Iron Kingdoms Roleplay - Session Eight

For those of you who haven't been keeping up you can find earlier sessions and background material in here. The stats of the player characters can be found here should you be interested and the rest of the 'Brotherhood of the Rail' mercenary companies NPC's backgrounds can be found here.

This weeks attendees would be Lieutenant Rafaldo Scorgiani (Steve's character), Martin's Warrior Priestess Danika Jansen, the Mechanik Bragg Halvard (Harry's character), Bradick Davalos (Andrew's character), My Ogrun 'Bosh' Skullsplitter with Captain Sebastian LaCroix (Toms character) temporarily moved to NPC status as he'll be GMing for the next few sessions...

Note - Tom was GMing and obviously had notes and intro bits written down so I've just pasted them into this article directly so they'll be in a 'reading to the group' style. This'll save me a lot of time writing out again things he'd already got written and hopefully wont effect your reading enjoyment too much bouncing between the two styles of writing.

Mission Seven - 'A Strange Choice for Diplomacy...'
The officers of the Brotherhood have left Tarna behind and have journeyed to Corvis where they have been given yet another 'interesting' task on behalf of their employers...

Introduction.
Your journey to Corvis while far from dull as you traverse the newly created “Frontier line” is largely uneventful. Nerves are tense aboard the train, for those who have seen action in the war especially, but all the crew feel nervous as you approach the city of ghosts. 

Mere hours from the station Sebastian calls the higher ups in the Brotherhood for a meeting. The office is unusually tidy and in place of the usual charute butts and empty bottles bullet casings and charcoal stubs lie on the side table.

Sebastian directs attention to a map on the table, the charcoal etched parchment shows the area around Corvis, and seems have been created by the captain himself. “You all know why this company was created,” Sebastian pauses and moves to pour a drink, “we are the military arm for the Transcontinental Rail Company, however as the Railway expands the company has greater need of foot holds of it's own across Immoren. Our liaison in Corvis is to task us with building such a stronghold in the Blood Marches. However before this can occur we will need to generate a considerable number of resources.  Corvis is the last bastion of civility (albeit barely) before the desolation of the wastes, you are tasked with acquiring the resources necessary.”

“I myself have business within the city so I have made arrangements for you too meet with an old colleague (passes note to Rafaldo). In my absence the Lieutenant will be in charge. Our success in this venture will directly correlate to the resources you are able to provide us. Use your wits, bargain what you must within reason, trade in any favours you have. Adieu”

With a curt nod Sebastian exits the carriage.

Editors Note - Each person in the group was passed a note by our GM with some information on it relevant to their characters. Mine had information relating to bounty hunting opportunities in the area. The others apparently had some information about contacts they may have in town based on their respective character backgrounds...

The city of ghosts in a strange city built across The Black River where it meets it's tributary the Dragon’s Tongue. As a result large parts of the city are built over water and in many places bridges and travel by foot are the only way to reach certain locations. The newly built station lies on the western bank of the river. scaffolding still clings to the building and a small army of gobbers and local builders see to it's finishing touches. 

The group were provided with promissory notes on behalf of the Transcontinental Railway allowing them to make moderate uses of the companies money and resources as well as having access to their usual available requisition-able company items. The aforementioned contact information from Sebastian was given into Rafaldo's care and a plan of action was debated...

Rather than overcomplicate issues it was decided that they would reach out to their own respective contacts and representatives of organisations they were members of or affiliated to in turn and see what help they could get with the minimum of effort and then after that if other resources were needed they'd start contacting others in order to fill any shortfall. In practical terms this meant the church of Morrow, the Order of Fraternal Wizardry and the contact provided by their captain.

The Temple of Morrow.

The temple stands proudly atop a small hill in the eastern quarter of the city. The region shows little of its former prosperity with many of the former town houses now little more than tenements teeming with refugees and immigrants. The proximity to the church and it's charity draws them here, and the increased guard presence from the nearby watch barracks makes the locals feel safe.

The holy palace itself lacks the lustre normally associated with the lord of goodness and light, yet still the building is a true wonder it's dome rising high above all other buildings in the quarter.  Two mighty warjacks stand stoically guarding the entrance but they appear to have seen better days. 

Having no interest whatsoever in human religions and knowing that Danika is more than capable of looking after herself Bosh decides to wait outside the temple while she and the others go and discuss matters with the local priest who introduces himself as Barden Kerr.

The priest is full of tales of woe about the terrible state that the town of Corvis is in. There are many refugees seeking assistance at the temple and the amount of charity required far outweighs their ability to help and this has had the knock-on effect of increasing levels of crime and gang activity in the area. There has also been an unusual phenomenon of terrible nightmares experienced by many people across the entire city of ghosts. Despite the strain on the church currently the priest offers financial assistance and allocation of building materials towards the building of the new fortress on the condition that it is dedicated to Morrow. He also hints that some military aid might be available should the overall situation in the area be improved in some way but that currently such resources are needed to ensure the safety of the temple. Additionally he responded to enquiries about possible labour sources with a warning about the untrustworthiness of the local union of labourers. Danika then came up with an interesting alternative solution to the labour issue...

Danika put to the priest the idea that those refugees and destitute individuals around the temple might be willing to provide some labour in exchange for food and blankets as these were resources that the rail company had in more than sufficient quantities. She reasoned that this would alleviate some of the pressures on the Morrowan church, help occupy the refugees as well as instil some pride back in them. She also implied that any who showed particular promise might gain long term employment. Seeing the wisdom in this idea the priest assured them that he would implement the scheme as soon as possible. Danika also gained access to the temples library for herself thrown into the deal as they would apparently be in Corvis for some months as well as getting her primary weapon and Bosh's blessed in exchange for the promise of dealing with the nightmarish atmosphere currently haunting Corvus...

With access to additional building materials, free (or relatively free) labour and the possibility of military support Danika and the rest felt that they'd gained all the assistance from this location that they were likely to get and it was time to move on.

The Fraternal Order of Wizardry.

The headquarters of the Order of Wizardry is apparently open only to those with magical powers so Rafaldo asks Bosh to wait outside and being even less interested in magic than he is religion he happily obliges and instead waits at the nearest tavern. The story here courtesy of the orders representative Benedict mirrors that of the Morrowan temple including references to the terrible nightmares suffered by much of the populace and the ever present issues of gang violence, poverty and the massive influx of refugees as well as a bizarre increase in suicides and disappearances.

The expected haggling over favours in return for aid results in an offer of magical assistance but as with the priests the expected payment is the removal of whatever is currently haunting the city and Benedict suggests that they begin their investigation in the area near Filcher’s Crossing. There's is also the offer of significant financial aid directly in proportion with the level that the cities issues can be dealt with. Seeing the same opportunity for personal gain as Danika did with her Church, Rafaldo negotiates himself the potential for access to some higher magical learning should they succeed in their task.

Now with the possibility of magical help in addition to the material, labour and spiritual guidance provided by the church it seems that progress on the new fortress could be sped considerably and it's defences would also be supplemented. Now it just remained to be seen what Sebastian's mysterious contact could add to the mix.

Draegyn.
The back alleys of Corvis are no place to wander uninvited. Scarred faces leer from windows and raised voices can be heard from all around, either arguing or revelling. The closer you come to Draegyn’s offices the quieter the city become, almost as if it respects the man.

A red stained door stands out in the dim street, a stylised pistol etching has been made across the wood work. 

The door is answered by two Ogrun 'Men at Arms' wearing armour and carrying halberds. It's possible that they would have been quite imposing to any-one who didn't routinely accompany Bosh Skullsplitter. The group is escorted to an office at the top of a flight of stairs where a man with the air of one used to being obeyed is sitting casually behind a desk.

“The Llalesian sent you then? You ain't his usual crowd at no mistake. What can I do you for?”

Bosh was well aware of the reputation of the gentlemen with which they were now dealing and judging from the attitudes of his fellow Brotherhood officers several of them must also have recognised him. When some-one is known as 'The Black Bastard' you can gather fairly quickly that he's not some-one to be trifled with.

After some careful and unusually polite (by their normal standards at least) negotiations Draegyn offers access to a few of his contacts in exchange for chief import and export rights through the new fort and a favour he can cash in later. He also implies that there will be far less unfortunate incidents befalling the project should he be one of it's supporters.

Rafaldo also asked for some enquiries to be made relating to some family issues though what these were he was keeping between the contact and himself. It seemed that he had somehow gained the impression that Draegyn might have access to information useful to him and had seemingly made some side deal for the information.

Editors Note - It may seem that we're a bunch of self centred assholes but we don't actually screw over our fellow Brotherhood officers...very often...we just don't always announce to every-one when we find something valuable, lol.

As the others were leaving Bosh also enquired if there was any 'work' that he might want doing while they were in town and was given a short list of names together with unfortunate events that Draegyn would be happy to have befall them ranging from the unpleasant to the permanent. Bosh promised to look into arranging the specified accidents as soon as they'd sorted out the more immediate issues of the potential source for the nightmares, suicides and disappearances given to them by Benedict at the Order of Wizardry.

Editors Note - Bosh has a somewhat flexible attitude to hurting, maiming and/or killing people as long as they're not his current employer or their immediate allies.

Act Two - Filcher’s Crossing.

The world below Corvis is even more astounding than the city above. Great catacombs and sewers systems snakes their way beneath the streets. Filchers crossing is a small fords across the river shallow enough for row boats and even strong swimmers and as such is favoured by the lower class of the city as a method for crossing the Black. It is also the entrance to the under-city. 

The mouth of the under city is a great archway carved into the natural limestone of the bank. The tunnel beyond stretches to an eerie underground horizon. The only visible sights are the walkways along each side of the sewer inlet and a few of the city's support struts each elegantly carved in stone with gargoyles and grotesques leering all around.

After the usual debate over how to approach the upcoming investigation it was decided that we'd hire a water going raft capable of supporting the weight of us and a laborjack which Bragg would go and borrow from the three we had available back at our base of operations. This would give us some extra armoured support should the worst occur and some help with obstacle removal also. As this was going to take a bit of time Bosh took the opportunity to journey to the local town militia office to see what bounties were available should he have any spare time available to him later.

As it turned out there were four criminals currently with bounties posted for them and in a happy coincidence two of these were also on Draegyn's list of targets. This rather usefully meant that with a bit of careful planning Bosh could get paid twice for them with the other two being a job for afterwards. By the time he returned to the muster point so had Bragg and they all set off to explore the under-city...

The Under-City.
The raft was easily large enough to hold the group, their equipment and the laborjack though several of the group noted that Bragg had bought one of the companies generic 'jacks rather than his own...apparently he was unwilling to risk his own equipment on the trip underground...

Also pretty much everyone with the exception of Bosh was filled with a feeling of trepidation and dread upon entering the underground tunnels. Once they'd all settled down a bit the sailing duties were shared between Bradick and Rafaldo and off they all went...

Editors Note - Many Willpower tests were failed and re-rolled at this point and at regular intervals from this point onwards. Bosh isn't actually much higher in Willpower than the rest...he just rolled better...

After some time several of the more observant Brotherhood members noticed movement around the edges of the boat and when they moved to take a closer look something leapt from the water slashing at those closest to it before leaping upon the 'jack on deck. It quickly grew indistinct and ghostly before seemingly melding into companies recently borrowed laborjack...A moment later the 'jack began to move...

Having never encountered anything like this before the group had no idea how to deal with it so defaulted to their usual tactic of hitting things as hard as they could...

Blows against the insubstantial form of the controlling creature seemed to be completely ineffective though hits against the 'jack seemed to cause some minor damage to it via some kind of unexplained connection. However the damage being passed on was so trivial that the laborjack itself would be destroyed before the creature controlling it. Bragg then attempted to use his 'jack marshalling abilities to regain control and after a hard struggle the strange wraith's form was forced from it. Despite this small victory it soon became apparent that only the weapons blessed by the priest earlier were capable of harming the strange monstrosity and eventually Danika and Bosh managed to destroy it despite it's shield of intangibility. Before the thing could be examined it evaporated away into nothing more than a cloud of noxious gas...

Editors Note - Obviously it was a Machine Wraith but our characters had never encountered one so wouldn't have been able to identify it as such. It did explain why we were allowed access to blessed weapons earlier though...

Rafaldo and Bradick struggled to regain control of the now out of control raft while Bragg re-established full control of the recently rebellious 'jack. The area they were travelling through began to show signs of unusual modifications. Strange glowing cables protruded from the walls, odd coloured liquids were mixed with the water and the atmosphere became more depressing and oppressive. Suddenly without warning Bosh turned and swung his Warcleaver at Bradick but a moment before cleaving him into two pieces seemed to gain momentary control of himself and dropped the weapon...unfortunately the momentum of the blow still struck him with considerable force and sent him sprawling across the deck before the Ogrun fell to his knees and promptly evacuated his stomach of his last meal...and possibly the one before as well...Something very powerful had evidently made it's corrupted base in the under-city and it seemed able to spread that corruption to others also...

The further they advanced the more on edge they became and had to stop on several occasions for Brotherhood members to pull themselves together before they could move on. After several more pauses they reached a point where they're forced to abandon the transport and move along on foot...

Editors Note - Willpower tests apparently hated us all that day...

Some distance head they arrive at a door with several strange symbols on it's centre that none of them recognise. Before any-one can investigate two creatures burst through the door and charged towards them...

These adversaries might once have been human but now their pale but muscular bodies were riddled with strange sockets and tubes, their hands had been replaced with primitive but effective melee weapons and their heads were concealed behind strange metal masks covering their entire skulls. At least the investigators now had an opponent they could tackle head on and managed to butcher these new aberrations in short order without even needing Bosh to strike a blow. They were filled with a new found confidence...if this was the best their enemies had to offer then they should have little problem clearing this city beneath Corvus...this confidence was soon to be shattered though...

The area ahead was filled with strange machinery whose purpose was a mystery even to their engineer Bragg. Beyond the clutter was another door though this one was far more heavily constructed and was quite clearly designed to prevent entry by even the most determined interloper. Bradick however seemed confident that he could destroy the locks with an acidic concoction of some kind and proceeded to attempt to create something potent enough to weaken or destroy them...

As the doors locking mechanism was destroyed the door itself burst open and a pair of monstrosities that dwarfed those previously encountered emerged through it. Some distance behind them three leather clad figures could be vaguely discerned...

Bosh charged into the first of the gigantic creatures and struck it a blow that would have reduced most opponents to paste or split them in half. Imagine his surprise when the creature not only didn't die...but didn't seem to notice the wound either...

The others also charged in but most of their blows deflected from the monsters armour or did no damage at all and their predicament was further complicated by blasts of magical energy projected towards them by the shadowy figures lurking in the background. Realising that they couldn't do much damage to the abominations Rafaldo attempted to distract those he perceived to be their controllers with a concussive blast of magic and Bradick hurled an incendiary grenade over the melee but it unfortunately fell short of them though it's possible the flames might be inconveniencing for them albeit slightly. The creature not engaged by Bosh seemed slightly less well armoured and Danika, supported by Braggs 'jack were making some progress against it after enhancing her abilities with a magical blessing which she also cast upon the Ogrun Bosh. Rafaldo's constant barrage of magic was also succeeding in keeping their opponents all off balance and minimising their ability to use their own magical abilities in return.

With the benefit of Danika's blessing each of Bosh's blows struck home and every wound bit deeper than before, the mysterious leather clad opponents were reduced to a single member as Rafaldo's spells blasted them from their feet and into the walls and each other and despite receiving  several unpleasant wounds the Brotherhood were close to victory and then almost simultaneously killing blows were struck upon all their remaining opponents with the oppressive atmosphere clearing almost immediately upon the death of the last of their mysterious enemies...

In order to prove the success of their mission Bosh gathered up as much evidence as possible of their assailants (and took a few souvenirs of the encounter for himself to commemorate the first worthy opponent he'd fought since joining the Transcontinental Rail Companies mercenaries) while Bradick helped himself to some of the chemicals scattered around with the others investigating the cavernous laboratory in which they now found themselves. Undoubtedly the masses of equipment had some use to those they had killed but none of the party could ascertain what that purpose was. Seeing no further point in remaining longer than they had to they departed to report the success of their operation to those parties who might be interested and grateful.

Epilogue.

After an uneventful return journey they reported their success to the Morrowan temple gaining additional support and the promised military aid, Draegyn was also suitably impressed that their was one less threat to his position to be concerned about and finally the Order of Wizardry in addition to the promised support also was willing to pay well for the salvaged evidence of the neutralised attackers from the under-city. Bosh took Sebastian's share to hand to him later despite some vague implications from his colleagues that he didn't really warrant a share as he wasn't actually there to help.

Danika also informed the Menite Temple of their findings as despite their religious differences she felt they should be made aware of what was going on beneath the city...or possibly it was her way of proving the superiority of her own temple over theirs. Either way they seemed grateful for the information...regardless of it's source or the intent behind it.

It seemed like the aid required for the building of the fortress was complete and as many of the cities factions as possible had promised their support. Now if the others would just leave him alone for a bit Bosh could get some bounty hunting done...and unlike the last time hopefully not have to split it four ways...

Back to Reality.
This was an interesting mission overall and the diplomatic parts were a nice change of pace.

The amount of time we're spending in this city (as far as our characters are concerned at least) is to allow every-one time to acquire equipment that can only be bought in large cities or that needs time to be built as up to this point there was no way for us to spend money on such items due to only being in each locality for a few days.

I (for example) have purchased some mechanikal equivalents of my existing gear and I believe several of the others are using the time to justify learning abilities and spells that require time and resources to gain.

Those of you who follow both the campaigns and the character development may have noticed some significant differences in spending habits. Essentially my Ogrun is only interested in weapons and armour so as soon as enough money is acquired to upgrade them he does so, Bragg and Danika are petty much saving every coin as they are saving up for 'jack upgrades and Warcaster armour respectively so will probably fall behind in equipment standards of the rest in the beginning until one day they're poor as anything but very well equipped indeed, lol. Bradick will need his money for parts for his alchemical experiments (once used they need replacing unlike a melee weapon which once purchased lasts indefinitely). Not sure what Rafaldo is saving for...maybe he's just a hoarder, lol.

I'm quite looking forward to Tom's next stint at GMing during this campaign...

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.