It all started when three of that plucky band of thieves calling themselves the Gaffers headed out to relieve their stress through their various vices. The Hound found himself kicked out of his favorite restaurant for running a massive tab, the Whisper paid a great deal of coin to cover the costs of a sybaritic orgy, and the Lurk wound up in the dust-dens of Nightmarket. And then they realized that between the three of them, they’d blown all the profits from their last venture.
Hoping to make some coin, the Whisper accepted a job from her lover, Lord Scurlock. A particular alchemist he patronized had been less than forthcoming with the expected results of his research and the ancient lord was impatient.
What followed was perhaps the most stupendously failed Gather Information roll ever.
Spying on the alchemist’s workshop from the rooftops, the Hound saw little except zealous guards and a window left ajar. Hoping for more, the Lurk slipped through, accepting the bargain that the window would be closed the next time they came. A series of poor rolls escalated the situation from Risky (as he precariously balanced on the rafters) to Desperate (as he dove into a bin of unknown chemicals) and beyond (as he attempted to convince the guards that he was a ghost). With the help of some well-timed aid by the Hound (in the form of distracting fireworks set up in a flashback) he was able to escape with a nearly full load of stress and an 8-point “exposure to powdered leviathan bone” recovery clock.
The actual score went far more smoothly, despite the extra guards laid on by their earlier failures. The Whisper used her Ghost Key to open a spirit path, and while the Lurk lit up like a beacon, attracting packs of foul spirits, the Hound was able to fight them off with his electroplasmic pistol rounds while the Whisper turned them on each other. Using the weak spot created by the concentrated leviathan bone they were able to slip back out of the ghost roads inside the facility.
Some stealth got them into the catwalks, where they were forced to knock out a suspicious guard. Turns out that unconscious or sleeping people are easy prey for possession, which is why everyone wears spiritbane charms, but the guard is easily divested of his and the Whisper’s ghost ally takes the body downstairs where it convinces the other guards to go out front for a smoke.
After all of that, the safe was comparatively easy, and the alchemist’s ledgers and notebooks were theirs. The alchemist is unhappy, to say the least, but Lord Scurlock is pleased…
The group has rolled exceptionally poorly on all their development rolls and been forced to choose between coin and hold each time. I guess keeping such a low profile has its issues…
Next time, though, it sounds like they’re going to run into some serious opposition in the form of another criminal gang. Maybe the Fog Hounds, who they framed for the job they pulled against the Red Sashes?
This sounds super fun.
Love it Jeff! Did you roll the score details on the tables? Or did you already have that in mind?
I did use the tables. Since each of the thieves had dropped coin on their vices I gave them three possibilities: the other two were a haunting at the restaurant’s new second location and some missing drug shipments meant for the dust den.
since the Whisper already had a relationship with Scurlock and owed him a favor (he is helping her find a new body for Nyryx, who she owes because he abandoned his previous body to help them in the last score, they wanted with that one.
The thing that nobody has asked yet is: what research is Lord Scurlock backing that requires industrial-scale production and massive quantities of ground leviathan bone?
It is an interesting question but the Lurk certainly didn’t read the research as we were bugging out. I don’t know about the Whisper or the Hound, perhaps they looked over the research but the Lurk just assumed that a giant bin of powdered Leviathan bones is standard issue for an alchemist lab.
I had a great time playing last night. despite rolling poorly for a second session in a row. tho this session I actually rolled two sixes (not at the same time, of course, different rolls but that was two more sixes than I rolled the first session.)
Yeah, I assumed the powered leviathan bone was standard issue for an alchemist’s shop as well. Once we get back to the lair, I assume we’d have to read through to figure out what goes to Lord Spurlock, and what might be sold/used elsewhere
Powdered Leviathan Bone? Well may you ask! Well, Lord Scurlock has a trio of ancient leviathan scrimshaw artists, you see; and he’s having his occult researchers fusing the powdered leviathan bone with distilled plasmic essence of leviathan blood into re-cast bones, upon which are engraved (by his scrimshaw artists) runes of certain powerful spells, so that when the bones are cast upon the ground, cast the spells as if the caster were present.
Oh, and he has a lucrative sideline of ghost essence scrimshaw pipes, which are used to smoke spirit essences to get those tasty flashbacks of the past strong emotions and experiences of the dead whose ashes are being smoked in the pipe…