Prequel to The Enemy Within
Episode 11 - “A Secure Deal”
2/21/2020 Post-Game Notes
Day 13 (16th overall; 10th on the job) - early afternoon on Geheimnistag, 2512 IC
Crew wraps up celebration at Raspy Raven and heads back to the Red Moon Inn in the late afternoon.
RMI: what’s with all the meat pies? Even Franz is eating one… at a table with… Karsten Rugger?
Franz explains that Karsten is working on the rowboat escape following the big birthday blowout. Karsten sees Kris, makes the connection, and expresses his admiration for the great boat captain. “I’ll wager you’re ex-Imperial Navy, aren’t you…?”
- Kris gets his Landsman > Seaman career hook
Some halflings came through selling meat pies, a long way from their usual spot at the Marktplatz. The Crew investigates and they see Stickybun Lowhaven and his partner slinging pies by the dock. Stickybun motions for Karl.
Stickybun offers an information exchange with the one member of the Crew who seems the most accomplished at tradecraft and information brokering. He tells Karl of a secret entrance into the old Iron Market, part of the Khalzilgirt directly under Barlin Silverbeard’s building. In exchange, he wants Karl to work on locating the secret entrance -- rumored to be in the Artisan Quarter somewhere -- into Christophe’s tower.
- Karl gets his Informer > Spy career hook
Off to the Dawihafen to meet Barlin. In a meeting in his office, flanked by lots of heavily armed dwarves, Barlin claims to be the aggrieved party. Then, as a peace offering/bribe, in order to keep “the Watch” out of his affairs, he offers each member of the Crew 10 shillings and, if they come back tomorrow, a couple “packages” that his gang rescued from some mutants.
Crew accepts the offer, and then head to Axe & Hammer to recruit a dwarf to help them steal back their bomb from the ‘Girt. They find Borbor and Mulgad (the engineers who were jumped by the “mutants”) and manage to convince Borbor to accompany them into the secret entrance behind the statue of Sigmar.
Large open chamber (the old Iron Market) with a warning on a nearby column in Khazalid. Borbor translates: “Even the mightiest mountain crumbles in time / But where we stand / Dwarven steel holds the line.” Refers to a chain of spiked/pressure-plate trap along the northwest perimeter of the chamber, cutting off access to the far exit. Only Kris’s nimble feet and athleticism prevent him from getting skewered.
After scouring the chamber and finding no other traps, Crew find the slot in the wall that engages the locks to the traps. A parallel slot in the far corridor can lock the traps as well.
Trip wire discovered along a corridor: avoided. Crawl continues.
Locked rooms; staircase leading to what sounds like Barlin’s offices; rubble-blocked passages; and an office-type space with a massive, intricately crafted vault door.
Karl with his acute hearing detects voices seemingly calling for help on the other side of the vault door.
Kris breaks down one of the locked doors and they discover the two cluster bombs!
Borbor and nimble-fingered Kris tasked with repurposing the blackpowder from one of the bombs in order to blow the vault door off its hinges. The rest of the Crew hide beyond the tripwired corridor leading to the main chamber.
BOOM. As the smoke clears, Kris and Borbor find three coughing, gasping prisoners in the vault. A fourth prisoner is dead. They try to lead them to the rest of the Crew and outside to safety. Meanwhile, shouts and commotion upstairs assume a prompt visit from dwarf gangsters.
Many dwarf gangsters, actually. Some armed with crossbows, and one with a blunderbuss. Barlin runs into the vault chamber to see what happened, and the others pursue the Crew and the prisoners.
Kris takes a crossbow bolt in the back, then scoops up the remaining bomb (strong back!) and runs for the exit. Godabert and Karl do their best to herd the confused and terrified prisoners towards the far exit as well. Beau acts as a bottleneck against the onrushing dwarves: parrying, attacking, and disengaging in champion fashion.
Karl runs ahead, preparing to release the floor trap locks as soon as the Crew is clear.
Beau parries a final blow, then jumps clear just as Karl yanks the sword from the wall and the stones in the floor quiver back to deadly life! The Crew, and the poor prisoners, rush to the far exit, the staircase, and safety… while Barlin’s gang struggle to reload crossbows, blackpowder weapons, or look for someone with a sword to jab into the wall.
Interlude:
Something about the cold night air, the swirling wind, and the oppressive luminescence of the twin moons seems to have shocked coherence back into the minds of the three merchants. With minimal encouragement, the Crew leads the group briskly across the smooth stone streets of the Dawihafen towards the river.
Borbor breaks off close to the northern edge of the district. “I’m going back to the Axe & Hammer. There will still be dwarves there, and it’s important that as many of us as possible learn of what happened as quickly as possible.”
“Do you want one of us to go with you?” asks Godabert. “Not me, but someone else?”
“I’ll be fine. Hurry. Get these three to the Watch and seek refuge. The sooner that the dwarven and human authorities are alerted, the better chance that Barlin and his thugs will be encouraged to go underground.”
“We blew up their underground.” Karl offers helpfully.
“Figuratively, Karl. Figuratively.” Kris stops and thinks. “Of course… I wonder how far that network of Barlin’s runs down there?”
* * *
En route to the Precinct, the Crew makes quick acquaintances of the merchants they saved: a bald man named Kahl, a furious red-faced man named Hitzkoph, and a stout woman named Emagunda. Theda, the fourth merchant, had been too close to the blast, it seems, and perished. All four of them, along with Kurlass Meingott, had invested gold with Barlin for a deal on dwarven-wrought iron coming from Karak Azgaraz.
Meingott pulled out of the deal about a week ago, right after telling Barlin and the other merchants that the Watch had been alerted to possible illegalities surrounding this enterprise. According to Barlin, Kurlass was trying to trick the other merchants into relinquishing their stake, and none of them could find Kurlass in the interim to corroborate either side of the story.
Then, earlier today, messengers sent by Barlin insisted that each of the remaining merchants assemble at Barlin’s office to deposit their final investment and sign the paperwork on the deal. Apparently, as soon as the paperwork was signed (a good deal of which was written in Khazalid, but dismissed as “standard inconsequential stuff”), the merchants were forced into the vault. They had been in there for almost ten hours, sucking the oxygen from the chamber with their screams, before the Crew blew off the door.
After the merchants tell their story to the Watch agents on duty, and receive assurances that Sgt. Maisel or Cptn. Pfeiffer will follow up with them in the morning, they are told to wait for an available patrol team that can escort them home.
“Why can’t these men take us home?” growls Hitzkoph.
“Oh, well…” one of the watchmen begins to explain.
“Because we don’t do bitchwork for free anymore, prune-face. We saved your asses, and unless you’re planning on rewarding us, we’re going home and getting drunk.” Beau answers the question a bit more definitively.
“Yes… they aren’t watchmen. Any longer, that is,” finishes the actual watchman.
* * *
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