BellRow Troubleshooters

The Troubleshooters rename and rebrand themselves. The group will now be known as the Black Moon. The group is investing in diversifying their clientelle and narrowing their focus.

More info to follow.

In the midst of what passes for the guild’s financial management meeting the door swings open and Natalia staggers into the front room. Used to her bedraggled, dirty appearance she doesn’t draw much immediate attention until a small voice peeps up behind her. Taking notice of the young girl following Natalia the rest of the guild recognizes the horrible shape Natalia is in. Badly beaten, bruised all over with chunks of hair torn out she is barely standing. She tries to brush off questions but the others are insistent and her story comes out.

Finally unable to continue her cat and mouse dodge of her past Natalia was picked up by Urgolian commissars almost two weeks past when eating at the Nibbler on Dicers. The past two weeks have been hell for her as she was tortured, frozen, burned, shocked, and healed to go through it all again. The girl with her, around 11 or 12, freed her this morning and the two stumbled back to the guildhall (see stealing bread). Natalia is exhausted and badly hurt and wants nothing more than some rest. Toad and Ano are adamant that a message needs to be sent to these Urgolians. Apu offers the suggestion of permanently altering Natalia’s appearance. After a bit of rest the group sets off for Bone Walk on Hospice to the butcher shop Natalia was held captive at. Ano’s scouting reveals the commissars have cleared out leaving nothing but a wanted poster of Natalia which she adds to her considerable collection to wallpaper her room. Seems she hasn’t lost her dark sense of humor.

Midnight that night Sister Helga stands at the Riverside docks on Captain’s for a meeting requested with Linea by note. Toad stands as bodyguard and with Ano, Natalia and Apu hidden as backup and itching to try out their new firearms. Linea never shows but a group of Hurley’s toughs show and half-heartedly threaten Sister Helga warning her Linea still owes Hurley a lot of scratch. Sister Helga explains she doesn’t know where he is but will pass on the message should she see him. She then extends a warm invitation to the thugs to attend the next Morrowan service and they thank her sheepishly and leave. Natalia retires to the Guildhall with her new protege, Alice, and after throwing the cat a fish the rest of the group hits the Swiggling Pig for pork skins and beer.

The morning starts out quiet. Sister Helga returns from a visit with the arcane mechanik captured in the raid on Hurley’s steamjack factory. The mechanik, Christoper, is being held in protective custody by the church of Morrow’s Inquisition in Five Fingers under the care of Sir Manfred. Vaun takes up the only merc job of the day and so the rest of the guild agrees to help Christopher retrieve his apprentice whom he believe is still stuck on Crane island and likely hunted by Hurley’s men. A trip to the Blaggard’s Manse on Crane leads to a meeting with the apprentice, a skilled arcane mechanik named Cirin. She wants off the island, revenge on Hurley, and a place to lie low for awhile. The guildmembers argue the point a bit but it was decided the minute they realize she was in trouble. Ano finally puts to words what everyone is thinking… everyone in the guild has scores to settle and most have a past they want to leave behind. If she can keep a lid on her desire for revenge, play it cool and safe, she’s welcome but she’ll need a new name. Back at the guildhall Apu makes a joke about the quarters getting crowded, and the possibility of sharing rooms if the BRT continues to expand it’s roster. Toad just shrugs, “You should’ve served in the army”.

Following up on a lead from a blind gambling beggar Ano takes Sister Helga, Toad, and Apu to the <bar> to meet with someone named Catwalker. He isn’t hard to locate and after a bit of verbal sparing Ano gets the job offer from him. Catwalker is an agent of the crown and reveals that King Baird’s grandson Linea has a fondness of the gritty city and a couple dangerous addictions. Linea is deep in debt with High Captain Hurley and the crown would like some leverage on Hurley to clear this entanglement. The group is not eager to get on another high captain’s bad side but Catwalker has the backing of the Orithian treasury and makes them an incredible offer of 12,000 golden royals. For that kind of money the Troubleshooters can’t refuse.

Following a lead supplied by Catwalker the Troubleshooters accost and, with the help of Apu’s friend-making magic, question an alchemist working both Hurley and High Captain Killbride. She has nothing useful on Hurley but reveals Linea is hooked on <brut>, an illegal stimulant she cooks up and sells. She also tells them that Linea is in very deep with Hurley and likely supports his smuggling operations. The group decides this Linea is a hopeless case but the promised fee drives them onward.

The group decides to contact the Linea and track him down at a high price casino. Sister Helga delicately convinces him she has help for him and pulls him to a private meeting where the others join up. Linea is loathe to discuss his business with Hurley but desperate for help. He admits his shipping interests have been all but commandeered by Hurley who has been smuggling something highly secretive into the city. Linea has been largely cut out of the loop and cannot say even where the shipments his ships pick up originate from. He has managed to find where they go however. Hurley has set up a secretive, and heavily guarded factory on eastern edge of Crane Island and that is where the shipments end up. He is convinced the High Captain is working up something big there. The Troubleshooters decide this is something to check out.

If the Troubleshooters have a specialty it is in infiltration. Renting the services of their old friend, the discrete Baharudin they approach the island cliffside by gondola shortly after midnight. A mistform Ano scouts the factory and identifies their target. The factory manufactures cutting edge military grade steamjacks. These weapons are both illegal to own in the city and could lead to a major upset in the balance of power in the city should they see action on the streets. Even the governor’s royal marine contingent stationed on Belicose would be hard pressed to deal with the likes of these. Wandering guards move about, heavily armored in advanced suits Ano has never seen before. In a storage room in the factory’s basement a man is bound to a chair, unconscious or dead. The others soak in the details and detail a plan to retrieve the steamjack plans in the upper office and the bound man. Aided by Apu’s enchantments Ano succeeds in lifting the plans and dropping out the window and down the factory and cliff to the water below. Toad and Sister Helga slip into the basement and drag the bound but living man down the cliff. They take a couple nice rifles for their trouble as well. The Troubleshooters make off without alerting the guards to their presence. For once a clean job. For a small fee more Baharudin poles them to Chaser’s Island, a lot nearer to home. On the ride back Ano pulls out a shiny new prototype pistol he lifted from the office. It’s one of the new three-shot revolvers he had heard the Syramese were using in the northern war with the Kingdom of Yam.

Back at the guildhall panic starts to settle in as the Troubleshooters realize that Hurley surely has the means to track them down through the stolen plans, guns, or rescued captive. The group scrambles into action and by dawn manages to get the plans from their hands to Catwalker and the captive, still unconscious, to an Inquisition safehouse Sister Helga trusts. Before the plans leave their hands Sister Helga and Toad scratch down copies of all the material they can and stash it away. May be useful at some point. Shortly after dawn Ano offloads the guns at bargain prices to a gunshop far from Chasers. The Troubleshooters breathe a collective sigh of relief. Catwalker delivers the promised payment and the Troubleshooters celebrate naively believing they’ve pulled off their first clean job.

Awaiting entry

In a bloody battle Opifera, Apu, Natalia, Sister Helga and Toad assist an old mate of Opifera’s to reclaim his ship. They learn that Waernuk was more than prepared for Kilbride’s full scale assault on his operations and, at least by sea, Waernuk came out significantly ahead. Dozens of ships burn and sink in the harbors of Five Fingers, nearly all of them allies of Killbride on shoreleave. Opifera, skilled sword and founding member of the Bellrow Troubleshooters, takes a farewell from the guild to take a turn at looting the high seas with her old friend.

The Troubleshooters spend the next two months fulfilling more traditional mercenary and guardsmen contracts within the city while each member pursues his own side goals and attends to personal business.

One foggy night Ano and Toad dispose of the Natalia’s stalker (still in stasis thanks to Apu) selling him to a sailor named Seagull, mate on an outbound merchant vessel. On the return trip to the guildhouse they meet an odd beggar who soundly beats Ano at dicing despite being apparently blind as a bat. Humoring them the beggar sells them a tip on a man offering some work. That night Ano sets to learn what he can of the man before the Troubleshooters make contact. The rest of the guild spend the night drinking and eating at the Swiggling Pig where Apu disposes of necromantic powerstone down the privy.

A loud and persistent knock at the guildhouse door awakens Sister Helga shortly after sunrise and only an hour or two after they’ve gotten home. The visitor reveals herself as an old flame of Apu’s and the mother of their son. She fled Ammad shortly after Apu and has been in Five Fingers for years unbeknowst to the mage. She begs for help in finding their son who has disappeared. Apu is understandably shaken and stunned by the news but is tender to his former lover and readily agrees to help her.

Space awaiting log

This space awaiting a logger

In the streets of Captain’s Isle the Troubleshooters were intercepted by an agent of Kilbride and a meeting was arraigned. Toad shook his head in annoyance. It’s always another meeting in a mutually defensible location, both sides heavily armed and paranoid of attack. Noone can ever just say what in the stinking black water they want. The popular Five Finger’s expression struck him as morbidly funny after his recent ordeal. Grabbing the wizard the group met with Kilbride’s representative, a man who for readily apparent reasons was named Slitface. Fabrizio shadowed the shadowers of the meeting and by the end of the meeting had them effectively cowed to submission. Killbride’s agent offered the Troubleshooters 3500 royals to convince the trollkin enclave to make a strike against Waernuk, and it had to be done by tomorrow night. This seemed a considerable payment for deliverying a message and Apu was highly suspicious, both by the apparent simplicity of the job and by the specific timing. Slitface proved mostly resistant to Apu’s interrogations, however our mage did manage to raise the payment to 3800 royals. Next, with the help of Apu’s magic and a tip from Ano, the Troubleshooters scouted out the caverns beneath the Bowels bar Ano had been investigating and found a large cache of corpses hidden in a cliffside cove. With this target in mind the Troubleshooters entered the trollkin enclave to discuss the job offer. Meeting privately with Stoneborn to avoid any possible easedropping trollkin spies Toad overstepped his authority and promised the help of the Troubleshooters on the strike against Waernuk. Feeling he owed the trollkin Toad revealed the source of the offer and the admitted the possiblity, aye likelihood, it was a setup. Stoneborn considered the situation carefully and agreed to take it. A plan was made to coordinate with the trollkin at a seedy bar near the clifface above the cove. The group spent the next day gathering climbing supplies, formulating a plan, and verbally abusing Toad for promising their aid on a job that could have been an easy, no risk payment.

Pauline Greyvine’s treatment has been sufficiently expensive that the Church of Morrow has need of additional funds. Prelate Daltry agreed to Sister Helga’s request to hold a fundraiser for the church and Sister Helga arranged for an evening of dance, gambling, and drink to entertain the followers of Morrow and any others with coin.

The fundraiser was a success, although the Prelate would not have been pleased by some of the things going on in the back rooms. Some Kalipurians were thrown out at gunpoint for cheating, but the incident did not disrupt the festivities overmuch. Apu made the acquaintance of a delightful lady by the name of Bellinda, and spent most of the evening in her company.

.....

The next morning, Apu returned to the new guildhall to discover Natalia, Opifera, and Sister Helga arguing about if Opifera should go to an utterly disreputable tavern known as ‘The Bowels of the Earth’ in hopes of finding Ano and Toad, who have been missing for two days. This was a completely horrible idea- even at the best of times, the Bowels is a dangerous place. During New Moons, the extreme low tides mean every sailor in town is ashore and looking for entertainment- or, having run out of coin, are looking to gain additional funds or entertainment via the most direct means on hand. It is a time when it is very unwise for attractive women or people of wealth to go near the docks alone.

Such measures were unnecessary. Apu performed a minor ritual that sufficed to determine the current location of Toad, and the Troubleshooters (formerly of Bell Row) set off to retrieve him. He turned out to be recuperating from a severe beating and near-drowning in the company of an trollkin clan the Troubleshooters had assisted some months earlier. He and Ano had been investigating the disappearance of many dead bodies in Hospice and the Chatterstones, but had not thought to get in touch with Noatam and ask what was going on. Toad does not seem to have realized that Noatam is a Necromancer, despite the cadaverous canine who accompanies him. I don’t think Toad had realized the dog is dead- maybe he thought it had an epic case of mange and scabies. Toad was healed of his injuries and left to sleep off the exhaustion. (see toad log)

After a brief rest, Apu employed the same minor ritual to locate Ano, who turned out to be mooching meals at a soup kitchen. He put off explanations of what he and Toad had been doing for later. As we departed the soup kitchen, an assassin tried to shoot Natalia from a rooftop, and discovered that shooting at a friend of a Wizard is only slightly less foolish than shooting at the Wizard. Natalia took the attempt on her life personally, immediately running down the alley in pursuit. Opifera and Sister Helga ran after Natalia, while Ano and Apu followed. Natalia found fresh blood on a ladder, and spotted a man with a slung rifle fleeing down the alley. She gave chase, with Sister Helga and Opifera right behind her. Not being as fleet of foot or as skilled with arms as my companions, Apu gave chase at a more deliberate pace, trying to figure out why someone would try to assassinate Natalia. Of the Bell Road Troubleshooters, she is far from the one with the most enemies.

After a moment, Apu realized that conjuring a wolf and commanding it to track by scent, while employing a Trace spell to keep track of the position of the canine, might allow him to follow the assassin while remaining out of sight. He succeeded in the conjuration and the trace, and decided to conjure two more wolves in case the assassin shot the first one.

Apu eventually caught up with Sister Helga and Opifera, who had lost sight of Natalia, and then Natalia, who had lost sight of the assassin. The wolves led the Troubleshooters the docks, where the assassin had embarked on one of the few gondolas still in operation during the new moons. When he saw us, he aimed for a moment, and then remembered what had happened the last time he shot at us, and then tried to conceal himself as much as he could. He did not hide well enough, and Natalia put her shot into a very tender bit of his anatomy.

After dismissing the wolves, Apu drew upon his powerstones to grant Natalia and Opifera the ability to walk upon air. They walked to the gondola, bound the assassin, and instructed the gondolier (who was quite terrified) to return the boat to the dock, which he did. A brief search of the assassin revealed a very nice rifle, some Urgoloan coin, and a wanted poster with a reasonable likeness of Natalia. He seems to have been some kind of bounty hunter.

The assassin is currently in Suspended Animation, stored in the basement.

[...]

Unfortunately for the entity possessing [name], the next member of the party he attempted to magically influence was Apu. While the attempt was successful, it did not result in any progress towards getting the door open, as what Apu desired was on this side of the door. After some creative spellcasting and a bit of banter, Apu, Natalia, Olifera, and Helga retired to a side chamber and spent some time enjoying each other’s company*. After the effect wore off, everyone involved was somewhat confused and more than a little embarassed.

In the end, the result was completely contrary to the goals of the entity, as Fabrizio and Vaun decided to leave the door alone. They did not want to face whatever was on the other side without the rest of the party backing them up, and were unwilling to interrupt what was going on in the side room.

[...]

[okay, I’ve covered the touchy part, someone else please fill in the rest]

• Fortunately for all involved, long-term complications have not arisen.