It's been a while, and several sessions have passed. I shall do my best to recount the most important bits. in good order, with an acceptable amount of detail. As always, the session was run in Benton's Incunabuli playtest.
The last Report is here.
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The Cast:
John Dole of Bisque, Firlish Stew Captain. A hit man, a cook, a degenerate pervert.
William Ottleson of Fir Reach, Firlish Ironmonger, a soldier and perpetual casualty, twice in as many sessions has he died from a fall, only to realize that we forgot to apply his armor's Reduction and he was merely critically injured, instead.
Padre Faustino Calderon Capard del Monte Rubio, Algorán Venturesome Priest. A mess, a drunken sot, too pickled and cloudy-headed to properly minister. The question is not if he will fail in his quest, but when.
Vinkle, Lothrmensch moonshiner. A reliable sort, that brewer, though one wonders at his true loyalty.
Ms. Flitters of Delt, Mouse Wickie, a woman so motherly, it makes you wonder what stresses lead her to abandon her maternal instincts for the lonely coast, and what made her abandon the lonely coast for the company of a ragfolk band.
When last we left off our tale, the cutters were camping on the side of the road, after surviving a bandit encounter, now, as I recount this story to you, they are ankle-deep in filth struggling to survive an Idran tomb. How did we get here? Let me explain:
In the early morning of September 4th, the bandits make a return. Their forces are weakened, and though our cutters are bruised and battered, they are able to fight the group off a second time, taking several severe injures as they do so.
Taking a few Weary Stress, the crew follows the road through the hills and comes into view of Fenn Blaine, the largest of the two cities on the shore of the great Boitthwaite Lake. Fenn Blaine is an old burgh of the North, a fact reflected in its architecture, narrow streets and leaning roughshod tenements in between buildings built of the same old medieval stone that once protected the settlement from the plague-ridden gruesome hordes in the old Awnish days.
The city is packed, and our cutters look with wide eyes at the writhing mass of humanity. Wherever they look, they see more people, all together, signs, advertisements, all at once. After weeks in the wild, the fresh return to modern civilization is overwhelming. Dole buys a newspaper for a farthing and scans the classifieds, as Mr. Collier flags down a cab and gives the cutters the address of the hotel where he's staying. He needs to make some appointments (and several apologies), but the crew is free to do as they wish until he summons them. "Be ready," he says, "by 10 o'clock tomorrow."
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Given free time, the crew looks for gear. Since they're complete strangers to the city, they must make a successful Perception roll to find a new location in their perspective borough, with an additional test to navigate to particularly distant or unknown boroughs, additionally, reading the newspaper each day gives a 1-in-4 chance to discover 1d4 new locations through advertising and the classifieds.
Using this method means that it takes 3-4 sessions for my players to find most of the public locations in the city, which works out well. Over the past few weeks I threw together a number of stores and their inventories, which forces my players to manage their actions over their downtime. Does this add much to the game? I don't know, but my players enjoy it regardless.
Using the rest of their day, the party stocks up on supplies and Ottleson looks for a prostheticist. He finds one, he commissions a chain-drive hand, and takes a poorly-fitted locking hook grip as a loaner. For the night, Ottleson and Ms. Flitters sleep in a flophouse, while John Dole blows £25 at the fanciest hotel he can find. The Padre, however, spends his evening at Our Lady of the Unconquerable Host, a decrepit mission in the center of town, with the surliest priest he's ever met as his only companion.
For Ottleson and Ms. Flitters, the morning starts early, as the flophouse kicks its inhabitants out into the chilly morning at 6 o'clock, sharp. The pair are able to find some stale coffee and crusts of bread, though, as they wander the streets waiting for their meeting with Collier and his local contacts.
John Dole, in contrast, sleeps very well, and takes full advantage of his hotel's many luxuries, as he enjoys a bath, his tattered clothes are laundered, and he is able to take advantage of the hotel's full Empereaux Breakfast. Though, an issue arises as he attempts to pick the purse of an elderly patron, he falls into her, and decides he'd rather be accused of being a pervert than a thief.
Dole's new reputation obtained, he decides to make a quick exit, and buys a newspaper to help blend into the crowd. The headline?
DEVIL DOG STRIKES AGAIN
HOG FARMER 'RUINED' COUNTLESS HOGS SLAUGHTERED
The party reconvenes, and they agree that the identity of the devil-dog is probably obvious.
[Insert American Dad .gif here]
"It's going to be Missile Launcher, isn't it?"
The crew takes a few hours to walk out of town. They offer to examine the scene of the crime and after they manage to knock the poor man off of the wagon, he relents. "What 'ave I to care anymore?" he moans, but it doesn't matter, the party's already digging through the ruins of the barn. Following the clues, they are lead to a nearby farm, owned by the farmer's brother-in-law. He owns a large bit of property and is rapidly acquiring nearby land. Now that his brother-in-law's broke, he'll probably buy his land soon, too.
The crew talks to the man and gets his permission to look around, but he warns them to stay away from the grove that he keeps. The crew looks around. It's hardly a "grove" by any means. Some rough estimations put it between one-sixth and one-eighth of the farmer's total land, and it seems to be keeping up with his acquisitions. Conversations with the local laborers confirm suspicions: they report hearing the sound of high-pitched giggling in the woods and report that things go missing after dark. One laborer whispers that the farmer's wife went missing some years back, that she walked into the woods and never came out again.
Hearing this, the party resolves to check the place out. They walk in, and the giggling is immediate. They dodge the first few traps, then they start to see wags. They fire warning shots and keep moving forward. Soon, they find Missile Launcher. His hair is braided with twigs, and he is painted with hog's blood. The crew competes with the canine creatures for the affections of the massive dog, and it's not until John Dole opens up his pot that the hound comes loping back to the crew. The crew briefly skirmished with the giggling creatures in the woods before they head back to confront the farmer.
The farmer is not having it. He offers to pay the party off to keep from having his secret spilled, and John Dole questions what's keeping them from just killing him and taking his money. Tensions rise, the farmer moves for his gun and John Dole shoots him dead. The workers in the fields pause their harvest to watch them go, and it isn't long before the fate of the farmer is discovered.
The party reconvenes at a nearby pub. Clearly, the forces of the Other are strong here. Clearly, the people are willing to submit to gain the favor of älves and other Otherish creatures. Clearly, this cannot continue.
🙤-🙦
Realized that I had this 70% complete draft moldering since October or November. Finished it as best as I remembered. It's been a few weeks in game and about nine months in real life since this session, but I'll try to get back into the habit of writing these after each game.
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