Episode 1 - Trouble's Brewing
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Summary Episode 1
Introduction to Donlon:
Midge opens the campaign with an extended introduction to Donlon.
A city not unlike London, seen through a warped looking glass.
Stone and brick, tall chimneys, knights in plate beside dandies and artful dodgers. Banking offices inside smithy forges.
Magic threaded through everything, sourced from the Flow, the river running through the city, pure and pristine and imbued with innate magic.
And threaded through it all: five gangs vying for power.
The five gangs:
- The Mudlarks (a zealous holy order protecting the purity of the Flow),
- The Bigwhigs (the ballooning, powdered-wig political class with immense magical power),
- The Queenly Court of the Carnabal (fae tricksters and circus performers),
- The Street Genies (Northrebels who flatten into living street art),,
- The Mobgoblins (East End, the most powerful gang, with brutal fighting pits for initiation).
'The city's on a slow simmer. But there's something brewing — something that might bring Donlon to the boiling point.'
Summary
A foggy night on the Songbird Docks. Moonlight bounces off roof tiles into a shadowy alleyway between warehouses. Waiting in the alley: a group of ne'er-do-wells.
At the front, Rover: muscular, long jowls, canines poking up, cigarette in his mouth. He is here for a job. A ship is coming. He turns to introduce the crew.
Cheeky Dustbins: a slightly hunched 74-year-old red-skinned hobgoblin in a very old nice shirt, with two hand crossbows and an extremely ugly, three-eyed cat called John Nipples winding around his feet. Cheeky's backstory: once everyone's best friend in the East End, right hand to Albert Krag the gentleman gangster, until Albert's twin sons Phil and Grant devoured their father for power and Cheeky fell to the very bottom of the Mob ladder. The breaking point came when the twins brought Ian Beetle to their club on a new strain of tea and he slaughtered ten innocent people. Cheeky killed Ian Beetle, was pushed out of the Mob, and has been doing low-level work ever since.
Porcelain Pete: A towering 6'7" porcelain automaton in a black overcoat, flat cap, leather gloves.
His white china face is criss-crossed with veins of gold, cracks he has filled himself by melting down gold coins.
He was Officer 452 of the Porcelain Police until a carriage struck him on the Bridge of Towers and sent him into the Flow. Something changed permanently.
He was later left behind on a Mob warehouse raid, captured, stripped of his armour, and thrown into the fighting pits.
Cheeky found him and promised to protect him. The Krag twins overrode that promise immediately and kept Pete in the pit as 'Prisoner Pete.'
Carlos Huispas: Who appears almost from nowhere. A ratfolk under five feet tall, waistcoat and white shirt. Almost missed by everyone in the alley.
Carlos grew up in the East End with the Huispas family who raised him.
His childhood companion Alejandra left for the stage, while Carlos joined the Mudlark church as an informant.
Maureen Quickfoot: A tall Wood Elf in a red dress and green heels, emerging from the shadows with cat-like grace that somehow works perfectly on cobblestones.
Maureen was a celebrated stage dancer from the Emerald Isle who performed alongside her lover Chlorine.
Until the opening of a new East End club, where Mobgoblins in the crowd started a brawl, and Chlorine was broken against the wall in the crossfire.
That night Maureen vowed revenge on every Mobgoblin present. One by one they have been disappearing from the East End streets. She keeps a list.
The ship, The Cutting Lark, comes through the mist. Most of the crew disembarks.
One figure remains: Coupe George, a nonchalant dark-skinned elf with many piercings and a French accent.
He immediately tries to extort an extra 250 gold from the crew. Maureen attempts Persuasion.
Pete dangles Coupe George over the water by his kneecap, threatens to unscrew it clockwise or anti-clockwise.
Coupe George caves, leads them aboard, and pops the lid of a barrel, revealing a small ceramic pot with a fastening on top.
As Rover takes it, a crossbow bolt enters Coupe George's cranium. A dark figure on the warehouse roof, has opened fire.
Two muscled Mob orcs, one with a club, one with a chain, advance on the gangway.
Two more crossbow-wielding Mobgoblins appear from the sides, including one called Leslie who Cheeky knows personally.
Cheeky makes a shot that takes out Billy Krag, who falls from the roof. The other Mobgoblins shout 'Billy? Fuck!' and begin to waver.
Carlos casts Bless. Carlos then throws two daggers, he misses.
Maureen darts one tough in the arm, springs off a crate in a Troy-style leap, and delivers an unarmed strike with more damage than her dagger.
Pete attempts to grapple the chain Mobgoblin, fails then succeeds, and on his next go rages, grabs the Mobgoblin, and jumps with him into the Flow.
The two remaining crossbow Mobgoblins flee when Billy falls.
The last tough is downed by Rover and Maureen's poison dart. He is kept alive as a captive.
Rover uncovers the face of the sniper. It's Billy Krag cousin of Phil and Grant.
He was here on a tip-off, bored, hoping to impress his cousins. Cheeky killed him with a crossbow shot.
The captive Mobgoblin confirms he doesn't know what was in the package.
The crew interrogates him briefly, empties his pockets (one banana, taken by Cheeky), and lets him go.
The bodies are disposed of. Carlos stops them dumping Billy in the Flow (cardinal sin for the Mudlarks).
Garage keys are found on the corpse.
The crew sneaks through Donlon to Magpie's caravan in the Thorough Market.
Inside they meet the man himself: a grey-skinned gnome, 4 feet tall, massive bulbous nose, bat-like ears, messy hair, trilby hat.
He pays them 100 gold. Then he addresses the elephant in the room: they killed Billy Krag.
The Krags already know. They have put out a hit on the entire crew.
Magpie offers them a new job. He has a buyer for the ceramic pot and offers them half a million gold pieces between them to deliver it.
The crew ultimately agrees to do it and will do so tomorrow. The crew is given rooms for the night.
Cheeky finds the photograph of Albert and young Cheeky at Esme's club.
Maureen crosses Billy Krag's name off her list.
Carlos says his evening prayers. In a flashback we learn that Carlos wants to redeem himself after a failed mission for the Mudlarks.
Follow the Black Tea, find the Tea King of Donlon, the name and the face. Do not destroy the tea. If possible, deliver it to the church.
Some questions
- What happened to Carlos' real parents?
- What happened to Alejandra?
Is she in the Queenly Court as a performer?
- Who tipped off Billy Krag?
And how was it possible Magpie didn't know?
- What is Magpie's connection to the Krag family?
Having a picture of Albert at the opening of the club feels personal.
- Was Esme's the club where Chlorine died?
- What happened to the ledger Carlos lost?
Memorable quoutes
Cheeky:
"I personally, I'm not on board with slavery. I just wanna put that out there."
Pete:
"He's dead, Cheeky. I watched him melt."
"Clockwise or anti-clockwise? / Neitherrr! I don't want to change the time."
"With that money, could I buy my freedom?"
Carlos:
"Y soy rata gente."
Maureen:
"I love you more than a dance loves music."
"I don't need money. I need blood."
Magpie:
"Well, that's why everybody loves the Po-Po, ain't it, Pete?"
Silt Saint Vulpin
"Nothing else is of a higher priority. Only the tea. The name and the face of the buyer."
