads, stuff to get them off the Diamonds. After all, he was a friend. (or at least, good ith social lubricant
Tarnikos goes to find some of the people working as sources for the mysterious hunter and "encourage" them to change sides.
=6
After that he goes to help address Mender's friend's security concerns in Crow's Foot.
=4
Many of the people that you know have been reporting back to the hunter are already on your side, finding themselves sharing information unexpectedly and not really knowing who they were talking to...but you manage to find a gruff Tycherosi bartender named Mezzat that purposefully pointed the hunter to valuable contacts. He doesn't initially want to talk to you, but after loosening his tongue (and teeth), he tells you that the man approached him for information specifically about Felfiz Darner and his associates. Unlike most people who encountered the hunter, Mezzat remembers exactly who it was. He wore the heavy coat and tophat, just as the other witnesses described, but he had a necklace with a large jewel that glowed the entire time they spoke. Mezzat said that the light confused his eyes, but (flicking his split tongue in the air as he recounts the story) he could still taste and smell the man's identity. His name is Aldo Templeton and he lives in a tower block in Six Towers.
Hutch: You literally have no idea who Aldo Templeton is.
You stand around Stazia's shop, making it very clear that anyone who chooses to not patronize her shop due to her association with the Black Diamonds will suffer horrible consequences. This has...limited effect. The suspicion that you had something to do with Brumhilda's death hasn't really landed on you yet. Stazia has heard rumors and wants nothing to do with you. I'll fill 1 segment of the 4 clock of getting her back on your side.
Hutch is correct. The crew had 3 coin from the last mission and received two more coin, for a total of 5. Your coffers can safely hold 4, so someone needs to take one of those coins in their personal stash, or spend one during downtime.
Briar seeks out Montague and redemption. She feels that the direction the cult is taking is greatly straying from her own beliefs and that she can no longer be a part of it. She will not betray them to their enemies, but she will no longer give her help either.
Montague is pleased to see you have seen a better path. For your safety (and his, frankly) he arranges to ferry you away from Duskvol. He covers his tracks well and while the cult knows that you left of your own free will, they do not know who helped you leave or where you went.
Mender will work on reducing the crew's heat, mainly by trying to point the blame at someone else.
Heat reduction is a straight 1-3=1 heat removed, 4-5=2 heat removed, 6=three heat removed, critical=4 heat removed. There's no position or effect in play, just convince me how you're using the action to lower heat.
Let me know which action you're using and I'll offer an appropriate devil's bargain.
Also, I just want to remind everyone that Flit Cooper absolutely knows who actually killed Bazo's siser. After everyone takes their action, I'll make a fortune roll and add that to the 4-clock of someone else finding Flit. You have a 6 clock to find him before anyone else. You might not want to let this one slide past.
As soon as they get back to their lair, Hutch asks Velaris for some of the implements and supplies he used at the bakery. The former cypher has to get out ahead of the investigators without bumping into them, so he takes a magpie dusted in chalk and a fine cover id as a spirit warden, and sets off to find Flit's home and deposit the incriminating evidence in the rubbish heap outside. Once the rag pickers have cleared out--fleeing the white bird, and the slight aura of spiritual attunement--he directs the bird to drop off the supplies among the rubbish, as if they were discarded in haste.
That sounds like a 6-clock to discredit Flit. I'll give you 3 marks on it. It's certainly discrediting...but it's not quite damning. Anyone could have planted that evidence.
I'm not sure what you mean about the cover ID as a spirit warden. Are you dressing as a warden (complete with the mask)? That's a lot harder to accomplish.
With the intelligence gleaned in his earlier work, Hutch sets about coordinating anonymous opportunities: stolen equipment fenced without a middleman's cut, used in a score, and exchanged for services at a shaman's workshop. Dates and watch cycles gathered by one crew and sent to another to secure a book for a third without any of them aware who is helping whom. Hutch works obsessively to grease the wheels of his machine with tiny favors. Unfortunately, it does cost him another pouch of black diamonds taken from the profits of the Greycoat drugs.
Whenever you're all done with your downtime turns, feel free to answer your end of session questions!
Velaris gets back from his inexpert attempts to throw off the Bluecoats, and promptly passes out in his room. good morning, diamonds. he says, coming down to the communal area well into the afternoon. I've heard Lord Scurlock has a favour he would like from us. a valuable ally to have. and the red sashes want our help with something. and the greycloaks still hold territory near us. Are there any matters I have forgotten, or a preference as to which we attend to at this moment? he says, hoping that giving the others something to do will prevent more attrition. he had no desire to return to life as a solitary servant of a forgotten god.
"A man named Aldon Templeton has been tracking us for a couple of weeks now ever since the whalebone heist. He's asking after Hutch especially. Seems like something we otta look a' taking care of firs'."
Fist thing is first, and the first thing here is to figure out exactly who they're up against. The Greycloaks are using this to distribute, is it officially owned by them?
Velaris goes there, and purchases a bottle of laudanum, and uses the "use" area, quietly swapping it for an empty bottle he had filled with water, and spends the better part of the day laying there, pretending to by in a stupor, watching the comings and goings.
It is indeed run by the Greycloaks, though there seems to be far more people working the game than there are remaining Greycloaks. They’re probably just hired hands, not official members.
In fact, the only time you see a Greycloak all day is when one comes to pick up the winnings. This should be a cakewalk!
Looks like a pretty simple job, all things considered. we just jump the loner, and then waltz in, placing them under new management. Velaris says, knowing next to nothing about hostile takeovers.
"They may have hidden security that we should be careful of." offers Mender, who is also unclear on how hostile takeovers are supposed to work.
Tarnikos agrees with Mender and thinks we should also see where the inevitable retaliation would come from. He grabs some local toughs and convinces them to tell him where the greys are.
They're local toughs, not local pushovers. Other than the basic information ("They're all over Six Towers. EVERYWHERE!") they don't really give much up.