Crows at the Gallows • Chapter 01

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### Red Lamp District, Liechtfels*(12th of Hallowfen, 4E 772)*

The story opens on a foggy dusk in Liechtfels, at the end of the evening shift. Outside a decrepit tallhouse in Red Lamp, a lanky kid no older than seventeen and an older dwarf keep watch at the edges of a pier and bemoan their poor fortunes, while the rest of their companions drink whiskey up above in the attic of the building behind them. The two are Sparrows, shown by the crumpled sparrow feathers stitched into their boots.

They talk about recent events, of a fellow named Foden who'd been kicked out of his bar nearby by some newcomers not two weeks back. Word is that Lyssa Bell, the current leader of the Sparrows was being wary of a these newcomers, a seemingly new gang stirring the pot and evidently looking to nab some of their turf. They've not finished talking when the window of the attic above explodes outward in a shower of rotting wood, and two dwarves tussling in mid air crash down to street level. One of them, Reza, who'd just tackled the other through that window, belongs to that same group of newcomers, the Iron Bulls.

Up above, a full-blown brawl is underway. The Iron Bulls are assaulting the tallhouse, cleaning out the last remaining Sparrows from their fledgling turf. They take out most of the Sparrows inside, killing most and incapacitating others. As the deathseeker crows begin to gather, and the bells of the Blind Sisters near, their kell, Strife hangs the leader of the outpost, Miles, from a cat bridge as a message to Lyssa: the Iron Bulls were here to stay.

Scattering and escaping over pre-planned routes, the gang reconvene at a safehouse until some of the immediate heat dies down. Once its clear, they head to the Bull & Barrel, the newly renamed and refurbished alehouse that doubles as their lair and headquarters. It's opening night, and there's plenty of people there. Red Lamp is the heart of the city, were all the sinners make their dues. Nobody wants war here, nobody even wants a sniff of it, so someone pissing in the inkpot has folks curious. It's been only a few hours, but the smell of sweat and alcohol pervades the place, and someone has already nicked the bronze B's off the sign above the front door.

Once inside, Strife asks the rest to gather downstairs in the headquarters for a celebratory drink in his office in a few minutes. He goes there immediately to prepare specific individual drinks for each member of the gang. In the meantime, Reza and Nice Guy have a few shots at the bar and speak with the bartender, Vladimir Pedrovkov, and end up starting a brawl on the bar floor in short order. Viper sniffs around to see if she can find out anything about who stole the letters from their sign, unsuccessfully thus far. Belle and Doc head downstairs quicker than the others to clean up.

Shortly enough, the gang gathers down below, and each have their different drinks. Strife congratulates them on a job well done, and they make plans for what to do next. Their having killed several Sparrows was likely to have drawn attention from the constables, so they discuss plans to divert attention away from them for the time being and muddy the water. Strife gives them all some of the coin they'd acquired, though it isn't much, and promises they'd have plenty soon enough.

### Downtime

Over the course of the next few days, the gang set rumours in motion to throw attention away from their actions and keep the constables off their scent. Unfortunately, some of their conspiracies catch the wrong ears, and they lose some favour with Sixways, but they are otherwise successful in cutting down the rumours that they had broken the Gallows Peace.

A few days later, they are paid a visit by Kara Sov, daughter of Corvo Sov and heir apparent of the Rooks and Kings. She has a polite conversation with Belle and Strife, informing them in no uncertain terms that if they were to be part of the right people they'd need to stick to the rules of the Gallows Peace. Fortunately, her dad agrees that the acquisition of the Bull & Barrel was "lawful", for the time being. With the warning delivered, Kara collects their tithe, and the trio raise a glass together to officially welcome the Iron Bulls to the right people.

Over the next period of days, in an effort to repair their relationship with Sixways, Reza and Viper are sent to talk with Nessa, Hacksaw Jack's second, to see what they can do to hit the Sparrows in a way that benefits both them and Sixways. Their talk with Nessa proves fruitful, as she takes a liking to Reza's blunt nature. She gives them some tips on the best way to hit the Sparrows, telling them that the brains of the operation was Rorik the Thiefmaker, an elderly scoundrel who'd trained more than half the thieves in the city at some point or another.

"*If it's war with the Sparrows you want, it's not me you should be soppin' and sweetin'. We don't have the distance to deal with them. Not till we've finished Ninefingers and his pack of dogs leastways.*"
 ― Nessa

Nessa informs them that the Sparrows operated mostly through the underground labyrinth of old mining tunnels and sewers that still navigated the whole city. If they wanted to hit them, they'd need information on some of the many stashes they kept down there, and the best way to do that was to capture and interrogate one of the urchins that the Sparrows employed.

"*You want to cripple the Sparrows? Then you'll have to run them out of the warren. They've got caches and safehouses all over the bloody place. Well hidden too. But someone has to know where they are. Catch a bird. Get them chirpin'. That's my advice.*"
 ― Nessa

Reza and Viper promise to do so, and to cut Sixways in on a percentage of their take as a token of cooperation. They haggle, and leave with a good deal and on decent terms with Nessa and the rest of Sixways. With this information gathered, and some investigation from Belle's part on the best place to nab one of the Sparrows kids, the gang set about planning a daring venture into the heart of Sparrows territory, in the hope of continuing to press their advantage and keep their current momentum going.

### Beggar's Hollow, Liechtfels*(22nd of Hallowfen, 4E 772)*

On the day, the plan goes south quickly. Up on the rooftops several of the gang attempt to capture one of the Sparrows kids that's running the cat bridges, but walk straight into a trap. In the chaos, Reza falls to street level and is forced to fight her way through some constables, taking a beating for her trouble. Seeing things going sideways, and with several Sparrows gangers closing in on them, Nice Guy lets off several explosions and manages to knock the fleeing kid off the rooftops into the alleys below, where a different older Sparrows kid picks him and make a run for it.

With everything going to shit, Viper, Strife, and Belle give chase and attempt to corral the two children into their net. This being Sparrows territory, the kid knows the streets better than they do, and while Doc and Nice Guy attempt to get the constables off Reza's back, the others are led on a tense chase through increasingly dangerous alleyways with more constables sounding the alarm and closing down on the area. Thanks to quick thinking and a disguise by Belle, she manages to lure the older kid towards an escape hatch that leads into the tunnels below, and uses the opportunity to get in close and incapacitate the older child with a pistol shot to the ankle.

Objective secured, the Iron Bulls scatter. Nice Guy, having drawn the attention of several constables in order to get Reza away, is forced to flee deep into Beggar's Hollow, but manages to escape by setting fire to a statue of the governor and slipping away in the chaos, then hiding in a storm drain for a few hours while the heat dies down.

Having caused a great deal of very visible destruction and drawn far too much attention, the gang retreats to their turf, knowing full well that their actions now would not go unanswered. Though neither side had the distance, they were now at war with the Sparrows, and things would only get more dangerous from here on out.

Looking to strike first, they interrogate (and torture) the two children they had managed to kidnap, discovering some more information about the Sparrows' caches in the warren. Most of the caches are beneath Beggar's Hollow, and are moved once a week on a random day to a random new location. The children believe there to be some overall pattern to how the caches are relocated, but only one person is aware of it: Rorik the Thiefmaker. They also learn that there are emergency caches beneath many other places in the city that are moved far less often, such as beneath Rooksnare Watergate in Rooks and Kings territory.

Having extracted what information they could from the kids, the gang discusses the possibility of "leaking" their plans by letting the younger child, Twig, go. This would hopefully lure the Sparrows into taking immediate action, whereupon they could spring their own trap. The hope would be to get Rooks and Kings to catch the Sparrows operating beneath their territory, thereby getting the Iron Bulls the distance. Agreeing on this, they let Twig go, while Reza is tasked with disposing of the other one. She does so, dumping the body in the canal, where she momentarily sees a ghostly face in the water.

### Downtime

Over the course of the next few days, under some significant stress, the gang indulge their vices and spend time relaxing where they can. Belle, ever industrious, also takes some time to reduce what heat she can on the gang, noting that Nice Guy was being particularly hunted by the constables, and that a city-wide crackdown on crime was imminent.

Seeking her own form of indulgence, Viper heads to Blacktowers to enter an illicit fight ring she heard about there. During the fight, she takes a powerful knock to the head from her opponent, a hulking individual with a masked face and watery red eyes, and is knocked out. When she wakes, she finds herself taken prisoner by Rorik the Thiefmaker. He asks her to sign a confession paper that would admit to the Iron Bulls' murder of Sparrows during the takeover of their turf, and give the Sparrows unequivocally the distance. Viper refuses.

"*It’s just a piece of paper, dove. All you have to do is sign it. Or don’t. And then we’ll have to get to the soft talk, ‘cept it ent likely to be so soft. Body found floating by the docks...bloated by seawater and horribly mutilated...far,* far *beyond recognition. Were the injuries inflicted before or after death? Was the mysterious deceased a man or a woman even? Who can say?*"
 ― Rorik the Thiefmaker

A day or two later, Vladimir notes to Strife that he hadn't seen Viper around in a while, which was unusual. Strife immediately deduces the worst, and gathers the others to try and find Viper, hopefully before it was too late.

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