The Marble District, Session 3: In the Money
In the last session, the party:
- Made a cop step in shit
- Impersonated a doctor
- Stole an "impossible" blueprint
The Party:
- Ratspit, Homunculus Thief. Literally born two weeks ago.
- Silvius Ambrose, Tiefling Druid. Always smells strongly of woodsmoke.
- Thuddeus “Thud” Strongsteel, Dwarf Alloy Wizard. Can definitely be trusted with positions of power.
Keyday, 10 Malbrogia
In the morning, the crew decided to go view the execution of the notable serial killer known as the Scratcher. A huge swell of people surrounded the gallows as the Mercykillers escorted him to the noose. With the sack removed from his head and the noose around his neck, the Scratcher spoke: "you don't know what you've unleashed. Divination-" at which point he let out a strangled gag and bobbed up and down as the executioner pulled the lever, sending him falling to his death.
Immediately the crowd began to disperse, with people turning to each other and rating the execution. "Alright," said a sausage vendor, approaching the party, "but lacking flair, I thought. Buy a sausage? Hot sausage!"
Assenting, the PCs exchanged a silver piece (or stinger) for three sausages. Silvius swallowed his whole, Ratspit sucked on its like a lollipop, and Thud simply chewed his. Thus engaged, the party made their way away from the Old Gaolhouse Square and in the direction of Greens Terrace in the Clerks' Ward. Finding the address they'd been directed to, they stepped inside the bookshop of Amy Pevelham.
Without a care for secrecy, the characters laid out the manuscripts1 they'd looted on the front counter. Flipping through them, Amy jumped up from behind the desk, locked and bolted the door of the shop (flipping the sign to "closed" as she did so) and motioned for the PCs to follow her. Then, pulling on the bust of an obscure Ysgardian philosopher sitting on a shelf, she opened a stairway down to the shop's basement.
The cellar was comfortable, with a large bookshelf and leather armchairs. Sitting in the largest of these, Ms. Pevelham pulled a cord and closed the secret door at the top of the stairs. Then, negotiations commenced. Amy wanted to know where the books were from; Thud said, "we got them from... uh, a friend who didn't want their name disclosed." Rolling with it, Amy got down to bargaining.
"I'll give you 15 jinx2 for them."
"23," Thud counter-bargained.
"17."
"21."
"19. No higher."
Lowest I'll go is 20 gold," said Thud.
"Fine. 20 it is."
"And throw in one of those sexy books!" Ratspit demanded.
"And one romance novel, fine. You drive a hard bargain," Ms. Pevelham said, unlocking her lockbox and deactivating the magic that warded it.
Money (and romance novel - Ravaged by the Incarnation of Avernus who is also Rich, by Duck Bingle) in hand, the party returned to their tenement apartment. As they walked through the door their housemate Cooper Brunt (a young gnome and courier) accosted them. "Hold this to your ear," he said to Silvius, handing him an ear trumpet and rushing up the stairs. Bewildered, he complied.
Suddenly, he heard Cooper's voice, staticky but loud, in his ear. "Can you hear me?"
Silvius spoke into the trumpet end, "woah! Pooper,3 how'd you do that?"
Thud grabbed the trumpet and inspected it. It was mostly composed of copper, with rings of gold on both ends. Also, it smelled like magic.4 Cooper, descending the stairs, said, "pretty cool, eh? Not blood work, maybe, but close. Let me show the dark of it," he said, motioning them upstairs.
Following him, they went up to the top of the tenement's rickety stairs and into the small room he shared with his mother. "Shhh," he said, "she's sleeping. Don't disturb her." Crouching on the floor, he showed the group his "workshop" - a blanket on the floor covered in scavenged tools and materials. Collectively, the PCs had a realization: if Cooper could make what was essentially a telephone with this quality of tools, two things were probably true. First, he would be capable of even more impressive things with proper funding. Second, he could probably make sense of the blueprint the crew had looted from the Harmonium.
Thud raced down to the party's room to grab the blueprint while Silvius and Ratspit stayed with Cooper, then brought it back. After a few moments inspecting it, Cooper said, "oh yeah I could make that, but I don't have time with my job. And even if I did, I don't have the resources I'd-"
"We'll finance you," Thud said on impulse. "How much would you need?"
"Ah, 1 jinx a week, but-"
"Done. Anything else?"
"Uh, I'd need a crystal prism, and some jeweler's tools. You're really willing to do this for me?" Cooper asked.
"Well not for free of course," Thud said, as Ratspit drew up a contract on a scrap of paper, "but we see great promise in you, Cooper. You'll go far with our help."
Cooper, stunned, absentmindedly signed the contract he was handed.5 "It may take me a few weeks to get things working, but I'll give you regular updates. Thank you!"
The group, patting Cooper (and themselves) on the back, went down to the bar in the tenement's cellar to celebrate.
Reflection
It has taken me nearly 3 months to write this session report. Oops! Oh well. It's done now.
I'm very excited to see where this will go. The players are starting to dip their toes into the pool of Exploitative Business Practices, which is going to be fun. I'm going to try to go back to a faster pace - no more of this single day per session business. Hopefully we can finish the first Season in the next few sessions, and then develop things from there.