Back on Prison Island, Sorrow [Jeff] and El Cid [Shane] had work to do.
 |
| Teleport glass |
[Post-game DM check: It turned out this had not actually been done! So, rather than rewind time, which would have made a narrative mess (because so much depended on this), I just allocated 4 stress between the two. Which El Cid took.]
The past week, El Cid had been debasing and shaming himself by being Second Lieutenant Sharples' little bitch. This was to try to get into her good books ... which he was achieving remarkably.
They also spoke to Michael Stringfellow himself. It turned out that he was in the prison to protect himself. He was threatened by several parties in Scabport, and the prison provided some protection. No-one would be brave enough to harm him here...
______________________________________________
Just before light, they burst into his cell, screaming.
"There's an attack!" screamed El Cid. "The prison is under attack! Quickly, hold this, and break it. It will make you invisible."
[Shane rolled a 6 for COMMAND.]
Michael Stringfellow, dopey from sleep, grabbed the hourglass from Sorrow's sweaty hand, and broke it in half, as instructed.
There was a loud BANG! and a concussive whomp as air rushed in to fill the void where Michael Stringfellow was.
El Cid and Sorrow sat around, their ears ringing.
Across the water, in the Adventuress and Bugbear inn, Tylin [Ian] and Ronny [Deacon] were just thinking about breakfast, when, suddenly, there was an all-mighty BANG, and a concussive blast at their end. Michael Stringfellow materialized in the room.
(When someone teleports, the mass transfer from source to destination occurs at relativistic speeds. Consequently, and so there isn't a big explosion or violations of Pauli's exclusion principle at the destination, the teleporting person needs to materialize into a true vacuum, therefore all matter that is in the target space needs to be pushed out of the way. This volume displacement is designed to happen as fast as possible, so ends up being at the speed of sound of that medium. So, there is a loud bang.)
Michael was a little stunned from his trip, both with shock and physiologically (he gets the "backwash" from the concussion blast in his ear-drums), so he stumbled about drunkenly.
Ronny recovered faster and launched himself at the poor soul, and dropped him down with a single blow to the head.
Then Tylin went back to the party lair, fetched Carte Blanche and then they both smuggled the unconscious Stringfellow back to their lair, and put him into the unfinished Faraday cell room.
Back in the prison, El Cid and Sorrow swept up the few bits of stray glass from the broken teleport glass, and then secreted it, and the stone-look camouflage cloak into one of the prison guard's lockers. They chose guard Hopeless Henry, in an attempt to frame him.
Then, just after light, the normal daily exercising of prisoners began. Michael Stringfellow's cell was on the end of the block, so he was normally first to be exercised. So, it wasn't long before he was discovered missing, and the alarm was sounded.
Second Lieutenant Sharples was furious, as expected. She summoned all the guards, both the sleeping and awake, and then everyone thoroughly searched the entire prison. For hours.
The Morning boat arrived, so she reluctantly sent back dispatches telling of the dreadful news to the Knives.
.
This was not good. A missing prisoner, and under her command.
_____________________________________
Rita updated the group with news from the REAL temple.
But even she could not get accurate information about Igor Lightmouth. The Tier Two priests were caring for him, and they weren't revealing his exact status. But even in the REAL temple, rumours abounded: Igor was either vanished, insane, sick, dead, his mind gone, or his soul had been consumed and he was now just a mindless husk. But it was not looking good.
The squabbling had already started for Igor's replacement. Igor's favourites High Priests Joseph Bullock and Richard Dial were likely contenders to be the new Most High. The third Tier Two, High Priestess Lilli Caswell was not in the running.
Around lunchtime, Lieutenant Anton Chung summoned the group (via the Luscious Pixie notice board). Tylin, Huilam [Jamie] and Grey Wacke [Jeff2] went to the Scabport Town Council HQ visit him.
"Good work, you lot," said Chung. "I won't ask where Stringfellow is, but send me proof of death. Then we can sign off on your fee."
 |
| Lieutenant Anton Chung |
Huilam nodded.
"The entire guard of the prison has been replaced by interim forces," Chung continued. "It is not every day that someone escapes from Prison Island. Whatever is the world coming to? Second Lieutenant Sharples and the other prison guards are all down in our cells now, getting a good 'debriefing'. Including your Black-eyed Creep and Mister Thicky."
"Sorrow and El Cid," said Huilam.
"Quite," said Chung. "I'll make sure they don't get too badly beaten."
Chung continued.
"Last night. Last night it was quiet in the Graveyard. The REALs and undead didn't cause any trouble, so the bosses upstairs have authorized a couple of wagon loads of silver for you lot, for that job. But if the war relapses, well, we won't be pleased. Best you don't leave town.
And I don't want to send Mr and Mrs Spank on another trip to Bottom land. Or Mr and Mrs Cudgel to Knee-cap land.
Next, I want you to ask your Rita to see if she can pressure the REALs to get Lilli promoted to be the REAL top-dog. You lot just might be able to achieve that."
Huilam smiled rather thinly.
____________________________
Back at base, in the new Faraday cell (which was yet to be commissioned, so wasn't actually detection-proof yet), a few of the party "questioned" the hapless Michael Stringfellow. They managed to get out of him that yes he was a scabotanist, and yes he had developed the yellow scab, and yes, it wasn't too hard to do.
Huilam, Tylin and Grey Wacke arrived back. And so the death order was issued.
Moonlight agreed to do the deed, so he humanely executed Michael Stringfellow (using toad excretions to minimize any pain), and then decapitated him.
The head was sent to Chung. That ought to be proof enough.
Later that afternoon, Sorrow and El Cid arrived home. They were both sporting black-eyes, and swollen lips. El Cid nursed a broken collar bone and Sorrow's knee cap was smashed.
And then the three treasure wagons from the Knives arrived. A total of 36 COIN. (25 for the Wraith King-REAL war and 11 for Michael Stringfellow).
[ So we had a Downtime.
The group decided to increase their Crew's Tier. From Tier 1 to Tier 2. In game mechanics, this costs 8 times the new Tier level. i.e. 16 COIN.
Huilam's Faraday cage was finally completed but it needs to be ensorcelled - requires aid from the Wizards' Guild. And they also got a new extended Vault - now able to hold 16 COIN on premises - sort of like a treasure room.
They also talked about getting a new Hidden Lair (since the current one's location was known to Rita, the Elwins, the Insular Rogues, and the vampires). But this idea had to be abandoned, because it would mean both of the Vault upgrades and the Faraday cage would all need to be started over again from scratch. Those things are all permanent fixtures of a building, so can't be shifted when you go to a new lair.
We also had a hearty (player-driven) discussion regarding the participation of multiple characters per player, and how missing a week or two or three would affect treasure and experience distribution at the end. ]
