Second Session: Ill deeds in Lutetia
Unfortunaetly August, Franco's player, couldn't make it this time. We just assumed Franco was held back by other important duties.
Back at their barracks in Lutetia after the harrowing experience at Chateau Valleraux the players find themselves with a new ally. Adel, a mysterious cavalier from Ifran, is attached to the party while Irella is sent away on a mission that suits her skill set better.
The reason for this was that Irella’s player Mikkel wanted to change his character. He didn’t feel comfortable with the concept he’d created and thought the overlap between his and Alesandrus skills was too big. A new character was made and the transition went smoothly.
Louise d’Orlille, the group’s captain, greets them at her office. A short debriefing later the group are assigned a new mission. The yearly festival of the sun is coming up, a day of religious celebration following a ceremony in the Cathedral of the Sun in Lutetia, where the young queen drives through the city and greets the masses and ends up at the cathedral steps where she will attend a short service, officially marking the start of the city wide feast of the sun. The cavaliers are of course expected to provide security for the queen as she arrives at the cathedral. Louise reminds the party that the Holy Guardsmen, the Cavaliers’ bitter rivals, are also present, and nothing can go wrong and put the Cavaliers in a bad light compared to the Guardsmen.
The queen makes her appearance the day after tomorrow. In the meanwhile the group can take care of some minor assorted matters. A city watchman has gone missing at his post, and someone needs to look into his whereabouts. With the watch spread thin his captain has called in a favor from the cavaliers, asking them to look into the case.
Besides this urgent matter a gunsmith in good standing with the royal army has reported some experimental weapons stolen, and these needs to be found before the ceremony, to ensure the weapons are not used in an attempt on the queen.
The group goes straight for the missing watchman, finding his post at a bridge near Lutetia’s great market square. They talk the matter over with the watchman currently on duty, and finds out the missing man, Luc, disappeared sometimes during his 10 to 4 night shift. His wife is worried sick, but apart from that the man has little to tell. Arguing about where to look for him the group decides to go for the local bars, thinking that a man with such a late watch might be tempted to get some hot wine to keep him awake.
Adel shows surprising knowledge of the city streets in knowing exactly where to look, the nearby Red Rooster, a greasy tavern on the waterfront. The group enters to find a few shady patrons huddled around their respective tables, and while Adel sees what she can get out of the clientele Alesandrus and Katya tries to overhear the talk at the bar. Adel talks to a suspicious looking man who tells her that the guard came in last night, had a drink and had a conversation with a tall blonde woman whom he later left the bar with.
Alesandrus meanwhile tries his best to talk to the barman, but he denies having seen a watchman around. Not one to give up easily Alesandrus exits the bar and returns minutes later, now apparently furious over some new information that shows the barman lied to him, a clever ruse. The barman grows pale and suddenly remembers seeing the watchman leave with a blond woman, most likely a prostitute, who had something to show him down below the bridge.
With this new knowledge in hand the groups goes to the bridge and looks for clues. Finding their way to the small sidewalk under the bridge they find nothing but rubbish and a small boat full of old cloth. Katya, having read her share of Penny Dreadfuls, instantly know where to look and pulls the cloth from the moored boat, revealing a body underneath. While she and Adel examine the body, finding a small insertion over the left ear, Alesandrus steps off to empty his stomach in the corner. Between two sprays of vomit he notices a heap of old cloth that shows signs of having been recently slept in, as a makeshift bed. Knowing that some tramps in the city make their living from gathering and selling rags Katya concludes that this must have been the modest “home” of such a person.
Sending the watchman at the top of the bridge for help they stake out the perimeter, waiting for the culprit to return to the scene of the crime. Hours pass, and the groups eventually gives up.
Having some as far as they think possible in the case the group now heads for Madame Delaplace’s gun shop, the shop from which the aforementioned experimental weapons were produced. Nadine explains the situation. Her most trusted apprentice, Georgette, were to deliver the weapons to L’Arsenal for testing when she was robbed and the weapons stolen. Katya eagerly asks about the kind of weapons. Georgette was carrying a strongbox with 12 grenades.
Having questioned Delaplace the group goes on to the apprentice, Georgette. She confirms what was already told, a black clad man jumped her from an alley about halfway to L’Arsenal, gave her a smack in the face and after a short struggle took away the strongbox and ran for another nearby alley. There were no witnesses. After having gotten a description of where the robbery happened the cavaliers set out to look for clues.
Adel tries to using her experiences with tracking to find the exact spot where Georgette was attacked. After some searching down the busy streets and quiet alleys Georgette passed on her way Adel concludes that the exact spot is either very well hidden or simply does not exist. This raises questions about Georgette’s honesty. However the group isn’t ready to confront georgette about this immediately, and instead sets out to find the grenades before they can cause further havoc, reasoning that if the robber put the grenades up on the black market the best place to look is the Cour De Miracles, the worst part of Lutetia’s slums. Heading for the dirty streets of La Cour the cavaliers try their hardest not to be noticed, avoiding all unsavory elements. This does not work however, and a group of three ugly looking brutes hold up the group, looking for a rather large handout. A fight ensues, and Alesandrus finally gets to show his superior fighting ability, quickly getting a thug on his back in the mud. Katya finds herself facing a thug with a knife while she is herself unarmed, but mange to knock down a nearby stack of barrels in the thug’s direction, distracting him long enough to allow Alesandrus to knock him down from behind. Adel holds her own, but lacking in dueling skills she is forced to brawl with her attacker, suffering a bad knife-cut in the process.
Having the attackers surrendered the cavaliers question the thugs at sword-point, asking about where they can find someone with in the know about black market goods. They are taken to an enigmatic character, the Captain, who holds court in a derelict townhouse nearby. The Captain answers their questions, impressed with their ability to fight their way through the rougher elements of La Cour. He has no knowledge of any grenades being sold, and would dearly like to get his hands on whoever stole a bunch of unsellable prototypes.
Having learned little about the grenades the group decided to head for Georgette’s home, seeing if someone in her family might yield any clues. They found a poor house in the slums, with many children and a distressed single father who told them that his Georgette, blessed child, provided their sole source of income from her apprenticeship, although even that money didn’t always last long enough*
Having gotten all they might get out of the two cases presented to them the cavaliers decide to head for an inn and talk over their next move. What adventures await will have to be a story for another time…
*I’m assuming a system of paid apprenticeship as the basis for craftsmen’s guilds in Lutetia, including certain workers’ rights, to be in going the games progressive nature
Everything went over well as I'm getting used to with my players. This scenario relied more on a kind of investigation/gumshoe approach than what I'm used to, proving quite a challenge. I had to balance between describing possible clues and making them too obvious. An interesting experience all round.
