Annals of the Night Chalice: Book 1

Our Players and their Heroes

• Rebecca S. is playing Adele Holt, former church inquisitor, skills in Sentinel and Thief. As someone who once made a living hunting smugglers, Adele is exquisitely positioned to run the Night Chalice’s smuggling, excuse me, private materials procurement, operation keep them on the right side of the Church with tithes. The city watch? Eh, not her concern. 
• [Bec is updating her pronouns to better fit the character]
• What is Best in Life: To know your enemy so well you get them to cut themselves with their own knife; Enjoy it while you've got it; Knowing things no one else knows
• Allies: Church of Denari 1, Mercanti 1
• With one rank in allies with the Church of Denari, she is trading on her reputation and ‘affect’ as a Church Inquisitor without ever specifically saying that she still represents the Church proper when out in the city; inside the church she still has influential friends who doubt her culpability in the scandal that got her her limp and lost her her job. Her best friend in the Church is Gioile Sabastiano, a middle rank librarian in Dinari’s records rooms who hates the same people she hates; he can be called on to mobilize Church members on her side of the schism should she need them. If she picks up a second rank in this, her faction will improve its position with the subsequent benefits to her action.
• With one rank of Mercanti allies Adele has friends and informants in at least one major or minor guild. In her case it’s Liliani Peuretti, the chief supplies clerk of the Meticulous Order of Scribes, Calculists, and Scriveners. By law all such roles across other guilds need to be filled by MOSCS guild bonded individuals, who are in turn bound by law to not speak of anything they learn on assignment outside the guild. Liliani as a chief supply clerk never works outside the guildhall, so she considers anything she hears from her fellow guild-sisters to be just water cooler talk, and happily shares with Adele at their private meetings. Adele does not disabuse her of this moral tangle. If she purchases another rank of this, she can transform her expertise in providing old artifacts to new money into a broader array of contacts across the Mercanti. 
• Enemies: Church of Denari 1
• With one rank of enemies in the Church of Denari she has her former peer (5 years her senior), Inspector Polina Giordenia, who was instrumental in laying the blame for the scandal at her feet. Polina will marshal her considerable resources to bedevil Adele, trying to either keep her underground or drive her from the city. If she decides to buy this off, events will destroy Polina but not necessarily restore Adele’s status in the Church.

• David T. is playing Umberto Rossi, psychotic and nebbish, skills in Thief and Warrior. As someone completely innocuous, servile, and “kinda funny looking” he is perfectly positioned to his self-appointed role as Patch’s pet psychopathic killing machine. He’s sticking with the Night Chalice until Patch’s murderer is found out of respect for him. 
• Meek, Beaubrummelish, Lethal
• Joy in hobbies; Being unnoticed; Killing every last motherfucker in the room
• Allies: Commoners 1, The Triskadane 1
• Umberto grew up in among the poorest parts of town, his father long vanished, and he knows the ways of customs of these working folk. Since his ‘moving on up’ to the working ‘house poor’ of Ironcross he has become known as a dandyish harmless eccentric whose love for his mother speaks well of him. Tomisina Benenati, the bursar of the funeral statuary business secretly controlled by the Night Chalice, sees herself as his friend, and will mobilize the commoners to help him in a pinch. If he gains another rank in this, his reputation across the commoners of the city (but not the watch or anyone of interest) will spread as that poor odd duck with the ailing mother who everyone should look out for. 
• Umberto is an ornithologist and pigeon-fancier who exchanges notes via pigeon to other similar types across the city. One of these never-met pigeon pen pals is a member of the Triskadane, the 13 secret rulers of the city. Sometimes their responses contain timely information, almost prophetically so. Umberto doesn’t question this (any more than he questions his Ridiculous Luck). In play this is a general purpose “is there anything useful in my pigeon coop letters?” in hopes of getting useful information about any of his current issues. If he acquires a second rank in this, he can send requests back in hopes of getting some general unexpected assistance – as long as the thing he’s requesting assistance with somehow benefits the city.
• Enemies: Thieves Guilds
• About 4 years ago the Eight Gateways, a rival guild, started making plans for a serious gang war against the Night Chalice. Patch had learned about it somehow, and was preparing his people to go to the mattresses should things spark into open warfare, when suddenly the three leaders of the Eight Gateways were all brutally murdered in a single night. None of the Night Chalice was involved – the Eight Gateways knows this – but the guild gave up on any move against the Chalice or it’s holdings as it briefly tore itself apart in a struggle for new leadership. But if they ever get a hint of a glimmer of an idea as to who did deliver this near mortal wound against them their vengeance will be swift and horrible. If he decides to buy this off, it may be that the Eight Gateways blames someone else, gives the vengeance quest up as hopeless, or we have a bloody if brief gang war ending things. 

• Sarah W. is playing Katarina, a professional duelist and assassin, skills in Warrior. As a former mercenary turned professional duelist and enforcer, she is perfectly positioned to see to keeping the Night Chalice’s operations protected and operational, even if she doesn’t want to run things. 
• Sly, Competent, Indefatigable
• Outwitting rivals; Looking fabulous; Being the last one standing. 
• Allies: Ancient Nobility 1, Thieves Guilds 1. 
• With one rank of allies in Ancient Nobility Katarina is a trusted ally/agent of several nobles; her moderately legal method of assassination appeals to a strain of ancient nobility more than other crass methods, and her charm and beauty let her pass through Alderhall as someone’s retinue (but not as a ‘someone’ herself). Her best friend is “Guliana”, who runs the Bottom’s Up coffee shop on the border of Ironcross and Alderhall, actually the Lady Ariade Toskoni secretly supplementing her family income and acting as an information broker for financial dealings between the Mercanti and the Ancient nobility. If she ever boosts this to two ranks she’ll have an independent reputation as “someone to be counted upon” without the need for Lady Ariadne’s intervention. 
• After the Ghost Garotte, Katarina is the only member of the Night Chalice known across the guild as being a member of the Night Chalice – Umberto wasn’t a member, Adele keeps everything at arms reach as the Church Inquisitors are always watching her, Saleratus is more their medic than any active member – so she’s the one who can draw on the guild’s social resources. She has informants with other guilds, a network of Chalice-friendly information sources, and is quartered by Nicola Turchetta, the proprietor/proprietress (they flip how they present based on the day) of the Floating Lotus, a brothel in Ironcross and the gem of the Night Chalice’s operations. If she raises this to two ranks she becomes the recognized ‘face’ of the Night Chalice (even if the three survivors stay a triumvirate) amongst the criminal demimonde, and will be extended respect and information based on that. Or she could spend her time trying to get anyone else in the group to spend 6 advancement points to take this future from her. 
• Enemies: Mercenary Companies 1
• On more than one occasion Katarina has crossed paths with Claudio Campobello, another professional duelist and a member of Missoni’s Immortals, a mercenary company who is hired to protect them from smugglers. Claudio is a narrow waisted, narrow shouldered, smoldering-eyed dancer who, when between gigs. plays the bantam cock and seduces the partners of the Mercanti and Ancient Nobility to call down duels. Basically, he’s Katarina’s opposite number, and there is a long-standing professional enmity, but the two don’t directly kill each other because a) the world would be less interesting without the other in it and b) there would be reprisals should an out and out hit take place. If she decides to buy this off, we can either have the hatchet buried, or he dies somehow.

• Scott L. is playing Saleratus Moonborn, a medic and thaumaturge, skills in Sorcerer. The scars both emotional and reputational from his distant past have left him well positioned to be the Night Chalices connections to the hoi-polloi of Everskink, as well as their source of knowledge on sorcery and forgotten lore as they go to war with Prepus of the Five Eyes.
• Haunted, Irascible, Trustworthy
• Being cleverer than death; Being cleverer than those trying to get themselves killed; [Being changed to something new as the old one wasn't a good RP prompt]
• Allies: Commoners 1, Sorcerous Cabals 1
• With one rank of allies in Commoners Saleratus is one of the few apothecary surgeons willing to work as a peer to the lower classes, giving him reliable access and allies those in the war for survival. Most notable of these is Gianni of Gianni’s Habitable Portations, an eccentric builder of houseboats who, in part due to his love of the ladies of negotiable virtue at the Floating Lotus, got in deep with the Night Chalice. Saleratus intervened with the Chalice (relating his relationship with Patch) to turn Gianni’s business into an opportunity to produce luxuriously interiored private vessels for the wealthy of Eversink… that contain hidden compartments for smuggling things into and out of the city, perhaps without the owner ever knowing. (he can always spend the point to get favorable responses from other commoners; he’s a known good guy. If he extends this to 2 ranks, Saleratus will become a proper folk hero to the people in the poorer parts of Eversink.
• With one rank in Sorcerous Cabals, Saleratus is a member of a loose confederation of thaumaturges (not sorcerers) colloquially known as ‘the Doomed Princes’ after Esmerelda Glacuius and her establishment, the Red Door (she has the nickname of the ‘doomed princess beyond the red door’). He can draw on Esmerelda and the doomed princes for information on the hospital network, the local vivisectionists, and other sorts who need to purchase the materials and equipment that Esmerelda provides for information, favors, or support. If he raises this to two ranks, he will become the ‘first among equals’ of the Doomed Princes, and clients looking for sorcerer-adjacent assistance.
• Enemies: Sorcerous Cabals 1
• At some point in the past Morax the Manifest, a grandiose peacock of a sorcerer, got into a conflict with the Doomed Princes, sure that his demon-provided sorcery (Zav'yfbreb the demon counselor is motivated by Obsession; Its Sorcerous Sphere is Disease) could best their mere thaumaturgy and convert these doctors to his demon’s disease spreading will. Saleratus led the Doomed Princes effort to exorcise the demon from Morax’s body, leaving the fellow again powerless. Morax spent some time trading on the reputation with those who did not know of his defeat, but of late he has reappeared with sorcerous powers. Did he reconnect with Zav'yfbreb? Find a new demon? Discover a book of ancient serpent-folk sorcery? Saleratus doesn’t know, but he has heard through the Doomed Princes that Morax is back on his personal boat, the Black Ascendency. He’s believed to be operating out of the Foreign District. 

Chapters 1-3: the Ghost Garotte and the Hanged Men

In the early Spring of Eversink ever members of the Night Chalice have been out of communication for several days: Adele Holt, former Church Inquisitor who was tossed out in an affair that left her with a blackened past and a noticeable limo, has been out of the city for weeks investigating possible trade partners; Saleratus Moonborn, former doctor now street medic and thaumaturge, has spent the last week at the side of merchant trader Sebastião Alghisi to keep him alive from a poisoning incident; Katarina the professional duelist, has spent the last thee days in the brothel under the Chalice’s control trying to goad the drunkard wastrel nobleman Luciano Travia into challenging her so that she might spit his heart and collect payment from his sister Angelica Savnoarola, who wishes she were next in line for the family fortune, only to find Luciano impossibly laid back and impossible to irritate (“and I can be really irritating!” she ejaculates)  

Moments after Katarina had abandoned this commission and exited the brothel she feels a horrible vertiginous pull, as if the foundations had been kicked out of her world and identity. Saleratus and Adele feel the same effect at the same time. Adele urges her rowers to more speed, Saleratus continues his proper procedure and social goodbyes to Alghisi’s family now that he is out of danger, and Katarina returns her advance to Angelica with perhaps less tact than normal, making at least a temporary enemy of the avaricious, sharp-tongued noblewoman. Each in their own way makes speed to the Happy Ending Funeral Statuary Company in Ironcross (the high finance and legal system quarter of Eversink) secretly owned by the Night Chalice and whose upper floors (including the one partially completed with Patch’s pigeon coop atop it) are the guild’s home base. There each using their own skills and devices (and surprised by the appearance of Umberto Rossi, Patch’s pet psychotic who had arrived after not hearing from Patch for a week), discover 

• That the two guild members who were supposed to be on watch are dead, with vicious garotte marks on their necks, identically places. These deaths were very recent.
• That Adele, Katarina, and Saleratus bear similar, much fainter marks on their own necks. Umberto does not. They theorize that this is because he was not a formal guild member, and that the deaths occurred at the same time the living guild members felt their world end.
• Over the last few weeks Patch had been dealing with incursions and threats from he hanged Men, a relatively new gang of brutal thugs who took their name from the fact that all of them would be condemned to death if caught.
• Recent paperwork, while partially damaged from an ink spill, revealed that Patch had been pulling everyone off new jobs for the last 3 days to attend a big meeting tonight. The assumption was that it had to do with the Hanged Men’s threats.
• Some work in the past few days has been with Prepius of the Five Eyes, a sorcerer, breaking one of Patch’s rules of who they work with.

Visiting their homes (at least one of which, Saleratus’, has been rifled recently) and then several of the places where the Night Chalice had control and might meet (gambling establishment where someone was cheating and they had to clear it up, a bar where loan collectors had broken into a brawl that they had to bet on) they reached the Grey Door, the Night Chalice’s current holding facility for smuggled goods. (Don’t worry, Adele makes sure they pay taxes on them via legal if anonymously recorded church donations.) There the rest of the Night Chalice lies dead.

After getting over their shock, they are able to use their various investigative abilities to reconstruct what happened (especially with Adele being able to find and speak to the ghost of Giulia, one of the newer and youngest members of the guild, a former streetwalker who has spent months being trained as a lookout, rumor gatherer and pickpocket).

• All 30+ members of the guild were present except the three still alive (again, Umberto not technically a member) are present and dead 
• Patch’s corpse is on several crates pulled together to make a crude stage. 
• All of them have identical garotte markings; per Saleratus only Patch’s came from an actual weapon with traces of metal in it; the remainder are sympathetic magic. 
• There are two open crates that clearly once held creatures smuggled into the city Umberto is able identify their fur as baboon, ruling out demonic entities. 
• There was another man here who wore a long cloak and exited the building, his cape wiping out the specific footprints of himself and his baboons. 
• Giulia’s ghost tells a story of Patch giving a stilted speech about the future of the guild before the man behind him, Prepus, dropped a garotte around his neck and strangled him, and by extension everyone else. 
• After the deaths, Giulia saw everyone else’s ghosts, including Patch’s, follow the sorcerer out of the building.

This answered some questions but raised many more. Before they could go any further (and Adele spent a point of Spirit Sight to be able keep Giulia around), they heard people approaching the Grey Door. Quick reconnaissance found it was a half dozen men pulling two large carts, who were startled to see movement in the building. Attacking from two directions Umberto and Katarina made quick work of the men, with two dead and three seriously wounded, with one left for questioning. This fellow explained that he and his friends provided cadavers for the local medical college and other vivisectionists, and that they had received a tip on a body pick up here – apparently the word had been sent around and they were trying to get a jump on the competition. 

While the Night Chalice survivors were incensed, it also solved their problem of what do so with the massive pile of bodies of their fallen comrades. They left to backtrack the man’s story but there wasn’t any clear source to the beginning of the rumor, and the vivisectionist in question wasn’t the one who put them on to it – he was likely about to be surprised by the glut of product.

Lacking other clear directions, the group split up to get some sleep and then try to take steps to “fake it till they make it” and hide the near destruction of the Night Chalice. This meant visiting all of the places under their protection and putting on a show in between other lines of research.

• Adele used her business connections to track down the Chalice’s full finances, only to learn from the bank that Patch had moved most of their secret funds into a single account and used that to make an expensive property purchase in Alderhall.
• Saleratus visited Esmerelda Glacuius, proprietress of a rare and exotic materials shop favored by thaumaturges to try to get a line on Prepus, to no avail but with a promise that information will be shared if it comes up.
• Umberto, via his ridiculous luck, stumbled across two battered and scratched men with the skulls and faces indicating a criminal tendency, and overheard them complaining about the crazy person’s baboons. He followed them to a house in the Tangle.
• Katrina set up webs of communication among most of her contacts, and then learned at the Brothel that Nicola, the proprietor under their control, had been threatened and one of the girls beaten by members of the Hanged Men, who claimed ownership of the business.

As Saleratus saw to the health of the brothel staff, and Adele checked not the criminal history of the various Hanged Men (there are but ten of them, making up in capricious violence what they lack in numbers), Umberto and Katerina returned to the house in the Tangles and confirmed that it was the Hanged Man’s base. Plans are laid, in part based on Umberto somehow knowing that the building had a laundry chute that could be used to gain access to the gang’s subterranean base. (It’s kinda creepy how the local pigeon-fancying nebbish/killing machine knows this stuff.)

Plans are made, the movement of the Hanged Men are tracked, and when the time is right to split the Hanged Man’s forces the night Chalice strikes. After all, if they don’t strike back hard and quick they will never be able to keep the guild as a going concern. Entering via Umberto’s laundry chute they catch several of the guild sleeping (some of them sleeping off baboon wounds) and dispatch them quickly and quietly. Quiet enough that the group playing cards in the next room is surprised, but still able to put up a credible fight.

Adele allows one of them, morale broken, to flee the room, followed quickly by the severed head of Katarina’s latest victim. Much to the Night Chalice’s shock, Constantine, the Hanged Mans leader (flanked by Orsa and Jardel, his top lieutenants) are holding a rally with some dozens of dockyard mooks and other criminal scum looking to step up in life as part of an up and coming gang. This recruitment pitch is soured by the screaming, fleeing Hanged Man and the flying severed head.

Knowing that the Goddess Denari favors those who turn crisis into opportunity, makes an immediate counter pitch, offering spaces in the Night Chalice to anyone who beats the snot out of the Hanged Men. Before Constantine can launch a response, Umberto is standing RIGHT BEHIND HIM and severs his hamstring with a razor, sending the gang leader to the ground. Between Saleratus’ hypnosis and Adele’s business savvy the mooks are divided with the Night Chalice faction standing triumphant. Katarina and Umberto capture the Hanged Man leadership for questioning. Only the Hanged Man guarding the door (Iulio Martini, for the record) escaped, which Saleratus deems just as well, for the “I alone escaped to tell thee” factor.

Thus ended chapters 1 to 3 of the Annals of the Night Chalice

1)      You have Constantine and two of his lieutenants captive. There’s one other member of the Hanged Men loose. Questioning Constantine can happen at start of next session or we can do it via email. Curious what the plan is with the two other people who might get names. Do you just kill them? Cut them loose? Hand them over to the city watch (for the watch to kill them?) Try to recruit them (brutal violent thugs may have uses)?

a.     SW: My personal leaning is that we kill everybody and leave at the very least Constantine's body someplace public (but rough enough that it won't bring too much attention from the authorities). Katerina is not feeling merciful and we need to send a message. On the other hand, if we want to keep evil mage dude from noticing immediately that his flunkies are dead then I guess we have to wait a little while for the latter bit.

b.     DT: We definitely need to interrogate Constantine. He may not have been the active party behind the destruction of the Night Chalice, but he seems to have contact with whoever it was. He probably has some knowledge of the baboons.

c.     SL: Constantine, I suspect, is too steeped in scheming against us and associated negative feelings to be of use post-interrogation but of course we don't have to tell him that yet. His lieutenants, assuming neither of them would take Constantine's removal personally, might be a better set of investments. People can be very appreciative when the "every dog gets two bites" rule is applied to them, and we have already proven that even when rocked back on its heels the Night Chalice snaps back with brutal effectiveness. We're not so bad a prospect as we were even 24 hours ago.

2)      What are you doing with the six Hanged Men corpses?

a.     DT: There seems to exist a thriving medical salvage industry in Eversink...

b.     BR: True! If Saleratus makes a 1 Point Forgotten Lore or Leechcraft spend, his contact with a Vivisectionist providing bodies for the University can make these problems go away.

3)    Since it appears that you're going to be keeping the Night Chalice as a going concern each session this is going to take on a sort of Veronica Mars aspect: there's the season-long mystery arc of what happened to Patch, how it led to your current state, where can you get the person (people? Baboons?) responsible, etc., that you all will be drivers on. Plus each session I'm going to throw a problem or opportunity at you to keep your cash flow and presence going, which may be a problem with the locations under your protection or may be a juicy opportunity for a theft or an assassination. If it's the latter type you can rest assured something will come up with one of your protected orgs or contacts as a C plot just to keep the Night Chalice as business concept alive. So with what you have now, what do you want to pursue next?

a.     SW: Katarina is Very Interested in the Patch issue, and will probably start asking around her contacts discreetly for any sign of baboons.

b.     RS: IIRC we have a bunch of new goons to manage, so there's that for day to day stuff. Is our friendly ghost hanging around? (Just curious, I think we have all she knew about anything at this point.) And plumbing of contacts for anything that might relate to our Big Bad.

                                               i.     BR: The friendly ghost has departed this plane because they finished her mortuary statue. You do indeed have your own mook mob. Mechanically speaking, the Mooks right now are a 1 point “Favor” tailored to the Thieves Guilds so they are a one-use thing but if you start putting Wealth into them they become a Network for you to draw on.

c.     SL: Saleratus has a scheme to propose that is either completely off the wall or a necessary and urgent salvation; I suspect that it might be best raised in person.

The Holdings and Expenses of the Night Chalice

As our heroes have managed in chapters 1-6 to keep the Night Chalice as a growing concern over an intense 72 hours, let’s look at those holdings, what they produce, what they cost, and how they’re used

1. The Happy Endings [BR: CAN WE PLEASE GET A LESS JOKEY NAME FOR THIS?] Funeral Statuary business. Located in Ironcross, provided regular shipments of heavy stone via a nearby dock, this is the front for the laundering of the Night Chalice’s profits and the upper levels are their headquarters. After 30 years, this is a totally legitimate business… aside from the money laundering. Patch and the original gang used to use this place to move larger smuggled bulk items in disassemble-able crates wrapped with wafer thin hollowed out marble (all the gear is still around for that, but it hasn’t been used in a decade). The staff that works there are all guild-bonded carvers in good standing, and they do solid work at two price points – Ironcross and the Tangle. As with most such places, the working folk come from the Tangle daily, and carry back their-less expensive wares for completion/sale.
1. While there are other names in the organization chart, the real power of the business is Tomisina Benenati, the bursar of the business who knows how the books are cooked and that they are an arm of the Night Chalice without being a member of the guild. There are precious few other employees who know of a connection, and they think they are just paying protection money to the Chalice. Most employees just think that the company renting the top floors of the building is a financial investment concern.
2. The statuary business makes 7 Wealth a month but costs 4 Wealth a month to maintain, and the remaining 3 Wealth are needed to keep Night Chalice’s shell company and offices open. One PC can keep a Struggling living (equivalent of 2 wealth at no cost) inside the offices if they wish, but they will be Low Repute (-1 on reactions with the wealthy) because they will obviously look like they are sleeping in their offices.
3. PROBLEMS: Discretion is paramount. If the Night Chalice loses this, they lose everything; or nearly everything. It’s a good thing someone asked Constatine where all the papers detailing the Night Chalice’s activities went… OOPS. Thanks to Adele’s work if the Church Inquisitors raid they will find the real books contain the correct criminal tithes: you are right wIth Denari. The Watch is a different matter, but no one has made an enemy of the Watch. If things get desperate, they can re-open the smuggling things in with the marble technique for some quick profit but risk.
2. The Floating Lotus: Located in Ironcross and frequented mostly by finance workers with disposable incomes, this is the public jewel of the Night Chalice’s operations. It is a narrowly built six-story structure in terms of utility (four above ground, two below, some underneath that are boarded off) all dedicated to the Lotus. The topmost floor is the business offices, while the floors immediately beneath that are the luxury suites for privacy. The main floor used to be the balcony space, so you enter and can look down onto the dance and dining floor which has a cloudy glass pane preventing people from completely seeing who’s on the floor. The entry has little space, leading you straight down, while other stairs lead you back up to the balcony and the private drinking alcoves around it. The lowest room are sybaritic dungeons.
1. The Lotus is run by Nicola Turchetta, whose gender presentation changes by the day. They are a trusted employee of the Chalice, so much so that Katarina has read her into the recent happenings; this has served to emphasize how much extra protection the Lotus is getting and how quickly they got it.
2. The Lotus Produces 7 Wealth per month/Adventure, but costs 4 Wealth per month to maintain (leaving enough to keep 1 PC comfortable for 1 month). The Night Chalice can strip it for 6 Wealth in one month but that reduces its profits to 2 wealth until 4 wealth is spent to bring it back up to standards.
3. PROBLEMS: The Night Chalice has already dealt with the most immediate threat to the Lotus n fighting off a rival gang and re-establishing their control over the site. It should be safe for a while unless a gang war kicks off or they show weakness.
3. Gianni’s Habitable Portations: Saleratus is the contact person for. this shipbuilder in Harbor Approach. Gianni is pursuing his dream of high-end habitations on the water (“Not Mere Houseboats, but ‘Habitable Portations’!”) has lead to a wealthy clientele of those who want their opulent house decoration carried into their ships. They build some ships but renovate more for the Mercanti and Ancient Nobility, from whom they don not steal. Instead they install modest sized smuggling compartments without the owners knowledge, and provide staffing services for their clients. This staff picks up arranged high calue low bulk cargo, places it on the ship, and removes it at arrival. The owners don’t know they are smuggling, and are often beyond reproach.
1. Habitable Portations is run by Gianni, though he was born in Tangle, and due to his aspirations of upward mobility now lives in Ironcross, in close proximity to the Floating Lotus, which was his downfall. His excess debt for the ladies was what brought his business to the Night Chalice’s attention, and keeps him involved now. He has an extensive line of credit there in lieu of any other payment.
2. Habitable Portations smuggling operations produce 3 Wealth in an average month. Actually, it produces 1d6 Wealth per month based on what the Night Chalice has been able to set up. The Night Chalice doesn’t own any part of Habitable Portations by law or by agreement, and the business would run fine without them. Patch made sure that Gianni was wholly above board if any Mercanti, Ancient Nobility, or City Watch wanted to see his books.
3. PROBLEMS: With the death of the rest of the guild the 5 people who were trained to play parts on the ships – close lipped sailors, burly but dim marines, lovely serving staff – are all dead and none of the current crop are trained enough in Servility to pull it off. Adele can hold off on any immediate shipments if you accept no income for the next month, but within two months there’s a must deliver time sensitive Wealth 6 item that needs moving to a client in addition to other income. Not making this would be a huge reputational loss. They have to find a way to get one of the PCs on the ship for the three week round trip, or hire and read in people who could play the part and make the movement, or train some of your burly dockworker thugs to do it. Note: Burly Dockworker Thugs are not easy to train to fit into the service culture.
4. The Grey Door: This is the warehouse that the Night Chalice uses to hold their smuggled goods on the way to their new homes. It’s their physically largest space, but still small was warehouses go as it’s just inside Ironcross: legit businesses use these places to convert wholesale purchases to retail sizes for other customers. It’s surrounded by private apartments of Ironcross middle tier financiers. It’s innocuous and the proper ownership of it is a tangle leading to nowhere, so there’s no easy way to legally sell it so much as it’s possible to hand it off to someone in an exchange of cash.
1. In the living guild members only Adele has the expertise to run this, which she did in the acquisition of bulk trade goods and contacting the valuable stuff. The prior front person/manager is dead. Orsa and Jardel are currently tasked with keeping an eye on the empty building (holding only a case of high-end bourbon).
2. This is the space for the non-contracted smuggling, making 5 wealth per month and costing 2 to run; this really was done on the cheap, and it was mostly a way to take 25 wealth smuggling runs and break them up into smaller, easier to move and launder amounts. The only bulk motion that swamped the market via the Grey Door in its history was the corpses on the vivisection market. Unless you re-supply here with bulk goods and find someone to manage it, this place is a money loser for now.
3. PROBLEMS: Gee Howdy yes. You managed to NOT take a loss at theft of all the bulk goods at the location by recovering and delivering all the high value goods (and preventing reputational damage), but you’re still at net zero with an empty warehouse. Worse, there is a 2 meter diameter spot (point blank range from where Prepus cast the spell) in the center of the warehouse that is still reeks of corruption (Corruption 2, will take a decade to cure normally, Adele can’t heal it herself until she gets to Spirit Sight 2); the space is fine otherwise, the Corruption 1 for Close Range was cleared out with the bevy of transactions as Orsa sold off all of the Hanged Men’s treasury to the Church of Denari agents in transactions to restore Denari’s Blessing. Still, having a 2 meter no go spot in the middle of your warehouse that will corrupt anything you store in it or freak out anyone working in it is… bad.
5. The Sign of Hearts and Lions: An illicit gambling den in Ironcross, identified by a subtle sign of three cards each of the Lions and Hearts suits (yes, Lions, because reasons). As of right now we know very little about the place. Like the Lotus it legit pays the Night Chalice to provide protection from other gangs (and the Watch) and as legbreakers for anyone caught cheating; the Sign of the Hearts and Lions runs honest games for a percent of the take, and if anyone was going to cheat in there it would be a Night Chalice member making score.  
1. The proprietor hasn’t appeared, isn’t named, and we know nothing. We do know that since Katarina is the only one with a positive Thieves Guild relation she’s the one who set up guards here again, and identifying to them which Watch officers need to be bribed to keep the place running.
2. The Sign of the Hearts and Lions is, as a protection racket, pretty much pure profit. They give you 5 Wealth a month and you recirculate 2 of that Wealth to pay off the Watch and station 1-2 guys there full time. Net 3 Wealth. Trying to squeeze more out of it would net +3 wealth and cause it to collapse.
3. PROBLEMS: The Watch could get obstreperous, which would shut the place down for a while and cut off the income until you find the problem person (which will increase the ongoing cost to 3 Wealth) or change the topic. The owner knows that you expect him to be good with Denari so his tithes are up; the Church might make a stink but they don’t have any heresy to move on. Some other Guild might make a move on the location, or try to run a scam there leveraging the reputation for honest games that you pay to maintain.
6. The Sign of the Blue Cormorant: Actually this is indicative of the half dozen bars and restaurants in the Night Chalice’s territory that pay protection money. They just aren’t that narratively differentiated. Patch didn’t let you mess with any of them because it would be bad for business: you would make it a Chalice bar, make your value obvious, and then accept their contributions to even things out with the Watch and protect them from other gangs, not drain their coffers by paying with threats. Occasionally they had to buy smuggled products from you rather than other suppliers. Cost of doing business.
1. There are several proprietors, but like I said they are narratively indistinct right now. Katarina knows all of them by sight and has some of the new crew in rotation around to keep an eye on things; they generally don’t need a full time person each.
2. Again, these are protection rackets and therefore each is a reliable if low profit. The entire string brings in 9 wealth per month but costs 6 wealth in bribes to the watch to maintain, so net 3 Wealth. If you wanted to NOT pay any bribes for a month that’s a +6 Wealth windfall at the cost of taking 2 ranks of Enemies: City Watch. No, you can’t only pay half and get 1 rank of enemies; they have to make an example of you, so if you pay less than 6, you get 2 ranks of Enemies.
3. PROBLEMS: None yet. The Watch Commander in Ironcross is notoriously strict and anti-corruption, so if this string comes to his attention he’ll be pissed - more than he would be about the gambling den because these are legit family businesses being soaked. The delicate way Patch handled this in the past kept this afloat, and with the current state of the Watch Commander it’s not likely any other Guild would move in on these properties. One other possible problem is that every 3 months you need to get bulk product through the Grey Door to sell to them for extra profit; mess that up and their net drops to 2 Wealth per month until you do.

As you can see, the math works out to 3 wealth per month per location, and that means 18 wealth per month right now if you get EVERYTHING moving. In theory that’s 3 wealth per each of you to be Comfortable, plus up to 6 wealth left over to feed your Network of agents and engage in other schemes.

Chapter 4-6: The Case of the Courteous Geese

In the immediate aftermath of the Hanged Man raid, Adele dropped a few coins into the hands of their newly stolen recruits to go get a celebratory drink with orders to be back shortly so the questioning of the captured Hanged Men could commence. Constantine, along with his lieutenants Orsa Marchione and Jardel Covino, were backed into a corner and questioned about the events that brought them here. Constantine took a “look it’s just business, nothing personal, maybe we can work something out, you would have done the same” tack, but the Night Chalice already knew they couldn’t be merciful with him – an example had to be made. As for Orsa and Jardel, well, they would make decisions after the interrogation. Umberto was all for killing all of them, but the professionally unnoticed man stayed watching the door and didn’t want to interfere.

The group learned (mostly from Constatine (who can’t easily stand with the cut hamstring Umberto gave him) but with Orsa and Jardel interjecting:

·       The Hanged Men were approached by Prepius of the Five Eyes, who scared the crap out of them, but he won them over with his appreciation of their brutal, violent style. Priepus said wanted to make them more powerful and offered them the Night Chalice’s operations if they owed him favors later. Constantine snatched at that brass ring.

·       Constantine only saw Five-Eyes once. Otherwise, it was through his agent Brandao Cervi (Adele knew the name, she was the signatory on the Alderhall land sale.), or messages delivered by strange brown birds.

·       “Since everyone was so eager” (read “because they are idiots”) The Hanged Men started pushing the Night Chalice early. Constantine suspected Patch was preparing something against them, but he didn’t know what.

·       4 days ago, Brandao visited Constantine with a list of the locations under Night Chalice control and the people paying other protection money. It was incredibly detailed, according to him, everything they would need to know. (our heroes failed to ask him to produce it).

·       Brandao told them to spread rumors to body snatchers about the “product” at the Grey Door, providing a list of such people. This Orsa did as she’s “the best” at that sort of work.

·       Two of his crew (dead in the back room) visted Prepius at a café provided by note on one of the little brown birds (where a note led them to a rented apartment) where they received orders to move on the Night Chalice now; they also learned Prepius has some horrible hairy blue-assed monsters protecting him.

All of this jibed with the Chalice’s suppositions and provided them with some new information. It also revealed that Jardel and Orsa were salvageable as recruits in the “every dog gets one bite” theory that Saleratus put forward (plus Adele and Saleratus both have 2 ranks of Liar’s Tell) The two were safe bets for loyalty if not for temperament – Jardel clearly is the sort to lead with his fists, and Orsa has a strong “he ran into my knife; he ran into my knife nine times” vibe – but at this moment beggars can’t be choosers.

After some heads together muttering with Umberto by the door they decided to run with that plan, Adele asking the lieutenants to inventory the Hanged Men’s treasure and prep it for moving. Constantine had a moment of thinking he had talked his way out before Umberto buried a knife in this throat. It wasn’t enough, but it was a start.

Orsa, returning to the room to see Constantine very dead, took control of the new recruits when they showed up to carry everything to the Grey Door and the rest of the Night Chalice’s non-liquid funds. Jardel identified which of the corpses had roughed up the working girl at the Floating Lotus, and conventiently he was the one Katarina had already beheaded – the duelist procured a padded bag to take it along.

The Chalice had already decided to sell everything except the crate of really good bourbon that was clearly the priciest thing there (Saleratus: “Gold is good, but you can’t make a Manhattan with it.”) Their arrival at the Grey Door added another level of mental exhaustion as it was empty not just of bodies but of goods; all of the smuggled raw materials were gone, but more importantly the bespoke smuggled items brought in on Gianni’s boats were also missing and those would be a big reputational hit if they can’t get back.

Plus everyone could still feel the corruption in the warehouse out to the surrounding streets, and the patch where Prepius killed Patch was nauseatingly worse (2 Corruption in point blank area, 1 in near). Everyone stopped, talked it out, and got medical attention from Saleratus as they drank some expensive bourbon. (Sway, Leechcraft, and Bind Wound spends galore!) And then with a sigh Adele heaved herself to her feet and started investigating who took their stuff. Using her general bearing and appearance as an inquisitor she hit all the surrounding apartments around the warehouse, finding a dad dealing with a still screaming baby who saw the removal of “all the rugs” (i.e. bound up corpses of Adele’s friends) at all hours last night, but the final group took out everything else into their wagons. The group were all wearing strange half-capes made of… grey feathers?

Adele struggled back ordered Orsa to set everything up for sale and went to the whispering gallery to meet with Gioile Sabastiano, her most trusted contact in the church, told Umberto (who was quietly observing the corner, almost invisible) and then went back to her apartment to collapse. In short order a small group of Church members and lay people came to purchase all of the items from the Hanged Man’s stores in a series of continuous business transactions. This repaired Denari’s Grace to the general area, even if the core of the corruption was still there. (1 point spend of Allies, Church of Denari).

Katarina took their new recruits and visited all the Night Chalice properties, doling out burly former dockhands as visible protection at each site and setting up a rota for constant coverage. When at the Floating Lotus she handed the head of the malefactor over to Nicola, to be shown to the target of the Hanged Man’s brutal aggression or not as Nicola thought best, but also as absolute proof that the Chalce was still in control. Ending alone at the Happy Ending she checked in, went upstairs, grabbed the inventory of what was in the Grey Door and headed back to the Lotus and sleep.

Before she slept, she located Luciano Travia for a wandering, drunken (on his part) conversation where Katarina let him know that his sister wasn’t just uptight and unhappy about her lot in life but had actually hired Katarina to legally murder the almost preternaturally breezy and good natured fellow (“I trained to be a vivisectionist, I’ve studied, but I also have money, so? Hey that rug really pulls the whole room together….”). Luciano asked for paper and a pen to write this staggering realization down, sticking it in his pocket before taking one of the ladies to a room for what was left of the night. Katarina figured that if Angelica Savnoarola, Luciano’s murder-minded sister was going to hold an unprofessional grudge Katarina might as well earn it.

While Adele was dealing with this, Saleratus located another vivisectionist to remove the non- Constantine corpses in a discrete fashion. Much conversation was had about the flooding of the market lately, how these new ones will give the fellow a chance to perform his own research (“Do you know how long it’s been since I cut into an eyeball?”). They pass some time chatting before (promoted by the GM that there’s something to learn with a Leechcraft spend), Saleratus’ friend pulls out his just acquired this night from women in feathered grey half cloaks who needed to trade it for medicines top of the line surgery set. All silver and steel, inlayed wood, three tier carrying case, with bone saw and cleaver. (Scott not sure why this mattered…) Saleratus returned home….

To remember that his apartment had been searched by someone and left in a state of disrepair. Returning everything to their proper places he found a book that wasn’t his – a leatherbound journal of high-quality commercial make, bound with a thong. After taking several magical and personal precautious he finds it is Patch’s journal. Flipping through, the bulk of it seems to be notations on the lives of the children of two former Night Chalice members over whom Patch had a Godfather relationship. (Me: Not Godfather Godfather, but you know, Godfather. Dave: it’s surprising how often those overlap!) Everyone is referred to only with initials, with UH first and GS coming some years later. Flipping to the end he finds a note from Patch to Saleratus containing fears that “Stiano might have lost his war with Yeawrodoat”, his recent the horrible prophecies for the Chalice (“though Phoenix isn’t impossibly bad”), and asking questions to Saleratus about managing demonic possessions that Patch would like the answers to in the future, Saleratus vows to explore all this later and passes out.

Umberto returns to his small apartment on a 6^th floor walk up (well, obviously) and tends to his pigeons and the questions and answers among them. There’s a small amount of general correspondence but one thing catches his eye: one of his fellow birders has produced a detailed description for a newly spotted bird in Everskink, which he identified as the Screaming Piha. “The screaming piha grows to a length of 10 in. Both sexes have dull grey plumage (wings and tail often somewhat duskier) and the underparts are paler grey. Juveniles are grey tinged with brown or rust. I so named the Screaming Piha, produce calls reminiscent of monkey vocalizations due to their loud and complex nature. I am very interested in the origins and nesting places in the city.” (Dave remained delightfully resistant to thinking this might be relevant despite him asking for information from his Triskedane alliance until I added a footnote that read “THIS SOUNDS LIKE A BABOON.”)

Umberto then meticulously cleaned his clothes and knives and teapot collection before heading out to search for the women with grey half cloaks that Adele had mentioned him before he departed the Grey Door. (Adele: “We’re really not sure if Umberto sleeps….” Katarina: “we’re not really sure if Umberto is human…”), asking quiet questions amongst the common folk (and to his other pigeon fanciers!) of his acquaintance to try to get another lead on who killed Patch. The others seem dedicated to keeping the Night Chalice operational, which he will do in Patch’s memory, but avenging Patch is absolutely his top goal. A long night eventually reveals that people saw individuals with that distinctive clothing passing to and from the Foreign District - a dance troupes called the Graceful Geese

The quarter reconvene the next morning with what information they had found, starting with Adele going though the list of the reputational damaging losses: a set of ruby-studded hairpins, a crystal decanter and wine glass set of Serpentine origin, an antique Great Capra drawing room furniture set, a case of 100 specially crafted and quite illegal Tarot cards, and a box of medical gear….

At this point Saleratus interrupted and described the set in meticulous detail. This was confirmation that the people seen last night, identified by Katarina’s morning contacts as the small guild The Courteous Geese, were the ones who took their warehouse full of stuff. “I am so sick of small guilds trying to take our shit,” Katarina mutters, not feeling at all generous in the sequence to come. Leaving the recruits with orders to guard the various forts, they head South, reaching the “Trivia Island” whose three bridges connect Ironcross the for the Foreign District. (The GM pauses for a minute to describe the Eversink way of constantly refreshing its culture by allowing Foreigners a ready place to stay and the take any cultural and technological distinctiveness and make it their own. Dave: “and that’s why this is called Appropriation Bridge!”) Adele proceeds to dole out sufficient bribes in small doses to convince the clerk manning the bridge (who due to a Laws and Traditions spend has to record everyone moving across the Appropriation Bridge even though a good half of the traffic passes in gondolas) to identify the Courteous Geese as Min entertainers, their location in the twisted corners of the Foreign District, and that they doubtless rented their cart from a Vontavi horse and cart renter by the East Docks.

Deciding to hit the cart renter first, they meet the explosively gregarious Vontavi carter Iosef, who at first is unwilling to part with any information about his valued clients, who are like family! Then he found out who and he spat, “Oh, they Mind Fire Evangelists! Not family at all!” (“How many covers do these people have!?” someone asked but I don’t remember who. Brief explanation to the players whose characters would know about the Theocracy of Min and their enforced monotheist worship of a flame god whose unspeakable name is the sound of flesh burning.)

Iosef lets them know that the Geese didn’t pay in money, but they traded something that made his wife very happy! “You got the ruby hairpins, didn’t you?” Ioseph nods with a cautious grin which turns to a grimace as Adele lets him know those are stolen goods they need back. “Oh! She’s not going to be happy!”

“We can compensate you…”

“Oh it’s more the surprise of the thing. I’ll need to get her a really nice outfit to make it up to her,” he says eyeing Katrina (What is best in life? Looking Fabulous.) A short while later and their duelist is dressed in porter’s canvas and the Night Chalice is talking to Iosef’s nephew, whose only Coinish is “Wonderful day, isn’t it?”. It’s not a scintillating conversation. Ioseph returns with the hairpins and instructions to his nephew to lead the Night Chalice to the Courteous’ Geese’s home in the twisted alleys.

Katarina adds, “Thank you and many wonderful years to you and your wife.”

“Oh, we already had those! Now we’re in miserable years, but your dress made it better!”

“I love this guy,” says Adele. “We need to recruit him somehow.”

Hiding her horrible clothes as best she can under her cloak Katarina takes point as they enter the three interconnected by three staircases to different levels on a ramp-like twisted balcony over the palazzo apartments of the Courteous Geese. Knocking on the door, they hear chanting end with silence, then scraping sounds as something heavy is moved, catch the smell of sulfur and incense, and finally the door opens to reveal people standing around a freshly lit brazier with attitudes of reverence. The woman opening the door is deeply surprised to see them, rattles off something in the language of Min, and Katarina’s prepared assault pauses in confusion.

Adele steps forward with her official bearing and the Minnites look even more confused. Katarina’s brain catches up with her ears and dusts off her long-ago-learned-from-two-foreign-members-in-her-Eversink-based-Mercenary-company (1 point spend of Tactics of Death to have learned rudimentary Minnish years back) and she says “Do you know why we are here?”

Adele and Saleratus can see the looks of fear and confusion flutter across the Courteous Geese’s faces – and then sees them jump when they realize Umberto is already behind them blocking the window – when the spokeswoman decides to make a gamble. “Yes, I am Hong Eun-Jung and we are willing to accept any Eversink legal punishment for the killing.”

“Wait, what?” There’s a brief silent exchange as Katarina translates this; Adele and Saleratus adopt their most trustworthy mien while Katarina does her best to be charming in another language. Katarina gets the story out of Eun-Jung that they are now exiled evangelists from Min; that nations despot will send out troupes of missionaries for his fire god, led by a member of his family to spy on foreign nations, trusting that if caught the royal relationship will protect his kin even if the rest swing for espionage. This circle of missionaries were all secretly worshippers of the Goose God Uahan, one of the many minor gods clinging to existence under the fire’s watchful eye, and when they saw their chance the knifed their royal minder and dropped him in the canal. Since then they have been keeping up pretenses in the Foreign District while displaying their worship of the Goose God (Courtesy, Grace, Opportunities) as a dance troupe who happens to liberate a few loose goods to fund their ability to escape retribution from Min’s agents when their secret is discovered.

“They aren’t a rival guild. They’re refugees…”. At that Umberto can feel the desire from his allies to shed blood and spread vengeance dissipate and gets disappointed (What is best in life: Killing ever last motherfucker in the room.) Katarina assures Uen-Jung that they aren’t the authorities, they don’t care about the murder, they’re the people whose stuff the Geese stole last night. There’s much embarrassed explanation that they had been told that everyone who owned the things in the warehouse were dead, and as those who seize opportunities, they took it. Alas, all the ulk goods went on a boat immediately, but Adele waved that off. What about the smaller items?

All here, they are assured, and a sheet is lifted off the chest of tarot decks that supported their triptych altar to the Goose God (moved out of the way to be replaced with the fire god brazier for appearances). Katarina and Saleratus see to the emotional and physical health of the Geese (Saleratus applying the medicines that they had acquired from the vivisectionist) while Adele and Umberto go back to Ioseph to get a cart to bring back their goods.

The Palazzo now holds a drunken figure squatting on his pack in the shade, but Adele’s keen senses tell her something is off, and she recognizes the bares edges of a flame tattoo on the man’s wrist – he’s a Min agent, assassin, and cultural enforcer, doubtless tracking the Courteous Geese. (1 point Vigilance spend to know all about these guys.) She makes a gesture to Umberto as they approach him, walks past, and then stops to block the exit. Umberto ‘trips’ over the figure’s outstretched legs, entangles his sword arm in the move, and then drives a knife deep into the Min agent’s torso.

The leather jack hidden under the mans robes keeps this from being immediately fatal, and Adele steps back, snatches the knife from the assassin’s belt, and drives it into his throat. (What is best in life: getting to know your opponent so well that you cut them with their own knife. “Well that was an anticlimactic combat…” the GM mutters.)

In short order the Min assassin joins the Geese’s last minder in the canal, a cart is procured for the furniture, and the the Night Chalice and Courteous Geese part on amicable terms. Adele spends the day delivering the recovered smuggled goods to their by contract not rightful owners, and the Night Chalice is back on as even a footing as they can get.

Now to keep the wheels on the cart as they search for Prepius of the Five Eyes.