Cashing Out

King Smolder

Koyne the Eversor

**Cashing Out** is a Historic Oneshot following an evening of celebration by the boating mogul Austin Tasheus, even as a group of four crime bosses, the Killer Buchans, seek retribution against him for a recent attack on their respective businesses.

## Prompt

"A group of no-goods like yourselves ain't gonna be taken advantage of no mores, eh? You's lot; flesh and blood of the Fringe, and the greedy hawk's relaxin' on all your hard-earned capital. I'll be real with ya kids, you's been had, but at the height of arrogance folk tend to have their head too far in the clouds to notice the rug bein' pulled **back** from under 'em. Now listen here fellas, I'm just an informant an' my boss would kill me if he knew I was talkin' to the Killer Buchans."

The Killer Buchans... an entourage of four criminals who have worked separate and together in a ton of different lines of business--all criminal, and no jokes. You're all low profile professionals in your respective worlds, but despite this you've had most of your wealth taken from you when the last job of yours was hijacked by none other than Austin Tasheus, a purple dragon running the largest boating company this side of the Stretch. Using his vast network of ships and traveloges he's had a lot of influence and power, but he's used both to do dirty the wrong group of malefactors.

The year is 405, close to the root of the Umber Solstice, and they'll be telling tales of this embarrassment you're about to bring him for ages to come.

## Character Developments

* First PC appearances of:
	+ Claxyr Virlymi
	+ Grug
	+ King Smolder (Usually referred to as "King" or "Smolder")
	+ Koyne the Eversor (Usually referred to as "Koyne")

* Developments:
	+ The Killer Buchans, along with Hus'ven Dhar, are transported 500 years into the future during the time shunt in Austin's tower.

## Summary

### Prelude

Before the party, the Killer Buchans were approached by their mutual acquaintance Omertas Solay, the lead criminal reporter for the Lilac Letter who sought their help to take down Austin before he was able to spread his influence further and push all other enterprises out of the Fringe. As the discussion continued, it was revealed that Austin had made personal attacks on each member of the Buchans:

* Claxyr: Austin threatened to expose her forgery connections to the world and tie them to the rest of her family, inevitably damaging their legitimate business.
* Grug: Austin stole Grug's hoard, along with his massive throne that he'd constructed within his forest.
* King Smolder: Austin threatened to expose that King, the Hero of Legend, and Smolder, the vile criminal, are in fact the same person.
* Koyne: Austin stole a majority of the assassin's trophies from previous jobs, as well as kidnapped the apprentices and acolytes he had been training.

After some discussion among themselves, Omertas brought up that Austin was holding a private gathering in a few days to celebrate his own success, and suggested that it would make for a good opportunity for the Buchans to sneak in and exact their revenge on Austin. Taking her up on the offer, the party chose to do exactly that.

### A Celebration of Moon and Stars

Using a boat of their own, the Buchans scanned the perimeter of the island and noticed a few more unique forms of entertainment being carried out, including a tightrope walking contest where the rich guests bet on which tightrope-walking commoner would reach the end of the course instead of breaking their legs on the fall. Continuing on, the group docked near the back end of Austin's island, having to avoid several mechanical constructs he had recently acquired as security devices at the front entrance. King and Omertas were dropped off in front of these constructs intentionally, King using himself as bait for the dragon while the others entered from the rear towers of the island. There was a bit of difficulty on the part of Koyne and Claxyr scaling the sheer cliff along the back of one of the island's towers, but with some help from Grug the three were able to climb inside the tower.

Hearing a commotion below them, Koyne scouted ahead of the party and discovered one of Austin's torturers in the process of cleaning up after a particularly messy session, and the three killers leapt upon him as he was putting away his tools. After a brutal combat, the Buchans stored the body in a cupboard and continued down the tower and into the mansion itself.

During this time, King had begun to move through party alongside Omertas, drawing looks of recognition from the guests as the Hero of Legend walked among them. He was approached by many different interested parties, but only one stood out: the famed vampire hunter Hus'ven Dhar, who approached the Hero and asked to speak with him in private. As they secreted themselves away, Hus'ven told King of his true purpose at this party: to vanquish the evil dragon Austin and restore peace and calm to the Fringe. Sensing the opportunity, King told the sand elf that he was here to do the same with several friends and Hus'ven eagerly agreed that they should join forces.

The remaining three Buchans entered into Austin's ballroom and quickly rejoined King. Introductions were made between the three of them and Hus'ven, although the remaining Buchans did not seem to get along well with the vampire hunter. He hadn't recognized them as the criminals they were, however, and instead chose to make small talk with the group up until they were all stopped by an announcement from Austin himself to all of his guests.

After welcoming them all to the party, Austin spoke on his great success in a number of enterprises, and how the celebration tonight was in honor of that success. As he finished his speech, he made mention of a final spectacle at midnight, a light show that he would begin himself from the castle's main tower. A look between the Buchans told them everything: this would be their chance to bring Austin and his burgeoning empire down.

The party continued on, the guests abuzz with excitement as midnight drew near and Austin excused himself from the revelry to prepare for the final event. After waiting for a few minutes, the Buchans and Hus'ven slipped away from the party to follow, navigating several secret doors before reaching a large circular room at the top of the tower, its roof dotted everywhere with stars, where Austin stood waiting for them.

The dragon did express surprise that all the Buchans were there, having only expected King to challenge him, and disregarding Hus'ven as little more than a joke (which he had been seen as by the Buchans as well). Combat began, and as it did, the stars-filled roof began to spin, slowly accelerating as Grug and King struck out in melee, Koyne and Claxyr fighting at range with spell and blade. Hus'ven joined in melee initially, but was buffeted back by flaps of Austin's wings and hurled spells at the dragon as he tried to get back into melee. As they fought, Austin asked the hunter just why he was fighting alongside the Killer Buchans, which made the elf pause in his strikes in shock. For their part, the party did little more than ignore him and continue their assault on the dragon, offhandedly telling him they'd explain later.

As the fight neared its conclusion, both sides had taken immense amounts of punishment and were near defeat when Austin lashed out with his bladed breath attack. The strike hit the Buchans and Hus'ven, and struck with such ferocity that every single one of them, save Hus'ven, fell unconscious from the attack. Seeing this, the vampire hunter summoned the last of his power and cast a mass healing word on the party, bringing them back to consciousness just before Austin could strike him down and save himself. The dragon lashed out in anger at losing its victory when it had been so close, and laid King back out across the floor with a flurry of strikes. With a roar to rival any other dragon's, Grug struck out with his axe, burying it deep into Austin's neck and shoulder as the ever-accelerating spinning stars reached a fever pitch, and Austin slumped forward, dead.

Hus'ven reached King and healed him as the other Buchans gathered and began to lick their wounds, slowly moving down the stairs of the tower and taking notice of the sunlight beginning to filter into the tower when it had been night only minutes prior. As they stepped into the mansion itself, they found it overgrown and covered with dust and age, the remnants of the celebration having disappeared a long time ago. Stepping carefully down towards the dock, they noticed several fishermen by the pier and questioned them on what was going on. When they mentioned that the mansion had been abandoned for some time, the group asked just what year it was. After a confused look, the fisher told them that it was 905 in the Metier Era, a full 500 years forward than it had been for them the night before. Confused and delirious from the near-death experience and the subsequent time disorientation they were experiencing, the group sought transport from the fishers and took it back to the shore of the Southwestern Fringe.

As they traveled, all the old facades the Buchans had put up fell away around each other, Koyne even peeling off the face-mask he had worn during the party and revealing his true human form to the rest of the Buchans and Hus'ven. Hus'ven, for his part, had taken the discovery of the Buchans' true identity in stride, but this proved to be too much for him to stomach and he leapt off the boat and into the sea, choosing the grueling swim to shore over riding in a boat with the Buchans any longer. As the group arrived back on the mainland, they spent the next few days investigating the area to locate their old base of operations, only to find it had been given to a noble family of the region. It seemed that now, the group had a fresh slate to reestablish their once-great criminal empires again.