The Gangsters Campaign/Session 8

Vec’s shop

* Harriet is healing, but still not well, & in medically-induced coma
* Vec’s occultist buddy Swanwallow is hanging out
* Fish-frog person (suddenly named! Mnimi) applies some medallions to heal her more quickly. They burn a lot (and some even melt into her scars), but they also heal her some. So Harriet is awake! She just still only has one leg.
* Harriet reveals that Gertrude shot her and stole the box of medallions; Mnimi says she went to the prison, where Harriet says she was going to trade for her cousin

Joe’s place

* Randolph visits. Joe has a very spirited and wrong theory about Gertrude being a closet Fialta rebel. Randolph unfortunately realizes that this is untrue
* Randolph points out that the Fialta rebels probably don’t have much use for occult artifacts, but maybe the Aeldmen do…
* Joe’s next theory is that Gertrude went to visit someone from a raid that several members of their family made years ago, who must have been imprisoned since. If they had this leverage over her for that long, she likely was being used by someone high up in Aeldman national security for years (high up because no one else could have gotten a known killer of Aeldman officials released). But if she went in person, she is probably no longer of use to them, and hence probably no longer a threat. And it probably wasn’t a vast Fialta conspiracy
	+ Randolph decides to believe this theory

Back at Vec’s

* Harriet wants to reattach her amputated leg. She requests the occult knives back from Vec to do the next round of blood magic.
* Are medallions like a contract? Swanwallow says someone paid dearly for the power in them: but now it’s contained, so the user is likely not the one paying
* Swanwallow says knives are probably from the Pantheon Wars – very ancient, not from any god he knows. No signs of forging – it’s as if they were brought into existence fully made
	+ Mnimi says they are ancient and would be very powerful in the blood magic, but is not sure they will do what Harriet wants them to
	+ Vec gives one back and keeps one
* Harriet reattaches her leg (with help from Mnimi) using two medallions as conduits, but not perfectly; she’s basically using her life force to power a dead limb

To Randolph’s!

* The hexagon monster we saw was not the Usurper, but his servants. Main concern is the cult and whether they will manage to summon him back
	+ They run on blood magic; they should not be. Anything forcing the servants to obey the laws of reality is a helpful tool against them.
* How many medallions are there? Mnimi & co have ~70% of the total stash; Harriet had around 500 medallions in the case originally, so the other 150 are missing. (Fish folks probably have others from other sources)

Head down to the wharfs

* Someone sprayed-painted a lot of local gang signs on buildings along the way, then defaced them. They also hung up an effigy of Don Prektanos
* Lenny goes to cut down the effigy and two guys show up and shoot him. Lenny kills one of them and the other one runs off
* A cop sees this and approaches (surprisingly calmly), attempting to fine Lenny for the crime. Lenny wants to do it in court instead (“I’d like to be able to file this as a business expense”), but Randolph gets out and pays the fine. Cop notes it down as an unfortunate electrical accident with a streetlamp
* When we get there: there’s an evil energy here. The creature was destroyed on impact with the box (as was the box), and it tried to reshape itself… the cobblestones are hexagonal.
	+ The box isn’t what drove Harriet insane: instead, it was an antithesis to the creature, and the shock of those two encountering and obliterating each other is what drove Harriet mad
* Vec drawing the mirror reverse of the creature’s death cry wakes it back up (but powerless)... sounds to him like a dirge, but hopeful. Vec is charmed by it (isn’t defying the gods just like sticking it to the ultimate man?)
	+ The sacrifice was going down to add itself to the numbers below the water… to wrap itself around them, and give structure for their king to return
	+ Vec now knows roughly where they’re doing their ritual. Will he tell the gang?
* The place where they’re making the altar is linked to the dredging… dredging is where they’re getting the medallions; altar is where they’re taking them. There’s something beneath the altar, which is what they’re interested in

Back to Prektanos’s

* Randolph going in for a convo with the big boss.

Harriet’s shop

* Mnimi and Harriet (feeling froggier by the day) decide to drop into Harriet’s shop to pick up a new leg for her, and a few other sundries.
* Vec rouses the newsboys into a little riot to distract the cops; three of the four guards are diverted. Mnimi makes it in and snags a serviceable leg for Harriet, as well as a crown that used to belong (long ago) to a local seer
* The fourth guard spots Harriet as she is sneaking in and detains her inside.
* Mnimi tries to distract the guard with some bonus anger at the newsies’ particularly rousing chorus of which side are you on?, but he decides Harriet is another agitator and drags her outside with him. Vec saves the day yet again, swooping in with his NSB letter and declaring that Harriet is an asset, and he needs them not to detain her. Impatient, the guards decide they don’t have time for this vagrant and send Harriet off with Vec.