Episode 5 (I’ve been told it was) of The Chimera

Episode 5 (I’ve been told it was) of The Chimera

GM: Luke

Alaka’i – Cutter – Chris

Amaliese Jenette – Cutter – Matthew

“Ask” – Cutter – Oskar

Emeline – Slide – Thomas

Following a disasterous attempt to taking the Horde head-on that nearly resulted in the death of all of our daring scoundrels, the Gondoliers found a wounded and 3-trauma’d Faus on the streets and took him in to help him recover. Faus had saved a young Gondolier by the name of Philipe from being assaulted, and in return Philipe’s mother, Ebbe, has offered her services as a healer to the Chimera as well as tending to the Severosi elder’s wounds.

Later that same day as Ask and Alaka’I lick their wounds, a new woman walks into their lair and introduces herself as Amaliese Jenette. An orphan from the streets of Duskwall, she had heard about The Chimera through the underworld grapevine, and offered her skills as a killer and guide to the city to the mercenary company. With their original guide, Emeline, having been unable to join them for a few weeks, Alaka’I allows her to join. A wry smile in response to a question of if she’ll follow The Chimera’s laws makes him nervous, but he is certain it is just youthful eagerness.

Amaliese presents a plan to the group: target the Scions of the Fallen, a gang of the young sirs and madams of the one-great-now-fallen old nobles of Six Towers. They recently had joined up with a strange organization called the Cult of the Hanged Man, wearing seemingly-silver necklaces inscribed with an ibis – a weird variation of which had recently come to infest the city – and so likely have much worth stealing wherever it is they are meeting. Having identified the church of the Hanged Man, the group prepares to assault it.

Before they do this, Ask decides to visit the church himself, and is aided by the Gondoliers, who draw a distraction to give him time to Attune to the place. Here he is noticed by a familiar presence: the god that reached out to him in Mistshore Park, the god that commanded the Hollows against them during the Chimera’s assault against them, the god that is devouring Ask’s own: Gesalt, or as it goes by now: The Hanged Man. Ask reports back, but the Chimera carries on with the assault regardless.

With luck and skill favoring them, they get into position with effective ease. Alaka’I takes a shot at a dangerous-looking gatekeeper from the front to cause a distraction, wounding but not killing him, while Ask, Amaliese, and their thugs assault the church from the back. Ask manages to pin a labor director to hold off the fighting, though he is wounded in the process, and Amaliese steps in afterwards, commanding all of the hired dockers to surrender. One responds by firing a crossbow bolt into Amaliese’s shoulder, which embeds itself in her armor. “I tried to warn you,” she says as she splits the man’s skull with her pistol.

Ask attempts to command the director to tell them where they’re holding all of their wealth. The director is unintimidated, and in a resulting brawl Ask kills him. A fight nearly breaks out once more, and the situation becomes desperate as The Hanged Man begins to becoming involved, but before much more bloodshed can happen, and avoiding irritating the Hollows being used to pull carriages of loot, the dockers are culled into submission, with Amaliese promising they won’t come to any harm under her “care”.

Back up front the spirit wardens have arrived and attempt to discern what happened by peering into the echos of the ghost field. Alaka’I puts one of them down before he can be spotted, and successfully avoids being drawn into situation against his will. He has a sandwhich and waits for more Spirit Wardens to arrive – he wants to talk with them when this is all said and done.

Back around back, Ask and Amaliese discover four of the six carriages are filled with treasure, the other two are empty. Ask secretly wants to take the two empty carriages to fill with their prisoners, which will become sacrifices to his god. Managing to Study him enough to get a sense of his motivations, Amaliese pushes back against these desires, eventually calling out a pair of thugs she had hired and armed with the Chimera’s weapons behind the backs of the others to act as muscle to back her up. They’ll be taking the four carriages filled with sellable goods. With the new muscle, though, Ask points out that they could take all six carriages.

“… Got as much brains on you as muscle, I see,” Amaliese says, slapping Ask on the shoulder. Ask and the two Chimera-loyal thugs (Barbosa and Rile) take three of the carriages and the prisoners. Amaliese stays behind for a while longer, using yellow paint she had requested the thugs bring her to graffiti the back of the church with the silhouette of a slithering snake. She and her hired goons take the remaining carriages back to The Chimera’s lair.

After the Spirit Wardens arrive and kill the wounded gatekeeper to save on paperwork (two dead instead one of dead, one wounded), Alaka’I manages to find one off on his own and confronts him. “Why aren’t you doing your job?” he glares as the warden with accusatory eyes, “there’s an army of hollows running amok in the northern half of the district. You’re supposed to be protecting people from them. Deal with it.” The Warden, though not happy with Alaka’I’s impudence, says he’ll look into it.