The Ripper Strikes!
Session Nine of the Game of Souls Campaign

Abstinence, 95 Letum 1999 [continued]
Morday, 41 Autumn Colours 204 LE

Alarius is more puzzled: Gancer looks exactly like a childhood friend he left behind in Hadras. She also has the same name. He enquires after this, and it looks (to the Scribe) as if he is trying to pick her up. The corporal disavows any knowledge of ever meeting Alarius, and Alarius swiftly back pedals. It is a confusing encounter, however.

Corporal Gancer says: "You are free to go about your stated business within Irongate, but be duly warned. There will be no egress from Irongate for an unspecified length of time. Go about your business, but do not interfere with business of the Watch during your stay."

The pair head off into the streets of Irongate, ostensibly looking for a smelter from which they can purchase iron railings (in case they are being followed). Alarius schmoozes and does his "thing" to passers-by, paupers and beggars. However, he realises that it won't be as easy here as it was in Oldgate. The population is predominantly human and eyes him very suspiciously. Even though he gets the information he needs and he and the Scribe make their way closer to Gravegrind, no-one wants to talk to them. The people are scared of the Watch (who are everywhere) and want to keep their heads down. No one wants to answer questions about the killings.

The pair are stopped by the Black Watch on several occasions and continue to answer the Watch's questions. They make their way to Godstone Smelters and Forge to maintain their cover story.

They speak to a vendor of vegetables. Clara has joined by now. Alarius eventually charms him to get the required information. The man says that one of the bodies (about a week ago) was found by a woman called Muriel Maye - a fruit vendor a few streets away. The pair go to investigate.

By this time the rest of the party have arrived at Gravegrind. There is a brass plaque by the gate of the imposing building informing everyone that the master is a man called Nathaniel Crypt. However, they can't stay in the street long because the Watch will find them and ask difficult questions. The group gravitates to a tavern/whorehouse called The Pit that is opposite the Poorhouse.

Standing at the door is a obese half-orc called Glar who bids them enter. They descend into the squalid establishment. There is a smell of spilt ale and meat pies. There is sawdust on the floor and comely (if well-worn and rather dirty) human girl behind the bar. The only other person in the room is sitting at a far table.

Playing the role of the annoyed Death Knight who finds himself trapped in Irongate until the murders are sorted out, Revda asks the girl (Kareena) about it. She doesn't want to talk about it much. Jirokichi soon hijacks the conversation and - realising the girl is also a prostitute - makes her a proposition. However, Kareena is alone at the moment and it is up to Glar to make any decisions. He'll have to wait until he returns.

Revda talks to the man at the table. He is Zalcor - an overseer at the poorhouse. He normally drinks with the porter, Klarion (but he is evidently on shift at the moment). Zalcor reveals a few interesting facts. The killer has become known as the Ripper because of his (or its) tendency to rip apart its victims. There is evidence of the victims being at least partially eaten. It seems as though there has been one killing per day, but it's difficult to tell as there are always disappearances in Irongate.

As for Major Radigan Galazar: he was actually killed inside the Poorhouse. He was with a group of Black Watch that were marching past when a boy through a stone at him and then ran back into the Poorhouse through gate into the Boy's Yard. Galazar gave chase and when in the yard something grabbed him and pulled him into the Receiving Ward. There he was brutally filleted, large chunks of flesh eaten and his head ripped off. The rest of his unit found him less than a minute later, but there was no sign of the killer.

Gazahi notices Glar talking to an old man (Samuels) outside the tavern. Samuels is pulling a cart. Glar reprimands him on the "quality of his merchandise" and then leads Samuels round the back of the inn. Gazahi watches Samuels unload a couple of dead dogs and two humanoid bodies into a meat store behind the tavern. Glar pays him a pittance and then heads inside the tavern. Gazahi waits until Glar goes inside and then looks at the bodies. It is rank in the meat house, but there is no sign that any of the bodies have been ripped apart.

Glar comes in through the back door and takes Kareena to task that the other girl (Milly) isn't helping her. Milly is apparently out back somewhere. Jirokichi asks how much for both girls for half an hour. The cost is a ring each, which the nezumi pays. Kareena is not thrilled by this turn of events, but she takes Jirokichi out back into a private room and goes to get Milly. Jirokichi can hear that Milly has been very upset and was crying a great deal. Lycaon can here this too and determines to spoil Jirokichi's fun.

As the two girls enter Jirokichi's private room, Lycaon bounds in and starts barking and howling until he has completely spoiled the moment. Jirokichi remonstrates to Lord Revda, but he has been a Death Knight for so long that he can't understand sex anymore, and tells Jirokichi to get over it.

Meanwhile, Alarius, the Scribe and Clara have found the three bullish sons of Muriel Maye. After a while, the Scribe scares them into revealing what they know. They say that their mother saw someone from the poorhouse dragged into yonder alley. Whatever grabbed her was so fast that she couldn't see it properly. A few minutes later the brothers went over to steal the shoes from the corpse. There was nothing else there.

The group go and look at the scene. There is blood up the walls but evidence of a lot of booted feet in the sort earth. Apparently, the Black Watch got there before them. Despite being a narrow alleyway, there are tiny houses crammed in on both sides. Clara picks one where the residents should have got a good look at what happened and appears within.

It is a small and sooty one-room hovel. There are a number of straw beds down one side of the room, and open fire, pots and a chimney. In here is a little girl of about nine years rocking a screaming baby. Both look malnourished. At first she is terrified of Clara, but when the ghost seems friendly she is happy to talk. She introduces herself as Nina, and the baby is her brother, Tom. She says that both her parents are older siblings are out working in the smelters.

Nina remembers the murder in the alley outside her house, but she hid under the bed so she didn't see the details. She saw the killer leave - it was a big as an elephant and it ran up the wall as though it was a piece of flat ground. Clara gives Nina twenty rings (a great deal of money for her). She takes pity on the girl and says that if she ever needs help she is draw a red cross on the door and Clara will come and help her.

Outside, the Scribe uses magic to talk to a rat. The rat corroborates the girl's story somewhat, although it can only identify the killer as a particularly large rat.

Alarius ascends the side of the building and peers over the rooftops. He can see the tower of the Temple of Karatath many streets away in the direction of Gravegrind. It must be possible to go through all of Irongate without ever touching the ground. However, he can find no tracks or sign of the killer. Suddenly a brigade of Black Watch thunder past in the direction of Gravegrind. Something is afoot.

Back at The Pit, the party notice that is evening and a number of paupers are dragging their tired bodies back to the poorhouse after an horrific day working the smelters. However, there seems to be some commotion coming from the outside. The group heads into the square outside the poorhouse. There is commotion coming form the other side of the wall in the Boy's Yard.

Gazahi flies up and secretes himself on a low wall to overhear. There is scaffolding up the side of Gravegrind onto the roof. Two men are at the bottom of the ladder, looking at a third who is descending. He is as white as a sheet. A man here called Gastar (one of the overseers) is trying to determine what happened. The three men are called Jacob, Garath and the white-Thom. It seems they are roofers and something terrible happened to the fourth roofer, Leif.

Alarius and the Scribe fly into the area. They can see Revda outside the poorhouse, but they can't tell what is going on inside. They land next to a gargoyle on the temple of Karatath and survey the scene.

The master, Nathaniel Crypt arrives and ushers the three roofers inside. He is well dressed, calm and obviously doesn't want to make a scene. As Gastar leads the three within, Gazahi turns into a dire rat and follows them. Even though he is the size of a dog he manages not to be seen. He follows his quarry into the poorhouse, and then into one of dormitories. There are some paupers here sitting on their beds. He runs all the way along the beds to the end, where the three are taken into a separate room (a ward of some sort) and told to wait there.

From under the bed, Gazahi hears Thom tell the others what happened. He saw something jump the seventy feet from the temple onto the roof, snatch Leif and then jump back again! It all happened so fast. He says that it looked like a giant spider "just like Valla saw".

As Revda and Jirokichi move around the side of Gravegrind to get out of sight of the Black Watch, Lycaon (still as a wolf) heads to the front door. Using his amazing stealth he manages to get inside the building, fox the porter and get into one of the workrooms adjacent to the boy's yard. He hops through the window into the yard, but there is no sign of any death. No sign of a dead body. He can still smell death from the boarded up receiving ward where Galazar was killed.

Gazahi reasons that these three roofers have already said all they know about what happened, and he doesn't want that information to fall into the hands of the Black Watch. Erupting from the bed, he kills all of three of them before they can react. Then he beheads them (so no speak with dead spell can be cast upon them) turns back into a dire rat and escapes through the window. In the alleys outside he is reunited with Revda and Jirokichi, but something odd as befallen him….

Meanwhile, Lycaon smells fresh blood and heads over to the window. As the Black Watch arrive at Gravegrind and are quickly shown in by the porter, and as Nathaniel Crypt goes to talk to the roofers himself, Lycaon peers into the room and sees that the three had been expertly assassinated. This has all the hallmarks of Gazahi, he thinks.

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