An indebted gobber named Ano jumps at the opportunity to take over a failing merc guild when the owner, Curly disappears. He vists a few acquanintances and cons them into joining the enterprise. The newly forming group is hired by Tug, the leader of a local gang called the Dicer’s Laggers to retrieve someone. The Laggers are licking their wounds from a turf battle with the Driftwolves during which an important contact of theirs was captured. The Laggers want her recovered and are offering a chunk of coin and a box of fine rifleshot. Tug is cagey with details, only saying she is a Jinn woman.
The group snuck into the Driftwolves’ headquarters, a fortified old houseboat called the Drowned Rat. Grig slit the throat of a drunken sentry and is later gripped in the jaws of a crocodile. Haugin chops furiously to free him but it is Ano who blinds the beast with a pinprick jab to each eye releasing Grig. Haugin untied the woman and the group fled pursued by furious Driftwolves. The Jinn woman is the first to exit the boat and pays for it with a crossbow bolt to the head. Meanwhile Opifera creates a diversion above deck by accepting a challenge from a cocky Driftwolf sentry named Jamison. She cut him down with a single slash to the face that sent him tumbling into the drink. Haugin dragged the nameless Jinn woman and the unconscious Grig to shore and tried to revive them. Grig spits up water and blood but Haugin’s efforts on the woman succeeded only in finishing her off.
After some deliberation the group hauled the dead woman to their headquarters where Tug and his righthand, Horsbait, were waiting. Tug seemed unconcerned that the woman was dead but planned to kill the group as they knew too much. Weapons were drawn in an armed standoff but Opifera talked everyone down. Tug gave up the ammo and renegotiated the fee since the rescued woman was dead. He informed them that they owed him ten royals every month in protection money.
The group names their newly formed guild the BellRow Troubleshooters.
Comments