Act VIII: Under Scrutiny
In which the Nameless attempt to out-maneuver Render’s forces.
Didn’t-Make-It-Out Mine
At Irag’s request, the Nameless sought to GET TO THE BOTTOM of the murder of Breaker, Chosen of the Immortal Emperor! They were gonna get some VIGILANTE JUSTICE done and CATCH THE REAL KILLERS.
. . . Didn’t the Nameless murder Breaker?
No, shut up. If you read the carefully-prepared and definitely-not-tampered-with evidence, you will find that it was Joseph Woodward employing a shell company to make electroplasmic weaponry!
Okay but that whole narrative only exists on paper. Render wants bodies. How do you get around that?
Simplicity itself!
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Frame the Spider and the Clockmaker as the power behind the shell company, using a (tampered) receipt.
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Sizzle and Cruncho play patsy/insider Nameless, who are just doing their best to help Render catch these assassins. And wouldn’t you know it, they have hunted down A CHOSEN-KILLING WEAPON (really a convincing Arkin/Cruncho fake), which was going to one of
threetwo mysteeeeerious labs! The game is afoot! -
Arrive at lab one, which Linmer has rigged to EXPLODE IMMEDIATELY! None of the six Black Knights nor dozen Crows dispatched die, but Sizzle and Cruncho take the burn and “prove” their loyalty. On to the second location!
This doesn’t seem like it’s simplicity itself . . .
That’s what Maurice Wilkes said in 1951, BUT NOW WE HAVE MICROPROCESSORS SO CHECKMATE MFER. Anyway . . .
Okay, sheesh. Second location?
Yes, the SECOND location! An agreed upon ambush point between the Nameless, the Spider (who wants to just murder as many of the Emperor’s servants as possible), the Horned One (who wants to get their buddies out of the stone prison under the waves AND murder as many of the Emperor’s servants as possible)! Located in the ruins of Skydagger Keep (read Band of Blades), where the Immortal Emperor crushed the final legion of his foes (and whose ghosts have been haunting Duskwall and primed for just this situation)!
ALSO the location of Makeout Mine, now a thriving spot for teenagers to make their first fumbling attempts at mutually dealing with their rampant hormones.
Wait wait wait, so this ambush was going to happen amidst a bunch of teens making out?
It MIGHT have, but Linmer and Orianna heroically harshed the vibe! When Render’s forces arrived (with Sizzle and Cruncho in tow), the two grown adults were getting beaten up by angry teens, who fled upon seeing the fuzz arrive.
Okay, so how did the actual ambush happen?
All the fuck over the place! Kind of a lot happened in a short period of time. First, Irag was alerted to the fact that Linmer was not a normal old man getting beaten up by teens, which caused Arkin to activate Mousewing the Fighting Robit. THEN the damn Legion ghosts started rallying. This caused Irag to split his forces, sending all but six of the Crows into the mine and leaving the rest to rip apart Linmer and Mousewing. At the cost of a ripped-apart Mousewing, a well-placed ricocheting bullet from Sizzle, and an ear, Linmer was able to get away.
As the rest of Render’s forces charged into the tunnel, they found themselves boxed in by ambushing ghost soldiers, the Spider, the Horned One, and Orianna’s management of these. The Spider and the Horned One took out Irag, and the Nameless kept the other forces occupied . . .
And then, at the right moment, they hit a combo attack! Orianna gave herself over to Vazara’s power (don’t worry, she’s . . . fine*)! Arkin collapsed the mine with planted explosives and spirit-bottled the surviving ghost Legionaries! Fleeing Black Knights and Crows found themselves entrapped by ghost emotions and sticky traps, courtesy of Linmer. MAKEOUT MINE EXPLODED AND COLLAPSED.
* She is NOT FINE.
Damn, okay. So, were there any survivors? What’s the, ah, resolution here?
Well, 5 Crows made it out. Also, HEROICALLY INNOCENT Sizzle and Cruncho, who had NEARLY GIVEN THEIR LIVES TO TRACK DOWN THE FIENDISH SPIDER, staggered into Render’s headquarters beneath the sewers and reported all that had happened. With the Crows corroborating, Render now trusts the Nameless AND believes the Spider to be Breaker’s murderer, and will begin hunting her henceforth.
Okay, I thiiiink I get it? As long as there’s no other complicating detail-
SUCK MY ASS, NERD! The Horned One agreed to help the Nameless ONLY IF the other avatars of the old gods are freed from their prison beneath the waves (see #casta-explains-it-all , it’s a whole thing). Like, immediately. Like, IMMEDIATELY immediately. Like, NEXT-BUT-ONE SESSION immediately.
. . . have you ever felt like this overarching plot has gotten away from you a bit?
fuck yes I’m so fucking tired
Tales of Duskvol
Linmer and Cruncho search for new allies. The gang ensure Sizzle’s date with Valanthe goes smoothly. Mikh gets his dog back. Giancarlo welcomes new family.
At the Creak Tavern, a Skovlan bar at the Docks:
-Linmer TENTATIVELY made some connections with some dockworkers, and has furnished himself with an application process for potential crew.
-Cruncho has connected with Ulf Ironborn’s gang upon beating up and helping to disappear a Bluecoat.
-Jammer got into a fistfight with Margaret Clave, her former workplace enemy, and accidentally wingman’d Linmer with a member of the Skovlan nationalist Grinders.
At the Unnamed Arena
-Sizzle took Valanthe out on a date to see an underground theater production loosely based on the Nameless’ exploits (think “Our Town”, but for crime).
-Meanwhile, Arkin set up Viktoria Karhowl for a fall.
-These two threads converged in a mini-heist, during which Viktoria’s ghost was exorcised from Cole’s body and put into a small robotic walking table. This also involved a great deal of surgical work and ghost-suplexing, as Viktoria had wired Cole’s body with an automated Lugos sicko mode and associated embedded cybernetics. Cole Ardmore is now rescued, free of possession, and in the care of his sister Valanthe (who has really let her bluster down and opened up to Sizzle).
-Some stagehands were hired to play ninjas to help accentuate the ambiance of the date. It didn’t go well for the stagehands.
-Valanthe and Sizzle got to emotional third base (tearful revealing of emotional weakpoints and past traumas!)
-Arkin has suborned and rigged up Viktoria’s basement Lugos factory, using the Clockmaker’s OS.
-Neither the Spider nor Casta know about the Nameless’ involvement in either of these things.
In the Dimmer Sisters’ lair
-Cruncho, accompanied by Sizzle, freed Bhed the Wolf into the delighted embrace of Mikh.
-Render caught Cruncho’s Cinderblood, and Cruncho spilled all the beans on the Spider that he was capable of giving, including her likely nobility.
At the Nameless’ Lair
-Sizzle began a long-form investigation into how to (as per Caleb Hollow’s suggestion) find Joseph Woodward/her father’s sense of purpose and reveal aspects of his identity. This investigation involved uncovering that her father primarily remembered her and their home life through the lens of want and privation (perhaps a hint as to why he went full Seventh Tower?). After a few abortive attempts, the father/daughter duo tried out a cooking class with the Nameless’ own Giancarlo. While Giancarlo refused to use the forbidden arts of François to heal Woodward’s psyche, he DID agree to teach Woodward about cooking. This has led to a gradual healing of Woodward’s psyche, and Giancarlo has adopted Joseph Guiseppe Woodward as his son, and Rosie Roselina Woodward as his granddaughter.
-Cruncho, having shed his silver skeleton, freed Bhed the Wolf, prepared his body AND Blighter’s new body, was ready to die. Jammer enthusiastically beat him to death, allowing Blighter to take on her new physical existence and go in peace to destroy the world to the best of her ability. With Orianna using Vazaran magic to bind his spirit to his dead body, Cruncho has now awakened as a (Vazaran) vampire!
Better Class of Criminal
The Nameless successfully guarded the Pendryns and the Lord Governor himself from the machinations of The Croaker, aka Chuck Morgenstern in his new fucked-up alias.
-This was complicated by the presence of a Black Knight and a golden-masked Spirit Warden (formerly a Crow simply called “the Doctor”), the latter of which is lurking in the ghost field as we speak. The Billhooks provided a sort of self-sacrificing cover/fake attack while playing the decoy Nameless (thankfully without losing too many men in the process).
-The Spider nearly went ape at the party but was talked down by a very over-it Katya
-Sizzle had a relatively positive date/time at the party with Valanthe
-Cruncho made his way into the confines of the VIP room under the alias of Borgin Karhowl, Mysterious Heir, and was nearly cut into conversations between the Governor, a Black Knight named Svante, and a disguised Chuck Morgenstern about the fate of the city . . . Until the Croaker stuff happened.
-(Nat knows that Chuck has taken a turn but doesn’t fully believe it)
-Arkin guy-in-the-chair’d most of the operation, until explosively Kool-Aid-manning his way into action via wagon detonation
-Orianna intercepted Nat, distracted The Doctor, and engaged the Black Knight, but her greatest triumph was sabotaging the kitchen of Ignacio, the Canapé Chef (another hated rival to Giancarlo)
A Little Anarchy
The Nameless successfully saved the city from an attack by Chuck Morgenstern aka the Croaker, who was planning on blowing up the Bellweather Crematorium via hijacked Leviathan Hunter!
Wow! They’re heroes!
Don’t be stupid, they were in it for the money. In fact, they only got wind of the plot in the first place because they were planning on hijacking the same Leviathan Hunter (the Oriad’s Wake, formerly owned by the extinct Clelland family).
Oh . . . So, they got the money?
Kinda! Linmer took the Leviathan Hunter and sailed off to sea with a crew and an airship, for a semi-retirement of privateering on the high seas! This was with the tacit blessing of Nat Marseilles, half of whose face got burned off during the attempts to stop the Croaker.
One assumes this is a reference?
I mean, maybe. Sandro’s also just blown a fuse or two in the process of this fight, having invested some of the strange green liquid that the Croaker was providing his minions. Might wanna keep an eye on that. At least he and Nat might be friends again now!
Friendship! Yay!
Yay!
Quick Hits
-As part of his plan, the Croaker intended to blow up Ironhook Bridge (between Dunslough and Coalridge). Arkin thwarted this, but discovered that the bombs had been built by none other than the Clockmaker (who seems to be developing a bit of a rep as a bomb-maker for hire).
-As previously mentioned, Nat’s face was partially blown off in an explosion that also took out close to 20 Bluecoats. They’d been dispatched there by the Nameless’ warning. Nat appears to have gained a new, more fluid outlook on law and order as a result of this.
-Chuck Morgenstern/the Croaker had a small group of henchmen, who were willing to die for this mission on the basis that it would destroy the Bellweather Crematorium and gunk up the city’s major center for stopping ghosts from arising. This included Chuck’s estranged daughter, whom the Croaker redubbed “Charlie’s Sin” (say it fast and remember that she has a squeaky New Jersey accent).
-Sandro debuted the persona of Charon, a death-themed vigilante, for cover and general chicanery on this job. It started as a bit. After significant harm and trauma from his chemical mishaps and Croaker fight, it may not be a bit anymore.
A Grave Betrayal
The Graveyard Shift (the new rival gang) is basically eradicated, although Petrichor Norn (person-about-town and holder of another business-entrepreneur scroll) has escaped into the Tesseract of the Ghost Field.
-Katya’s mentor is in town and on some kind of student-improvement rampage. Office done got burnt. “A lover’s heart or a daughter’s love” is next.
-Sizzle must face the Trai’NuFood soon . . .
-Nat and Sandro might be about to prompt some mass-criminal civil war shiz
-Ty’s new character Carovitch turned out to be a Graveyard Shift double-agent and was shot in the head by Sizzle.
-The Clockmaker blew the shit out of Young Meachum’s Speakeasy and Eatery. The Younger Meachum’s now join the Nameless’ ever-growing Orphan Corps.
The Rending, Part I
As Render’s troops stage a hostile takeover of Duskvol, the Nameless create a worthy enemy for Render himself – and live-stream the subsequent cage match to the whole of the Empire.
-The Spider has been merged with Box-Blighter/Scurlock, and is in the midst of a truly Zach-Snyderian bout with Render in the middle of the Nameless Arena
-The Nameless have turned this into a full-on money-making opportunity and have collected 14 Coin from Render’s troops and members of the public, essentially putting a delay on the full-on fascist crackdown in Duskwall that is in progress
-THERE IS A FULL-ON FASCIST CRACKDOWN IN PROGRESS
-Cruncho has erased the basement Lugos factory from all municipal records, AND has seeded evidence that the Nameless have secretly been incredible charitable donators to the government
-Cruncho has another Spirit Warden corpse
-Jammer has slain Sven the Crow and, in the process, gone from being haunted by the Babadick to becoming the Babadick
-Katya introduced herself to Sam (Casta’s mom) shortly before the mega-Spider mortally wounded the Black Knight
-Lady Strangford is dead and Strangford Manor is blown up, both by the Spider’s hand
-People across the Empire are watching this fight through ghost-TV, including the Immortal Emperor
And most importantly. . .
This is all still in progress. Render and Blighter/Spider/Scurlock Splighterlock are still fighting. Our next session will, in-universe, be taking place at some point directly after this.
The Rending, Part II
While Render ultimately destroyed Scurlock/Blighter/the Spider in a not-particularly-close contest, the Nameless only went and installed their own Bluecoat Commander (aka chief of police), got a BUNCH of cops and Crows killed, blew up/mega-haunted a police station, AND erased several records of their criminal wrongdoing!
Wow, how’d that happen??
Step one: Identify the existing Bluecoat Commander (Commander Michter, a drill sergeant promoted to Commander after Commander Clelland got crucified), and a likely second-in-command (Captain Vale, former quartermaster who represented the main point of contact between the Bluecoats and Render’s forces).
Step two: Using friendly Six Towers citizenry and an asston of specialized weaponry, stage a riot, murder a bunch of Crows, and then murder Captain Vale and the detachment of Bluecoats that come to investigate.
Feels like step two had a lot of sub-steps there . . .
Quiet.
Step three: Possess the dead body of Captain Vale with Caleb Hollow, ghost con-man extraordinaire. Rough up the body to make it look like he’d been in a real fracas. Optional: Don’t rough up the body so bad that it’s visibly incapacitated.
Step four: Captain Vale staggers into the precinct, with a Bluecoat medic (Sizzle) accompanying him. Make an urgent stink about the need to report a terrifying mishap in private to Commander Michter. Head to the infirmary, where another “mortally wounded” Bluecoat (Cruncho) is waiting.
Step five: At the appropriate signal, ghost-bomb the infirmary (Orianna). Follow this up by regular-bombing the front door of the City Watch central precinct (Clockmaker).
Step six: In the chaos, secretly dispatch Commander Michter and get a life-like Hull in as a badly-burned robotic pseudo-doppelganger, thus ensuring your grasp on Bluecoat command shoot Commander Michter through the noggin in plain view of the precinct.
Step seven: Using ghosts, bombs, and vampire strength, make enough bacon (euphemism) that none of the cops that witnessed Michter’s murder are left alive.
Step eight: Open up a ghost door to escape. Accidentally let out ur-Crow The Doktor. Beat The Doktor in the ensuing fight.
Step nine: Ghost door to evidence lockup. Trash the evidence lockup. Optional: Don’t allow your robot doppelganger body to be possessed and absconded with by another version of Elia Wickhamm (who is channeling a long-running sitcom that, in another world, would star Ray Romano).
Step ten: Ride out the fully-solidified Render takeover of Duskwall secure in the knowledge that the ground troops of fascism (the cops) have had their numbers SEVERELY depleted and are ripe for further subversion!