The Crew:
The Porcelain Dolls (called such due to their habit of wearing bone-white masks while on the job) are a group of Shadows that are known to hang out at the Leaky Bucket in Crow’s Foot. Their actual hideout is an abandoned doll factory in The Drop (the small island on the west side of Crows Foot, so named for the large difference in height between one side of the canal and the other), which is only accessible via the rooftops. The crew consists of:

Constance: Cutter (and Not to Be Trifled With). Daughter of a docker foreman (whom she killed when she was 15). Hears the voice of Yanth Agog, a forgotten god, in her head, who tells her to do the most random things sometimes (Vice: Faith). She assumes it’s all part of some larger plan. Carries a ship’s anchor as her main weapon.

Boots: Hound. Formerly known as Sergeant Dygen of the City Watch, he was drummed out of the Bluecoats for attempting to sidestep a superior officer and cut him out of a side business he had going on. He has a penchant for card games (Vice: Gambling), carries more guns than you’re ever seen in your life, and is always accompanied by a large wolfhound named Valter.

Shade: Whisper (and Ritualist). Valeris Lamond is disgraced nobility from Skovlan. He turned his back on his family and heritage and fled to Doskvol several years ago. He is well known for his unnatural appetites, the fact that he frequents a brothel run by Setarra (Vice: Pleasure), and being an all around creepy dude.

Thorn: Lurk. Thorn hails from a large Severosi gypsy family. He will claim to have been everywhere and seen it all. Railjack, crematorium attendant, leviathan hunter, deathlands scavenger, he’s done a little bit of everything. Every once in a while one of his cousins shows up looking for his help with something (Vice: Obligation).

Session 1:
Roric is dead. The peace he brokered between the Lampblacks and the Red Sashes is about to dissolve. Meanwhile, Lyssa offers a hefty reward for the head of Roric’s killer, screaming in the streets for their blood, as if everyone wasn’t convinced that she did the deed herself.

Mylera Klev, First Sword of the Royal Iruvian Academy of the Red Sash, sends the crew an engraved invitation c/o The Leaky Bucket to meet at their earliest convenience (provided their earliest convenience was at 1pm that day), so Shade and Boots go to talk to her. The conversation is filled with flattery and no small amount of flirting between Mylera and Shade, and ends with her offering them a job: Baszo Baz is in possession of a particular painting that she (as an art lover) very much wants. She graciously gives them 24 hours to give an answer, and if they agree, an additional 48 hours to deliver the painting.

Meanwhile, one of the Lampblack’s thugs comes around to inform Constance and Thorn that Baszo wants to talk to them. They head off to the coal warehouse, where Baszo reminds them that they’ve stepped on each others’ toes a bit in the past, but that he’s looking for strong allies in the weeks to come. He offers them a job as well: Mylera is hoarding a case of the finest 80 year old whiskey, and he wants it.

The crew agrees amongst themselves to do both jobs in the same night, delivering the goods at the same time as their acceptance of the jobs. Additionally, they resolve to outwardly maintain a friendly demeanor to both factions, and avoid (for as long as they can) openly choosing a side in the war that was to come.

Constance, being the self-appointed leader of the crew, meets with the Crows on her own to inform her of the crew’s intentions. Finding Lyssa at the watch tower, Constance offers her congratulations. Lyssa, a bit preoccupied at the time, maintains her innocence in Roric’s death, so Constance offers her condolences instead.

Notes:

Not a lot in terms of mechanics this time around, mainly just establishing setting and situation.

# dontmesswiththedolls