The Gangsters Campaign/Session 1

West Fens District — split from East Fens from some accident by General Aetheric
*lots of new east fens people —> more marks, and more competition
we are all living in Upper Harp Street (nicer part of a bad part of town)
pontooners and boardwalkers gang operates in east? fens
Prektanos ['pɹɛk.tɑ.nos] — all of our boss — Shantine vet of Coalition War
*in charge of numbers games (gambling) and also all of the drugs (legal and not)
*splits power
other gangs / competition:
*Half-Orc Bob: barjacks, mostly orcs, his streets independent. competes with prektanos 
*Judge Reddick: an elected judge. #2: Slim Frank, who runs racketeering (prektanos will be paying him dues)
*Madeleine Tark: runs hoteliers and service industry (wink). big financial backer of reddick
the man we all need to make happy is prektanos
Other factions: 
*“Civic forces of good”: dragoons intel division; magisterial office
Intro
*A gray and dreary day. Dramatic. It’s wet. 
*Near Upper Harp Street, in the premier casino Little Bishant, Prektanos turns a good profit from dice games and spinning things 
*New mark for Prektanos: Aicitel (he owes Prektanos money)
*Attention on Randolph (protege & ward of Prektanos)
**Some new bodies have washed up: a couple days old
**Magistrates (?) took bodies not to the local but the higher-up place, and the area is cordoned off
**P wants R to make it clear P’s people were not involved
**Poncho, Randolph, and Aicitel, plus the Tinys are headed over that warehouse. In Aicitel’s very nice car, very quickly. 
**Gertrude following along behind, not being noticed, making sure Randolph stays alive, followed by anyone who owes P money. 
*Aicitel: got here last year; has creative ideas that will be easier with lax bldg codes
**How did he afford this nice-ass car?
*The water is unusually high (much more than normal high tide)
*Lenny is hungry. 
**also, despite his lack of social graces, he’s not unintelligent
*Investigation commences
**Warehouse boss is not competent at his job. He’s here because Prektanos wants him here, & owes his livelihood to the don
**Constabulary is not super bothered, but magisterial officers don’t want to talk to Randolph
**Several blanche at the recollection of the bodies, and many are quite tired. One wants to gtfo asap
*Two levels of law enforcement: constabulary (police) and Magisterial office (like FBI)
*Two sinister men in body armor walk into Vec’s shop. They are not from around here. Vec figures out they are law enforcement officers (magisterial), pretending to be gangsters. 
**Agent Johansson wants to know what happened to a torso that Milton pulls out of a cooler (lol)
**It’s missing its spine. 
***And yet this is not what killed the person: was done surgically (though not cleanly) 
***Harpoon / hook wounds in the front of the body that maybe killed them
***Ritual killing, probably not a gang killing, probably not the pontooners
**The body is waterlogged. 
**Icons carved into it match some Vec has seen at Harriet’s shop
**His professional opinion: pontooners did it, and someone else got ahold of the body
**Magisterial sigil is Aeldrum manticore holding a balance
*Everyone goes to Half-Orc Bob’s bar (Barjacks)
**Gertrude watches from the other side of the room
**Lenny gets six pounds of potatoes and three pints of rotgut with the chewy bits left in. Yum.
**Poor Randolph orders the rotgut also.
**Poncho gets whiskey for Molly, a new dock worker friend/informant of Randolph’s
***She heard shooting, but also a crack/booming sound: drums. Then also, unearthly screams. Mostly at night
***Sleep deprivation (those who heard the screams couldn’t go to sleep)
***Some folks were unnerved enough they stopped coming into work
***One of the five bodies was a friend of hers who had stopped coming in: Joe B (the B stands for Schmoe)
***No screams at all the night Joe B. Schmoe III died
***The fact that the Magistrate is involved at all (rather than leaving it to the locals, like they prefer) mean it’s a big deal
***Part of a gang move to take over the wharfs?
****Doesn’t make sense as pontooners or boardwalkers (both too small). Maybe some from outside the neighborhood: 
*****Upper West Trenchies (founded by Coalition war vets, kinda paramilitary, have tangled with Prektanos & others in West Fens previously)
*****Darby Street Gang
**Other dock workers saw the foreman being led away in a straitjacket
**Some people (?) leave at the same time Molly does and go down the same alley. Maybe they’re all just headed in the same direction!
*Some sinister characters visit Harriet
**Impossibly thin, wiry hands
**They are very much not government officials. 
**Very interested in historical artifacts that are antique Semal (pre Imperium; before Fialta means >100 years ago)
***She offers them a Fialta sword
***They hold it to their skin and listen to it
***It doesn’t sing.
***They want something from pre-Mage Imperium (aka >8,000 y.o.)
***What does this singing sound like? When you are about to fall asleep, you will hear it. 
**They give her a gold ingot with symbols Harriet does not recognize (as belonging to govts or gods)
*Then some less sinister characters arrive (the magisterial cops)
**Harriet’s nickname is Samantha, which she got at her sorority in correspondence school at Ohio State University (canonical; she’s got a pamphlet and everything)
**They want to know if Vec treats gangsters
**Show her a little metal disc with an icon picture of a ritual 
***Very dated -- maybe pre-mage imperium or maybe interregnum (between mage imperium and current era)
***The ritual pictured is how to activate it. Like a prayer guide
***The more sinister visitors’ throats puff in and out, eyes darting around... still very creepy
****The fact that they’re very interested means the artifact is probably pre-mage imperium
***Instructions: basically, what kind of blood to use, how to use it, and under what configuration of the planets
***Harriet puts blood on it
****Corner bois are hyperventilating
****Musical screaming. 
****Medallion’s surface bubbles, expands, contracts, and sets her desk on fire. When the smoke clears, the medallion has disappeared.
****Also, the gold ingot in her pocket is very hot.
**After agents leave, first visiting buddies are upset she didn’t tell them about having seen such items before: “I saw your thoughts. I saw you lie!” wants her to sell them the things immediately
***They’re definitely snakes (Seth)
***Snakes that read minds. 
***Maybe frogs? Probably snakes.
***Can’t rule out frogs. 
***Probably due to GE pollution.
***Very creepy, very articulate pollution snakes. Truly unfortunate.
*Econ: 10 ducats = a day’s wage for a laborer; business owners would make 2.5-10x as much, depending on how they’re doing
Category:Session Summaries