Temperance, 96 Letum 1999 GR [continued]
Sunday, 42 Autumn
Colours 204 LE
The young boy reveals his name as Armando Clawfoot. He calls the
roofs of Irongate his home, and gives both Jirokichi and Lycaon
the impression that very little transpires in the ward that he does
not see. Although fearful of Alarius, the barghest and their freakshow
companion, Clawfoot holds out for some hard coinage in exchange
for information.
Armando has been following the leavings of this Ripper for some
time. He says he has seen the beast from a distance, but it is difficult
to describe - it looks like a mixture of many different creatures.
Armando was on a roof overlooking Gravegrind the day that Vera Carp
was taken (six days ago). He describes the thing running down the
side of a tall building, grabbing Vera and then running up again.
It moved faster up a vertical service that Armando has ever seen
a man run. Armando implies that he found and looted Vera's remains,
but nothing is explicitly said.
Although Armando doesn't have a clue what the Ripper is or where
I came from, he is happy to speculate. He can't guess how the creature
got into Irongate, but he has heard rumours that lots of stuff crawls
out of the landfills in Ditchgate all the time. He heard that there
are things down there that Grelka had to cut deals with because
she wasn't strong enough to oppose them.
Thanking the lad, Lycaon picks up the trail of the Ripper and he
and Jirokichi continue to track it over the rooftops. Jirokichi
notices that they are being followed by a large carrion crow that
is flapping well out of reach. Such crows are sometimes used as
agents and spies by the Black Watch. Lycaon says that the Ripper
is arcing back on itself. The trail is taking it back to Gravegrind
Poorhouse.
Meanwhile, back at The Pit, the remains of the fight with
the Black Watchmen have been cleared away. Kareena and the tearful
Milly are manning the bar, waiting for customers. The three undead
members of the party are below stairs trying to look nonchalant.
Then the bell rings and a customer enters. To say he looks completely
out of place in Irongate would be a gross understatement.
The newcomer is flamboyantly attired with a voluminous cloak of
many colours, his waistcoat is an emerald green, his trousers a
sky blue. On his feet are a pair of shiny spats, and his head a
large feathered hat of purple velvet which he doffs in the direction
of the party. He greets them warmly, and heads to the bar for a
drink. "My word you look miserable," the man says to Milly,
"did you father die?" Milly bursts into tears and runs
from the room. "Oh," says the man," lucky guess."
There is something about this man that puts the party on their
guard. There is an odd presence about him. Perhaps it is the way
that he doesn't seem the least bit alarmed or put-off by the unliving
nature of the group; or perhaps it is the way that he knows the
Scribe of Tam by name.
When asked his own name, the man says that it is Rufus, and then
casts his eyes around the room wildly looking for inspiration. They
fall upon the bar. "Bar," he says, "Rufus Bar."
An untruth? Certainly. But a lie that is so obvious, what else can
he be concealing? Rufus Bar says that the Scribe is a famous diviner,
and that he used his magical powers to find the source of a rat
infestation at a fruiterers in the Churchgate run by a good friend
of his called Phidelius Montague. Revda looks at the Scribe. The
Scribe shrugs (as much as a skeleton can shrug). That much is true
- what can he say? He needed the money, it was not his finest hour.
Rufus Bar sits down at a table with the party and cordially asks
who they are. He shakes hands with Revda and says that he is pleased
to meet his acquaintance. Revda considers giving the man a good
dose of his fear aura, but resists the temptation. He asks what
brings the party to Irongate, and listens to their surprisingly
candid account of their activities. He smiles warmly.
And where is he from? Why is he in Tharkis? Rufus admits that he
is not a local, he is a traveller. One who has had surprisingly
little contact with the Black Watch given that Irongate is under
lockdown. He says that he has come from far away, from a land called
(he looks around again) Tableania. He came by boat. Which sank.
So he's here. He is not even remotely convincing - well, Revda is
convinced that Tableania is a real place, but the Scribe sees through
it.
Meanwhile Alarius, Lycaon and Jirokichi have traced the Ripper's
scent right back to Gravegrind. They are on the roof a building,
from where they can see poorhouse, the temple to Karatath and The
Pit. There is some Black Watch activity in the area, but in
that carrion crow was tracing the Ripper as well, it is likely that
many members of the Watch will converge on the area in short order.
Not wanting to act alone, they return to the tavern for the rest
of the party.
They find them still in conversation with Rufus Bar. Rufus is a
pleasant, amiable sort of chap, obviously hiding who he is. They
speak of the Ripper, and although the party are cagey about telling
Rufus their mission in Irongate, he seems to know why they are here.
He suggests getting over to Gravegrind. Throughout the entire conversation,
Rufus seems to be on the verge of telling the party something. He
drops hints that tell the group he knows about their previous activities,
but he always seems to fall short of telling them anything useful.
He spills his drink on the table and mops it up with a large silk
handkerchief. The handkerchief is emblazoned with a design: a serpent
coiled around the body of a ferocious dog, bordered by a ring of
angels without faces. He leaves the sodden cloth on the table, winking
obviously at one or more of the party members. Then the door opens
again.
"What do you think you are doing?" says a second man
to Rufus Bar. He is dressed in the same manner, but in much more
sombre colours and far more conservatively cut. He marches across
the room and lays an angry hand on Rufus's shoulder. "We had
an agreement," the newcomer says, "this is completely
unacceptable!"
Rufus shrugs and rolls his eyes. He tells the party members that
it was a pleasure to meet them but he really has to be going. He
wishes them good luck in all their future endeavours. And then the
pair leave.
As soon as he is gone, Alarius tells Revda, Clara, the Scribe and
Jirokichi what he and the others discovered: the Ripper is in Gravegrind.
The consensus is that they have to get into the poorhouse immediately
before more members of the Black Watch arrive. They should do their
best to try and reason with the Ripper: they are not there to kill
this thing unless they can avoid it. Alarius's skills may yet prove
useful. But how do they get in.
They ask Kareena. She says that one of the old sewers does pass
under the square. The party could use that. However, it is too narrow
a gap for Revda, and the death knight will not remove his armour.
Instead they decide to sneak across the square and enter the poorhouse
the old fashioned way.
It is surprisingly easy, and within five minutes the party have
entered Gravegrind through the northern courtyard and taken the
doorway to the main building. Most of the paupers are at work in
the smelters, but the time for subtlety is over. The group of seven
thunder through the building, searching for the scent of the Ripper.
Both Jirokichi and Lycaon catch it, and they begin to head up the
stairs of the central tower of the poorhouse. The half-orc caretaker,
and the overseers are wise enough not to try and stop them.
At the top of the stairs, Lycaon gestures to a closed wood-panelled
doorway. He has the poisonous scent of the creature behind that.
Clara offers to scout, and dematerialises. Inside the room is an
office, and behind a large desk is the drawn figure of Nathaniel
Crypt, Master of Gravegrind.
Clara appears and engages Crypt in conversation. He does not seem
particularly surprised or moved by the ghost. Clara starts to ask
about the Ripper, but doesn't get much chance to carry on the conversation
as the rest of the party bursts into the room. Clara is a little
annoyed that no-one trusts her to get the information out of crypt.
Lycaon reports that the smell of the Ripper is in the room. But
he is not sure where it could be. Is Crypt the Ripper? The party
now confront Crypt. They want the truth from him, and he isn't inclined
to keep it from them. Nathaniel Crypt believes that the Ripper is
his punishment.
He says that the Great Dark is more than just a nasty place, it
is Hell. It is the afterlife. Certainly there are powerful creatures
who can come to the Great Dark from the outside world, and for all
he knows members of this party might be amongst them, however for
the most part, the people in the Great Dark are the spirits of those
that have died. They are the shades of living beings who did such
unspeakable evil in life, that they are condemned here in death.
The more evil that a person was in life, the more that they are
punished in death. Therefore the paupers under his power must have
been more evil than him, because their position in Tharkis is worse
than his. It is his duty to punish them and to make sure that they
are suitably chastised for their past evil. But in turn, he must
be punished for his past misdeeds. That is why the Ripper came.
Crypt's is not an uncommon belief among the denizens of Tharkis.
How else to explain away the horror of the Great Dark? But where
is the ripper now? Crypt looks up. The ceiling has been recently
replastered. Is the ripper hiding in the ceiling? Using their powers,
the party blow open a hole in the ceiling, and see a terrible sight.
The ripper is here. A strange misshapen aberration with no head,
but jaws in its stomach. It has an odd assortment of confused limbs,
and is covered in coarse black hair like a giant spider. The Scribe
is surprised. This is not only the Ripper, but also a ripper. A
race of creatures called rippers. He mentally begins to piece together
what he knows about them, but soon realises that this creature must
be far more powerful than is normal for his race.
Also in the hidey-hole are hundreds of small round objects, stuck
to the rafters that disappear into the darkness above. Eggs. This
thing has laid hundreds of eggs? The minds of the party start to
work fast. If they can't bring the Ripper back to Cornelius, maybe
they can bring the eggs?
Gazahi leaps up into the darkness and draws his swords. He swings
at the creature, but the weapons bounce off its hide. The ripper
lashes out with its claws, remarkably wounding Gazahi, who leaps
back down to the ground. The ripper now unleashes a cloud of pheromones
that fails to affect the party, but sends Crypt running from the
room.
Alarius tries to talk to the Ripper to placate it. He says that
the Black Watch is gathering and the ripper has to come with them
if it has a chance to survive. All the while Alarius is speaking
the Ripper is gathering its eggs and trying to put as many as possible
into a pouch on its back.
Alarius is very convincing, but perhaps the mind of this creature
is too alien, perhaps the actions of Gazahi poisoned it against
the party, or perhaps it simply cannot understand him. When the
Ripper has gathered as many eggs as it can (and it has left scores
behind) it leaps upwards bursting through the tiled roof of the
poorhouse. The chase is on.
The Ripper Strikes
Index | Previous Session
| Next Session
|
