The Porcelain Dolls: Session 52 (February 01 2017)
Aftermath of the New Guy Try-Before-You-Buy:
Rep: 1 (Dacio and his guys were Tier 1)
Coin: 8. There is enough for one Coin each, after their tithe to Lyssa.
Heat: 2 (the building fire was high profile, but the Dolls managed to keep their names and faces out of it for the most part).
Entanglement: Gang Trouble (which they avoid because they’ve trained the Wild out of the Lampblacks).
Downtime:
Constance works on eliminating the crew’s Heat, and has Gears assist in healing her bruised collarbone.
Kamali takes Kobb with her to The Veil in Nightmarket, after buying him a new set of syringes. There they both indulge their shared vice, Blue Cloud. Later, she runs him through some exercises in opening various kinds of locks (Kobb trains Prowess, gaining him an advance and raising Finesse. Along with the bonus dot he gets from Everyone Steals, his Finesse is now a 2).
Shade works on the project to set up arcane defenses for the hideout. After that, he heads to the spirit well to meet with Quellyn, and Kamali follows at a distance. Along the way, one of the alarm wards Shade had set up triggers, and he races there to find Sebjorn in a rather feral state and attempting to batter down the wards that had been put up around the alley. When Sebjorn sees Shade approaching, he lunges. Shade manages to hold him off with a binding ward, while Quellyn approaches from the opposite direction. Kamali maintains her distance in order to keep herself hidden. Sebjorn takes a swipe at Shade, who brings out his Lightning Hook. he manages to get the loop around Sebjorn’s neck, but not before taking a nasty scrape across his chest. He has to fight to keep hold of the pole as Sebjorn attempts to wrench it out of his hands. Kamali jumps into the fray to help Shade, and throws her spiritbane charm around Sebjorn’s neck. However, since Quellyn doesn’t know who this newcomer is, she targets Kamali with her binding spell, rooting Kamali to the ground. Shade manages to wrangle Sebjorn into an open spirit bottle and clamp the lid shut. Sebjorn is still kicking when he picks up the bottle. Quellyn realizes that Kamali is on Shade’s side, and releases her. They discuss what to do with Sebjorn, deciding that selling him to the Path of Echoes is not a good idea, since they have no idea if he will end up being released by them. Shade decides to keep the bottle on his shelf for the time being. This enterprise brings Quellyn to Neutral status. She’s willing to work with Shade, but not without compensation.
Gears continues to work on his Big Idea, and trains Resolve (gaining an advance, and raising Command).
The Moon’s Daughter and the boxing Club generate a total of 8 Coin, and Constance encourages everyone to stash it.
Constance gathers the whole crew at the factory. Kobb now has a seat at the table. She brings up Ellsworth Dunne. Kobb has heard of him, but knows very little. Constance brings him up to speed on the Dolls’ involvement, and of her intention to finally bring this matter to a close. She’s of the opinion that even without resources and allies, Ellsworth is dangerous enough that it’s better to end it quickly, but she recognizes Gears’ right to vengeance.
Preparation for The Done and Dunne Gun and Run:
Constance wants Kobb and Gloves to compete for Ellsworth’s wife’s affections. Gloves make a joke that he might have a bit of an advantage over Kobb in this. However, it’s Kobb that makes the most headway toward befriending Mrs. Dunne, playing the role of a sympathetic confidante. He uses his niece’s name as a way of making introductions, and over the course of several days, has schmoozed his way into her social circle.
Shade goes to look up Virgil, his ex-Bluecoat contact, introducing him to Nyryx in the process. He asks them to keep an eye out for Ellsworth. After a few days, they get back to him to let him know that they spotted Ellsworth in the Docks, and he’s hiding out in a flophouse there. It seems he has the same plan that Ulstano had: get some Coin together and get the hell out of the city. Nyryx also mentions that Jezelle is not doing too well, and that Shade should check in on her.
Kamali and Boots scope out the Dunne household for a couple of days. Once Kamali gets a good picture of the routine, she more or less has the run of the house, while Boots keeps watch from a nearby rooftop. She examines the paperwork that Ellsworth left in his study upstairs. It’s mostly council stuff, the only item of note is an upcoming vote on troop movements into Skovlan. Heading to the secret study in the basement, she finds it’s been cleaned out, but she discovers a receipt for a flat in the Docks that Ellsworth has been maintaining for at least several months. The address matches the one given to Shade.
Constance heads to Charhollow to talk to the Strays. She finds the shop closed, and the basement hideout deserted (but not abandoned). However, she finds four of them in the back corner of the dive bar nearby. She confronts them, and they respond predictably, with threats and verbal abuse. When Constance doesn’t back down the Strays quickly escalate to violence, but they didn’t expect that Constance was Not to Be Trifled With, and the fight very quickly goes her way. She manages to knock out three of them, and interrogates the fourth, a guy named Tony. It’s clear that they believed Ellsworth turned on them and hired an unknown third party to attack them, so they took the opportunity to go to work on Luther Curtis in revenge. However, things spiraled out of control, and Luther was killed, along with a couple of the Strays. Tony manages to put it together that Constance was leading the group that attacked his gang. Constance tells Tony that she’s promoting him to leader of the Strays, and that he will make sure that they work with her to find Ellsworth and bring him down, otherwise she’ll simply kill all of them. Tony communicates his understanding of his new situation. Constance further instructs Tony that the Strays will now pay tribute to The Crows on a regular basis, and will present themselves to Lyssa forthwith, as the Crows will be expanding into Charhollow soon.
Notes:
Kobb and Kamali seem to work well together.
#dontmesswiththedolls